Nate and Heather Disarro

The Trip

2009-06-09T14:55:00.012-05:00

Yes, it really has been quite a while since I posted anything on this blog! Life is just crazy right now, what with moving in and then going on a trip. And I think it's safe to say that everyone knows how difficult it is to come back from a vacation and start your life over again. Needless to say, we've been very busy, but our vacation was absolutely amazing. It's been way too long since I've been able to relax that much, and it was very much needed. Here are some pictures from the trip and a (quasi) brief summary of our time there!
Nate underwater at The Baths!

Us with the view of the port from Mafolie's!
The view from the courtyard of the Sunset House...I do really miss that!
A night shot of the view from Mafolie's
Devil's Bay....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh, so relaxing!
My yummy jumbo shrimp dinner at Mafolie's!
Us in the courtyard overlooking Long's Bay
Random/amazing shot Nate took...not real sure where though!This is the shot of most of the Sunset House from the pool area!

Our trip started early early early on Thursday, May 21 at the Denver International Airport. We first had to fly into Dallas (to meet up with Nate's dad Jack, Linda, and her son Brandon and his girlfriend Liz). From there we flew to Miami International (definitely NOT a favorite in the airport world), and from Miami we flew into St. Thomas. One of the best things about that airport was the shot of Guava Rum that we got as we walked outside. Our taxi driver, George Sebastian, picked us up and drove us to an old Holiday Inn (I can't remember the name of the actual hotel), where we checked in and had our first sampling of Rum Punch at the bar. Needless to say, with the incredibly busy day, the humidity, and the Rum Punch it was very easy for us to fall asleep that night!

The next day (May 22) we took a ferry over to Tortola, which is in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). It's about a 45 minute ride, but so scenic that it feels like 5 minutes! When we got there, we had to go through customs (hurray, our first time to ever use a passport!), and waited on Nate and Jack to go get the rental car. Well, 45 minutes later they pulled up in 2 rental cars (shouldn't be a surprise for anyone who's ever rented a car before though). The funny thing is that in Tortola, the driver's side is still on the lefthand side of the car, but you drive on the lefthand side of the road. We went and got some groceries and headed up to the Sunset House, our mansion for the week! That day we got to visit 2 different beaches, Cane Garden Bay (which was being set up for the BVI Music Fest) and Brewer's Bay (which was completely empty but absolutely beautiful!) After a couple of hours we had to head back to the house and get ready for dinner, which was at Pusser's, a restaurant known for their rum. Afterwards we headed back to the house and watched part of the NBA playoffs before hitting the sack!

On May 23, we got to take a ferry over to Virgin Gorda, another island in the BVI. There we rented a car and drove over to The Baths, an amazing beach where there are massive boulders jutting out of the water and some of the best snorkeling I've ever seen. We ate at a sweet restaurant overlooking the water, and it had a pool right by our table to swim in as we waited for our food. We snorkeled around The Baths for a bit, then took a truly amazing hike through the boulders and water caves until we came out on a practically empty beach, Devil's Bay. This place was perfect, with shallow water about 20 yards out, great snorkeling, boulders to climb on, and the water was so gentle and clear. Everyone else snorkeled, but I just floated on my back for who knows how long. We drove over to Little Dix Bay Resort (very swanky!) and walked through the resort grounds for a few minutes before catching the ferry back to Tortola. That night we enjoyed a dinner with salmon, 3 different kinds of rice, corn on the cob, and our own homemade Rum Punch. We watched another NBA Playoff game, and got ready for one last full day on Tortola!

Sunday, May 24 we woke up to another gorgeous day on the island. We wanted to get some pictures of the house we were staying in, so we drove down to Long Bay Resort and took some pictures of the house from the beach. Then we done off-roading in the rental cars down to our favorite beach of the trip, Smuggler's Cove. This place was amazing! It was a 360 degree gorgeous view, a beach bar (card table with liquor on it, fresh fruit, and a blender hooked up to a car battery!), and a small stand with local handmade jewelry and clothes. We spent the entire day there, snorkeling, floating, singing and dancing in the water, and sleeping in the sun. That night we went back to the house and had a great Mexican dinner, complete with Rum Punch and NBA playoffs!

Monday, May 25 we left the island of Tortola, taking a ferry back over to St. Thomas (the US Virgin Islands), where we had to go through customs again. We took a taxi over to the Marriott Frenchman's Inn, an incredible resort on the island. We had lunch at the restaurant there, and went back to the rooms to unpack and rest for a little bit. We ended up taking a nap (all that relaxation wears you out!), and then went down to the hotel pool for an hour or so. That night we went to Mafolie's, which has the best view on the island and some of the best food too! It was an incredible view, and the food was perfect. That night we went back to the hotel and crashed!

Our last full day, May 26, was spent on St. John. Nate and I decided that should we ever decide to move to an island in the Caribbean, St. John would be it. It's still part of the USVI so we could work there, it's slightly tourist-y so there's a lot of different people all over the island, but most of the island is a national park, so it's not overwhelmingly crowded. We snorkeled at 3 different beaches that day: Frances Bay, Cinnamon Bay, and Trunk Bay, all of which were just amazing. We got to eat really great Mexican food at Margarita Phil's, and spent some time in a spice shop that had a great selection of spices, rubs, coffee, and tea. Finally, we hopped back on the ferry to St. Thomas, and decided to spend an hour at a little place called Duffy's Love Shack. This place was so much fun! They had great drinks that all came in custom glasses that you could take home with you! Nate got some drink in a parrot glass, and I had mine in a pirate mug. I still drink out of mine every day at work now! That night we all hung out in Brandon and Liz's room, watching some more basketball and just enjoying the last day.

Wednesday, May 27 we got to the St. Thomas airport bright and early. After saying goodbye to Jack and Linda, us kids sat down and started pouring through the 800+ pictures we took on the trip! Our plane left shortly after that, so we settled in for the flight to Miami. Brandon and Liz had a short layover there, so Nate and I said goodbye to them. We had a 6 hour layover, and decided to rent a car and drive to South Beach and see what all the fuss is about. I gotta say, I'm still not sure what all the fuss is about, other than mostly-naked people running around everywhere. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I found this annoying more than anything. The best part about South Beach was the delicious crab shack we ate at on Ocean Drive. The food was amazing, and a great deal in comparison to the rest of the restaurants there! Shortly after that we drove back to the airport and just rested by the gate. The flight wasn't amazing, but I guess it's hard to complain after having such a great time.

Told you it would be long! We loved being able to get away and explore a new place together. I'll try to get some more photos up soon, but don't want to make any promises!

For All You Dog Owners Out There!

2009-04-30T11:05:00.002-05:00

HOLY COW!!!!! This could not have been a better investment....if you own a dog (or even a cat for that matter), you need to get the FURminator (and yes, that video is actually very accurate as far as the actual brushing outcome). I got one at PetsMart last night, and Bunker has never lost so much hair in one 5 minute brushing session. Not to advertise for them or anything, but this brush (albeit expensive) was definitely worth the money.

On another note, we have officially started the photography website and blog. We'd love for you all to go check it out, and pass it on to anyone you know who might be looking for a photographer for any reason (we're willing to travel pretty much anywhere if we need to)! You can either click on the links above, or just go to www.natedisarrophoto.com and/or www.natedisarro.blogspot.com. We would really love to get more involved in the photography world, so any help would be great!

Otherwise, we have officially moved in to the new house, and are about halfway through the unpacking process. Hopefully when it's all done we will post some pictures, but at the moment there are still boxes everywhere. The hot tub is great, and we're just plugging through the week so we can finish the unpacking on Saturday!

That's about it for now, but go check out the website soon, and be on the lookout for the pictures from Landon and Sara's wedding that we did a couple weeks ago!

On Another Note

2009-04-09T12:13:00.002-05:00

Well hello again, feelin' a little blog-happy today! Just wanted to give a little heads up:

Nate and I, as most of you know, have been blessed with photography equipment and a passion to record special moments in time. We are looking to take this love a little bit further and start doing more weddings, portraits, dog photography (for me!), maternity, engagement, and family portraits as a side business and just see where the Lord takes it. I am posting this for two reasons: to ask for prayer in this endeavor and to let you know that we will (in the near-ish future) be creating a new blog to share our adventures in photography as well as our adventures in life. I'll keep you all updated, but just wanted to post this as a head's up!

P.S. We are going here in May. A little excited? I think so!

A Late One.....

2009-04-09T11:31:00.009-05:00

Cheesin' it up for the camera!

Seriously, how adorable are our parents?

Yep, still in love! He's so cute!

Close up of the family!!!

A little more scenery in this one!

True, this post is a little late, but better late than never! My parents and sister came to visit us about a month ago, and we had so much fun showing them around our new home. They came in on a Saturday, and we just hung out and had a yummy salmon dinner. I got introduce them to making risotto, which is SO GOOD and super versatile! Only problem: it makes a ridiculous amount of food, which is good when you're feeding a lot of people but can lead to overeating if there's just two of you....not that I know from experience or anything!

Sunday we went and hiked the First Flatiron at Chautauqua Park in Boulder. It was a great hike, probably one of my favorite easier ones. Then we went back home, hung out and napped a little, and then went to church. Afterwards, we ate at CB&Potts, a brewery that's close to where we live, and had a good burger dinner!

Monday, my family and I got to go visit our new house! They got to check out the inside and see where we'll be living for the next couple of years (that is so weird to say! Who knew we would ever be grown-ups with a mortgage?) We went down to Cherry Creek in Denver, a fun little area with some great shopping and cool restaurants. That afternoon, Salah and I took the bikes out and rode to Standley Lake, about 2 minutes from where we'll soon be living, and rode back....something like 25 miles or so! We were pretty hungry after that, so we all ate a great dinner and relaxed the rest of the night.

Tuesday (their last day...sad!) we drove out to Estes Park, which is where all of these pictures are from. We went all the way up to Bear Lake, which apparently is just a beautiful, easy hike in the Spring/Summer/Fall, but it was REALLY cold and windy. We really didn't dress for that weather, but Mom and Dad had their jogging clothes in the trunk of the car, so we all threw the clothes on and just went with it. We walked around on the frozen lake, took pictures, and just enjoyed eachother. Then we drove back down to the town and ate lunch, walked up and down the main street. That night we had an AWESOME dinner because it was Daddy's birthday, with strawberry shortcake parfait things...so good!

