lovely ladies: part 2

Okay so here is part 2 of the lovely ladies in my life. I introduced you to Kelli, Katie, and Misty yesterday, and now want to talk to you about Cotter, Lori, Dana, and Jen (all of whom were bridesmaids in my wedding!)

From left to right: Kelli, Jen, me, Lori, Cotter, Dana

We'll start with Cotter (aka Megan, Meg-e, M-cot). Cotter and I have been friends for the longest out of all of my close friends. We met the 1st day of our freshman year of high school in our dance class. Lucky for us, we get to celebrate a friendship anniversary every year in August, and this August marked what I think was our 9th year of friendship! Cot and I have remained close every since that year, more specifically after our sophomore year of high school. We ended up being college roommates for 3 years (once she transferred to Tech from Baylor) and I cannot imagine my high school and college without Cotter (which by the way, I didn't start calling her this until she decided to require it among her friends as her nickname). I think out of all the people I'm friends with, I share the most memories with this girl. She is the best listener you will ever meet, has the most contagious amazing laugh I've ever heard, and is just plain fun to be around! (oh and the picture is from our Senior Night After Prom, 2005!)

I met Lori my sophomore year of college but didn't really get to know her until she was basically our 5th roommate my junior year. One of my favorite things about Lori is her random pieces of wisdom. She knows all sorts of home remedies to get stains out and clean carpets. She always knew the random trivia at the football games, and could probably tell you something about anything you asked her about. She's just so wise! Lori and I had the privilege of working together with Crusade as well, but she has recently moved to Canada for her husbands football career. The thing I admire most about Lori is her walk with the Lord. I feel like she truly knows what it means to walk by faith, to blindly trust the Lord with her future, and to abide in Him daily. I'm so sad to be so far away from such a great friend!

Dana and I lived across the hall from each other our freshman year of college in the dorms. We became instant friends after bonding over our obsession with The OC and were basically inseparable that year! Dana and I went through hard breakups together and finding our soul mates together. College would not have been the same without Big-D. She has walked through so much of life with me it is unreal. She was the first friend my age to get married and move away from "college life". She is one of those friends that I can pick right back up where we left off, even if we don't get to see each other/talk to each other as much as we used to. Living 5 hours away has not been fun, but I love and cherish the time that I get to spend with Dana. She has taught me what a true friendship can look like with frustrations and all, but you work through it! I'll leave you with a picture of Dana and I from freshman year (the typical Dana face has not changed much over the years :) )

I met Jen when I was born, although I don't remember meeting her. From everything our parents tell us, Jen didn't really like me. Something about having a new baby in the house and her no longer getting all the attention, I don't know?! Well anyway, Jen and I are sisters if you didn't get that much so far. She is my only sibling and I can honestly agree with the statement that you get closer when you are no longer under the same roof. We fought growing up...a lot. But we also had lots of great fun times. Overall though, I would not say a true friendship formed between us until she moved out to go to college my sophomore year of high school. Something about not living together really drew us closer, and we have continually grown closer ever since. I love hanging out with her and her sweet family (her husband Brad and 8 mo.old Braelyn). She is extremely wise and caring. We have so many funny stories from weird family vacations, to her leaving me in the parking lot in high school when she was supposed to be my ride. I care so much for my sister and never imagined calling her one of my best friends, but she truly is! Once again, I am sad to live far away from one of my favorite people in life. I'll leave you with this awesome picture of Jen and I a few years ago. She used to get really mad at me because I would want to buy the same clothes or shoes as her. It still happens often, but she doesn't get mad anymore. Here is a picture of us with the SAME haircut, SAME glasses, and SAME dress in the Target dressing room. I oftentimes don't think we look alike, but there is no getting around it here!

Hope you enjoyed hearing about some of my best friends and what they mean to me!

lovely ladies: part 1

There are several lovely ladies in my life that I don't know what I would do without. I am one lucky girl because I have the privilege of working alongside 3 of these lovely ladies! Let me introduce you to Kelli, Katie, and Misty!

Kelli and I met for the first time planning a Womens Retreat for Crusade my freshman year of college. We ended up being college roommates for 2 years and then continued to live together for another 8 months until she got married. She graduated a year earlier, decided to intern with Campus Crusade, and 1 year later I did the same! Kelli is the first person that was truly vulnerable with me from the get go. So much so that it probably freaked me out a little bit at first! She had already been on a summer project with Campus Crusade before we started living together, so she brought things she learned there into our roommate life, allowing us to be real with one another rather than putting on a front to cover how we truly felt. Kelli is also loud, funny, sarcastic, an amazing opera singer, and loves to dance (kind of weird like). It was an honor to have her stand next to me at my wedding! 

