Proverbs 16:24

"Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." -Proverbs 16:24

September 30, 2011

so classy!

I just got readmitted into UND! Woo, I get to go back to school!

I will be pursuing a Fisheries and Wildlife Biology degree. I am super excited to get back to school. It's something that I tried pre-Air Force, but was super lazy and unmotivated about and ended up with a crappy GPA.

But...I am ready to wipe that slate clean and start fresh!

Anyone have advice on balancing school and wife/motherhood?

September 26, 2011

"people who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one"

(Title quote by Leo J. Burke)

Hello!

Adalia had a super rough five hours in the middle of today. TOTALLY wiped me out. I am not sure if she is teething, stressed, sick, or just crazy.

She is convinced that she only needs one nap a day though now. She went from a steady three naps a day, to one nap of about two hours. She is still super tired trying to play and go for walks with this new nap schedule that I end up with quite a few pictures like these:



We moved one van load of stuff from our house in Moorhead to my parents house. We are excited about this move! It will be challenging to live with my parents for a few reasons, mostly because we have a scream-y seven month old, but we are ready to handle that and sure that God has a great plan in all of this. It is just temporary, and we may need to just remind ourselves of that on rough days!

My Papa and Nana are coming to visit soon and I am so excited to see them! It's been too long! I have some cool sewing projects that my Nana can, hopefully, help me out with!

Tomorrow will be a busy day for me. I must send off some bills, forward our mail, call our banker, go for a run?, shower!, and hopefully do some work in the third floor where we will be residing! Once we get settled in I will post pictures of our new "home".

That's about all I have to share! Hope you are all doing well! Goodnight!

September 25, 2011

"now i lay me down to sleep"

Okay...please excuse my terrrrrrible drawing abilities.

This is an idea I have for an infant/toddler bed rather than having a crib. It is a built-in bed with a sliding decorative gate.

Here are my terrible drawings of my idea!

(above, bed....below, gate)


So, there it is! I am very excited to put this in our kids room in whatever house we move into. I want to do trees in Hunter's room for sure. I also got a bear rug (teddy bear that is) that I want to hang on his bedroom wall like an animal mount. I think that will be so cute to do like an outdoorsy, North American hunting theme in his room!

In Adalia's room, I may do nature-ey stuff as well, but I might make her gate design a little bit more girly, with some flowers or birds.

Anyway, let me know what you all think!

September 24, 2011

i lied...

So, Tom and I had to make an inpromptu trip to my parents house this weekend, hence me breaking my promise and not blogging yesterday. We are moving and will be living with my parents until our housing plan is figured out. After putting in two offers on two different farms and getting turned down, we are a bit discouraged and confused about what to do next. Anyway, we had to get my parents house ready to have four more crazies running around.

I have the plan drawn up for the built in crib and will post it no later than Monday.

For now, I am going to gobble up some cold medicine, take a boiling hot shower, and hope that I can get a wink or five of sleep.

Please forgive my lack of diligence in writing. I will make up for it!

For now, please comment and tell me if you think I should get another perm or keep my hair straight. QUANDRY!

(permed)
(not permed)
(not permed, just styled)


September 22, 2011

reunited...and it feels SO good!

Me, Tom, Hunter and Adalia all under the same roof again till Sunday evening.

AWESOME!

I dread our times apart, but just love and cherish our times together!

This will be SUPER brief, but I promise that tomorrow I will post this GREAT IDEA I have for a built-in crib...diagram will be included!

For tonight, I just wanted to check in to say hello. This week was a wild one...Adalia decided that she is far too old for napping (at only seven months) but was too tired to even play and ended up staring at the ceiling, paci in mouth, resting her head on a giant teddy bear multiple times each day. So, between her wildness, and the general chaos of life, I am extremely thankful to have my capable, muscly husband back in my zip code again!


Goodnight, world!

September 21, 2011

"now that it's all over, what did you really do yesterday that's worth mentioning?"

(Title quote by Coleman Cox)

I loved my husband, my son, and my daughter.

I prayed.

I visited with a friend.

I didn't take a disagreement with my husband too far or too personally.

I prayed, a lot.

I said hello to the people that I passed on my walk.

I prayed some more.


That is about all that mattered. No fancy words, no endless rambing.

September 20, 2011

woo, over a thousand views! and my first VLOG

I am so excited! A thousand! Yay, fun fun!

