what's going on?

so yes, that title looks lame. But really I was singing a song that says that...so in my personal opinion it's fantastic.

can you believe that tomorrow I have been a wife for TWO months. Where does time go? We are slowly getting settled into our apartment. It doesn't help that we moved in the 6 days before our wedding. So we come home, both thrown back into work, trying to figure out schedules, all while trying to make our little apartment a home. I officially have 3 things up on the walls in the entire place. But we do have a rug for the living room & coffee table. :) We have all the other normal apartment stuff...but those were things we needed.

As I've started cooking around here I quickly realized that I was missing a few things:
1) Measuring cups. Yes, i have the spoons & the BIG pyrex ones. But i need the ones that are 1 cup, 1/3 a cup, 1/4 cup etc. I literally used our ice cream scoop when i made pancakes yesterday.
2) Mixing bowls (plastic kind). I have ONE glass pyrex bowl that I've done all my mixing & prepping in. But again I only have ONE. So when i was making cookies the other day (two different kinds) it was annoying to have to clean it out & then start again.
3) Cooling racks. Again, baking cookies the other day...these would have been handy
4) I don't have any "to go" type platters/dishes things. So when i made my cookies & had to take them to Kim's shower I just placed a paper towel over it. LAME..and didn't work good. We apparently purchased the pyrex set that came with 7 pieces and only 2 lids for the smallest bowls. STUPID on our side.

Of course, these aren't NEEDS...more wants. But it would help me in the kitchen for sure. Speaking of kitchen--I cooked two new things this week. Oven baked chicken (using Bisquick recipe) & Broiled Parmesan Tilapia. Very basic things but very exciting to try it out. If you know me at all....I've been much of a cook. But I'm having fun learning and reading recipe. I'm even in the process of collecting recipes online & made a folder to help keep me organized. :) this is serious business! Oh & my new favorite breakfast is waffles...thanks to our handy waffle maker. I like to surprise Teddy sometimes when he comes home in the morning from work with breakfast ready.

We finally made a budget about a month in. Meaning...we've been on this strict cash system for a month now. It's working pretty well. I feel like we understand where our money is going now & when we are out of cash then we are out. Which means we get creative with eating at home or staying in for the evening.
We have 5 different categories we put cash into:
1) Groceries (literally make a list, calculate as we shop, and if it looks like we are going to spend over we put something back...and wait until the next time)
2) Entertainment/Dates (dinner with friends, ice cream, bingo, and any dates)
3) Restaurants (eating out period.)
4) Travel (for random weekend trips & such)
5) Allowance (we each get a certain amount every two weeks. This is helpful & cuts out stupid small conversations about finances that isn't needed. If he wants to play golf with his friends he spends from his allowance. If I want to go out to eat with my girls, it comes out of my allowance. If I want to get my nails done, buy a shirt/shoes...it comes from here. If we don't have the money, then we wait until we "reload" our envelopes every 2 weeks)

Anything else is paid for online (bills & tithe) Its fun to feel that we are exercising self-control in the area of finances. Plus, we are also doing this snowball effect on our two debts we have. Praise God we only have two debts at this point. Most enter marriage with lots of debt ours is pretty minimal. We can't WAIT to be out of debt. We will be able to put that money towards saving, travel, and maybe even our allowance :)

In 6 days I leave for Hill Country Trek summer project. It's only a one week project. Then I will come home and hit support raising HARD. I'm needing to raise an additional $1000 monthly at this point. Even though I'm shifting to part time...yes I'm raising less money. But over the last two years I have lost a handful of support...putting me in the position where I need to not only keep everyone who supports me now....but add more. I enjoy raising support. Mostly because I like catching up with people & sharing with them how college students are truly in an important point in life...life changing perhaps. AND I like to give people the opportunity to give. Many people WANT to give money for different reasons...but DON'T know where to give. HI I'M KELLI LYTLE...you can give to me & my ministry Campus Crusade :)

Teddy and I are enjoying being married. We are learning as we go for sure. The nights that he is off work before we go to sleep we pray. I'm pretty positive that every time we mentioned, "Lord, please continue to teach us how to Love one another & learn in marriage." Can I get an AMEN? I know for the rest of our lives we will be working on this. We will never "arrive" in marriage. It will always be work & extending grace EVERY DAY. One thing that has been helpful thus far is listening to sermons by Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church on Marriage. You can google his church & then search for marriage sermons on his site. There are MANY. He is brutally honest but 100% biblical...which is helpful. I recommend him.

alright...enough of this business. I have a bathroom that needs to be cleaned & our living room still has boxes that I'm trying to get rid of. Plus another run to target (3rd this week) to pick up those things in the list above. We still have around $250 to target to spend....we got SOOOO much target money & have used alot too. I'm grateful you can get lots of things there...even groceries.

hope you enjoyed this random update. Please pray for my support raising & that people would be open to giving again.

