Tea With My Love

I'm going to start this by saying that I'm trying to get in the habit of blogging, even when I might not have anything to say. At least if I just do it, I will start thinking about it more. So, this is kind of a random post, but you know what? At least I'm posting it.

Mark and I recently enjoyed "high tea" at a little tea room. And the cool thing is, he was excited about it. I try not to brag openly about my sweet husband too often, because, well, I'm completely spoiled and people wouldn't believe all the stuff he does for me. He's completely awesome and treats me much better than I deserve. He is up for literally anything, and never complains. From shopping to tea rooms, from indulging me in my random dance parties to letting me tell him all about my homework, he is such a good sport. And genuinely. If it's important to me, it's important to him. But the tea room, this was his thing. (-:

Mark decided to go "pinky up" with his tea cup. They had Earl Grey, my personal fav, so it was perfect. 

We had yummy sandwiches and scones, and then we had some awesome desserts.

I remember when I was little I would make Earl Grey tea like every night and drink it while I read. That's probably why I was able to stay up so late reading because I drank that tea, now that I think about it. Ha. Plus, I usually read books that scared the jeepers out of me, so I would too scared to sleep. Flashlight under the covers, anyone? Oh yes, I was such a rebel. Of all things to get in trouble for. (-: All that to say, I've loved tea my whole life. 

We had a great time with fun conversation, and I'm so thankful for a wonderful husband who is my best friend in all the world. Every day I just sit back and think, "Who knew marriage could be so completely awesome and such a delight?" I am continually blown away. Good stuff. Better than I could have ever imagined. Party every day.

"There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage." 

- Martin Luther

Xoxo,

Kathryn

I Was Attacked By the Glitter Fairy

You may or may not know that I am not a fashionista. I don't know when it started, but just to give you an idea, this is me... IN HIGH SCHOOL:

Now, let's talk about this for a minute. The obvious error here is that I was wearing OU paraphernalia, but we are not here to talk about sports. I want you to notice that I am wearing navy slacks. Navy slacks, folks. Drink it in.  Next we will look at the turtleneck. There was a point in my high school career that my friend, Bardot, actually told me to stop wearing turtlenecks. I think I wore them 3-4 days a week. But the glory in this ensemble is that I chose to tuck in my turtleneck. Into my navy slacks. And topped it all off with a brown and silver belt. The clincher here is that I was probably the ripe old age of 16. Now. Take another look. Me. 16.

I feel as though I could rest my case there, but I will go ahead and give a few more examples. Until my senior year of college, I always pushed my hair behind my ears. No matter how long or short, I pushed it behind my ears. I just thought that was what I was meant to do. My eyebrows were huge until close to the start of college, and I had every color of flip flop, because I wore them basically every day. The only positive thing about this situation was that it really didn't bother me.

Once I started doing pageants (shocker, I know), and after everyone that knew me picked themselves up off the floor, my pageant directors started telling me that perhaps, just perhaps, I should use at least one hair product and maybe not push my hair behind my ears. Maybe, just maybe, I could learn to wear heels. Maybe I could even get a pedicure - I had never had one until then. Basically I was the "before" on The Devil Wears Prada.

I would be a fake if I said that now I'm a fashion guru (clearly can't name one). I still have the tendency to carry the same purse for...two years and counting. I wear an "outfit" and my sweet but honest friends tell me to never wear it again, and I am always trying to figure out if an outfit works. I spent months last year (here) trying to figure out why my hair was a big grease ball. This is why I buy clothes straight off of mannequins. Its like I didn't get that part of my DNA.

Then we have my sister. She was a born fashionista. She came out of the womb wearing the latest styles, a coach purse in hand, and makeup straight off the Mac counter. While my sister was growing up and doing makeovers with her friends, I was reading books. And writing. I do have some awesome handwriting.

So, as always, whenever I see my sister, she usually looks really cute and trendy with some outfit she has pulled off with perfect makeup. This scenario played out recently over Christmas. She had this eyeshadow that had just a touch of glitter that was a really pretty dark brown/gold and some of the glitter was on her cheeks. Very glamorous.

And I thought, well, if she can wear it, I can. So for Christmas, with a gift card, I got the exact eyeshadow. It's called "Midnight Cowboy Rides Again" by Urban Decay. I think the most I have ever spent on eyeshadow is $3.99 for a set of three colors, but this stuff was $17.00. So this was a really big deal. Here it is:

So I went and got this fancy eyeshadow and was so excited to try it out. The next morning, I put that new glitter eyeshadow on. And I looked at it. And it didn't look like it looked on my sister. It was much lighter. Well, I figured she must have had on more than one layer. So I put on a second. And then a third. And then a fourth. And I was so confused. It wasn't the same dark brown that it was on her. But I knew it was the same eyeshadow. Dumbfounded, I finished getting ready and left for work. 

