The Road Through Marriage...

Our relationship timeline is very different than most people's. Isaac and I were acquaintances for a year (while I was still away at college), we began getting to know eachother at the end of June, were engaged mid August and married that January. I know! It was really fast. But it didn't seem so fast to us. We were so in love, but amazingly we also were very logical about it too. We very much felt God's leading bringing us together.
Our married life has its ups and downs. We don't fight alot but we certainly don't always agree. Isaac and I are very different people and naturally our needs are very different as well. We as humans are selfish beings. Its hard sometimes to put aside our own wants/desires/needs and put those of our spouse first. Its an adjustment becoming a part of another family that is so very different from your own. Every family has a certain amount of dysfunction but at least your are familiar and comfortable with your own family's dysfunction. And of course there is always the idiosyncrasies in he and I that challenge us both to "love, honor and cherish" even when we aren't very "lovable" or "honorable".
Sometimes it feels like we've come so far in our relationship, we've grown and matured, you know - we've got this marriage thing down. Then God sends us a trial or challenge that reminds us that this is an ongoing thing that we will always have to work at - there is no autopilot in marriage - at least not in a good one. We will probably always get frustrated at one another (sometimes over stupid things), compromise even when we don't really want to, carry the other when they can no longer carry themselves, and forgive when our flesh tells us not to.
Isaac and I have been married over five years now! We have been blessed with two beautiful sons (who totally changed our life!) and we love them dearly. We've made wonderful memories together. While we've had our challenges and struggles, our love for eachother has grown through it all. I continue to be amazed by how much love we have in our lives, from eachother, our friends and family... and our God who is ever present, ever caring for our needs. We are truly blessed.

Thursday Thirteen - LOST

sigh... Lost is having its season finale tonight. So I'll have to resign myself to a summer of reruns. But for now I'll enjoy posting Thirteen Things I love about Lost!


1. The many connections between the various survivors.

2. Each character is flawed... no one is too good to be true, we've seen a little good, bad and ugly from just about everyone.

3. The following of viewers is awesome! I enjoy occasionally checking out what other Lost fans are saying about the show online.

4. Just when you think you know whats going on the writers always find something to surprise you(me)!

5. The theories and the spoilers!

6. Getting to know the characters better through the flashbacks (and now flash forwards).

7. Even though we don't necessarily agree with everything in the show - we do appreciate that it addresses there being a higher power, something outside of ourselves and our control.

8. Love triangles!

9. The show stimulates some great conversations!

10. Ok, gotta just say a few of the guys are easy on the eyes.

11. Its one of just a few shows that my husband and I both really enjoy watching together.

12. The beautiful setting of the island.

13. We're always wondering if the writers really know where the whole thing is going or if they're just winging it!

WFMW - Breakfast for Dinner!

Sometimes I'm not that great about planning ahead for dinner. Don't get me wrong... I do like to cook and some weeks I'm on top of it and have a few meals planned out. But since we were gone over the weekend and I hadn't really been grocery shopping since we got back... we had pretty slim pickings around here yesterday. So when dinner time came around... we had breakfast for dinner! Some Grands biscuits, scrambled eggs with cheese and voila! Some breakfast food is alot quicker and easier than dinner stuff and if you don't get hung up on having "breakfast food" in the morning and "dinner food" in the evening it frees up alot of options for you! Don't be afraid to make some pancakes or omelets for dinner tonight!

Check out more Works For Me Wednesday participants! Or feel free to join in!

