(after)
3: Getting rear-ended.
4: Eating Chocolate Ice Cream.
5: Retreating
6: Teaching Bass Lessons.
7: Watching Planet Earth.
8: Voting.
9: Being impressed with my brother Adam’s skillz.
10: Playing the banji
Five months down and forever to go!
I really, really, really LOVE my husband.
This is at our rehearsal dinner, aren’t we cute? He’s my best friend. He’s been my best friend since we were in high school…when we were dating other people. He’s one of those friends that (still, four years later) calls me everyday, just to tell me a random story or check to see if my day is going well. He’s one of those wonderful people who are easy to talk to all the time. And I get to be with him for the rest of my life! I apologize to all the girls who don’t get the pleasure of being married to the best man ever. Though I’m sure in your disillusion you think your man is the best ever. : )
He’s the Spiritual Leader. As much as I (regretfully) fight for this position in our family, it seems that it’s always him to lead us in prayer. He’s the one who came home one day and said, “We’re giving more to our church.” Despite the small dose of financial hardship we’re currently experiencing (read on for a financial update). And he’s the one who got up at 5:15A.M. yesterday morning for his first men’s group meeting.
He’s the patient one, the kind one, the forgiving one. Why does he always have to apologize so quickly-I didn’t even get a chance to chew him out yet! Why can’t I have a moment to be mad at him? Why doesn’t he ever yell and get raging mad?
He’s my claim to fame. Call me proud but it is just fun to say, “My husband play bass for the Anthem Band.” “Oh, yeah, the red head, that’s you’re husband? Cool!”
This month, our marriage has been a blessing because of him. Thanks, Bryan.
MONTH FIVE UPDATE:
Spiritually
We’re doing alright spiritually. I’ve actually been experiencing some spiritual warfare as well as struggling with several different situations all at once. It wouldn’t be prudent for me to share it all but prayers for protection against the enemy are welcomed.
Bryan just started going to men’s group on Thursday mornings at 6am.
We’re both enjoying our connection group very much! God really blessed us big time with a great leader and 3 other young couples, two newly married and one engaged. It’s such a perfect fit.
Financially
You may have read about the car repairs. Our dreams of making a dent in our debt were further crushed when we found out last Friday that Bryan’s hours were getting cut at the bank. Again, we’re going to be fine financially, but it was a little overwhelming at the time.
To be honest, I’m starting to feel that all of this financial crap has been much more of a blessing then a burden. It sometimes feels like a burden because God’s plan can be harder then my own. But overall, I’m stretching and growing into a more Christ-like LisaGrace and I’m really loving the slightly-new me! God’s plan is always better then my own…
Home-ly
Here’s what I’ve been up to:
Lot’s of work on the machine…
These are some curtains I just whipped together. I need to hem the bottom and their just the back curtains. The front set will match the black and white pillows below.
PILLOWS! I’m pretty proud of these babies.
Just a little wall art.
If you thought I was proud of the pillows, let me TELL you about this little treasure. I did this. Yep, me. I free-handed with bleach and created this! I. am. amazing.
quoted from a previous blog, here’s what i want the month of october to look like:
“not sure if [streamlining] is the right word, but basically i want to “deal with today’s problems today.” and have a life that is somewhat predictable and efficient. ok, so that sounds incredibly boring when i put it like that. but i want to “streamline” my home so that things don’t get so piled up. i want to have systems in place for the laundry, the mail, meal times, and things like that. i feel that this will both honor my husband and keep me from going crazy.”
this blessed first day of october got off to a rough start! my plans of getting up earlier and starting my day off right were crushed by yesterday.
it all starts with car repair: bryan’s heater was broken so he took it in. well, the joys of vehicle repair would have us shell out $2,000.00 to get it in good running condition. alright, cool. (i’ll write later on how this will effect our financial goals of 2009)
we did leave it at the shop to get almost everything fixed, save a few things. so we were, and are, a one car family. last night i had escape and bryan had to practice for salt so bryan came early with me to escape, i got a ride home from jasey and bryan kept the car so he could drive home from practice. just so you know, he also kept the car keys with him…which also had my set of apartment keys, see where this is going?
so, as soon as i exited jasey’s car, i realized i’m not going to be able to get into our apartment. and i didn’t exactly want to sit in the hallway from 9:30-12:30, so i asked jasey to take me to me parents house. she graciously did and i waited there for bryan to get done with salt practice.
