Maybe it was the caffeine...

Upon hearing of my discovery of caffinated mints, by boss responded with "Something tells me you don't need any more caffeine." I am pretty sure there are two things I am known for at work, one would be my iPhone. It is my constant companion for good music, email updates, and staying sane between taking phone calls for the county. I have even brought a few coworkers over to the Mac side, and that's not counting the people I talked into iPads.

The second thing I am known for is my love of Diet Coke. Some people wear bracelets, I carry a can of Diet Coke. It is not only stylish, it is delicious.
I tried to cut back.
Once or twice a year I will give it up for around 3 days and spend the entire time tired, achey and generally unpleasant. Yes it is my vice. It is also delicious and when you are having an awful day can seem like the only constant in your life. What is that you say? There are other constants besides Diet Coke? Well at least there are no others of the refreshing and delicious variety.
This past month has been the most stressful of my life.Yet I would also safely say this is the happiest time of my life. Stats homework, working full time, planning a wedding and needless drama are all making me feel like I am slowly loosing my mind.
It was suggested by my pastor that in preparation for marriage we start praying once a day together (Yes that other constant in life I spoke of was Jesus...a bit cheesy I know). This is something I have been wanting to do for some time so I decided to get over my fear of praying out loud and give this a try.
It has been a great experience and a really nice way to connect at the end of typically hectic and stressful days.
This past week I have been waking up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world. (I have also taken my espresso machine out of storage)
I was so excited about this and thought "Wow! Praying has given me energy and a positive additude! If Jesus can make me wide awake at 7am, well he can do anything".

Funny thing was.... I had this thought as I was preparing my now morning ritual sugar free hazelnut latte with two shots of espresso! :-0

So in other words...I require lots of compliments?

Pre-marital counseling. Those two words are enough to make anyone nervous.
Will I be grilled about past "relationships"?
Will I be told "YOU ARE UNFIT TO MARRY!"?
Will I be made to feel like a failure at life to be on marriage #2 at 24?

Face it...Everyone has insecurities. Everyone.
Whether you like it or not, there are things you would rather your pastor not know, or for some people, even their partner.
As pretty much anyone who has met me more than a few times can tell you, shy/closed off/private is something that I am not.
Just 8 months ago I stood in front of three different church services to tell the story of how I came to know Christ. I didn't think anything I shared was particularily shocking, but I could tell by the looks on some faces and the response I received that this was not something that people were used to.

Perhaps this is why I expected judgement when meeting with the pastor to discuss my plans to marry. So often people hide their fears, past experiences, or even what makes them tick. There is this overwhelming need in our society to be accepted, that people often forsake letting others know the real them.

Ever post something on Facebook a tad too personal and receive the response "I can't believe you shared that!?"

Yes this is what I am referring too. It's often when we are struggling the most that we need the most support from our community, yet this is when people feel the most afraid to open up.

Counseling turned out to be nothing to fear. No judgement, no probing overly personal questions. There was actually just one question...How does Christ effect our lives? But we were sitting in our pastor's office, so this wasn't exactly shocking. I was put on the spot and rambled like I usually do in that situation, but I'm very glad I went.

In that one hour I learned so many great tools to help our marriage down the road.
So I suppose this is my shameless plug for recomending a pre-marital class. (I will call it a class due to the social stigma of counseling *GASP!*)

Seeing as we are both complete iPhone junkies we ended up downloading the "Five Love Languages" App while waiting for a parade at Disney.
Taking the quiz, I found many of the questions to be a bit confusing. "Do you prefer watching a movie or cuddling?" Well...I certainly don't enjoy watching a movie while sitting 3 feet apart.
"Do you prefer holding hands or going for walks?" I tend to think the two go hand in hand (GAH! BAD PUN!)
Over all I think this quiz is the most important step anyone could take to understand their partner better and to enhance their relationship. On the Five Love Languages website http://www.5lovelanguages.com/ it went on to reveal that your top two love languages are often the things you complain to your partner about.

So why not save yourself dozens of fights and simply take the quiz together?
I'm so glad that I did.


By the way....I'm all about "Words of Affirmation" apparently.
Also "Physical Touch"...But if there was a love language of stangers and the general public, my primary love language would be "Personal Space".