Some Randomness This Monday

I have a few potential blog posts rattling around in the ole noggin but they all seemed a bit serious for today. So I thought I would post some random goings on from around here. (yes, I realize that I completely butchered the English language and I don't care....just the odd ball mood I am in today)

1. My younger little man is having a harder time adjusting to Big man going to school than his brother is. He is missing him so much. It makes my heart smile when I see how excited they are to see each other after school.

2. There is nothing in the world more precious than to hear your children pray and sing songs to our Heavenly Father. My two sweet boys have had me in tears for days. They sing and approach God with such sincerity and silliness all at the same time. I pray that they stay that way and don't allow us grown ups teach to them to not do it that way. If only we could once again approach God without all the junk.

3. My two little boys laughing at each other is my favorite sound in the world.

4. My hubby's birthday is today. I would write a huge paragraph to him but he does not read my blog. He doesn't "get it" ;)

5. I am in the middle of cleaning out stuff from our house. The boys and their stuff keeps getting bigger and it is making my home feel smaller. By the time they graduate I will be a minimalist I think.

6. Rubbing alcohol gets stains out of furniture. Who knew? My sis told me this tip.

7. I haven't had pizza in a few weeks. Beginning to get the shakes. Must have Mellow Mushroom or Red Elephant soon.....very soon. (must find some $ to get to eat pizza)

8. Oh, how I miss DVR......yes, I am that superficial.

9. It disturbs me when people pass up dessert. What is that about? Are they genuinely not interested? Are they dieting and want everyone else to know? Are they trying to prove something but showing me that they don't "need" dessert? I mean, I don't need it either, I just want it really bad. And I hate that it is bad manners to ask for their portion if they aren't going to eat it. What a waste!

10. This week I love Ginger Ale.

11. They should change the motto of Publix to "Publix, a happy place".

12. Still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

13. Hubby & I are stepping out to lead the 20's group at church. It is going to be stretching us and we are not sure what is going to come of it. But we do have peace and know that God would not have asked us to do this if He didn't have a plan for our growth and for our good. It is kinda depressing that I am old enough to be leading this group. They picked us because we were out of our 20's but still "young" enough to relate. Should be an adventure.

14. Needing an accountablity partner.

15. My hubby and my two boys bring me so much joy. I am overwhelmed with how blessed I am. I may not be able to see down the road of our lives but right now I am loving our life and know that God has good things in store.

needing a breather

Finding myself in this moment feeling stressed and aggrivated. My chest is tight and I could probably cry at any moment. Nothing in particular wrong just a feeling. And when I get to feeling this way I usually try to breath out some of the stress. I guess I do it more often than I realized because my 5 year old was sitting at the bar eating a few days ago and his brother was bothering him. Instead of arguing with him or fussing back, I just saw him take a huge breath in and then blow it really slow out his mouth. He had to have seen me do that. Whoops!!

I am having an interesting time adjusting to this whole school thing. My big man is doing great and loves it. And it has been good for me to have something to do everyday and a certain time that it has to be done. But I feel like I haven't gotten to spend "family time" with my boys these last few weeks. He is busy with school during the week and the past 2 weekends we have had something to do each day of the weekend whether it was birthday parties or funerals or wedding showers. All these things are great and we have enjoyed them but I am wanting a day that we get to just veg out at home and just be together. Guess I should just get over it and be thankful for the time I do have. Lesson for today......God wants to squeeze the selfishness right out of me. It can't be about me all the time. Something to ponder today.

Prideful in Grace?

As I was loading the dishwasher earlier I heard a song that I have heard a hundred times before. But this time it somehow crept its way past my ears, past that part of my brain that senses and filters the familiar and entered my heart. It spoke to me about my arrogance and pride about the grace of God.

I have grown up in church, heard the gospel message a million times, listened to thousands of sermons, read scripture, participated in Bible studies. And through it all I have always been certain that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sin. I know this fact through and through. But perhaps I know it too well. Have I really considered the cost?

The song spoke of "would you take the place of this man?" This man being Jesus. He took my place. The life I have lived on my own demands death as a penalty. But I feel that in our world of comfort and convenience that I have never fully allowed myself to really let myself think and feel what that means. Instead I have accepted that Jesus did it all for me and then become prideful and arrogant of that fact. God's grace is given freely but I need to remember what it cost Him to give it to me. I need to live my life mindful of what He did for me and remember that while I never deserved His sacrifice, He still sacrificed so that I might know Him. Really know Him. His Grace and salvation are wonderful but He is expecting more of me. And to walk it out I need to remember everyday where I would be without Him. I can't do it on my own. It is only through Him that I stand a chance to live the life He intended for me. And since He has done it all, I need to be thankful and humbled.

Still Here

I am still alive and breathing. Just been having some computer issues. Very boring stuff so I won't elaborate.

But some great news is that my sweetie pie started school a couple of weeks ago. He loves it!!! I promise I will blog more extensively about it soon.

Jonesing for a Coke.

Well, I guess it is update time since it has been almost a month since I have blogged. It has been a crazy time.