so, we both had a really long day yesterday. and we consequently got up a little late. today, october 1st, will probably be another long day. but we always continue to feel so, super, incredibly blessed by the hand in life God has graciously dealt to us.
i’m so thankful we have food in our bellies, clothes on our back and a roof over our heads. praise Him! and happy october!
or month four of marriage.
same thing, really: broken axles, dead oxen, starving until we get to next town and free land!*
no really, by God’s grace marriage has been good to us in these four short months. the rewards we reap despite small bumps in the road are rich to the soul.
finances:
i can taste freedom! see this post regarding our financial goals for 2009. in august, we wrote a check to pay off “my” car, or the focus. at the beginning of this month we paid off our wedding bands and last week we wrote a pretty big check to bryan’s parent for “his” car, or the suburu. we only have two more checks to go, meaning we’ll be completely debt free by the end of november! can you tell i’m a little excited?
also, we found out some news about iowa state tuition as bryan will be starting full time next semester. it’s a little bit of good and bad.
the good news is that formerly, we had only been told of the yearly payment plan option, in which we pay for an entire year with 12 monthly payments starting in april. but since bryan was starting half way through, that obviously didn’t make sense for us. however, after purging our debt and paying cash for dmacc classes this semester, we knew we wouldn’t have enough to pay in full at the beginning of the semester. but we recently found out that their is an alternative payment plan where we pay in 3 payments over the course of next semester.
the bad news is that one semester at iowa state is $3,600.00 and we can’t change bryan’s fafsa until next year, meaning we won’t qualify for any financial aid until fall of 2010. so that 3,600 bucks is all ours to handle. (for comparison sake, we only paid $1,350.00 for dmacc this semester) *deep breath* though it’s a large chunk of money, i’m honestly not too worried. i’ve reminded myself that within the course of 6 months, we will have paid of $5,500 in debt, which is TWO THOUSAND more then tuition. also, if we’re really good with our money, we’ll have the first payment of $1,200 by the end of this year. from there it’s just trusting God that Bryan will be able to make at least $600 a month to finish out the other $2,400.
anyway, i’m moving on, because i know you don’t care that much about our finances.
relationship:
we’re finding that there needs to be a balance in almost everything. recently, it’s been mostly balancing our time. i’m still trying to figure out how to get stuff done when bryan’s home. i don’t like cleaning when someone is “watching” me. and it’s always hard to be productive when my husband is taking a break after a long day of work. but we’re learning that there is a time to hang out with eachother and a time to…not. meaning, i have to learn to be productive even when bryan’s home so that i can completely devote my mind, body, and whole self to him when we have specific time alone with eachother. but we still hang out plenty, especially when i’ve been extra efficient!
otherwise, it’s been sooo easy to love one another lately. praise God for this! i’m soaking up these months and trying to engrave them in my heart for when hard times eventually come.
homemaking:
i’ve been at a pace of about 1 project/improvement a week. here are some pictures chronicling my journey:
and here’s what i’ll be up to this weekend while bryan’s gone:
parenting:
what?!?! no, no, no, get your mind out of the gutter-we’re not gonna have a kid. but we got to practice our parenting skills on this little guy:
bryan says, “i don’t get why parents are always complaining about how tough it is to raise kids. i joke around with them, you give them pizza, you give them candy, you let them live their lives. they’re adults, for goodness sake.” (for you office fans out there)
p.s. we can’t wait for another one! congratulations todd, paige, and atticus!
*footnote: i’ve read two francine rivers books this month and they BOTH referenced the oregon trail. also, both groups traveling on the oregon trail in the books detoured to california. weird. needless to say, the oregon has been on my mind.
i keep seeing today’s date and marveling at it in wonder.
i love marriage! august 23rd was our 3-month anniversary. the past month of marriage just kept getting better and better. and better. we’ve simply been enjoying eachother so much mostly due to the fact that i, especially have been letting go of the little things.
so yeah, marriage is great, and we learn new things everyday.
uncle bryan and aunt lg!
possibly the most exciting piece of news:
mya rosalie duvick
my family is so blessed by this little one! please pray for luke and diana as they adjust to life with little mya. praise Him!
entertainment reviews
we watched a lot of movies this month, and we have some thoughts for you:
District 9. so stinking good! it was incredibly well made and thought-out as well as thought-provoking. bryan and i had several conversations about the controversies brought up in the film. we don’t however, think the movie is making a statement about “illegal aliens” or immigrants. we’ve heard that’s been said, but ignore it. also, coming from me, it’s not so scary!
