Ode to Milt!

Today I get to celebrate another friend! Another friend in the group of girls I mentioned in my previous post. Elizabeth Vaught, often, and more preferably known as "Milton" (her maiden name), pretty much rocks my face off. At least she makes me laugh until I feel like my face is going to fall off. She is the friend that gives you the sore cheeks from laughing so hard. She can dance with the best of 'em...she's super creative and always makes great gifts...she's so thoughtful...she's so ghetto, but so wallflower all at the same time (how does one even accomplish that?)...I could go on for days!

But most importantly, and what Milt has poured into my life, is loads of wisdom and truth. She is a wise sage at a very youthful age, and she is so Proverbs 31 to the point that I'm jealous! She loves Jesus and it shows by the way she lives her life as a true friend, a loving mother, and an awesome wife (I think Christian would second that!). Instead of a WWJD bracelet, I want a WWMD bracelet for "What Would Milt Do?" ; )

Milt, I've learned so much from you in the time we have been friends, and you are one of my very best friends...near and dear to the heart. Thank you for loving me (always!), for sharing your heart with me, and for being the amazing you that you are! So tonight, we shall go fill our bellies with pizza and shake our booties to some 80's at Boom Kinetic in YOUR honor, celebrating YOU, friend! Can't wait!

Happy Birthday, Milt!

A Season Full of New Beginnings...

If you are anything like me, you are SO SUPER thankful for new beginnings! Taking with you what you've learned through experiences in life so far, and a chance to start fresh. New beginnings can be refreshing, challenging, exciting, scary...a whole range of emotions all wrapped up in one. This has definitely been a season of new beginnings for us.

New Beginning #1: As you all well know by now, Dan and I were married on December 6th, 2008. I have felt the need to blog about that experience, but find it so overwhelming to think about actually capturing it in the confines of text in this blogosphere. I don't want to do it any injustice or leave ANYTHING out. So in effort to preserve it, all I can say is it was THE most perfect day in my life...more than I ever dreamed it would be. I married the man of my dreams who is perfect in EVERY way for just me. It brings me more joy than anything I have ever experienced to say that we did things "right," according to what we believe God intended for our dating relationship and marriage to look like. With no guilt or shame, only joy and excitement bubbling over, that day was the greatest day of my life. We are loving learning each other, growing together and being full-time roomies! I love waking up every morning and thinking, "I have the best husband ever." Here are some pics of our day....courtesy of the one, the only, Brooke Robinson

As much as I love new beginnings, they often require a goodbye. This brings me to my second "new beginning".

New Beginning #2: Because of the life I led in my past, I have often cycled friends in and out of my life. It was only when I started walking with the Lord that I realized what true friendship was and what it was always intended to be. With that realization, I have been blessed over the past four years with life-long friends...girls I know deeply, make every attempt to invest in, and know they truly care for me. One of those friends is my friend Jenny Robertson (now Shelby...YAY!). I met Jenny through a random series of events about 5 years ago when she was living in Little Rock working for the American Heart Association, and I participated in an event in Conway with my mom, who had recently had open heart surgery. It wasn't until two years later, when Jenny moved back to Fayetteville, that our path's crossed again on a mission trip to Gulfport to do hurricane relief work. That was the beginning of one of my most treasured friendships...one that makes life so much sweeter. Jenny understands me like very few do. I can tell her ANYTHING...and I mean ANYTHING...and she will love me unconditionally. We laugh harder together than I laugh with just about anyone. We have cried pretty hard together too. Jenny holds a precious place in my heart for showing me what real friendship looks like. Jenny was married last month to Matt Shelby, the PERFECT man for her, and they moved to Green Bay, WI. Though it's so hard to be away from her, and I miss her terribly, our friendship is one that spans miles and miles. I love you, Jenny, and miss your face!

New Beginning #3: This past week has been the most recent series of goodbye's, but also some hello's! We said goodbye to Transfer and CLC last week. It was hard....really hard...but we know the Lord has called us to Victory Church, so there is MUCH peace in that! CLC has been Dan's family for the past five years, and they are so wonderful. We have felt so loved by the kids at Transfer and the congregation at CLC, and feel blessed to have been part of that ministry. Dan spoke in both services on Sunday morning, and as his wife, I feel the liberty to say, HE BROUGHT IT! He was amazing. He shared is heart, and I think his heart is beautiful. You can watch or listen to his talk here. Dan will transition to OKC on Saturday of this week, with his first youth service there being next Wednesday! We went over last Saturday for a little party with the youth leaders, and had a BLAST! We are SOOO excited to be a part of this new ministry, and can't wait to see what God has in store. We know it's going to be HUGE! We are so hungry to be used, and KNOW this is just the place. We have been so welcomed and accomodated, and already love the heart of this church and the people there. Please continue to pray for us as we make this big step!