Wednesday they had to leave, I'll admit I definitely cried a lot when they drove off. I am so so glad that they all had the chance to come up and visit, I miss them so much it made me so happy to see them! To my family, I love you guys!

New Home - We're growing up

2009-03-13T09:28:00.003-05:00

Nate here - I figured its been a long time since either one of us have written anything on here so maybe its time I write something for once. 2009 has been a great year so far... a little different that how we started things off in 2008. Just to recap, we ended 2007 with my grandfather having a heart attack, our apartment getting broken in to a week later and all of our "stuff" was stolen, and then another week later I busted my nose at work and thought I broke it. Oh yeah, and Bunker broke his tooth in there somewhere and had to have it extracted. Needless to say that left us feeling slightly defeated going into 2008. However, knowing that we didn't want to stay in the circumstances that we had been handed we decided to make the big decision to more to north Denver for a chance to get some fresh air... fast forward to 2009

So, now that we are already half way through March, this year has been pretty sweet. In just a few short months I have doubled my number of ski days for all the years combined that I have previously skied and Heather, in her first season of skiing, has successfully skied a "black" and she did an amazing job. It has been a lot of fun getting to go to the mountains and see her get exponentially better each time off the lift. If I'm not careful she will be beating me down the mountain.

Something else that has really been a blast for us this year is the continuation of serving with Watermark Church. That is one of the main reasons we chose to move to the exact location that we did in CO and we are really glad that we are able to be a part of something like this church plant. If you are ever up in the Denver area come hang out with us. We have seen a lot of different people come through the doors and its really cool to see how people are learning how to live in a community that doesn't judge you for your past or present situation and just wants to see you know Christ more. Way cool.

Probably the biggest news for now though is that we are in the process of purchasing our first home! We are really excited to finally have a place that will feel like a permanent home for the first time since before college. Its weird to think that I have moved at least once a year for the last 8 years and now we will finally be in one place for at least a few years, hopefully longer. So, about the house. It is 2 streets away from a straight shot to the mountains which is kind of crazy. For those who don't know, Colorado owns a lot of land still that is called "open space" that can never be built on. Basically it is a state park that preserves the land so that CO will never be a congested mess all the way to the mountains. There is open space basically all the way from our house to the mountains which means that no one will ever be able to block our view. SWEET!

Also, there is a massive dog park about 2 blocks over that will be a great place for Bunker to go release all of his crazy energy.

Down the street about 1/2 a mile (literally) is one of the few lakes in CO too. Its not a huge lake but definitely big enough to go for a nice boat ride on or do some fishing, or just go hang out at the lake and look at the mountains.

So all of those things are great and all, but there is one other thing that makes this house really cool. It has a hot tub. I know, I was excited too. The cool thing about hot tubs in CO is that you can use them year round. If we had a hot tub in TX we would have probably used it for a month in the "winter" and then it would be too hot to use it anymore. In CO though, it stays cool enough at night through the summer to be able to take advantage of a nice warm tub of water after a long day hiking in the mountains.

Check out the pics below (click for larger version) and you can get an idea of what the house looks like. We close on April 15 and move in on the 20th. WOOHOO!

So, new home, relocating to a place we weren't familiar with, all after have a chain of crappy events... I think we are growing up. I'll let you know what I think about that soon.

Randoms

2009-01-27T16:54:00.008-06:00

Beautiful flowers in San Fran....look at that amazing color! Makes me SO excited about Farmer's Market coming up in the Spring! Even if we can't afford to pay the crazy prices, it's still so much fun!

Another pic from beautiful California...can you count how many different shades of blue are in this picture?

My first "Big Mountain" (not sure if it really needs to be capitalized, but better safe than sorry) experience! We finally got there after 3 hours driving in zero visibility. Makes Dallas winters feel like the stinkin' summer!

Nate and I before we started skiing Winter Park.

Winter is turning out to be a lot of fun...I'm not horrible at skiing anymore, I'm getting used to the snow, and I've recently discovered a love of running in the snow (who knew?) Nate and I went and looked a house the other day...didn't really turn out to be ideal (i.e. structural issues) but it was such a surreal experience in and of itself. We've discovered that it might actually be less expensive to buy a home here, so we've started looking around just to figure out if there's a place that meets our stringent guidelines. Hey, not just any house can be a Disarro house.

It's become very normal/still weird to think about grown-up things like buying a house and mortgages and interest rates (still sounds like a foreign language). I guess it's got to happen sometime, but I feel kind of funny even typing it out!

Bunker has been having SO MUCH FUN in the snow! He loves running in it, and it's hilarious when it makes him all frisky. He hops around a lot when it gets cold out, so we have a great time taking him on walks and everything.

I think that's about all...we're kind of boring other than the growing up stuff, but will definitely continue to try to keep this updated more often!

2 Years

2009-01-09T15:27:00.004-06:00

Tuesday of this week marked our 2 year anniversary! And what an interesting two years it's been. I think that Nate and I can both truly say that we have never had so much fun and we've never undergone so much hurt, selfishness, loneliness, and just overall instability. Super fun, right?

We were told when we were getting married that marriage is like a mirror that you see the "real" you reflected in. At first I thought that was really dumb, and like all engaged couples (I'm sure), I thought that surely MY husband and I would never have that experience. That we were open and honest and truly capable to enter into marriage and not have a flaw. I'll tell you though, marriage and love in general truly is a mirror, and it makes you see some of the best and some of the worst you have to offer.

I've learned that no matter how much you plan and how many precautions you take, the Lord's plan for you will probably not match up to everything you plan for. For example, we live in Colorado now, and for the longest time I was sure I would be a Texan for life. With such a great state (and I still truly believe that) why would you ever want to leave? But after two years in Dallas I started to feel trapped and completely unlearned in the ways of other people, even in our own country. Nate and I both felt called to leave, and not knowing what would happen, we up and moved to Colorado. I think that the drive to leave and start something new is what led us on our road to discovering what marriage is about.

Once in Colorado we were truly alone (not as in there are no people around us, but just without people we had really known before). Helping to start Watermark in Denver helped us to become less selfish because there were needs outside of our marriage to fulfill. The Lord began to show each of us how selfish we were being with one another, and began to help us communicate our needs and wants in much more mature ways. Not to say that everything is perfect, because I think that is an improbability in this world, but we have realized how truly and amazingly blessed we are in our marriage. We love one another so much, and can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together (cheesy but oh so true!!!)
On another note, our sweet sweet Bunker turned 2 years old on the same day! This is one of the first pictures we took of him, circa 8 weeks old and 9 lbs. To this day, he doesn't realize he's not 9 lbs. anymore (he's about 100 now). That's one big baby boy!

Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T22:59:00.014-06:00

So this Thanksgiving, Nate and I were really bummed that we couldn't make a trip back to Texas to see our amazing families and hang out with everyone. Fortunately, some of our friends from church opened up their house to all of us that could not make it home, and we had an ugly sweater contest/Thanksgiving dinner with friends instead! Here are the pictures, in no particular order...The whole group, three of which are all in Bill's 4XL sweater in the middle back...

This is Stephanie...she and her husband Jason were so awesome to open up their home to all of us to eat and play and laugh! (P.S. this is probably one of my favorite pictures ever!)

My sweet husband, the photographer, and the winner of the ugly sweater contest. Everything he is wearing in this picture is women's clothing. I'm so proud!

I thought that this picture of Jordan was way too good to pass up. Doesn't he look joyful? I would be too if I had puppy dogs napping on my sweater...

Amy and her homemade ugly sweater (not so ugly, but very fun!)

I think that we had to take this picture about 50 times to get the timing of the "snow" (marshmallows) just right so that you could actually see them in the picture!

This could be one of the funniest pictures I have ever seen! Stef and I decided to go for the 80's look, but I think she might be rockin' it better than I did!

This is Nate's favorite picture of me from the evening...I'll be honest, I'm really not yelling, I actually have no idea what I'm doing here!

Family portrait!

The girls!

Jason. Seriously, I think that Nate and the boys laughed at this photo the remainder of the night. Not that I can blame them though!

And last, but certainly not least, Bill and Sarah in his 4XL sweater...super cute, eh?

Hit 'Em Wreck 'Em Texas Tech!

2008-11-07T11:11:00.004-06:00

THE END.

L-O-V-E

2008-11-06T10:37:00.003-06:00

Today I got an email from my mom that had all of these quotes on there about what kids think love means. I thought I'd be super cheesy and post it on here for everyone to read and think about. I think that there's a lot to be said through the simplicity of a child, and the fact that these kids notice, they actually SEE, what love is...that's amazing. Can you say that you love someone like these kids describe?

When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.
-Rebecca, 8

When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. Your name is safe in their mouth.
-Billy, 4

Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.
-Karl, 5

Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.
-Chrissy, 6

Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.
-Terri, 4

Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.
-Danny, 7

Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My mommy and daddy are like that...They look gross when they kiss.
-Emily, 8

Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas is you stop opening presents and listen.
-Bobby, 7

If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend you hate.
-Nikka, 6

Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt and then he wears it every day.
-Noelle, 7

Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.
-Tommy, 6

During my piano recital I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.
-Cindy, 8

My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.
-Clare, 6

Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.
-Elaine, 5

Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.
-Chris, 7

Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left alone all day.
-Mary Ann, 4

I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.
-Lauren, 4

When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.
-Karen, 7

You really shouldn't say "I love you" unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.
-Jessica, 8

CAMPING!

2008-10-07T08:57:00.010-05:00

The whole group of us in the middle of a hike...one of eight trillion pictures taken by a sweet old lady!

Kraig...not real sure what he's winking for, but Lauren and the half of Cherise's face are really cute!

Robbie, doing the mountain-man-rock-jumper thing!

Nate's boot? I think this was after he fell in the river while trying to cross at the most difficult spot known to man...

Michael and Nate, displaying the bromance full-force!

One of the many elk we saw this weekend, out in the field outside of our campground.

This big boy was actually IN our campground!

The group on our way back home from Estes Park.

