Holy Cow! I'm related to them?!?!

Congratulations to my younger brother, Grant, and his wife, Brittany on their ONE YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!

To celebrate their happy marriage, they donned their wedding garb and had an "amateur" photographer friend of theirs take some more casual shots than the ones they got on their day. What came from that shoot are out of some sort of fairytale. I have to say, it took all of my resignation to not go straight to my closet to see if I still fit in my wedding dress! What a great idea though, one I'd love to do myself if Tommie and I ever get the time or the talented friends willing to do the shoot...hint...hint...

Also, couldn't my beautiful sister-in-law be a model? This shot is absolutely my favorite and I think should be hung in their house...I can't believe how gorgeous she looks!!!

It's also two days past the FIVE YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY of my oldest sister, Kendra, and her husband, Josh. So congratulations to them as well! I don't have any pictures of them in their wedding garb five years later, but I do have the pleasure of telling you that for their celebration, they are in the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco and then off to Spain for three days for a special celebration. I'm sure I'll have some fun pics to share of them after their trip.

I can only hope that as Tommie and I come up on our second year anniversary we have such inspired ideas to celebrate. :) We certainly have a few more blessings to celebrate this year.

So, here's to happy marriages everywhere, especially in my family!

May God bless your unions with understanding of each other, love that spans differences and joy that demonstrates how God has blessed you. May the Holy Spirit bring you peace as you look to the future and to each other. And may Christ, who holds all things together, continue to bind you in a love that contradicts all the world tells us is possible.

A Lovely Weekend

FRIDAY: Set up for Tommie's Indiana Jone's party at my parents' house with Lili and then had lunch at Whole Foods with Kristin. Yummy. Tommie and Mike went on a 4 mile hike with Maple. Her 6" legs had quite the time with them. Then we hung out with Kristin and Mike that night and played the Wii and watched Juno. Both were good.

SATURDAY: Had a really nice morning just hanging out...until we played Scrabble and I was a poor loser. Oops. Got over it, went to my parents' to finish setting up and Tommie went to hang out at Caribou Coffee. I curled my hair, put on lipstick and looked the part when everyone got there at 6:30 amid the tiki torches and golden idols strewn about at my folk's place. It was an awesome party and we watched Temple of Doom and put together a Legos Raiders of the Lost Ark scene. Also, we practiced hitting golden idols with a whip, until the whip broke. That's right, it broke because we're so awesome. Also, Maple was BEYOND sore from her hike the previous day and barely moved, eve to collect scraps and crumbs...anyway, it was an awesome day.

SUNDAY: Tommie and I sang at church with the band and my parents and Kristin and Mike came because Liliana got dedicated! It was a lovely service and it was a special time to remind ourselves that Lili is God's first and we are her caretakers...Then we celebrated Mothers' day together at Three Margaritas Mexican Restaurant. Afterwards, Mike let me ride on the back of his motorcycle on the way to LifeGroup. Kristin and Mike came and we had a really nice time hanging out with our lifegroup and eating Indonesian food prepared by one of the members who lived in Indonesia growing up. It rocked.

Then, we slept...and woke up this morning knowing our weekend was VERY full...we need a nap. But Tommie's dad is coming into town today and will be here until Friday morning...so maybe next weekend's update will say: slept.

Ever Been Angry...

...and not really known why?
...at the game of Scrabble because you have 5 of the same letters and your husband seems to be a word magician?
...at no one in particular and everyone in general?
...for continuing intervals for weeks on end, as if in a general fog for a few weeks?
...even though you know you shouldn't be?

Ever think maybe God isn't doing it when you ask him to help you stop?
patience...love...joy...peace...
...time to stop being peeved.

Inspired By Emily-My Life on Film...

