Ya ain't gonna foot yer own home, boy, cuz ya ain't gonna home yer own foot!

This is what i said in my sleep a few nights ago, according to my hubby. And yes, in a drunken cowboy accent. What is my unconscious mind capable of?? For real, if this is as good as i can come up with, I'm no sleeping genius! But at least i can entertain my husband in bed even while i'm sleeping:) Censor that, please.

Now that we've gotten off to a fun start, let's keep the energy going!

1. My husband's drawing skills, in one word, impeccable. Look at this startling likeness! Pretty good for an engineer, eh? This is a pic from our honeymoon. The drawing tablet is actually a wedding gift from Brookstone. It's called a Boogie Board and can be erased at the touch of a button. Pretty neato!

2. Home Decor: The top clock is for my husband. The bottom clock is for me. Or should it be the other way around so we can rub off on each other? Well, my cousin Tay got the "Whatever" clock for me, so i guess i need to claim it:)

Karis serving the bubbly with her sunhat on:)

D drinking champagne like a true man:)

3. Did you know Wichita has a Polo Club? It's true, and i went to a "match" with my hubbly and some friends. Did you know there are six periods in a polo match, and they are not called periods, but CHUKKERS? Yep, six chukkers. During halftime, they pick a pretty lady with a big hat from the audience (our friend did it:), have her pop open a bottle of champagne in the middle of the field, and we drink champagne while "Stomping the Divets"...and they reminded us to not stomp the mounds...that was horse manure. I can't believe horses can run and poop at the same time. Maybe humans can too. I guess i've come close before. ANYWAYS...go to a polo match. They are long, but go with some buddies and bask in the hot sun and the smell of horse. It's really fun. Really. Oh and don't forget to bring a sunhat...I was naked headed, unfortunately.

Rudy needed a refreshing cold towel after major frisbee time.

4. Just finished reading, "Sheet Music" by Dr. Kevin Leman. SUPER AMAZING BOOK, especially if you are married and want to keep the excitement alive in your marriage. Just like anything, duh, it takes work. But the rewards are exponential!

Hello i am a stud. See, proof.

Dan De Jong, Triple Jump record. What now.

5. Went on a road trip with my hubby last month! All the way to Sioux Center, Iowa, home of Dordt College. Yep. Infamous i know. Then up to Luverne Minnesota for his cousin's wedding! Looks like my hubbly was pretty hot stuff at the awesome college of Dordt. Funny story: At our rehearsal, I decided to run around like Phoebe does on "Friends" without telling anyone what i was doing. When i made one round about the sanctuary, i said, in between gasps of out of shapeness breath, "Picture me doing this tomorrow if you get nervous! Ok, your turn, babe!" So D decided to show us his triple jumping skills...and from then on, i realized i had married a sub-human. As i'm pretty sure he is part gazelle or frog. Hot stuff!

bustin' a move with the MIL!~

I am also pretty proud of my hubs- he is the only one in his family who dances! and, as you know, to be a part of the Hanning clan, dancing is a REQUIREMENT. We're working on loosening up the rest of his family...Dan dragged his mom onto the dance floor for the "Mother-son" dance. LOVE IT! GO DEB!

Part of the De Jong fam. Rachel was a bridesmaid. What a beauty!

Well, here's me signing off with one last charge...keep a notepad and pencil handy when you sleep at night...records of spousal sleep-talking are priceless:)

To The Moon and Back

Welcome!

The view from our balcony. We loved those sunchairs in the water.

