Hilton Head for Christmas

I'm visiting my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina with the rest of my immediate family. We've been here since last Friday and will stay till a few days after Christmas. We've been checking out motorcycles:





Going on walks with our cousin Max:


and enjoying happy Georges:



Hunter has been sabotaging perfectly good pictures intended for Brent:





We've been squeezing in for group pictures:



and enjoying pretty views:



And Georgie has had her fair share of attention from the great grandparents:

"Bachelorette Party"

So last night I spent the night with my maid of honor, Holly. We've had this sleepover on our calendars for weeks, maybe even months, because the morning we woke up she planned on taking me out for "one last hurrah" as girlfriends. Last night I met her at her work, a cute little coffee shop called Dr. Conkeys, just as she began closing up for the night. We made plans to buy Mamma Mia (the movie) and junk food on the way home and watch and sing the night away. It was a blast watching the movie with her, and when it was over, we decided we hadn't had enough. We turned on the sing-a-long version of the movie, flipped to our favorite songs, and sung and danced with all our energy in our pjs. It was glorious girly fun.

The next morning, on our way to our destination of the day, we again listened to the soundtrack of Mamma Mia and sang our hearts out together.

Ok, so let me just tell you, Holly knows how to throw a bachelorette party. She arranged, through her dad's friend who works on the set of The Office, to take me to a filming of the show!!! She made sure, too, that her dad's friend Phil knew that we're especial fans of the actor who plays Jim, John Krasinski. When we arrived on set Phil ushered us into what they call "The Green Room," a little room with ironically blue-painted walls with a comfy couch facing two tv screens on which you can watch what's happening live on set, and listen to everyone talk behind scenes.


In between takes we got to hear Jenna Fischer (Pam) tell everyone a story about Angela (Angela). Angela recently delivered a baby, and apparently has been losing a lot of sleep because she is very out of it, as evidenced by this story. Everyone on set were given bottles of water, and someone handed Angela a marker and told her to write her name on it. Instead of writing her name, Angela wrote on the bottle, "Water." Poor woman. :)

The first star sighting we had was Mindy Kaling (Kelly) who we saw as she walked past the doorway of The Green Room to her office. Next, Oscar, (Oscar) came into The Green Room. He recognized that we were unfamiliar so he reached out his hand and introduced himself. He continued a bit of small talk as he grabbed his jacket and then left the room.

Outside of The Green Room there is a little fridge and a table full of goodies for the people on set. Rainn Wilson (Dwight) went to the table, and as he was reaching for a drink, he met eyes with me. He immediately dropped what he was doing and came into The Green Room to introduce himself to Holly and me. He made a bit of fun at us that our names were so similar, and when we told him who our host for the day was (Phil), he said, "What an awful guy, Phil. Ha." as he walked out of the room. Holly and I looked at each other and squeal-giggled.

About ten minutes later, after Holly and I had had our fill of reading the hilarious script that was on the coffee table before us, Phil entered the room and said, "Holly and Hayley, may I introduce to you Mr. John Krasinski." John (Jim) entered the room close behind him and introduced himself with a handshake for each of us. Phil told John that I was engaged to be married, and John very cheerily congratulated me. I let him know that I was currently celebrating my bachelorette party with Holly, and he quickly responded, "Oh, great. If you're gonna have a bachelorette party, this is the place to do it, in The Green Room, which is actually blue." We laughed and eventually asked for a picture with him, something he very eagerly agreed to!


After Phil took our picture, he commented that Holly and I probably represent the general demographic of Johns fans. We shrugged our shoulders and said, "Probably." John was like, "Oh, too bad, I was kinda shooting for the 35-40 year old men." Holly said, "Well my dad's a fan of yours!" John: "There ya go!" Phil and John then said their goodbyes and hustled off to set. Holly and I stayed to watch one more take and then we left for our next destination.

I feel so blessed...Hoily, with her connections, has visited the set of The Office twice, and I have been privileged enough to join her both times!!

Holly next took me to a cute little tea room on Honolulu Street in Montrose, one of our favorite towns during Christmas time. The tea was so fun with her!



Before heading back home for the evening, we took a stroll down Honolulu Street and did a bit of shopping. Very cold and wet because of the rain, but fun. :)

VERY good day.