Weekend Pix via SnapBlog.com

Makin' Money... maybe

So, I've seen lots of other bloggers making money just by blogging. And I've been wondering "why not me?". So.... awhile back I joined Pay Per Post which I had seen on other blogs alot. It is really easy. They present you with various opportunities and you get to choose which ones you like or want to do based on the topic and $ paid. I mean, if I'm going be blogging about this or that anyway, why not get a little $ on the side for doing it, right?
Well, I had a major duh moment the other day. I was getting frustrated that I hadn't "qualified" for any opportunities yet. And I couldn't figure out why. So I sent in a question to the help desk or whatever and they promptly sent an email back explaining the situation. I had been a little overzealous when I created my account and in my hurry to make money I didn't completely fill out all of my personal information. So they could not send me blog jobs not knowing where on this planet I was located. Duh! Of course I felt like an idiot when I updated my info and... imagine that - there were jobs available to me now! Sigh... I hope they don't hold it against me!
Anyway, if you are like me and interested in having your blogging habit make you money too just check out payperpost for more details! But learn from my mistake and actually complete the whole thing... :-)

First Steps Quaterly Review

So... our coordinator at First Steps in getting ready to go on maternity leave so she moved up some of her appointments - including Joe's quarterly review. There wasn't a whole lot to it. She just checked to see if I had any questions, if we were happy with our therapists, etc. And the therapists write updates telling how they think therapy is going, if they recommend any changes, etc.
She is I have been very pleased with our PT. She is very sweet and challenges Joe and encourages him. She is recommending that Joe get fitted for orthotics (ancle/leg braces) to help with his development as he's learning to stand and walk, etc. She would like to see him twice a week but we're unsure if First Steps will approve it. They may suggest that he see an OT once a week in addition to seeing a PT once a week instead of upping PT to twice a week. We'll see what happens.
The DT on the other hand... I had bad vibes from the beginning and tried to get over it but alot of little things added up (she has always been kind of flaky, canceling and/or rescheduling at the last minute multiple times, is not very tolerant of Nate's interest in Joe's therapy & toys and I have come to dread her visits) and after yesterday I just knew I couldn't do it anymore. So I emailed our coordinator asking for a change of provider. There are a few other DTs that I'm looking at in the area right now. We'll try to make that transition here soon.
We have also taken him to our herbalist and she has him on some herbal supplements. She experienced similar delays with her son which were corrected with supplements and diet changes, etc and she is optimistic about Joe's situation.
* We will be meeting with a developmental specialist at Riley in a few weeks and depending on what they say we have an appointment with a pediatric neurologist at Riley in August (but they won't see him until their developmental specialist evaluates him). So we'll have to wait and see how all that goes.
We have noticed improvements over the last month or two. It is slow going but he has been improving his muscle control, he's been more actively interested in people and things, we've seen him pass objects from one had to the other more, he's had increased eye contact, been drinking from a cup on his own sometimes, he has been much more expressive, he's smiles more freely and laughs alot more too. * Now last few days he's been teething and a little lazy, but overall we've been seeing positive changes. We would appreciate your continued prayers as this is far from resolved.

Knight in Rusty Armor

Alright... some of you may have noticed the comment on the last "Road to Marriage" post from Big Doofus (thanks alot) about the church burning down. Sigh... we can't bring up our wedding without having this brought up too. So I've been asked to explain.
Our church has moved locations alot in its 20+ years. It met in day care centers, school buildings, strip malls... then finally we were able to build our own facility. We hadn't had that building but a few years when we got married. Our wedding reception was held there and it was beautiful and a great party. But late that night after our reception some faulty electrical wiring caused a fire and destroyed our church building. It was very sad for our church body. No one wanted to tell us for fear of putting a damper on the honeymoon.
We were thankful to have many local churches reach out and offer their facilities for us to use while we rebuilt. Insurance issues and financial issues delayed the process and it took us awhile but we are thankful to have our own building once again. But through all that God was faithful and those of us who have stuck together in our church body have grown closer.
Now, there were decorations from the wedding and reception in the church when the building burnt. Including my bridal bouquet. As most brides would be - I was pretty disappointed to have lost my bouquet. To save money and to try to salvage some of the contents that were in the building - some of our own members were doing some of the cleanup from the fire. It was probably February... it had rained and frozen and snowed on the remnants of the building. They were not facing an easy task here.
My new groom was one of the men trudging through the ashes and ice. He was on a quest. He used shovels and pick axes and chipped away at the layers of charred wood and beams in search of his prize. When all others had given up on this small corner of the building, he stood firm, feeling guided. After some time of finding nothing he caught a glimpse... a ribbon... he continued to peel away the layers of sludge. And eventually he was rewarded for his efforts. A little while later he showed up on our doorstep the hero, my knight in rusty shining armor carrying my wedding bouquet!
So, today, his birthday, I wanted to share what a wonderful, amazing, honorable, charming, giving, loving, funny, hard working, caring husband I have. I am very thankful for him and hope that he has a wonderful birthday today and for many years to come. I love you, Isaac.

