Sustaining Love

I haven't really ever written much on this blog that I would consider of "serious" matter. Maybe a better way to put that is I have written much that I would consider of true importance. A couple of outfit posts, some pictures of mugs, me in a Santa outfit. You know...trivial. I think that's about to change.

I want to start this post off by saying, it's going to get worse before it gets better. If I were to describe my marriage, I think I would akin it to the Rocky Mountains and the Mojave Desert. Long, high mountain tops with weeks of fun between the two of us and pretty solid communication. But these experiences are almost always followed by some sand and grit.

I...was a terrible wife this week. Dreadful. I found myself in the Desert and decided to set up camp.
That's right, I chose to wallow.

I think that I've confessed this already to almost every person that I've had a conversation with. For some reason, if I've had a moment alone with a friend, I haven't been able to hold it in. I think I have felt so despicable that it seemed like the only way to redeem my "horrible wife week" was to confess it. To every.single.person.i.know. It's come up a lot.

It all started pretty harmlessly. Marriage is tough, ya know? I absolutely love my husband, I truly believe he is God's gift to me, but sometimes I just get a little irritated. The annoying things stand out a little more. And if you're married, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Because you, my friend, are 1.married, but 2. human and 3. married to another human. We love each other, but every now and then we get annoyed/irritated/fed up with/angry at/moody to...each other. It can be the teeniest, tiniest little thing that set it off, but then it starts to snowball. This annoying thing leads to that annoying thing, and before long you've got the Abominable staring you in the face.

And when that happens, my gut reaction is: alone time. Leave me alone. I hole up. I find reasons to avoid. I don't answer questions with full sentences...or even half sentences...and sometimes not even with WORDS. Grunts, head nods, etc. I'm SUPER mature this way. How MISERABLE. He tells me details about his day. "That's cool." He tells me it's fun to have me working from home. "Yeeeaaaah." He continues, in spite of my snark-i-ness, to pursue me. And I continue, because of my snark-i-ness, to chafe at his pursuit.

Oh, I notice I'm doing it. That's the worst part. After each one of my half-hearted, let-me-show-you-just-how-much-you're-annoying-me responses, when G walks away without success again, I have a pang of guilt. Something is tapping at my little soul. My little ungrateful, caught-up-in-my-self again soul. And hour after hour, day after day, I continue to ignore the tap. It's telling me I'm being rude. Ignore. It's telling me that I'm not demonstrating love. Ignore. It's telling me I'm putting myself above him. Ignore.

And I continued to ignore it. Until a week and a half later, I've built a wall up that's higher than a hot air balloon on a windy day. (Pretty high, right?)

And then one day, now that the tension in our little apartment is thicker than my own head-o-hair (wow), I realize that I don't even have a valid reason to have pushed him away, and suddenly my cards are showing. I'm now vulnerable, because I'm left with needing to explain what is wrong...and I've got nothing. A couple of annoyances? Really, Beth?

Wow. What a lame duck I am sometimes.

All I can do is apologize. And pray that this instance will prove to be useful in future instances. That I'll remember how not beneficial this has been. How damaging and hurtful it was to avoid.

Thank goodness that I'm married to man and serving a God who both love me in spite of myself!

I read an incredible quote today about marriage from Dietrich Bonhoeffer (no, I can't claim I was reading his book. This is a stolen from facebook.)

It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, 
the marriage that sustains your love.

I do admit, sometimes in leaning on the Covenant of Marriage that I made with my husband, I find myself falling back in love with him all over again. The Covenant that we made keeps us together, even when we have a hard time loving each other. And by staying together, we continue to find love in ways we never expected. It's a pretty beautiful thing. 

Nationball: Dodgeball on Steroids

In my last post, I shared a little bit of the stresses of my job. Those overwhelming 80's themed trips to the local roller skate rink just stress me out! (dripping...dripping with sarcasm)

So what is it that keeps G from sleeping at night? If you thought 80's roller skating was bad, this is almost unbearable. :)

Every year, near the middle of September, when students are still getting settled into their dorms and familiar with their new class schedules, there is an event that makes all else jump one number down on the priority list. All inhibitions are thrown out the window. All worry of making a good impression? Tossed. Costumes are mandatory, throwing arms a must, and music is blaring as students line up, dorm against dorm, in the biggest dodgeball tournament most have ever seen.

It's crazy.

Stewart (our dorm) is in the red. 

Yes, we consider each one of those red-wearing t-shirts one of our kids. 

We don't start at the infant stage. 

We start at the 18 year old, what's your name again?, really loud college stage. 

They're pretty cool. 

This is Stewart (red) taking on Horton (black). 

There is really hardly any room left to play dodgeball. 

There's a lot of dancing, costume strutting, goofing going on. :) 

One rule that they hold to that I've never seen before is that once you get knocked out, you can still actually play. You can run to the back of the other team, get your team to throw the balls over their heads, and then get them out from the other side. So near the end of the game, 

you've got dodge balls flying at you from all angles. 

A good shot of most of the colors. 

Here are more pictures, with lots of the costumes highlighted. 

