jams & ams.

NEW BLOG

2008-11-02T18:43:00.001-05:00

Hey! we're no longer here!

check us out at: www.jeremyandamber.wordpress.com

lots of miles.

2008-09-29T19:00:00.007-04:00

Jeremy and I made a little vacation for ourselves and headed back to our homes for the weekend. the first stop was Fort Wayne, where I had been planning on going for the past 3 months because of a half marathon that I trained for since July... i'm excited to say it went very well and I crushed my goal by running 13.1 miles in one hour and 49 minutes (the goal was just to break 2 hours). After spending a few days with my family (including my sis and her boyfriend, seriously- our family grew up in the blink of an eye. one of us is getting married and the other has her first serious boyfriend), we headed to Hartford City to spend a day with my future in-laws... it was a really fun weekend and definitely an accomplishing one as well!! I'm back to the daily grind of school and work but wanted to share some pictures first...

Jeremy and I at the Fort Wayne Library picking up my race-day packet

Is he not the cutest guy in the entire world? It's 6am and my fiance is in downtown Fort Wayne waiting to cheer me on... i love you :)

I think this is around mile 10.. I'm in the red shirt...

and this is what it looks like to not only finish a half marathon, but shatter your goal!! yeah!! 1:49:51.my beautiful friend Alicia came out to cheer me on :)

me & my momma

after my race it was time to go cheer on my lil sister as she beat her goal at her high school cross country meet! so proud of her!!

there she goes..

starbucks overload.. and he's been up for 7 hours and it's only noon- that is very uncharacteristic of jeremy lee

ok, one final picture.. these are two of jeremy's kittens at his home in Hartford City. They are supposed to be outdoor kittens but we were the only ones home and I wanted to play with them so I let them in.... about 15 minutes later I told Jeremy I thought it smelled like sewage (they had their windows open) and he immediately was like "the cats pooped! get them out!" and I was just laughing because you could totally see our differences- jeremy being the country boy knew it was cat poop but me being the city girl thought it was sewage, even though they don't have sewage drains on country roads lol...needless to say, it was an ordeal to find the poop, scoop it up, and make the apartment smell clean. It turns out the cat had ate a chipmunk the night before and we saw the remains of it....

ok, well off to Bible Study! have a wonderful evening!!! less than 6 months until the big day :)

Love,
Amber

Senior Pictures are not just for high schoolers...

2008-09-25T14:09:00.008-04:00

I'm excited about my senior year of college for many reasons but one in particular was the chance to have Senior Pictures. I know this is typically done for high school seniors but I thought since we have the most beautiful campus in the world, and I happen to have the most beautiful friends in the world :) that it'd be an awesome memory to have... well, with 8 girls, it is definitely not easy to coordinate schedules (and the weather did not help at all) but we finally were able to meet at 8am on a Sunday morning to take our "Senior Pictures"...special thanks to TJ Wallace who actually got up early to be our photographer, you did an amazing job TJ!!!

My favorite:

Thanks TJ!! You are AWESOME!!! :)

Jeremy and I are on our way back home to Fort Wayne... wish me luck, I'm running a half marathon on Saturday morning!! AND, Saturday starts the 6 month countdown to the WEDDING!!!!! :)

the beginning of an end.

2008-09-01T17:11:00.003-04:00

tomorrow is my last first day of school... i have a feeling my mom will be sad when she reads that.. i admit, I kind of am too.

in honor, I thought I would post a picture from my first year of college. I would do earlier than that but I don't have any of those pictures on jeremy's computer:

haha I think that is the funniest thing :) And I'm blessed because three years later, I am still rooming with the cute one on the right :)

Happy 1st day of September! (5 months until I'm 22!)

welcome back!

2008-08-28T14:27:00.005-04:00

it's been awhile, mainly due to my lack of a personal computation machine [brian regan].
it would appear that it decided to crash so I am now sharing with my beloved fiance :)

anyways. so after all the countdowns, I am finally back in bloomington for good. it has been a really fun two weeks, full of adjustments and laughter. I started back into Starbucks full-swing and am enjoying working right next door to Jeremy (wohooo, manager of Buccetos!). I love living with my roommates and thank God every day for them & the encouragement, love, and support they bring. We are a packed house- 6 girls into one apartment but I wouldn't have it any other way. It is bittersweet because I am so incredibly excited to be married but I do not want to be done with college so a part of me wants this semester to go slow :)

The internship finished successfully and I am preparing to start my job search. Jeremy and I have talked a lot and our hearts are 100% headed towards Tennessee and unless the Lord has other plans- that is where we will be! I'm a little nervous about job searching two states away but I guess that is the good thing about following after the Lord- He does all the directing for you :)

Since my computer crashed, I did not put up a Facebook album of these pictures but here a few from my 15 weeks with the Hilton...

