Some Random Blog

Hello all!! My New Years resolution to start writing more blogs...lol. 

I was going to write a serious blog, but I am not feeling it today. Plus, I feel like Elliott stole all my material, dang husband lol jk. 

So here are some fun things that have happened since my blogging absence.

We got a dog, and I am totally in love with her. I love her so much that I call her the same pet names as I call Elliott (little love, boo boo, etc). He says he does not know who I am talking to most of the time, Him or Nema. Nema is just so sweet, a pain in the butt sometimes but mostly sweet!! 

Elliott and I spent our first Christmas together!! It was definitely one that will not be forgotten in the near future. Our house was out of power for six days due to the ice storm, so we spent a lot of time at my parents house (who have a wood stove) which was really fun! They did not have a tree because they were all frozen, so this is about as festive as it got. 

I spent my New Years in California, and went to the Rose Bowl!!!! It was so awesome!!! I told Elliott it was the best day of my life! But I forgot that I got married, so I changed it to one of the top five! I went with some of my friends from college: Darcy, Hannah, and Taylor. And I even got to sit with them (even though my ticket was for another seat)....and we WON!! Whoop whoop! 

And to conclude, my parents, Anna, Ben, Elliott, and I went to the MSU vs U of M basketball game. I had a good time, but it would have been better if we won! Oh well... 

Well I hope to write that serious blog soon--ish lol. 

17 Reasons My Husband is Great

I have realized that my blog has been kind of sad, but my life isn't all sad. I laugh, I smile, and I am joyful. I am especially happy with Elliott Orr in my life, and since it was his birthday, I thought I would let the internet celebrate with me what makes Elliott so great. I hope this makes you smile and laugh.

17 Reasons My Husband is Great

1. He has laughed the same since he was a little kid. 

    2. He holds puppies....

And they love him.

3. Once he dressed up like corn.

4. and a girl,

5. and a ballerina.

6. He really loves Christmas, including decorating the tree and wearing Christmas sweaters. 

7. Hair or no hair, he is still a cutey. 

8. He has abnormally large calves. 

9. He strikes poses. 

10. He helps me ruin photos.

11. He jams on the piano...and sings sometimes if you beg.

12. He acts like an 80 year old man. He hates sparklers...and also loud music. (But I act like I am 7, so we balance out).

13. Even when he doesn't feel that great, he does this...

14. While having our first bite of cake, I told Elliott, "I am going to shove this in your face." He said, "ok," and did not retaliate. 

15. He loves "playing" in the snow

16. And who can not laugh at this...

17. Or this...

Love you Owy!!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

Pride

So once again it has been about a month since I have posted anything...sorry friends. 

So a little update...El and I have been doing pretty well. Our house is starting to feel more like home, and I have started cooking. I am an awful cook, but hopefully (fingers crossed) I will get better soon. We spent last weekend in East Lansing which was awesome! I miss it there! I got to go to the MIchigan State game where we stomped Michigan, while Elliott watched at a friends house. It was fun :)

But anyway, I have thought I needed to post a blog about pride for a while now. I have discovered that I have more pride in my ability to be independent than I anticipated.  I grew up in a family where my parents worked for everything they had, and growing up in that atmosphere was great. I learned the value of hard work in school, in jobs, and in life. No one gave us a free hand out, and if they did, it would be repaid almost instantly. 

Lately, I have been feeling this burden that I haven't been repaying all the gifts I have been given. It sometimes lays heavy on my heart. The sad thing is, I should feel over whelmed with blessings, but I don't. I feel that I have to pay back all the work that went into the house, the bills that have been paid by others, and the random acts of kindness people have done for us. Just another way sin has crept into my heart and has tainted all of the gifts the Lord has blessed me with. Looking at the bible though, I can see why my thinking is flawed.

Romans 6:23 states, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." The Savior, who was sinless, died for all my past, present, and future sin and made me clean, so I could have eternal life. This is a free gift that cannot be repaid by any man or woman on earth. So saying I am a Christian, and that I believe in the free gift of eternal life through Jesus, how can I continue to allow my heart to be tainted by this? My life and world view is made up of a gift that cannot be repaid. 