This past weekend we went camping for the first ever Watermark Denver Married Couples excursion! On a side note, it was my first time to ever go camping, so I was definitely looking forward to it. Nate and I registered and got camping equipment for our wedding, and it only took us about 2 years to use it! Anyway, the two of us plus five other couples headed up to Estes Park to begin our adventure…

First things first: breakfast. We all met up in Boulder, and, at Robbie’s suggestion, ate breakfast at the Village Coffee Shop. I’m telling you, this place should be on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (a show on Food Network for all of you who don’t know what that is). However, I had one of the best breakfast burritos I’ve ever had…all smothered in pork green chile…YUM! Then it was off to the mountains, where we had the chance to see the Aspen trees changing. Driving through Estes Park was a lot of fun…all two minutes of it…but it is a beautiful town.

We were camping at Morraine Park campground, so we stopped and set everything up, then went hiking at Lawn Lake trail. It was really gorgeous and a fairly easy hike, so we all had a great time. When we got to the falls, we hiked around the water a little bit, and Nate decided to go down and try to get some pictures from a different angle. When he tried to cross again, he fell in the water. Michael offered to take Nate’s camera so that he could cross a little more easily, and in the process of handing off the camera, Michael’s foot slipped in the water too!

After the hiking excursion, we drove back to camp to find out that our food had been confiscated! Apparently we had “improperly stored” our food, and the rangers came by and took both of the coolers. So, we had to go get it back, and then started cooking dinner. Nate made fajitas (steak and chicken) which were awesome and then we all settled down to talk around the campfire and eat s’mores. We had a great time getting to know all of the other couples in a deeper way, and were truly blessed at some of the stories we heard.

That night was windy and rainy and cold, but I was snuggled down deep in my sleeping bag. In the morning, I did NOT want to get up, but unfortunately it was time to head home.

We had a great time, and I definitely enjoyed my first time camping. I can’t wait to go again!

Back in Action!!!

2008-09-04T08:46:00.006-05:00

Ok, so first things first: above is the view I have driving to work every morning. Not bad, eh? These are the Flatirons (there's 3 of them) and there are TONS of trails and climbing opportunities on/around them. So much fun, it's like taking a vacation every weekend!
Second, I now work as a Customer Service rep for Spyder and Cloudveil, and I truly enjoy my job. The people I work with are fantastic, a lot of fun, and it's a very athletic atmosphere. I have my own little office (cubicle, but feels like an office) and am still able to coach in the evenings which is great.

Working for Spyder/Cloudveil is a lot of fun; however, it has taught me so much about people. I have really seen the impact that overwhelming materialism has on our society. I'll be honest: crying about a luxury item is a bit much, and I'm just going to leave it at that. It has also widened my perspective on Christians as well. Anytime I am griped out by someone on the phone, I wonder if they are a believer as well. And, if they are, then it's no wonder that non-believers think we're all a bunch of crazy hypocrites. If someone really and truly believed in Jesus as their savior to the point that they would follow His command to love one another.

"And this is His command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love
one another as He commanded us." 1 John 3:23

Anyway, all this to say, the next time you're upset about something, think about the impact that you are having on the people around you. Are you handling your anger and frustration in a way that would honor the Lord? Or are you handling it in a way that makes you look like a brat? This post is not intended to judge, but rather to help infuse a little thoughtfulness into our daily lives.

On a lighter note, I hope everyone has a fantastic and blessed day!

Crazy Summer

2008-07-03T10:50:00.006-05:00

Nate and I bought a log cabin in Colorado!!! We close on it July 15, and it's so great...obviously a beautiful deck and an amazing kitchen and HUGE living room and master bedroom! We are so excited....except all that is a lie. We didn't buy a house but IF we did, then this is what I might want it to look like.

Anyway, things are going pretty well here. Nate is really enjoying his job, and we worked the first event last Saturday...the Lobster Fest in Niwot (pronounced Ny-watt). It was pretty fun, and we got to have boiled lobsters for the first time here in the middle of the country. It was actually very tasty; however, we both concluded that the goodness of the lobster does not justify the ridiculous amount of work that you have to go through to get the meat. We both got cuts on our hands from the little pointies on the arms.

Next up, our friend Austin is in town with the AVP tour, and we could not be more excited to see him. AND we get to go to Boulder, which is our future home (no matter what Nate thinks)! Anyway, we've been having fun hanging out with him, so we'll definitely be posting some pictures from this weekend!

(this is Austin...we're proud of him!)

Born Anew

2008-06-25T09:30:00.005-05:00

Confession: I am born anew in the groovy tunes of Earth, Wind, and Fire. I am listening to "Let's Groove" and I really cannot get enough of it. I'm pretty sure that I am in heaven right now, all I need is to have this song on my iPod and be walking up a mountain. Which I will be doing in about 20 minutes (minus the iPod thing). I am not much of a dancer, but this music makes me want to get up out of this computer chair and get my boogy on. Actually, I think I'll get to doing that now...

Alright, I'm back. Anyway, I know that my wonderful acoustic-loving husband will probably be embarrassed to have his name associated with this post, but I just had to get it out there. Moral of the story: go hug a friend, read your Bible, and groove to the sounds of Earth, Wind, and Fire.

Supersize Me

2008-06-22T22:36:00.003-05:00

Recently I have really gotten into documentaries, and I've got to say that of a lot of them Supersize Me is one of my favorites. It's funny, but most of all truthful. It is based on scientific fact. Granted, Morgan Spurlock was pretty dumb to put his body through all of the crap that he did, but I can imagine that his experiment (hopefully) stopped a lot of fast food junkies in their tracks.

Now, I would be a HUGE liar if I said that I never eat fast food. I mean, it's fast. Duh. But it never hurts to watch this movie every now and then to get a big reality check. It is just amazing to me the lack of education in this country on something so important as taking care of your body. Another thing that baffles me is the amount of people who actually are educated on the needs of the body, and blatantly ignore it. When I was a personal trainer in Dallas, there were several people I consulted with who had been sent to the gym BY THEIR DOCTOR. To me that's pretty extreme in and of itself. There were several people who were/are on the fast track to an early death because of their lack of interest in healthy living. The best (really not best) part about that is the fact that I told them they were on the fast track to an early death, and it did not phase them a bit!

When I was in my training to be a personal trainer, one of the teachers at the Cooper Institute in Dallas said this, and I must admit I have to agree:

"How many people do you know who grow old and say that they can't imagine getting to

be 80+ years old? I think it's because the majority of America has put itself into a physical

rut, causing them to suffer from self-inflicted medical problems. The best way to guard

yourself from that certain pain is to eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly. I don't know

about you guys, but when I die, I don't want it to be from a preventable disease. I just want

to go to sleep and never wake up."

Alright, so I know that's pretty morbid, but think about it: so many things that people suffer from (i.e. diabetes, heart problems, many different types of cancers, etc.) are directly caused by lack of care. Not all of them, but some. I have to admit, I agree with my teacher. When I die, I don't want it to be some sort of slow, painful death that could have been preventable. What do you think?

Our Colorado Adventures (the first 1.5 weeks)

2008-06-16T09:57:00.013-05:00

This is a great picture that Nate took of Boulder Falls...SO PRETTY!!!
And some pretty flowers on our hike...
And some pinecones...Bunker still doesn't know what to think of them...
And some more pretty flowers.
This is our first hike in Chautaqua with Ashley and Austin, and our new friends Robbie and Stephanie. Robbie and Stephanie were amazing to watch when they just ran down the mountain like it was no big deal!
This is the view of our little hiking party from a little ways up the first Flatiron. And Robbie says that this is an easy climb!
The city of Boulder from the Flatirons...VERY pretty!
Austin and Ashley...they are so cute, and so nice to help us out as much as they do!
I bet Nate gets a little mad about me putting this picture up, but that's what you get when you make faces in a picture! Plus I don't look so hot in the one underneath this!

It has been quite some time since we blogged! It was just crazy around Dallas trying to get everything together to leave for Denver and then the last week we were there I got really sick! It was pretty wretched, I hate getting sick, but am feeling all better now. I just think it was some sort of severe allergy to molds, but my mom thinks it might have been the flu or something. YIKES!!!

Anyway, just so everyone knows how this all went down, on June 1 Nate and I rented a HUGE truck from Penske (we totally recommend them if anyone is ever going to move themselves by the way). All that day and a little bit of the next day we loaded and loaded and loaded, which helped me come to the realization that we have WAY too much stuff. Anyway, we left on June 2 for Lubbock, Nate driving the huge 26-foot truck with my car being towed behind it, and Bunker and I in Nate's truck behind him. We got to Lubbock around 5:30pm (I think) and had a wonderful barbeque dinner with my mom and dad, then I coughed all night, and they forced me to go to bed. The next morning my dad had to teach summer school, so my mom hopped in Nate's truck with me and Bunker, and we went to the Lubbock airport to pick up Nate's dad, Jack. From there we drove to Denver in about 10-11 hours. That was a long drive!

The night we got to Denver, our friends Ashley and Austin brought us delicious enchiladas and some of the best chocolate covered strawberries I've ever had. It was awesome, and such a great relief to see people we know who were so willing to give of themselves and bring us dinner at such a stressful time. That night we unloaded a pretty decent amount of stuff (we had to in order to get to the mattresses). The next day was pretty rainy, so my mom and I started unpacking boxes and stuff, and then that afternoon Nate and Jack unloaded the big stuff from the back of the truck. I gotta say, I was pretty impressed because some of that stuff is HEAVY. It was nice to have it all done though.

June 6 (Friday) we took the truck back to a Penske location, and then that afternoon we went in to Boulder, which is such a cute city. We had a great time and ate at the Lazy Dog on Pearl Street, then went hiking to Boulder Falls and went on some sort of exercise trail at the base of a mountain. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and we were glad that we could let my mom and Nate's dad enjoy some of the beauty that we get to see all the time now!

Saturday we took our parents to the airport. It was really really sad, so I'm not going to dwell on it, but there were a lot of tears (mainly from the Heather side of things). It's just very weird and a little scary to be so far away from everything you've ever known, and we're not even that far! Still, we were sad to see our parents go. Then we went to Walmart and spent what we thought was an obscene amount of money on groceries. We took Bunker on a walk and he made a friend named Rocky, a Lab-Rottweiler mix. I don't really remember what we did that night...woops!

Sunday we met with our church for the first time, and it was such a great gathering of people. Todd Wagner from Watermark Dallas was there with his family, and it was so nice to be in an intimate setting where we could really get to know his heart and his vision that he has for Watermark Dallas and be able to see the heart that we need to have for the ministry here in Denver. It was a lot of fun to get to meet so many new people too!

