I'm a Fortney!

We've been married for 52 days so Let's rewind to 51 days ago. Rehearsal dinner, check. Catch ya on the flip side, Fortney. 

 “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” Ruth 1:16-17

As many of you might not know, September 3, 2011(our wedding date) was the LSU/Oregon football game which was conveniently located in the great city of Arlington, TX. Nine months before, when we decided on a wedding date, we didn't take into consideration the College Football schedule. We started venue searching which is one of the first things you should do when planning a wedding. My friend, theknot.com, told me that. Anyway, we went to a few venues with a estimated number of attendants in mind. We checked out a few venues and nothing was really sticking out to us. And then we found the Ballpark. It was the perfect venue, perfect location, nice staff, and great view. So we went for it. If you're not familiar with Arlington, the Ballpark and Cowboys stadium are 1 mile apart. Remember when I mentioned the college football game? Hotel prices went up, parking was going to be a mess, and there would be a LOT of people in Arlington the weekend of my wedding. So we decided on a day wedding to make everything a little less crazy.

I (Melissa) woke up at 3:22 a.m. It was my wedding day, you expect me to sleep? No. Absolutely not. My life was about to change. For the better, of course. I was going to marry a man I have been friends with for 5 years. We had a solid friendship, now we get to embark on the journey of marriage together. We had the proper pre marital counseling, Thanks Craig and Carrie!  

"I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith." Romans 1:11-12

The wedding was beautiful, everything I wanted and more. So many special people came to celebrate with us and we are very blessed to have each of you in our lives. Thank you for your prayers and blessings.

We are now in the process of learning how to be married, keeping up with a blog, settling into our lovely MoHo (obviously), and keeping up with the hustle and bustle.  We’ll work on keeping up with this thing…it may take some time.  We ask for your continued prayers as we are in such a cool learning phase of life and marriage.

Can't Spell Wedding without WOWZA!

Guys,

Get this, WE'RE GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW!!!! I'd love to spend several paragraphs explaining the emotions we're feeling individually and as a couple, but I'd much rather try and get some sleep.  Honestly, I'll probably just lay on the futon like a kid on Christmas Eve because when I wake up I'll be going to meet my bride.

What does this mean for you?  This means you can start praying for us RIGHT NOW! We're embarking on quite the journey of pursuing a godly marriage.  We're accepting any form of prayer as we begin a new chapter in life.  Thanks in advance.

I'm sure we won't be blogging as we sail the 7 seas (gulf) on our honeymoon, but be sure to check back for updates on the adventures we'll encounter when we're back.

See you when we're married!

Tool Time!

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Genesis 2:15

Somewhere during creation God wired man with the want and desire to build, repair, and play/work with tools of any kind.  It has been my desire, as a man, to use tools and overcome work projects to prove my manliness as often as possible.  That could be one reason I was so excited to move into the mobile home in the first place.

My loving bride-to-be has been longing to support this desire of mine to build.  She has never seen my abilities with tools or building, but she knew it was part of my wiring to flex my desire to be a man.  She thought it would be a lovely way to serve me by setting me up for work projects. 

The first thing she did was “accidentally” hang all her clothes up, and then I hear “UHOH” from down the hall.  Not only did she rip the hanging rod off in the closet, but she brought some of the support beams for the shelf to the ground with it.  It turns out the thin PVC pipe we had as a hanging rod in the closet couldn’t support the weight of her clothes, and she doesn’t really have a ton of clothing.

She didn’t wake up thinking “I’m gonna break something so Josh can show off today,” but nonetheless she blessed me with this opportunity.

Unbeknownst to Melissa, I had never done anything like the sorts of rebuilding a closet and supports.  I was not about to show her any sort of weakness or lack of construction knowledge.  So I did what any man would do and went to Lowes.  With Melissa by my side we looked at different closet repair options and purchased some lumber (which was cut by our new friend Shane).

Melissa focused on moving in her clothing and supplies while I focused on showing off my skill with a drill and a screwdriver.  Instead of trying to get one bar to stretch the entire width of an 89 inch wide closet, I decided to break up the projects into three different segments.  This should prevent any future collapse of Melissa’s hanging clothes.

I finished 2 segments of the closet, and I’m sure Melissa was more than impressed.  I was feeling like the man God created me to be until Melissa noticed that the sun was shining a little into the closet I was repairing.  Most closets don’t have windows, and this closet was no exception.  This closet might’ve had a hole leading to the exterior of the house though.  This was great excuse to go back to Lowes!