So, today, Emily Thompson had a post on her blog about who would play the various characters in her life if there was a movie about her...In honor of that blog, I give you, Alisa's Life:


I've been told I look like Shannyn Sossamon.
But I have doubts about whether or not she could capture the complexity of my character. :) In addition, I've also been told I look like Angelina Jolie. So, clearly, if I were going to pick between the two, it would have to be our dear friend Angie. Besides, she'd do a better job portraying all the different sides of me, I'm sure.

That being said, I think the only person I could choose to play Tommie would have to Brad Pitt...simply because he and Angie just go together and Tommie and I just go together. We are so very similar in real life too that I think it would be very believable. In fact, just to make my point, I'll post a picture that I know will just totally remind you of me and Tommie, cruising around on our efficient motorbike:
Okay, so the two most important choices have been made...:)

For Kristin and Kendra, I found the perfect fit. Well, actually, I was just thinking Zooey Deschanel for Kristin and it came up with a pic of her with Kate Bosworth, so Kate can be Kendra. She's blonde!

For Mike and Josh, the respective mates, I have no idea...I'll take your suggestions on those...


Grant and Brittany clearly must be Matt Damon and a long-haired Katie Holmes. In fact, this picture makes me think that Brittany would probably look good with long OR short hair...ha.


I know I ought to choose someone for Liliana, but I just don't think that'll happen, so instead we'll just let her play herself. She knows herself best anyway.

Finally, for Mom and Dad, I choose Antonio Banderas without the accent for my Dad. (which makes me think...maybe he'd look good with long hair too???) And I don't know if I should choose someone for my mom since she dislikes so many actresses, :). But for the sake of it, I choose Ashley Judd.

So what do you think? Wanna see my movie?!

Sadness...and Happiness.

I broke our camera. :( This is a sad event. It is not the saddest event it could have been though. Despite the screen being incredibly screwed up and unable to show you pictures or where you're aiming, after a brief experiment I found that I can still take pictures that function...I just can't see them until I load them on a computer. So it's kind of like the old days of film pictures-when you never knew if you took a good pic until you got it printed.

Anyway, I shut it in the door of Pilot as it was falling out...a double badness. We'll see what the Bozich Budget says about a new one...But until we get a new one, I'd say the pictures are likely to be more rare (or just off the web) on my blog. Sorry for the disappointment.

In the HAPPINESS arena, last night Tommie played a "Down With the Deficit" concert at our church. Like many churches nowadays, we are a bit behind on our budget. Tommie and our worship leader, Drew Collins, decided to do something to try and help by playing a benefit show. They charged $5 at the door and took a love offering in an effort to raise money that went straight to the church. It was a great success! We raised quite a bit of money and had such a great time! Both of the guys played original music that was phenomenal. The soundguy for the night also recorded everything, so you might be able to hear this fun show in the near future! yay for John.

Drew's wife, Sarah, sold some cards that are adapted from her paintings and donated 50% of her profit to the budget and Tommie gave $2 of every KELLEEN cd sold to the budget also. Some of our Starbuck's friends also sold $1 lattes at our little coffee bar...though I'm not positive that was going to the budget. Anyway, it was fun to see people use their "talents" for the church and to believe that God just might be providing for us with "talents" that can also provide monetarily. It was great.

So, sadness to happiness, a good weekend overall.

IT'S ABOUT TIME:

1. That I POSTED another blog! Sorry for the delay, things have been really crazy since we got back for Marshall's wedding.

2. That I GOT MY PHONE BACK from when I left it at Marshall's house at the wedding...He and his sweet wife, Patrese, were kind enough to send it back to me.

3. That WE SOLD THE SATURN! We've been wanting to go down to one car (our Pilot) so that we have less $$$ on the insurance and don't owe my father any more moola. We sold it yesterday after it being on the market for only about 3 business days! God is so good to us.

4. That WE SELL OUR HOUSE IN DUNEDIN, FL. Tommie's house in Florida FINALLY has a closing date. It will be sold on May 8, again, PRAISE GOD!

5. That I GO GROCERY SHOPPING! Yes, today I'm going to be going because we have nothing to eat and I'm tired of making up weird stuff to eat just to get by...King Soopers here I come.

