Well, here we are again, getting ready to take on another move, a new city/state (kind of...we lived in Syracuse 9 years ago, so it isn't completely new), packing, unpacking and adjusting. I really don't mind moving...it helps make you clean out closets, purge and have a garage sale (which I do all of those things often anyway...I HATE CLUTTER). This move is a little different being that we own our house here and Josiah will experience his first move that he has friends he will have to part from (he was only 9 weeks old when we moved here). He loves his little friends and asks daily (more like 10 times a day) who can come over to play, if we can go to someone else's house or if we can meet someone at the park! Poor child is majorly going to miss his little friends and I will too!!! I love all of the children he has developed relationships with (and I love their mommies too). This will be a tough place to leave! We love it here...and most of why we love it is the people we know and love. Ironically, more than half of those friends are moving as well at some point in the near future. Regardless if our friends are Clarksville residence of life or friends we have had the privilege of spending Army life with we will miss each and every one of them!!!
Tonight I spent some time putting Josiah's old clothes in space saver bags (and by the way, they actually work). We are trying to cut our rubbermaid storage in half because we are downsizing a lot to move to NY, but I can't bring myself to get rid of his baby/toddler clothes. I hope that we use them again someday on another sweet and precious boy (maybe Jeremiah or Titus or whatever other name we love). As I was going through his newborn clothes I had so many memories go through my mind (and some were spoken to Josh as he is collecting his Army gear to turn into Ft. Campbell). I must have said 100 times while doing this "Man, I honestly cannot remember Josiah EVER being that SMALL." or "How did Josiah ever fit into this?" I loved the outfit we brought him home from the hospital in!! So cute! I just put it up to my nose hoping to smell the sweet baby we were (and still are) blessed to have. They just smelled like laundry detergent, but the memory of him in those clothes are still very strong in my head and heart!!!!!!! I found tiny, tiny little socks - I am not sure they ever fit his chunky monkey feet, but we put them on him anyway. I found sweet little hats and the swaddle blanket we have pictures of him in at the hospital. All of those precious little nightgowns that he wore those first few weeks and many, many more cute outfits that made him even cuter than he was. I am so glad to have those memories in my heart still after 3 and a half years. (I am getting teary eyed just thinking about it). Josiah has grown into such an amazing little boy!! A boy that Josh and I were just talking about tonight...how he has become so silly!! He does the silliest things that sometimes drive us nuts, but always makes us laugh!! Like tonight in the car, I was telling Josh how he asks questions all day long. He wants an itinerary the moment he wakes up of what we are doing that day...and then before going to bed he wants one of what the next day will bring "after I eat breakfast...what are we going to do?" So, I was telling Josh all day long he asks things like that (I am not complaining, because I love having conversations with him)...I was giving an example like "what are we going to eat?" From the back seat, Josiah says "Mommy, we already ate dinner!!" LOL. I had no clue he was even listening to me...Josh and I just cracked up!!!
So, although I am kind of sick of going through our house and reorganizing before the packers come (and if you are a military family you know that it doesn't matter what you do the movers are still going to pack it in a disorganized fashion and you will end up redoing all of it on the other end of the move), I have really enjoyed going through his things especially and reliving his little life!!! I love remembering him in those clothes and shoes...memories of things we did while he had a particular outfit on. I hope to never forget those memories!! We are blessed to have him...and as the time goes on that we only have him, it makes me even more grateful for his little life!!! It makes me realize just how miraculous a baby/child is!!! I have hope and faith that he won't be our only child, but if he is the LORD BLESSED US WITH HIM AND THAT IS MORE THAN WE EVEN DESERVE!!! I can promise you one thing....there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank the Lord for him and Josh being in my life!!!!!!!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
My "WHY"
So, as many of you have probably read on my facebook page...I have joined Thirty-One. I am super excited about this new little "business" in my life. After talking with Summer (my team director), and when I say talking to...I mean I probably drove her crazy with all of my questions before officially signing up. I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing and I am a planner...probably too much of a planner! I have prayed about it, researched it, talked with others who either have done it or who have purchased their products in the past, and I have probably driven Josh crazy by talking about all of the things on my mind about it. He is the best husband though...he listened to my fears about failing at it, talked to me about my reasons for wanting to do it and just encouraged me along the way without making the decision for me...I am married to a wonderful man!!!
