To New Beginnings

I can't believe that today is the last day of 2012. This year has really flown by! We started the year off by going on a cruise and buying a new house and ending it with me getting a new job and graduating from college. There have been births and deaths and weddings and engagements, so it has been a very full year for Ben and I.

Ben and I graduated on December 20th at 2:30 in the afternoon from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He graduated with a BBA in Economics and I graduated with a BA in Liberal Arts. There was going to be two different ceremonies and my graduation was supposed to be at 9:30 in the morning, so instead of going to two graduations I just walked with Ben's school. My tassle was white while his was a light brown, so I sort of stood out from the rest of the graduates. I was really happy to walk after Ben at our graduation and I was really proud of him because he made all A's his last semester of school. This was the first time he did that so I was very, very pleased with him. I made three A's and one C in my hard class. I feel bad that I did not apply myself more, but I am just relieved to have passed and I ended up with a 3.0.

My best friends and a lot of our family members came for graduation. After the ceremony we went to The Butcher Shoppe for the celebration meal. It was really good! My mom also got us cupcakes that were really tasty. We were really happy to be done with school!

My talented brother-in-law, Jay, took our graduation photos:

I got a new job at a new library in Otter Creek. It's the same level as my old job, but I'm a Holds Manager now instead of an AV Manager. I pull books and send them to other libraries for people to check out. I really love it here and my co-workers are really sweet people. Ben is going to be starting his search for a full-time job so that will be nice.

Tonight we are just going to have a small New Year's Eve celebration by ourselves. I can't believe that it's been two years since Ben proposed to me. I am so happy to be married to him and I can't wait to see how our life unfolds together. I know it's going to be interesting!

Oh, and here is a really cool song that was sung at church on Sunday that is a twist of Auld Lang Syne. All Glory be to Christ this new year.

http://www.joshharris.com/2012/12/kings_kaleidoscope_all_glory_b.php

Giving Thanks

^" Rejoice always, pray continually,  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I have so much to be thankful for. I have a wonderful husband who loves and adores me, a big family that is always there for me, and sweet, encouraging friends who listen when I need to talk. I have a house and plenty of food, a job and two cars both paid off. I am very, very rich. I do not take what I have for granted because I know that there are millions out there suffering at this very moment, from poverty, from abuse, from neglect, so many people who need love and who need people to step up and help them in the name of Jesus Christ. 

"If you give to the poor, your needs will be supplied! But a curse upon those who close their eyes to poverty." Proverbs 28:27

If I'm sounding a bit preachy, then good! A friend of mind posted a photo on Facebook today that showed a woman thanking Jesus for helping her find her keys, a football player with his hands raised in prayer thanking God for helping him play well, and the last photo was a starving African child. I wanted to retort, but how could I? The Bible says, "...give thanks in all circumstances" and we should. It is not wrong to thank Jesus for small blessings in our lives, but we must also remember that as Jesus has blessed us, so must we bless those in need. Give your money, or your time, or whatever God is calling you to give up and your rewards will be heaped upon you, if not in this life, then in eternity. Despite what people believe about God, he has a heart for the poor and the needy and the oppressed, and he has commanded us, His disciples, to care for them. 

"There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land." Deuteronomy 15:11.

I don't want you to think that I am not saying this to myself as well as to you, because I am a very selfish and self-serving person. I give though, and I help. I have a husband who's spiritual Gift is service. But we can always do more, and give up more for the sake of those who are hungry or have no place to lay their heads. There will always be poverty because this is a broken world, but that does not mean that we are to let it carry on without a fight.

**

And, on a lighter note, we had a great time in Joplin with my mom, sisters, and their families. The visit was relatively stress free and I enjoyed holding my nephew, Collin, who is four months old. I love all of my nieces and nephews, and I love when I get to see them!

Sweet Collin

Six of the eight grand kids

Cupcakes and Haircuts and Good Friends

Last weekend was pretty busy. I had a cupcake competition that I was entering, a haircut appointment, and one of my best friends, Genni, was home from her six week vacation in Indonesia so I had to spend some time with her, too. It was a really fun weekend, but it went by too fast!

Cupcake competion:

I work at a library and for the past few years we have been doing some sort of baking competition for the patrons to enter. The first year they were asked to read a mystery that had a recipe in it and I chose to make a cake that won first place in the staff competition. The next year was cookies, but I didn't enter. This year was cupcakes. I have never made cupcakes from scratch before, so I really had fun! My mom got Ben and I a KitchenAid stand mixer for Christmas last year and I've been using it every now and then. I really got to use it for the cupcakes I made. I made everything from scratch, including the frosting. I found a recipe for Mocha Cupcakes with Espresso Icing from Brown Eyed Baker which was actually pretty easy to follow and make. It was a really fun process! It was really messy, too. They were really tasty!