 I first met Katie when she joined the staff team at Tech while I was still a student (in 2008 I believe). I remember when I got back from a Spring Break trip to Chicago that year, Katie wanted to sit down with me and hear all about it...what we did, what I learned, how my heart felt toward the city, and what the Lord was doing in and through me. This is a perfect explanation of Katie. She is SO INTENTIONAL! I love that she asks me questions, cares what the answers are, and is the best encourager I know. Once I decided to intern with Crusade, my relationship with Katie grew to a real friendship. I no longer knew her just as "the cute new staff girl". This picture was from the day I got engaged. Katie was one of the many people that I met with along my scavenger hunt to get to Brett. She sat down with me at Sonic and I will never forget our fun conversation. She asked me all about my relationship with Brett, how I was feeling, my walk with the Lord, etc. Again...SO INTENTIONAL!

Misty and I met for the first time in Santa Cruz, California on a Summer Project in 2009. We were both staffing the project, and she was leading all of the women. Going into this project, I knew there was a possibility that she would be joining the staff team at Tech and leading the staff women here, but she was currently on the staff team at OU. I had no idea how much I would value her being at Tech until after that summer in Santa Cruz. Misty has the amazing ability to befriend ANYONE and make you feel extremely comfortable and welcome regardless of the situation. You can imagine my excitement when I found out that Misty would be joining our team at Tech! She has only been here for a few months, but she brings amazing leadership to our team. Not only is she an awesome boss (because technically, she is my boss), but Misty is one of the most caring friends I have. She helps me think through lots of hard situations, laughs when I laugh, comforts me when I cry, and rejoices with me when I rejoice. She also is great at asking good questions :).

Well that completes part 1 of the lovely ladies in my life (I'll be continuing with more lovely ladies, so check back soon). I am so blessed to work with some of my best friends. Thanks ladies for always being there. I can't imagine my life currently without you girls in it!

- Kim

well it's monday again...

It's Monday again and I'm tired. I got up early to get breakfast with my good friend Brooke. And by early I mean...6:50 which I know for some of you may not be a big deal at all...but for me and my job that doesn't start at sunrise, it is! BUT, it was a fun time with Brooke because we decided that we are going to read the book Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas and get together about twice a month to talk about how it applies to our lives. I read this book while Brett and I were engaged (so not that long ago). But I feel like it would be way more beneficial now being married AND having someone to talk about it with. If you haven't read this book, I would recommend it, although it can be a little difficult to get into. It goes against the cultural norms of marriage and has the "audacity" to say that marriage is meant to make us holy not happy. Food for thought...

click here for more info on this book!

 

 

 

 

 This past weekend was a lot of fun! Brett and I rented a season of The Office on Friday night and watched a lot of that, then on Saturday we went to lunch at One Guys! It was a surprise for Brett to take me there because he ALWAYS talks about how good it is and I ALWAYS tell him that I've never been. So we went and it was in fact very good. Brett was planning to try to buy tickets to the Tech vs. Texas game that night outside the gates before kick-off, but he was blessed with a FREE ticket instead! Woo Hoo!!! (good thing too because we lost). So what did I do? I went shopping. I bought some new shoes at Dillards which were on the 70% off rack - always a plus. Then, I finally finished selecting pictures and putting together my engagement and wedding albums through Shutterfly! I can't wait to get them in about a week! Here is the cover picture of our wedding album...one of my favorites!

Jennifer Bellah Photography

Then on Sunday we did the church thing and then had an awesome Fiesta! with our Gospel Community at Redeemer. Before our wedding it was too hectic to pull something together, so last night our small group hosted a Fiesta honoring our marriage! It was so fun to eat together, hang out, hit a pinata (yes we did this, and yes it was mainly adults), and just hang out at Buffalo Springs Lake. We felt very blessed, loved, and encouraged by our friends we have made at church!

