Germany in pictures

Christmas Market

Dome in Koln

German Christmas Tree

Christmas Market, Koln

We made it!! After a looong 9 hour flight and then sitting on a plane for six hours in London due to an intense snow storm, the stairs freezing to the plane, and a hydralic pump breaking, we are finally in Koln.

John and Ilja at the market

Gluwein!

Walking in the park with Annika

Winter Wonderland

Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Market)

Love from Germany,

K&J

13.1

I should seriously be taking a nap right now. But due to always having poor nap skills, I will share about my first 1/2 marathon! I ran the half today at the White Rock Marathon with, what it seemed like, all of Dallas. There were 2,200 runners and about gazillion people watching. The day started out at a 4:45 alarm and met up with some lovely ladies to hit the road by 5:30. Once we arrived, we avoided the 36 degree weather for awhile by staying toasty in the car but then it was time to join our ranks with our fellow marathoners. That was probably the worst part about it, standing still for about an hour and just waiting for the frostbite to set it. Maybe a little bit dramatic, but boy it was cold! The start was exhilarating and it was so fun having people cheer out your name as you ran by. They had bands and sweet cheerleaders all up and down the race course. Once the sunshine decided to grace us with its presence, the weather was perfect! I trained with a sweet friend, Becky, who did the full and kicked butt! So thankful and proud of her! I am also thankful for a sweet husband who always supported, encouraged, and stood out in the cold this morning in order to watch his wife. Love that kid! So overall, super fun, want to do another one, and my legs are currently jello. I finished the race at 1 hour and 46 minutes.

I realize this is the first post in FOREVER so let me catch you up on the Garrett way of life:

-Had Thanksgiving/Christmas with the wonderful Garrett side last week

-Work is sooo crazy busy for both of us but we are so thankful to have jobs

-We leave for Germany in 11 days!! WHOOHOOO!!!

-Finished up taking a cake decorating class, so fun.

That about wraps it up. I think I will make being a better blogger to my New Year Resolution list. Until then, all my love to you!

Kim

Asher Gryffin Knox Garrett

I would love to introduce you to the newest member of the Garrett family, Asher Garrett. He was born August 25th at 7:30. He came into this world 9 lbs 10 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. This healthy little man belongs to John's oldest brother Grant and his sweet wife Kendra. Both mom and baby are doing great!

Snug as a bug

We could not be anymore happy for Grant and Kendra and are so excited to watch little Asher grow up! John and I are perfectly happy being in the roles of aunt and uncle. We can get plenty of practice before we have little Garretts of our own running around. Time for bed, I remember back when I could stay up til midnight and then wake up at 8 and be just fine. Those days are long gone!

Blessings,

K&J

Highlights

I feel like this could be a common theme about my posts: apologizing for the lack of posts! But here are the highlights of the last couple of weeks:

• Kim starting new job (and loving it)
• No back surgery for Kim but some real fun physical therapy (sarcastic, I think so!)
• We are going to Germany for two whole weeks in December!!! We will spend Christams with John's uncle and family over there. His parents are going and hopefully his wonderful cousins!
• Kim is training for White Rock half marathon in December. 5 miles down just a couple more to go!
• We are so excited about having a new niece or nephew!! Grant and Kendra are expecting baby G either Monday or Tuesday! Let's pray for Monday because the baby is over 10 lbs!

I think that covers the biggies. We have had such a wonderful summer. It was a joy to see some of my best friends get married, visit with family, catch up with old friends, and to enjoy being married to the most wonderful man alive. I might be biased but that is the truth. I am glad things are starting to slow down for the year and that it is time to get back into somewhat of a schedule.

I hope you feel God's wonderful presence and peace this week. Always love from us to you!

K&J

Taking a breath

For the last two months we have lived out of our car. We have kept a bag packed because every weekend we have been somewhere different. We started out in May celebrating John's uncle Bill's retirement in Arlington. Then, I went to Austin for Laura Busch Martin's (that name sounds so good!) bachelorette weekend. Then we celebrated our one year anniversary in Fort Worth. We stayed at the cutest b&b and enjoyed getting away (even if its just 45 minutes away!)

Then its back to Austin for Laura and Blaine's wedding. Beautiful location, stunning bride, sweet groom..it was a perfect weekend.

