Happy 3 Years!!

Super late in posting, but absolutely blog worthy! (Thank you blogger for allowing me to make the date whatever I want :) ) We had a few technical difficulties with the camera, but we still managed to get a few pictures :) We really enjoyed our day in our beautiful city of Austin, Texas. Lunch on South Congress, dinner at Oasis, and lots of hot sunshine!

Perla's Seafood - so yummy!

We never get tired of the view at Oasis :)

So hard to believe it's already been 3 years! Looking forward to year number 4 :)

Oh Happy Day

Happy Easter!
So I've been dying to blog...but what about? For the last 2 months life has felt, well, normal. Work, work, work, the occasional day off, then work again. I find myself often wondering where God's going with all of this. I find amazing peace in knowing that He has a plan, and get excited about what He has in store for us. Still, it's difficult. Difficult to watch Josef study and stress, difficult to hold on to my inner joy in the face of rude customers and frustration, difficult to understand the countless things in life that just don't make sense to me. I'm a hamster on a wheel and while exhaustion and fatigue seem to be a constant, I feel like I'm still not moving forward at the pace I'm used to. Right now, He has called me to support our family with a job that daily humbles me and it all seems so mundane, so dull.

But today, Zac (one of our pastors) said something that really stuck with me. If we truly believe our Savior is alive, then there are no normal days. Hmmm. No normal days. Instead of "waiting for life to start" or "just getting through it" I should make it a mission of mine to see the adventure in every day. Loving people, using every circumstance both good and bad to grow in the fruits of the spirit and walk a little closer to God. Not one day of this journey is wasted, as long as I am daily dying to myself and surrendering to His much better plan. Today, we celebrate that He is risen, and that should always be enough. I challenge myself, and all of us to wake up tomorrow renewed. To find new purpose and meaning in every single thing we do, and to do it all for His glory.

Test scores are in!!

The face of one "Highly Qualified" in Theatre Arts!!

A few Saturdays ago, at 7:30 am I was standing outside of a high school here in Austin, in the cold, anxiously awaiting my K-12 Theatre Arts state teaching exam. Out of the crowd of people that joined me, there were only 3 of us there for Theatre. (Nice to know there are a few of us out there :)
After attempting to study to the best of my ability, I determined the only possible way multiple choice questions could test me on my knowledge would be to ask an assortment of random tidbits of information. I was right. Some were easy, some were a little tricky, and one or two I'd never even heard of. But, in the end, I only missed a few AND, I answered every question right that tested me on "theatre education" - which I think makes me Super Duper Qualified to educate thank you very much ;) PS. For those of you unfamiliar with teaching lingo- Highly Qualified or "HQ" for short is the official term for being certified in a subject. "Super Duper" is my own personal addition :)

I still have my 8-12 Math exam to take, so keep me in your prayers as I exercise the other side of my brain over these next weeks...

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support, this is such an encouragement and is incredibly exciting!!

1000 Days, 1000 Gifts from God

1000 Days Married...and they said we wouldn't last, hehe ;)
It's hard to believe it's been 1000 days! In some ways it feels like yesterday we were first introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Josef Varga. Funny thing is, we found out through a text message sent from our beloved Coco (aka my mom). We happened to be in San Antonio enjoying family, friends, and funnel cakes - hence the rodeo pic...yee haw!

We can already see how we have grown so much, and I can honestly say that I fall in love with Josef more and more every day. Daily we both choose to love each other with our words and actions, and we make the effort to learn more and more about how to serve each other better. We don't claim to be perfect at it, especially when we're tired or one of us is hungry (I'll admit it's me ;) but that motivates us to wake up and try again tomorrow. It's impossible to describe all that has happened in our marriage journey so far, but to sum it up - God's strength is perfect and His grace is sufficient. He provides, He blesses, He heals, and most importantly, He loves us more than we could ever love each other. All glory to Him for carrying us to day 1000 and day 1001, 1002, 1003...and so on :)

Varga Valentines

It occured to us Sunday afternoon that we had always been in College Station on February 14th, so this year was a first for us. Though we loved our years in Aggieland, we both agree this has been the best Valentine's yet! We started the day early with our first Sunday volunteering on the technical team for our church. Setting up the stage, running cables, and operating the light board...ah, feels like home :) We then ventured out to the Long Center for Ballet Austin's production of La Sylphide. Before picking up Italian take-out (our Valentine's tradition) we explored Austin a little more by taking a drive down S. Congress - probably the heart of the "weird city" we call home ;)

Enjoying the breeze and incredible views from the Long Center

In our seats waiting for the ballet to start!

A Valentine's kiss for Mr. Varga :*

Beautiful downtown Austin

Happy Valentine's Day!

Table for Two, Separate Checks

The ultimate define the relationship (dtr for short) comes the moment the server delivers the check...together, separate, he pays, she pays? So many options. While Josef and I haven't been at this particular crossroads for quite some time - it is the best way I can think of to describe our current place in life. We are blessed to have entered into a commitment with God that will keep us at this table together forever. Lately, however, I've been wondering if God remembers that. I don't mean to imply he's pulling us apart. Rather, Josef and I seem to be getting different "bills" from the Lord, or callings on our hearts that are different from each other. I often have to reassure myself,"God knows we're married,He told us to get married, He surely has a perfect plan for us together." Yet, I'm still waiting...