Finally, the last two days before Nate started work we went hiking in Chautaqua (I think that's spelled correctly) with our friends Ashley and Austin and Robbie and Stephanie. Robbie and Stephanie live in Boulder so they are pretty much expert hikers. We had a great time and got a great workout. Then Tuesday we did all of the boring stuff like switched insurance offices and got our driver's licenses, registrations, and emissions tests. Woohoo.

Since then we've had a great time. I've taken Bunker hiking, and we've been hiking a few times. We're getting used to the altitude and are making some great friends. So far we really like being here, and are just so blessed that everything has worked out so well. The Lord is truly amazing in the ways he cares for us. We hope to blog some more soon with pictures of our place, but we still have a little cleaning to do before that!

SURPRISE!!!

2008-05-16T20:56:00.004-05:00

Alright, it's official...Nate, Bunker and I are moving to Denver! We leave in about 2 weeks (June 3 to be exact) to drive to Lubbock and then on June 4 we are driving up to the other "big D". It's pretty nuts, we definitely never really imagined actually living outside of Texas, but it is something that we are REALLY excited about. Of course, moving away from family and great friends is a sad thing for us to do, but the Lord works in crazy ways, and we are pretty pumped to see what His will is for us. More to come on this, but feel free to ask us questions!

Time's a-flyin'

2008-05-01T22:21:00.003-05:00

WOW!!! What a semester...I am just about finished with my first semester of grad school, and I gotta admit that it just flew by. I have my finals on Monday, and with God's help I'll do really well and keep my 4.0 GPA. Not so much in love with the Dallas heat and humidity, but I'm trying to learn to be thankful that we're not somewhere completely miserable (yeah, like...well, I don't know where else, but you get the idea). Bunker is doing well, he LOVES to talk to his mom and dad and play kong and squeaky dumbell. He's a nut, but so much fun that I want another one! Anyway, long story short there's a lot to catch up on but I don't have time to do anything but work and study until Monday around 3pm. Then margarita celebration for end of finals/Cinco de Mayo. THEN blogging. So have a wonderful wonderful weekend!

Today

2008-03-31T09:19:00.004-05:00

I'm running through the gates of love as fast as I can

I can't wait to see You, 'cause I'm a desperate man

You made the light and sent it down to show us who you are

Now it's bursting out my heart

My desire is burning like a million stars

And I'll keep reaching out, reaching out for You

I'd be nothing without You, yeah I would die

If I didn't have Your hand, if I couldn't look into Your eyes

Jesus, if Your love's the fuel then I'm the desperate flame

That's screaming out Your name

My desire is burning like a million stars

And I'll keep reaching out, reaching out for You

My desire is burning with the fire You sparked

And I'll keep reaching out, reaching out for You

This is glory rising over a new horizon

I see Your love, I feel Your smile

You're in my heart and I will run

With all I have to You

My desire is burning like a million stars

And I'll keep reaching out, reaching for You

My desire is burning with the fire You sparked

And I'll keep reaching out, reaching out for You

I'm reaching out for You

I'm reaching out for You, You, You

My Desire by Phil Wickham

So wow, this song is TOTALLY AWESOME. I love it because I feel like it accurately describes the constant wonder of God's total power, love, peace, creation, joy, strength, etc. I can't even name it all, but I love the feeling that I get when I have one of those "AH-HA!" moments where for a fleeting second I see how long eternity really is, what death really looks like, and through that feel the power of what God did for us. I can't imagine going through this life without God's constant love and the amazingly poetic and romantic ways that He shows it. And like the song says, I keep reaching out for Him. How could you not?

Fun with Lightroom

2008-03-29T14:28:00.005-05:00

So, I have been playing around in a sweet program called Photoshop Lightroom alot lately and it has to be one of the coolest programs out there for photographers. Often when I play around with new software, I don't really learn all of its capabilities until a few months down the road when I really get the chance to dig in deep. I think I am at that point with Lightroom. I have learned a technique that is used in a lot of advertisements and I think it is going to take me to the next level! (kidding...kind of). Expect more posts from me now that I am having fun with this! Enjoy. Click images to see a larger version.

Happy Hump Day

2008-03-26T10:25:00.004-05:00

Last night I got to go take a few pictures of some pretty young ladies. One of them being my sister-in-law, and the other my hot wife. It is always fun to get out and have a good time making people you love act like idiots while other people are watching! I'm glad that I am usually behind the camera in these instances. More later.

Happy Easter!!!!!

2008-03-23T19:25:00.005-05:00

This is a picture of the Disarro side of my family from Easter! It is also the soon-to-be Riley side of our family, seeing as how Janet (my sweet mother-in-law) and Mark just got engaged last weekend...CONGRATULATIONS! From the left is Jennifer (JK), Josh, Mark, Janet, James (Jimmy Tommy, Chrissy's bf), Chrissy, Caden, JD, Brooke, Nate, and then me!
Honestly, I do believe that this book is in fact the MOST spectacular book I have ever read next to Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. There is no love like the kind of love that you get and give to an animal. I'm not saying that it's necessarily better than, say, the love between man and wife, but I do believe that we are so flawed as humans that it makes it hard to love one another the way that a dog can love you. I know for us, even though Bunker gets kind of rambunctious sometimes, he thinks we're the greatest humans in the entire world. There's no doubt about it: we screw up royally on pretty much a daily basis, and Bunker is always there, wagging his huge tail and kissing us and loving us as though we lead perfect lives.

I feel like this week I have been particularly negative and boring and cranky, and I feel like it's time for me to confess. I still definitely live with the all-consuming thoughts about my body image, and I am sick and tired of it. I am so tired of living with the lies that the devil keeps feeding me and the reminders of my mistakes and the fact that he is rubbing it in my face and I keep on believing it. For anyone who does not know, I have struggled with this vicious cycle for going on 13 years now. And the sad part about it is that I have no idea how to stop it. How do you keep yourself from thinking about the past and knowing that it was you who did all those horrible things, to yourself and to other people? I heard a story in church this morning about a man who struggled with homosexuality for something like 15+ years, and since turning everything over to the Lord has overcome his issues, gotten married to a wonderful woman, and now has a baby girl names Hope.

Although drastic, I can't help but be reminded of my own shortcomings and issues and rebellions. I live in a constant up-down state of overeating, working out too hard, controlling caloric intake, and then blowing it on random food. I look at myself in the mirror and see huge and bloated. I gave away all of my nicer clothes because I didn't feel like I was thin enough or comfortable enough to actually look good in them. So now, when I want to look nice or go somewhere nice, I have no clothes to wear. It also gets in the way of my relationship with my wonderful husband, who loves me regardless. He is a very social person, and I felt like I was too...when I was hardly eating anything and working out like a maniac. But the second I stopped doing that, I felt like I "let myself go" and since have started again on this roller coaster of disordered eating again.

For anyone who's reading this and is like "Wow, she needs some serious help" you're right. I do need help. I need the prayers and guidance and loving wisdom of Godly people who are in tune with my Maker's love and plan for my life. So if nothing else, I just hope that you would throw up a quick prayer for me, that I would get over myself and become a woman who can fully, 100% devote herself to the Lord's will and quit thinking about myself.

Our Little Dude

2008-03-18T20:06:00.006-05:00

And ten days later, we're back! Here are some sweet pictures of our little dude, Bunker. He's fantastic, although he has totally calmed down a little since we moved back to Plano. I'm pretty sure that he misses his bestie, Levi. They finally got to see one another the other day at the dog park, and it was just like old times. Things are going pretty well with us right now, we're just kinda hanging out and getting used to living with Nate's mom and sharing a house. She makes it easy though!

As I speak I am watching Dancing With the Stars. I honestly cannot say enough about how spectacular this show is. I would have to say that the two TV shows I am obsessed with (by that I mean I actually watch them and don't just use them as background noise) are Dancing With the Stars and The Hills. I'm sorry, and I know that Nate will be embarrassed for me when he reads this, but I just can't get enough of it. In all honesty, and this is not meant to be degrading, but watching The Hills with all of its drama makes me feel like a better and more grounded person. Plus it's entertaining.

I'm definitely still waiting for God to reveal to us what His will is for our lives. There are definitely some amazing things going on, and the Lord is truly showing us daily why we believe in him. Oh, yeah, our friend Austin (hey fatty!!!) is in a movie?!?!?! What's that, he's famous? Oh, and he's going to dedicate his Oscar to us? Sweet sauce!

Not real sure where this post is going...due to circumstances I can't post everything that's going on in our lives until we know for certain what's going on, but continued prayer is most definitely appreciated. I know that the Lord will reveal these things to us in His time, and that is fine with us because it's turned it into an adventure we didn't know we would have! Til then, be blessed and wreck 'em!

Denver Part Deux

2008-03-08T20:59:00.003-06:00

So this blogger is taking FOREVER to load pictures tonight, and I really do not have the patience to wait on it...therefore, you can find more pictures of our Denver trip some other time. And believe me, they're good! We had an awesome time just getting away for a few days and hanging out somewhere besides Dallas. The Lord really blessed us with the time and means to go and just hang out in a really sweet area. We just got to drive around in the warm weather, the blizzard weather, and hike in the snowy-yet-sunny weather too! I just wish that Bunker could've been there to actually experience the snow!

This is just an updating blog...we are moving this weekend, and I have about a million things to do for school, all while we're working full time and have a full-time child (I mean dog, I mean...). Anyway, it is a very busy couple of weeks that we have had!

I hope you have a blessed day, and that the Lord will show Himself to you in ways that you never thought possible. I know that He has done that with me, and it has reaffirmed my faith in His unfailing capacity for love. Have a good one and wreck 'em!

Denver, CO

2008-02-29T12:49:00.003-06:00

Here's a little picture I took a few days ago over by a field near where we live. I love the fun stuff you can do with digital software! Any of you who like to take pictures of stuff and wonder why it doesn't look as cool as someone else's stuff need to invest in Photoshop Lightroom. Its half the price of photoshop and does some really cool editing.

On another note, we are heading up to Denver this weekend for a quick little get-away. We are really excited to get out of here for a few days, and be looking for some cool pictures when we get back. Have a great weekend and Keep checking up on us!

GO EAGLES!!!