Oh and something else fun, my sister-in-law (fun to say that!) is getting married in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS! For those of you who are confused, this is Brett's sister. And she is getting married in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS! Brett and I are excited to start a busy season of traveling as we head to Austin for Jessica's wedding and then to Houston the next weekend to visit my family and family member of honor: Braelyn! She is my niece and I'll leave you with a picture of her because...why not? She's adorable! Hope you have a great Monday :)

This is last months picture (she is 8 months today actually!) but I just love how hard she is laughing at their dog Ranger!

being a wife

The title of this may be misleading...seeing as how my days of being a wife only add up to a little over 40 and I don't know much about the whole aspect. BUT, with the wonderful job that I have, I am allotted a half "wives day". This means that for half of 1 work day out of the week, I can go do whatever it is I need to do to be a good wife. Really, it could even be taking a nap if that would make me in a better mood when the hubby gets home! Well I didn't really know what I would do during this time and I figured I would play it by ear from week to week. But today marks "wives day" # 2. Since we have had a few short weeks with the first week of school and labor day, I haven't really had a good taste to see what this will look like. I feel somewhat silly writing the cliche "wifely" duties that I have gotten done today so far, but I feel SO productive!

 In the span of 2 hours I:

• picked up my order from Kinkos and made more copies for bible study
• did laundry
• emptied the dishwasher
• climbed behind the tiny little space where our dryer is and fixed that dumb coil that keeps falling off
• changed the sheets on the bed
• swept the floor
• made a fruit salad consisting of fresh apples, bananas, blueberries, grapes, and cantelope
• made "bacon tomato appetizers" (recipe from Lisa Bollens)  
• washed all the dishes I used to make this stuff

Still on the list of things to do:

• vacuum
• put away laundry
• my 28 day devotional that I'm going through

So overall, it is funny how the picture of a 1950's housewife hasn't changed much when I have an afternoon at home. The only difference is I am DEFINITELY not wearing pearls, heels, and a cute polka dotted dress ;).

I'll leave you with a few pictures of our apartment and a recipe of what will hopefully be delicious bacon tomato appetizers. I'll let you know how they taste!

This is the view from the back door

 

 

 

View from the front door

Eating area

Kitchen AND laundry room :)

Bacon Tomato Appetizers!

Ingredients:
1 10oz can of refrigerated flaky biscuits
5-6 slices of bacon (or bacon bits)
1 tomato, 1 onion (if desired, and it was definitely NOT desired here)
1/2 cup of mayo
1/2 cup of swiss or other cheese
1 g. of basil

Directions:
Heat oven to 375 degrees
Separate biscuits into thinner layers and press biscuits into 24 muffin or mini muffin tins
Chop bacon and sprinkle into each cup
Chop tomato, coarsely & add several pieces to each cup (if tomato is juicy, drain on paper towel)
Finely chop onion, mix with mayo, cheese, and basil
Add small amount of cheese mixture to each cup
Sprinkle a few more bacon bits/pieces on top
Bake 10-15 min. or until golden brown

wedding gifts, videos, and pictures...

Wedding gift...

So Brett and I got an air mattress as one of our wedding gifts and we were really excited about it. We were trying to think of a time when we would actually be able to use it, and we came to the conclusion that there wasn't one. At least not in the near future. So we do what anyone smart would do: we blew up our air mattress for no good reason other than to say that we've used it and put it on the living room floor! Unfortunately, we didn't get this brilliant idea until 10:00 at night. We got really excited, got it all set up to pump the air into it, then found out we didn't have batteries for our pump. Sad right? Well, we heard from our friends that you can blow up an air mattress with a hair dryer. SOOO....that's exactly what we did. Sounds simple, and in fact it was (other than the fact that I was paranoid we were going to melt the plastic or start a fire inside our apartment). The only bummer was, we didn't get it blown up until about 10:30, realized its not near as comfortable as our actual bed, laid on it for MAYBE 30 minutes while we watched some of our wedding video, and then deflated it immediately so we could have our living room back to normal. But was it worth it? YES. My biggest regret about this night was the fact that I didn't even take a picture of how silly we looked camping out for 30 min. in our living room to share with the blog world. Next time friends....next time.

Wedding video...

I mentioned above that we were watching our wedding video while laying on this air mattress. Yup, you heard it right. We got our wedding video this Tuesday and were SO excited to be able to re-live our special day! Some highlights from the video watching:

• getting to watch the moment when Brett and I saw each other for the first time 
• watching my dad dance back down the aisle after the ceremony (didn't get to see that one in real life so this REALLY made my day)
• timing my dads speech and realizing it was a record 9 min. and 13 seconds
• going through the reception in slow motion to laugh at everyone's awesome dance moves (and of course rewinding to watch the REALLY funny ones)
• realizing that one of Brett's friends Joel actually got his glasses knocked off of him during the catching of the garter

Overall, we were extremely pleased with our video and getting to remember all of the funny, sweet, and happy moments from that day. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Wedding pictures...