UP. we realize we’re a little late for a review but this movie… SO GOOD! we just saw it in the dollar theater. i personally cried 5 times, so be prepared with tissues, women! you too men, because bryan himself shed a few tears. it’s is the BEST disney pixar film thus far (in our opinions) and we both agree it has the perfect balance of fantasy, reality, laughter and tears. it receives a high five from the alsburys!
The Time Traveler’s Wife. this coming from a girl who gets extremely sucked in and involved in chick flicks, despite the quality or writing: i did not care for this particular movie. it was, in the simplest terms, awkward. i guess i hope the book was better.if you got this far down, i’m amazed. there is still much more to update but i’ll save that for a later day.
until next time, thank you and goodnight. um. good afternoon.
a couple of weeks ago, bryan went to the eye doctor. he hadn’t been in a few years and he was getting really bad headaches and his vision was getting worse. he had a really low prescription so his current lenses weren’t really helping.
overall, it was a little frustrating. he has astigmatisms in both eyes and his prescription is still pretty low. basically the doctor told him he could try contacts, but they wouldn’t improve his vision as well as glasses and because of his astigmatisms he would have to wear weighted contacts which are harder to get in. bryan managed to try the contacts out, but they didn’t improve his vision at all. he was pretty frustrated about having to wear glasses all the time.
so i decided to support him and wear glasses too! so i started wearing my glasses again and i’m actually really liking it! i’ve pretty much been a strict contacts wearer since high school but i feel smarter and more artsy with my awesome purple glasses!
and bryan’s headaches are no more! and his vision is much improved! hooray!
also, i really like saying, “suckas.”
the last couple weeks of july flew by for bryan and i. we spent almost all of our free time packing, moving into my parents garage for a week, cleaning, packing, more packing, more cleaning, then finally moving into our new one-bedroom apartment.
we are so thankful to joel for helping us move some of our stuff into my parents garage, and so thankful for my family helping us move into our apartment. we were able to completely move everything in on friday night, giving us the whole weekend to unpack. we got a lot unpacked, but it’s far from complete. here are some progressive pictures from this past weekend:
some goals for august:
hopefully those goals will meet their completion before the end of this month. but i have a feeling august is going to go really fast!
…forever to go.
today is our two month anniversary and it’s time for another update-lucky you!
we continue to learn a lot about what this whole marriage thing is about. here are some of those things:
that’s all i can think of right now, but there you go!
i turned 21 a week ago! woohoo!
i don’t have pictures of allll the birthday festivities that took place but let me tell you, i had the best birthday EVER! here was the line-up:
friday, june 26th: avett brothers concert
this was soooooo fun. we have the most fun friends and the music was AWESOME.
here’s a picture of audra, joel, me and bryan eating at spaghetti works before the concert
this is the amazing opening band. they had every element that i love about my favorite bands.
band name: samantha crain & the midnight shivers, i asked the birthday fairy (bryan) to get me a cd. he did! : )
and the avett brothers, these guys were boss.
saturday, june 27th: land of adventures!
mikaela hooked me up with some sweet free a-land tickets and it was a birthday miracle indeed! bryan and i rocked the rides, ate gyros, funnel cake and corn dogs, and got really sick on the galleon.
this is my alltime favorite a-land rollercoaster: the tornado (of death)we then left and headed to hickory park in ames because i NEEDED to be sung to by the hickory park people. last year, we went to hp on my birthday and bryan FORGOT to tell them it was my birthday, we even ordered ice cream! he only realized that he didn’t get the discount on my ice cream. i was pretty ticked but i promise i’m over it. ok, well, i got over it when i got my redemptive birthday song this year! : ) sorry, i’m out of pictures because our camera died at adventureland. too many adventures…well, here’s too good old fashioned “word pictures!”
monday, june 29th: i’m 21! woohoo!
