on life, and settling in.

it's the most interesting feeling, having your own place.
if i must be honest, i love it.
it's fun. the details. the mundane. the every day.
they're our towels.

it's our kitchen sink.
our laundry to do.
(two loads desperately need to be done right now.)
our coffee maker that brewed fresh, hot, yummy coffee this morning.
our front porch.
(it could use a rocking chair or love seat of some kind...maybe craigslist will let something out of the woodwork again. hah.)

our couch.

our entertainment center that we put hard work and concentration and teamwork into, one night from 10:30pm to 2:30am.
our budget to sketch out and write up.
our rent to be paid (and what a great deal do we have!! so blessed.).
our dresser.

our mirrors and awesome leather chair that i found while rummaging with lady friends back in wisconsin. :)

our coffee mugs. (great gifts from awesome friends, used all the time, if you would believe that. ;))

our milk glass bud vase from my grammy who passed on in june 2011.

our at-home date nights late on sunday nights with a movie and caesar salad kit from wally's.
(p.s. i love you is one of those films that i watch 2 or 3 times a year and it gives me a whole new appreciation for life and loved ones. just because. these humans are so precious to me.)

friday and saturday night, while justin worked, i had rachel over for one night, and anna for the other night.

we talked and talked and watched a movie before sleep. the next morning, i made them coffee in my kitchen. poured them coffee into my collected (or gift-given) mugs. 
it's pretty fantastic to be able to have sisters over for a night of quality time and coffee in the morning.
i like it a lot. ;)

after-dinner walks out here in southern illinois are amazing.
no doubt about it.
i used to live in a small town, about 10k. i could see sunsets, but not like this. 
friday night i think it was, justin and i took a walk alone on the country road. all the way up to the stop sign like we always did over the past almost-2-years. we stopped and stared at the sunset. hugged and talked about how we couldn't remember the last time we'd done this together. the past how many months were too busy to randomly take a walk.
i believe after-dinner walks are some of the best things to have in your life. it's pondering time, whether you have good, lovely things to think and talk about, or hard, frustrating things.

and i can't believe,  that I'm your man,
and i get to kiss you baby just because i can.
whatever comes our way, ah we'll see it through...
[michael buble]

all in all, we're loving the challenge and joy that is marriage.
i'm just so glad we're in this crazy life journey together.
♥

oh, hey. i'm married now and blogging for the first time in forever... :D

i'm married now.
i quite enjoy being married.
to my best friend, nonetheless.
he's pretty wonderful.
it's fun and interesting learning to live with a husband. 
oh yeah, and now i'm living in the country. (i lived in a small, awesome town of about 8k all my life.)
and it's beautiful.

i've been instagramming it up because of my new phone.
my username is: love_beka_hill.
you're welcome to follow me. :)
arranging house is pretty fun. i haven't made many amazing meals yet though. (two people don't eat that much. who knew?! hey. i came from a family of 8. lol.)
trying to get the kitchen all organized and the bedroom, too.

the dining room and living room need to be tackled, that's what i know for sure.
how about some fun stuff now?
pictures from the wedding? how about a few. ;)

photo credit: samantha

here's a few picture from the wedding --we did a first look and got all the photography done beforehand by a friend, samantha, and my now-sister-in-law, jen. it was awesome and so relaxing.

 me, my older sister anna, and two of our besties -- coincidentally, now my sisters in law. ;) love!!

me and the siblings. :D

more besties. :)

 

i'm off to watch some Lie To Me on netflix and wait for the husband to come home from second shift. can't wait to see his face.
maybe some wedding thank you's should be written too. hmmm.
see you around, cyberspace (and real life) friends!!
♥

life update, anyone?

this was the sunset today, the end of my 10-5 day at my favorite rustic furniture shop... ;)

this was one of mom's inspirational finds at b&n the other night.

