more photos of our home.

Our Upstairs Bedroom & Bathroom:

Downstairs Chapel:

Kitchen & Living Room:

Our home has come a long way since I last shared an update. We have carpet in our sink/closet area. We have a much needed new door in our room. Our oven actually works! Up until a few weeks ago we had been using our toaster oven for all necessary baking. That oven is small, so I'm thankful for a full sized working oven. Our house plants are thriving, too! Josh enjoys house projects a lot; he has put in a new window and fan in our bathroom, installed a new door to our room, and he's put together some temporary shelves for our bathroom.

We're pretty happy living here; our home if functional and cozy and we have great housemates!  

project life in 2013: august.

weeks 1-4

AUGUST

What happened this month? The first half of August we were in Greenville. Many of our friends had left, so we hung out a lot with family and a few friends still in the area. Josh and I helped Caitlin move to Springfield, Illinois, and my parents and I helped Layla move to college at Trinity International University in Chicago. Then we moved to Wichita, Kansas! 

Anything special in the spread? I included an insert with my summer reflection from this blog post. I formatted the text in PSE and printed it out at home. On the back side of the insert I included some “before” pictures of our room in Wichita.

Overall thoughts? With so much moving going on in August, I decided not to stick to a strict week by week plan for project life. Instead, I took pictures when I felt like it and mashed two weeks into one spread. The pages are mostly chronological, but I didn’t bother with too many dates. I’m happy with it!

Supplies and Tools: American Crafts thickers, washi tape, paper source labels, pretty paper from Dick Blick, random paper from my stash, Design A and B photo pocket pages (this variety pack), Seafoam core kit, Kraft core kit, Cobalt cardstock, black sharpie, black steadtler fineliner pen, slicker writer pens.

Project Life is a simple scrapbooking system by Becky Higgins.  I am using this system to document our first year of marriage with photos, words and other fun paper stuff.  You can see my other project life pages here.  

our thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving highlights just in time for Christmas! I'm a little behind on the blogging, but I thought it's never too late to share gratitude. 

Last Thanksgiving Josh and I cooked all day to have a Thanksgiving meal with some of our European friends. We had fun preparing the meal and hosting friends, but my favorite part was going around the table to share what we were each thankful for in the past year. Our friend (and Josh’s advisor) Martin said he hadn’t shared his gratitude like that in two years. I found it really special for a diverse mix of people (a Swed, some Germans, a Ugandan, and two Americans) to gather around the table and express our thankfulness. This year I found myself thinking a lot about Norway. When I reflected back on what I'm thankful for in the past year I couldn't stop thinking about the people who became our close friends and for the challenges that brought Joshua and me closer together. Thank you friends and Norway for a good year!

This Thanksgiving we were surrounded by our family in Wichita, Elise (who came from Greenville), and some new friends. It was wonderful and restful, but also quite active; somehow I felt sleep-deprived by the end. I made rolls for the Thanksgiving meal; we all gathered at the Overholt's house. The JRLD household, plus Elise, did a Turkey Trot run. (Let me explain JRLD. It stands for Joshua, Rachel, Lauren and Daniel and it's pronounced "Gerald." It's a whole lot easier to give our house a name than to say Lauren and Daniel's house, where Josh and Rachel live.) On Thanksgiving day we enjoyed delicious food and copious amounts of pie, played games like "Dictionary" and "Off the Wall,"took an afternoon walk, and played with sparklers. Throughout the weekend we spent a lot of time with family, I did a little Christmas shopping (NOT on Black Friday- I refuse), we ate dinner/watched movies with friends, played disc golf, and skyped/phone-talked with our parents. There's a lot to be thankful for this year like a good job, a cozy place to live, great housemates, new friendships, old friendships, family, and God's love. I'm feeling very blessed.

And thanks to you for reading what I write here! 

cabin trip with my parents!

This was SO fun. Over the long Veteran's Day weekend Josh and I met my parents in Lake of the Ozarks State Park in Missouri for some hiking and general spending time together kind of stuff. We rented a cabin , cooked our meals outside, played Nerts and Scattegories and hiked around. 

We hiked around Lake of the Ozarks State Park on Saturday. We went on one of the “wildest” trails, meaning it was not groomed, and it was very loud and crunchy due to the massive amounts of dead leaves on the trail. We took food, a pocket rocket, and a pan with us to make quesadillas on the trail for lunch! Later we meandered around the shore of the lake before heading back to our cabin to rest and make dinner. I love the combination of physical exertion, time in nature and relaxation on trips like this. 

 We started Sunday with a cozy breakfast in our cabin and a prayer service. My parents made scrambled eggs in a plastic bag in a pot of boiling water. I was so impressed; the eggs looked a little weird, but tasted super delicious! We prayed and sang, which is always wonderful to do on a Sunday morning.

A random guy at the visitors center had recommended that we should try hiking at Ha Ha Tonka State Park, so after our prayer service we drove there in about 20 minutes. It was another beautiful and warm day; we enjoyed hiking to an old castle, a natural bridge, and a beautiful blue spring. We stopped for lunch on the trail again. We heated up left over Moroccan stew and ate it in a tortilla. Yum! In the late afternoon we played more Nerts and went on a sunset walk before my parents had to leave. My dad had to work Monday, so they needed to get home on Sunday night. It was sad to see them go, but Josh and I had a nice, quiet evening of journaling and singing in the cabin. On Monday morning we ate breakfast, packed up and headed back to Wichita. 