6. That TOMMIE TURNS 25! That's right, starting Saturday, we'll save some more money on our car insurance and celebrate his 1/4 life. Also, shoutout to Katie who celebrates manana. The Indiana Jones party is also coming up, so that rocks.

that's all for now folks...I'll be posting more regularly again now that things have slowed at least to a speedy pace instead of lightning fast. ENJOY!

One cell phone shy of a full family...

We're back! We even came back with just about everything we left with, all except my cell phone, that is. I left it in Marshall's guest room. Since Marshall and his new wife, Patrese, are sunning themselves in beautiful Jamaica and won't be back for another few days, I'll likely be without a phone for at least that long...oh well!

As you can see, Tommie had a lovely time playing Hannah Montana with our young friends.

Marshall's wedding was beautiful and I'll post pics from that tomorrow. Today is devoted to our Trussville friends/fam, the Richards. Thanks to Dawn for the following lovely pics:

Tommie, Lili, Alisa, Dawn, Kurt
This is the best picture of our family that we have to date! Yesss!!!
And finally, our favorite little girlfriends, Kyler, Lili and Whitley! Thanks for babysitting.

Aaaaand....We're Off!

The day has finally come for us to see our dear friend, Marshall Bee, get married! We'll be attending his wedding on Saturday in lovely Birmingham, AL. We'll also be staying in town for a few days to catch up with some friends and for me to actually meet my boss in person. That's right, after I moved, I got a new boss who I've never actually met. It should be a blast.

So today, after waking up to a world of winter white, meaning 2-4 inches of SNOW, we've rushed around trying to get the house clean for an easy return, things purchased at various stores to make that happen, get the family laundry done, family bags packed, Maple taken care of and everything else to make this an "easy" trip.

Moral of the story?
Nothing's easy when you have a baby and dog. But that doesn't necessarily make it not worth it.

Anyway, we're turning our eyes to the sunny skies of Birmingham and lamenting the fact that the weather forecast predicts rain for all the days we'll be there. Regardless, it will be a city without snow and maybe we'll even catch a wicked thunderstorm-something I've been hoping for for a while.

So goodbye cold wetness, hello warm wetness. Save us a spot, we're on our way to... the Magic City!
(and yes, that is a jab at Birmingham's motto...there are like seven other cities called "The Magic City." Could we not be more original?!) Lovely Birmingham, Alabama. (or as I prefer to say, "ab-a-la-ma" just try it. you'll love it)

Rocky Mountain High...

1. Tommie's mom came for a visit this weekend. Though it was a month early, we celebrated Tommie's birthday on Thursday with a trip to REI (think hiking goodies for the husband) and ended up with a new camping hat and camping stove with necessary accoutrements for the man. Overall, I would say he's well on his way to celebrating 25 wonderful years on earth...for his real birthday on May 3, we're planning an INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL party-complete with costumes and fun food. It should be awesome. Be there if you can be.

2. Liliana of course got spoiled beyond all good reason by her wonderful grandma. She got more clothes than any little baby needs, which made her mommy ever so happy. That means I have to do less laundry! She also got an opportunity to put her butt-print on a plate. Her "print" will then be transformed into an elephant by one of Tommie's mom's friends and sent back to us. Kristin suggests that we then use the butt-print elephant plate to serve Lili's birthday cakes from now on. I think it's a wonderful suggestion. Pictures of the finished product to come, certainly.

