First found on Life Lessons Around The Dinner Table.

Week #3: Family

Y’all, my immediate family may be tiny, but I love all of them! I’m incredibly grateful for their support, literally from birth.

Some of you may not know that I was born at 25 weeks, or 3 1/2 months premature. My parents were at the hospital basically every day, visiting me in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and others who couldn’t visit, they prayed for us. After spending 15 weeks in the hospital, I was able to come home on my original due date!

This was taken by Al at my graduation from Longwood in May 2011. I love my Mom and Dad!

Fast-forward to our wedding day in November 2015!

Aside from my parents, my grandparents are / were amazing. This is why I’ve been to Florida over 100 times. As a kid, we visited them at least four times a year. We usually split a week between Seminole (on the Gulf Coast) and Miami. My dad’s dad is still alive, doing great at 91! My mom’s brother still lives in Miami. I was very fortunate to have all four of my grandparents until I was 20 years old – A massive blessing.

My dad has two sisters, and they live in the Midwest – Wisconsin and Illinois. One is married, and one is single. Each of the three siblings had only children, so it was just Ryan, Missy, and me. Ryan and I share the love of the Green Bay Packers! He’s currently in the Coast Guard, stationed in Missouri. Missy and I aren’t that close, but we’re still cousins.

Our wedding day – The whole family! Three-quarters of this group make up Al’s family, but I love it!

And then, there’s my amazing, significantly bigger family on Al’s side. I married into a HUGE family! When both Mom and Dad V. have three siblings apiece, it’s crazy big!

We had a get-together in early December, and there were 25 people there – And that was just part of Dad V.’s side!

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I also have multiple people in my life that I consider to be like family – Sorority sisters, church family, PEO sisters, and a handful more.

All in all, I can easily list / think of 100+ people that I consider to be part of my family. It’s an incredible feeling.

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I’m also very happy that I have such a good relationship with my family, in general. We have our disagreements and challenges, but we’re not estranged or anything like that. My family has been incredibly stable for many, many years, and I thank God for that.

Both sets of parents are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversaries in 2017! It’s so exciting!

Also, Nick and Savy are getting married in October! Woohoo!

Down the road, Al and I are excited to grow our own family, as well. For now, though, I’m watching several friends experience pregnancy and giving life to their children, many for the first time.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

First found on Life Lessons Around The Dinner Table.

Week #2: Spouse / Significant Other

I could go on for days about how grateful I am for my husband, Al. He is an amazing husband to me, loyal son to his parents, loving son-in-law to my parents, awesome brother to Nick, and a great friend to many people. Many have described him as a big teddy bear.

I’m grateful that he has helped introduce / expanded upon other worlds to me – Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Star Trek, comedy, and science fiction. I’m nowhere nearly as knowledgeable as he is in some of these worlds (especially Star Wars), but I love that we accept and recognize each other’s loves / passions / desires. I enthusiastically support his hobbies (photography, movies, video games, watching documentaries about aliens), and he graciously supports mine (writing, reading, American Girl collecting, watching game shows, and traveling).

He has always been supportive in whatever I set my mind to. When he doesn’t think something is a good idea (very rare), he offers his opinion in a gracious, careful way. He offers constructive criticism.

He’s a hard worker, and I’m grateful that he has a good job in his chosen field. He’s ambitious, researching ways to improve his craft and his skills. I’m incredibly thankful that he makes enough money for us to have the beautiful house that we have been working on together.

I sincerely appreciate the relationship that we have built over the last six years. We’ve greatly enjoyed our first year of marriage. We have our disagreements and occasional communication issues, but we are strong and happy. Here’s to many more years!

One of the many photos of our amazing wedding day! This was taken by Amanda MacDiarmid, owner/operator of Stellar Exposures, November 2015.

This was just one of our fabulous engagement photos at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront! This was taken by Amanda MacDiarmid, owner/operator of Stellar Exposures, July 2015.

This was taken at Al’s company Christmas party at the Virginia Beach Convention Center, December 2014.

We decided to visit the Norfolk Zoo for the first time in years, and had a great time! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, August 2014.

I entered a contest on Busch Gardens’ Facebook page, and ended up winning VIP passes to their KC and the Sunshine Band concert! This was a fantastic day in August 2013.

This was a candid shot taken at the Alpha Sigma Tau Anchor Banquet, November 2010, just a couple months after we started dating. Photo Credit: Tina Bird Stewart.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

First found on Life Lessons Around The Dinner Table.

Week #1: Why Start This Challenge?

That is an excellent question.

As I was thinking about this challenge over the last few days, preparing to write this first post, I prayed. I’m a Christian, raised Methodist. I find that I’m filled with peace and calm whenever I pray, and I feel better when I finish.

In praying about this post and this challenge, I felt that this challenge will stretch me during this year. Up until a few minutes ago, I wasn’t sure what to write, or how to approach this.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m excited to be stretched, and literally challenged this year. I’m looking forward to doing something different.

I’ve done a few challenges recently, but I’ve noticed that all of them have been about media or other types of consumption. With this one, I’ll be looking into my heart and write about things that mean the world to me.

I’m thrilled to share this journey with all of you! I’m grateful that I have the ability to write these posts on my laptop, have the Internet to share them on WordPress and Facebook, and have so many amazing readers and supporters in my life.

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. It’s the first week of the New Year – I’m trying to make the most of it. Here’s to 2017!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