Let me first start by saying, I never would have imagined I would sign up for this (or any other consultant position). I just would have always made the excuse that I don't love talking in front of people or that I didn't have the time. I think I have come to a point in my life that I need something like this. I LOVE my life!! I am a very BLESSED woman.....way more blessed than I deserve to be! I have done a lot of reflecting on my life lately...the person I have become. As many of you know, Josh and I experienced two miscarriages in 2011. They were harder on me than I would have ever imagined a miscarriage could be! I have learned that you don't take a life for granted...and I am forever grateful for the Lord blessing us with Josiah 3 years ago! I realize now that getting pregnant and keeping a pregnancy isn't as easy for some...even though it was easy the first time...it hasn't been since. I haven't been dwelling over it, but it is something I think about often!!! I am grateful to the Lord for these times because I have definitely grown as a person and I pray that it has made me a better wife and mother. I know that I can sympathize so much more now with those that experience loss!!!
The Thirty-One company is a Christian based business...that I love first of all! It is based on the Proverbs 31 wife...and I have read that chapter in Proverbs so many times and think to myself.. "wow, I have a long way to go to be a Proverbs 31 woman!" I feel as though if you don't think that about yourself maybe you have some more examining to do! I don't look at that chapter and think.."Man, I will never live up to that." Instead, I think..."wow...thank you, Lord, for giving me a guideline written right there in the Bible on how to be a wife and a mother." So, in my daily life that is what my goal is...to be a woman/wife/mother like the one found in Proverbs. My relationship with the Lord comes first and then Josh and Josiah!!! I will never be the wife and mother that I am called to be if I don't put the Lord first...but then I will also never be the wife and mother I am supposed to be if I don't take care of myself as well!! This is my WHY...Thirty-One wants to know your "Why Story." Why would you want to be apart of this company...I want to do it because I feel like right now in my life I need something for me. That sounds completely selfish and I am not meaning it in a selfish way at all!! I feel like maybe I need a way of getting my mind off of the losses we experienced last year (not to forget about them completely), but maybe to be able to link up and start relationships with other mothers who have gone through similar situations. Maybe I can be an encouragement to them and them to me! Another reason is because I think it is important for Josh and Josiah to have father/son time. Because I stay at home with him, Josh is very rarely alone with him. It just works out that way...Josh works long days and when he gets home we have our normal night schedule of dinner, bath and bed all within an hour or 2 of him getting home. Then on the weekends, we love doing things as a family, so they rarely get one on one time...and I know how important that is for them (especially now that Josiah is getting older...he craves and longs for man time with his daddy). With me leading a party a couple of times a month he will get that time...without me (the hovering mom, telling them to be gentle while wrestling...lol). Also, with moving to NY it will give me a great opportunity to meet other woman and make growing relationships with people that I may not have met without Thirty-One. Josh will be going to school there, so we both feel as though this would be the perfect time to start...he will have more of a set schedule with classes so I can plan parties when it is most convenient for our family (versus being stressed out making sure he would be home on time for me to leave - which would be the case if he weren't in school). Josh has been 100% supportive in this and I love him for it, because I know for a fact that if he didn't think it was something I should do, he would tell me!!! He is awesome.
These are just a few reasons we decided it would be a great opportunity to join Thirty-One...and what woman doesn't love a great, new bag? I know I do!! I have always loved bags!!!
Let me first start by saying, I never would have imagined I would sign up for this (or any other consultant position). I just would have always made the excuse that I don't love talking in front of people or that I didn't have the time. I think I have come to a point in my life that I need something like this. I LOVE my life!! I am a very BLESSED woman.....way more blessed than I deserve to be! I have done a lot of reflecting on my life lately...the person I have become. As many of you know, Josh and I experienced two miscarriages in 2011. They were harder on me than I would have ever imagined a miscarriage could be! I have learned that you don't take a life for granted...and I am forever grateful for the Lord blessing us with Josiah 3 years ago! I realize now that getting pregnant and keeping a pregnancy isn't as easy for some...even though it was easy the first time...it hasn't been since. I haven't been dwelling over it, but it is something I think about often!!! I am grateful to the Lord for these times because I have definitely grown as a person and I pray that it has made me a better wife and mother. I know that I can sympathize so much more now with those that experience loss!!!