I worked the first two weeks of the internship as a Housekeeper... no joke. So, this is me hiding in the laundry bin. It was no fun.

Things gradually got better after the Housekeeping stint. I worked in the restaurant, the front desk, with the head chef, stewarding, banquets, and finally sales & catering (which is what I was waiting for the whole time!) This is me with the board I created for our restaurant...

Hanging out with Russell, the bell captain

And I finally got to spend the end of the summer with Sales and Catering..and thankfully there was a girl close to my age who is a Catering Manager.. Since we were the youngest by far, we always got stuck on the floor during staff meetings :)

Goodbye Hilton! It was fun but I am sure glad to be gone :)

Oh crap, she's awake!

2008-08-20T11:52:00.002-04:00

Live your life in a way that when you step out of bed in the morning, Satan says "oh crap, she's awake!"

I am ashamed to say that lately, Satan would not be scared of me at all. In fact, I am guessing that he is probably laughing as I attempt to write a confession sitting here in an empty office.

This is my last day as an intern with the Hilton and I have realized that over the course of 15 weeks, I have lost my focus as to who I was created to be. It is pretty easy to become focused on an exciting new career, possible job offers, professional appearance, and saying the right things to impress people. But I am pretty sure that when God created me 21+ years ago, He did not exactly have those things in mind. I don't know for sure what He had in mind but I know it was to Glorify Him.

It is easy to get caught up in the world. To live a life outside of a life you live in is rather confusing to write, let alone do. But living a life outside of this life is what is pleasing

and holy

and true

and what we, as God's creation, are called to do.

I was not created to be an intern, to wear a nice suit, to drive a nice car. I was created to love on the people I intern with and see as I'm driving back to Bloomington because those are the people that God created to do the same things I am supposed to be doing. Living a life that is pleasing

and holy

and true

because that is the greatest job, salary, love, and fulfillment we could ever have.

Soli Deo Gloria.

saying goodbye.

2008-08-14T22:21:00.003-04:00

tonight I'm saying goodbye to these beauties...my roommates for the summer.

I am so incredibly blessed to have met them.. Many of you probably have heard this story but finding housing for the summer was so stressful. I thought that I had my housing all figured out and then was turned down by two women I had looked up to... it was disappointing; however, God's plan always prevails and is always better because I loved living with these girls all summer :)

One of our favorite things to do the past two weeks has been to eat dinner, get our computers, and watch the Olympics. As a result, I have decided that I want to be Shawn Johnson:

seriously. she's so cute and so good... AND very down-to-earth, which is something that not many olympic athletes have..
enough of the obsessing :)
time to say goodbye!

just another day @ the Hilton

2008-08-11T16:07:00.005-04:00

Problem: it's been over a week since my last lil posting

Reason: i'm in Indy finishing up the internship... which means lack of funness in my life right now.. just kidding, kind of :)

No, to be honest the internship has been really rewarding, informative and at times, fun. I'll post pictures of it in a couple weeks, once I take them ;-)

Jeremy & I were able to spend some together after 2 weeks of being in separate cities.. He came to Indy for a few days and we had a blast taking in some sites of our state capital. The most interesting one by far was the Bodies exhibit:

Seriously. It's suuuhweet. There's tons of different rooms where you see real cadavors and different body parts that help you to understand the body as a whole. I don't think that I can fully explain it on a blog so my best advice is to just go to it. It's a traveling exhibition so it's only in Indy until October, I think. But check out the website: www.bodiestheexhibition.com.

After that, we headed to our favorite restaurant ever: Rockbottom. Again, you must go to it.