Last little new beginning tid-bit, and this is funny...as you know, we are trying to sell/rent/barter/trade for gummy bears...whatever we can get...our house here right now. We are working with an agent who is a dear friend of ours, and he found a renter! For some reason, I was wanting to meet this person...not sure why...just did. Apparently, this is not the norm in the renting process, so I was told by my husband who knows all. ; ) But, I still wanted to meet the potential renter. When our agent told the person about this request, they were frustrated because we had strung them out for a week, and were now wanting to meet them and they needed to make a decision...understandable. When Dan was telling me all of this, I said in all of my girliness and glory, "Dan! This is OUR house! I LOVE this house! We watched our first movie together in this house! We fell in love in this house! We had our first kiss in this house! We came home to this house after we got married!!!" I didn't have to add anything else to my list because he was looking at me like I was NUTS! Finally, I said, "I think I'm too emotionally attached...you just handle this." And so he is, and I believe we have it rented!! GIRLS!!!!!!!!!!

"Where da GOLD at?"

In honor of St. Paddy's Day...one of the funniest things ever. I laugh HARD at this every year. N-joy, and "get da GOLD!!!!!"

OOOOOklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plains!

I chose the picture in our blog header because it is one of our favorite engagement pics, but it will be pretty appropriate soon, as we are...drumroll please.........MOVING TO OKLAHOMA!!!!

For those of you who have been living under a rock, Dan has accepted the youth pastor position at an amazing church in Oklahoma City called Victory Church. They have multiple campuses, but their home church is in OKC and ranges from 6,000 to 8,000 in attendance. Dan will be moving in April, and I will join him in early May after the Leadership Conference for my job is complete on May 8. We are SUPER excited about this opportunity and are sure this is where the Lord wants us to be! This is such an honor for Dan to be pursued by a church of this caliber, and I am honored to serve with him. opportunity and are fully confident this is where the Lord w

If you would like, you can pray for us in the following capacity(s) as we transition.

1. People say we are crazy to move right now, because it involves quiting jobs when there are very few to be had, and selling a house! The big thing right now is for our house to sell or rent at an amount that will not cause us to go in the red, which is tough to do these days!
2. For us to find a house in OKC (preferably with a tornado shelter!) that will allow us to lease-to-purchase until we can get rid of ours here. We found one we love, but will have to convince the builder to go the lease-to-purchase route.
3. Work for me. I am having to leave a job that I love in order to move to OKC, and we will need a double income...especially if we have to cover our mortgage here for a while. I am in talks with the church about a marketing position for the production arm of the church, so hopefully that will work out for us!
4. Please pray for Dan's youth group here as we transition out. He fills a "father figure" role for a lot of these kids, and they are heartbroken that he is leaving. Pray that his spot would be filled quickly and with the perfect person for a seamless transition.
5. Finally, pray for us as we step into this new role. Pray that Dan would be FILLED with wonderful ideas and wisdom, and that the numbers would grow from the first day we are there! Pray that kids lives would be touched through this ministry and through Dan. Pray that our marriage will grow as our ministry there grows.

We love you guys, and hope you will share in our excitement with us! Most of you know I grew up in Oklahoma City, and honestly never thought for one second that I would be back there. However, I am very excited to see what the Lord has planned for us, as He promises it is more than we could ever imagine when we listen to and follow Him. So that's what we are doing! Oklahoma will no longer be just cowboys, indians and tornados! We will be there too, so we hope you will come visit!

Slacker-ific!

We are total slacker's at their finest when it comes to updating this blog! Actually, I am...don't even think Dan knows our username and password. So much has happened, and I promise to blog about most/some of it later. Maybe just a picture montage, but we will catch you up soon! Life is super exciting for us right now, and about to get even more so!

Stay tuned!!!

I'm so glad...

I'm so glad Brooke Robinson is one of my FAVORITE friends! She is brilliant!!!! ...and she's REALLY pretty too! : )

An a-fair to Remember

Well, these are a little late, but life has been....ummm...BUSY TO THE MAX! If you know Dan and I at all, you know that we love the fair...like, more than the average redneck loves his mullet. Dan even threw a "fair" in his backyard for my 30th birthday! (His is in three weeks, and boy do I ever have my work cut out for me!) Sooo, it seemed fitting to shoot some engagement pics at the fair! Our amazing photographer and sweet, sweet friend, Brooke Robinson, was TOTALLY game! Hurricane Ike, was NOT game. As we sat in line to park at the Benton County Fair, you could see the storm line in the sky moving closer and closer by the second. It was a navy blue vs. light blue sky, and the dark, stormy navy blue was winning! We finally got to the front of the line, but they were trying to make us park at the back of the lot and walk about a half a mile in. We didn't have time! We told the guy parking the cars that we needed to go to the front of the lot. He looked at me in my white dress with my pink heels and said, "Are you a contestant?" Dan's response from the driver's seat was, "Yes!" and away we went, with Brooke in tow. Genius! Well, we got into the fair and knew we had just a few minutes before the bottom fell out of the sky. We got one shot in, and the rain started falling. We were sprinting from shot to shot, Brooke directing us all the while. Brooke doesn't generally take a lot of "kissing" pictures, and in fact, she had done some research and had a list of about 15 shots she wanted to get of us. However, in our haste, all she could say was, "uuuuhhhhh....JUST KISS!" All in all, we got about three minutes worth of shots before we were soaked, I in my white chiffon dress (not good for rain), and Dan in his white shirt and tie. You can see the saturation as the pictures go on, and in some, you can see the rain in the sky. We love them...more than the fair!