Nationball Album 1

Nationball Album 2

And finally, here's a video made by one of the students: 

http://vimeo.com/29180877

It highlights Horton, but shows a lot of the crazy that goes on. 

You'll notice some "rescuing" near the middle of the film. 

The green team is Emerson, a smaller dorm that usually doesn't have a chance at winning so they make it theatrical. This year they were dressed as doctors and nurses and were putting band-aids on the fallen and doing shock treatment on the "mortally wounded". Clever. :) 

There's always something going on around campus. 

Keeps us young, I guess. :) 

We love it. 

Do it Yourself: Framed Fabric

For the three years we've lived in our little apartment, I've had 3 plates hanging on the wall in the kitchen. I love the idea of plates hanging on a wall. I ripped out a page from a magazine several years ago with plates that had various shades of green and gold hung on the wall. But in that case, as in most, there are several plates involved. For example:

Awesome, right?

But, I don't have that many plates right now. It's something you've got to work at over time. (grin)
Hand picking just the right combination of plates from various estate sales and thrift stores till your collection just can't keep itself off of your walls!

You can see my measley attempt at a wall hang in the corner of this picture. 

And again in this picture...

Ok, let's be honest. I just wanted to show you my sweet husband in a pretty apron. :)

One more time...

Haha. Well played, baby. Well played.

ANYWAYS...I have three plates. 

They aren't pretty, hand-picked estate sale plates, and I need the big one to serve deliciousness in from time to time.  

So they had to come down.

I needed something else. Something that would go in the plate holders that I'd already screwed into the wall. (Sorry, facilities!) Something, cheap, quick and round...

Embroidery hoops + Pretty fabric = cheap, quick and round!

I can't recall where I originally saw this idea, but I've wanted to try it for a while.

Here's the quick how to:

#1 Pick out some pretty fabrics. I just grabbed a couple of the small fabric quarters at Joanne's. 

I think they were something like .99 a piece. 

Then I picked up some embroidery hoops at a thrift store, ranging from 50 cents to a dollar a piece.

I laid each hoop on the selected fabric, and then cut a generous square out. 

Then I placed the fabric in the hoop, stretched it taut, and tightened the hoop down. 

I then flipped the hoop over, and cut the excess fabric off with a sharp pair of fabric scissors. 

Flip it over. 

Done! 

I feel silly even making a tutorial. Ha! 

Aaaaaaand, put it on your wall! 

Ding!

This whole process took...abooooout...15 minutes. Tops. 

Cheap. Quick. Effective. 

For more ideas on what you can do with embroidery hoops and 

fabric (like use it as a pinboard!), check out some of these creative crafts on Etsy!

:)

Burger Joint Run Down

Mr. Suhr has a favorite food. 

Burgers. 

Any kind. 

Put a big, delicious steak in front of him and he'll choose a burger every time. 

We're always trying to find the next best burger. 

Some of our favorite places recently (out here on the West Coast) are: 

The Counter. Located in Irvine (there are more than one), this is a great little place 

where you get an awesome menu and get to pick your own toppings. 

And there are LOTS to choose from.

They say they are "the 21st Century's bold answer to the classic burger joint."

Here's a sample of the menu: 

And here's what a typical Counter burger looks like. 

Massive. 

With the ability to pile on the toppings, these things just keep growing.

This was Garrett's from last time we were there. It's a 3/4 pound lamb burger, corn and black bean salsa, pepperocinis, onion straws, caramelized onions, and fresh mozzarella on a soft pretzel bun. 

My favorite combo is something like the chicken, with jalapeño jack cheese, organic mixed greens, roasted corn & black bean salsa, housemade guacamole, sun dried tomatoes, 

and roasted garlic aioli sauce, all on a multi-grain bun. 

So good. 

Another burger place we recently went to with one of Garrett's RA's, Nathan, and his fiance, Jessica was a place in Santa Monica called Umami Burger. 

Their claim to fame is that they have created the fifth taste. 

The first four tastes are sweet, sour, salt and bitter. 

The fifth, Umami, can be simply described as savory. 

More information on it can be found here. :) 

Our Umami experience was definitely a repeater. We will be back. :)

Burgers, smushed potatoes, onion rings, sweet potato fries, and shoestring fries. 

Garrett and I split an Umami Burger, which had all kinds of crazy stuff on it. Apparently, the idea is that all the different flavors give it one unique taste that is super complimentary. 

We also split the Port and Stilton Burger. 

The burgers even have a U stamped on top! Neat-o!

One of Mr. Suhr's current RA's and his fiance, Nathan & Jessica. 

3 out of the 4 of us started off ordering water until the waiter told us that all proceeds from the bottled root beer went directly to an animal shelter. Jessica and I are all about saving the animals. :) 

All four of us ended up with root beer. 

Last, but most certainly not least....the burger of all time. 

I know without a doubt that I have found my perfect burger. 

I ate it one night at a teeny tiny place called Father's Office. 

(The website, unlike the burger, leaves much to be desired.)
This little establishment is in Santa Monica and holds maybe a total of 35 people inside. 

It's not big at all, and you really have to fight through the crowds 

to get to the counter where you place your order. 