So, today, I will do a ... VLOG! What a strange word...

Anyway, forgive my two day old hair-do and my crumpled pajamas. I am a momma first, then a blogger...so showering did not make my priority list for this morning!

Enjoy!


Leave me a comment if this video doesn't work for you.

Here are the links:

LullabyPlaylist

PreserveIt!

OrganicKitchen

StableDaysYouthRanch

September 19, 2011

"serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people"

(Title quote is Ephesians 6:7)

Hello! First off, I have 993 page views! Woo, almost one thousand!

Secondly, I had the LOVELY opportunity to babysit my fabulous friend, Kayla's, children. They are so cute and they played so well with Adalia! We all had a blast! We played trains, read some books, watched Mickey Mouse, ate some pizza, and then zonked! Fun evening. I was very blessed to be able to serve them. And God blessed me back...because I locked myself out of my house and had no house key with me. But, rather than panic, I shot up a fervent prayer and checked the front door. Sure enough, it was locked. But I gave it a tough shove (it's warped from the heat this summer so tends not to close sometimes) and found that it hadn't latched quite all the way, so it OPENED! Woo! I had a sleeping baby in her carseat, and no other options to get into the house, so THANK YOU GOD!

Anywho, productive day today for me! I got tons of laundry done, some general cleanup, a brief nap, and I wrote up our offer on the farm!! I also got a shower in. I feel on top of things and quite optomistic today. *fingers crossed for no curve balls this week*

I think that I will do a vlog in a couple days here...chat it up with my awesome readers...who will, on that day, be listeners and not readers. Haha!

Oh, ALSO, happy to report, Tom's phone is all up in working order, so I got to hear his voice this evening...so soothing for me!

It's late, and I find it unwise to stay up too late after baby sleeps, so I am off. Good night, cyber-friends!

September 18, 2011

preparing for the busiest week...EVER

So, starting tomorrow, Tom and I are going to be insanely busy! We have to move out of our house by the first of October, put about half our stuff in storage, move into my parent's house till we get our new house, and then try to get our new house. We have to do all the promotional work for Tom's personal training that will start December 1st. We have to transfer our home to a rental property. We have to finish all our house projects here so its ready to rent. Tom has to leave for a few days to complete his Crossfit certification.

It's going to be a wild ride! We aren't going to see much of each other. Adalia is going to have to get pretty used to entertaining herself. But we are super excited for what God is doing in our lives. We are ready to glorify the Lord with this transition. We are hopeful that our offer will go through with this farmstead. We are PRAYING for a whole lot of things.

Please pray with us!

I will try to post some photos and updates of all the things going on!

For now, here is a picture of the tree at the farm on which I plan to hang a swing...


Happy Sunday to you all...and if you are a comment leave-er, let me know what big changes are going on in your world right now!

September 17, 2011

"a cord of three strands is not easily broken"

Tom is a fantastic husband. We both had long, stressful weeks, but he has really stepped in to help while he is home so that my sanity stays in tact :) That being said, I have very little time to write today. I just wanted to say publicly how very thankful I am for his sacrifice and servant's heart! He blesses my life every moment.

September 15, 2011

warning: i am going to complain

Tom's phone broke :(

And he works like ten thousand miles away from home.

And the phone company can't do anything till he is back in town.

Darn technology.

Just so all of you know how TRAGIC this is...Tom is the greatest husband in the world. If you have a husband, you may be disagreeing with me. But seriously, he is. He calls me every night that he is away to ask how my day was and to tell me that I'm awesome and that he appreciates how hard I work for our family. He tells me about his day and that he wishes I was with him (sometimes he says naked, but that allowed cause we're married- ha). We talk about our weekend plans and usually get a little bit bummed out about how short our weekend will seem.

SO. My point is...THIS SUCKS.

That is all.

Oh wait, this is a picture of him...in all his amazing-ness.






P.S. If you create a teleporting machine that can let Tom work far away but still be home between shifts...I will love you forever and somehow find a way to pay you millions of dollars for your smarts.

September 14, 2011

couldn't resist showing the WORLD this picture!


if this isn't the cutest stinkin' face you've ever seen.......i would challenge you to go visit your optometrist.

"it takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home"

(Title quote by unknown author)

I drove by a very cool house today that was abandoned and is going up for auction.

SO, I wanna buy it. Great potential. Red house, red barn, ten acres.


