tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22106195560904831552024-02-20T08:58:08.813-08:00Love and the LawrencesSomeday we'll find it, the rainbow connection; the Turbees, the Merbees and me!Jared & Christianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02275894877547071924noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210619556090483155.post-517526303070744192010-11-29T16:01:00.001-08:002010-11-29T16:50:45.119-08:00Clocks with wings, and other silly things...<span style="font-family:arial;">So, is it really almost December already??? Where has this year gone? I'm sure I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to recite those phrases as we feel the cold creep into our bones, reminding us that Christmas is fast approaching on the road ahead. What?!?! Did I just say "cold creep into our bones"???</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Yeah. It's been a cold and unusual year in the weather department. Summer? What Summer?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">I have been getting much use out of the down coat that I purchased after our trip to Monterey in October. I'm contemplating gloves this year. I'm also contemplating how it is I've managed to put aside some of the more important things in my life, like reading my Bible and spending time with my Best Friend, Jesus. It's a wonder why He still loves me and asks me to spend time with Him. But He does. He still leaves whimsical paintings in the twilight sky, just after the sun has sunk beneath the waves, using cloud trails and bright orange glows to astound me and give my heart that jump start it needs after a day of frustration, wondering what it is that I am doing with my life.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">This was the first year that I actually looked forward to Autumn and Winter. Every year, I start off the Fall season with a disdain in my heart, a melancholy, if you will. A kindred to depression. I feel a loneliness that makes an empty, tinny sound inside. Yes, even the last few years having found the love of my life, there was still that sadness in my drive home, behind a row of red tail lights as the evening dark was approaching.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">But this year, I'm not sure why, I was waiting for the time change, waiting for the cold... oh wait... the cold was already here all year. So no need to wait for that. But I wanted to cook, make pies, eat spaghetti squash and flip through my Pampered Chef catalog and dream of spending hours in the kitchen. What? CL has finally become domesticated? Hmmm.. maybe wouldn't go that far. But one thing's for sure, I certainly have been learning more about cooking, and enjoying practicing the art more than years before. Perhaps this is what has contributed a great deal to my looking forward to the seasons changing, and the air getting chill(ier), and the evening glow outside my back window getting replaced by the flourescent reflection of my kitchen's insides.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Maybe that, along with the joy that my husband and I share on a daily basis.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Here is a truth indeed: we don't wait until we're perfect to get married; rather, we become perfected in our relationship with the one we married. Ahh... much like the analogy of the bride.. of Christ.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">The church (that's us, strangely, individual, yet collective) does not wait until we "have it all together" before we face Jesus. But rather, it's in the face of Jesus where we become perfected.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">I find it funny how married people end up looking alike after so many years of being together. [Much like many dogs tend to look like their owners.. but that's a whole new topic altogether.] Yeah, it's odd, but I'll meet a married couple and think "Wow,.. they could sorta be brother and sister." It's kind of a sick thought if you want to analyze it, but then again not. When you spend so much time with another person, you not only get influenced by their traits and mannerisms, but in doing things similar to them (activities, as well as living in a similar way as they do), you begin to "become" like them. You talk like them, joke like them, make the same stupid, goofy noises, etc. I mean, Jared is already starting to become a little corny like me.... ok.. maybe not.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">So, you spend enough time with someone, and you "become" like them.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Is this what is meant when we read in the Bible that we are to become Christ-like; that we are to be perfected by Christ? Well, how does that happen any other way than by spending great amounts of time with that person?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">As I write this, I realize I had no intention of waxing spiritual, philosophical, or anything else for that matter. I mean, this blog was intended to share what's going on with "the Lawrences", Christiane AND Jared. But one of the things that has always happened to me is that when I write, that is when my true heart is revealed. There is that jokester side, which often masks the deeper side that longs for the same things that angels long for (but angels cannot attain what is available to us!).