There is one burger on the menu, and you can't make any substitutions. 

Luckily, you don't need to. It's seriously that good. 

It was on a soft, wheat & grain roll, it was perfectly cooked to a nice medium rare, and it had a blue cheese spread, carmelized onions, and fresh baby spinach. Sounds simple enough, but I can't tell you how good this burger was. Served with a side of garlic shoestring fries.

 I seriously could eat one of these on a very regular basis. 

And though this post may not show it, I'm not that much of a burger girl. 

I am, however, a little hungry...

This may have been the longest I have ever thought about the subject of burgers...ever. 

I'm sure Garrett could say otherwise. :) 

Cayucos Retreat

A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Suhr and I got to take his staff on their semesterly staff retreat. 

One of the girls on staff has a house that belongs to her family in Cayucos, CA. 

It was rainy and cold, but we had a great weekend, very relaxing, with lots of beautiful views! 

(The first five pictures were taken by me, with  my iPhone camera.) 

Hearst Castle

7 of the 9 on Garrett's Staff. :) 

(The last four pictures were taken by the kid in the middle of the above picture with the really cheesy smile)

This picture is not very nice. 

The last picture is absolutely my favorite. 

This little guy was looking for some food, I think. 

He was totally unafraid. 

Climbed right up on my lap. 

I was, obviously, delighted! 

:)

Hubs

One night I came home to this guy, sitting at our kitchen table, using an online tutorial to help him figure out how to make flies. 

He had all of his little tools out, the table all set up, and he was in serious concentration mode.

It was just the cutest scene to walk in on.

 

Something I love about my hubsters is that he is all man, totally likes to camp, fish, hunt, hike, shoot, kayak, rock climb, ski, explore, be outdoors, scale mountains, etc., etc., etc....

But the other thing I love about him is he's about the sweetest guy ever. 

Always kind. 

Super patient. 

Very loving. 

What a combo.

Marriage License

I found this cool old marriage license graphic from The Graphics Fairy and instantly knew I wanted to add our information to it and make a print to hang in our house. Our marriage license just doesn't look quite as cool. :)

 Here's the before, blank.

And the after, with us included. :) 

Super fun, and pretty easy to do. 

I just have to print it out and make sure that it turns out ok. :) 

Hooray for an evening computer experiment!

Mountain Top Getaway = The Perfect Day

The month of February was seriously...insane. It felt like it was never, ever, ever going to end. Never ever. 

When it finally did, Mr. Suhr and I were ready to celebrate! For us, a getaway means a quick trip up the mountain to either Lake Arrowhead or Big Bear. We threw our skis in the car and headed out! After a quick stop at Chick-Fil-A (the most amazing chicken biscuits) I slept the whole way up the mountain. Mr. Suhr was a good sport. :) We reached the top, found the hill, did the whole changing in the parking lot thing, and ski-boot walked to the bottom of the mountain. (Ski-boot walking is probably some of the most awkward walking ever)

I was a little nervous, as it had been a year since I'd last skied. We took a couple of easy slopes at first till we got our legs under us, and then we went big! Here's a picture of us halfway down one of the California Double Black Diamonds. (I say California Double Black, 'cause it's more like a Colorado Intermediate)

We had a great view of Big Bear Lake. 

We ended up only skiing at Bear Mountain, even though there was a free shuttle to Snow Summit, another mountain close by. The day flew by, though, and we didn't want to waste anytime on shuttles. We were told that Snow Summit was more of a ski hill, and Bear Mountain for the snowboarders, so we'll have to go back. We did go down a hill at one point and end up face to face with a Half Pipe and a Super Pipe. At first I was thinking, "No way am I going down that thing." A little 'cause I was super nervous, and a little 'cause I thought we'd get made fun of by all the Snowboarders. But we ended up jumping in to the Super Pipe and trying to get as high on the sides as we could without feeling like we were just going to fall over. I was surprised at how fast you end up going on those things! Yikes! We probably went through the Super Pipe a total of 5 times and it may have been my favorite part of the day. :) 

We also did some little jumps. I've never left the ground on my skis unless I was tumbling down the mountain in total yard sale fashion. But I got a little confident this run and we went over a couple little jumps and I got a little air action! It was so fun! True, I did biff it a couple of times and had to yell back to Mr. Suhr to tell him I was down on the other side of the hill so he didn't land on me. :) But it was a total blast! 

Afterwards we went into the little town of Big Bear and got some DELICIOUS pizza from a little place called Saucy Mamas. We highly recommend it! I got a half BBQ Chicken, half Mushrooms/Chicken/Alfredo pizza and both were so good! Mr. Suhr got a wonderful meatsy pizza. We both had leftovers for the next day! 

We ended the day with a fun trip into the Sweets Shop in Big Bear. I don't think I've ever seen so many chocolate covered anythings. As Mr. Suhr would say, Jeepers Cats! I took a couple of pics 'cause I was just so so enamored. 

So good and so much to choose from. We ended up with a couple different kinds of fudge, both with the combo of chocolate and peanut butter of course. 

In my eyes, this was literally a perfect day. 

Thanks, Mr. Suhr.