surprise date night!

A couple weeks ago, Jamey & our friend Jacob decided to surprise us with a date night out on the town. It was such a fun night... figured I'd post a few pictures...

Who says I can't update my blog more often! Psssh....

nighttime intruder

Ok, so my absence from this blog the last 6 months is not because my life has been boring or uneventful... far from it. Hopefully in the next couple weeks, I'll have an opportunity to update you on all the excitement of the Dickens' house... redecorating our house, going on a trip to the Bahamas, my brother having a new baby... seriously, lots of amazingness for your reading pleasure...

But today, I have to tell you about our nighttime intruder last night. So at 2:36am Jamey & I sprung up to the loudest crash you have ever heard. We heard through the neighborhood email that recently there had been a break-in in the middle of the night so we were even more freaked out. Jamey is my fearless leader as he got out of bed, turned on lights & searched for the source of the crash.

He turned on the office light & walked through the front room. As he's standing in front of the pantry/laundry room, I point & say "laundry room." Of course I spook him thinking I saw something in there. He opens to door to see this...

 

The middle shelf had crashed to the ground with all the food & groceries falling with it. After hugging Jamey for an extended period of time & telling him that he is my hero, we started picking up the mess on the ground. Immediately, we smelled something sour & Jamey quickly identified it as the bottle of vinegar on the ground. Yummy. It smelled AWFUL!

We closed all the doors after we picked it all up & went back to bed, knowing we would clean it more thoroughly in the morning.  So I wake up & open our bedroom door when a huge stench overwhelms me. VINEGAR! Gross!! It seriously smelled just terrible. 

Now I'm home from work & am constantly spraying the trusty Lysol can every 5 minutes to clear the air of this awfulness. Such a comical night & fear that the smell would never escape us. But, alas... clearing it has. So I am very thankful for Lysol spray this afternoon. 

More updates to come! Thanks for reading!

-sara  :o)

home for the holidays

Well, we have officially survived our first married Christmas!!! It was so great & so hard all at the same time. Seriously, when people tell you things change when you get married, they meant it!!! Of course, most of the change is for the better... I know one thing that was hard this Christmas was the annual Manny girl slumber party in my sister's room... in our matching "jammies." Don't worry, we kept the PJs tradition, but I definitely had a different sleeping partner this year  :o)

 

The Manny family tradition is to be woken by my mom BLARING the Happy Christmas CD (yes, the ska CD from like, 10 years ago) on our stereo to wake all of us up. Unfortunately, the CD was misplaced this year which was a disappointment for all of us... We grab our coffee (which mom does decaf & sugar free now- gross...) & open presents in the Florida room. It was chaos, but wonderful chaos. I sort of feel like that's how God may hear my singing. I LOVE to sing, but am not good at it... but I know it's just the most beautiful sound to him. That's like my family, we are loud & in order to be heard, you have to talk over the next person. We are not that family that waits our turn to talk... If we did, dad would never get a word in!!! But Jamey did great & said he loved every minute.  :o)

For Christmas this year, Santa brought all of us tickets to the Jaguar game. It was SO fun but SOOOO cold.... like, seriously the coldest game in Jacksonville history... ever.

 

All in all, our trip home was awesome. I love being with my family. There is nothing greater than being at their house, under their roof, all together.  :o)

our God is mighty to save

Jamey & I are slowly but surely recovering from being sick. We have gone from nights with runny noses & piles of tissues to nights of non-stop coughing & cherry medicine that Jamey thinks is "from the devil." Thankfully we are on the up-swing & ready to be back to normal!

Last week at work, Buckhead Church held a baptism service for 40 men & women from the Atlanta Union Mission. These are people who knew they needed to turn their life around, so they chose to step through the doors of this organization & ask for help.

Our God is mighty to save.

At the service, each person was given a piece of cardboard. One on side, they wrote their past/sins/captivity & on the other side, they wrote about redemption. I was truly speechless.

I met this guy named Cleve there, he was in my "group" so we started talking. Cleve is a man from the Virgin Islands who knew he needed change in his life.

 

He told me he was nervous & scared to go on stage & get baptized but he knew he wanted to do it... & I was so proud of him.

 

I really love my church. I love that we care about people. I love that despite all the bells & whistles, Buckhead Church is all about life change. & I love that I get to be a part of it.

 

I know this was one of the best Christmas presents ever. For me. For the people baptized. & everyone who had the privelage to be there to witness it.

Merry Christmas! & praise the One who paid my debt.

love, sara

cue the runny nose...

 So Jamey has been sick for about 2 weeks. I thought I had the immune system of steel... but I was wrong. Being sick in bed all day is really miserable.. & then the runny nose starts.

So what do I do while I'm home miserable? I make a zillion Christmas cards on Shutterfly & don't order any of them. I do some online shopping for a dining room table that I know we are not gong to buy because it's not in our budget. I watch hours of Hallmark original movies- then Jamey walks in & spells out the entire plot (very accurately, I must say) & ruins it all. My dad always did the same thing when Full House was on- what is it with men??

Being sick & being a newlywed is yet another learning process. One thing I learned about myself- I'm a baby. & I don't want to admit it. I want yellow Gatorade, scrambled eggs & cheese grits. I want my head rubbed & I want to be checked on frequently. You see, my mom has been my mom for 25 years. Jamey has been my husband for 6 weeks & I somehow expect him to know all that. What is it with women??

So today, I learned that Jamey cannot read my mind. Even though he wants to do anything & everything in his power to make me feel better & more comfortable, if he doesn't know what I want, he can't. So... from now on, I'll tell him.
love, sara

change is in the air

For us, 2010 is the year for change. 

We got engaged on April 9th...

 

& tied the knot on October 29th...

& now, our world is so different. Being married is such a great joy & at the same time, such a HUGE adventure. I feel like my job outside of work is trying to figure Jamey out all over again. We have to know how much time together each of us need & when we need to be alone. We have to figure out what dinner looks like every night & how to eat on a budget. We have to figure out how to share a TV, a bed & a bathroom- & trust me, it's NOT always easy! We will figure it all out, slowly but surely. But the great thing is, our foundation is this- to love each other like Christ loves us, & the 2 words our mentors embedded into our brains- GRACE & FORGIVENESS! Putting those to great use for sure!

We have our own little house in Atlanta & are having a great time filling it up to quickly become the Dickens home.  :o)

We BOTH work at Buckhead Church. We LOVE ministry & now we are really loving doing ministry together. We get to enjoy going to service as a couple which is something we haven't done... ever. God is so good!

We are waiting to get our professional pictures from the wedding so check us out to see them!
love, sara