3. On Saturday, Tommie, Janie, Liliana, Maple and I all went back up to Estes Park, this time to HIKE! It was a gorgeous day and couldn't have been better weather for our adventure. We went to a little spot of the Rocky Mountain National Park that you can hike around in for free and hiked, had lunch and had an overall great time. Tommie carried Lili in her swing, which seemed to be just fine.(Yes, in case you were wondering, that's Tommie's new hat. Feel free to tell him what you think...) Unfortunately, the long hike, wind on her face and the two bits of sausage I had for breakfast and then dinner on Saturday meant that Sunday was one of the worst days Lili has had in recent memory. Think insane crying for no apparent reason for hours...no quite colic, but enough to make you feel for the parents of kids who have it! I'm pretty sure she was constipated, if you want to know the truth...anyway, she's feeling MUCH better today, and I my slight doubts about having other kids have all but disappeared today. :) However, the second picture you can see how crazy she and her hair look today after such a nutty day yesterday.

4. After such a nice weekend with glorious weather, I was mildly surprised to wake up to snow flurries today. Colorado is so crazy in the spring. It's probably going to warm up again mid-week, but it's still funny to see snow. It's not deterring Maple from staying most of the day out on the patio either.

5. On Friday we head out to Birmingham to take part in wedding festivities for our good friend, Marshall. He's marrying his lovely bride-to-be, Patrese, in Jasper, AL and Tommie is a groomsman. In fact, we are singing a song in the wedding...speaking of which, I should go practice that song. So, more updates later!

Estes Park

Well, hello, all of you faithful readers! Let it be known, Colorado is gorgeous!

Tommie and I took a nice little drive up to Estes Park, Colorado, on Saturday and had an incredible time. The weather was beautiful. It hailed for about an hour, then was sunny the rest of the day.

Here are some shots from our adventure:

Originally I thought this picture was an amazing example of the Colorado sky. Then I realized it's just the blue sun-protector on the windshield. Oh well, at least it looks cool...
I thought the clouds in this one, headed into Estes Park, were amazing. It looks so haunting.
This was just a lucky shot out my window that happened to catch the Estes Park sign.
I'm treasuring this picture because I'm usually the one taking them, so there aren't many pics of me and my little girl. This one will make up for that for a while.She may look like me a lot of the time, but there's no doubt that Liliana is her daddy's little girl. I think they look alike in this shot.
Yes, Maple got to come too. She loved it, and slept VERY well that night! Altitude will do it to ya!
Tommie says this could be a Prius or Element commercial. I think he's right. The mountains are in all their splendor in this shot. It was such a beautiful day even though it was mostly cloudy.

And finally, courtesy of our daughter who has just figured out she has a tongue, Liliana bids you farewell dear friends, and beckons you to visit our fair land.

I learned to make online surveys. Now you can learn to take them.

click here

trust me. it's so fun that if you don't take it, you'll be sad.

The Meaning of Life

-I'd like to move out of our condo into a nicely sized house, one big enough to have a party at.
-We own our condo and that means we have more money to share, invest and just plain give away.

-I'd like to live abroad and research some mysterious written language...kind of like Maya.
-We're in the perfect place right now for our daughter to have family and for us to waork alongside the amazing ministry our church here does.

-I'd like to have a more glamorous job and to be busier at what I love.
-What I do now is challenging me in ways I've never experienced before.

-I'd like to have a new wardrobe with tailored clothes and hottest fashions.
-I'm learning to be creative with what I have and I'm getting really good at sewing.

-John 12.25 The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
-Acts 20.24However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

Breaking Out

.paying homage to Kallie, I will use periods to denote the various topics in this post. :) (love you!)

.Tommie played an open mic last night at a place called Swallow Hill Cafe near Denver University. It went great, despite him being second to last. He even sold two or three CDs! Great job honey! He's also playing an open mic tonight. It's his way of gearing up to play shows in the coming months.

.Maple is slowly dying from cabin fever. Okay, so that's not true, but she is REALLY dying to get outside. Thankfully it's been warm, but I'm hearing rumors of more snow this week. Hello, Colorado.

.I'm addicted to some books a friend recommended. Yes, they're the slightly corny Christian-romance type, but they're definitely good enough to have me hooked. Check out Dee Henderson's "The O'Malley Series" at your local library. You won't be disappointed.

.In response to my constant reading, Tommie is reading Clive Cussler books like it's his job. They are also fantastic books I would recommend.