Driving to work in my '98 Accord, I was looking in the rear-view mirror at my face. In the sun. I swear I thought I was staring at the angel Gabriel himself. It was ridiculous. There was glitter all. over. my. face. You see, it didn't just stay on my eyelids, since I had felt the need to put on 100 layers, it fell off and landed all over my cheeks, and all over my entire face. Have you ever tried to get glitter off your face? Well I have. And let me tell you, it's not possible. And you might almost wreck your car. I decided to wait until i got to work to deal with the situation.

Thankfully I beat my boss to work and went to the bathroom to try to remove the glitter. I brought a kleenex and it just didn't cut it. Glitter wasn't going anywhere. So, I then resorted to getting a couple of small band-aids. Yes. I used band-aids to remove the glitter. Except the band-aids weren't big enough. I filled up the entire surface area of the sticky part with glitter, and there was still glitter all over my face.

And then my boss arrived but he wanted me to come OUTSIDE in the SUNSHINE to help him carry in some stuff. Here goes nothing. I walked outside in the sun to grab his stuff and what did he say? He said, "Oh, you have on glitter make-up today!" Glitter make-up. Yes, my My Little Pony and I thought we would match so I threw glitter all over my face. It's like when someone gets a really bad haircut and someone just says, "Oh, you cut your hair!" See how sly that is? No compliment. Just a statement to say something so that their jaw doesn't remain hanging in mid-air. 

I responded that I had some issues with some eye shadow and he tried to tell me it looked great. Come on, now. People need to stand up and tell me when I look ridiculous. Perhaps if people had started doing that earlier, I wouldn't have worn that denim Winne-the-Pooh shirt with Doc Martin boots and tights in high school. Someone has to stop the madness. 

So what did I realize? Well, I realized that apparently my sister put some dark brown eyeshadow on under the one light layer of glitter make-up. What a novel idea. 

Lord, help me.

~Kathryn

A Year In Review

Well, it's that time - the time to review the year. In order to save some cash, I didn't do a Christmas card this year, so this is the first time I'm really sitting back and thinking about the year.

And, honestly, when I look back, I keep thinking, "This was a tough year." Don't get me wrong, it was a also a great year, but I would be lying if I said it was rainbows and unicorns - and I love unicorns. But it really was a hard year, with lots of lessons learned.

So what did we learn?

Well, I personally learned (and am still learning) a lot about contentment, as you can read about here. This was our toughest year financially. No family "vacation" was taken, there was the start of paying for my grad school, there were more major unexpected financial burdens than usual, and a large portion of the year was spent on "extreme budget lockdown." But I learned that all of our needs are met. And I've learned to live on less. And I think that will be invaluable in the future. Our victory in this area came from me completely paying off my undergraduate student loans. And hopefully, this year, we will make some major headway on Mark's loan. (-:

I learned that going to school full time and working full time is really hard, and also really rewarding. I love  both of these things, but sometimes it seems as though there just aren't enough hours in the day. Sometimes I feel like I get up (late), go to work, drive home, do homework, go to bed (late) and start all over again. Sometimes I think my poor husband is getting the raw end of the deal. But then I think about how during football season this whole entire fall he got to watch every game to his heart's content while I worked on sermon outlines, and then I don't feel so bad. (-:

I learned that I'm not as cut out for foreign missions as other people are. I want to share the Gospel, but maybe not perhaps in places where there are tarantulas in my shower and you have to pour water in a toilet to get it to flush - that is, unless I know without a doubt the Lord is calling me to that. (-: But I also saw the hospitality and generosity of people who were incredibly poor, and was reminded not to take anything for granted.

I am still learning about friendships. I reconciled with someone from years ago, and understand even more fully how important it is to be open and honest with those you love before it gets to the point of no return. I learned the incredible value of seeking to be objective. I've learned lots in this area, but not without some wounds that are still hemorrhaging.

I've learned about family. Family is not defined by blood - but by love and support. And as I sit looking at my family and thinking about the obstacles we've overcome in a year, and the encouragement, love and support we've given, I'm overwhelmed. And I all-too-clearly know that some people won't understand it and they don't have to. But I know I'm blessed.

We learned through some home-improvement projects gone bad that gender roles really don't do anything but cause problems. And that whatever the problem is, we can either fix it together, or play to each other's strengths. (-:

So it's been a tough year. But it's also been a great year. We got our sweet puppy Boo in January and he is such a blessing. I successfully maintained my gym membership for a year and can say I am much more fit today than I was a year ago. Mark learned a lot in his new job and I love him more today than I did a year ago. It's so nice to be married to your best friend. Seriously. Karlie had a great first semester at OBU and got a 4.0! We are so proud of her. I finished my first semester of grad school with a 3.33 and am 20% finished!

The good, bad, and the ugly, that was our 2011.

How was yours?

Happy New Year from the Johnson Family!

~Kathryn