After our Anniversary Celebration I prepared for a road trip to visit my grandparents 1,000 miles away. I had the house cleaned, the laundry done, the car serviced, new tires, and suitcases packed. I was emotionally, physically and mentally ready for this trip. We were scheduled to leave early Thursday morning. Wednesday afternoon our oldest son said that he was cold. Less than 30 minutes later he was lethargic and shivering with a temp of 102.8. My first thought was "What?" So we postponed the trip a day to see how he felt the next morning. Lets just say that he was not better the next day so I called the doctor to have him checked out. 30 minutes before we head that way and my other son starts in with a fever. They check them both out at the docs office only to find that they had Strep Throat. My little guy puked all over me in the office and then I had to still go to the pharmacy to pick up antibiotics. What a fun day. So we postponed the trip another day. By 4:00 pm Friday afternoon my sweet little boys were back to normal and running around. (sidenote- thank the Lord for prayer and anitbiotics!!!!) So we set off early Saturday morning and drove all day and made it to my grandparents 18 hours later. The boys did phenomenal. They have always been such great travelers. I have ridden with grown adults who are much more trouble.

We enjoyed a wonderful time with all of my family and friends. We were scheduled to stay about 10 days but my grandfather ended up having surgery and since my grandmother requires 24 hour care my mom and I stayed an extra week to help out. As it turned out my mom is still needed to help out and stayed behind indefinitley. But my sweet and awesome mother in law flew out on Tuesday so I had someone to ride back with the boys and I on Wednesday. We had a great trip back. I pulled up in my driveway about 12:30am and have spent the last 2 days recuperating. That word sounds funny since I haven't really done anything for the last 3 weeks but eat too much, talk too much, eat too much, and ingest waaaayyy tooooo much caffeine. I guess I have driven a total of 2240 miles. And yes, I drove all the way there and all the way back. Call it a sickeness if you like. I would rather drive than ride. Control freak? Yes, possibly.

So back to the caffeine thing......I was completely off caffeine before I left for vacation. I had lost some weight and was feeling pretty good about myself. But I had a problem once I got away. My favorite thing to do while vacationing is eat. I like to eat at all the places that we don't have around here. I ate at P.F. Changs twice. Taco Mayo more times than I can count. Cheezies 3 times. And I ate donuts from the bakery around the corner every other day. And you have to have a Coke to wash it all down, right? Well, at least I did.

So today I sit on my butt trying to NOT drink a Coke and wondering just how much weight I have gained. That is a question that will have to go unanswered because I don't plan to visit my old pal, the scale, until I am no longer bloated and hormonal. I just might not recover. Haha. So glad to be home with my hubby. 3 weeks is just toooooo long away from him and home.

Hmm, think I can take a vacation to recover from my other vacation?

So much to do this next month. I better just put on my big girl panties and deal.

"I Do" Again

Hubby & I renewed our vows Sunday afternoon. It was such a wonderful evening. Getting to celebrate with our friends and family and sharing that time with them was so nice. And standing in front of my handsome husband and saying our vows and reaffirming our love to each other and recommiting our hearts was sweeter than I could have imagined. I am so blessed!

My brother and his wife came over and he took pics of everything. When I get the pics from him I will post them. Thank you to everyone who was thinking and praying for us.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Well there are many things that I could blog about today but since I am trying to be positive and uncomplaining those topics have become limited....hahaha

So today I thought I would blog about some things that make me happy.

I LOVE a good book. It is my first choice to escape the normalcy of life. In another life I would have liked to have been a writer, or an editor or even a person that just gets paid to read books. In the movie "Sabrina", her father takes a job as a chauffeur so he has plenty of time to read. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

I love the smell of Magnolia blossoms. That sweet citrus yumminess just makes me want to breathe deep and run around bare foot.

Hydrangeas, especially blue ones are the prettiest flower to me. They are so big and over the top and just make me smile. We had 2 huge bushes of them at our rental house when we first got married. The neighbor lady loved them as well. She would come over and get cuttings and then plant them at her house and they would always come up pink instead of blue. It drove her crazy. The pH was differenct and no matter how hard she tried she just could not get blue hydrangeas to grow in her yard. That house and the hydrangeas are gone now. Too bad.

Carrots!! I eat them every day. I love them and if I had to choose just one food to eat for the rest of my life it would be carrots. They are cold and crunchy and yummmy!!! But I only like them raw or slighty grilled. I can't stand a mushy carrots. Blech!

My boys laughing is so infectious. No matter how I am feeling it always perks me up and brings me back to the reality of how blessed I am. My children are healthy and growing and are a source of great joy for their daddy & me. They are so funny and interesting and unique. I love being their momma!!

I love our church! And our church family! And our Pastor & Pastors wife. So blessed that God led us to this new family.

Hubby & I just celebrated 10 years of marriage. We are throwing a party Sunday to celebrate and to renew our vows. Even sitting here now I cannot believe that I have been a wife for 10 years already. We have lived in our home now for almost 9 years. I have never lived in a house that long ever. We have brought our sons home to this house. We are raising them together in this home. It only seems fitting to renew our vows and to kick off the rest of our lives together here as well. I am looking forward to many more years together. I am so honored to be married to such a wonderful man. In this day of "throw away" everything I feel that we should be proud to have made it this far. Not getting cocky or anything. Every marriage can be improved upon and every couple needs to communicate to make sure they are both moving in the same direction. And most importantly keeping God first in the marriage. We have not arrived by any means but we have worked to get where we are and want to be an encouragement to others who are married and are wondering if they can make it. It may not be easy but it is definitley worth it! And a little tid bit of advice? Counseling is never a bad idea. Marriages can only be strengthened by opening up communication lines. And sometimes it is easier to do with a professional to help navigate unfamiliar waters. And here is something hubby & I learned. There is NO shame in asking and seeking help. And it is so easier to get back on track before things get way out of whack. I guess you could consider it a "tune up" for your marriage. (getting off my soap box)

I am looking forward to spending the rest of my life with the man God created just for me. And that makes me very happy.

Be blessed!