Who am I?

Tuesday, November 25, 2014
            As Thanksgiving is quickly approaching I am urged to finally write out some of my thoughts on thankfulness in this season of my life. Last month the love of my life asked me to spend forever with him. I said yes, and I just kept thinking- who am I to get to be a part of this story? Who am I to get to love and be loved by a man this wonderful? Who am I to get to have a story that I am so excited to share? Who am I that I get to be a part of writing such a great story in the days to come with my best friend?  I do not deserve it. I do not deserve Ben. But you know the other story and even better story that I do not deserve? The story where Christ loves me so much that He constantly pursues me, that He died for me, that He wants to write an epic story with each day of my life that I am just itching to share. I am so grateful that Ben's love and our story is such a reminder to me of Christ's love and His story. Who am I to be a part of that? I am oh so thankful for that fact that I am.
Here is our engagement story if you want a little glimpse into the kind of "story" I am talking about.

 If any of you know me at all, you know that I like plans. I like calendars and knowing what is happening hour by hour. The trick was I also wanted to be surprised when Ben asked me to marry him. Surprising an “I need to know the schedule” person can be a real trick, yet it was clearly a trick Ben was up for!
For those of you who do not know, Ben is living in Arkansas, and I am living in St. Charles, IL. That is about 9 hours apart. If he was going to surprise me and travel 9 hours, then that was going to be challenging. There were a few weekends that I thought he was maybe going to ask, and I would tell a few friends “maybe it’ll happen this weekend.” However, those times passed and he did not ask. So it was well into October and the rest of my weekends were booked in St. Charles until the middle of November. On one of those weekends, I was going up to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with our high school youth group for the Fall Retreat. I was, at the time, working in high school ministry at our church and had done a lot of planning for the retreat, so I was going to be very focused, busy, and unable to talk to Ben much.
Saturday we arrived in Lake Geneva and were having a blast. It was a beautiful fall weekend in one of the most adorable towns in the area. That evening we were finishing up a session, and I was hanging around with a few leaders when the youth pastor Sterling came in. He said “Hey Paige, some kid fell by the cabins. Could you run to the dinning hall and get some ice?” I said, “Sure, Alexandra (another leader) and I can go.” Sterling quickly replied, “Actually I need Alexandra for something else.” So I started walking and on my way another leader, Alli, stopped me. Alli asked where I was going and if she could come along.  Of course, I said yes! I was not about to walk to the dining hall alone in the dark.  I had talked to Alli before about when I thought a proposal might happen, so as we were walking I said “Alli, I know this is not healthy, but what if Ben is here and this ice thing is just a way to get me to him? I know that isn’t true and I shouldn’t think that way.” Alli being so sweet and not knowing what was about to happen said, “You don’t think Ben would propose in the dining hall do you?!” I said, “No way.” (Also you should know that I was wearing a pumpkin turtleneck, and Alli was wearing an apple turtleneck. It was the right thing to wear on a fall retreat.)
We walked a little further and off to the left there was a gazebo with beautiful white lights and BEN! I gasped and said, “No!” because I could not believe he was actually there.  I would later find out that this freaked Ben out! When he got down on one knee, though, I started saying, “Yes!” I was totally surprised. Ben had already asked permission for me to go out to breakfast with him the next day, and he had planned with my parents to come back to our house Sunday night. It was such a dream come true. Literally.

Of course our story goes much further than just the engagement. But again. Who am I to get to be a part of such a great story? 

#talesfromCarolina

Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Well my senior year spring break has come and gone. My dear mother joined me this year and it was really a gift. There are very few people that I could spend that much time one on one with and I am so glad my mama is one of them! Our destination was Charleston, South Carolina. We really loved it. Other than some less than ideal weather it was a great trip. We got a taste of warm on the first 2 days but the rest of the time was 30's-40's and rainy.

 We stayed on Folly Beach which was just adored! We could not believe that no one has ever told us about it.
I was so thankful for even just a little bit of time with my toes in the sun. 


When you are buying food for just two people you can stock up on your favorites. Mangos and Avocados were a staple.
 Shopping downtown Charleston

Boone Hall Plantation. Too bad it was stinkin cold that day. 

My personal favorite was visiting the Charleston Tea Plantation. My agricultural heart was giddy. I would highly recommend it. On that same island we saw the crazy old tree pictured bottom left (my mom is the little red dot in that picture).

Now it's time to be back in the real world... I really had the chance to forget about school for a few days which was gift. Now we just have 5.5 weeks or something like that till we are walking across that stage. It could not come fast enough.

Flannel Sheets 4 Life

Tuesday, February 11, 2014
This week Ben bought flannel sheets. The home that he is living in is constantly freezing. We stood in the aisle for a long while deciding what print to get. Sheets are one of those things that if your family is anything like my family they hang around for a while. "Oh well I guess I had those sheets before you were born" my mom. So it felt like a big decision. Ben had his heart set on these ones.
I saw other ones that were a little more "classic" as I would call them. They were just a tan plaid. They were 3 dollars more. So we talked about this for a long time. I eventually came to his side and figured these ones were fun and a still liked them. Hopefully one day we look at these sheets and laugh about how crazy cold and how much snow we got in the winter of 2014. 

This weekend we went to see The Lego Movie impromptu. In 3D. We loved it. 
Ben would maybe not like that I posted this picture of him but he doesn't read this. So ha. Highly recommend The Lego Movie it was really fun.

Snowflake Socks

Tuesday, February 4, 2014
This Indiana winter has been unreal. Never in all of my 3 previous years of living in Indiana have we had a winter like this one. Normally, I would call my mom and she would say they have two feet of show and we would have a light dusting. However, this year is wild.

My man Ben has a real job as a teacher (so proud of him daily) and they have had like 82 snow days already. Ok, maybe not 82 but between 4 and 34 snow days. We started off the semester with 2 snow days in a row at IWU which is almost unheard of. Anyways. Today I am wearing my snowflake socks to usher in yet another snow storm.


I am also fighting off a looming nap. However, I really may not win. And today I think that is OK. 

Before too long this blue mass will be upon us. Another reason to stay inside, read, drink tea, and watch Netflix. I am just fine with that.

Is anyone out there?

Sunday, January 26, 2014
This is the part of the movie after everyone has been killed and I am the only person still alive. I am creeping around a ghost town trying to find out if anyone is still alive or if it is just me.

I could not, for the life of me, remember what my most recent blog post was about. What a good one Paige! A lot of time, life, snow, school, and mornings have gone by since we last met. I think I made myself vow to never apologize for a gap in blogging land. So here I am. Not apologizing.

We could rewind and recap the past semester? I don't know if I want to do that right now. I am already a decent way into my second semester as a senior. In fewer than 90 days I will be done with my undergraduate career (that is counting weekends and spring break, don't think that I am a person all about countdowns- because I'm not. I do not think it is healthy to constantly be looking for something to be over and the next thing to come. However, this kind of countdown is with the perspective that I have so few days in this season and I want to make them epic. ). Right now I want to breathe deeply. I want to soak in the richness of this time. I want to embrace each day, knowing that this place is so dear to me and so soon I will be gone.

I had the chance to go home last weekend. As I was driving around Chicago I got the picture of the forrest that is IWU. If you know anything about IWU you know I do not mean a literal forrest. I mean that I was able to step back and see the bigger picture. It was good to pull away, to zoom out and not just see each tree but see the beauty of the whole forrest. I cried. This trip has been incredible. I am thankful for 80 some days to still live it up.