Instagram photos

My sister (validavalks) and I (feedotbee) way back at our grandparents' house.

I really enjoy Tim Tam slams! A friend introduced me to them years ago and they're just amazing.

A sample of my handwriting/journal

A book that Chris made that would help me with our budget if I would actually use it

Two new books that I'm really excited to read once I finish the ones I'm currently reading!

2 year dating anniversary Starbucks date with Chris

A self-portrait taken in the bathroom at church

I buy fancy apple juice.

A special day for my love.

Today is my husband's birthday! He's a quarter of a century! Haha I like to bug him, since he's a whole year older than me. In honour of this wonderful man, I've decided to write a list of things I love about him.

Our first couple picture!

He is sweet and thoughtful. When we first started dating he would buy me little presents to cheer me up when I was overwhelmed with homework. We often go to bookstores and libraries for dates, even though my interest in them is much greater than his. The other day he did every item on the "honey-do" list, even though I told him he didn't have to!

He is creative and artistic. He is studying to be a graphic designer, and he's doing very well in school! He has so many ideas in his mind that he doesn't even know where to start sometimes. He didn't just leave house decorating up to me; he played an active role in choosing furniture and paint colors because he cares about that stuff too. He has dreams of opening a design studio/art gallery in our town city because that's just what he's passionate about.

He is ridiculous, silly, and funny. He makes me laugh more than anyone else, and can cheer me up when I'm feeling down just by being himself. Yes, Chris is responsible and mature, but he's also really immature and that's awesome.

His smile makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, especially when it's that secret smile that lovers have :D

He loves me so much. He prays for me every day, and I know that it helps make my day better. He tells me every day that I'm beautiful, and he makes me feel really good about myself with his encouragement. He's also a great kisser ;)

He's becoming a great spiritual leader in our marriage, and he loves Jesus so much. His relationship with the Lord is really important to him. He loves worshipping in church, and he wants to become more involved in the body. We both feel like we were meant to live in a bigger city for the arts and culture, but we stay here for our families and our church.

He matches me so well. He's patient where I'm not. He's more analytical of things where I'm spontaneous. He's quiet and reserved in social settings, and I'm more of a social butterfly. He balances me in a perfect way. At the same time we're so alike. He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.

Christopher, I love you more and more every day, and I'm more than blessed to have a husband like you. I can't wait to spend the next 25 years of your life with you, watching you grow and become more of the man you were made to be.

Mail post 3.3

A letter and a late Christmas present from the ever-lovely Jasmine

An excellent Valentine-themed card from Merissa - I dig the Superwoman stamp!

A lovely letter from Steffi

First letter from Abbye in Ireland! I never get pen pals from the UK so this is fantastic!

First letter going out to Kay

For one of my college friends

Today is a letter writing day for me. I'm pretty behind on my replies lately, so I hope to answer a couple letters this afternoon.

Movie Monday: Charade

I've had a goal for a long time now to watch every Audrey Hepburn movie. Since there are several on Netflix, I can get a few movies closer to reaching my goal. (I should probably get a specific list of all of her movies so I know which ones I have left, though...)

Last week I watched Charade, in which Audrey stars with the delicious Cary Grant (seriously, silver fox alert!). Audrey plays Reggie, a woman who arrives home from a ski trip and finds out that her husband Charles has been murdered. In the events that follow, she finds out that he had a big secret - he was a special agent for the CIA, and during World War II his team stole $250,000 worth of gold from the US government. Charles double-crossed his team, took the gold, and sold it, keeping the money. Now the remainder of the team is after the money and they believe that Reggie has it. Along the way she enlists the help of Peter (Cary Grant), a mysterious man who has some secrets of his own, and together they try to find the money before Charles' old team does.

 

I thought this movie was really fun. An old-fashioned spy thriller with lots of humour. Audrey and Cary had tons of chemistry, and being set in Paris helped make the movie even more wonderful. The story was pretty good, and there was a plot twist at the end that I really didn't see coming. That's all I'm going to say on that :)

FITBF 3.3

Hi blog. Sorry I've been neglecting you lately. Life doesn't feel very organized lately. I'll get on that.

