Word / 4

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Since moving to Flagstaff J and I have struggled with finding a church and letting go of our seriously awesome church in San Clemente. We've tried all the different nondenominational churches in town and we've basically settled on our best option. Does it fell like the one? No. Not even close. But it does feel like our best option. Now our old church had a pretty rad small group set up that allowed us to have a guided Bible study every week. I absolutely loved it. We did a young marrieds group and met the sweetest couples. My best friend and her husband were in the group too and it was a high light of my week. Our new church doesn't really have the same type of set up. Which has seriously bummed me out. Like a lot. Lately i've been thinking that maybe this challenge is really a good thing. For the first time i'm forced to do some Bible studies solo. I decided to start from the beginning of the Bible and just go book by book. Which is super exciting. I haven't read the Bible cover to cover since I was 16.

Now after deciding to give this bible study by book thing I went straight to pinterest and looked it up. And there are NO blog posts that has a list of all of these. Which is crazy to me! So I'm going to start from scratch and make my own!

Do you have any book specific Bible studies that you absolutely love? I'm going to take the next week researching Genesis Bible studies. Fingers crossed I find a good one!

xo Sam

Rainy Day

Beanie/Urban Outfitters, Moto Jacket/H&M, Necklace/Forever21, Bag/Hustle & Hide Co, Dress/Old Navy, Socks/Target, Shoes/Vans

Recently I've read a few blog posts where the blogger allowed their significant other to pick out their outfit for a whole week. This post on pop sugar is one of my favorites. And this crazy experiment inspired me to jump on the bandwagon and try the same thing. Except instead of having J dress me for a whole week I had him choose my outfit for a date day we had planned. To be honest we're both too busy with work/school/life to pause and have him pick out my clothes everyday. Not to mention that my work uniform is very specific so he wouldn't be able to truly pick out my outfit on work days. I was pretty intrigued by the idea though and J was totally on board.
We learned quite a bit from the experiment. J was intimidated by all of the options. Dress? Pants? Sweater? Crop top? He quickly discovered that picking out my outfit was going to be way more complicated than he had anticipated. He started off by considering the rainy weather and our plan to go to Bearizona (which is super rad) and explore Williams. I was concerned when he went straight to my dress and romper closet. It was COLD and he was going to put me in a romper... After digging through my probably excessive collection of dresses and rompers he had me try on 3. Decided on a black short sleeve thin dress. Uh oh.. Then he went into my dresser and dug out my once again black over the knee cable knit socks. Which he then paired with a black beanie, Aztec black and cream sweater and my shrunken vegan leather moto jacket. It was similar to an outfit I would put together myself so I was pretty impressed with him at that point. Then he started in on jewelry and shoes. He picked out a super big necklace. Which is something I usually reserve for fancy occasions. Then he had me try on 6 of my largest rings which he luckily had me put back in favor of my usual rings and leather bracelet. Going straight to my black wedges. Which I vetoed due to the fact that it was raining. I suggested my black booties but he went for my high-top vans. This is the first thing that I would not have put together. I mean knee high socks with a dress and vans? But I was pleasantly surprised by the way they made the whole outfit more appropriate for our date.

Now I was surprised he put me in all neutral tones. However I really shouldn't have been shocked considering J is super colorblind. He chooses black, grey, or white for himself 90 percent of the time as well. And it took a lot longer than expected. The whole experiment took him about 45 minutes. Which is definitely longer than it normally takes me to get dressed. Now he knows why some days I opt for a simple t shirt and jeans. It's good to know that he would put me similar outfits that I choose for myself. We really had fun with the whole thing and I definitely plan on repeating the idea on a warmer day. Now I pick J's clothes out for him pretty often so I think what he most enjoyed was having the tables turn and getting to control my clothes for a day.

What do you think? Would you let your significant other choose your outfit? How do you think they'd do?

xo Sam

Word / 3

Sometimes with my prayer journal I just pick a verse and doodle. And as I color and draw in the verse I really meditate on its meaning or what it means to me in that moment. That has been one of the most wonderful parts of having a prayer journal for me, just simply being able to focus on what I'm going through at different points in my life. It's less confining than a traditional devotional. And personally I find it more rewarding.

Recently I've been struggling with so many things in life. From the loss of a loved one to job changes and car frustrations it's been a totally shitty year. In this difficult season I've found myself questioning my faith over and over again. Which is frankly just plain uncomfortable. This week I was not feeling like doing my journal at all. For inspiration I opened up my pinterest Jesus board and just picked one that spoke to me. After reading the verse and doodling I went into my bible app and read the chapter. And afterwards I felt as though it was the perfect chapter for me to read. For weeks I had been questioning why for so many different things. This verse reminds me that I just don't need to know the whys of everything at the exact moment that I want to know them. That's the purpose of faith and trusting in God. And instead of letting go of control and trusting in my faith I was holding hard onto the control I thought I had. I don't know why I have such a need to control my life and environment. Unfortunately that need is my biggest challenge in my walk with Jesus. This week was such a good reminder in the power of prayer and the importance of spending a little bit of time everyday digging into my bible and getting closer to God.  After praying about my seriously wounded heart I feel slightly better. I'm not going to lie and say I prayed and now everything is perfect. Prayer doesn't do that. But I do feel more at peace with the loss of my dear Papa and more grounded in terms of all the other craziness going on in my life right now. Hopefully I wont need a reminder again anytime soon. 

Jesus replied, "you don't understand what I'm doing now, but someday you will."  -John 13:7 

xo Sam

Disneyland / Day 3

Disneyland day three was pretty spectacular. We always do a three day park hopper. Day three is super bittersweet because we never want to leave. We had such a perfect Disney trip. We're going to try to knock out a few other trips off our bucket list in the next few years so it will be a while before we make it back to Disneyland. In the mean time we will cherish the pictures and memories from this trip until the next time. Hopefully our next visit will include star wars world! 

I put our first two days up on the blog earlier, check out Day 1 and Day 2  

xo Sam

Week Notes / 7

This week I made Christmas cookies. And Joey and I really are trying to build traditions and enjoy the season this year. So far we've had a lot of fun watching Christmas specials and opening the next card in our advent calendar. We put our Christmas tree up this week too. And it didn't necessarily go as planned. It was bitterly cold and I felt like complete garbage. Joey ended up picking a tree up on his way home from snowboarding and putting it up while I made us soup. He's a keeper guys. For real. I love Christmas and I just cannot get enough of it. Now i'm just praying for snow because I really want a white Christmas this year. 

Somehow in our crazy busy week, (finals and retail during the holidays, we're both beyond busy) Joey found the time to take me out on a date to a cute Thai place downtown. Thai tea is my favorite even though it was literally 15 degrees outside. After we went and got a bag full of saltwater taffy from the candy store. I really love our little town sometimes. 

Links
Dark red nail polish is my favorite for the holidays.
I do love a good whiskey drink.
Also avocado toast is making it's way into my breakfast routine.
This Christmas cookie recipe is absolutely perfect. I'm making them for my team at work today.

xo Sam