The Thirty-One company is a Christian based business...that I love first of all! It is based on the Proverbs 31 wife...and I have read that chapter in Proverbs so many times and think to myself.. "wow, I have a long way to go to be a Proverbs 31 woman!" I feel as though if you don't think that about yourself maybe you have some more examining to do! I don't look at that chapter and think.."Man, I will never live up to that." Instead, I think..."wow...thank you, Lord, for giving me a guideline written right there in the Bible on how to be a wife and a mother." So, in my daily life that is what my goal is...to be a woman/wife/mother like the one found in Proverbs. My relationship with the Lord comes first and then Josh and Josiah!!! I will never be the wife and mother that I am called to be if I don't put the Lord first...but then I will also never be the wife and mother I am supposed to be if I don't take care of myself as well!! This is my WHY...Thirty-One wants to know your "Why Story." Why would you want to be apart of this company...I want to do it because I feel like right now in my life I need something for me. That sounds completely selfish and I am not meaning it in a selfish way at all!! I feel like maybe I need a way of getting my mind off of the losses we experienced last year (not to forget about them completely), but maybe to be able to link up and start relationships with other mothers who have gone through similar situations. Maybe I can be an encouragement to them and them to me! Another reason is because I think it is important for Josh and Josiah to have father/son time. Because I stay at home with him, Josh is very rarely alone with him. It just works out that way...Josh works long days and when he gets home we have our normal night schedule of dinner, bath and bed all within an hour or 2 of him getting home. Then on the weekends, we love doing things as a family, so they rarely get one on one time...and I know how important that is for them (especially now that Josiah is getting older...he craves and longs for man time with his daddy). With me leading a party a couple of times a month he will get that time...without me (the hovering mom, telling them to be gentle while wrestling...lol). Also, with moving to NY it will give me a great opportunity to meet other woman and make growing relationships with people that I may not have met without Thirty-One. Josh will be going to school there, so we both feel as though this would be the perfect time to start...he will have more of a set schedule with classes so I can plan parties when it is most convenient for our family (versus being stressed out making sure he would be home on time for me to leave - which would be the case if he weren't in school). Josh has been 100% supportive in this and I love him for it, because I know for a fact that if he didn't think it was something I should do, he would tell me!!! He is awesome.
These are just a few reasons we decided it would be a great opportunity to join Thirty-One...and what woman doesn't love a great, new bag? I know I do!! I have always loved bags!!!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
The Lord's Calling
Have you ever felt like the Lord is really trying to teach you something? Have you felt Him clearly speak to you about something in your life? It is the neatest thing in the world to know it is the Lord speaking to you...urging you to do something, speak to someone or help someone. Whatever it is, it can also be a bit scary as well.
This week I have been reading the "Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 5, 6 and 7) and the Lord has very much convicted me about some things. He has used that scripture in a powerful way in my life this week. Isn't it crazy how you could have read a verse or passage of scripture before and it not really speak to you and then you read it at a different time in your life and it hits you in the face? I love it...but I am not going to lie that it can be scary. Since starting my reading on Monday and continuing it throughout the week and also attending THRIVE with the women from our church the Lord has made something very clear to me. It is like he is using different things to work in this one area of my life/heart. Seriously....He has even used Josiah talking about something that he has never even mentioned to me in the past to get me to realize that yes, in fact it is the Lord's calling. I experienced something in Walmart today and immediately called Josh when I got to the car to tell him what happened. He and I both agree that it is clearly the Lord...teaching me and maturing me in this area of my life. Part of me is scared but my heart KNOWS without a doubt it is God. I am beyond grateful to have a husband who loves me, listens to me, guides/leads me and encourages me!!! Although he is not physically here with us right now due to work, I am so grateful he was able to talk through some things with me this morning and help me sort out these emotions and feelings in my heart...and then the Walmart thing happened and I was thinking to myself "OK GOD...I HEAR YOU!" What can I say...I am a little stubborn and need to be coaxed for certain things...I need to make sure it isn't my mind playing tricks on me...that it is God and He knows I need that. Thankful for a Lord who knows me, knows my insecurities and will protect me when I feel vulnerable. (Maybe when I obey the Lord's tugging on my heart about this my killer headache will go away. just kidding)
This week I have been reading the "Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 5, 6 and 7) and the Lord has very much convicted me about some things. He has used that scripture in a powerful way in my life this week. Isn't it crazy how you could have read a verse or passage of scripture before and it not really speak to you and then you read it at a different time in your life and it hits you in the face? I love it...but I am not going to lie that it can be scary. Since starting my reading on Monday and continuing it throughout the week and also attending THRIVE with the women from our church the Lord has made something very clear to me. It is like he is using different things to work in this one area of my life/heart. Seriously....He has even used Josiah talking about something that he has never even mentioned to me in the past to get me to realize that yes, in fact it is the Lord's calling. I experienced something in Walmart today and immediately called Josh when I got to the car to tell him what happened. He and I both agree that it is clearly the Lord...teaching me and maturing me in this area of my life. Part of me is scared but my heart KNOWS without a doubt it is God. I am beyond grateful to have a husband who loves me, listens to me, guides/leads me and encourages me!!! Although he is not physically here with us right now due to work, I am so grateful he was able to talk through some things with me this morning and help me sort out these emotions and feelings in my heart...and then the Walmart thing happened and I was thinking to myself "OK GOD...I HEAR YOU!" What can I say...I am a little stubborn and need to be coaxed for certain things...I need to make sure it isn't my mind playing tricks on me...that it is God and He knows I need that. Thankful for a Lord who knows me, knows my insecurities and will protect me when I feel vulnerable. (Maybe when I obey the Lord's tugging on my heart about this my killer headache will go away. just kidding)
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Shady Patio Guy
I am writing this to vent my frustrations about doing business with a Shady Guy...who owned Nature's Best Landscaping...so if you live in the Clarksville, TN area DO NOT use him. Let me make it clear that Josh and I are not the type of people to take someone to court. Neither one of us have ever done it and I hope to never do it again! Not that our court situation has been a horrible experience, but that I know that we have learned on doing background checks, etc on someone we want to hire to do work at or on our home! Anyone we ever hire in the future better be ready for me to ask them a million questions before giving them our business or money. I have learned my lesson for sure.