Today's blanks are cool because on Wednesday Chris and I celebrated our 2 year dating anniversary. I'll tell you about it next time :)

1.  The love of my life is   Christopher (and Jesus).

2.   Falling in love is   not something that happens at first sight. It happens over time, and real love takes some time to develop. It's not like movies, but it's better than that  .

3.  Marriage is   not always easy, but it's wonderful .

4. The longest relationship I've ever had was  2 years .

5. The key to a good relationship is  communication and putting the other ahead of yourself .

6. I feel loved when   you spend time with me, or do something for me that lets me know you were thinking about me  .

7.  My favorite quote about love is   "Love me when I least deserve it because that's when I need it most" . (I couldn't think of another one that had to do with romantic love!)

Movie Monday

Hey kids, I haven't done one of these in a while! Yesterday Chris and I went to the cheap seats to watch a movie with his family. We hadn't been to a movie in ages so that was nice! We saw We Bought a Zoo, starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson.

First of all, the daughter in the movie is the most adorable little girl of all time. She's cuter than Shirley Temple. I think she should be the next Shirley Temple.

Look at that smile! So adorable!

In this film, Matt Damon plays Benjamin Mee, a recently widowed father of two. The family wants to move to a new home, and after driving around all day with the real estate agent, the last place they come to is perfect. The moment Benjamin and his daughter Rosie see the house, they know that they are going to live there. But there's a catch - if they buy this house, they are also buying a zoo! A real zoo, with a lion, some tigers, and a grizzly bear named Buster. Looking for adventure and thinking this is a good one, Benjamin buys the property and takes over the zoo. There is a lot of work to be done to bring it back to what it once was, but together with the dwindled staff of the zoo, the family gets to it to get ready for opening day.

I was a bit surprised by this movie. It was a really good story, and pretty appropriate - except for random moments of swearing! It happened enough times that I was bothered because of the "family movie" title it has. But otherwise it was pretty good. And did I mention the daughter was adorable?

Let's play tag.

My friend Callie over at Through Clouded Glass tagged me to answer some questions about myself, then I need to ask some questions and tag some peoples to answer them! I'm also supposed to take a blog award and pass it on, so I chose the Blog on Fire award. Thanks, Callie!

Hmmm remind anyone of a certain novel heroine? *wink wink*

1. If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Oh my word, that's a tough one! I would like to say Hillsong's Saviour King album. All in all, that's one I have consistently listened through over the years. There are other good ones, but this would be my choice, I suppose.

2. If you were a teacher, what subject would you teach?
I would definitely teach English! I have actually thought that I would love to be an English teacher for the first few grades, to be able to spark a love of reading in them early.

3. What is your favorite verse and/or quote?
These things change over the years, but right now my favorite verse is John 16:33

via Pinterest

My favorite quote might be this one. It always makes me think, and that's definitely how I feel right now.

4. Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging years ago and I don't quite remember why. The reason I keep it up now is because I enjoy writing and it's a good outlet for me. I love the blog friends that I have made along the way. And it helps keeps me inspired.

5. What is one book you think everyone should read (besides the Bible)?
The first book that comes to mind is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It has such real characters and a powerful story to tell. I read it in one sitting (granted, this sitting was during a 15 hour car ride)

6. Favorite drink to get at Starbucks?
Chai lattes, or any variation of chai tea.

7. Would you rather it snow or rain?
I like rain. I've always loved rainy days. They make my heart happy, even though that may be a bit backwards.

8. Advice that your mom gave you that you never forgot?
When I was still single, I struggled with it a lot because I was really insecure, I had a lot of wrong ideas about what relationships are actually like because of movies and stuff, and she would talk to me about what marriage was really like, how it was hard and wonderful and worth going through the hard times.

9. Most read website or blog?
Good question! craftgawker and Our Best Bites are good websites. I read too many blogs to play favorites! ;)

10. One thing you would tell your 13-year old self.
Don't worry about not having a boyfriend when you're 18. You're definitely not past your prime. (When I was 13 my plan was to have a boyfriend when I was 16 or 17 and then get married when I was 20. How it went down - first boyfriend ever at age 21. Married at 23. So there.)