2008-02-25T17:10:00.004-06:00

A couple of weekends ago my wonderful little sister committed to playing volleyball for the University of North Texas in Denton. I'm so excited that she'll finally get to see the playing time that she deserves. In case you don't already know, I am pretty much her biggest fan (obviously with our parents, they're awesome) and have hated the fact that she lives so far away, although SLO is breathtaking and I really like her roomie there. It's just nice to know that she will finally be rewarded for all of her hard work that she has dedicated to this sport.

It is weird how our lives never really seem to turn out the way we think it will. I know for me, my life is completely different that what I imagined it would be in high school. Even in my first years of college! I am so infinitely grateful though that the Lord knew what was best for me, because good lord, I would have royally screwed some stuff up.

All this to say, that I am so proud of my little sister, and I am so excited to have her coming home again! Love you Salah!

First Big Test!

2008-02-25T16:57:00.005-06:00

Holy moly, what I wouldn't give to be back in Hawai'i surfing again. As you can, I'm sure, the only one of us that was actually GOOD at surfing was Nate, but I still dream big...as my beautiful sister states "Perfect practice makes perfect!" Therefore, I am convinced that it is necessary for us to go back so I can try my hand at this perfect practice thing. Watch out Laird Hamilton.

Today I took my first graduate level exam, and I gotta say: I'm pretty nervous. I feel like I knew the material, but it is so hard to imagine what the grading procedure will look like. I mean, it's like the first test that you take your freshman year in college, and you kinda feel like you're in the big leagues at that point. No? Just me? Fine...

For those of you who are wondering, my hands are finally clearing up, which is fantastic, because that whole hand-foot-mouth thing SUCKS. I am telling you, if our kids EVER contract that thing I'm going to baby them the whole stinkin' time. It was the worst I think I've ever felt next to mono, and that's saying something. Thank goodness my hands don't hurt anymore, because we have quite a move ahead of us to Plano, and I didn't want to make Nate do it all!

So, things are going well...we are just kind of hanging out doing the packing-studying-goofing around thing, and just hoping that there is something big around the corner. Have a blessed day!

EWWWWW!!!

2008-02-20T18:17:00.004-06:00

This picture is because I like to have pictures on these posts and I could not find one to use, therefore I used a dumb picture of myself. WHEEEEEEEEE!!! Now, as to explain the title, I have some big news: I have hand foot and mouth disease! Fear not, it is about as gross as it sounds. So, Sunday morning I was volunteering at church, and for the very first time I changed a dirty diaper. A little stinky, but I don't get grossed out very easily so no biggie. AND I of course wore gloves and washed/sanitized my hands before and after. Well, turns out that some child that morning (don't know which one, but one of them) had hand foot and mouth disease and contaminated me with it. It's like a miniature version of chicken pox, but you only get the bumps on your hands, mouth, and feet. Gross. So now it hurts to walk, pick stuff up, and swallow. The lesson here: don't trust kids, no matter how cute they are.

On a less disgusting note, things are going pretty well. I personally need a little bit of prayer because I need to sell some more training and/or heart rate monitors to meet my goal before next week. Although it's not necessarily an important prayer for most people, it would be nice to have a little less stress at work and actually be able to exceed my goal for the month. Again, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but I truly believe that the Lord will help me to pull through and be able to provide my end of our income.

Other than that, we're really pretty boring right about now. Just know that these next couple of weeks are going to be huge for us, so any prayers being thrown up are definitely appreciated. Thanks and stake it!

Bored

2008-02-18T16:17:00.004-06:00

Does anyone else ever just feel bored? This is a picture of California's Pacific Coast Highway, a place that I would love to drive time and time again. I'll be honest, this is one stretch of road that just feels like home. I don't know if that's just what I want it to be one day, or the fact that it is definitely one of the most beautiful places in the world. As I write this I am listening to some Phil Wickham, who incidentally is from California, and I just feel like my heart is aching to be somewhere else. And the only place I can think of that I want to be right now is driving along the coast of California with a pair of sunglasses on and the sun glimmering on the water.

Over the past couple of months, Nate and I have been through some hard times in life, and although our marriage is strong, I know that we are both desiring a change of pace in life. I feel like I need an adventure, and I know that it's got to be the same for him. The thing I wonder though is do I really need an adventure or does one need to be created here to help me get back to the swing of things? I'm sick of money, I'm sick of complaining, I'm sick of expecting one thing and getting a completely different one. My desire is to always and distinctly see the Lord's mighty hand in everything, and I have strayed so far away from that to the point that I think MY plans are actually the right ones.

Back to the ol' PCH, the thing that I love about this stretch of coastal highway is how alone I feel when I am on it, how small I feel, and how obvious it is that we are always in the presence of the Almighty. I guess you could say that the thing I love about it is the way it takes my breath away. God truly is so good, so powerful, and I just want to see that and feel that in every aspect of my life. So, to end this confusing post, we are on the verge of an adventure, and I can't wait to see how the Lord uses us for more than just saying how great He is, but living how great He is.

I Didnt Go to Med School for Nothin!

2008-02-11T16:14:00.000-06:00

No idea why that is the title of this post...I just needed something to write in there because I didn't want it to just be the boring date that pops up if you don't type something in. I think that I have decided to start training for a half marathon. I have wanted to do one for quite some time, but for some reason have always come up with a "good" reason to not follow through. But I'll tell you what - I am tired of going for something and not following through, so I need as much help as I can get finishing this thing. I'm thinking something sometime in the fall-ish.

Also, GOOD NEWS!!! The evil tick is off of my sweet puppy's neck, so we are all once again healthy and happy. Which is definitely a good thing seeing as how we have to move out of our apartment by the end of this month and we'll need all of the health and happiness we can get to get everything done!!! I am also looking into coaching as a potential career one day. If you know me at all, you know that volleyball has been a passion of mine for quite a while, and it would truly bring me a lot of joy to help others to love the sport as much as I do.

As far as the last post is concerned, we definitely still need prayer for our "secret mission." We know that the Lord has His divine hand in every move that we make, but for some reason we still worry about our ability to make decisions. God will move greatly in our lives in the next couple of months, and I just hope that we are on the right track! Thanks for all of the prayers and all of the love!

We Have a Secret!!!! (and it is NOT a baby, so don't get any ideas)

2008-02-10T08:09:00.001-06:00

My boys! They're both so cute and I am thinking I should probably make a T-shirt out of this picture. So, yes, we have a secret about something going on in our lives. Those of you who know us well probably know what it is, but it's definitely not something we can afford to post online right now. Pretty much this is just a petition for prayer in our decision making abilities, and as our friend Kristen said the other night, that the Lord will help us to differentiate our emotions from reality. And that's all I'm going to say until we know more.

Also, some sad sad sad news...Bunker has a tick on his neck right now, and I can't get the guts/hold him still long enough by myself to pull it off. So sad. I'll be honest though, it's kind of made me think about myself. My initial reaction was to not touch him for a while and then I got to thinking: I truly love my sweet puppy, but if he was actually a child would I try to stay away until their father came home to get that tick off? Would I ignore them and not show my love to them until then too? Now, the reality is that I really cannot hold Bunker long enough to try and pull/burn the tick off of him, but I quickly realized that I should not withhold my love and affection from him just because of this parasite.

In the same way, the Lord does not withhold his love and affection and blessings from us because we have a disease/parasite called sin in our lives. He does not because He loves us; we are his babies! I am His little girl, and I know that the Lord will never leave my side. He "sees the depths of my heart and he loves me the same." And that can only take the infinite love and courage of an almighty God.

Y'all have a blessed day, and I hope to be posting more soon!

Drama drama drama

2008-01-27T21:27:00.000-06:00

As the title of this entry shows, the most recent post by my sweet husband is definitely a bit DRAMATIC. However, I can't help but feel like that is how our life feels pretty much most of the time right now. It's amazing how life change affects us, and as I continue to try my hand at this new job + grad school online + getting another national training certification thing I am finding that it is harder and harder to keep my priorities in alignment. In fact, other than the Lord and my family, I really don't know what to make a priority. School? Job? Finding a new place to live? Which one?

I am also finding that, as my friend Jess recently posted, I have come to hate money and the effect that it has on our lives. Nate and I have so many dreams and passions, and are finding more and more how annoying it is that everything has a price tag. That's not to say that it shouldn't because I know everybody needs to make a living, but seriously...does it have to be so much? Things like travel should be free, and every company should make it a PRIORITY to give employees at least 4 weeks of paid vacation. I don't believe that we should have to pay so stinkin' much to enjoy the wonders of the world the Lord has so graciously given us.

We could definitely use some prayer as we continue to try and find what the Lord has planned for our lives. We want more than anything to serve him, but I'll be honest: I'm finding it harder and harder to separate myself from what I want to do and what He is calling me to do. We just need some direction. Thanks for the love!

Old

2008-01-23T15:04:00.000-06:00

Well, I have officially turned old. Its all down hill from here. I think I will make it a point to go see "The Bucket List" in the next few days. The last few years I haven't really paid attention to how old I'm getting, probably because after you turn 21, there's not much else to look forward to. Until 25. This is the age where males in the state of Texas (maybe everywhere?) get a break on their car insurance...because they are getting old and settling down from their wild ways. So needless to say, its time to start paying attention to how old I am again. Those few short years between 21 and 25 flew by.

Other than getting old, things are moving right along. I got to see Phil Wickham perform last night at our church. That boy is talented. He did a solo performance, and he does a great job of capturing the crown in a way that has to be difficult when most of these people are used to a 5+ person band with all kinds of toys. And speaking of old, He is only 22 I think. That is not old. I has a long career ahead of him and I'm sure his music will get exponentially more engaging.

I'm not sure where I want to go for my birthday dinner this weekend, so I am accepting recommendations starting now. Leave a comment, and if I pick your restaurant I will bring you the doggy bag! (If you live out of state I will mail it to you...)

Other news, check back tomorrow. I think I will start a new segment of the blog titled "A balanced diet: a cookie in each hand. And other wise quotes from Nate's life" or something like that. I don't know, that's probably not going to happen because its pretty much a bad idea. See, even at my age bad ideas still happen. Until next time...