</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">So as I write this, at the beginning of the advent season (advent started on November 28 this year), I realize that the "thing" my heart has been longing for is the same "thing" that it has been longing for all year; the same "thing" that it longs for at the onset of every Autumn season where depression stunts my heart; and the same "thing" that every soul yearns for whether they realize it or not. Only one "thing" can fill the empty loneliness that resides in my heart. That is Emmanuel, God With Us.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">O come, O come, Emmanuel</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">And ransom captive Israel</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">That mourns in lonely exile here</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Until the Son of God appear</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Shall come to thee, O Israel.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span>Jared & Christianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02275894877547071924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210619556090483155.post-46325071028360130982010-02-06T08:31:00.001-08:002010-02-06T08:32:47.448-08:00daily sweetnessJared just started a new site called Daily Sweetness... check it out and keep posted!<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://inthefather.blogspot.com/">daily sweetness</a></div>Jared & Christianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02275894877547071924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210619556090483155.post-78057418086948046432009-09-04T11:05:00.001-07:002009-09-04T11:08:23.517-07:00Hello<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Hi there!</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">thank you for visiting our page. our hope with this page is to keep family and friends updated on what's going on with us. we'd like to post newsletters on here and give you a place to reach us in case we decide to move or if you've lost our information.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms', serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms', serif;">check back every once in a while as you never know if we'll have sudden urges to write out thoughts or what not. but don't be dismayed if it's a couple months before an update. if you miss us enough, you can always email us! :o)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms', serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms', serif;">here's hoping the time and distance between us doesn't keep us from losing touch!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms', serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms', serif;">love,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms', serif;">christiane and jared lawrence</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms', serif;"><br /></span></div>Jared & Christianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02275894877547071924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210619556090483155.post-45004982155096821472009-03-21T16:30:00.000-07:002010-11-29T15:27:12.948-08:00Married! Jared and Christiane say "I do"!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2w-S9RZzlNCHbqAiDIlPzBPUcaNSaleqqclRI0Hi2Aozwsuxl_063N7jkU6sJNzdJuOVxsE7YHMOCu0pR-RzPcihoPaiQRxo2isvKN-BPh5gGUYTdnpEAICt0BPYMQt_xsuKLYpfGsfno/s1600/IMG_2965_DylanMayer.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 210px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545114364095978722" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2w-S9RZzlNCHbqAiDIlPzBPUcaNSaleqqclRI0Hi2Aozwsuxl_063N7jkU6sJNzdJuOVxsE7YHMOCu0pR-RzPcihoPaiQRxo2isvKN-BPh5gGUYTdnpEAICt0BPYMQt_xsuKLYpfGsfno/s320/IMG_2965_DylanMayer.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div align="center"></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Professional photography taken by <a href="http://deannbphotography.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Deann Barrera</span></a> </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">and <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><a href="http://www.dylanmayer.com/index2.php">Dylan Mayer</a></span></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">, March 21, 2009.<br /><br />Jared and Christiane were married on March 21, 2009. They love to surf, snuggle, eat, hike, read, repeat...<br /><br /></span><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV6Z4-gdmrGhzumlI0nN5qhyJ-2duUb5uNRpowrIxIB0d0nL3-EqfphrVf2dYV0FOS1aPXfXkzEPFahYcigYCtlO0mRb5pCE_-RhvStdFw8H7tn7Rz7KfFViHgJuIE6C4iDa9qpUL7KqOt/s1600/IMG_2919_DylanMayer.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 214px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545114359562347970" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV6Z4-gdmrGhzumlI0nN5qhyJ-2duUb5uNRpowrIxIB0d0nL3-EqfphrVf2dYV0FOS1aPXfXkzEPFahYcigYCtlO0mRb5pCE_-RhvStdFw8H7tn7Rz7KfFViHgJuIE6C4iDa9qpUL7KqOt/s320/IMG_2919_DylanMayer.jpg" /></a><br /></div>Jared & Christianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02275894877547071924noreply@blogger.com0