update your life!

allllllrrrrrighty then.
there has been a lot going on in our lives as usual. i think i've already forgot some things i told myself i needed to blog about.

(note: i like having headings within my blogs because it might be nice if our readers want to know just one thing about something they can just skim until they find the appropriate heading. maybe i'll eventually take time to update more then once-ish a week and then i won't need these uber-long blogs with headings and stuff)

school/future plans
we have some good news and bad news here. i'll give the bad news first.

• in short, bryan and i didn't have enough time to get things for Iowa State figured out. he met with a counselor this week and many of the deadlines are tomorrow (FAFSA, UV Applications, etc.) we just didn't have the time to get it all done.
  
• we're officially going to live in our awesome one-bedroom apartment. (but lg, that doesn't sound like bad news, you yourself called it awesome) true, its going to be REALLY nice to have a washer/dryer and a deck and all of the "extras" that haverkamp offers. but it's just soooo expensive. i wish we would have thought everything through more, but it's ok. it won't break the bank, i just feel like we'll be "losing" money.
  

the good news is:

• i'll get to do laundry! hooray. i'm very excited about this actually, right now we go to my parents to do laundry and i end up never washing our clothes because its so inconvenient. my point is, the alsbury's will be a lot less smelly.
  
• bryan went to iowa state for about 3 weeks before he dropped because it s was expensive, hard, and he didn't even know what he was going to study. but because of this, he simply has to "re-enroll" instead of start from scratch so thats awesome.
  
• bryan probably won't go to iowa state fulltime in the spring semester, which will give him a chance to take a few more cheaper classes at dmacc and us some time to bulk up our savings, pay off all of our debt, etc.
  
• we may end up saving money in the end. the deadline to apply for financial aid is tomorrow and we didn't have time to fill it out. but i don't really think bryan would get financial aid because his parents financial info still affects him. but next year, when we apply for financial aid it'll just be our income that applies, and by american standards, we're poor. sweet. so, even if we got all of the forms in on time and crap, we would probably end up with a loan for fall semester because bryan would be enrolled at isu with no financial aid.
  

on another note, God has really been changing my heart about babies and not wanting bryan to be in school forever. i, more then ever, feel so at peace with him working hard in school for as long as he needs to get a degree that he can/will like using to provide for our family. also, i'm getting really hard core about not going into debt for school (this new attitude is causing me to say, "even if it takes longer" lets do this the wise way). we technically still consider it an option, but i think we might not even have to take out a loan. we're going to try at least.

marriage
for our engagement class we are assigned to read three books. two of which i've finished. they were awesome. seriously. let me touch on a few reasons why.
john piper is simply an excellent author. this book is basically a few of his extremely well-written explanations of the Bible and quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. it's a great read, i learned so much and i didn't even read it all (they selected certain chapters for us to read). read it. love it.

oh yeah! they other great thing about this book is that its free! well, kind-of, if you're interested, there is a free pdf online, just click here.

and i'm so glad we were assigned to read this book before marriage:

oh no! it has the word sex in it!
lets face it, married people have sex. and it's glorifying to God. (WHAT?!?!)
seriously, i've heard the above statement before and i just couldn't wrap my mind around it. this book was helpful for my understanding that it no less glorifying to God then praying! weird, huh? even though i knew God had created sex, in my head i couldn't see it as anything more than a selfish human desire. this is also just a great book for husbands about having a great relationship with their wives. and there is come great insight for women written by the authors wife. it's a great read!

on another note, i finished all my invitations! that's pretty much it though. not a whole lot of wedding updates here.

spiritual growth
our church is participating in lent together for the first time! i'm excited! the biggest blessing for me so far has been reading through the psalms. i believe its jeff dodge who is updating a blog with the psalm of day and "starter prayer" its been great.

galatians has been a joy to go through. i've learned more in my short study then i have in a long while. i was so thirsty and the Word has filled me up. paige and i are starting to memorize it as well. i'm so excited about that.

i've been growing a ton, in ways that would take too long to explain but it has brought me great joy to have two women in particular invest in my life. shout outs to mary and paige! you refresh me!

oh and my high school small group? awesome! i have not been able to honestly say that in a long time. it's been a frustrating year for me and my group of girls but i finally feel like we're moving. praise God! i've been so encouraged by the last two weeks. we gained a new student and that has been awesome, and stretching for some of my "don't-you-dare-try-to-break-me-out-of-my-comfort-zone" girls. last week i had a break through. i was explaining Galatians four and had a "Holy Spirit Moment" where God allowed me to say exactly what needed to be said. i saw the faces of almost all of my girls resoundingly say, "oh! i get it!" anna said, "i can actually see why we're going through this book now!" (we've been going through it since the beginning of the school year!)