Then the very next weekend we went to Midland for Melani and Adrian's wedding. Another perfect wedding weekend. Sorry for the fuzzy picture!

Throw in a weekend in the Woodlands to paint my parents fence and celebrate the Fourth with John's parents in Abilene. This summer has been nothing less than exciting and eventful but I have treasured this weekend at home to be a bum and not travel anywhere. Don't worry, I will be gone for the next three weekends so to be honest, the next blog might be in August! :) Until then, love from us to you!

NO MORE CHANGING DIAPERS!!

Hallelujah! I have put in my two weeks at my school and will start my new job June 14th!! I will be working at Buckner (an amazing non-profit in Dallas) in their foundation department! I bet you can feel my sigh of relief! God is so faithful and has provided exactly what we needed! I love that every sentence has ended in an exclamation point! That is the big news from the Garrett household.

In other news, John and I are coming up on our one year anniversary. Crazy! It feels like we just said our vows yesterday. When we first got married, I had been told that your first year of marriage would be one of the hardest. I might have to disagree because this first year has been a blast! The highlight of my day is coming home to my best friend and enjoying his company.

Sorry I have been a lousy blogger recently. I will do my best to keep it a little more current!

Love from us to you!

Ladies Retreat

This past weekend I was blessed to attend the ladies retreat for our church. The lovely Crystal Spencer and myself made up the young married's group and were blessed to spend the weekend with some ladies that had been through life a little longer than we had. The speaker was Pat Scott, a woman who has gone through unimaginable grief and has turned that grief into encouragement to others. She spoke about the issue of grief and how we can conquer the storms that we least expect. Here are the top 5 "ah ha" moments that came from this weekend:

1. We are all in one of these 3 phases in life: preparing for a storm, in the middle of one, or just leaving a storm to calmer seas.

2. You may be the only Bible that some people might ever read.

3. Grief does NOT mean that we are weak or have no faith.

4. Life is TOO short to get caught up on dwelling and worrying about situations that probably will never happen. (I am SO guilty of this)

5. God never wastes our pain. He will use it to bring Himself glory and to bring His children back to Him.

Grief is a toughy. It was a weekend of facing the reality that bad things happen to good people but the same reality speaks of God using those horrific storms to bless many. God is good, all the time.

I am thankful for the friendships made and the lessons learned during this weekend. I pray that whatever stage you are in, that you will keep your eyes on Him and give Him all the glory.

Peace.

Opportunity, Alabama

We just got back from the charming little town of Opp, Alabama. We went there for Dan's (John's daddy) family reunion and for a ceremony honoring his great, great, great grandfather who was a confederate veteran. There is not a whole lot that makes up Opp but there sure are some sweet people. I got to meet Mawmaw and Papa Earl along with John's cousins and the rest of the family. Here are some pictures of good ol' Opp:

Spring is finally here! (Good thing we returned to snow in Dallas)

John boy decides to go fishing and wanted to document his big catch!

Big catch=Tree

Of course, after taking those pictures my camera died. But it was a great trip and loved seeing more of my new family. Our booties are a little sore from sitting in the car for 1o hours but it was worth it! Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Peace.

I have been looking for that. By that I mean peace. I have been searching for many months for a career that I could feel like a big girl in. And here I am still searching for jobs and sending my resume to anyone who has a half way decent job description. It was not until last week when I found out that I did not receive a job that I had worked so hard for that I found some of that peace. I am not going to say that I found ultimate peace because I am still searching for what I am suppose to do in this life but I have a new understanding of where I am currently. I was reading about the story that we all know from VBS, the one about the loaves and fishes that fed thousands of Jesus' followers. Jesus took the most common thing, blessed it, and it brought great peace to the crowds. I am looking at myself longing to be like those loaves of bread and pieces of fish. Something so ordinary doing the extraordinary. I am ready to take the leap of faith and see the amazing journey that God has in store for us. I am now viewing my current job as women's ministry. I no longer work at a school just teaching the abc's and changing diapers but instead ministering to women and families. Well, that is where my heart and mind is currently. I am physically on my way to Opportunity, Alabama to go to Dan's (John's daddy) family reunion! Can't wait to meet more of my new family! I'll make sure to document the experience! Love from us to you!