Oh, when I was taking the photos of my cupcake I took one outside for the good lighting and I was laying on my stomach on the front porch trying to get a good shot. A neighbor from across the street saw me lying on my porch and thought that I had fallen. She came over to see if I was okay and I couldn't help but start laughing because it was funny looking! I was so focused on taking the photo that I was oblivious to my surroundings. That's dedication! :)

Here is a photo I took of the finished product:

I also got my haircut between having to make/drop off the cupcakes and when they were judging. I wanted a shorter haircut, but I think she may have cut it a bit too short. I wasn't super happy with how the cut turned out, but luckily hair grows back.




Before



After

 After getting my haircut I rushed over to see Genni. We caught up and then she and I and her oldest boy went to the cupcake competition to try all the entries. The winning patron cupcakes were peanut butter cupcakes, and they were so tasty! My co-worker won the staff competition with turtle cupcakes. They were good! I was a little bummed that I didn't win, but I just had so much fun baking them that it really didn't bother me. Genni and I went to Target after and tried on hats and looked at things. I really missed my friend a lot!


Genni looked cute in this hat!





















Later Ben and I went on a date to Chili's. Ben forgot his wallet at home and I didn't bring mine so we had to call his dad to come help us out! It was definitely embarassing, but it's nice to have family around to come help you when you need it! Ben's dad ended up ordering something and then Ben and I went to his parents house to play Settlers of Catan with Gerald. It was fun. :)

Sunday we took Eliza and James and Gerald to see Wreck-It Ralph at the Rave. The movie was...okay, but it wasn't as amazing as I had hoped it was going to be. Sarah Silverman is not one of my favorite people and she was one of the voice actors.

After that Ben and I went out to eat at Senor Tequila's with Genni. There was a guy who was playing live music who was really talented and we had a fun time laughing and talking about travels we've been on. Two of my favorite people makes for a fun time!

Missouri and Star Wars

I had a great trip visiting my mom last weekend. The drive up to Missouri from Little Rock was very nice because I was driving through the Ozarks and all the trees were changing their leaves. I made it to my mom's a little later than I intended but that seems to be the way things are now. I used to be on time and prompt for everything, but since I married Ben I've become a bit more lackadaisical about being on time.

Mom's house was not ready to take pictures yet so we hung out, went shopping at Lowe's for stuff for her house, and plenty of trips to Target. We also stopped off at a petstore called Petland that had a lot of puppies that you could play with. It was so fun! I played with a Rottweiler (who wanted to chew my shoes) and a sweet little Dachshund. I also got to pet a bunny and some little Chinese Jumping Mice. I have to say, I like playing with puppies and then leaving them at the store instead of taking them home. Maybe that will help me get over my wanting another puppy syndrome!

On Monday we drove two and a half hours to Mansfield, MO to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum as well as her house on Rocky Ridge Farm. We watched a short video and then toured the home. We also got to see a lot of Laura and Almanzo's old things like clothes and household items. It was so neat to see some of the things she wrote about like her bread plate that says, "Give us this day, our daily bread", and the clock that Almanzo gave her. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Sign near the museum.



            

                Laura's first house, the original Rocky Ridge Farm house. It took them 17 years to complete the house..



Laura's second house that their daughter had built. They moved back to their old house later.



View from the rock house. It was so beautiful!

On Wednesday was Halloween. We didn't dress up last year so I really wanted to dress up this year. Lauren always has a theme with her kids and this year's theme was Star Wars. James was Luke, Eliza was Leia, and Brian was Yoda. I decided to dress up like an Ewok, but I have no sewing skills so Lauren helped with my hood and shirt and Ben finished the hemming. Ben couldn't think of a costume so I finally came up with young George Lucas so he found a flannel shirt, wore his jeans, and some glasses that I poked the lenses out of. I thought we all looked great! We met up at Trunk 'r Treat at Parkway Place Baptist and got to see my parents-in-law, brother-in-law, Gerald, and Adrienne and Emma there, too. Gerald was dressed like Han Solo, so all we were missing was Chewbacca and the droids.

Here are those pictures:


Emma was a cute bunny!




Emma loves her Uncle Ben!