Our First Celebration of Christmas

I'm leaving town this Friday with the rest of my immediate family to spend ten days around Christmas with my grandparents , aunts, uncles and cousins on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. I'm not returning until December 29th, five days before the wedding. :0!! The trip has been in the works for a year or two, and the plane tickets were purchased even before I was engaged, so as soon as I got the ring on my finger my family made sure that there was a ticket for Brent too. Sadly, when Brent started his new job in October, his boss let him know that he couldn't give him that time off for Hilton Head. Brent and I will therefore be separated for Christmas. :(

We celebrated Christmas together last night! We started out the evening opening presents at Chocolatine. As we were entering the shop at a quarter to six with bushels of presents in our arms, Hugo had to call out, "Um, we are closed. Sorry!" I asked, "Closed? Is there no time for hot chocolate or anything?" A light in Hugo's head turned on and he said, "Oh, just like ten minutes for hot chocolate? Of course. I thought you were expecting a bigger party with all of the gifts in your arms."

Brent and I quickly sat down for hot cocoa. He had me open a little gift first. A Starbucks Gold Member card. He knows me and loves me well, especially considering his disdain for coffee and his joking efforts to stop me from drinking it. :)

Hugo then served us our hot cocoa. "Looks like someone is celebrating Christmas!" Brent and I started gulping the drink down, knowing Hugo needed to pack up and go home as soon as we were done.

Next it was Brent's turn to open a gift. The first package I let him open held a brand new, unopened bag of sugar. Yes, sugar. He was just as confused as you are, but he thanked me sweetly. :)

My turn to open Brent's main gift to me. A new camera. A sweet camera. Complete with rechargeable battery, something gigabyte video memory card and nice leather case. I couldn't believe my eyes. I thanked him profusely, and was especially thankful when I thought of all the beautiful pictures on Kauai we can take (did I tell you that's where Brent's taking me for our honeymoon?).

The next gift Brent opened was coconut oil. He then realized what the sugar was for, and was able to guess what the last remaining two presents were. Our favorite homemade kettle corn calls for sugar, coconut oil, and, of course, popcorn kernals, and for best results must be popped in a Whirly Pop Popcorn Popper. Sure enough, his next gift to open was popcorn kernals and lastly, the main gift, a Whirly Pop Popcorn Popper.

After thanking each other and enjoying our hot cocoas to their last drops, we hustled out of Chocolatine and drove down the street to an outdoor skating rink for a round of ice skating. The scene was perfect. Christmas lights were everywhere, fun Christmas music was constantly playing, snowflake light shadows were cast onto the ice, and the rink was set right next to a pond glistening in the christmas light.

They gave us an hour session on the ice for the money we paid, and at first Brent and I didn't think we were going to want to stay on the ice that long. However, skating round and round while holding hands and having fun, deep or flirty conversations, doing our best at figure skating moves that seemed to always end with a kiss, racing each other around the rink, it was much less easy to get disinterested in what we were doing than we thought it would be. When we finally decided we had gotten our fill of skating, we sat down to take our skates off, and in a matter of minutes heard over the loud speaker, "Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your session on the ice." One hour had flown by fast!

Both of us agreed it was a perfect evening with perfect company.

The Glory of God

Please bear with my ramblings.

I'm speeding through the last chapters of Matthew before the end of this year because Brent and I would like to start together studying Mark in the new year. Just today I was reading Matthew 20:1-16, the parable Jesus gives about the master who gave the same day's wage to those laborers he hired in the last hours of the work day as he gave to those he hired at the start of the day. The laborers who started in the early morning grumbled, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' But the master replied, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius [the currency of the day, I guess]? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?' Then Jesus makes the comparison to the kingdom of heaven: 'So the last will be first, and the first last.'

I read that and quickly prayed, 'Lord, let me never scorn the blessings You give to those who put their faith in You at the last second.' If I, someone who has known the Lord as long as I can remember, am going to enjoy the benefits of God's grace and mercy to the same capacity as the thief on the cross who put his faith in Christ only in the hours before he died, all glory be to God for His overflowing generosity and forgiveness! As MacArthur puts it in his study Bible, 'The thief on the cross will enjoy the full blessings of heaven alongside those who have labored their whole lives for Christ. Such is the grace of God.' Such IS the grace of God, and praise Him for it!

When I read MacArthur's statement, I was struck by how different my evaluation of my life is to the description of having labored my whole life for Christ. I look back on all the years I've been a believer, around twenty, and rather than seeing a tale of labors of love for Christ, I'm struck by the grace and mercy He continuously pours into my life, sometimes to the point where I feel it's too much and I'm ashamed to accept any more. I would LOVE to say that I've labored all my years for Christ, but I think a more accurate description would be that I've had too many failings and shortcomings to count, and the story of my life is one of a child who daily drinks in God's transforming grace, because without it I would be nothing. I must say, I consider myself more undeserving of heaven's eternal blessings than those who come to know the Lord in their last moments, because I've had all this time to live for Christ, and daily I feel that my deep and heavy debt to Him is growing exponentially. And it is, but the most rejuvenating and motivating fact is that the debt that is continuously expanding has ALREADY been covered, no matter how large it grows, by Christ's blood!