Winter Wonderland

Pure bliss. Just picture this moment. Beautiful, fat snowflakes falling down from a grey sky, heading home from work early, and they are playing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" on the radio. It does not get any better! I was as giddy as giddy can be! We woke up to this beautiful view on Wednesday and I threw open the blinds and gasped at sight. When I promptly alerted my sleeping husband of my discovery, his response was "I can't see it! I don't have my contacts in!" My timing was a little off. A sleeping husband does not care too much about the snow. I am learning all sorts of lessons as a newlywed! Ha! And too bad the roads are just too icy today that I cannot go into work. That is just a shame! Pshhh. Here are some pictures of our lovely view.

This is for you mom!

Hello Frosty

God, you are gooood!

So, so pretty! John and I are heading to Abilene tonight to celebrate Valentine's Day and his sweet mother's birthday! It was going to be a surprise but a little bird accidently spilled the beans. Do not worry, that little birdie was me! Ooppsss, it was even my idea to surprise her! Hate it when that happens! We are going to celebrate our first married Valentine's Day at Perinis! Go ahead, be jealous! It will be wonderful to spend some time with my sweet husband. I do not know what I did to deserve such a wonderful man, but God has spoiled me with the most precious soul for my husband. I am so excited to see where God leads us in the journey called life and I wait in giddy anticipation to see our adventure unfold.

I hope that everyone enjoys their Valentine's Day, the Olympics, and a wonderful weekend! Love from us to you! Peace.

You knew it was coming.

For all of you that know my sweet husband, you are fully aware of his great love for his red pumas. So, I know that you are not the least surprised that I have received my own pair of red pumas. It was just a matter of time. Mine are a little more girly and oh so comfy. I am officially John's wife now that I have red pumas!

True Love

Thanks Annika!

When we were up in Boston, Annika graciously shared some treasured family recipes with me and one of them was muesli. If you have never tried it, you are truly missing out. It is just a mix of oats, dried fruit, honey, and really whatever you feel like putting in it. It is great with milk, yogurt, or just by itself. I have always enjoyed to cook but I have started to realize what a ministry it can become. There is nothing more personal or intimate than sitting around a table with great friends, great conversation, and of course yummy food. There has been maybe one or two dinners that John and I put down the disposal but so far so good! So if you are ever in need of a hot meal, come on by!

Hope you week is truly blessed. Love from the Garrett's.

Lovely Boston.

New favorite place to go visit=Boston! We had such an amazing time hanging out in Boston with John's cousin Brian, his sweet wife Annika, and their precious bundle of joy Joseph. They took us on a great tour of Boston, went up to Maine to visit John's Uncle and his family, and spoiled us the whole time we were up there.

Joseph!

All of us! Notice Joseph's huge doughnut!

I love Boston houses. Right out of Anthropologie.

I think this picture captures how freezing it was up there. In the background is suppose to be downtown Boston. Makes me cold just looking at it!

Well that was Boston, if you ever are thinking of going there...do it! We will probably go in the summertime next but winter is wonderful too! Have a blessed day!

K & J

Christmas: Part 2

I am in denial. I cannot believe that Christmas is already over. I loved that I could turn on my radio and find Christmas music on every station and look out the window and see those beautiful twinkling lights. But all good things have to come to an end. At least that is what they say. We went home to the Woodlands for Christmas and the weekend was filled with way too much food, wonderful family time, and some sneakiness. My parents and us have this running joke of these gingerbread man cards. They are just precious but the are impossible to play with because of their arms and legs. So they are absolutely worthless. We have been sending them back and forth to each other and we were finally ready to be done with these little pieces of inconvenience. So we took all of the 52 cards and hid them in different places around the house. Bahahaha. I don't think we will be seeing those bad boys for awhile.

Here's a little picky from Christmas eve. We have traditions that I have done since birth. We go out to eat on Christmas eve and then to the candlelight service. Then on Christmas morning we open presents, have a yummy breakfast, and then open stockings. The rest of the day is spent napping, games, and just spending precious time with family.

Happy 1st Christmas!

Handsome men

So, the depressing day came when we had to return to work but then enjoyed a wonderful three day weekend for New Years. And now it's off to Boston on Thursday! Whoohoo! We are visiting John's cousin, Brian, and his sweet wife and baby for 5 days. We have our long johns packed and ready to face the cold! Hope all is well and that you are truly blessed in 2010!