Since I'm full of recommendations today (PS- I'm definitely @ the Hilton right now but they have nothing for me to do tehehe) but anyways, so my mom and I went shopping together in Indy this past Saturday and I was able to finally purchase the makeup kit that I have wanted for awhile:

The Bare Minerals facial kit. It was a bit on the pricey side- $60.00 for two foundations, mineral veil, and a bronzer, along with 3 nice application brushes, however...if you are like me and have really oily skin where makeup usually slides right off after about 3 hours, then it is worth it. It makes your face look really smooth and has a matte finish...plus it's currently 4:22PM and I have not had to reapply it at all since 7:00AM this morning. YES!

Lots of wedding plans took place this weekend..including a visit to go see my dress :) In case you are wondering, we have 228 days, also known as 7 1/2 months... :) but who's counting?

have a GREAT day!!!!!

i miss jeremy.

2008-08-03T23:18:00.005-04:00

two more weeks until I move back to Bloomington
& three more weeks until I'm done with the internship

i miss my fiance, a lot :(

a birthday weekend.

2008-07-21T22:26:00.014-04:00

I (Amber..seriously, you should have known that because Jeremy has yet to write his own post :) ) Anyways, I went to Fort Wayne for the weekend to hang with the fam and celebrate my dad's birthday. Now, I am really blessed because along with my family being really supportive and loving, they are also pretty cool and funny and now that I am 21 and not 16, I like hanging out with them :)

After running errands with my mom and sister, my dad came home and we had a dinner that I think I will actually be able to make for Jeremy! (Seriously, I have 8 months to become a good cook). So, I hope he is ready for a lot of chicken tacos :) After dinner we went to Target to get the most amazing game ever- Phase 10. The Lee family introduced me to this game and I've wanted my parents to play it ever since... and 4 months later, we finally did :) Seriously, if you want some entertainment you should go to Target and pay $4.99 to get this game. It will most definitely produce some "Uno! Dos's!" out of your mom and some "5,6,7,8,11, wait.." out of your sister. I told you my family was funny :) In case you are confused, the outside of the game looks like this: After that fun night, we celebrated my dad's birthday!!! The day consisted of an early church service, Bob Evans (first time I ever cleared my plate from there) and then hanging out until a jazz festival in downtown Fort Wayne. Fort Wayne has an annual huge festival called Three Rivers and Sunday night was the final night.. After the festival were the best fireworks ever. But before any pictures, I want to give you a taste of the talent my sister and I have been given.. just click the play button on the picture..

And.. some pictures of my beautiful family..

Dad looking @ his presents

Aren't my parents beautiful?

Daddy and his girlsI love that after 25 years, my parents still love each other

Dad being funny Me & my momma
can you find me?
one of my most favorite pictures ever...

Happy Birthday Dad! I hope it was a great weekend for you :)
It's on to Banquets this week at the Hilton and so far, it looks like it might be a relatively easy week.. except that I threw up tonight. i don't think I've thrown up since I was in a crib but apparently something in my stomach was at war. After some OJ and homemade muffins (thanks mom), I am feeling better :) Anyways, I'm enjoying my final weeks at the Hilton...and so excited for the light I see @ the end of the tunnel :)

Sweet dreams!
-Amber

vote for my dad!!

2008-07-17T21:44:00.003-04:00

So my dad (who is a really awesome guy) was nominated as Fort Wayne's Best Financial Planner in this contest that Fort Wayne does annually. It's like Bloomington's "Best of" thing that they do every year. Anyways, it's kind of a big deal because my dad owns his own business and he's the only one in it! So, one of his clients must have nominated him and we are pretty stoked because it'd be sweet for his name to be all over Fort Wayne :)

I was wondering if you could take a few seconds to vote for him b/c well to win, you gotta get the most votes :)

To do so, just follow these steps:
go to www.fortwayne.com
scroll down until you see the "Best of" pinkish box & click on it
go to the "services" tab and click on "financial services"
He is listed under "Gray FInancial Services"
click on his name, then click vote at the bottom and that's it!!

great news: 5 more weeks until i'm out of indy :)

a new hobby.

2008-07-15T10:33:00.005-04:00

I'm not sure if you would label it a hobby or obsession but Jeremy loves disc golf. He plays it with his friends 7 days a week.. I'm not kidding. The boy even ordered discs and calls them by name (each disc has a name on it like "Firehawk" etc). so, imagine my surprise when a few weeks ago Jeremy asked me to come play with him and we spent half the day on the course because we had so much fun! Now, every time I come to Bloomington we make sure to get in a round or two..

This is the ultimate goal...

