Christmas Party Fun

We got to enjoy a fun and fancy Christmas party Friday night, and even arranged for a dog sitter (thanks, mom & dad! ;*) to stay the night in the fancy hotel downtown. We usually try to enjoy a special date night each December as our Christmas gift to each other - this was an extra fancy one! 

I got my hair to have volume (thanks to lots of teasing and the extra hold hair spray mom let me borrow for the occasion! ha!), and had to have Nick capture this moment. (This was even at the end of the night - it held! Win!)

Night time view from our room. What a treat! 

Our "formal" photo with the photographer. :) 

Love this guy of mine! 

Trying to get in as many photos looking so nice before washing off my makeup and brushing out the hair;)

This necklace was one my mom wore to our wedding. :) I can't remember if I gave it to her?! Either way, I had asked my mom for advice to get the look I was going for, so when Nick dropped off Ranger at her place, he brought back some jewelry and her hair spray to use. :) How FUN it is to have my parents nearby! 

Daytime view from our room. 

A room with a view!

 The next day, we got to sleep in (Nick doesn't sleep in as much at home, so I loved him not having an agenda!), and enjoyed lunch together. Yes, this one is blurry, but he had offered to get my coffee for me, and was bringing it back to the table right as I tried to get a pic of the restaurant. I liked this version better!:) I like the decor in this restaurant too. 

 We had the most wonderful "deathstar" sundae with a brownie at the bottom, ice cream, hot espresso over top of the ice cream, and whipped cream. It was dairy free so I could enjoy it too! (Until we got too close to the brownie, which wasn't gluten free - then it was all Nick's!:)). 

We don't get these kinds of date days often, so I was thankful Nick wanted to make the most of it and enjoy our time together! It can be so easy to get caught up in the daily come and go of responsibilities and such, that it's hard to stop and have fun together sometimes. And we don't even have kids yet, ha! It is a good reminder for us though, to make time to have fun together. 

Today's Pinspiration:

(pinterest source)

Fall {Fun}!

I can't believe I haven't blogged in almost two months! So weird. Unfortunately, my computer is no longer syncing with my phone since I ran out of space pretty much, so the photos on my computer are from September! I need to figure that out. Since I add photos in my blog posts, I just haven't blogged in a while. I thought I'd pop over here to update the ol' blog with some photos of our past couple months. ((I add a lot of these on Instagram too, so when I'm not posting on the blog as much, check over there for our happenings.))

In October, I cut my hair shorter and added bangs for the first time in many years! It's fun to change it up.

My dad came over for dinner one night in October. Nick cooked steaks for us, and I did mashed potatoes. And I think we did garlic green beans. It was SO good. I'm blessed to have my parents live near enough to come for dinner:)

We took Rangey to the vet for his ongoing digestive issues. (like churning sounds in his stomach, acting mopey, leading up to blood in his stool. on an ongoing basis that had gotten up to weekly or so. yah..). Turns out my sweet puppy boy has IBS like me. Hah! We changed his food to a prescription higher fiber food and the vet gave us steroid pills to use when he has these episodes. Thankfully, since we went in October, he's only had one episode! Hopefully we're on the right track and can keep him healthy. 

Fall colors & leaves are so fun. And we don't get quite as vibrant fall colors here in Texas as we were used to in the midwest, so I had to capture these pretty colors a few weeks back. 

We visited Nick's parents for Thanksgiving, and made a quick trip over to Des Moines to see a few family members quick. Being at the capital is always fun since we took our engagement photos there over 6 years ago. I love that the capitol will always have those memories for us. 

Visiting my step dad Joe is always great. Some of you may remember his accident back in 2013 that was very scary for all of us. It's been a long road to recovery with all of the internal healing his body needed, and I love seeing his personality come back strong and be himself again! 

Nick's dad Charlie joined us for our quick Des Moines road trip. It was very quick (like in DSM for 3 hours, lol), but so worth it. I got to see my Grammy at the hospital recovering from colon cancer surgery and my Uncle Tim who is battling the same kind of brain cancer my birth mom had during our quick trip too. I hadn't been able to see him the past few years, so it was important to visit him and hug him and let him know we're praying for him. 