2008-01-21T09:16:00.000-06:00

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! So, no, this is not ACTUALLY what my cute husband looks like...we were just playing around with some pictures and I thought that this one would be funny to post up here. Notice how I conveniently "couldn't find" any funny pictures of me! These past couple of weeks sure have been a whirlwind of activity. I've started my new job at Lifetime, something that is frustrating at times because I'm such a perfectionist. Changing industries is NOT easy, but God and my amazing husband are helping me to get through it. I've also started grad school, as well as an online course for an NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) personal trainer certification that is also required by Lifetime. Like I said, I truly love my new job. It's just a lot different than anything I've ever done before. Trying to sell myself as a trusted individual is difficult, even when I know what my potential is. However, the Lord has put a passion in my heart to help other people live healthier lives and take care of their bodies. He has truly blessed me with a very supportive and helpful group of people that I work with, and I am so grateful!

Other news: Salah's coming home (at least back to Texas) soon-ish, and I am so excited! You know, growing up you never think that you and your sister will ever be as close as people describe, but I have found that our friendship is so much better than that. I am so thankful for my sister's sense of humor, level-headedness (SP?), and love. She always knows what to say to make me laugh in pretty much any situation, and I am so glad that she will be living closer to us soon.

Finally, I have entered the HGTV Dream Home giveaway contest, so soon Nate and I might be moving to the Florida Keys and driving a new GMC something or other. Wish us luck!

A thought on commitment

2008-01-11T11:26:00.000-06:00

I just read on article posted in magazine about Chase Jarvis, one of my favorite pro photographers, and it inspired me to think a little bit about commitment. He spoke about his beginnings as a photographer and the fact that he never intended to choose this as a profession, but one day he realized that had developed a passion for the craft and was going to fully commit to it. He says it this way, “I really can’t explain what happened,” says Jarvis. “But something just clicked inside me. I began to photograph with incredible passion, and I became totally obsessed and committed to photography.”

I took this as a wake up call.

All of my life I have heard and even used the word commitment, and I thought I was good at commiting to stuff. To this point in my life, I can probably list on one had the things that I am commited to.

Commitment is defined as: the act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action. Thats pretty crazy when you think about it. To bind yourself. I don't really like to be tied down to a whole lot. But I think I am going to make a list of things to fully commit to. So here goes...

1. An ever growing relationship with Jesus Christ
2. Romancing my wife and constantly reminding her why she fell in love with me
3. Building into my family (the whole thing, not just the immediate)
4. Building relationships with people who will keep me accountable to these commitments
5. Learning as much as possible about a given topic of current interest (i.e. photography)

Now, I know that this just looks like a mediocre list of New Year's resolutions, but I would like to remind you that a resolution is something that can be resolved, and a commitment is something you are bound to. That means that I never want to get away from the things listed above, I don't want to just resolve something and just move on. I want it integrate those things into every part of my being.

I'm not great at getting philosophical, but this is my attempt to motivate myself to get off my butt and commit, and stop waiting for things to happen all by themselves. More on this later.

Tell your friends

2008-01-08T17:19:00.001-06:00

We are going for as many views as we can get on our blog in the shortest time possible. Your goal, as a faithful blog reader, is to tell everyone you know to go to www.nateandheather.blogspot.com to read our blog and vote for where we should live when we 'grow up'. You only have until my birthday (Jan. 23), so get moving! Also, just so we know who is checking out our stuff, leave a comment and tell us who you are and give us some feedback on what topics you think we should talk about on here. Our goal is to make this an interesting blog that will have lots of cool info, but we need your help with ideas. So, go tell your friends to check us out and when they ask why...just tell them because. Oh yeah, if you have a blog or website please let us know about it, we would love to check it out and learn more about you too.

So why the picture of the MAC and PC guys? Because that is one of the most innovative advertising campaigns ever. You disagree? Fine. Just think about how many other people have turned that concept into some other spin-off. Its a lot. Anyway, I just thought I would put that up because Apple has done their job in converting me. Heather and I will be UPGRADING to Macs very soon (mostly because our foundation group was incredibly generous and hooked us up with a gift certificate after we got robbed and had both of our computers stolen). I am super excited to finally be converted to the other side!

Be looking for more posts on a regular basis with more stuctured content.

BANANA BOOOOOOOOOOOOOAT

2008-01-07T13:10:00.000-06:00

Well, I must say that the beginning of this new year has certainly been better than the end of the old one! January 1, 2008 was my last day at Starbucks! Yeah! Now, I know that most of you out there are obsessed with Starbucks, and that is absolutely fine. More power to ya...but I must say that working in the retail/quick food and beverage industry is NOT for me. Throw in a couple of not-so-awesome managers and you have a bad combination. However, that being said, I wish Starbucks the best of luck and here I go on my new adventure!

I got a job working for Lifetime Fitness as a personal trainer, and I could not be more excited/a little scared. It is a commission-based job, so the good news is I can determine exactly how much I make. And I get to help people get off their butts and get healthy rather than enabling people to get fatty drinks and justify it because they "need the caffeine." Newsflash: you don't need the caffeine, you need to live a healthy active life, and you'll find that it's so much more of a natural high than caffeine could ever be.

Nate and I celebrated our one year anniversary on Sunday...SO exciting. We let Bunker stay at Nate's mom's house, and we went downtown and stayed the night at the Fairmont Hotel. It was absolutely beautiful, and we had a great time. Let me tell you, marriage is such an amazing blessing. I know that I have never felt love for another person the way I do for my husband. It's not always easy, but it is always rewarding. God has shown us so much about ourselves (the good and the bad) and there is no other person I would love to share my life with!

I was looking at the top of our blog, and those are pictures from our honeymoon in Maui. I am so sad that we don't either live there permanently or visit once a month. And yes, I'm serious. One day though...................................

Anyway, I hope that this new year has been as big of a blessing to everyone else as it has been for us. May God keep you in the joy of His heart!

Bowling!

2007-12-30T17:47:00.000-06:00

We went to Main Event Friday with my boy Austin and his family. He is living in Los Angeles these days, so needless to say it was good to see him. I got a little excited after our first game of bowling because after playing pool and shuffle board and getting wooped in both, I beat him by one pin! Trust me, when you get to beat a professional athlete at anything, its exciting.

Post-Christmas Lull

2007-12-27T14:34:00.000-06:00

Well, Christmas is over and new Year's is still a few days away. It always seems to me that the week in-between is weird because you can't get into the normal swing of things but things still have to get done. I don't know, just random thinking.

Our Christmas was good. Heather and I both had about five days off, so we packed the truck and headed down to "the hill country" to visit her mom's side of the family. Her grandfather and aunt live down there, and her parents came down too so it was a good time. Our family and friends have been SO gracious to us with an overflow of gifts to ease our recent loss and unfortunate chain of events.

For those who don't know, I will run down the previous 2 weeks events:

Dec. 10, Heather's grandfather fell and fractured a couple of ribs...not good;

Dec. 12, My grandfather had a heart attack and was in the hospital for a week...not good;

Dec. 14, our apartment was broken into and all of my camera equipment, our computers, DVD's and even some cash was stolen...not good;

Dec. 18, Bunker and Levi were playing and their teeth hit each other as they were jumping for a ball and chipped Bunker's tooth up into the root. He had to have the tooth extracted...not good;

Dec. 21, I was playing an innocent game of hackie-sack (sp?) at work and collided with a co-worker and busted the bridge of my nose open. Went to the emergency room to get my nose glued shut...not good.

My boss at work told me I should go lock myself in a closet for awhile and let all of this blow over, and I'm beginning to think that's not a bad idea! But on the flip side, we have so many things to be thankful for. Here's a quick list of those:

Our grandfathers are both doing really good compared to the way things were looking a few weeks ago;

Our amazing friends generously gave us enough money to cover our deductable for the insurance so we can get our stuff back! they also hooked us up with a gift card so we can get new computers that are compatible;

We will get to replace all of the older, used stuff that was stolen with brand new, better stuff;

Our families showed us how much they love us by making this Christmas really fun and relaxing, as well as giving us more than we deserve;

Bunker had his tooth pulled, but he didn't need that tooth anyway!;

Heather says that I will have a cool scar on my nose (I guess that's a good thing?!)

Heather is at her final interview with Lifetime Fitness to get her job as a personal trainer;

And finally, our God is still good and He is still worthy of our praise!

Through all of this, we have learned a lot and are still being stretched and pulled in every direction. I firmly believe that we all go through different seasons of life, and right now we have been going through a pretty tough winter! The good news is that seasons change and we will hopefully be better people after this is all said and done. We are looking forward to this new year and cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for us.

My plan was to have a website up and running by now, but due to recent events mentioned above, it will not happen until after I get a new computer! Keep checking the site and let me know if you need some pictures! Have a great day, week, month, and/or year!

2007-12-21T09:23:00.000-06:00

So, wow! The past week in and of itself has been absolutely crazy! For anyone who doesn't know, last Friday (December 14) I (Heather) came home to find that the door to our apartment had been kicked in and a LOT of money in electronics stolen from our home. Bunker was fine (he was in his crate) but it has been a very scary, violating, and annoying experience. Luckily we were insured for all of the stuff, but there are a lot of things like our peace of mind and safety that have been compromised and will take a while to get back.

Also, a couple of nights ago Bunker and Levi were playing and went for the same ball and crashed their mouths together...and Bunker broke off part of his tooth! So yesterday we had to take hime to the vet and have the tooth extracted because it would otherwise have gotten infected.

We are hoping that the rest of our holiday goes a lot smoother than the first part...it's definitely a time of refinement and trial, but we are faithful that the Lord will continue to work in our lives and help us through this time. He has already been faithful to us through our amazing family and friends who have been so supportive and loving. I have never felt a group of people close in on us with such love before, and that in and of itself has made this whole experience ok for us...that God would provide such an amazing and caring group of family and friends. We are truly blessed!

Thanksgiving

2007-12-10T16:31:00.001-06:00

This is a picture from when we went to Little Rock for Thanksgiving with Nate's side of the family! We had so much fun...I must admit, when we first started dating and he said his entire family was from Arkansas, I was a little scared. Only because I had never been there before, and all you have to go on at that point is stereotypes that other people tell you. But honestly, Nate's family is amazingly sweet, and Little Rock is absolutely gorgeous. I would totally consider moving there (not even kidding a little bit!) We had a great time with his mom's side of the family on Thanksgiving, and then with his dad's side the next day in North Little Rock (yes, it's really two cities...I don't get it). Bunker came with us and was so well behaved most of the time, we always wonder if it's the same dog when we travel with him! He's getting heavier and bigger all the time. I think he's pushing 80 lbs. about now, but he is such a good dog, especially for not even being a year old yet!

