Happy Friday!

I realized it has been three weeks since I posted about the many posts that "were" coming. I blame it on the unpredictable Ohio weather...ha!

This weekend I am going to post pictures of our house and other fun things that we haven't shared on our blog.

I also am experimenting with blog backgrounds. Tell me what you think about the different backgrounds you see!


Enjoy your weekend!

Coming soon...

Lots and Lots of New Posts coming soon! 

Am I Weird?

My friends have always told me, "Jill, you're weird." I never really thought twice about it until yesterday when I opened a container of butter that had mini-packaged sticks in it (8 little sticks instead of 4) and got REALLY excited. I mean, how cute are little sticks of butter, right? Well I guess I am weird and get excited over silly things that most people don't even think about. 

Here are some reasons why I am weird:

   I usually take a whiff of paper fresh-out-of-the-copier.

   The sound of tires on rocks is cool.

   I like the smell of polyurethane, gas, and paint (definitely unhealthy).

   I enjoy cleaning.

   I can eat the same thing everyday for long periods of time (also unhealthy).

   I have red hair.

   I have cankles...kind of. 

   I LOVE sponges. If you ever need a gift idea, I love, love, love sponges!!

   The color of my first car was "wood". 

   I have had 2 sips of pop in my life. 

   Sometimes, I snort when I laugh. 

So who cares if I am weird. The sermon this morning was about committing our lives to Christ and how being a Christian and living a life for Christ can be very countercultural. It might be a stretch, but I found that me being weird and a believer are tied together somehow. Our culture portrays a lifestyle that is not centered around Christian beliefs. Instead, we are tempted to live a fast-paced life worshipping earthy things and ourselves instead of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We can commit ourselves to work, working out, shopping, etc., but why is it we cannot make commitments to spend time with the Lord, pray for others, praise God in good times AND in bad and serve in our Churches and communities? 

I guess where the connection comes in of my weirdness and being a Christian is that that is how God created us. He created created the earth and the people and He has given us a book on how He wants us to live. And even though that may be "weird/countercultural/different", in the end, it is all for Him. 

So yes, I may be weird, but God created me and all of my weirdness. 

So Why don't you marry it?

We cannot believe it has already been 6 months since we tied the knot! :) :) Our first few months of marriage have been wonderful and crazy at the same time. We have gone through many transitions and have learned a lot about being married. Although marriage IS wonderful, it is not always picture-perfect. We argue, bicker, and get on each others nerves; living with someone of the opposite sex is not an easy transition. Males smell and women are moody. Males snore and women take too long to get ready...BUT despite all of our differences, we are still very much loving being married and loving each other!

In only 6 months we've learned SO much and we're so excited for what we will learn about in the future.

God has provided for us in so many ways. AWESOME is the Lord most high!

I love these verses from Ruth 1:16-17. "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go, and where you will stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."

The End of a Chapter

It is a total bittersweet feeling to be ending my college career. While I am excited to move back to Delaware and start a new job, I can't help but feel sad to leave something I have fallen in love with.

I wasn't always in love with Miami. To me, Miami was a big, secular campus and I was only one Christian girl with only a few high-school acquaintances. I felt alone, scared, without my Marky, and I wanted to go home.

It was a long first semester and it seems like it was only yesterday. I had no idea what God had in store for me after that first semester...little did I know. If you told me a 3 years ago I would be a senior, married, graduating early, moving back to my hometown with a job in the Haller family business...I'm pretty sure I would laugh-out-loud. But it's true, God has given us direction and answered prayers.

As exciting as this all is, there's a part of me that isn't quite ready to leave Miami or Oxford. Over the past four years, I've gone from hating this school to loving it and the community it is in. I have friends and memories here that are irreplaceable, looking at pictures isn't going to fill this void. I trust that God has plans for me in Delaware and that he will lead me with what HE wants me to do, even if that means living in an apartment above a garage! :)

The countdown has started and so has my list. T-minus 10 days to:
Drink my last Kofenya Latte
Eat at Kona Bistro
Ice Skate at Goggin
Pull an all-nighter (only done once in 4 years!)
Kiss my hubby under Upham Arch
Not get a $65.00 Miami parking ticket
PACK! PACK! PACK!


It's going to be a crazy end to December but we're excited to move, start/re-start our jobs, and be a part of a community we know so well.

Look out D*Town here we come!

The Intruder

THERE WAS A MOUSE IN OUR APARTMENT THIS MORNING!!!

I do not know how he got in or how long he has been there...but eewwwwww.

As I was making Marks lunch this morning, I saw him scurry across our floor into our living room. I jumped up on the counter and screamed, probably waking up everyone in our building. I saw where he went and directed Mark that way. Still on the counter, I shivered as the image of the little furry thing ran through my head (ewww again!). Mark found him in the corner by the patio door but he was fast enough to run around behind our TV and Christmas tree and into our 2nd bedroom. We (I mean Mark) went in after him and about ten minutes later the intruder was D-E-A-D! THANK GOODNESS.

Ironically enough, when we were in my parents basement on Saturday, there was a dead mouse. Straight out of my husbands mouth were the words, "I cannot wait to see you react to our first mouse". Little did we know, it would only be two days later!

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...FALSE!

Prayer Requests

Please pray for us as we decide on Jill's job, living situation (next semester and year), and just in general as we transition from being students to going out in the working world.

Thank you!

We will have more posts on things going on with us in Oxford as soon as school settles down.

Overall, school is going well. We're keeping busy with schoolwork and other stuff and getting somewhat excited to graduate...heh-heh.

Please feel free to call us to chat anytime, we love catching up! :)