Trees were covered in ice throughout Iowa & Nebraska (where we were anyway;)) which made for a pretty drive. I always enjoy being back in my home state. 

We got to see Julie (my birth mom)'s family in Nebraska too! It was the day of the big Iowa & Nebraska game, and was so good to see them. They are so funny and I love learning more about them and hearing their stories. Knowing blood relatives is just such a neat thing - hard to describe really, but I am so thankful to know them! I'll always wish I had more time with Julie, but I appreciate the time I get with her family. 

Little big sister-- I'm the oldest of Julie's kids, but the shortest. Michael is the youngest, yet the tallest! :)

I made some cowls the past few months too - I love making pretty things! And accessories. I started knitting in college, but crocheting goes so much faster! Thanks to my cousin and aunt for teaching me their ways. 

I re-decorated our bedroom and am loving it so much more already. My friend Rachel is seriously gifted at helping spaces look beautiful and in March (yes forever ago!), she gave me awesome ideas for our room and I just had not gotten around to doing it. She suggested these "hey handsome" and "hello beautiful" prints from etsy for our sides of the bed and I love them so much! 

Shopping for my dress for Nick's company Christmas party. I counted at least 23 dresses I tried on at 3 different stores, and love the dress I landed on! (I got the bottom left one). Now, to accessorize it. :)! 

Coffee and puppy snuggles. A few of my favorite things:)

I enjoyed a lovely weekend retreat in Tulsa, OK in November with my essential oils team. We got all dressed up for 50's style photos, ate wonderful food, enjoyed conversation, did some yoga, a learning session, and it was so much fun! I love girl time, and am so thankful to know those friends. 

Today's Pinspiration:

As Christmas gets closer, I just want to sit next to the Christmas tree with hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies every night. A girl can dream, right?! ;) Sending cozy Christmas vibes to each of you! 

Love,
Marissa

Easy Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Banana Bread

I let bananas go bad last week, so I decided to let them keep going to use for baking. They still sat on the counter all week, so Nick kindly asked yesterday if I was really truly going to use the bananas or if we should toss them. That gave me just the boost I needed to find and try this recipe last night. And I'm so glad I did! It's so moist and the chocolate chips give it the perfect touch. I'm also a sucker for fall spices that make it a warm & cozy treat. Or breakfast, I'm not judging ;) 

Makes one 9x5 loaf
Recipe adapted from this blog


Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cups flour (I use Bob's Red Mill gluten free, you can use whatever you prefer!)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 drops cinnamon bark essential oil OR another 3/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon  *
• 2 drops nutmeg essential oil OR 1 tsp of ground nutmeg *
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tablespoon butter (I use dairy free butter - Earth Balance brand, but use whatever you prefer)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 overripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Beat the butter, brown sugar, pumpkin, egg, vanilla, and banana in another bowl until smooth. Stir in dry mixture.

I placed parchment paper inside of my 9x5 loaf pan to prevent it from sticking to the sides. Pour batter into 9x5 bread pan.

Bake for about 1 hour or until cooked throughout. (Mine was done when I checked at 50 minutes! Check yours then too, to be sure it doesn't over cook)

Let cool and enjoy!

YUM. If you make this, I want to hear what you think! I hope you have a great rest of your weekend.

* I personally only recommend using Young Living essential oils because of their commitment to quality and purity. I can't speak for other brands. 

Today's Pinspiration:

(Pinterest Source)

Catching up {& Random Thoughts}

Happy weekend, friends! I hope yours is an enjoyable one. 

Thanks to all of you for your kind words and support since the last blog post. Y'all are the best. I looked through photos to add to this blog post and I haven't even been taking as many photos lately! Weird. By the time weekends come, I've been exhausted recently. My body and mind have just needed to veg it seems. So I've let it! Weekends lately consist of college football on Saturdays and church, maybe grocery shopping and napping on Sundays. 