Things are going well here in Dallas, too. I am still at Starbucks except at a different store that's closer to our apartment. That part is nice, but I really miss my friends at my old store and the way things run over in Rowlett. Firewheel is starting to be fun though as I get to know the partners and customers at that store. On Saturday I went and interviewed at a job fair for Lifetime Fitness, which would be amazing if it works out...no pun intended, hahaha! But seriously though, it seemed like a great facility/company. Speaking of interviews, Nate is at one right now for an advertising company in the area. It's a pretty big deal, considering we've been looking for something new for him for a while. We would love to both like our jobs a lot more than we currently do. School is starting to creep up on me, and I can't wait to start learning again! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! I'm such a school nerd, but I can't help it.

Finally, we're going to Leakey, Texas for Christmas this year. We'll be spending our Christmas down there with my mom's side our family, which will be so much fun! I haven't seen a lot of my cousins in a long time, and my I can't wait to see my aunts and my grandpa. I love them so much and miss them a lot! So it's a good thing we get to see them soon!

I'll definitely try to update this thing more often...BY THE WAY, did anyone see the amazing Christmas pictures my sweet husband took of the Irwins? I'm so proud of him, he's a amazing, call us for prices/times if anyone needs a wedding/portrait/event/anything photographed! Peace!

More Christmas Pictures!

2007-12-08T17:22:00.000-06:00

Here are a couple from Will, Haley, and Brighton Irwin from today. More to come later, fixing to go to Shane & Shane Christmas concert.

THE RIGHT STUFF!!!

2007-12-04T21:47:00.000-06:00

Boyz II Men
New Kids on the Block

Tonight I have been doing the ol' blast from the past thing and listening to my favorite boy band of all time...no, no N'SYNC or Backstreet...I'm talking about the absolute dreamiest...the NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK! I have listed a web link at the top for your enjoyment. Let it also be noted however that my sweet husband, who thinks I'm crazy for listening to this music, was once a HUGE fan of Boyz II Men, therefore I have listed a link for that too.

Life is good...we're just kind of wading through it right now, which is not the most fun, but we're figuring out new things from day to day. Lately we've been talking a lot about moving away from Texas; however, I honestly don't see that happening anytime soon. We've definitely got plenty of things to keep us her for a few more years. It's something we want to do though...live somewhere else and experience a new place together. The Hamptons maybe? I think so.

Oh yeah, and I'm now officially certified as a personal trainer from the Cooper Institute, so pretty much that makes me an expert on anything and everything related to fitness. Just ask me.

Bunker's great, he's getting bigger and bigger every day. He's definitely a LOT bigger than we originally thought, but I'm loving it...he's such a sweet dog, even in his bratty moments.

I'm finding more and more that I miss my old store and the people there. If any of them read this, I hope you know that you have impacted my life more than I ever thought possible, and I have been truly blessed by the love I was shown at Dalrock and 66 in Rowlett. These people are amazing!

I promise the next blog won't be quite so random, but I wanted to throw this all up there and have another one for ya to read. Have a wonderful and amazingly blessed week!

DOG PARK!!!

2007-11-19T14:33:00.000-06:00

So, these pictures are a little out of order, but still fun!

Bunker was tired after his afternoon at the dog park...he fell asleep in the truck standing up!

This adorable American bulldog piled on Bunker and Levi while they were playing bitey-face!

Bitey-face fun
What a cute Boxer! It's teeth are a little jankity, but what can you do?

Some more bitey-face fun!

Bunker slimed Levi on the face...nothing out of the ordinary

This Mastiff and this little Chocolate Lab mix were so funny...they played together the ENTIRE time in the middle of the park!

Me and Nate being cute on our photo shoot with Austin and Rachel

I'm trying to look adoringly into his eyes but I guess he just wasn't in the mood...

This was a very fun weekend for Nate and I...we went out to dinner and a movie with his dad and Linda, and we saw Dan in Real Life. SUCH a cute movie, we all really enjoyed it! Saturday we did some Christmas card pictures for our friends Austin and Rachel and their sweet white Schnauzer Millie, which turned out really well. It's not hard when you have great subjects though! Church on Sunday was awesome, and then last night we went to the dog park with Bunker (duh) and our neighbor Amy and her dog Levi. It was such a beautiful day, and obviously everyone else had the same idea. There were so many dogs, I was in heaven.

Thanksgiving is coming up here quickly, regardless of the summer weather we are experiencing. It's just starting to make me think...after all of the complaining that we do about what we don't like about our jobs or the amount of money that we make or what we look like or feel like or want or don't want, it doesn't matter anyway. God has blessed us beyond what we could ever deserve, and for that we are so grateful. We have an amazing family, spectacular friends, a comfortable home, a beautiful and fun dog, clothing, food, an education, and most importantly we have the love of God and our love for one another. So the next time we start up on complaining about things, you have permission to theoretically slap us.

One last thing: I think I am going to try and write a book. I don't have a subject, but I know that I would like it to be semi-autobiographical. So if anyone has any ideas, let me know!

Fun With Pictures

2007-11-12T10:24:00.000-06:00

I know it's been a while, but seriously...the past couple of weeks have been CRAZY!!! We sat down last night and decided to have some fun with Bunker in the world of picture taking. Unfortunately I had to coax him to lick my face by smearing peanut butter on it, but I think I'm going to blame that one on the fact that he's a puppy and still very distracted. No, it's not because he thinks my face tastes gross or anything!

Last week I (Heather) attended a Personal Training course at the Cooper Institute here in Dallas. It was SO MUCH FUN, and it just re-affirmed that I do not want to serve people fatty sugary drinks for the rest of my life...I want to help them to live a healthier and a happier life through fitness and wellness. It was pretty eye-opening though because not only did I discover how to assess someone's fitness level, but I was my own test subject. Let's just say it wasn't pretty, but everyone has to start somewhere, and I'm OK with starting off where I am. There were some awesome websites we learned about though, the coolest one being www.mypyramid.gov, which is an interactive tool to help teach people how to eat and in what proportions and everything...very fun and helpful!

Nate is still contemplating starting a photography business, and I have been super impressed with the talent he's shown even in just designing his business cards. He is so talented (even though he won't acknowledge it) and I am so proud of him! If anyone needs pictures taken, he's the man for the job!

Finally, God is really showing us right now what it means to be humbled. I think we all need a reminder sometimes that we are not in control, and right now we are definitely not in control. However, it is cool to see how God is working on our hearts and changing our lives. Even though it's scary, I know that we'll make it through and learn to be more faithful in the way we love the Lord with our lives. I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed week!

2007-10-29T13:38:00.000-05:00

haha this is a picture of Bunker and Arnie a few months ago...pretty funny!

Well, it certainly has been a few days since we last posted! So much can happen in such a short amount of time. Not that it has, but I was just saying it can! I (Heather) am still at Starbucks, but am definitely in the market for something new. I have my workshop for personal training next week, and then will be looking for when to take the exam, so if anyone needs anything to pray about, that could be one! I feel pretty confident in my ability to pass this exam, it's just the whole finding a job afterwards thing that is a bit scary. I am not usually one for big change, so when it comes around I get a little SCURRED! Nate is still at Bluefish TV, and not having the time of his life, but it's a job and definitely helps to pay the bills. It's kinda scary when money is as tight as it is right now, but we're both hoping and praying that with the job change for me sometime that it will help ease that a little.

Rolly (my Corolla) is in the shop and now I'm rollin' around town in a Cadillac...pretty sweet, I think I might just drive around a ton because it's SO SMOOTH. No wonder old people like these cars! There's not a ton to say in this post, but I just wanted to have a chance to let everyone know what's going on in the Disarro household! Have a wonderful and very blessed day!

2007-10-15T11:24:00.000-05:00

What a weekend! It started Friday with the Watermark marriage conference, which was amazing and totally worth it. Nate and I feel so much more empowered to communicate effectively and resolve conflict. We had an awesome time with our friends Melanie and Josh, Cliff and Kristen, and Joy and Patrick. Then, Saturday, we had the opportunity to go to Maggiano's Little Italy in Plano to see Nate's brother JD and his beautiful (now) wife Brooke get married. We had such a great time at the reception. I must say, never knew I was a dancer but I guess now I can claim that on my resume! Sunday was fun, we finally had a chance to go to the Arboretum and watched our friends Austin and Ashley get married. It was so gorgeous, the Arboretum is definitely an amazing setting, and they are absolutely adorable. I must admit though, until they return from their honeymoon in Maui we are not their friends. It's just out of jealousy, though! We definitely need some prayer in the area of employment, but other than that our lives are great, and it is so wonderful to enjoy our lives as husband and wife!

More pics from the concert

2007-10-08T23:10:00.000-05:00

These are a few more from the concert. It was fun.

2007-10-08T10:35:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody! We had an amazing time at the David Crowder Concert on Friday night at the House of Blues in Dallas...what an amazing venue, and the bands/artists that played were just spectacular. David Crowder Band is such an entertaining, creative, and God-loving band, we were just blown away. We had a great time with our friends Austin and Rachel, so it truly was a great night!

As I'm sure most of you know, I (Heather) am not at all happy with my job at Starbucks. I am continually being hurt by my new store manager and my district manager, and am certainly looking for a new job. I was thinking today though, there is absolutely no way that I am not going to give 100% effort for this job, because regardless of the pain and the sense of failure, the people that I work with and the customers I serve still deserve my best, and I hope that they will all see God at work in me despite the issues with my managers.

My friend Rachel and I were talking at the David Crowder concert, and she said something that truly made me think. She said, "I can see God so well through dogs." So since then I have been watching Bunker and thinking about that statement, and I have to agree. Dogs should be the perfect example of the way we should live life. They are joyous always as they run and play, smile, bark, and sleep. They are perfectly trusting: even when I lose my temper and yell at Bunker, he still loves me, still smiles at me, still brings me a toy to tug on. During all of this stuff with Starbucks and the pain that I have felt this weekend, specifically last night, he continues to cheer me up. I took him on a walk this morning, and he just ran so freely through the field off of his leash and all I could think was, "I wish I could be that happy and carefree. I wish I could run through life and not worry about anything because I love my Master so much and know that I will be taken care of."

BUT when I started to think about it, I can! So what's the use in worrying? It's hard not to, but my goal for the day is to be more like a dog: to love unconditionally, to trust, and to work/play in a way that would please my Master. Thank you, and stake it.