So I repent of the ways I have not been grateful for the blessings God has given me. I also thank everyone who has helped with the wedding, with the house, with food, with gifts, and with life. Through the Gospel, I can truly say thank you. You guys are are a true blessing. 

Update

Sorry I have not posted an update in a while. I have been both extremely busy and lazy.

Anyway, a life update....

Last week, I finished my internship at Shared Pregnancy, which is awesome and sad. This was probably the first job that I actually loved (no offence, anyone who I worked for).  I loved working with clients at a place that could provide physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. God definitely blessed me with this opportunity, and I will miss it. But, I think that I will volunteer there when I need to take break away. I will officially get my degree in December...or so I think lol. As of now though, I am just taking care of Elliott :)

Our house is looking awesome! We put a canvas up of one of our wedding pictures, and we also put other pictures in our living room. We also got a rug. Our little house is becoming more homelike every week. It is kind of weird that "Ian's" is now my house, and my parents house is not really my house anymore. I am still in the habit of calling the Skelton's house, my house, and the Orr's house, Elliott's house. I am sure I will get used to it, someday.

Today, is the last day of chemo for this week. This is cycle five. WHOOP! I am so thankful that the only side effect El really has is fatigue. Usually by the 2nd and 3rd week of the cycle he is up and doing things with me which feels normal. It is almost a shock to have to come back to chemo because he feels so well. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. We definitely feel them.

Thanks again friends. I will post again soon!!!! I will be better I promise!

The Orr House

Hello friends!! Sorry I really haven't been blogging, it has been crazy lately.

Our house is finally done!! YAY!! I am so grateful for all the work that has been done by all our family and friends!! AHHHHHH!!! It is awesome! I love it! 

The house, which has been nicknamed Ian's, is right across the road from Elliott's parents house. El's parents bought it a while ago, and always intended to make it a rec room for the kids. But luckily, it didn't happen, and it is now where we live.

I am sad to say that we don't have a lot of pictures of the house before we started to re-do it. Just so you get a mental picture, it was basically gutted and had a 2X4 outline of the all the rooms. 

This is the earliest picture (right) we have of the house. And on the left is what our kitchen looks like now. 

Before and after of the living room.

Bedroom

In the daylight it doesn't look this green, but in the light you can barely see the green. 

And my pretty, pretty stove :) 

El and I are so very grateful to have a place to call our own! Thanks to all who helped!! We love you so much!

I Left my Heart in Lansing

This week I started my internship back up in Lansing. (I have to finish my internship from this summer.) While I was driving back to North Branch, I started to get a little teary eyed...

When I first came to MSU, I was a girl who's life consisted of sports, good grades, and friends. Being at school with major athletes, geniuses, and 45,000 strange people, took what consumed my life and left me feeling lonely and unsure of the person I was. So what did I do? I fled to home where I could still be the person I was, without having to change. Change is scary, to anyone, but especially to me at that point in my life. I wanted things to stay the same for as long as possible.

It probably took me about a half of year at MSU to realize that it wasn't all bad. The campus was beautiful in fall, winter (even though its long), and spring, and the people at school were great! So instead of going home I stayed at school, and slowly I suppose I began to change. 

You have to know that before school, I had absolutely no insight into myself. My life had a shallow meaning and presence. I had no deep knowledge of why I did the things I did? Or why I was the way I was? It was only through people, long talks, and crazy life experiences that I discovered these things. 

I am definitely an extrovert and a feeler with a crazy spontaneity that a six year old would marvel at. But I think the most important thing I learned is that I am this, freely in Christ, whose grace gets me through every second of everyday, and whose blood was shed for me so thatI am clean. And I also learned that God does all things for my good, and in this crazy mess of life I can see the beauty of what he is teaching me, how he is molding me. 

And I feel sad because I learned it all in Lansing. The place that scared me so much, started to feel like home. Once a place feels like home, I guess you start dreaming about your life in that place. Without realizing it, I dreamed of living there with Elliott as we started are life together. I dreamed of living in a crappy apartment, working two jobs while El went to college, continuing to go to URC, of eventually or probably accidentally starting a family there. It was a dream I did not really know I had until I drove away from it. My dream shattered...

Sad, but I am glad I am back in a town that is so supportive and loving. In a familiar place where I can try to pick up the shards of a broken dream and glue them back together. I trust that God has my future and it is beautiful and good.  