Last March we hired a guy to dig up under our deck and place weed control down with rocks to help with landscaping and rabbits. We were finding dead bunnies under our deck daily (sometimes 5 a day) and that does not go well with me or our dogs. Our dogs were playing with them and the last straw was when I was in the back with our 2 year old at the time playing when a dead bunny appeared. I screamed and in turn scared Josiah to death. Originally we hired Don to do the under part of the deck. Well, he came up with this plan (an idea we had been thinking about doing for a while). We have an area in our back yard that would be great for a patio and the people who owned the house before us just put some flag stones down and allowed the grass to grow in between. We had been wanting to concrete it in for a while and make it more useful. Well, Don said he could do it. Very long story short, he did a shady job using brick mortar instead of concrete...the foundation moves under your feet...our 40lb dog's foot went through it after it was completed and you can pick up the flag stones because they are not cemented in. It was overall the worst job I have ever seen. He was supposed to dig up the foundation, make it level and take care of the grass and weeds so that they would be gone forever. Almost immediately we had grass growing up through the concrete!! It is done so terribly that our 2 year old (now 3 year old) could pick up the concrete. Surely that is not supposed to be able to be done...let alone by a toddler.
After talking with some other workers in that field of work and having them come out to give us an estimate of fixing it, we decided to take Don to small claims court without a lawyer. We had pictures, phone records of times that he never called us back, his contract stating he would complete the job, etc. we had our act together. (by the way, the day he "finished" the job he said he would be back to check on the foundation that weekend to make sure it was drying correctly...did he ever come? NOPE...did he return any of our phone calls? NO....did he cash our check immediately?...YES! We pay our court fees (taking him to court originally was to make sure he didn't do this to someone else in town) and show up to represent ourselves because we didn't want to pay for a lawyer. Don never shows, but had hired a lawyer the day before our court date. The lawyer he hired knew nothing of the situation and came in saying that they only thing Don told him was that he would come back to our property and fix it. NO WAY...are you kidding me? We gave you more than an opportunity to fix what you had done wrong and we didn't want him back in our yard. His "lawyer" saw our pictures, our phone records and all that we had come prepared with and said "clearly, I am representing the wrong party here." lol So, we then had to set a court date for a trial that involved us needing a lawyer. We got an excellent lawyer and our court date came. Guess what? Shady Don did't show up and didn't have a lawyer to represent him either. The judge obviously found us to be correct in our story and in the state of TN you can get extra for Lying and Deceptive Work. We didn't want more..in fact what the judge came to is far more than we would ever expect someone to pay. We just want it fixed..so we want the amount of money it would take to fix it. We aren't doing this to make money on the guy. We aren't trying to screw him over - we just want it made right.
I just want it over with...I feel stressed because we are moving soon and so it has to be fixed and that costs money. When the guy claims to have nothing, I feel bad for saying this, but I don't believe him! Maybe he is having a hard time in life, and I am sorry for that, but he fed me so many stories during his job that I just want him to pay us what we deserve. I have definitely learned from this...and this will be a great example to use for Josiah (and/or future children we have) to teach that life just isn't fair sometimes. Guess I am going to use my anger toward Good Ole Don on the patio when Josh and I are the ones ripping it up with sledge hammers!!!
(I have even more pictures of us being able to lift the flag stones out of the middle and the giant hole in the middle of it, but they are on a different computer that isn't working.)
