Celebrating 2 Years of Epicness-an Avatar Anniversary!

Happy Wednesday and feast of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, everybody! I hope that you are having an abundantly blessed week! Over here, I've been doing lots of catching up (since the weekend was super full), but amid all of the craziness and all of the struggles that have come along, God has truly been present! 

On Monday, August 10th, my husband and I celebrated two epic years of marriage. I was super excited, because 
1. I love being married to my husband
2. Since this took place on a Monday, we got to hear our wedding readings at Mass!
3. Anniversaries are great ways to celebrate in extra-special ways
4. PARTY!!!!!

My friends, if you desire to hear more about this extremely epic day, come right along!

I love being married to my husband. Let me tell you, marriage is epic. I mean, when two people become one with the mission of getting each other to Heaven, you know that things will get exciting. In this last year, we have been through a lot, and continued to grow towards God in our marriage. Last year during our anniversary, we didn't have a car (because our car had recently been totaled), we were living in Steubenville (a "ghetto"), and we were preparing to finish our senior year of college. In the year since, we bought a car, successfully wrote theses and graduated college, and moved to the middle of America. And it's been awesome. 

While my husband was at work on Monday, I was thinking about how amazing this all is. A year ago, during our one-year anniversary, I had never imagined that we would be where we are now. In just one year, God can do amazing things, that is for certain! So, I was excited to celebrate it all. After work on Monday, we attended 5:30 p.m. Mass at Little Flower Church. It was awesome, and-like I mentioned-we got to hear our wedding readings. What kind of epic blessing is that?!?!?! For those of you who might be completely confused by this, let me explain: We were married in the Extraordinary Form (Latin) Mass, in which there is an Epistle Reading and a Gospel Reading. When we met with our priest to discuss the liturgy, he said that, since we were being married on a Feast Day, we could choose either the Nuptial Mass readings of the Feast Day readings. Well, when he read all of the readings to us, we were like, "Umm...those Feast Day readings sound like they should be Nuptial Mass readings. We want those." In case you are curious:

2 Cor 9:6-10

Brothers and sisters:
Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,
and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful giver.
Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you,
so that in all things, always having all you need,
you may have an abundance for every good work.
As it is written:
He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.
The one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food
will supply and multiply your seed
and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

And Jn 12:24-26

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honor whoever serves me.”

These are TOTALLY marriage readings, aren't they? All about sacrifice and self-gift! So anyways, we got to hear them at Mass for the Feast of St. Lawrence on Monday, and it was awesome.  Before Mass, Jacob had told me that afterwards, he would take me to a surprise location. I didn't know what it could be, since we already had a dinner at home planned. 

After Mass, he revealed the location and we went there: Vintage Stock. Apparently, one of his co-workers mentioned it to him, and Jacob knew that we needed to go. Guys, it was amazing. They had a huge Watto hanging from the ceiling next to the door! There were rows and rows of movies! There were tons of comic books! There were video games! There was a Master Sword (from The Legend of Zelda)for a hundred dollars! There was even a small collection of board games! There was a teensie Doctor Who section! There were cute plushies, like stuffed Bullet Bills, Shells, and Toads! It was absolutely beautiful. So much wonderfulness. After a LOT of deliberation (because I really just wanted to buy up the majority of the store), I bought a huge TARDIS poster, which I will probably put up in our living room. I'm really excited. 

After we roamed around the store, we returned home for the rest of our awesome festivities. We played a game of chess (which I lost, sadly), and then had our party. I had first been introduced to Avatar: The Last Airbender in high school, by my friend, Anna. But, I had never watched that much of it. When I met my husband, we watched the entire show together. And so, we decided to have an Avatar-themed party to celebrate 2 years of marriage. 
We ate awesome food. (Mai's fruit tarts, Flaming Fire Flakes, and Fire Nation Sizzle Crisps)



















I wore my airbender outfit. (I originally wore this outfit several months ago because I thought the colors looked good together. Then, randomly that day, I realized that I was an airbender!)

We watched The Southern Raiders, from Season 3. 

It was fabulous!

 I hope that you enjoy hearing about our anniversary adventures! Have a blessed and awesome day!