Hey!!  We have moved our blog to Blogger.

Click here to visit us at http://lifewithdanandjenn.blogspot.com

I chose the picture in our blog header because it is one of our favorite engagement pics, but it will be pretty appropriate soon, as we are…drumroll please………MOVING TO OKLAHOMA!!!!

For those of you who have been living under a rock, Dan has accepted the youth pastor position at an amazing church in Oklahoma City called Victory Church.  They have multiple campuses, but their home church is in OKC and ranges from 7,000 to 10,000 in attendance.  Dan will be moving in April, and I will join him in early May after the Leadership Conference for my job is complete on May 8.  We are SUPER excited about this opportunity and are fully confident this is where the Lord wants us to be!  This is such an honor for Dan to be pursued by a church of Victory’s caliber, and I am honored to serve with him.

If you would like, you can pray for us in the following capacity(s) as we transition.

1. People say we are crazy to move right now, because it involves quiting jobs when there are very few to be had, and selling a house!  The big thing right now is for our house to sell or rent at an amount that will not cause us to go in the red, which is tough to do these days!
2. For us to find a house in OKC (preferably with a tornado shelter!) that will allow us to lease-to-purchase until we can get rid of ours here.  We found one we love, but will have to convince the builder to go the lease-to-purchase route.
3. Work for me.  I am having to leave a job that I love in order to move to OKC, and we will need a double income…especially if we have to cover our mortgage here for a while.  I am in talks with the church about a marketing position for the production arm of the church, so hopefully that will work out for us!
4. Please pray for Dan’s youth group here as we transition out.  He fills a “father figure” role for a lot of these kids, and they are heartbroken that he is leaving.  Pray that his spot would be filled quickly and with the perfect person for a seamless transition.
5. Finally, pray for us as we step into this new role.  Pray that Dan would be FILLED with wonderful ideas and wisdom, and that the numbers would grow from the first day we are there!  Pray that kids lives would be touched through this ministry and through Dan.  Pray that our marriage will grow as our ministry there grows.

We love you guys, and hope you will share in our excitement with us!  Most of you know I grew up in Oklahoma City, and honestly never thought for one second that I would be back there.  However, I am very excited to see what the Lord has planned for us, as He promises it is more than we could ever imagine when we listen to and follow Him.  So that’s what we are doing!  Oklahoma will no longer be just cowboys, indians and tornados!  We will be there too, so we hope you will come visit!

We are total slacker’s at their finest when it comes to updating this blog!  Actually, I am…don’t even think Dan knows our username and password.  So much has happened, and I promise to blog about most/some of it later.  Maybe just a picture montage, but we will catch you up soon!  Life is super exciting for us right now, and about to get even more so!

Stay tuned!!!

I’m so glad Brooke Robinson is one of my FAVORITE friends! She is brilliant!!!! …and she’s REALLY pretty too! : )

www.brookerobinson.com

Well, these are a little late, but life has been….ummm…BUSY TO THE MAX! If you know Dan and I at all, you know that we love the fair…like, more than the average redneck loves his mullet. Dan even threw a “fair” in his backyard for my 30th birthday! (His is in three weeks, and boy do I ever have my work cut out for me!) Sooo, it seemed fitting to shoot some engagement pics at the fair! Our amazing photographer and sweet, sweet friend, Brooke Robinson, was TOTALLY game! Hurricane Ike, was NOT game. As we sat in line to park at the Benton County Fair, you could see the storm line in the sky moving closer and closer by the second. It was a navy blue vs. light blue sky, and the dark, stormy navy blue was winning! We finally got to the front of the line, but they were trying to make us park at the back of the lot and walk about a half a mile in. We didn’t have time! We told the guy parking the cars that we needed to go to the front of the lot. He looked at me in my white dress with my pink heels and said, “Are you a contestant?” Dan’s response from the driver’s seat was, “Yes!” and away we went, with Brooke in tow. Genius! Well, we got into the fair and knew we had just a few minutes before the bottom fell out of the sky. We got one shot in, and the rain started falling. We were sprinting from shot to shot, Brooke directing us all the while. Brooke doesn’t generally take a lot of “kissing” pictures, and in fact, she had done some research and had a list of about 15 shots she wanted to get of us. However, in our haste, all she could say was, “uuuuhhhhh….JUST KISS!” All in all, we got about three minutes worth of shots before we were soaked, I in my white chiffon dress (not good for rain), and Dan in his white shirt and tie. You can see the saturation as the pictures go on, and in some, you can see the rain in the sky. We love them…more than the fair!

…and I don’t mean Dan.

Dan and I quickly drove to Dallas this weekend…and by quickly, I mean drove down Friday morning and back on Saturday night to be at church on Sunday morning. We went down to visit with his sister, Natasha, and our friends Bethany and Jeremy Carlson who had driven from Nashville to move Bethany to Dallas. They were busy moving Bethany into her new apartment most of the time, but we got to spend some good time with them. A few highlights from our 30 hour stay in Dallas.

1. Eating at Chuy’s! Oh how I miss my Chuy’s from Austin! If you don’t know Chuy’s, you shouldn’t go another day in life without experiencing it and all of it’s goodness. Needless to say, we ate our body weight in homemade pico, homemade flour tortillas that are fluffy like pancakes, homemade jalapeno ranch, and queso compuesto. Yummers!! Click here for a Chuy’s near you…Chuys…YUM!

2. Staying at my friend Courtney’s chic, downtown Dallas loft! Our little taste of modern luxury. THANK YOU, COURTNEY!!!!