Last March we hired a guy to dig up under our deck and place weed control down with rocks to help with landscaping and rabbits. We were finding dead bunnies under our deck daily (sometimes 5 a day) and that does not go well with me or our dogs. Our dogs were playing with them and the last straw was when I was in the back with our 2 year old at the time playing when a dead bunny appeared. I screamed and in turn scared Josiah to death. Originally we hired Don to do the under part of the deck. Well, he came up with this plan (an idea we had been thinking about doing for a while). We have an area in our back yard that would be great for a patio and the people who owned the house before us just put some flag stones down and allowed the grass to grow in between. We had been wanting to concrete it in for a while and make it more useful. Well, Don said he could do it. Very long story short, he did a shady job using brick mortar instead of concrete...the foundation moves under your feet...our 40lb dog's foot went through it after it was completed and you can pick up the flag stones because they are not cemented in. It was overall the worst job I have ever seen. He was supposed to dig up the foundation, make it level and take care of the grass and weeds so that they would be gone forever. Almost immediately we had grass growing up through the concrete!! It is done so terribly that our 2 year old (now 3 year old) could pick up the concrete. Surely that is not supposed to be able to be done...let alone by a toddler.
After talking with some other workers in that field of work and having them come out to give us an estimate of fixing it, we decided to take Don to small claims court without a lawyer. We had pictures, phone records of times that he never called us back, his contract stating he would complete the job, etc. we had our act together. (by the way, the day he "finished" the job he said he would be back to check on the foundation that weekend to make sure it was drying correctly...did he ever come? NOPE...did he return any of our phone calls? NO....did he cash our check immediately?...YES! We pay our court fees (taking him to court originally was to make sure he didn't do this to someone else in town) and show up to represent ourselves because we didn't want to pay for a lawyer. Don never shows, but had hired a lawyer the day before our court date. The lawyer he hired knew nothing of the situation and came in saying that they only thing Don told him was that he would come back to our property and fix it. NO WAY...are you kidding me? We gave you more than an opportunity to fix what you had done wrong and we didn't want him back in our yard. His "lawyer" saw our pictures, our phone records and all that we had come prepared with and said "clearly, I am representing the wrong party here." lol So, we then had to set a court date for a trial that involved us needing a lawyer. We got an excellent lawyer and our court date came. Guess what? Shady Don did't show up and didn't have a lawyer to represent him either. The judge obviously found us to be correct in our story and in the state of TN you can get extra for Lying and Deceptive Work. We didn't want more..in fact what the judge came to is far more than we would ever expect someone to pay. We just want it fixed..so we want the amount of money it would take to fix it. We aren't doing this to make money on the guy. We aren't trying to screw him over - we just want it made right.
(I have even more pictures of us being able to lift the flag stones out of the middle and the giant hole in the middle of it, but they are on a different computer that isn't working.)
Friday, December 23, 2011
Christmas at our House
I honestly can't believe that Christmas is just two short days away!! We are super excited that my parents (aka Grammie and Poppy) are here (arrived at 2am this morning and got up with smiling faces to see their only grandchild....and Josiah was very happy to see them!). I have been baking like crazy. Not really sure why, except the fact that I love to bake and share goodies with friends and family. This week I have made mint chocolate chip cookies, snicker doodles, mint crisps, Christmas sugar cookies, brownies and white chocolate snack mix. I currently have a peppermint pound cake in the oven and will make an apple pie later. Then I will be done. I delivered some treats to neighbors and friends yesterday and today. It is fun for me to share sweets with others!!
