Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

That battle looks so different for every single person on every single day. Life has this way of throwing you curve balls when you least expect them. (Or is it that we just never want to expect them?) Over the past few days, Ryan’s family definitely received a curve ball and we made a trip home to PA to be with our family. Ryan’s dad had some complications from back surgery and was in the ICU for a few days. (Thank God, he is doing much better now and is resting in the comfort of home.) As we hung out with him in the hospital for a few days, we were reminded of how precious this life is. The hospital was full of people who had a story and was certainly fighting a hard battle.

It is during those hard battles that the simplest kind gestures can do so much. Those kind gestures look so different for every single person on every single day. Before we even left Baltimore, we were driving down the street. The car was quiet while our brains went a mile a minute, but neither of us had any idea what to say. We were in the middle of running errands before heading out. As we drove down the street, from a distance I saw this young man walking in our direction. Before I could even see his face, he had a certain something about him that just stood out to me. As he got closer, all we could see was his HUGE smile. He was walking by himself, no phone in hand, and with no one to talk to. Yet, for what seemed like no reason at all, he had the biggest smile on his face! That smile could not have been missed by anyone… and I think that is every reason he was wearing that BIG smile. It certainly was a smile that Ryan and I definitely needed that day.

Be kind… a smile can be everything that someone needs to help them through their hard battle.

In addition to our AMAZING Life Together Webinar, we decided we also wanted to write an ebook to share a few ideas on how to live an amazing life together.  We’ve been wanting to write the ebook for a while now, but just never got around to it.  So, we decided to change that by giving ourselves a deadline that we had to hit.  As part of the webinar, anyone that purchased the recordings would get a copy of the ebook for free.  It’s amazing how efficient you can make yourself with simple deadlines like this!  With only a few days to spare, we finished up the ebook just in time.  We are planning to officially launch the ebook later this month (hopefully on Amazon.com for download) but for now, we wanted to share a quick sneak peek to start your week.  Enjoy!

From the AMAZING Life Together Ebook By Liz and Ryan

1. HAVE A COUCH SLEEPOVER

We started dating in high school. It was the fall of my senior year and football was in full swing. We “dated” over the summer and Liz finally said yes to being my girlfriend just after school had started. In the early stages of our relationship, one of our favorite things to do was to fall asleep together on Liz’s couch after a Friday night football game. Because we were still in high school, I was never allowed to spend the entire night, so around 1 or 2 am I would head home.

In those moments, snuggled tight on the couch, nothing else in the world mattered besides each other. I held Liz tight and as night grew quieter. She breathed gently and fell asleep against my chest. Those moments were so perfect and so innocent.

Earlier this year, we were trying to decide what to do for a Date Night. Winter was holding onto the last few days of the season and venturing outside did not sound like the most fun. I believe it was Liz who said “Let’s have a couch sleepover.” It was the perfect idea for a romantic evening. We cuddled close on the couch with just a candle flickering in the middle of the room. We stayed up late and watched old Saturday Night Live skits on Netflix. Liz pulled the blanket tightly and we let the still of the night surround us. I watched Liz gently fall asleep, and again in that moment, nothing else mattered.

It’s funny how when you are busy busy busy doing work that you love, you can so quickly forget about the little things that bring you happiness. When Ryan and I are out and about traveling for work, our brains are occupied on the adventure. We love to travel, so that quickly fills our heart with joy!

Since we have been going going going and have not had any moment in 2013 really to be home and be still, we are finding it almost difficult to do just that! However, we know that is exactly what we need in our lives right now! We honestly are choosing to be super intentional about making time to just be. Our To Do list is now full of a mix of work and fun. In the past, I always thought we needed to get all of our work done before we could go play. Even if we had a project due in 2 weeks, I would have to have it done today before I could relax. It has only taken me 4+ years as a small business owner to realize that there will always be something else to do! Lol! When you love what you do, the thin line between work and fun gets even thinner.

Anyway… this past week we have been doing everything we can to train our minds to be still. Who knew that would be so hard! ;) We have been giving ourselves realistic deadlines and working working working to get the work crossed off our list so that we can do the fun… and then giving ourselves grace when there actually are still work things on the list! We have blocked off time on our calendar to take a few days off in May! WAHOOO! This weekend might be the first weekend in a SUPER long time that we are actually going to take two days to rest and just do the fun! ;)

It is my goal over the next few days/weeks to actually focus on what brings us happiness! DIYing, grilling out, hanging out with friends, visiting my brother, exploring new coffee shops, watching the clouds roll by, reading, etc… these are all on our new To Do list! Yesterday we started this new challenge off by making a few DIY Pallet Projects out of the old pallets we gathered a few months ago! It has been on our mind to make a sign for our guest bedroom and hang up those cozy robes we purchased months ago! After a morning of cranking out the work, we spent a few hours in the afternoon playing with some pallets and paint! ;) It took me awhile to just relax and have fun, but when I did… it felt pretty AMAZING! ;)

We hope you will join us this weekend and take some time to be still. Take some time for yourself and celebrate this AMAZING life!