We just started a 6-week marriage bible study at church this week. So far, I'm loving it! The study is called "With" in case you're curious. It has led to good conversations and thought processes. I'm excited to keep walking through it together. So far we've reminded ourselves to schedule regular date nights, and try to be intentional about our time together. Let's face it: living with someone else and doing life together every day can be hard after a while! We're different people. He doesn't do things the way I do (which obviously my way is the right way;)), think the way I do, or know exactly what I hope he'd read from my body language. Haha, you know what I mean. It takes intentional work to me, and I like doing studies like this to remind us to keep our focus. 

We also recently celebrated our 6 year anniversary! In some ways it feels WAY longer, and in some ways, that number feels pretty big! We've squeezed a lot into these years, that seems certain. Between our moves, job changes (with our moves), etc., it feels like we've just now started to steady out. I also realize I'm getting older, which is crazy. I'm pretty positive I'll be 23 forever. We shall see ;). Oh yes, here are some photos of our anniversary date night since I never shared them here. 

Nick had reservations at a fancy restaurant for us. The food was SO GOOD. It was a quality experience too, where they take time to really go through the menu (especially helping me with the gluten & dairy free thing). 

We splurged on an appetizer, nice wines, expensive meals (haha!), and desserts. Since it was our anniversary, they provided glasses of champagne for us too, to enjoy a toast. 

Our shrimp appetizer was so fresh and tasty! (I forgot to take a pic of our entrees, but we loved and devoured them). 

Desserts and champagne. My dessert was fresh orange sorbet - so tasty! Nick's was a bourbon bread pudding I think. It looked amazing.

After that, we walked around downtown and saw a group gathered, ready to help with a marriage proposal. They were taking pics forever and we could tell the soon-to-be-engaged couple wasn't there yet, so we walked around other areas and came back to see this same group taking pics with the bride and groom to be, showing off her new bling. It was so fun to see! I seriously love love stories. 

Cheers to 6 years, my dear!

In other news, I haven't gotten even a trim since my major haircut in the spring and I'm trying to figure out what cut to do next. It's angled now (like below), and I've thought about cutting off the angle just to be straight across. I'm also trying to figure out if I should get bangs back. I'll probably search Pinterest for hours and make a decision by Christmas. Kidding, I'm hoping to make a decision within a few weeks and get 'er done. 

It also has been one year since I got off my fibromyalgia medications! I have to remind myself what a big accomplishment that is. I still have progress to make, and I have bad pain days that take me down here and there. It's still a chronic not fun thing to deal with, but I have things that can help me too, which I'm thankful for. Not taking medications means I'm dealing with the symptoms! They still ebb and flow depending on things I can't even identify sometimes. Other times, it can be over-exerting myself physically, too much stress, posture issues, food sensitivities, etc.  

I talked with a friend recently about the idea that people like the idea of having a great testimony for the Lord, but they don't want to have to walk through the valley to come out on the other side. Some days I mentally feel fine and feel like I can conquer anything before me. Other days, I mentally can feel that I'm in the valley of this testimony. 

That being said, we all have so many things in our lives we may feel have us in the valley. We all have tough things in our lives we're dealing with. Let's support and encourage each other and know that the family that looks perfect on social media has their own tough things they're dealing with. My life isn't perfect, y'all. I try to encourage others and post things I think may make someone laugh, give them an idea for something to try, or share something happening in our life. Maybe it's just a pretty photo I took. It's never to make you think my life is perfect - cause I'm the first to tell you it can't be! Nothing on this side of heaven is perfect. We're all imperfect. Let's embrace it and enjoy this life. If you're on instagram, you may enjoy the hashtag #myrealreallife a friend of mine started. I'm thankful to be on this imperfect journey with all of you! 

Well that blog post was all over the place! Haha. I have missed this space to write our my words and hope I can hop over here more than I did over the summer. I hope you're well, my dears!

Today's Pinspiration:

Haha, I LOVE this! Virtual high fives to you all. 

