Wedding Pictures

I have finally decided to post some of our wedding pictures and actually got around to doing it. After talking with my maid of honor this week, I realize that she as well as others have not gotten to see our pictures so I will post them here. I do want to say that our photographer Jolene Pilarczyk did a wonderful job. These are her pictures- and therefore copyrighted by her. The pictures are actually backwards from how I loaded them, so the beginning of the pictures are actually on the bottom, :( oh well.

Enjoy!!!!

My rings are very special! The middle diamond is mine wrapped between my Mom's and Grandma's diamonds. My wedding band is my Great-Grandmother's.

For my husband- O H I O !





























My husband thought it was very funny to dop some frosting on my nose.

My beautiful flower girls Abby and Hayley who actually threw fall leaves down the aisle.

Our wedding party:

Bridesmaids: Caitie (France) Rice, Amy Ross, Shelbi Millard, Belle Blair, and Maid of Honor Abby Peffer. Flower girls: Abby and Hayley Ross. Groomsmen: Carl Rice, Greg Pituch, Dave Carson, Ruben Troupe and Best Man Steve Ross.

In honor of my Mom who recently passed away my brother, Matt, carried a rose in her honor and placed it in the pew where she would have sat. I am so glad that I didn't get to see it- I would have bawled.

The first moment he saw me all dressed up :) special time together!

My grandparent's wedding topper.

Bringing me coffee in the midst of getting my hair done. They had been moving the rest of his stuff to the storage unit. It was a busy morning.

sinus infection

I really hate being sick. Sinus infections are horrible. I decided that I would like to cut my nose off, maybe I will feel better then. I have antibiotics which I think are beginning to help. The doctor was real assuring letting me know that I will feel start to feel better in about 10 days- woohoo!!! I can't wait. I want to feel better now and not have to wait that long. My nose is sore from blowing it, my sinus' are full and sore, my ears are sore, and just about every sinus cavity in my body, as well as my lungs and those muscles from coughing and coughing to bring the crap up. (I know that is gross and a little TMI- but I am sick and at this point I don't really care.) I just want to feel better, I would like to be able to go to sleep tonight and not wake up in a hour coughing and then a couple of more times through the night. I would like to wake up feeling more refreshed and ready to face the day. I would like to feel better, so that I can have a much better outlook on life and the tears will not come so easily. I do not want to feel crappy or icky anymore, I just want to feel better. I know that I am not facing a life threatening disease and that shortly in a few days I will feel better and go on living, so I am not thinking that I am worse off or woe is me. I just want to feel better, I am whining and I admit it, I just want to feel better.

Thursday's TV

I do enjoy my Thursday TV viewing schedule. I watch Big Bang Theory on CBS at 7:00pm. I am not exactly sure exactly why but that program makes me laugh and I sooooo enjoy watching and laughing at it. We quote from the program all the time.... "It WAS you...."it makes me laugh. Then at 8:00 I switch it over to the History channel to watch Swamp People. It is a program about the alligator hunting season down south in the bayou. It is rather interesting, you should check it out- it's addicting really.

Spring is Here

I saw my first daffodils today. There are outside of the door I use at work. They weren't out this morning when I walked in, but I was excited to think that there would be daffodils soon. Then when I walked out to go home there were some bright, sunny, beautiful daffodils there looking up at me. I smiled and beemed all the way to my car. Spring is here. The daffodils are here, the daffodils are here, the daffodils are here!!!!!!!

Update

I thought I would give a quick update on some of the things I have recently shared about.
We ended up trading Zippy (my car) in for a new Subaru Impreza that we get to pick up Wednesday night. We have had to wait to get a standard, we both wanted a manual transmission, so we waited patiently.
Yesterday we went to another open house at the house we have been praying about and thinking about. I fell more in love with the house this time and thought about how I would decorate and design and such. So now we are even more fervently praying about the house and making an offer. We would appreciate your prayers as well.
My job is continuing to go well. In just a few weeks I go back for some more training.
Russ and I are anticipating working with the youth at our church and praying on how God will use us there.
I think that updates the major points, oh and in case your wondering yes I am still on Kool-aid strike :) for those of you who know what that is :).
My puppy needs to go out and is looking at me like you said just a minute, I'm ready now, so I will go take him out and continue working on the laundry.

Abide in Me

"I am the vine and my Father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,

while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes

so that it will be even more fruitful.

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Remain in me, and I will remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.

Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

If a man remains in me and I in him,

he will bear much fruit;

apart from me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not remain in me,

he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers;

such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you,

ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you.

This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit,

showing yourself to be my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Now remain in my love.

If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love.

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you

and that your joy may be complete."

John 15:1-11

We are having a revival at our church this week. It has been a great reminder of where our faith should be and examining ourselves to see if we are living the way that Christ has called us to live. Last night's message really spoke to me, it was the reminder I needed about abiding or remaining in God. To be quiet honest that is an area where I have failed most recently, and this was the reminder I needed of where I need to be and what I should be doing about it. The speaker, Luke Garrett, said that we are only as close to God as we want to be. That is so true and it got me thinking about how close am I to my God, what am I letting get in the way. He also gave us a challenge about praying every hour, not a long prayer, but just something simple like Lord, help me abide in you this hour. I tried today to do this, in the morning I did well, but as calls came in this afternoon unfortuantly prayer went by the wayside. I am determined to try again later. I am working on being sure that I abide in Christ. It was exactly what God knew I needed to hear, and I heard it.

spoonful of grace

I got to experience a spoonful of grace today at work and I wanted to share how God used one phone call I took today to impact my life. I take somewhere between 70-100+ calls each day, most calls I do not really remember as I help most members with similar things.
Today however I had a call that I hope that I do not forget anytime to soon. Because of security purposes I have to be extremely careful about what I share, so I will give just a general overview of the call.
I answer a call with Hello this is Joyce may I have your policy or certificate number please... and go on with the call. Today on this call a women answered told me the story of why she was calling. She was calling on behalf of someone else, she happened to go into a restaurant to get some soup, the owner not being able to speak very good English and asked her to call for him. By the end of the call I was able to help this family out.
I took this call right before lunch and quiet honestly it put me in a bit of a funk. I wasn't quiet sure what to think of the call and how the whole situation happened. I was able to tell my pod mate (one of the girls who sits next to me) about my call inbetween the calls we were getting. She commented about how nice it was that this lady called in. It got me thinking.
It got me thinking about how this lady went in for soup and she was able to help someone out in ways that she will probably not ever realize. I do not know if this lady goes into the restaurant all the time and knows the person well who she was helping or if she just happened to go into the restaurant today and was asked for help.
Regardless she was asked for and she gave it. She took the time out of her day to help this owner out. She could have very easily said no she was busy and had to go, and yet she didn't. It makes me wonder how many others may have been asked to help and said no. She said yes.
It made me think of grace. It also made me think that when someone asks for help and you assist you may never know what kind of impact it may have on them. It makes me think that I should not be so quick to say no. After all didn't Christ tell what we do to the least of these we do unto Him.
I know these thoughts are not very clear and a bit rambling. I however needed to share what I was thinking and what God is teaching me through one phone call I took today. I hope it makes sense and gets you thinking the next time someone one you may know and may not know asks you for help how you will respond. Thanks for listening to my thoughts as I process them out.