[engagement pictures that my awesome sister, rach, took of us 11/24 on the most freezing day ever, after thanksgiving was warm and in the mid-50's...we took pictures on a day that ended up being around 30.

and add windchill. and some pictures taken at sunset by a lake. hah!! torture. lol.]

lately i've been figuring out venue choices and pros and cons with mum and a couple other valuable perspectives who are of great help. :)

almost time to unveil a date. almost. ;)

suspense is awesome, right?
it's grand tension.
a very grand sort indeed....
after i worked 10-5 at the store, i closed up and went straight to babysitting a sweet little one, K, and her two older siblings...5:30-9.
i got home at 9:30 and it's the strangest thing to look at the clock and see "10:35pm"...
when i normally get home around 5:30.
oddest feeling ever.
but gotta love having work.
and saving money.
and buying christmas gifts.
and splurging on oneself.
heh. :)

it's a pie kind of night.

i made apple pie tonight.
it's justin's favorite....and i'm just glad i'm testing out my skills making it, because i've only made it a few times so far in my life......probably once a year, each fall with all the apples we get from one of the local orchards.

and let me just say.....
it's really one of the best things to ask how the pie is and hear things like
i think there's just enough sugar in it.
i think there's just enough salt in it.
there could be a little more butter in it. [says the person who loves butter a little more than the normal butter-loving people out there. ;) ]
i've developed a solid taste for softer, acoustic-style music, but today it's been three days grace as i peeled apples with caleb....red as i sliced the apples. rise against as i mixed up a lazy crumble topping for the pies instead of rolling out crust. i haven't bridged into underoath yet tonight....just going back in the archives of rise against.....but it may come yet. lol.

i ran a little over a mile with my awesome, younger siblings, caleb and rach.
ran...then walked a bit....then ran more. i got a side stitch, or else i would've ran the whole time, obviously. :P
i'd have to say my favorite part was the yoga-related stretching before and after the running/walking....
the lightly-chocolate protein shake that caleb made for him, rach and i was not to my liking but i drank it down anyways because they said i'd be more sore if i didn't partake. oy.

next up in my night: making a minestrone soup for tomorrow lunch so i don't have to do anything but warm it up when we get home from church. :)
and.....clean this kitchen.

i have a feeling i may be sleeping really good tonight.......

but first, let's burn the butter that's heating up, waiting for onions and soup fixings first.
this is a great start to the rest of the evening.

sigh.

random catch-up for people who actually read and are interested in my life....heh. heh.

hi. :)
again.
crazy, huh? two freaking days in a row, beka? blogging?
who knew it could happen again.....wow. :P

well....here's some news.
march was the last time i had a 'real' haircut.

i can tuck it behind my ears mostly now!!
so exciting. :)
i'm growing it out. 

to about this length.
[this was taken in 2010]

we still swing dance.
this was on the way there last week.

a few weeks ago, my brother proposed to martha. they're getting married in march.
me and my sisters are all in the wedding, as well as several of martha's friends. :)
it's going to be epic. especially once we can all decide on a great bridesmaid's dress for us all to wear. blue. one style. hmmmmmm...... :)
as for justin and i, we haven't set a date yet.
but we're close.
closer than ever before.
plus, we've been getting to walk through and learn so much together right now, that we wouldn't have if we'd been planning/bringing about a wedding during this time. so thankful for how our story is unfolding.
:) but yeah.....we're throwing ideas around for a wonderful, down-to-earth, on-the-casual-side celebration including quite a few family and friends. :) it's going to be pretty sweet.

sunday night, i did henna for sarah, anna's sweet and awesome friend, and her two girls....and then sarah's boyfriend, kelly [a legit tattoo artist, haha], did henna for me.
they're all pretty cool, down-to-earth people. :) that was a really fun night, let me tell you. :)

a henna tattoo i did for sarah on her palm: ^

the other part of the henna project i did for sarah. :)
strangely enough, in the few years it's been since we discovered the awesomeness of henna tattoos, and the times i've done it for girlfriends when we get together, i've never done the palm, or the collar bone area.
so that was a first for me; having so much space to work with, challenging, but so much fun. and she loved it. so that's even more awesome. :)

i did anna's palm when we got home. :)
i also did my two younger sisters monday night....i'll have to post those pictures when i can. :)

also, in other life news, the 6th-10th of september, i got to go visit justin and his family. :)

we did awesome things like have chicken tacos with freshly made tortillas by my sweet future mother-in-law. :) :)

we went to an outdoor movie showing by a friend of theirs and freeze my butt off --but that was so much fun. ;) also, i got to see pj --my best friend, who is now --as of march-- an old married woman and soon to be a cute new mommy too. :)