"Dan vs. Wild"

We had our own little episode of Discovery Channel's "Man vs. Wild" at our house last night...better named "Dan vs. Wild." Let me start this story with a little background. A few weeks ago, our friends Donny and Robyn were having gnat problems in their house. Dan and I were at Walmart where found this genius bug zapper tennis racquet...perfect gift for our friends with the bugs! So, we picked one up, and as usual, forgot all about it. Fast-forward to last night.. .

As I was sitting on the couch, hand-addressing close to 400 Save-the-Date's for our wedding (that's another post all to itself), a lone moth appeared in the living room. Dan, bored out of his gourd, suddenly remembers the zapper racquet and retrieves it from the kitchen pantry. Why our bug zapper was in the pantry with our breakfast cereal is to be determined. He needed batteries, and decided that teaching this moth a lesson was more battery-worthy than brushing his teeth, so he removed the batteries from his electric toothbrush to do the deed. What ensued next was one of the most hilarious, first grade boyish things I have seen in a LONG time! Keep in mind, this thing zaps bugs like an original bug zapper with the noise and a spark, but in mid-air with a full swing! I will let the picture essay below tell the story...

On the hunt...

Got it, but just making sure it's really dead...

That was too much fun to stop with one moth, so he headed outside, to the porch light, duh!, to find more...

But this one is my favorite! Look at his face! He is so excited and happy!! It's the simple things...ZAP!

Our Wedding Site

Well, it has been quite the techy wonderland the past couple of days with the soon-to-be Maciuk's! Not only do we have our new little blog, but we also now have our very own wedding Web site! After the age-old RSVP debate...do we even send RSVP cards in our invites since no one RSVP's anyway?...we decided to create this little site to give our guests the chance to just RSVP online, and give out-of-town guests a little more in-depth info about the wedding, accommodations and attractions. It also has some fun stuff about us and our wedding party. Anyway, check it out for all things "Maciuk Wedding!"

http://www.mywedding.com/danandjennwedding

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!!

Okay, so it's old news...but it just doesn't get old!! For those of you who have been living under a rock, or who have stumbled upon this blog, Dan and I got engaged on the beach in St. George Island, Florida (amazing vacation spot, BTW) on June 12 of this year! He popped the question and I was TOTALLY not expecting it! I thought it was too cliche for Dan and his "surprise" antics! He's REALLY great at surprises. Anyway, everyone had been telling me, "You're gonna get engaged in Florida...I know it!" so I naturally assumed it was too expected for his taste. No sir. First night, we walked on the beach and had to pop-a-squat on a catamaran because the sand crabs were many and sizable. Little did I know, the Fed-Ex man had delivered my ring to the beach house we were staying in with our dear friends, Donny, Robyn and their little one (and Dan's God-daughter), Aly. I, of course, said yes. I have been ready to marry him, so I couldn't say yes fast enough! And if you know our story of God's grace on our relationship, you know we can't be more excited to finally be together.

Things have been fast and furious since then. The day after we got home from Florida, Dan flew to California to speak at a youth camp for a week. It was a snowball effect from then until now, filled with local missions trips, youth camps, missions trips to Paraguay, VBS, and engagement party in Nashville and one in Little Rock, etc. We are home now though, and the planning is in full effect! We are getting married on December 6th at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, AR. Since Dan is from Nashville, my family is mostly in Central Arkansas and most of our friends are in Northwest Arkansas, Little Rock was the perfect half-way point. Our reception will be at the Arkansas Arts Center, which is the state art museum. It's pretty phenomenal! And to top it off, Andy Warhol will be on exhibit during our reception! Both of us have always dreamed of a Christmas wedding, so this is PERFECT!

We hope to update this blog often to serve as a little bit of a journal during this fun process, and a way for our scattered family and friends to keep up with our fast-paced lives! If you think to, pray for us during this time! We both long to be the best spouse's to each other, and haven't the slightest idea how to! Any tips and pointers are welcomed! Now, off to eat the rest of our wedding cake samples from this weekend...YUM.