announcing!

News y'all. I guess news is the only thing that can really get me to truly update this puny little blog of ours. Actually I've written some posts in the past couple months, but chickened out and never posted them! What the what!?

But news, news will get me updating. Not the news you might think we are thinking (NOT PREGGERS!).

The news!?!?!

The Robbins will be making their first move as the Robbins!

Yes! Yes! Yes! 

Justin is set to graduate May 10th with his degree in Constriction Science from A&M and has accepted position in Hutto, TX (home of the Hippos I've been continually informed!) a close suburb of Austin! We recently found an adorable (tiny!) apartment in Pflugerville that we LOVE. The complex has a workout room (yay!) a pool (YAY YAY!) and there is actually a dog park IN the complex, so Pippin loves it too!

We are beyond excited, this is seriously a dream for Justin, as in a dream job y'all. God is good.  We will be making the move somewhere between May 25 and June 1. Highly depends on how many friends we have to help us pack ; )


We are getting sadder and sadder (more sad?!) to leave our amazing friends and community in College Station. It has been a dream of a place to live for the past 5 years, and the best place we could have lived for our first 2 years of marriage. It will always feel like home, I mean, we are Aggies.

Our new car!

My favey baby Tatum Templeton!

The boys studying hard to try to graduate!

Cheers for now, until my next update 3 months from now. But for real...




Love.
L.



cheers to the year.

In the spirit of all things new, I'm taking full advantage of a fresh start. I felt so encouraged about the New Year - feeling inspired, motivated, and ready to take on my life as a beautiful adventure and let go of all things drab and grey. I'd have to say, we were off to a great start.... for a day. Until the whole family ended up with our faces in the potty, discarding all of our stomachs' contents {womp womp}.

BUT! I refuse to let this little hiccup, and the days since that I have felt pretty puny, discourage my new attitude. I feel like I have real inspiration about living full and colorful, in a riveting, meaningful way. I hope to share before too long.


In the mean time, a quick share of the Robbins' 2nd family Christmas together!

We were so blessed (crazy?) to be able to visit everyone in both our families over the holidays. We drove a whoppin' total of 1,500 miles in 2 weeks, and stayed in 7 different places.

my new haircut!
our pooped puppy at the Keenum family Christmas
eating at Texas de Brazil (YUM!) on our little mini vacay
(middle 3 pics) enjoying downtown Fort Worth
in the deer blind, hunting in Mertzon
and finally, ending the holiday with a pallet and movie night at home!

Love.
L.

things I'm loving {holiday}

I love this song sung by Pentatonix (a capella style!) It reminds me of the simplicity of the pleasure of Jesus in what we have to offer Him! Take a listen and catch the joy and simplicity of our Savior's birth! 

• This blog  by Kelly Oribine on how to celebrate Christmas with a minimalist view! I wouldn't say that I am here yet, but I would love to implement several of her ideas into our life!

Stove-top potpourri has been such a great "i'mobsessedwithmyhousesmellinglikeChristmas" fix. Literally, add anything you think smells good to water and let it simmer on the stove top! Some examples I've been using are oranges, cranberries, cinnamon sticks, cloves, lemon, allspice, and rosemary.

hope you are enjoying the cold, the holiday spirit, and {hopefully} a little more time to relax! 

Love.

L.

{not so} serious updates

So, just as in the title of this post, I have some serious updating to do, but the updates themselves are not serious...

 * the highlights *

{in order from the top left}
Moving out of our first apartment
cruising with the Robbins clan
the newest member of our family - Pippin!
 Justin surprised me for our anniversary with a photo shoot {THANKS SARAH!} 
celebrating 1 year of marriage!
 becoming Texans' fans - Justin is so pumped he can't keep his eyes open!
 posing at Northgate Vintage First Thursday
the Eventelligent crew {plus Ben...?}
I have fun reading whilst Justin plows through writing papers! 