An Ewok and George Lucas!



Star Wars!



 I'm hoping next year we'll have our own little one to dress up!

Pumpkin Patch and Traveling

Since my niece Emma was born, I've become her unofficial personal photographer. I can't help it, my camera just loves that baby! My sister-in-law wanted to take her 9 month photos (a couple of weeks shy of nine months) while the weather was nice and not too cold, so we decided to head on out to the pumpkin patch. My other sister-in-law, Lauren, and her three kids went with. Lauren is my excellent assistant when I need her to be. She's a pretty good photographer herself and her husband is my mentor. Here is a link to some of the other photos: Emma 9 months.

Here is one of the pictures I took. Isn't Emma the cutest little baby?

I also took this other photo of Emma and my other niece, Eliza, before the photoshoot. It's one of my favorites! Their expressions are so sweet. :)

The shoot went relatively well considering Emma is almost nine months old and has started crawling (soon to be walking). She did not want to smile too much because she was too interested in everything else that was going on around her. There was a train ride that she really loved watching go by. But we did get some good ones of her. I don't want her growing up too fast, but I've already got some great ideas for her 1 year photos. A photographer can never turn off their need to take photos!

I love being a photographer, and my favorite area is definitely people. This weekend I'll be trying my hand at interior photography. My mom wants me to take after pictures of her house so she can show her coworkers all the hard work she has done to it. My mother is amazing. She learned how to do so much work on her house and she has a great mind for design. I'm looking forward to spending a few days with her. Sadly, I'll be going by myself as Ben has work and school. I've been apart from him for a weekend before, but this time it will be three nights and four days! We're both pretty bummed at the thought of being away from each other (yeah, yeah, kinda sad but it's true!). My favorite part of the trip beside's seeing my mom will be visiting Laura Ingalls Wilder's house in Springfield, MO! I grew up on her books and I still love them. I still read them, too! I am so excited to actually get to see all the things I read about.

Two Half Baths

Well, we're at it again. We have entered into phase two of Operation Bathroom Upgrade and have torn out the old vanity and the floor tile. The bathroom is long and narrow and the vanity took up too much room so we decided to just pull the whole thing out and replace it (eventually) with either a smaller vanity or a pedestal sink. I follow Habitat for Humanity's Restore Store on Facebook and saw that they had floor tile for sale priced at $1.00 per square foot. I wanted charcoal gray tile and that is what they happened to have! I bought enough for our big bathroom and for our small half bath in the master bedroom. Our large bathroom now only has a functioning shower and the half bath is only a toilet and sink. So, we have two half baths! Our next step will be taking down the sheet rock and putting the new tile in/new sheet rock.

Tearing out the old vanity.                                           More room!

                    

Aftermath of tearing out vanity/toilet.                                Goofy Ben!

Now all the tile is gone.                                                Other angle view.

I also learned how to knit recently. I've got a ways to go before I don't make mistakes, but it's really fun and it's something I've been wanting to learn how to do. I am currently working on a scarf.

And finally...

Interesting story tonight. I was leaving work and on my way to the ladies Bible study at my church when I saw a cool sunset outside of my work that I wanted to photograph. While I was taking pictures of the sunset I overheard a lady on the phone with someone who was trying to walk her through changing her flat tire. I have been praying lately for boldness around people and I have never been one who was very good about helping strangers when they need it, but tonight something in me just felt like I needed to help her change her tire. I was taught one time by my dad how to change a tire, so basically I wasn't thinking I would be that useful. She was grateful for the help because she couldn't get anyone out where she was to help her. We were both pretty clueless, but managed to change her flat tire with the help of the internet, calling Ben, and the Owner's Manual. It was actually not that hard to do, and I bet I could do it again if I ever find myself in the same situation. I was so happy after I helped her that I was able to hear God prompting me to help this girl out and that I was able to listen and serve rather than behave selfishly. They will know I am a Christian by my love.

September

September has been a pretty busy month in the Mayo household. We had a very fun Labor Day weekend which included boating and tubing with the Indonesian church. I also briefly got over my fear of lakes and was able to not only swim (for a couple of minutes) in the water, but I also went tubing! I even flipped off the tube and did not have my usual panic attack! Ben had a great time with the Indonesian guys who encouraged him to do the wild and crazy stunts he loves to do. He flipped off the boat into the water and did crazy tricks on the tube. We both really enjoyed it.