.One of my friends from high school is in Denver this week with who I think is probably going to become her husband sooner or later. We are having lunch tomorrow and I'm psyched! Yay for long friendships.

.Lastly, Tommie and I made an ate falafel twice this week. We decided we really like it...give it a try.

Hysterically Wonderful

My grandmother made this outfit for Liliana. I think it's adorable. Tommie thinks it's cute, but a little much. We settled on: hysterically wonderful.

BABY WEEK!!!!

Well, apparently it's BABY WEEK here in our little Aurora Alliance church community. So far, the count is at two babies born in the past week. There's a baby shower this Saturday for another one though, so it might as well be three!

Luckily for me, Kristin is helping me out. She has much better photos of her incredible crafts, but I only had my snapshots available to post. What you see above are the baby gifts I'm giving to all of my friends. I've already given away a different set, that set was bright pink with silver threading! These are baby BOOTS, not just booties. They're awesome, and I would know because Kristin made Liliana two sets at Christmas. To finish out the gift, Kristin turned cloth diapers into designer burp rags that match the boots! She even used fancy embroidery stitching on the diapers to make them that much more special. So thanks to my ever talented sister for helping me survive...dum, dum, dum... BABY WEEK!

I also thought you all might enjoy knowing that Lili is becoming much more vocal. In fact, she seems never to run out of words when it comes to one of her favorite friends. Here she is, looking at and talking to her most favorite friend of all, Blue Elephant:
One day we're hoping she'll become good enough at speaking to have human friends to talk to. Until then, we're letting her practice on the elephant. He's a very good listener.

Genius and a Broken Back.

I threw out my back yesterday. And yes, your image of a 45-year-old, chubby man, half-bent with his hand on his lower back-that's about how I looked yesterday! Apparently, my body caught up to the fact that I'm a parent now and decided to make me feel old. I bent down to pick Lili up, and when I came back up, I almost fell over! So I spent the day in recovery (i.e. TV, naps, Tommie cooking dinner....not so horrible overall). Today I'm feeling much better, though not entirely healed from the pain nor the sore pride.

Secondly, our good friend, Clark Orr, is a design genius. He designed the shirt you see to your left. That shirt is for Johnny Cupcakes. He also designs for more people and bands than you could ever imagine. Check out his website here and his blog.


Just thought I should shout out since his designs are incredible.

It's Time for More, More, More!

So I finally have our camera back, and that means MORE PICTURES! Hooray! Shall we begin?

First off, we have a picture of my new haircut. If you'll notice, it's also tinted a purply/red with blonde highlights.
This haircut was inspired by a haircut I saw in a magazine called SWELL, which is also a purveyor of awesome surf/beach/snowboard/casual clothes that are just on the verge of too expensive for me. Which means I'm always wanting something from that magazine....Though I think it will be a few more weeks before my hair is the length of this photo, here is the picture that inspired me:

Some of you may also have noticed the picture to your left on Tommie's facebook profile. I wanted to share this picture too because it vaguely highlights one of the crafts I just finished! I'll have to post a better picture soon, but I made a baby sling! Basically, it's a long piece of cloth with rings on it to adjust the tightness...but it's a handsfree way to "wear" Liliana while we're out and about. As you can see from the picture, she likes it enough to fall asleep! I decided to make it when I looked them up on MAYAWRAP and realized I'd be shelling out about $70 to buy a new one. I Don't Think So! If you ever want to make one, you can ask me how, or click here for directions.

Finally, here is a picture of my mom, myself and my smiling daughter! Three generations of Gubser women. I thought it was especially cute since Liliana was grinning. She's also wearing one of the cloth diapers and cute diaper covers we got for her. So it's a doubly-good picture.

In the days to come I'm sure I'll post pictures of our new Honda Pilot, which I love. It's black with heated leather seats, three rows of seating with a super easy way to put down the back chairs for extra room. It's a little more of a "family-style" car, but it's better than a minivan by far! So, I have to hand it to Tommie for finding something so functional (haha-get it? fun-ctional?). Anyway....