After the wedding night (where we were excited to find a bag of my favorite BBQ chips and recent food obsession!), my hubbly surprised me with a trip to Cancun for the Honeymoon, and boy was it a wonderfulicious surprise! In all of my guessing and manipulative conning into trying to get him to spill, I never even ONCE guessed Cancun. I am kinda strange in the fact that i love surprises, but i think i love figuring them out before they happen...that's why i love them. i told ya, strange. Never was there a more amazing 'Moon than ours! We didn't really do much, which was perfection. We did go parasailing, a lifelong dream of mine. But i actually got horribly sick because the waves were monstrous, making the boat rock like a steel guitar. Poor D, he was enjoying it a lot, and i know he just wanted me to enjoy it with him. Vertigo/Motion Sickness is one of my humbling trials of life. I hate it when it affects other people though. We also went on our own individual boat tour to the coral reef. We actually got to drive our own boat and followed our guide in his. It was a small dinky little thing, but we loved it! I drove so that i would not get sick. My husband is so not macho-istic. He didn't care the least that he didn't get to drive. At least he told me he didn't:). What a guy:).

Pelicanos and the swim-up bar.

We took a bike ride and a cooking class provided by our hotel, the Royal Cancun. We ran along the coastline to the point and back in the dark. It was eerie and lovely. We took a lot of walks, swam, read, and just talked. About the 3rd day into it, i hit a wall and slept most of the day through. Normally, that would drive me nuts, thinking about being here only once for a week and wasting my time sleeping, but i have realized through the years that this sleeping is necessary. Without it, I wouldn't be enjoying any of the activities, and i would be a bear to deal with. This way, there are less activities we have time for, but they are much more fun!

cactus salad!

prickly pear!

oh my!

The all-inclusive food was, well, plentiful! And yummy! There were some strange options, such as cactus salad, prickly pears, gelatin cakes, and caviar (seriously?? what's the draw??), but we enjoyed trying them. We loved "Pelicanos", the outdoor restaurant right by the pool. And we LOVED times twenty the constant stream of waitresses coming up to us by the pool and taking our orders, minutes later bringing us our mudslides (my fave!) and various other yummy drinks. Our favorite place to go, kind of our default eatery was "Spice" and carried a buffet room full of yummy options. I think I ate these amazing homemade corn chips with every meal. Yep, for breakfast, i would put my potatoes and bacon on them. For lunch, i'd put my meat and guac on them. And for dinner, I'd put just about anything on them. They were heavenly. It might be sad, but it's true: I miss those chips more than almost anything from Cancun.

a typical Petie breakfast (note the chips)

my flavorite thing-chips!

hibachi chef posing for me:)

We also ate at a couple of the fancy schmancy restaurants near the hotel. One was Tapas Pintxos and served the tiniest portions of some crazy weird food. The other, whose name i forget, was a hibachi grill restaurant where you sit around the table and watch chefs throw knives and make a train out of onion rings, then blow it up. AWESOME! and so tasty. There was a large population of Asian people at our hotel, which surprised me because I figured Asia was too far away for this to be a convenient vacation spot. But I guess it isn't as far as I thought, because they were everywhere! I always forget that other countries take vacations, too. I know that sounds weird, but when I go to Tokyo, I am not thinking about those Tokyoans going to Cancun for vaca. I digress.

fancy!

schmancy!

yes, i am aware that there's a lantern in my crotch!

D treated me to a spa night, where we got couples' massages, then a drawn bath and head/neck massage (with honey!), and a bottle of the bubbly. We both felt kinda strange laying basically naked (we had suits on) in a tub full of bubbles in OUR room, with two men caressing our scalps and pouring sticky stuff all over our faces. I think we coulda done without that part, but our "massoose men" were really sweet. And good. My husband is rather ticklish, and i almost laughed out loud during the massage when i hear from the other bed a squeal, and then a much apologetic massoose man saying, "Oh, you are ticklish!". Haha.

my sexy hubby

Got up one morning to see the sunrise...Ahhh, PRaise Jesus.
All in all, it was just great to be with my brand new husband, soaking in each other and the fact that we were now and forever on this earth ONE unit. It is quite a mystery. We talked a lot and really dug into the meat of what a marriage relationship is all about...and how to glorify our God through it.

sleepy eyes

lunch poolside!

grrrrr.

we like to kiss:)

tada!