GREAT barn, right? Can't you just see little cloth diapered babies running around chasing chickens. And a great big dog slobbering under one of those great old trees.

I am like shivering in excitement...no, wait! I am shivering cause it's cold outside! Yay for fall! My favorite season, my long lost friend. Time to dig out the sweaters and boots and cute fall scarves! Ahhh, the air smells crisp, the apples will taste perfect, the fireplace will be, once again, burning away!

Time to drink wassail and bundle up. Time to snuggle under the covers. Time to ... buy a farm!!! :)

Real quick:

My Wassail Recipe

1.Get a mug.
2. Fill it half up with apple juice.
3. Fill it half up with orange juice.
4. Sprinkle top with cinnamon to taste.
5. Microwave till PIPING hot!

Enjoy! (And a note, this drink is best, absolutely best, in a travel mug while hiking around with your hubby, while also wearing a great sweater...when the trees are just changing colors!)

September 12, 2011

a life story

I have been thinking about what story I should share.

And I decided to pick the following story because I feel like the circumstances around this story gave me some amazing insight to a thing that not everyone goes through or understands.

So, I went to a doctor's appointment at the Air Force Base in Minot. I had some routine blood work done. A few days later, my doctor called me back in to go over the results. She told me that I tested positive for Hepatitis C. For those 'non-medically minded' readers, this is a life threatening liver disease that requires harsh treatment similar to chemo/radiation. It spreads through blood mostly. She said that sometimes the test can show a false positive so she wanted to test it a few more times. We did four different tests, all of which came back positive.

I was devistated.

I officially tagged myself as a walking bio-hazard. How would I ever spend time with anyone I loved? I had an infectious disease that I could spread. How would I ever have children? I could pass it on to them, or this disease could take my life and I would leave motherless children.

I dealt with four or five months of this diagnosis very poorly. I started smoking cigarettes. I can't exactly say why but maybe this was my own personal way of being in control of the harm being done to my body. I just didn't care. I was dying anyway. I started drinking, not a lot, or too much. Just a glass or two of wine a few nights a week. Normally, this would not be a sign of any problem. But I had a liver disease. And drinking alcohol is basically like punching your liver...repeatedly.

I lost hope, I gave up on myself. I didn't know what to do with myself, nor did I really care. I wasn't suicidal at all, I just felt like there wasn't much left for me.

I was referred to a specialist in town. I went to visit with him and was not given much hope or information. He said I needed to be EXTREMELY careful with any scrapes, cuts, broken skin. I couldn't share a toothbrush or set it anywhere unless I disinfected that spot later. And so on....and so on.

So, I took some leave and went on a trip with my family to Washington. We went to this place called Holden Village (I will blog about this amazing place another time.) and we were helping to get the village ready for the tourist season. I got put on a crew that was removing fallen branches and brush from the defensible space (for fire safety). I was so excited because I was on the same crew as my mother and would get to be outside all day. This job quickly turned into a nightmare as walking through the woods started giving me countless scrapes. I had rubbing alcohol to disinfect then bandaids to try to cover up. After about two hours I had to request to be on a different team. The sewing team. I still learned a lot and enjoyed my week, but I was terrified and heartbroken.

After we got home, I traveled back to Minot to work and see me doctor. I went in for more blood work. It came back positive again...but this time it was positively a baby. I was ecstatic, terrified and very confused to say the least. I was definately not planning on having a baby. I had no clue how I was going to handle that. But, alas, that's another story and if I tell it now, this post will be the new Neverending Story.

So, months go by and July comes along. My doctor needs to do more extensive tests to see how far this disease has progressed. He takes more blood...seriously like twenty tubes of it in one sitting. A few days later he calls me and asks me to come back I. He sits me down in his office and tells me that I am not sick. It was a false positive. He has no clue how it happened but he is certain well beyond any doubt that I am perfectly healthy.

Wow.

Wow.

I was in shock. Should I be mad? Who should I call first? I AM GONNA LIVE. Can you sue people for ruining months of your life with false medical information? My baby is ok! It is going to have a mother!!! How I am I gonna call anyone when I am crying so hysterically?

I proceeded to call everyone. EVERYONE.

And I cried, all darn day. Cried and prayed. The most thanksgiving-full prayers I have ever prayed.

So, that's my unique story. There is more to share. But I want to say to everyone who is sick or loves a sick person...my prayers are with you and my heart is broken for you. Stay strong, WAY stronger than I was. I was wrong not to rest in the Lord and not seek support.