due to the weekends amazing birthday events, we opted for a simple meal of b-bops and free coldstone ice cream. it was so good to have a little date with bryan and to not have to cook anything on my birthday! i was soooo full from the yummy food that when we got back to the apartment i just dropped on the couch and started shouting things like: “BIRTHDAY COMA!!!!!!” and other strange things. i was glad bryan and i were just going to get to sit around and do nothing. i wanted to read my bible and hang out with God and bryan wanted to pray through Operation World with me. the book was in our room, and he tried to get me up but i didn’t want to walk all the way to our room! he finally got me up and we went and prayed for some nations and called it a night.
surprise! just kidding!
there were a bunch of people hiding in our room! it was a surprise birthday party for me. and yes, they heard all my random yells because i really was convinced it was just me and bryan in our abode. definitely wasn’t expecting it at all!
then we all walk out of my room and SURPRISE! another group of people were hiding in the other room and decorated the rest of the apartment while we were in the bedroom! at this point, i definitely started jumping up and down! : ) it was awesome! thanks to all of you who were there!
tuesday, june 30th: new driver’s license
i strategically waited until after my 21st to get my name changed on my driver’s license because i wanted a “big girl license.” seriously, the sideways licenses are soooo cool! here’s a picture-i have a neck like a giraffe!
i’m legally 21 AND LisaGrace Alsbury! : )
friday, july 3rd: day-off and alcohol
my bosses decided to give me a day off for my birthday! actually it was just a holiday day because of the 4th. but still, AWESOME. i walked with my mom, hung out with paige, and did nothing. then bryan and i went to the cafe where our friend joel works (same joel from above). joel is seriously the best bartender EVER and i was adomate about being served my first alcoholic beverages from him. he gave me the tastiest drinks too! don’t worry-no drunkenness here! i highly recommend the key-lime martini if you’re going to the cafe anytime soon!
sunday, july 5th: family birthday dinner
my mom made me chicken divan and fluff & blueberries. it was a great finale to a wonderful week!
as you can see, it was an extremely amazing birthday extravaganza!
have you heard that before? that marriage is a means of sanctification? or how about this one: “marriage isn’t about happiness, it’s about holiness.” i know you’ve heard that one.
special alert! coming from 5 weeks experience-it’s true!
i knew in my head it was true, but in experience (having never been married) i had no clue. but we’re learning.
here is the most striking lesson i’ve learned from marriage:
please don’t depend on your husband for happiness
oh yeah, i totally knew this before marriage. it seems a bit obvious doesn’t it? why would any woman ever think that she could depend on her husband for happiness? duh! (rebuke, rebuke, rebuke) seriously though, of course it’s obvious in theory, of course it would be an easy guess that you should follow the above statement. but i’m talking about real life here. you know, the world of sin we live in. and i’m also talking about me who is the epitome of “she knows it in her head but not in her heart.”
i’ve kind-of been meditating on this phrase lately too. i know its not a bible verse or anything, but it’s been extremely difficult to remove this habit from myself and i find that repeating “dont depend, don’t depend, don’t depend.” to myself over and over and over and over and over and over and over and…well, you get the point. anyway, it really helps to remind myself of this truth.
of all women in the universe, i think i have it the hardest though. it’s not entirely my fault for thinking i can depend on my husband for happiness. why?
because bryan makes me SO HAPPY!
and if he makes so happy, why shouldn’t i depend on him for that?
“well, because that’s not his job, lisagrace.”
oh, right. bryan isn’t my own personal happy machine.
but it’s no surprise that he makes me ridiculously happy, i did fall in love with him didn’t i? BUT, i wanted to marry him for many more reasons then just that. i wanted to marry him because he loves me selflessly, as Christ does the church. i wanted to marry him because his heart is always seeking more from our Father and his mind is always on how he can give more back to Him.
i suppose my own personal resolution from this lesson is that i don’t want to be a wife who controls her husband with her mood swings and over-emotional fit of “unhappiness.” i don’t want to be the women that is eluded to in the quote: “a happy wife equals a happy husband.” i don’t want my happiness to control our happiness.
i want to be a woman of joy, who daily seeks her joy in the Lord and who’s heart is happy even on the worst of days.
whoa, just re-read that last sentance. if i’m going to act as i speak, i’ve apparently got a lot to live up to. it’s those sentances that make me really appreciate the power of the Holy Spirit.
alsberries 