...justin took this one:)
cate, jen & craig's cute little girly has [relatively;] warmed up to me these past few visits i've gotten to spend with them all. :) cutest niece [to-be] ever. :)

....and.....us. :)
she loves her uncle justin/bubby. it was hard to keep her in my arms when he was around. ;)
[read between the lines: he's super awesome.]

aaaaaand now google account is being stupid again.
saying i ran out of space for uploading pictures.
heh.
wonderful.
that's all for now, then!
see you around. :)
tonight: a sleepover with heath and steph and anna. [derek, heath's husband, is off on a business trip thing]
carrot cake [heather], cinnamon chip scones [me], a movie [steph], and girl time, here we come.... :) :)
yay!

what's new with you?
are you enjoying fall, now that it's basically here now to stay? :)

oh my!

hi hi hi!

this is me and my younger brother. [he's a cute dork in this picture. heh.]
me and my freaking awesome family just got back from a week long vaca.
it was perfect weather then, and we came home to perfect weather.
on the cool side. breezy.
scarily like autumn, even though we shouldn't have autumn weather till late september. weeeeiiiirrrrddddd.
i'll take it though.
makes it even more natural [and not weird] to drink good, hot coffee. :) all the time. ;)

sarah and justin's littlest kiddo.

 

...cute things happened last saturday. the last 3 pictures are proof. ;)
you're welcome. :)
i'm not going to get much sleep in the next few days. not like vaca. sleeping by 10:30 pm, awake by 7....
life is changing. and it's good.

p.s. i almost never log into my blogger account because google screwed with my email not being able to be logged in at the same time as my google/blogger one. :P oy!!!! inconvenient much?!

hello again . . . marriage links, and life lately.

wow, wow, wow.
since when does blogger randomly just start working for me, one night at nearly 11pm?
shoot. i wanted to go to sleep early. ish.
but since it's working, i wanted to get a few words in before it goes funky and fails again, as technology and sites and complicated stuff like that tends to do. :P

i made some cream of mushroom soup today, completely from scratch [and it turned out freakin' yummy, if i do say so myself and quote the family members who devoured it. lol] . . . also, baking powder biscuits, and a 2 dozen batch of blueberry muffins.
oh my word, the last paragraph and the picture line up above makes me feel like my blogging a year ago....food, food, food. ;)
anyways, during that and afterwards, i was reading all over online about young people getting married.
here are a few favorite links i found...

a stunning post by the lovely erika [the life artist]:
12 years and why are we married again?

and this one, by david lapp:
did i get married too young?

the case for early marriage.
found in the magazine/webzine christianity today. [first mentioned to me by jen and craig, justin's awesome older sister and brother in law.]

and this really good one from boundless:
paddling after jake and myrtle.

and another really interesting one via boundless:
i got married young, but not young enough, part 1.

in other news: starting last thursday, rach and i got to spend 5 nights down with justin and his family, and then he drove us up here and he got to spend 5 nights with us. :)
needless to say, the past 10ish days were filled with laughing, fascinating and quirky family members, shopping, hanging out, swimming [hello terribly hot summer weather, anybody?], watching a couple movies, making food, singing, painting [yes!!! you read that right! ;) more on that later]....having interesting discussions face to face for once [mostly they happen over the phone, obviously]......let me just say, saturday when justin and i got to go to panera bread and have a scone and coffee --a chai tea latte for him-- it was so good to just spend one-on-one time talking about all the stuff under the sun that we puzzle over on the phone.

sunday morning with him as he left for home in southern illinois, saying see-you-later was the roughest time yet, but i can feel time speeding up just a bit more, closure coming, the next step drawing nearer and nearer...

so . . . that's been my last couple weeks.
maybe some more pictures and descriptions later.... :)

oh! also. i'm growing out my hair....just trying, right now, to even get to an even-length bob. heh.
kinda rough some days. but i'm getting there. i've had only the back trimmed straight for the past few months....i'm getting there. it's almost to the tuck-behind-the-ears-and-it-stays phase! so excited. hahah. at least i liked the short-short hair cut for nearly a complete, fully year. i'm pretty proud of that.

this was today. me and rach, sharing a dark chocolate coconut frappuccino at a cute little independent coffee/antique shop. :) no, i don't have instagram. rach does though. :P lol