God doesn't completely separate everything. Just like the bowl of queso or the brownie sundae, he gives us equal responsibility and direction in some areas. The most common thought we share is that God is definitely preparing us for something and more specifically preparing us to choose His way or the world's way. Sounds like an easy answer, after all, this is what brought us together in the first place. But as many who have been in this position can atest, it is often the hardest. Inevitably it never comes in the way we think it will and because the question is different, we suddenly second-guess our previously prepared answer. Double sided coins and forks in the road seem to sit between us and the perfect plan we trust is there. "What if's" have become our new introduction to almost any conversation in our home and our chosen path for the future seems to be all we think about. The positive side: all these different ideas floating around has made us more open than we've ever been to what He has for us - because goodness knows we're not attached to any one thing for more than 5 minutes. With open hands, we continue to ask what He has for us and trust He will ignite our hearts for what burns in His. This isn't the first time we've felt this way and it surely won't be the last, but we keep faithfully asking: "Check please."

Where has the time gone??

I blinked and it's suddenly December! Semesters always go by fast, but everyone I talk to seems to agree that this has definitely been the fastest. At times like these, it's easy to look back at the last few months and feel like we didn't really do anything. School and work easily blend together and it's difficult to pick out any moments of productivity or excitement. So I (Sarah) have decided to make a list as 1st: a form of personal reflection and 2nd: a summary updating the world on our lives...as promised in the previous entry, some of these might be small things, but significant none the less :) So, in no particular order:

1. Josef successfully began a masters program he loves
2. I've advanced in a job I am blessed to have
3. Joined a church family that has been an incredible blessing & encouragement to us
4. Trained for and ran a 1/2 Marathon
5. Ventured out on our first official Varga camping trip
6. Created the first of many Varga original works of art to hang on our walls
7. Attended A&M's fall show as Alumni
8. Frequently get to hang out with our niece, Joy and have had the opportunity to watch her grow
9. Designed 2 winter display windows putting my scenic design skills to good use
And last, but certainly not least:
10.Have been blessed to get to know studio artists, ambassadors, writers, professors, pastors, accountants, business owners, managers, hair stylists, make-up artists, college students, young professionals, and sweet families that call Austin home :)

Time has definitely gone by fast but it has been full of many new experiences, with people we are happy to call friends. 6 months and we can definitely say, much to the shock of our Aggie family, "We love you Austin!"

Facelift

Now I know what you're thinking: A) That Varga couple just gets crazier and crazier...now they've resorted to plastic surgery?! and/or B) Wow, FINALLY a new blog post, didn't Sarah promise to update it more?? First of all, not to worry, it is only our little blog that will be undergoing any adjustments :) However, it is the second that I (Sarah) hope to address...

Certain family and friends occasionally bring it to my attention that we STILL have not updated our blog. Likely, I hear from the same people only because they are the faithful followers that still bother to check in from time to time "just in case" we've added something :) My response is always the same - "I feel like we haven't really done anything exciting enough to blog about." God has been really speaking to both Josef and I a lot lately through his word and conversations with other believers, and this morning it suddenly hit me (and I know Josef would agree if he were not already on campus learning how to change the world ;) what the real purpose of this blog should be. Instead of an online scrapbook highlighting only the fun, large-scale events that are few and far between, we should share the ordinary as well. It is often in the "little things" that God speaks the loudest.

I am excited about the possibilities and while I can only guess what this might mean for the reality of this page, I/we approach it with open hands ready for whatever God has in store. I already have so many ideas, so many things that now seem "worth" sharing, the prayer now is that God would provide both the time and the courage to share his constant work in and through our lives, no matter how small it may seem or vulnerable it makes us feel. So, here we go! Let's take this leap of faith together...

Happy 2 Years!!

To celebrate, we set out on our first adventure in Austin which led us to the Oasis for lunch and our new backyard of the Domain and Maggiano's dinner. We are so blessed to start this next year of marriage, and next chapter of our lives, in such an amazing city!

Welcoming Joy Avery Guinn!!

Born at 7:58 AM, at 6 lbs 15oz & 19 1/2 inches long, she is already the best niece in the entire world! We were so blessed to get to see her and hold her on her very first birthday! She is such a precious gift from God and we are so excited to share her city so we can see her as much as possible!! We love you Guinns!!!

Aggie Update

As our time in College Station comes to a close, we want to offer a quick recap of all the fun we've had this year! It is definitely bittersweet as Sarah is so excited to graduate and Josef is ready to start Grad School, but we are also going to miss our church, our Aggie friends, and the only home we've known so far as a husband and wife! This senior year has flown by and been full of so many great memories. The following posts work backwards through both the spring and fall semesters starting with the most recent...be sure to look at 2009 too!

Sarah's Graduation!!

Farewell lunch for Kara before she left for Disney :)

Ski Trip & Sarah's first time skiing!!

Happy New Year 2010!!!

Josef's Graduation Day!!
First, we picked up his AGGIE RING! Next, I asked him to pick his favorite spot on campus to visit before he walked the stage...he picked the Century Oak Tree ;)
Then it was off to Reed Arena to walk the stage - Whoop!
Later that night, we kicked off the Christmas holidays with a trip to Santa's Wonderland :)

Annual Cheese Christmas Party

President Varga...And President Varga?

Sarah as "Hermia" in A Midsummer Night's Dream