Me & my "ArchAngel" as Jeremy would call it.

Check out Jer and his discgolf bag :)

Jeremy's throw: 1,000 yards (exaggeration)

Amber's throw: 10 yards :)

And, in case you were wondering how to throw a disc...

It's been a great few days in Btown. After working 8 days in a row, I was in need of a break! We are down to 5 1/2 weeks until the internship is over and 4 weeks until I move back to Bloomington. As helpful as this summer has been, it's time to come home. I can't wait to be back in my favorite place with my best friends and fiance :)

Lots of love!
Jeremy & Amber

happy birthday america!

2008-07-09T21:52:00.004-04:00

God once again proved himself to be a loving God and allowed my intern schedule to somehow give me the entire weekend off... :) It may seem like a small thing but it was so wonderful to be able to spend the majority of the time with Jeremy... This summer has been chaotic, hard, and stressful (but still rewarding) so to have time with just my best friend is the best way to release all that negativity built up.

Anyways, Alicia and I decided to make a par-tay out of the 4th and made 50 billion cupcakes and bought another gazillion pounds of pop and headed out to the stadium with some friends... it was fun, but it made me kind of sad to see so many people obliterated and not even remembering that especially in today's world we are so lucky to live in a free country...

It was hard to leave Bloomington on Monday morning (yes, at 6:30 am so I could make it to the Hilton @ 8am!) but it is starting to get a little better knowing we are now counting down the weeks (only 6 left!) rather than counting up how many I've done.

Also... God definitely taught me a huge lesson on being diligent this week. I won't give a huge recap on the blog but it was just a cool feeling to know that although I was definitely disciplined by Him because of my laziness, He was doing it because I am His. I just want to encourage you, my invisible reader, to remain disciplined in your time with God, your sleep, exercising, everything because the summer is such an easy time to get lazy.. And once you start with the idleness, it's really hard to get back into being diligent and hardworking. "Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth." - Proverbs 10:4

Speaking of diligence, I'm off to bed so I can actually have enough sleep for my 8 hours @ the Hilton tomorrow. Lots of love and blessings to you :)
- Amber

Countdowns..
Til I move back to Bloomington: 35 days
Til I'm done @ the Hilton: 42 days
Til I become Mrs. Lee: 260 days

:)

Lunch with two of my Btown roomies, Alicia & Micki :)

Rob LOVED the fireworks :)

Just being us before the fireworks :)

sick for my home..

2008-07-06T02:40:00.005-04:00

Jeremy just left my Bloomington apartment (after watching a sick and disturbing movie, Flock, seriously, don't rent it..) and I thought I was tired but as I was going to bed I started getting really homesick. I think it's because I am so ready to get out of Indy. Most of my friends try to tell me to "enjoy it while it lasts" and "be adventurous" but I'm just going to throw this out there: I don't want to be adventurous unless the adventure contains Jeremy Lee and no more than a few weeks. So really, stop telling me to enjoy the summer because I don't... plain and simple. :) So, as the countdown to the end of the internship begins (7 weeks), I start to realize that being homesick for me includes missing Bloomington, Indiana and my family in Fort Wayne... so, at 2:44am, I thought I'd share with whoever reads this what I am missing...

My AMAZING family.. dad, me, jeremy, & my mom @ Jeremy's graduation

My mom & sister- my two favorite women in the world..although Carly is only 17 so I don't consider her a "woman" yet :)

The MOST BEAUTIFUL campus in the world! love it love it love it!!!

I dearly miss all of my bff's/roomies. Not many people can say they live with their best friends :)

I don't know what I would do without these 3 :)

and of course, the person I miss the most is...

in case anyone is wondering, we have 264 more days until we are husband & wife :)

Sorry for the pity party post.. I promise in 7 weeks there will be no more :)

Lots of love from Btown,
Amber

hands up!

2008-07-02T11:33:00.000-04:00

Like I mentioned yesterday, Jeremy and I had a super busy and incredibly fun weekend! After the engagement party, we headed to Cincinnati, Ohio for a day of fun at Kings Island. This is an annual trip for the Lee family and it was my second time going. This summer internship @ the Hilton has proven its worth for at least one thing as I was able to get us a sweet discount at a Doubletree Hotel (I would recommend that hotel to anyone!). Doubletree's are known for giving you warm chocolate chip cookies everytime you check in- yum!! So, all 6 of us arrived late Saturday night and were up early Sunday to head to Bob Evans (where I ate my first crepe ever, Bethany!) and then to the theme park. It was a frickin' blast (if I may use Jeremy's phrase). Jeremy and I rode everything and of course hit up the Racer a few times :) If you ever go there, make sure to on The Crypt. I'm not going to tell you about it other than that it is new and you will probably pee.