11. What do you hope people will say about you after you die?
I hope that people will say that my relationship with Jesus inspired them, that I brought beauty into the world, and that I was a good friend.


Now here are my questions for you!

1. If you could invite any 10 people in the world to a dinner party; fictional or real, dead or alive, famous or not, who would you invite?

2. What is something that you have always wanted to do but have never had the chance to?

3.What skill do you wish you had and why?
4. What's your most favorite dessert that you can never resist?
5. You're stranded on a deserted island - what 3 books do you take with you?
6. You're at Subway - what do you get on your sandwich?
7. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? What do you do now?
8. What is your nervous habit?
9. If a blog were having a giveaway, what would really entice you to enter?
10. If you were a colour, which colour would you be?
11. What is your favourite quote and/or verse?
BONUS: What is your favorite thing about snail mail? :D

And here are my tagees! I tried to choose people that are new readers or people that I think will play along. I also award all of you with the Blog on Fire award, so please take it and pass it on :D

Lindsay at A Log of My Life

Jasmine at ::Lavender's Green::

Gracie at Gracie Bella Butterfly

April at April, Maybe

Lauren at Laurenchanting

April at The Beholder of Beauty

Little Miss Sunshine at My Little Corner of the World

Kim at Postcards Around the World

Steffi at Steffi's Postcards

I hope that you will all play along, and even if you aren't tagged, feel free to answer the questions if you want, and leave a link in the comments so I can check it out!

filling in the blanks. 3.2

1.   If money wasn't an issue, the first thing I'd cross of my life list is     travel to Europe. I'd want to go to England, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Sweden, and more   .

2.    Ice cream in -40C weather     is something I like that other people think is weird.

3.  If my life were a movie right now, the title would be     "You've Got Mail" because every day this week I've gotten at least one piece of mail and it's awesome :)      .

4.  Three things I am looking forward to this month are     my worship team singing at a wedding next weekend    ,    my 2-year dating anniversary with Chris   and     planning something special for Chris' birthday at the end of the month   .

5.  My favorite song to sing in the shower is   Black Hole by She & Him. I have no idea why, but I automatically sing it  .

6.  If I found out that the production of     Honey Nut Cheerios    was ending this month, I'd go out and buy as much as I could tomorrow.

7.  One thing I'll never grow tired of is    hanging out with my husband. I like him pretty much always  .

A snail mail (blog birth)day 3.2

Hi friends! My blog turned two yesterday! I can't believe it's been that long already. I was hoping to do a giveaway, but frankly money is a bit tight right now. But there will be one coming in the future! Keep your eyes peeled for that :D

Here are some wonderful things! The past two days I've gotten lovely bits in the mail. We'll see what my letterbox holds for me today (that is, if I want to venture out. A bit under the weather today, but it's my day off so that's nice hehe)

From my dear Laura

I love these awesome wildlife stamps from Olga

I also love these cats just chillin' like villains on this bike (there's some ears and a paw sticking out of the basket too!). Postcrossing card from Germany.

These little characters, Jip & Janneke, are by far my favorite discovery from doing Postcrossing. I definitely have a collection going. (and yes, this was a Postcrossing card)

A letter from one of my college friends. She's getting married in September (save the date pictured) and since she's still in school and I'm not, we hardly talk anymore. Letters are nice. I know she writes them in boring classes because that's what I used to do ;D

A sweet surprise from Merissa - she shared some kawaii stationery with me! Cuteness!

A lovely letter from Emilie. She also included an article about a guy who came to Boston from Japan to study the art of handcrafted signs, and has managed to actually be able to practice this dying art form.

A fuzzy kitty says hello to Lindsay!

Some creepers going to creep on 100 Days of Snail Mail

A card going to another friend from school that I don't see much anymore.

This goes to Alice, a long lost pen pal.

Going out to Miss Lauren. This envelope was the result of a boring class last year ;P

Take care, my lovelies! Have a good mail day!