The Mystery and the Mayhem

As i sit here in my NEW! house, eating a delicious and visually-appealing bowl of Ranier Cherries, i struggle to grasp the magnitude of changes in my life these past few months. I am staring out a window into a backyard that is entirely new to me, but is now MY backyard. I am in a guest bedroom that is painted a light apple green and is filled with MY old sheets and comforter, MY old green desk, and dozens of knick knacks, both mine and my hubby's. I will soon go to switch out laundry in MY laundry room, with MY clothes and the clothes of a MAN. Then water MY garden, small, yet fruitful, full of a variety of peppers, watermelon, chives, tomatoes, blueberries and strawberries (all your basic staples of course!). yeah, random bunch, i know.

I will be shopping with my mother for furniture for MY house. A couch for MY living room, a side table/dresser for MY husband's bedside (that i share with him!), and a structure for storage in MY kitchen, which is overflowing with MY shiny new appliances. I curled up for devos in MY zebra-printed Pier One blanket (THE softest blanket known to mankind, and i am willing to fight for this title), in MY chaise lounge chair, drinking coffee from MY Keurig Coffeemaker (more on THAT in a later post). MY husband will be coming home and I will have him all to myself. My father will not be trodding down the hallway, ankles cracking (which comes in handy for the preparation of his arrival), peering into the room to see what we are "up to". My mom will not be yelling up a cheery "hello" from the bottom of the stairs and then coming up to chat with us both. Don't get me wrong at all, i LOVED living at home and having my parents there for everything. But there is just something about having that almost-guaranteed privacy, the realization that nobody is going to come barging through that door except my husband announcing the infamous, "Honey, I'm home!!!". And then i will spend the evening getting to know my groom better, doing devos, and falling asleep by his side in OUR bed. Well, not tonight. We are housesitting for a week. But for the past few weeks it has been this way.

Oh, there is such mystery in marriage! And the mayhem of life continues on...even after a wedding of 500+ attendants. even after a honeymoon on the beach. Yes, life goes on. Dan's desk is waiting for him every morning, and a pile of empty Thank You cards are waiting for me. I still must furnish my house, keep up with the cooking, baking, laundry, gardening, and cleaning, hang stuff on walls, organize shelves, and clean out boxes. But it is very good.

This Kansas girl who grew up with a passion and desire for the great continent of Africa and the faces of the children she met there, is, in effect, living out her dreams right here as the bride of a wonderful groom, a keeper of the home, and an eater of delicious Rainier Cherries* (really the only "pits" she has come into contact with lately), as she strives to become even a smidgen of a "woman of dominion". Yes, life is good.

*these cherries are in peak season right now and it doesn't last long, so go getcha some! oh, and here is my grapevine...

The Captivity of Activity

Beth Moore describes it briefly in her "Breaking Free" video series. It's the "Captivity of Activity". Since i love a good play- on- words, i am a little miffed with Beth for thinking of this before I did. I guess other people ARE as smart as me (just another humbling as the Lord brings me down from the mountain of importance that i continually try to hike up, taking different trails each time, yet winding up in the same spot). SMARTER, even! 

Activity...my life is a constant conundrum in this regard. I am attacked on one side by the feeling of laziness and sluggishness, mainly due to health difficulties, but there is always that nagging thought that i am just doing it to get out of things and that it is all mental. And the other side attacks me with my endless lists of things to accomplish, as i rush from one to the other, not spending enough time in each spot to actually "accomplish" it, therefore, creating yet another "thing" to fix and "accomplish". (Do i use these """" too much? i will look into that, cuz that could get annoying). I get comments from others that i am running myself ragged. "How do you do all of this in one day? I would go crazy!". Then i get the comments, "What do you do all day? You don't have a job, right? So what occupies your time?", which reads to my sensitive self, "GET A LIFE YOU LAZY BUM!". 

So which is it? Darned if i know. The jury is no longer out on the purpose of my existence. I have learned after years of captivity in activity that my will is to do the will of the One Who sent me and called me as His own. Yet this question of my purpose is a constant leach to my everyday thoughts. I'm doing too much. I'm not doing enough. Well...which is it?

my backyard Mimosa tree! favorite tree ever. ever.