I really needed an excuse to get my new friend Shane to cut the wood that was too large.  He cut it where I had measured, and he hooked us up with a patch kit for the hole in the closet.  I was just gaining all sorts of manmentum (manly momentum).  I was now prepared to put in two new supports and fill the closet hole.

While Melissa was at work I got some quality man time with a drill and a saw.  I had measured and felt awesome about finally fixing Melissa’s closet, but God had some humbling plans for me.  When I went to insert the new support, of course, it didn’t fit…at all.  I might have been upwards of 5 inches off.  That led me to my workshop/our kitchen.  I had my handy hand-saw ready to do some work.

After a solid 30 minutes of cutting I was ready to put it in!  Sure enough, it was still just a little too big.  So I spent another 15 minutes cutting 1 inch off that stupid piece of wood.  When I put that in the closet, it still didn’t quite cut it (get it?).  SO I’m back in the kitchen cutting. And cutting. And cutting.

Finally, it fit!! The rest is a breeze right? Wrong. Turns out I’m stronger than the very metal that has made some of the screws I was using.  I got the board in there and the particles I had cut off of it as extra support, but there’s still one screw bent and hanging to remind me of humility.

The closet it finished except the hole.  Shane (our new lumberjack friend from home depot) hooked us up with a patch kit.  Dreading a new project I opened the kit and got to work.  5 minutes later I was done, proving to myself that I am all that is man!

The lesson learned here is I don’t have to prove my worth through my carpentry!...because even then I fall short.  I have a loving fiancé who will also be willing to break things for me to fix and a loving God who will always break me because I’ll always need fixing.

Pictures of the move in!

I got to move my stuff in a few weeks ago.  Then Melissa moved her things in as I packed an overnight bag to go live at the Ranch, but here are some pictures of our humble abode.

Kitchen

 Living room with too many TVs

Front Porch!

 Guest room! You can come be a guest!

Bathroom!



Make Shift Laundry Room

Master Suite!

ALL ABOARD!

This blog is the beginning of an adventure and an experiment in remembering as Melissa and I begin our new lives together in marriage.  Melissa and I (Josh) will be posting here to share stories, memories, and quips not just for your enjoyment but to practice the discipline of remembering.  We hope that a memory or two may serve to teach us all a lesson or help us to simply share a laugh.

The best way to start this thing off is probably by explaining the title.  It’s quite obvious, but Melissa and I will be living in a mobile home for our first year of marriage.  This will lead to several adventures that we look forward to sharing with anyone who reads. 

We chose to live in a mobile home after looking all over the city of Tyler at apartments.  We had a tight budget and work about 15 minutes from the epicenter of the city.  Melissa, actually, first mentioned the idea of taking over the lease of a mobile home that Pine Cove was renting.  She had the supportive mind to think of our tight budget and also find a place close to where I work.  This mobile home is a 5 minute drive for me to work, and with my crazy schedule I have the ability to come home when I get a couple hours off to spend time with Melissa.  The rent here also allows us to continue to pay down our debt (something I’ll write about in a future post I’m sure).

This isn’t the most comfortable choice of homes for us to begin our lives together.  It doesn’t have the convenience and amenities of a lot of places in the city, but it is truly a blessing from God.  In order to pay off my debt in a timely manner, this home provides us a roof over our head and an opportunity to focus on our relationship.  We look forward to the ways this will stretch us, draw us closer to each other, and closer to God as we rely on him for our needs with the number of things that can pop up when your home is on wheels.

Mobile story of the day: the lesson I’m learning the most in the “moving in” process is the need to have minimal knowledge of how to use tools and a vacuum.  The first battle we fought was against a collection of ants that had nested under our couch due to a few crumbs they found.  My BFF Tyler first discovered our battle when they made their first tactical move along his elbow.  After freaking out for a minute, he showed us that they were storming the couch.  At this point I acted swiftly to plug in the vacuum and ruin any chance those guys had of advancing past the front door.  I’ll spare you the details and just leave you with this…they are no longer interested in the interior of our home.

That is until about 48 hours later when Melissa woke up to her first morning in the mobile home to find that they had returned to take over the front door.  After texting her knight in shining armor, he (me) showed up to conquer the beasts.  Josh left those ants exclaiming their last word, “RAID!”

                                                       The Couch

                                                     
                                              First meal: Pizza and Chocolate Milk