  

We have also been trying to figure out how to organize our stuff better. We moved some metal shelves that were in one of the spare bedrooms (known as 'The Ugly Room') into the laundry room so that we could put Ben's tools on it instead of the tools lying all over the laundry room floor. After my mom's visit where she helped us with the bathroom tiles we accumulated more tools then the two little shelves that were in the laundry room could handle so it was time for a new system. The two spare bedrooms have a lot of stuff in them as well that we need to go through and put items into tubs so they aren't just lying around.

School is going well. We have less than 100 days left before graduation. We have both been working hard on our school work and Ben has had group projects to work on with some classmates. He has really done a very good job this year keeping up with his homework, something that he was not fond of doing earlier. I think he is enjoying working with his school buddies on homework rather than doing it by himself. I am soley an online student so I have to keep myself motivated to do the homework. It's hard sometimes, especially when we've been buying seasons of Big Bang Theory which we really like watching. We probably like watching it too much since we can't seem to stop after one episode.

We also took our niece and nephews out for a night to give Ben's sister and her husband a date night. We took the kids to The Purple Cow for dinner, then we went to Barnes and Noble and got them each a book, then we made a quick trip to Krispy Kreme for donuts and then back home again. It was hard getting them into bed! The two older ones kept making excuses to get out of bed and then the little guy had a hard time getting to sleep. Ben read him his new book and I sang to him, and after he put a sheet over his head and got a couple more songs he was out! It was really fun, though.

This weekend is family reunion with Ben's family. We are going to be having a Nerf gun fight which I'm looking forward to, and we've already bought our guns. Ben wants to buy bigger guns, but I'm a little reluctant to since they tend to be a bit more expensive. We're both really excited about going since this is the first time we are going as a married couple (last year we couldn't make it) and I really feel like I am part of the family.

Caution: Under Construction

Ben and I recently bought our first home. It is actually a really great little house with three bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a BIG laundry room, a big backyard, and a carport. We do not live in the nicest part of town, but we like our neighborhood because it is very quiet and the neighbors are friendly. The street behind our house is called Shady Lane, and it pretty much lives up to its name. We took a walk back there one night with our niece Eliza, and I had her at my hip with my arm around her half-way up the neighborhood because of how creepy it was. We hightailed it out of there and have resolved not to walk that street again!

Our house is very cute, but it needs some work to make it feel more "ours". We took down a lot of the curtains that the previous owner left behind and have taken out several nails from the wall. We've taken out part of a counter in the kitchen and added a dishwasher and a new sink, thanks to our awesome brother-in-law Jon! There were also these hideous wall sconces in the living room, but Jon and Ben's dad helped take them down and put in one new, more modern sconce. We got a new ceiling fan for the living room since it did not have lights attached and the room is so much brighter and cheerier!

My mom came up this past weekend to help us fix up our main bathroom. It was okay, but the bathtub was worn out and the wallpaper is...a bit much. I really love the tiles in the bathroom but we need to replace them if we are going to take out our vanity sink and put two pedestal sinks it its place. The hardest part of the whole project was redoing the plumbing. We also had to replace some of the wall studs.

This is how Ben felt about the whole project: "It was exhausting". We stayed up until 2 or 4 in the morning working on it. My mom will be coming again to help us finish up. I can't wait to see how it all is going to look!

And now, for some pictures!

Before Pictures:

 

After demolishing the walls/bathtub

New jacuzzi bathtub!

  

Ben, working on the plumbing. Probably the hardest part of the whole project!

 

My mama is a tiling beast. Just sayin'. She made up this neat tiling layout with subway and mosaic tiles. It's not quite finished, but it will be soon! I won't post any more pictures of our bathroom until we do the "Big Reveal", so stay tuned!

Me, on one of our several trips to Home Depot. I am the queen of Home Depot!

First Blog Post

I have started a few "first blog" posts, but I still couldn't decide what I wanted to say. I would really like to start a blog for both Ben and I to tell family and friends what's going on without having to post everything on Facebook, because we all know someone who posts all the time (that'd be me until I stopped going on as much).

I really want to start capturing our daily lives while I can remember and Ben can remember and talk about our home improvement projects, fun stuff we do, and eventually kiddos. Our faith will show up quite frequently, because Ben and I would not be the same people without Jesus so we definitely can't leave him out!

At the moment we are both in our last semester of college and will be graduating in December, so a lot of our daily life will be revolving around studying for the next few months. But neat things will happen and so we'll blog about it!

Here we are! The "Other Mayos". Welcome to our life!

*image taken by Courtney Yarberry