One of the best things of the day was that we had unlimited 20 oz. soft drink! Jim (future father in law) works at 3M and they gave us some wristband to wear so we got free drinks all the time! It was great because even if you had to throw a drink away before getting on the rollarcoaster, it didn't matter because you could just get another one when you got off! Anyways, just wanted to share some pictures from this great trip with my future family...

I really enjoyed those free Diet Cokes :)

Jeremy did too :)

The Lee kids! In 9 months, we'll all have the same last name :)

Jeremy and his dad! check out those arms! clearly my boy has been liftin' !!

I love this picture of Jeremy and his mom :)

and just for kicks..

So, that was our amazing weekend! And just as I am finishing up this post, I found out that I get to go to Bloomington for a three day weekend! Praise the Lord! It's hard being away from friends & jer this summer but God has been so amazing in providing weekends and free time to see one another! Have a blessed day!!!!

how long will this last?

2008-07-01T10:22:00.000-04:00

not going to lie, I have had blog before and as you can probably guess, they are no longer with us. I think that updating a blog is much like keeping the excitement after church camp. For those of you who have never been to church camp, you really missed and it's probably too late for you to go now... but, what happens is that the last night at camp there is a time where you can dedicate (or rededicate, depending on how holy you are) your life to God. You sing songs, you cry, and you think that the excitement you have is the Holy Spirit. Then, you come back to your home or school and you are on fire for God and you stop lying and cussing and you talk about camp all the time for 1 week. After this, the uncool kids who did not go to camp start to make fun of you and since you do not have your camp counselors and fellow campers with you, the excitement starts to die down to where you eventually are dreading going to camp the following year but then on the last day you rededicate yourself and the cycle begins. **Disclaimer: This is not true for everyone and for those who really take the step of dedicating themselves to the Lord, there really is the feeling of the Holy Spirit living in you. However, most 8 year kids do not really take this that seriously.** So, what I was saying is that when writing a blog, it is really easy to get excited about it at first and want to write about everything you do that day. You have new blog titles like "New Toothbrush!" and "Dancing with the Stars Starts Tonight!" and then two weeks later it is "Weekly Update" until you just stop blogging. Hm, well I am hoping that does not happen because the main reason for this blog is for Jeremy and I to keep in contact with our friends and family. Granted, we still have 8 1/2 months (269 days) until the BIG DAY, but I thought we could start early :)

This weekend was very eventful and VERY fun for the two of us. On Saturday, my parents threw us an engagement party at my grandparent's house in Muncie. It was sooo fun to be with our families and bridal party and to see all the different ages interacting. God blessed us with amazing weather that started literally a half hour before the party began and we were able to enjoy each other outside and inside.

Our two beautiful moms helping to set up. My mom is on the left, my future mother-in-law is on the right :)

I had to put this one on here. This is one of Jeremy's friends and roommate, Jacob, playing a game with my grandpa. Jacob is getting ready to go to dentistry school and my grandpa has been a dentist for over 30 years so it was neat to see them interact :)

Bring on the games! My dad was an amazing host and had us play some really fun games... including having the bridesmaids make Jeremy his future honeymoon clothes. My lil sis and maid of honor, Carly, and my best friend Emily are helping with an outfit later entitled "Soccer Dad"

Jeremy modeling his honeymoon clothes. And yes, my grandparents and parents were watching all of this :)

Me and my beautiful bridesmaids: Alicia, Carly, me, Emily, Heather, and Katie. We are missing Vanessa because she is in Memphis for Teach for America but other than that, we're all here :)

My beautiful, beautiful sister and me.

My family! Jeremy, me, Mom, Dad, & Carly.

One of my favorite couples and greatest friends Emily (bridesmaid) and Michael (groomsman)!

And finally... the future bride and groom :)

There was even more to the weekend as we left the party around 8pm and headed to Kings Island with Jeremy's family! More on that to come...however, I need to run some errands and hit up the gym before interning tonight.

God Bless,
Amber