Dancing in the Minefields

This week at church (Scottsdale Bible) we talked about marriage. Shaun and I have been married for almost 4 years now. We aren't experts on marriage, but we do know a lot more than when we started.

This music video was shown on Sunday. If you havent watched this....you must watch it!


Here are some reasons why I love this song:

"We went dancing in the minefields, we went sailing in the storms" - Life is not easy, actually it can be really hard at times, but marriage is about having that person there with you through those times. "For better or for worse" were the words that we vowed to each other.

"to the end of all my days" - Marriage is a LIFE LONG commitment. Shaun and I stood up at the alter and in front of God and our friends and family vowed to honor and love each other until death. Our vows were not something we took lightly.

"because He promised not to leave us and His promises are true" - God should be first in your marriage, and each other second. Jesus Christ wants a relationship with you. A daily, lifelong relationship. Along with your spouse, Christ can be there to help you through life's journeys, good or bad.


On the same topic about marriage, but not about the video:

Shaun and I live in a town house, which means we share walls with 2 other homes. In the last 6 months we have gotten a new couple to the right of us. Almost on a daily occurrence we can hear them yelling and arguing with each other. Every time I hear them, I cringe. I thankfully was not raised in a home were I ever heard my parents yell at each other, so hearing this couple makes my heart hurt. This makes me so grateful for the wonderful example of marriage that my parents set. This past December they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

Bowling

Last weekend we went bowling with a group of Shaun's coworkers.

Here is the only reason why I am blogging about us bowling.....

....Do you see???
I beat him in bowling!!!!!

:) HeHe

Holiday Festivities

For the last 2 Christmas', Shaun and I have used a fake tree. I grew up in a family that went out every year and got a real tree. I love the tradition of going out to pick up a tree, getting it home on the car, hauling it inside and wrapping it in lights. With my fake tree it would take a total of ten minutes to bring it out from the garage, put the three pieces together and plug it in. There was just something about it that didn't feel like Christmas.
This year Shaun and I decided to get a real one! I was elated with joy! Because I could hardly wait, we went out the weekend of Thanksgiving and picked one out. I was a little concerned that the tree would die by christmas day, but thankfully it was still living by Christmas.
Taking it home on the car. My elf helping me string on the lights :) Ta-Da! I loved looking at it all month! It made the house smell and look beautiful! I don't know if I will ever be able to go back to having a fake one.

Holiday Parties:
Now that we both have non-serving real jobs, we had work parties to go to this year.

This one was at Cafe Boa in Tempe. Shaun's work took over the restaurant for the night. It was great food and fun to meet all of Shaun's co workers.

Disneyland at Christmas time

A few weeks after Thanksgiving we headed off to our annual trip to Disneyland with the Palmer family!! It is one of our favorite trips of the year!

Some of the highlights of the trip:
-Celebrating Shaun's Mom's birthday at the Blue Bayou for dinner
-Watching Drew be so excited to see to characters and ride certain rides!
-Watching the holiday firework show and fantasmic.
-Becoming annual pass holders. We have wanted to every year, but it has never worked out. We can not wait to plan our next trip!

Shaun and I in front of Tom Sawer Island Outside thunder mountain railroadBoth couples and Drew waiting in line for its a small world. Shaun, his parents and I played some of the boardwalk games in California adventure. Shaun with all of the stuffed animals we won at the games. Okay, so honestly Shaun won most of them :)Shaun gave Drew some the animals that he won. He is such a good uncle, Drew loved them!

For the last 4 years, we have always walked through the Grand Californian Hotel in Downtown Disney admiring how beautiful it is and hoping that one day we could stay in it. For my birthday, Shaun is going to take me back and we are going to stay there! I can not wait. It was such a sweet gift and I know that he will enjoy it as much as me. The picture doesn't do it justice. It is more beautiful in person. Just talking about it makes me eager to plan the trip!

Thanksgiving 2010

We had so much to be thankful for this past year!

I'm sure you could guess what was on the top of our "what are we thankful for list" this year.......
Being done with school and having jobs!

Thanksgiving day was spent at the Dickison home:

The Dickison family, minus the newlyweds, playing Petanque (Bocce ball). Our tradition on turkey day.

Hope and I riding home from the park in the jeep after our family football game.


I was a horrible person and didn't take any photos when we went down to Tucson for the rest of the weekend to visit the Palmer side. This was our last Thanksgiving in Tucson because his parents are fully moving up to Phoenix in a few months. We had a wonderful time visiting with them and going to the Gaslight theater to see the Christmas production. Going to the Gaslight is always a favorite tradition of the Palmer's.
I'll leave you with the only photo that I have that was taken that weekend...
Drew and his Uncle Shaun and Nay Nay (as he calls us) at the Gaslight theater.

I have failed....

at blogging that is!

I promise an update is coming soon.

I thought that now that I was out of school I would update this thing weekly...... I guess I was wrong. It is just not a priority in my life right now.

Lets play catch up....

Here is what has been going on at the Palmer house in the last few months......

September 24-25: Sister's Wedding
Rehearsal Dinner

All of the girl cousins!


My sister got married to her husband in a beautiful wedding! It was so wonderful to be a part of her special day and watch as the two of them committed their lives to one another. Here is our new Dickison family:




I am so happy for them and their new marriage. Since the wedding, we have even had a double date with the newlyweds!



September 27 Two days later.......
Shaun had a job interview for physical therapy position at a clinic here in the valley.

Later that week
Shaun was hired!!!!
(a picture I took after he got his first check!)


Month of October
With Shaun getting this job, our life has changed dramatically. We went from both studying and waiting tables all of the time, to now having weekends free and no more books! We have been dreaming about this day for the last 3 1/2 years and we still can not believe that it is finally here! It has been wonderful to enjoy this moment in our lives! We have had more time for each other, our family and our friends.

Looking back on these last few months, I can't believe how much has changed. We are unbelievably blessed!