-Kells

"I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them." 1 Tim 2:1

Mrs. Lytle here :)

Linda Schilberg Photography is giving away a FREE session of your choice! Go enter to win! http://www.lindaschilbergphotography.blogspot.com/

I'm trying to win this because i think it would be fun for my HUSBAND and I...or to actually give away to a couple. Who knows! I thought I might as well try!

and yes...i have a husband now. :) March 14 was a blast. Perfect day for our perfect wedding.
honeymoon was wonderful. relaxed ALOT...and wasn't ran by time...which is great. Now...well now im sick as a dog.

I started feeling it on Monday & finally went to the doctor today to find out that I caught a bug in Mexico. I had to pee in a cup, get blood drawn, and leave a stool sample (yuck!). i have medicine now...but I don't want to take it...mostly because he said it will make me worse first...because it's clearing me out. BLAH. but at least it will help & so yea, i will be taking it. Teddy said, "we paid for it...you are using it". haha. i love him.

he's been kind. at this point i'm grateful that he works at night. because the past 3 days he's been at home with me. yes he might be sleeping, but at least he is here when i feel bad. At night, im just sleeping so I don't really NEED his company...ya know? So yea, we are blessed with his hours so far. plus we found out that every other weekend he has completely off. friday, saturday, and sunday...and then doesn't go into work until Monday night. We will get to have some weekends together & that makes me happy.

some wedding pics have been posted on facebook. we got our wedding video TODAY! I love it already. I told Teddy I will probably watch it again and again here in the beginning. It was just a good day. lots of laughter!

Im laying in bed next to my boo right now. Because he only got 5 hours of sleep...due to taking me to the doctor today, he wanted to lay down for an hour or so before work. so here I lay, in hte dark listening to him breathe and sleep. i like it. :)

-Kelli Lytle

hello one hand

that's right ladies & gents. we are FIVE days away from our wedding day. I can't believe that all the little dumb details are all coming together & will present a beautiful day. Really, i'm not the type of girl that REALLY cares about much...i mean seriously. This process of wedding planning hasn't really been hard, because i'm NOT picky.

most important part of the day:
1) first look with my man. We are seeing each other before I walk down the isle. I KNOW i'm going to be nervous---so this will help to see the man I love. It always helps. PLUS, I will finally get to kiss him again (i mentioned this last post...:) )
2) photography--this was something that Teddy and I splurged on. I want GOOD pictures from this day & confident we will get them. www.brittanystrebeck.com ---check out her AWESOME work.
3) The toast. I like words of affirmation!
4) The vows.
5) Our first dance--i love dancing & feeling close to teddy

I'm sure most people would look at this list and say...but you are missing this and that and this. Again, i'm not your normal bride. :)

I'm really excited for everyone to get into town.

Unfortunately, we are moving THIS week. It was suppose to be last week---but the APT wasn't ready for us (sucky). I mean, we got half of our rent taken off...which we will take any day. But now its the wedding week and I'm moving crap everywhere. I want to make the place look presentable when we come home to it on Sunday night. Luckily, I don't have LOTS of wedding stuff I need to get done...at this point.