If you want someone to talk to, pick God. And if you need someone else, I would be honored to listen. There are thousands of sicknesses, no one easier than the next. But if you are one of those people, please know that God has a plan for your good still. I truly believe that.

Thanks for listening.

September 10, 2011

"when you come to end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on"

(Title quote by Franklin D Roosevelt)

I came close to giving up on something today. It is something that I have a heart for, it is something that I believe in, something I am an integral part of.

But I got fed up.

With some circumstances, some dishonesty, some hurts.

Then, I realized that as much as I was wronged...I had to stick with it. I had to let go of my side of it, my hang ups, my entitlement.

Sometimes, giving up, even when you think its right...isn't. And you have to hold on just longer than you think you can to see things changing.

Sometimes, (see picture below) you have to smirk through gritted teeth and look past all that you feel.




Tomorrow, I am going to share a life story. ALL of my thousands of dedicated readers :) You can sleep with THAT for a cliff-hanger! Ha.

September 09, 2011

"may the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you"

(Title quote Psalm 19:14)

When I was younger, my parents would often play a CD that had scripture memory verses on them and this was one of them.

This verse echoes what I want my day to be filled with as a wife and a mom. Too often the words of my mouth are nagging or said in frustration. They are filled with worldy needs and selfishness. The meditations of my heart are not often ones that would be pleasing to the Lord. And in fact, they aren't even pleasing to me. My heart settles on things that I wish to push to other side of the world. My heart settles on problems and people from LONG ago, that I want nothing to do with.

Today, and hopefully from this day forward, I will pray against this negativity. I will focus my words and my heart on things glorifying to the Lord.

September 08, 2011

"our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy"

(Title quote by unknown author.)

So, our evening routine consists of bath time for both bonzos, followed by a bottle for Adalia and a cup of milk for Hunter while we wind down for bed by watching about ten or fifteen minutes of a movie.

This is my chance. Tom takes the kids and heads to the basement family room. I get to lock the doors, close the blinds, clear the table, put leftovers away, get a midnight bottle all set up on the counter, gather up the kids clothes and toys strewn across the living room, shut off all the overhead lights, and turn on the little light above the stove.

I don't know why, but this is soothing for me. Maybe it's tying up loose ends. Closing off the day. Calling it a night. Picking up the clutter. Letting go of all the chaos and worry of the day and saying "No more till tomorrow...".

Anyway, now Tom is reading news articles while I blog. We are both sipping some wine and just having some much needed  s l o w  time.

This is me, ready for bed and loving my evening routine :)

September 07, 2011

"in my world, everybody is a pony, and they all eat butterflies and poop rainbows"

(Title quote from the movie 'Horton Hears A Who')

So, my hubby and I were watching this movie as he fed Adalia a bottle this morning and it got me thinking about what MY perfect world would be. So, here it is, in no particular order...my perfect world. (Just a few ideas, not all inclusive!)

1. There would be no sin. Especially generational sin, and I could rest easier not having to constantly fret and pray over Hunter and Adalia repeating the same mistakes that I have.

2. I would have much more patience and MUCH less laziness! Sometimes I know that I need to get my booty in gear and I just refuse to get motivated and do my work!

3. Tom and I would have met ten years ago, dated forever, and then had Hunter and Adalia together. (I know that God works in all things, though, and He has created a beautiful family for us, despite our sins.)

4. There would be no poverty, hunger, or disease. (DUH!)

5. Wealth and resources would be evenly spread throughout the world, rather than having extreme pockets of greed-driven wealthy folk and hopelessly impoverished folk. It breaks my heart that there are people starving and cold all over the world, yet we have entertainers who make more money than they know what to do with. And we have soldiers with huge amounts of debt, just trying to provide for their families while they also sacrifice their lives, while our fat politicians sit by and cut soldiers pay so that they guarantee the budget makes room for their comfortable lives. And we have our teachers making small salaries as they teach our future leaders, while unions provide extra pay and long-term jobs for people who (not in all cases, but sometimes) don't work hard enough to deserve those benefits.

6. Each day, Tom and I would communicate perfectly, serving one another, being patient with one another, and making time to love one another (in a man and wife sorta way ;) haha).

7. Eating breads and treats would not affect my waist-line :)


What would your perfect world be like?