Since the Christmas season started our family of three has enjoyed some fun memories. We have driven around to see Christmas lights (which we plan to do again with my parents tonight), gone downtown to walk the River Lights, went to the drive thru Nativity, watched Christmas movies, made Advent crafts, listened to LOTS of Christmas music and done a little shopping. I will have to say that Christmas this year is even more fun. Josiah knows more about it and I love seeing his face light up at the different things he experiences. He still isn't completely a fan of Santa and will only wave from a distance. We aren't pushing it because I don't want to scare our child to death and let's face it Christmas is definitely not all about Santa. Every morning Josiah asks for me to put music on after breakfast and he knows exactly what song he wants to hear. His favorite Christmas song is Jessica Simpson's version of "Let It Snow." The minute it comes on he starts dancing!! It is cute. For me, at Christmas I love to give people baked goods. It is something about the time and energy I put into making some special treats to share. Josiah has really enjoyed baking with me this year as well! He is really at a fun age! I've said before that I am not a huge shopper. We didn't buy much this year (as I am sure a lot of people are in the same boat). With our impending move and the disaster we have on our patio that still needs to be fixed, we tried to keep things simple. We will see how simple my sweet husband kept things since his love language is gift giving. I love that he loves to give to others and sometimes I wish I had the same love language. My love language is quality time and acts of service. I love doing things for people to help them and I enjoy just spending time with others. I am so grateful that Josh and I know each other's love languages!! Yesterday and today I have started to feel bad that I may not have gotten him enough for Christmas or even gotten him the "perfect" gift. I made him his favorite cookies :) It is too late now, because I am not going out today to get anything else. I am more of a worrier about the bank account than he is and don't want to over spend on Christmas gifts. I feel like that can be super easy to do once you start seeing other things that you would want to get someone. I have always kind of felt like I am not a very good gift giver...wish I was better, but glad I married someone who is. We definitely balance each other out!!!! He finds great gifts and then we talk about whether or not we should spend the money on them. This year with him in Pathfinder School I ended up having to do most of the shopping on my own...so the few things we bought I hope people like them!!! Josiah's Santa gifts are an Easel (which I am super excited about because I know he will love it...he has recently really started enjoying coloring and painting so I know it will be fun for him). Maybe it is my inner teacher, but I am hoping we will have short "school" sessions at home with it! We also got him the Mickey Mouse Drum he has been wanting. He saw it one day in Walgreens and that is all he talks about when people ask him what he wants from Santa...luckily it was only $9.99 and the day I went they were buy one toy get one free so I picked out a blue (his favorite color) car for him as well. My parents got him (from Santa) a tool set and a big dump truck which he will absolutely LOVE!! I guess maybe I feel like I never want to spoil him too much on Christmas and have him not be appreciative of what he receives..and also forget what Christmas is truly about. The BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST!!
Anyway, with that said our family is ready for Christmas. No more shopping - just enjoying our time together! I refuse to go out to the stores with the crazy shoppers! We are just enjoying our time at home...tonight we are having Chicken Taco Soup, tomorrow (Christmas Eve) I am making Ham with all of the sides before we go to church for our Christmas Eve service and then dessert afterward (Peppermint Cake, Apple Pie and all of the cookies). On Christmas day, I stick with Josh's family tradition and make Italian. We will have salad, chicken parm, spaghetti, asparagus, green beans and bread. Just writing this makes me feel full. I just that is what the season is...eating yummy food!!!
I am beyond grateful to have my husband home again this year for Christmas - that to me is the best gift!! There are so many soldiers away from their families this year, so please keep the soldiers and family members left at home in your prayers!!! We hope and pray that everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!! We sure wish we could be with everyone in our family, but knowing that is impossible, we will just send our love to you all!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!!!!
Since the Christmas season started our family of three has enjoyed some fun memories. We have driven around to see Christmas lights (which we plan to do again with my parents tonight), gone downtown to walk the River Lights, went to the drive thru Nativity, watched Christmas movies, made Advent crafts, listened to LOTS of Christmas music and done a little shopping. I will have to say that Christmas this year is even more fun. Josiah knows more about it and I love seeing his face light up at the different things he experiences. He still isn't completely a fan of Santa and will only wave from a distance. We aren't pushing it because I don't want to scare our child to death and let's face it Christmas is definitely not all about Santa. Every morning Josiah asks for me to put music on after breakfast and he knows exactly what song he wants to hear. His favorite Christmas song is Jessica Simpson's version of "Let It Snow." The minute it comes on he starts dancing!! It is cute. For me, at Christmas I love to give people baked goods. It is something about the time and energy I put into making some special treats to share. Josiah has really enjoyed baking with me this year as well! He is really at a fun age! I've said before that I am not a huge shopper. We didn't buy much this year (as I am sure a lot of people are in the same boat). With our impending move and the disaster we have on our patio that still needs to be fixed, we tried to keep things simple. We will see how simple my sweet husband kept things since his love language is gift giving. I love that he loves to give to others and sometimes I wish I had the same love language. My love language is quality time and acts of service. I love doing things for people to help them and I enjoy just spending time with others. I am so grateful that Josh and I know each other's love languages!! Yesterday and today I have started to feel bad that I may not have gotten him enough for Christmas or even gotten him the "perfect" gift. I made him his favorite cookies :) It is too late now, because I am not going out today to get anything else. I am more of a worrier about the bank account than he is and don't want to over spend on Christmas gifts. I feel like that can be super easy to do once you start seeing other things that you would want to get someone. I have always kind of felt like I am not a very good gift giver...wish I was better, but glad I married someone who is. We definitely balance each other out!!!! He finds great gifts and then we talk about whether or not we should spend the money on them. This year with him in Pathfinder School I ended up having to do most of the shopping on my own...so the few things we bought I hope people like them!!! Josiah's Santa gifts are an Easel (which I am super excited about because I know he will love it...he has recently really started enjoying coloring and painting so I know it will be fun for him). Maybe it is my inner teacher, but I am hoping we will have short "school" sessions at home with it! We also got him the Mickey Mouse Drum he has been wanting. He saw it one day in Walgreens and that is all he talks about when people ask him what he wants from Santa...luckily it was only $9.99 and the day I went they were buy one toy get one free so I picked out a blue (his favorite color) car for him as well. My parents got him (from Santa) a tool set and a big dump truck which he will absolutely LOVE!! I guess maybe I feel like I never want to spoil him too much on Christmas and have him not be appreciative of what he receives..and also forget what Christmas is truly about. The BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST!!