We went and got our marriage license this morning. HELLO official. :)
-Kells

2 weeks!

yep...we have hit the 2 week marker!!!....can't believe that two weeks from today I will be getting my hair done RIGHT this very minute. :) all my friends and family will be here....and I will FINALLY get to kiss Teddy again. Once we get to march 14th it will be almost 3 months since we kissed. I CAN'T WAIT! :)

last night we went on our "last" date as a non-married couple. It was great. Teddy brought me flowers that are GORGEOUS!! then we went to a habachi place and had some sushi too (our favorite), went to main event because I love arcade games :) then we went to starbucks and just talked for 2 hours! It was a PERFECT date. We have wonderful conversation & quality time. i love him & can't WAIT to call him my hubby!

he is moving into our apartment tomorrow! I'm kinda excited to decorate the place. Who knows how i will get that done with a full time job too....but we'll see. :)

-Kells

SUPER love day

one year ago today:

-Teddy told me he was going to marry me
-we celebrated 6 months of dating

right now:

-We are getting married a month from TODAY!
-we are celebrating a year & half of dating :)

This morning we started a marriage class at a different church (my roommates church). We got invited by her & her boyfriend..and we are doing it. We leave that class and head to our church service at 11:30. We have some time to kill :)

Today we are going to church, going to do pottery/paint our pot for our wedding day, going to dinner at chili's (it's our v-day tradition...), then hanging out with two of my favorite couple friends for the evening.

it's going to be a great day
-Kells

pre-marital counseling

well, we started this stage in our life tonight. We started pre-marital counseling. It was great! We are doing this through out church. We meet with 2 other couples & the pastor/wife that heads it up.

I was quite nervous before walking in. We showed up way too early so I ask Teddy if we could just sit in the car for a little bit to calm my nerves. After listening to one more song on the radio & Teddy praying for us we walked in....and it was great!

I think my favorite part was the comparison between a covenant vs. contract. It was pretty neat.

contract: giving minimum amount to get biggest gain, typically between two people, you can break a contract
covenant: giving the most you have to get better gain, in a covenant there is also 3 people (couple & God!), no ending point.

i'm excited to see what we continue to learn through this! :)
-Kells

blessed

well it's been a while. Taylor keeps telling me to update about wedding stuff...well really to update about anything. So I thought my update would be centered around my wonderful church.

Experience Life (E-life) is only a little over 2 years old. Teddy and I started attending the church November 2008 when it had just hit its 1 year mark. When we first started we both knew this church was different....God was moving...moving BIG.

www.experiencelifenow.com ---check out anything. His sermons are online...pretty sweet series throughout the years!

Here are the highlights from 2009:
-2500+ in weekend attendance (btwn 5 services)
-550+ people made first time commitments to Christ (WOW!!!)
-230+ people were baptized (I AM ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE!)
-40 Lifehouse small groups currently meeting
-150 people regularly attend our Prayer gathering
-Thousands of dollars have been given to our community
-sponsored many missionaries and missions organizations where hundreds of churhes have been started and thousands of people have come to know Christ.
-countless number of lives were changed.

Have I mentioned that we meet in a skating rink? We have to put up & tear down EVERY weekend. But we are now in the process of building a building for the church.

Here is what we are praying for as a church for 2010:
-That God does infinitely more then we could ever have imagined
-Provide a facility that can accommodate 6,000 people in multiple services over the weekend (a couple paid for 10 acres of land for the church...HUGE answer prayer)
-That would allow us to see 1,000 people commit their lives to Christ
-600 people will be baptized
-God doubles the number of Lifehouses
-Attendance at our Prayer gatherings would triple
-That we can continue to be a blessing to people of Lubbock and others across the world by being a church that models generous giving.


Teddy and I have made a commitment to give at least 10% of our income to ministry when we are married. I feel like this church plays a huge part in our lives & I hope that we will be able to give to them for a long time.

A cool thing that has already happened with Teddy being generous: He gave 10% of his paycheck last wkend at church. Today his mom called and said money is on the way for Christmas ($150) & on top of that she said you don't have to pay your car insurance this month ($115)...wow!! God is already blessing us. I have been stressing about our financial situation as we move into marriage. This is God gently saying, CHILL KELLI...I HAVE EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL. Everything. Everything. Everything. I pray that we will always be extravagant givers of God's money.

Something you can be praying for: I am still looking for a girl to take over my room in my apartment. There has been things surface & fall through in the past 2 months. Pray that I can trust in the Lord to provide either a person to fill the room or the money to pay for 2 rents. I read some scripture recently that basically said back off as God works & takes care of things. I am doing what I can, I need to let him do the rest. His plan is best.

Praise God for what He is doing in your life.
Praise God for how He has provided for you & will continue.
Praise God for rescuing us & giving us hope for tomorrow.

-Kells