For my groom's wedding gift, I searched through 20 plus journals of my scribblings from the past fifteen years. I then typed up everything i deemed worthy of mention to my groom, things i wanted him to know about me and that would pertain to him understanding me better and creating a healthy start to our marriage. it was 70 pages. Single- spaced. Poor guy, having to read all that. I thought it would take him a few weeks to get through, but he actually finished it all in the first few days of our honeymoon! What??!! i told him he obviously had not labored over the intricacies of my journaling, grasping at the meaning of my innermost thoughts. Right:). But going through those entries, I didn't realize how much I would PERSONALLY get out of it. Reading through your life is quite unexplainable. It's overwhelming, really. You see patterns. You see things you never saw before about yourself. You cringe at some things you wrote, cry at others, and laugh hysterically at even more. You come across issues you dealt with ten years ago that you STILL haven't resolved. But you also come across issues that seemed like such a big deal at the time, and you wish you could go back and tell your teenage self (or 22 year old self!) that it would all be okay, and this seeming mountain was actually just a molehill, or a bump in the road. Upon reading, i saw quite a pattern with myself. It was the struggle with purpose. How i spent my time. What i accomplished during the day/week/year. I set tons of "goal lists", "aspirations", and "dreams". I started out wishing that life's goals could be checked off and i could move onto the next goal, and ended up begging God to assure me that that was not how life worked. And He did. and still does. 

i am still in the captivity of activity. I have met few who aren't. I realize that this time in my life is a perfect time for me to completely, painfully, utterly surrender my will to my Father, for every future second of my life to be HIS and HIS ONLY. I am a married homemaker, settling in right now and soon starting up, once again, a jewelry business. I am already craving to be a mother. But i know once motherhood occurs, I must be armed with weapons so as not to be caught in the "Captivity of Activity". To fight diligently for my God in this dark world, and yet find rest and peace in Him as well. That balance, i know, will never be achieved here on earth, but that does not mean i give up.

A Proverbs 31 Man and Deuteronomy

Taken from "The Most Important Year in a Man's Life/ The Most Important Year in a Woman's Life" by Robert and Bobbie Wolgemuth, and Mark and Susan DeVries.

This was quite a wonderful book. I found it on half.com after i had ordered a marriage book which i have yet to read. This one was on the list of suggestions from the ever-so-wise ebay people. I guess they assume that they know what i want to read before i do. This one was a God-send, though. I really learned a lot from it.

The book is written by two Christian couples and I believe one of the husbands is a pastor. The book is split in half, with one side being for the women, and the other for the man. But they highly encourage either sex to read both sides. So of course i did:) And i am giving it to my future husband, who is very eager to read it as well.

Here's some snippets and thoughts...

Deuteronomy 24:5 states, "If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married."

Did you hear that? An entire year focused solely on getting to know your spouse. If this was a command, how much importance do you think God placed on new marriages? This first yr. is called in the book the "Wet Cement Year". Once the pattern is set in the first year, change can take place, "but it may take something like a jackhammer to bring it about".

The wife of the Proverbs 31 man immediately gains self-esteem from the sterling reputation of her husband. "[Her husband] praises her" (31:28). Few things are more motivating to a woman than words of sincere admiration coming from her husband. The Proverbs 31 man is liberal with these expressions.

On learning to please your spouse: 

Okay, so these things don't come naturally. Did learning to ride a bicycle come naturally, or did u have to work at it? How about swimming? Or learning to read? ...Did these things come naturally or did you learn them? And what did it take for these to become skills? That's easy to answer. You wanted to master them-- and so you did.

Marriage is work. But so is everything, if you want to be good at it. For some reason I had never thought about it like that before...

And that's just the tip of the iceberg on what i have been learning, I am sure I will be referencing this book in the weeks and months to come...

Find a way to please your man today, first figuring out what he is most pleased by, not necessarily by what YOU think pleases him...