 If you're interested in cabin trips in the Missouri area, I do recommend the outpost cabins at Lake of the Ozarks State Park! Thanks Mom and Dad for making this trip so special!!

project life in 2013: july

week 49

july 1-7

(Click on the photos to see them larger)

What happened this week? We were in Santorini, Greece with my family and our friends the Keillors. We swam, ate delicious food, relaxed, and did a cool catamaran day trip. Read about our trip here.

Anything special in the spread? I made a photo grid to include extra photos my Mom took during our trip. I stuck it in a 5x7 photo pocket (LINK) and then added some business cards and cool paper I found in Santorini to the back side. 

Favorite photo: Well, they’re all wonderful. I like the one of Josh standing triumphantly on the rock and the picture of my dad diving into the water. Fun times.

Overall thoughts? I love the colors in this spread! The kraft core kit worked so nicely with the bright blue in all the Santorini pics.

week 50

july 8- 14

(Click on the photo to see it larger)

What happened this week? We arrived back in the USA! Michael and Kelly Baker-Trapp picked us up at the airport in Chicago and drove us back to Greenville. We hung out with friends and my family. We overlapped with Jordan and Niqui a little bit before they left for North Carolina. Sadly, I didn’t snap many pictures because I was more focused on just soaking up time with friends. We also tried slack-lining for the first time. So fun and quite a challenge!

Anything special in the spread? Not really. I cut around a picture of a bowl of basil to change things up. 

Favorite photo: I love the photo of Kelly playing around with our hammock and pretending to fly. I find that often my favorite photos from these spreads are not necessarily the most beautiful photo, but the one that brings back good memories. 

Overall thoughts? Love this project! I love playing around with the different colors and combinations with the CORE kits. 

week 51

july 15-21

What happened this week? My birthday happened! (I turned 23.) I had a tie-dye party, of course. A summer is not complete without tie-dying. My Aunt and cousins were in Greenville for the week, which was great. We kayaked and swam at the lake. We also celebrated Michael’s birthday. Mine and Josh’s first year anniversary was on the 21st, but because of Michael’s birthday (same day) we celebrated on Monday by going out to ice cream. 

Anything special in the spread? I included two of my birthday cards: one from Kelly and one from Josh.

Favorite photo: My favorite photo here is the one of Mary and Josh playing ukulele and guitar together. She played me a special birthday song! 

Overall thoughts? Fun week! It was hard to choose which photos to included because I had a lot this week!

week 52

july 22- 27 

(Click on the photos to see them larger)

What happened this week? Another week in Greenville. 

Anything special in the spread? A scored card from Up the River, Down the River (our go-to card game this summer). 

Favorite photo: I absolutely love the photo of the sun shining through a leafy tree in our front yard. I had just gotten back from a run and Josh was swinging under the tree; it was such a pretty scene that I grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures.

Overall thoughts? Guess what???! This week (the 52nd week of my marriage with Josh) means that I actually documented our first year of marriage! I did it. I loved the process and the end result so much that I want to keep doing it for the next year of our life together. August and September are all finished, so I hope to share those spreads soon. I’m still plugging away at getting caught up on October and starting on November. 

Supplies and Tools: American Crafts thickers, washi tape, paper source labels, pretty paper from Dick Blick, random paper from my stash, Design A and B photo pocket pages (this variety pack), Seafoam core kit, Kraft core kit, Cobalt cardstock, black sharpie, black steadtler fineliner pen, slicker writer pens.

Project Life is a simple scrapbooking system by Becky Higgins.  I am using this system to document our first year of marriage with photos, words and other fun paper stuff.  You can see my other project life pages here.  

around here.

Around here it feels like fall. We've gone apple picking, we've made & eaten a lot of applesauce and we've been admiring all the beautiful trees. We've gotten sick, we've consumed copious amounts of tea, and we've gotten better! I've been painting, practicing yoga, riding my bicycle to school a few times a week and even running again (a very little bit). Josh has been editing the rough draft of chapter 1 of his thesis this week!! He's also been working on getting a new door for our room, but has already been thwarted twice. We have a door in our room that leads to an outdoor balcony and stair case to the back stoop. This door is rotting and needs to be replaced, but finding a door that fits for the right price is proving to be a challenge. In other news, we're thankful for lots of time with family lately; Celeste came to Wichita a couple weeks ago to celebrate Grandma Kay's 90th birthday! And this weekend we're heading to Lake of the Ozarks State Park to hang out with my parents. We're staying in a cabin and we'll be hiking and cooking our meals outside. It should be great! We also have five new family members; Lauren and Daniel now have pet ducks (Indian Runner ducks to be exact.) Josh and I just get to have fun and watch them splash in water while Lauren and Daniel actually do the work to care for them. Actually, I've helped out a little bit with building an outdoor house for the duckies. Josh is really wanting to get a kitten, but Daniel and I still aren't so sure. We're excited that we get Monday off work! Anyone else this lucky?

Have a beautiful weekend!