3. Finishing our registry at our favorite store! Crate & Barrel! We had a blast exploring all three floors, and picking out fun things for our house. You can see what we registered for by clicking here…Our Crate&Barrel Registry

4. DUNKIN!!!! Need I say more? If you know us…at all…you know our hearts (as Cholesterol-ridden as they may be) belong to Dunkin Donuts. We have been known to road trip as far north as Branson, and east as Jackson, TN to get a cup of Dunkin coffee and a delish donut. Dan and I found out that his iPhone says there are about 10 Dunkin’s in the Dallas metroplex. We started driving to them one-by-one only to find they were closed. We finally found one that was open, and boy was it a doozie! It was brand, spankin new, and as pink and orange (Dunkin colors) as you can imagine…down to the concrete parking stops and the door handles. We stopped on the way home last night and they were running low. They asked us what we wanted and made our donuts to order while we waited. Soooooo, that means hot, fresh dunkin! The chocolate icing was dripping off of my double chocolate donut! It was amazing. Unbelievable in fact. Also unbelievable was the size of their sign. It was MASSIVE!! So much so, that I had to take a picture with it. It wouldn’t fit in the shot, so here is what we got…

Now we are back in the swing of things and looking at a busy, busy week. We are headed to Conway tomorrow night for a full day of meetings with wedding vendors on Tuesday. It’s official 90 days until our big day! Then we have to hurry back Tuesday night for an engagement photo shoot, BSF and our friends Jared and Mandy coming to town from Kansas City. Church on Wednesday night. Then I have a seminar on Thursday night, Friday night and all day Saturday. We checked today and it seems our weekends are pretty much booked solid with wedding stuff from now until the wedding. I hope we don’t sleep our entire honeymoon away! Yeah…right…

We had our own little episode of Discovery Channel’s “Man vs. Wild” at our house last night…better named “Dan vs. Wild.” Let me start this story with a little background. A few weeks ago, our friends Donny and Robyn were having gnat problems in their house. Dan and I were at Walmart where found this genius bug zapper tennis racquet…perfect gift for our friends with the bugs! So, we picked one up, and as usual, forgot all about it. Fast-forward to last night.. .

As I was sitting on the couch, hand-addressing close to 400 Save-the-Date’s for our wedding (that’s another post all to itself), a lone moth appeared in the living room. Dan, bored out of his gourd, suddenly remembers the zapper racquet and retrieves it from the kitchen pantry. Why our bug zapper was in the pantry with our breakfast cereal is to be determined. He needed batteries, and decided that teaching this moth a lesson was more battery-worthy than brushing his teeth, so he removed the batteries from his electric toothbrush to do the deed. What ensued next was one of the most hilarious, first grade boyish things I have seen in a LONG time! Keep in mind, this thing zaps bugs like an original bug zapper with the noise and a spark, but in mid-air with a full swing! I will let the picture essay below tell the story…

On the hunt….

Got it, but just making sure it’s really dead…

That was too much fun to stop with one moth, so he headed outside, to the porch light, duh!, to find more…

But this one is my favorite! Look at his face! He is so excited and happy!! It’s the simple things…ZAP!

Well, it has been quite the techy wonderland the past couple of days with the soon-to-be Maciuk’s!  Not only do we have our new little blog, but we also now have our very own wedding Web site!  After the age-old RSVP debate…do we even send RSVP cards in our invites since no one RSVP’s anyway?…we decided to create this little site to give our guests the chance to just RSVP online, and give out-of-town guests a little more in-depth info about the wedding, accommodations and attractions.  It also has some fun stuff about us and our wedding party.  Anyway, check it out for all things “Maciuk Wedding!”

http://www.mywedding.com/danandjennwedding

Okay, so it’s old news…but it just doesn’t get old!! For those of you who have been living under a rock, or who have stumbled upon this blog, Dan and I got engaged on the beach in St. George Island, Florida (amazing vacation spot, BTW) on June 12 of this year! He popped the question and I was TOTALLY not expecting it! I thought it was too cliche for Dan and his “surprise” antics! He’s REALLY great at surprises. Anyway, everyone had been telling me, “You’re gonna get engaged in Florida…I know it!” so I naturally assumed it was too expected for his taste. No sir. First night, we walked on the beach and had to pop-a-squat on a catamaran because the sand crabs were many and sizable. Little did I know, the Fed-Ex man had delivered my ring to the beach house we were staying in with our dear friends, Donny, Robyn and their little one (and Dan’s God-daughter), Aly. I, of course, said yes. I have been ready to marry him, so I couldn’t say yes fast enough! And if you know our story of God’s grace on our relationship, you know we can’t be more excited to finally be together.

Things have been fast and furious since then. The day after we got home from Florida, Dan flew to California to speak at a youth camp for a week. It was a snowball effect from then until now, filled with local missions trips, youth camps, missions trips to Paraguay, VBS, and engagement party in Nashville and one in Little Rock, etc. We are home now though, and the planning is in full effect! We are getting married on December 6th at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, AR. Since Dan is from Nashville, my family is mostly in Central Arkansas and most of our friends are in Northwest Arkansas, Little Rock was the perfect half-way point. Our reception will be at the Arkansas Arts Center, which is the state art museum. It’s pretty phenomenal! And to top it off, Andy Warhol will be on exhibit during our reception! Both of us have always dreamed of a Christmas wedding, so this is PERFECT!

We hope to update this blog often to serve as a little bit of a journal during this fun process, and a way for our scattered family and friends to keep up with our fast-paced lives! If you think to, pray for us during this time! We both long to be the best spouse’s to each other, and haven’t the slightest idea how to! Any tips and pointers are welcomed! Now, off to eat the rest of our wedding cake samples from this weekend…YUM.