Blessed

Even though positive status day was a while ago, I still feel the need to say how blessed I am by our communities both in North Branch and Lansing. I have been going through James and came upon this verse: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17 ESV). I know that God has given us these blessings through all of you, and I just want to say thank you! I am so greatful to have each and everyone of you in our lives.

Here's a few ways that I have felt blessed in the past couple of weeks:

The two weeks after chemo, we got to stay at one of Elliott's neighbors houses. It is right in the middle of the woods and on a beautiful, secluded lake. It was so nice to be alone, and actually feel like we were married. During our time, we got to just chill and relax from wedding craziness and the week of chemo. Here is some pics from the house we stayed at: 

It was beautiful. Thank you so much Beanie for letting us stay there while you were away. We are so thankful. 

Beans at Beanies...that is a little pun

Anyway, two Saturdays ago there was a soccer tournament benefit put on for Elliott. Cody and Kayla, two friends of Elliott and I put it on for us. Even though it was only planned in a week, the whole community showed up to support us. I was so glad Elliott and I got to go for the last bit of the tournament. We were truly touched and felt so loved an cared for by everyone. Thank you everyone who helped! I know it took a lot of work from organizing the teams to the Chinese auction to concessions! Thank you! We are so blessed to live in the community that we do! 

              The tournament board

               Fun team T-shirts 

   Shirts that were sold at the tournament 

All the helpers and more I am guessing

                           Soccer

Another thing I am thankful for is my URC  (University Reformed Church), SCF (Spartan Christian Fellowship), and Lansing family. Two Sundays ago I went to a prayer service at URC for Elliott and for another man in the church who has cancer as well. Elliott couldn't come because his immunity was low. They prayed for El and I, and I just felt so loved and cared for by them. I could feel their prayers. I am so blessed by all of you and I love you all! Words can't even explain. God truly blessed me when he led me to URC. 

Last but not least I am thankful for all the work people have been doing all the work on our house. I am so greatful!!! (Sorry I don't have any pics at the moment)

New hair, don't care

While I was at MSU, I took a East Asian Religions class. One of the few things that stuck with me was the interesting rights of passage that teenage boys and girls would have to participate in before they were considered a man or woman of their tribe. In a tribe I did not know the name of, a teenage boy would have to pull out every single strand of hair on his head before he was considered a man. (Although looking it up I couldn't find the name of the tribe, but I am fairly positive I learned this). Anyway why am I explaining this small bit of knowledge with you? Well my friends it is because my husband, in the eyes of that tribe, became a man yesterday.

(Not to worry folks. This is a natural process that occurs during chemotherapy. Chemotherapy kills all rapidly dividing cells and hair growth stops completely. It was just a bit dramatic because El had so much hair, and it all came out pretty fast. He didn't exactly pull it out it just fell out.)


Elliott a few days before with his hair


Shedding all over his pillow.



Using my brush to take out the hair that was hanging by a thread.


All his pretty hair :( that he took out of the trash and chased me around with it....sick but he thought it was funny.


The finished project.

I think he started to miss it a little bit.


Because he tried to make a wig.



Then a beard



Then decided to keep it :)

The funny thing was that he had a hair cut scheduled for later on the day. But by that time there was nothing left to cut. It was funny for both Elliott and me. Hopefully the rest of this week can be as fun as this :)

Chemo week

I forgot to mention that in the emergency room I got to tell someone my new name, and I got to see it in print. That was exciting.




Anyway that night and the week after we stayed at the Williamson's house which is such a blessing. It is great to stay in a house and not a hotel. Thanks guys :)

So Elliott's chemo is on a three week rotation. He does chemo the first week and then has a two week break. He goes Monday through Friday for about 8 hours a day. They are VERY long days.

But at the beginning of the week when El wasn't so tired we managed to have a bit of fun.



El after his port got flushed



El acting silly from his pain meds.



Eating in the Med Inn

By the end of the week things get tougher. Elliott gets more and more tired, and you realize how little control you have over the situation. That all you can really do is pray that El gets better, and that Christ will be glorified. This situation and the illness is entirely in God's hands and not my own. So when I am worrying, I try to rest on this truth.