Meditating on these things makes me so excited for heaven...to SEE God, to know at the same time His infinite majesty, holiness and splendor, AND the magnitude of His grace, mercy and compassion. I'm so excited to know the reality of HIM, I'm so excited to experience reality to its fullest extent. Just now I'm sitting on my bed and looking around my room, realizing how easy it's been lately to get caught up in the 'reality' of the world. My bedroom is looking less and less like a bedroom and more and more like a bridal warehouse. Rolls of tool, dainty white napkins, cute silver kissy bells, flower girl basket, Martinelli's, champagne cups, bubbles that come in bottles that resemble champagne flutes, all cute and exciting and make me think of the wonderful DAY that's coming in three weeks and two days. But preparing a WEDDING makes it so easy to slip and forget that the world's realities of wedding days and favors and decorations are NOT anything close to lasting reality.

Preparing a MARRIAGE so far has been a ginormous reminder of heaven's true realities. I have to admit, I didn't know what I was getting into when I signed up for a relationship. It truly IS a sanctifying process. And at first, it isn't sanctifying in that it makes you a more holy person. At first, it makes you a real ugly person...at least, it reveals the ugliness already trapped inside of you. In the ten months I've been in a relationship with Brent, I've seen sides of myself and sin in myself that I didn't know existed, and as God, through the relationship, has been unpacking the box of my heart, I've been troubled by what's been stored there for so long. But thankfully the story never stops with the unpacking...You know, I've come to realize that the dealing with of the sin you recognize in yourself outside of a relationship is much easier to ignore than that of the sin you see in yourself in a relationship. In a relationship, sin has to be dealt with, gotten rid of, your heart has to be transformed if you're expecting to move forward in love with the person you're in the relationship with. Together Brent and I are finding that it's not just a little molding that needs to take place if we're expecting to marry each other, it's total transformation, change from the core. And though it's disgustingly hard in the moment, especially (for me, anyway) when it comes to giving up silly preferences that before the relationship I never knew I had such STRONG opinions about, when we see the results of the transformation God is bringing about in our hearts, I realize this relationship is one of the most fun, encouraging and heaven-preparing things I've ever gone through.

I pray God would ever increasingly be brought glory by me and my marriage to Brent.

Sentimental

The last time I packed up and moved, I was nine years old. So I really haven't had much reason to meticulously go through all of my things to pare down the things I own and decide what things are worth keeping. Now, as I'm slowly but surely getting my things packed up in preparation for moving in with a husband on January 3rd, some of the things that I come across that have built up in my closets and drawers bring distant memories and smiles. I cleaned out my jewelry box, making sure to keep only the things that I will still actually wear, and laughed out loud to find that I was still holding on to a dalmation puppy dog bracelet that I was given when I was ten or eleven. I found a scrapbook that I had started when I was only twelve or thirteen, and I was confused a little at a few of the trinkets that I had apparently regarded as "sentimental" such as candy wrappers that I glued to the pages of the book. It were those parts of the book that were super easy for me to give up, but when I got to the part of the scrap book that had all the fun letters from my best friend as a kid or all the cards and emails I received after my traumatic ski accident when I was eleven, I was so hesitant to throw those things out. And then I came to the part of the scrapbook where I kept all the stories that I had written before I was a teenager. I sat right down and read through one and remembered the pride I had taken in my written "works of art," the way I had believed with all my heart that my books would become famous novels and that Oprah or Rosie O'Donnell would ask me to be on their talk shows to talk about the novel I had published at such a young age. The stories now are completely laugh worthy to me...

But those of you who have had to go through old memories of yours to decide what to keep and what to throw, what are your guidelines? I'm realizing that if I tried to keep every card or souvenir I'm sentimental about, I'm going to have three or four boxes full of "memories" that I hardly ever dig into in my new one bedroom apartment that's already gonna be begging for free space. Thankfully my mom said she felt sentimental enough about the ski accident cards and my stories to keep them at her house, but still I have boxes of sentiments that are only going to keep growing, and I think I'm gonna need to let some of them go. If any of you have any advice or encouragement when it comes to the issue of saving or throwing, please comment!