Anyway, with that said our family is ready for Christmas. No more shopping - just enjoying our time together! I refuse to go out to the stores with the crazy shoppers! We are just enjoying our time at home...tonight we are having Chicken Taco Soup, tomorrow (Christmas Eve) I am making Ham with all of the sides before we go to church for our Christmas Eve service and then dessert afterward (Peppermint Cake, Apple Pie and all of the cookies). On Christmas day, I stick with Josh's family tradition and make Italian. We will have salad, chicken parm, spaghetti, asparagus, green beans and bread. Just writing this makes me feel full. I just that is what the season is...eating yummy food!!!
I am beyond grateful to have my husband home again this year for Christmas - that to me is the best gift!! There are so many soldiers away from their families this year, so please keep the soldiers and family members left at home in your prayers!!! We hope and pray that everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!! We sure wish we could be with everyone in our family, but knowing that is impossible, we will just send our love to you all!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!!!!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
A True Blessing
I am feeling overwhelmingly blessed with our son!! What a joy he is to my life! I have often been told that three years of age can be a nightmare. I am seeing the fruits of our labor every day and it just blesses my heart more than I can say. Josiah is definitely not perfect...lets face it...NONE of us are! Do we still discipline and train daily? Of course...that is what parenting is! We are called to raise our children for the Lord and I am so grateful that the Lord blessed us with him. We have had times when we would go through stages that were tough, but we were consistent and disciplined with the way we felt the Lord was calling us to. I can look back on the last few weeks of him being two and the first week of him being three and I remember feeling stressed and exhausted (physically, mentally and emotionally) with the constant discipline and teaching. Well, I am glad to say it has paid off tremendously! I am not stupid in thinking that we won't revisit things that we have corrected for in the past, but I am just thankful to the Lord for showing us each day that our hard work is paying off. For example, today we went out to run some errands. It was so much fun! We spent over an hour in Hobby Lobby collecting items for our advent project! It was awesome to walk each row and look at things I wanted to look at and have our sweet little boy walk beside me not touching anything!! Then we went over to the mall to just walk around! I think I can count on two hands how many times I have been to this mall in three years. I am just not a shopper. We went to Hallmark so that he could pick out an ornament for this year (which I got for $1.05! because of a reward certificate that I had and a $5.00 coupon...can't beat that for a Hallmark ornament). He loved walking the mall, looking at things and staring at Santa from afar. I gave him a dollar in quarters before we went into the mall and told him that if he obeyed that he could use that dollar to ride a machine when we were about to leave. He was so excited about hearing those quarters (which he calls pennies) in his pocket! But here is what melted my heart the most and almost brought tears to my eyes (I did tear up telling Josh the story tonight). I am in love with those sugared pecans (I have only had them 3 times in my life but they are so good). There was a man selling them so I stopped and bought us a small bag. That sweet man gave me an extra empty bag for Josiah so he could carry his own. I put some of the pecans in his bag and we continued walking while snacking on our yummy pecans. All of the sudden Josiah started folding the top of his bag down (with pecans still in it) and I said "buddy, are you all done or do you not like them?" His response to me was "I saving these for Daddy. I gonna share with him when he gets home." OH MY WORD. He thought of that all on his own. He loves his Daddy and Josh has been at work late every night this week with Pathfinder school. In fact, the other night Josiah said we couldn't eat dinner without him - that he wanted to wait until he got home...but we had to because I knew Josh would be late. I just love Josiah's heart...We have prayed for him to be kind, loving, and that he would think about others before himself and I am seeing it more and more each day. So, when we have difficult times with him testing his limits I will be reminded of these situations..I will be reminded that the Lord calls us to train our children and we will continue to follow His leading in parenting!!!! Thank you, Lord for the gift you have given to us...a gift named Josiah Michael Sandler!
Proverbs 22:6
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."
Proverbs 22:6
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."