And because life is happier with bright yellow flowers :)

When we first met Brooke and Kevin, they told us about their fun hobbies and things they like to do together. And in that moment we fell in love with them! ;) They are two of the coolest people ever and when we are with them we feel like we could ask them questions forever about all of the fun things they do! ;)

Let’s see… they are foodies. Like legit foodies and always have a good recommendation for a new place to check out! (For those of you who are as curious as we are, they just recommended the Mini Bar in DC- whoa! Check it out! That is some AMAZINGNESS right there! ;) They also recommended Of Love & Regret in Canton!) Brooke and Kevin are huge Ravens fans with season tickets and all! They have the cutest yellow lab, Izzy, who loves the water and likes to hang out at the dog beach! Kevin is a photographer and he takes pictures of abandoned buildings. Not just any abandoned building… he travels the world doing this, friends! ;) How cool is that!!!?!? Brooke has this AMAZING heart and talent for working with kids with developmental disabilities. She has dedicated her career to that and her passion and dedication to helping children and their families pour from her heart always! Ahhh! They are AMAZING!

We could go on and on, but I am sure you already agree that they are pretty darn awesome! ;) Brooke and Kevin, you rock our world! ;) Thank you for being so much fun and being an inspiring example of following your passions! We loved every minute of your Baltimore engagement session and we cannot wait for your very special wedding day! ;)

It started with an email to our potential Love Inspirers and what it turned into was more than we could have ever imagined:

“We just wanted to let you know that we are inspired by your marriage and would love to invite you to be a Love Inspirer for our “An AMAZING Life Together: More Time for Love” webinar!

Recently, our minds have exploded with some super crazy dreams and ideas!!! As we have been thinking about our business and where we want it to take it, we have realized a huge passion for helping couples live a more amazing life together. Realizing this has set our hearts on fire with ideas. So far we have already started our AMAZING Marriage Project and created an AMAZING Life Escape. We are super excited about both of these projects and the impacts they will have on couples lives!

However, we have realized that with the help of amazing couples like you, we could have a much larger and more immediate impact! So, we have created the Make Time for Love webinar and we would be honored to have you as part of it!”

When we hit send, we didn’t know if any of the couples we contacted would actually be interested in participating. But when they pretty much all said yes, we knew we actually had to go through with it, which meant figuring out how to create such a webinar. The next forty-three days of our lives were going to be just a bit crazy.

First things first, we needed to create a website for the webinar. This wouldn’t necessarily be so hard, except for the fact that Liz and I are both pretty stubborn when it comes to design. Initially we planned to just grab a free WordPress template, customize it and create the site. Unfortunately we couldn’t exactly find any that we really liked. So naturally, I said, “Why don’t I just create, design and program it for us?” It sounded simple enough, and I always enjoyed a challenge, even if I would have to learn html5, CSS, and PHP scripting languages. (Note to self, next time you offer up learning how to create and build a website from scratch, make sure you have more than 2 weeks to do so!) Many sleepless nights later, the AMAZING Life Together Webinar Site was launched on April 1st.

Just 26 days until the webinar and we still hadn’t recorded a single session! Yikes!

Over the next few days we watched as many documentaries, Oprah Winfrey interviews, and Barbara Walters specials as we possibly could.

Camera gear in tow, having never recorded our own on camera interview, we were off to Portland, OR to meet up with Karen and Isaac. Our first recorded interview, which would actually be shown as the last session of the webinar, was definitely a huge learning experience.

After completing the interview, we flew back home to Baltimore, photographed a engagement session, then immediately packed up the car and drove to Chapel Hill, NC, on Liz’s birthday no less, for the next interview. As one of us drove, the other edited Karen and Isaac’s interview. This would be our routine for the next several days. Our car basically became our mobile production unit. In a span of three days, we made stops in Chapel Hill, NC, Richmond, VA and Portsmouth, VA. After a few moments back home in Baltimore, we got back in the car and drove up to New Haven, CT for the final interview.

Looking back, I am not exactly sure how we pulled it all off. Especially considering we didn’t exactly factor in how long it would actually take to render and upload over 15GB of video to the internet. With just a few hours to spare, the final interview finished uploading. What was once just a dream had actually become reality.

Being a former engineer, I am just a bit of a numbers geek. So for this behind the scenes post we thought it would be fun to share just a few stats we think are pretty cool.

• In total, to record all the Love Inspirer Interviews, we travelled 6849 miles, 5508 by plane and 1341 by car.
• 484 People signed up to watch the webinar in advance.
• Viewers tuned in from 83 Countries across the world!!!! CRAZY!!! Checkout the viewer map below!

• Combined, total video plays from the webinar were 2020.
• During the webinar 1714 unique visitors visited the AMAZING Life Together Webinar website.

Thanks again to everyone that made the webinar possible and to all those that tuned in to watch.