Last but DEFINITELY not least, we got ALL of our wedding pictures back! Big shout out to the wonderful Jennifer Bellah and 2nd shooter Courtney Ryburn for their amazing work at capturing all the details of our wonderful day!

If you want to look at all of our pictures and possibly even purchase some for yourselves, you can go to:

http://jenniferbellahphotography.instaproofs.com  

Password: Marcos

I'm warning you now...there are a TON! But if you just want to see a few of my favorites, go here:

http://blog.jenniferbellahphotography.com/?p=910

Have a great weekend!

walking by faith

So lately this phenomenon of "walking by faith" has been coming up ALL. THE. TIME. I don't know exactly what God is trying to tell me by continually putting this before me, but I guess I'll have to walk by faith to find out? (lame play on words, I know ;) )

It started recently in my prayer life. I found myself using that phrase over and over when praying for others, myself, my future, Brett, etc. Then, I started this whole blogging thing, which of course got me reading other peoples blogs. I have been REALLY encouraged by my friend Megan Reed through all of this. As I read about her adventures in India and Cambodia, I can't help but think she is truly someone walking by faith. After Megan's blog, I was thrilled to find out that our good friends The Arledge's updated their blog. Now the chances of this happening were slim considering Meredith had not blogged in 2 YEARS! But of course, she decides to blog, and you guessed it, she spurs me further toward this whole "walking by faith" thing. (if you want to hear a cool story, click on their name above because it is truly an inspiration to me!). Okay so this now brings me to today where I still sit thinking about this phrase.

Walk by faith. What does this even mean?! I guess literally it means having to depend on the Lord for every single step that you take, whether it be out of bed, down the stairs, to your car, off the bus, etc. I don't know that I even think of the Lord throughout my thousands of steps that I take daily, but on a broader scale, I am dependent upon the Lord for lots of things.

What has come to my mind more often than not when thinking of walking by faith though, is that God has the power to give and to take away. He has the power to snatch anything that I am holding close to my heart away in a millisecond. He has the power to cause extreme discomfort in my life, and then what? Am I going to walk by faith then? I think it would be a lot harder to begin walking by faith in the midst of disaster, heartache, or weakness. So after all of this, what the Lord has been teaching me is quite simple: to walk by faith...NOW. To blindly follow Christ. To prepare my heart for what is to come. To be okay with change. To step out of my comfort zone. To love the Lord and truly BELIEVE that He is working for my good through ALL things. And that ALL things good come from Him.

Like I said, it's quite simple right? Well, maybe not. What do you think? What does walking by faith mean to YOU? I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

jumping on the bandwagon...

Well, I decided to jump on the bandwagon of blogging. I've been an avid believer in non-blogging for a while now but have decided to take the plunge. I initially didn't want to blog because I figured no one would read it and I wouldn't update it. Well I know I have at least a few friends who will read it, and as far as updating goes, I'm not promising anything. The main reason that I decided to blog is for the sole purpose of keeping my friends and family updated with my life.

This summer, there were hundreds of miles separating me from my normal community for the majority of the time. I really enjoyed reading update e-mails and blogs from friends who were diligent enough to update. I found myself feeling extremely connected to those who updated through blogs, but then I realized that those people have no idea what is going on in my life. So with that being said, this blog is for those who I neglect to call, update, and write to on a regular basis (and anyone else who wants to read, because I know even though we're in the same place, Kelli and Cotter will probably be my # 1 fans :) )

Along with this summer sparking an interest in blogs, it also marked the beginning of a new stage in my life. A life in a body that has now survived a kidney stone! Just kidding. Well actually I'm not because that is in fact true, but what I am referring to is my recent marriage to the wonderful Brett Marcos! I hope to update you all on the new/fun/exciting things that come with marrying your best friend, along with the hardships/lessons learned/humility that comes with it as well. I hope to share my thoughts on how God is working in my life, things I am learning, and the daily in's and out's in the life of a Marcos :). I promise you that it will not be that insightful and probably not that exciting, but I hope you enjoy staying connected with me!

Until next time...