Saturday, November 19, 2011
"Inconceivable"
Several months ago a dear friend of mine who lives in Alaska sent me a book titled "Inconceivable." At the time I was reading a Karen Kingsbury book, so I just put it on the shelf for another time. I would walk by it every now and then (while dusting the shelf) and just look at it. Well, the time came two weeks ago when I finally took the book off the shelf to read it not knowing at all what a blessing this book would be to me. As you probably know by now, Josh and I have had a difficult year (+) trying to conceive another child. I have had two miscarriages and lots of tears along the way. I had no idea it could or even would be this hard to conceive another child considering it was very easy once we decided we wanted to start trying for Josiah. We were blessed to get pregnant very quickly with him and I loved every second of being pregnant!!
The book "Inconceivable" is about a family who had two children without any issues and those boys were 10 and 12 years old. The tried for many years to have another child and ended up doing IVF for their third child, a baby girl. When they went in to use more of the embryos they had frozen from the previous retrieval the doctors put the wrong embryos in her. Six weeks later when they found out they were successfully pregnant they also found out that they were pregnant with someone else's baby!! They had the decision to make about whether or not to continue with their pregnancy and they chose to! Praise the Lord. I am about half way through the book. I have gotten to the part where they are now meeting the parents of the child she is carrying. I cannot imagine this ever happening to me. For one of our pregnancies I was only 6 weeks along when we lost it and for the second miscarriage I was 9 weeks along. This may sound crazy, but I feel like I bounded with those babies, so to carry one full term, deliver it and hand it over to someone else would have broken my heart beyond words! The lady in the book was crushed knowing that the doctors told her for her health she should never be pregnant again. The last baby she would carry and birth wasn't even hers. The husband and wife end up hiring a surrogate mother to carry her last embryos in hopes to get more children...children that they prayed for and dreamed of.
Well, the other day I wrote in my facebook status about this book and one of my newer friends here commented back that the family from the book would be on the Today show that morning!! WHAT? Seriously? I read that comment at about 7:15am and quickly ran upstairs to our TV and started recording the show (thank God for DVR). While Josiah was napping I figured I would just fast forward some and see if I started recording it in time! Ten minutes into my recording they showed up on my TV screen! I couldn't believe it!!! Not only was I reading the book, but now I could meet this family on TV!! They were there with all of their children...including 3 month old TWIN girls that were brought into this world by the surrogate mother using their last embryos! The Lord blessed them for their faithfulness! What a blessing!!!!
I truly believe that the LORD has had this occur in my life. The fact that I started reading this book when I did and then have the family be on television and I actually got to watch it is NO COINCIDENCE...it is a DIVINE APPOINTMENT!! I am SO grateful for this book, for my friend, Jackie, sending it to me and for the Lord using it as such an encouragement and blessing in my life.
The book "Inconceivable" is about a family who had two children without any issues and those boys were 10 and 12 years old. The tried for many years to have another child and ended up doing IVF for their third child, a baby girl. When they went in to use more of the embryos they had frozen from the previous retrieval the doctors put the wrong embryos in her. Six weeks later when they found out they were successfully pregnant they also found out that they were pregnant with someone else's baby!! They had the decision to make about whether or not to continue with their pregnancy and they chose to! Praise the Lord. I am about half way through the book. I have gotten to the part where they are now meeting the parents of the child she is carrying. I cannot imagine this ever happening to me. For one of our pregnancies I was only 6 weeks along when we lost it and for the second miscarriage I was 9 weeks along. This may sound crazy, but I feel like I bounded with those babies, so to carry one full term, deliver it and hand it over to someone else would have broken my heart beyond words! The lady in the book was crushed knowing that the doctors told her for her health she should never be pregnant again. The last baby she would carry and birth wasn't even hers. The husband and wife end up hiring a surrogate mother to carry her last embryos in hopes to get more children...children that they prayed for and dreamed of.
Well, the other day I wrote in my facebook status about this book and one of my newer friends here commented back that the family from the book would be on the Today show that morning!! WHAT? Seriously? I read that comment at about 7:15am and quickly ran upstairs to our TV and started recording the show (thank God for DVR). While Josiah was napping I figured I would just fast forward some and see if I started recording it in time! Ten minutes into my recording they showed up on my TV screen! I couldn't believe it!!! Not only was I reading the book, but now I could meet this family on TV!! They were there with all of their children...including 3 month old TWIN girls that were brought into this world by the surrogate mother using their last embryos! The Lord blessed them for their faithfulness! What a blessing!!!!
I truly believe that the LORD has had this occur in my life. The fact that I started reading this book when I did and then have the family be on television and I actually got to watch it is NO COINCIDENCE...it is a DIVINE APPOINTMENT!! I am SO grateful for this book, for my friend, Jackie, sending it to me and for the Lord using it as such an encouragement and blessing in my life.
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