Celebrating Justin getting his Aggie Ring on the left, and celebrating my birthday with my besties on the right! 

Whew,  I feel relieved to get this first post out of my system. One day I might actually have a camera and take some quality photos. But until then, my iPhone has that job!


I hope you are enjoying the cold and are drinking a cup of coffee as you read! I plan  hope to be posting more in the near future! Maybe a few house pics if I can get the place clean......



Love.
L.

a life really lived

This post I wrote a while back, in typical Lauren fashion, here I am posting it 3 months later!


I had a moment, last week when Justin and I made a quick stop at the park for a walk before lifegroup, a moment where I thought, "life can be really full, and really lived." It was then that I realized how much my life really did need to slow down. While I am only working part time now, and it feels like I'm way less busy than "normal," I still find pointless time fillers to take up the hours in my day. Looking back over my goals for the past month and the ways my life has changed for the better, I realize these are the moments I felt the most full and alive:

• Walking in the park with Justin after dinner, before lifegroup
• Spending a morning on the couch watching the news, just because we got up 2 hours early
• napping in a hammock on a Tuesday afternnon
• eating cereal for dinner, just because
• spontaneously driving to Dallas to run the Color Run with my best friends!

So, I need a few more of these moments in my life. Moments of not freaking out when I haven't planned anything for dinner, or because the house is a disaster! Moments of {sometimes planned} spontaneity. So, here's to living a not-so-perfect-full-of-life life!


love.
L.

Goals

I am finding that the task of living a more full and enjoyed life is just that, a task. I thought that opening my eyes and being more thankful and being less busy would make me happier. But I'm realizing that being happy is more than just realizing that I need to enjoy my life more, but the act of taking practical steps to living a life more filled with GOOD things : )


So, I've crafted a few practical steps (in the form of goals) to set me up to live a full life. I realize that my perfectionist side has potential to obess a little alot over meeting everysinglegoalperfectlyalldayeveryday. So, I'm reminding myself to love the process. To enjoy the journey of life as just that, a journey. Viewing these steps as a tool to live more freely and full, and not as the end all-be all of my worth as a person.


Goals for the month of April:

• Finish the book 1000 Gifts and then re-read all the underlines from the whole book.
• Clean out the guest closet and get rid of....most of it.....(cough cough, all of it)
• Rewrite all of my "floating" recipies printed from the internet onto index cards for my recipie box
• Work out for at least 30 minutes 3 times a week (the former athlete in me is distainful at how puny this goal is, this is a huge step for me at this point)
• Write Justin an encouraging note once a week (that's 5 times in the month of April!!!)
• Go for a walk with Justin at least 1 night a week

So, there it is. Accomplishable (not a word), productive, and life-giving goals. Cheers to living a fuller life!



Love.
L.

Spring it is!

I may be old fashioned, but I still refuse to wear sandels, shorts, or white until after Easter. Although, these warmer days lately have tempted me to break my "fashion rule." Either way, I'm thankful and excited for a new season in the weather, and in our lives! Justin and I are going on 9 months of marriage (eeek!) and excited about our lives more than ever!! We started (and have stuck to!!) a budget this past month, which I realize alleviated my worry-filled "checking of our account 5 times a day!" God is good! Here are just a few little "goodnesses of God" in our lives lately...



We just got back from Raleigh, NC for our last Spring Break as college kids!! We had fun with 100 other college students from our church, sharing the love of God on NC State's campus. Here are couple of pictures from our beach outing on the last day!

I revamped our Christmas wreath recently, those are PAPER flowers!

Justin and I have been able to enjoy a few afternoon dates lately! Froyo and walks!

This is a picture from the FCA Spring Banquet in February that I worked to put on. I have a very supportive husband!

So, if you read this and want to pray for our little family, you could pray that Justin gets an internship soon!! (in College Station!!), pray we find a new place to live for next year, and that our hearts are more hungry than ever to follow Jesus!





Love.
L.