(this is my wise friend Rachel and I at the Crowder concert)

This Picture is Just Because I Think It's Cute

2007-10-07T21:08:00.000-05:00

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6

WOW. I saw this verse flash on the screen in church this morning, and albeit simple and commonly used, who really stops and thinks about the reality of that statement? We have all, each one of us, been led astray. Satan has had a hold on every single person since the beginning of man, except for Jesus. So what does that mean for us then? Should we begin to celebrate our iniquities, seeing as how they have been taken care of already? No. Instead we should run as hard and as fast away from them as possible. Alright then: reality check. Just because we run does not mean that we can hide. But the good news is this: that there are other people out there who sin, but who have been forgiven and loved, and now have the legs to run from sin without stumbling.

You guys, I don't know if this makes any sense, and if not I apologize. But someone who reads this might just see that regardless of the sin, the temptation to keep sinning, there is hope. There are so many things that I wish I could take back about my life, but what good would that do? If you take something back, then there would be no memory or recolection of that which would only lead you susceptible for attack again. Rather, I encourage anyone who has had issues (and let's face it, we all have issues) to be open about it and be an encouragement for someone else. Let your love and the forgiveness you have received in Christ to be a banner of hope for those who do not know or do not believe. I love you, but best of all we are loved by a God who is so much greater and so much more powerful than imagination could ever conjure up, and I pray that you would come to know this love today.

2007-09-21T07:24:00.000-05:00

After 2 years in the making, singer, song writer, entrepreneur, and coffee shop owner Justin Barnard is finally going to release his next album. Heather and I were fortunate enough to have Justin and his wife Marla sing at our wedding, and they did a wonderful job. For those who don't know, Justin is the brother of Christian artist Shane Barnard. If you get a chance, go get Justin's CD at independentbands.com on Oct. 2.

2007-09-09T20:28:00.000-05:00

Well, just thought I'd put up a quick little picture of our family. Have a good one.

Labor Day

2007-09-03T20:18:00.001-05:00

So, Its been awhile since my wife has been on here, and its been forever (literally) since I've been on here. What's new since July 17th you ask? Well, we returned from beautiful, sunny, mild California to the moist hot climate of Dallas to see that some changes were in the midst. Soon after the return, I began looking for a new job. I had just finished my 1 year mark with Starbucks and decided that there was no career path in it for me. In the mean time, Heather decided that she was going to apply to grad school at the University of Alabama. I know, it sounds crazy that she would apply to such an obscure school in the middle of an obscure state, but they have a distance-learning program in the nutrition field which is what she wants to do.

So the process began and I got online to find me a new job. If you've ever looked for jobs online before, you know the annoying process it is due to the same employers being on every site, and none of them are offereing anything interesting. So after a few days of frustration, I came upon a site for "Local jobs in Richardson, Texas." Most of the jobs here were the same as the other sites, big companies offereing small jobs, but one job caught my eye. In college, I decided my junior year to minor in Mass Communications due to a random desire to learn more about media. So I came aross this job from a company named Bluefish TV. I didn't know anything about the company and I had this interest in media, so I decided to click. Lo and behold, it is a Christian based media company that produces videos to help church leaders teach. This sounded like something that was right up my ally. I began to research the company and to keep this story semi-short, I called them on my way to work that day to set up an interview. So a week later, I went in for the interview and got the job on the spot. On of the coolest things about it was that my new boss, Justin Foreman, has a huge passion for Business as missions. He blogs about that subject almost everyday, and that is something that i have been longing to be a part of.

It seems as thought God has brought me to the place I need to be in my life right now. I just finished my first week there and have had a good time. I even get to play basketball during our breaks.

Now, Heather has sent in all of her paperwork for U of A (labama) and is just waiting on one more letter of recommendation from an ex-professor of hers at Texas Tech. So as soon as that gets in, we will anxiously be awaiting the answer from Alabama. I have no doubt in my mind that she will get in, based on her creditials from school and having one year of work under her belt. She is also currently looking into getting certified as a personal trainer from the Cooper Institute in Dallas. If anyone has any good connections there, let us know, it ain't cheap!

Finally, our dog, Bunker, is getting bigger and more energetic. He requires almost constant attention when we are at home, but luckily we have a really great neighbor. Amy lives in the apartment building right next to us on the third floor, so her balcony overlooks our backyard. She has a chocolate lab named Levi. Everytime she lets Levi out, he barks for Bunker to come out and play. It is the greatest thing in the world having them up there, because just about everyday Amy brings Levi down to play in our apartment. They are best friends and from the time they see each other they are going non-stop running laps around the kitchen table, fighting for the same toy, or trying to drink water out of the same bowl at the same time.

In all, things are going well, we just need to hurry up and hear from Alabama soon. Heather wants to start in the spring, and we are trying to figure out if she is going to need to work or not during school. Exciting times! Keep checking back.

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

2007-07-17T21:55:00.000-05:00

the crookedest street in America

Well, we're now on day 3 of our awesome vacation in California! We got in on Saturday afternoon, then drove up the Pacific Coast Highway, then got in to Livermore that evening. Sunday we hung out with family, and then went around to a couple of vineyards and did some amazing wine tastings. On Monday, Nate, Salah, and I went to San Francisco and did some pretty neat exploring. We went through the Marriott, visited Peet's Coffee and Tea (which was kind of a big deal for me and Nate), walked through ChinaTown, visited Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, and pretty much just ate anything and everything, which was AWESOME! Then this morning we all drove to San Luis Obispo and have been enjoying the incredible 75 degree-not-a-cloud-in-the-sky weather and the beach. For some reason the pictures part of Blogger is interrupting my flow, so I will post some of our sweet-awesome pictures!

Bears Beets Battlestar Galactica...

2007-07-08T21:30:00.000-05:00

HELLLLLOOOOOOOOOO!!! It's 6 days and counting until Nate and I get to go California for vacation! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOO...I can't even begin to explain how much we need this chance to get away and go somewhere different. The sad part is we have to leave Bunker at the vet's office...I'm pretty sad. For those of you who know me, you know I'm going to be crying pretty hard when we have to leave him! So sad! But it will be nice to get away, from work, from Dallas, and from the "daily grind" if you will! Also, exciting news...our friend Jon will be moving closer to Dallas! Yay for friends! AND our friends Marshall and Caitlyn are getting married soon! Lots of exciting stuff going on. We will definitely be putting some posts up from California, so watch out now!

Also, side note: we took some sweet pictures on Nate's dad's camera, and apparently they're too big to post, so I have to wait and have Nate make them smaller! Sorry!

OOPS! BLOGGING IS HARDER THAN I THOUGHT....

2007-06-29T08:38:00.000-05:00

I know we're boring lately...really all we're doing nowadays is working and figuring out this whole potential grad school thing. I (Heather) am looking very strongly at going to the University of North Texas for a masters in Kinesiology/Sports Sciences and hopefully specializing in nutritional health. We'll see...it's so crazy how much needs to be done to get to that point! Other than that, we're just constantly amazed at how good God is to us, and how He is always providing for his children, even though we don't deserve it. Bunker and Levi are now playing together a couple times a week! The last picture is of the two of them...can anyone pick out Bunker? Nate and I are getting so EXCITED about going out to California and seeing Salah and the rest of my family! I can't wait to drive up Highway 1 and check out the amazing coast line...look for pictures of that, we all know Nate can't help but have a camera attached to his hand! I pray that God blesses you all, and that you have a great week of worship!

BUNKER BEAR!!!!!!

2007-06-12T10:46:00.000-05:00

Our puppy, I'm convinced, is the cutest thing in the entire world. He has such a crazy personality, but you know what? Just adds to his cuteness! Bunker got to play with Levi last night, and I think he kind of got it handed to him, but Nate and I are FINE with that because it means we get to sleep through the night. I'm convinced that it could be a nightly thing if only Nate would allow Bunker on the bed. All he wants is some company, right?

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, we love sticks. Sticks are goooooooooooooooooooooooooood.

Ok ok, so he looks a little drunk here. I promise we are NOT giving our puppy beer...we just like to wake him up and take pictures of him! Mean you say? I think not...besides, he's just a dog...it's not like he won't sleep the rest of the night! Or will he?

Well, things are going pretty well for us! I fell off of my bike last night...I don't think bikes and I should hang out anymore, due to my past experience...but I took a chance and got burned again. Literally, I got road burn on my knee and my hands. YIPES! I guess it was just an off day though, because this morning I already feel better. Let's hope that when I step on the treadmill in 20 minutes I won't have a vivid replay of yesterday's spill!

2007-06-09T08:20:00.000-05:00

Today was Bunker's first time to ride in the bed of Nate's truck. Nate rode with him, and it was cute. This is another picture we took when he was younger, but he still looks like this, only MUCH bigger!

Last night Nate and I went out on the town to celebrate our 6 month wedding anniversary (ok ok, it's not til next month, but I'll explain in a minute). We ate at Arcodoro Pomodoro, the absolute best Italian food I've ever had in my life. We definitely recommend eating there; the atmosphere is so romantic, no matter what part of the restaurant you're in, the service was spectacular, and the food was amazing. And they had the best cappuccino I've ever had!

THEN my sweet husband had purchased tickets to take me to see Chicago at the Dallas Music Hall at Fair Park, and it was so wonderful! It was a little different than the movie, but so impressive to see how talented these actors and actresses are! I had a blast, and it was so nice to just go on a great date and get all dressed up with the man I love!

Potato Chips

2007-06-08T14:54:00.000-05:00

(this is us on our honeymoon, the best time in the ENTIRE WORLD! we had just finished surfing)

(this is our little dude, Bunker, the very first night we had him)

Well, everyone, Nate and I now have a blog so that we can keep everyone updated on the hugely varied extravaganza we call life. Being married is so much fun, and we absolutely LOVE our little puppy, Bunker (who I'm sure you'll see posted more than Nate and I). He's a chocolate lab/maybe pointer mix. He's overflowing with energy, but we love it. We are both still working for Starbucks; like any job it's fun most of the time, but there are those days that you just kind of want to go home and crawl in bed. Or go lay out by the pool. Or do anything else but be there. But whatever. We go to Watermark Community Church here in Dallas, and we feel so completely blessed to have found a place that we can grow with. The Lord is definitely moving there, and we just can't wait to see where He takes it. Well, I'll be posting again soon!