(Source)

Beautiful Redemption

As many of you know, my birth mother passed away earlier this month after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. I had emailed with her over the past 5 years and was blessed to have met her and her son last September. I got to tell her the words I had longed to tell her my whole life, "thank you". I thanked her for giving me life and making a brave decision for me at a young age. I blogged about meeting her in this post. I'm beyond thankful that Nick and I were able to be with her family at her visitation and funeral. Getting to know them, learning more about the impact Julie made on the world, seeing so many photos of her life, it all was so healing for my soul. 

It may be hard to understand if you aren't adopted, but there is just a feeling many adoptees have of not fitting in, "being abandoned" to put it harshly, or left behind in some way. I'm thankful to have great loving parents, but I did have some of those feelings growing up too. NOT that it was anyone's fault at all, it was just there in the background. I came to know Christ in college and felt so much more at peace knowing God had been there ALL along and that I was never alone, and all of the ups and downs would serve a purpose for Him. Being with Julie's family that week though, and feeling how accepted I was into their family, was so redeeming for me. They even listed me as one one of her children in her obituary and had me sit with her kids during her celebration of life service. I'm still in awe and can never explain how amazing it felt to have that honor. To have her rights eliminated when I was born, yet to be called her child in the end is such a beautiful picture of redemption of that little life. I'm SO grateful for their love and kindness, which I can only imagine is an expression of Julie's heart. 

Fun similarities:

• Our faces. Seeing pictures of when she was younger had me in AWE. We look so similar in some photos! I love it. I have literally grown up my whole life wanting to see someone to looks like me:) She's right there!

• We both have step-dads named Joe
• She was a elementary school counselor --> My internship in college was counseling, and I had some school counseling experience in that internship. 
• She was in Girl Scouts and was a troop leader for a very long time (13 years I think?) --> I was working for the Girl Scouts when we started emailing a few years ago. 
• She named her kids Alyssa and Michael. Many people think it's neat that my name (which Julie didn't know until we emailed a few years ago) kind of combines their names. 
• Her sister taught at my elementary school. We may have passed each other in the hallway. How wild to think of that!
• I grew up in the Des Moines area, and got married in Ankeny (Iowa) --> Julie grew up in Ankeny and got married in Des Moines. 
• Talking to one of her friends at the visitation, we realized (stay with me here) my manager at a retail store in MN a few years ago is one of Julie's good friend's sister. Woah! That was fun to realize. 

This is one of my favorite pictures from our time there. (Nick, me;), Alyssa, Michael, Julie's husband Scott, Julie's sister Amy). {Apparently, I got the short gene!:)}

I also learned that Scott actually dated Julie while she was pregnant with me. So it was neat to realize that he's known me from the beginning too! 

During the slideshow with photos and memories of her at the visitation, I kept nudging Nick when I saw pictures where I could see my face in Julie's. I could see myself in her wedding photos so much! 

A fun selfie with Nick, Alyssa, Michael and their cousin:)

Alyssa, Michael, myself and Nick

The girls - Julie's sister, Amy and (my "half" sister:)) Alyssa. They both have been so sweet and loving to me as we've gotten to know each other. I cherish these girls! 

Love her - she went above and beyond to welcome us and help be sure we felt comfortable and included. I wish we lived closer together! I pray the Lord continues knitting our hearts together.

We also got to go out on Julie & her family's boat on the lake they live on. She had told me how much she enjoyed it in our emails over the years, and being able to be in her house and on her boat with her family, was really incredible. What a beautiful place too!

 Y'all know how I love my dogchild, and meeting Julie's was so neat too. I loved petting her, loving on her as I know Julie did so much. 

I could get used to boat time on that lake! It was such good casual time too, to share stories and get to know her family more. It all was so good for my soul to know Julie, hear about the difference she made on lives and the community around her, and get to know the people she surrounded herself with. It challenged me to reflect on the difference I'm making, and the purpose I'm serving in this one life. I'll always wish I had more time to know Julie here better on earth, but I am so grateful for the way the Lord has poured blessings into this situation. He is the Creator of the most beautiful love stories, and this is surely one. 

Today's Pinspiration:

This poem was chosen by Julie's sister Amy, and was read at the funeral. It will always make me think of Julie, how many people she loved and uplifted, and how full her dash was on earth. What an inspiration to us all!

(Source)