God has been blessing us a ton lately, just in little ways that we're learning to enjoy. There will be a post on that in the near future I think too. So, here is your daily (or however often I decide to post) dose of Bozich life, check back in for the promised future posts and more!

Things to Come

So, I have all these great blog posts planned, but Tommie is out of town with the laptop I normally use AND the camera with all my pictures on it! :) So, I'll just tell you what's going on and promise pictures for later.

I got my haircut about two weeks ago and finally am LOVING it! I dyed it a reddish-purple/brown and got blonde highlights in the front. It's pretty fierce, but it took me about two weeks to decide how much I love it! I actually got it cut the same evening we went to see Caedmon's Call with Derek Webb! What an awesome show. That was one of the first dates on their tour, so check their websites to see if they're coming your way and GO SEE IT! They're awesome live, as usual. Andrew Osenga is playing with Caedmon's and their new album too, but he has a new solo album that's really good as well, so I just suggest checking it all out.

We also sold our Element, and actually, Tommie and my brother in law Mike are in Birmingham today to pick up our new, black, Honda Pilot! The guy who bought the Element happens to also live in Birmingham, where we bought our new Pilot, so the boys took a roadtrip to exchange vehicles. While their down there, they get to see friends and ALSO PICK UP STUFF FROM PUBLIX! I can't tell you who much I miss that grocery store! I'm getting them to get me Mojo sauce, which I can't believe they don't sell out here.

Liliana is trying to roll over lately, and though I have to push her the rest of the way, I'm awfully impressed with our little girl! She's cracking me up and becoming more fun by the day.

I also finally have decided to make our wedding photo book-a year and a half after the event. The new iLife from Mac makes it SO much easier than the online program I was trying to use before. I'm so looking forward to having some pictures in hand from our wedding!

I think that's about it for now. I've done some other fun things that have slipped from my memory already, but I'll post more later!

So Many Pics, So Little Time

1.) Dividing Our Hearts Between Homes
This past weekend, Tommie and I had the pleasure of accompanying our youth group to Divide, Colorado, for their winter retreat! Tommie led worship and I just got to go with Liliana. We definitely live in a beautiful part of the country. Part of me still misses my home in the South though....but pictures like this make me more at home here in CO. Here's what Divide looked like on our drive home on Sunday:2.) I'm Mixed
Obviously, I'm not actually mixed. There was a girl at the camp though who was in my small group who was AWESOME at braiding hair. I got her to do mine and then subsequently had to answer questions as to whether or not I was mixed. She said she thought I was Puerto Rican. So there ya go.

3.) Liliana's A LumberJane
Lili had thee awesome chance to wear this sweet blue vest that Kristin got her for Christmas. If you'll notice, she's wearing coordinating blue snow boots as well. It was rather cold out though, so her face doesn't quite express how much fun she had wearing this vest...in fact, it doesn't really express any amount of fun, rather anger at being awake and cold when she should have been warm and napping.
4.) From Snow to Surf in Under an Hour
That's right, Liliana got to swim for the first time this weekend! At first, for about the first 3-4 minutes, she wasn't so sure she liked it. After that though, her smiles were HUGE as I imagine she thought she was in a giant bathtub. The water, despite being "heated", was a little bit chilly, so we got out after about 15 minutes. It was still awesome though.


















Those are all the pictures I'm going to share from this weekend, but suffice it to say, we had an amazing time. The kids in the youth group are amazing and definitely are growing in Christ. We also had a great time getting to know the youth leaders, most of whom are our age and in our lifegroup (bi-weekly community group). I even had the chance to lead one of the small groups and remembered how much I truly love working with youth and kids. I think I might start praying about teaching a Sunday school class or working with the youth on Thursday nights. So, all in all, a wonderful time with wonderful pictures to share!

Enjoy!

She's A Beauty.