Friday, March 11, 2011

We're going to INDIA!.. but we could sure use a little help getting there!

India.. here we come!

Dear Family and Friends,

A lot has been going on in the Puz household. I guess we can start with the fact that Jeremy and I have been married for about eight months now! I often look back to July 17, 2010 and remember all the precious moments of our wedding day. It seems as if everything worked out so perfectly. The weather was perfect, the decorations were perfect, the ceremony and reception went without a hitch. It was a perfect and beautiful day and we are so thankful for our friends and family who were a part of it.


Since then we have been learning what it means to be married and how to love each other selflessly and passionately. It has been such a great learning experience and we have definitely already learned so much about each other, and what it takes to make a marriage work. And to think, we have a life time to go!
Besides the excitement of the wedding Jeremy and I have experienced what it means to be “grown-ups” and that is, working full time jobs. First of all, let me just express that it is not as wonderful as I thought it would be when I was in high school and college. Still, we are so thankful that we actually have work! Jeremy has got his business off the ground and it is doing remarkably well. He has a landscaping company called “Deep Roots”, they do all sorts of yard maintenance, and stone and brick work. Both the amazing walk way and stone wall were done by Jeremy.

As for me, I am working at a Health Care Compliance company called HcPRO working with the marketing operations team. I pretty much sit in my little cube all day on the computer. It is very different than what I thought I would be doing when I got out of college, but it is great for now because it provides benefits for both me and Jeremy.

We are still living in Beverly and recently just moved to a new apartment, which we love! It is a two bedroom apartment right next to Dane street beach. We definitely upgraded from our first one bedroom studio apartment located in the middle of nowhere! We love that we actually have doors in our apartment instead of having everything flow together to combine one giant room. We also just bought our first washer and dryer together (they were used of course). I have loved it! The first night we moved into our new apartment I did five loads of laundry! We have nested into this place and I am excited to call it home. Oh, and did I mention we just got a puppy? His name is Moose, and he is the sweetest puppy you will ever meet. He is a beagle terrier mix with the cutest puppy dog eyes you will ever see.

We have also been very involved in our church, The Harbor. It is such an amazing place! We have met some of our closest friends from this place. It is filled with compassionate, kind, and caring people. They have been such a support and encouragement to Jeremy and I and our marriage. We also love the values of the church, they line up right with what Jeremy and I believe. The motto of the church is “Haven for the broken, launch to the nations”. It really is a place where everyone is welcomed and accepted, and we love that about it! We love The Harbor so much that we have both decided to do their training school. The training school (called Navigate) is a place where people from the church come together to learn about Jesus. We are encouraged, taught, and refined in all aspects of our lives and faith. This is my first year doing the school, and I absolutely love it! I have learned so much about myself and about the character of God. We meet once a week on Wednesday nights, we have speakers from all over the world teach our class on different topics such as prayer, suffering, identity, etc. The great thing about this class is that it goes beyond just Wednesday nights together. The class is also focused on sharing the gospel with people who may have never heard it before and showing them the love of God! At the end of the year we get to take everything we learned and apply it. There is an end of the year missions trip that we all get to go on together, and is usually one of the highlights of the class. This year, we are going to India!! We will be flying down there June 11th and returning home on June 25th.

When I first found out we were going to India I couldn’t believe it. I tried to picture what it would be like and how I would respond to such a different culture. I still can’t picture it, but I am overjoyed to be able to go! I can picture in my head the different colors, smells and people and I can’t wait! We are going to be teaming up with the local church to help them reach out to people and provide the basic wants and needs of the community.

Jeremy and I know that we cannot do this on our own so we are reaching out to our loved ones to ask for help. We are looking for people to partner with us both financially and in prayer. The cost of the trip is approximately $2,500 a person (so for Jeremy and I costs will be about $5,000…Yikes!). Even though it is a lot of money, we really feel like we are meant to go on this trip and are confident that God will provide us with what we need. If you would like to help send Jeremy and I to India you can write a tax deductible check to the Harbor, noting that it is for Jeremy & Nicole Puz. Every dollar, penny, nickel and dime helps! If you can’t donate but would like to partner with us, please keep us in your prayers. Pray that we will raise enough money for the trip. Also pray for our safety and sanity as we fly half way across the world.

We are confident that God is going to use us in big ways in India, and we can’t wait to tell you all about it when we get back. Thank you in advance for partnering with us!
Lots of love,
Jeremy & Nicole Puz

Friday, March 4, 2011

Princess Party

So tonight I will be attending my very first princess party.  Not just any princess party, but this party is celebrating the birth of my very dear friend Bonnie.  Not only is Bonnie a loyal, committed friend, but she also clearly has very great taste (hence having a princess party!)  Now I love dressing up and being girlie so I have been thinking about this for a few weeks now...  What to wear, how to do my hair, what accessories to use.  I love this idea of having a princess party, but for those of you who know me.. I'm not much of a tiara girl.  If I'm going to be a princess I want to be a non-traditional rock-star princess.  So as I was brainstorming I thought of a few things that would make this princess fit my personality (sadly I wasn't able to pull of this together.. dang it's expensive to be a princess!)  Here are a few ideas for my non-traditional princess:

Instead of a tiara, wear a non traditional head piece:
Feather head piece
Black sequenced gloves instead of the traditional white gloves:
Fabulous alternative to traditional white gloves
Don't have any of your old prom dresses lying around? I think that any princess would have a floor length black dress in their closet, and it makes for a sophisticated, classy, sexy princess:
See ya later pink poofy princess dress
Throw in some antique jewelry:
Sequenced Pumps:

And you have yourself a very stylish, non traditional princess!