WFMW - Free Movies!

I don't know about you all but I'm a sucker for anything FREE! And I'm a huge movie buff so if you combine the two count me in! Regal Cinemas hosts Free Family Film Festival during the summer and I love it! They're all over the country - just go to their website and put in your state and they'll pull up any participating theaters near you. If you don't have a Regal close check the other theaters nearby. Sometimes others will have similar programs. Or even your local library or parks system.
When school's out, kids around the country visit selected Regal theatres for the Free Family Film Festival. It's a fun-filled nine weeks of movies for kids and parents. Since 1991, Regal has provided this service to the community, and best of all it's FREE! Selected G & PG movies start at 10AM each Tuesday and Wednesday during the festival. First-come, first-served seating is limited to theatre capacity. The Free Family Film Festival is safe, lots of fun and a great way for kids to spend a weekday morning in the summer.

Check out more Works For Me Wednesday ideas here!

Retreat Update

Friday and Saturday were full of serious scrappin' time for Sniz and I! We drove up to The Gathering Retreat around lunchtime on Friday. It was a nice drive, chatting and stopping for lunch at Applebee's (which we've been talking about doing for months now). Once we got there we did a little settling in and got the grand tour of the beautiful old house. Stephanie was our hostess and she was just sweet as can be. It didn't take long before we were spread out over our own tables and getting down to the business of scrapbooking. We were the only ones booked for the weekend so we had about as much space to scrap as we could use. It was great!
I was super excited to use the Cricut. It took a few tries to get the hang of it but we're smart girls. I think I liked it better than Sniz. I will admit its kind of tedious, choosing the font, cutting it out, then one by one applying each and every letter. But the pages that I used it with are some of my favorites! There were also lots of other tools available for our use but the Cricut was the coolest!
Because it was just the two of us we got to order our dinner from The Latte Cafe(a local restaurant)'s large menu. We both got pasta and it was very good! After dinner we took a walk in the local park which was perfect. The weather was lovely and the park had a paved walking trail and it was only a couple of blocks away. Sniz made it to the park for a few walks. However, I wasn't prepared for walking... my shoes were a poor choice and thanks to the blister on my toe, this was the only walk I accompanied Sniz on.
I stayed up scrapping until 10pm-ish and then I went upstairs and took a nice bath and read for awhile before going to bed. I had hoped to sleep in but my internal clock is too used to waking up with my boys so I was wide awake at 8am... oh, well... it was still nice to wake up on my own and not by someone wanting their diaper changed.
We got a leisurely start to the day with a continental breakfast, but got right back to scrapping. After we'd been working on our pages for a couple of hours we had a lovely brunch of sausage & cheese soufflés, cinnamon bread (we call it monkey bread), and fresh fruit. Yummo!
I was happy to just enjoy the time away and the company, but Sniz let her competitive side show. She started keeping track of who was doing more pages. I tried not to get into it... but I will say that I won. But it was all in good fun, right Sniz? Besides, she's a far more experienced scrapper - dare I say far better. I'm still a baby scrapper and some of my pages are mediocre compared to hers which all look like they're from a crafting magazine.
We both were refreshed by our brief respite from our daily life... I know I was a little reluctant to leave. I'd like to stay two nights when we do another one. I hope we can get a few more girls to go with us next time! Hint hint girls...
I forgot to bring my camera so I'll have get the few pictures that Sniz took while we were there.

Here are a few of my favorite pages that I did over the weekend. If you see a blank space that is probably where I plan on putting journaling later. I'm bad at that. Oh, well, you get the idea.

This page is from when a few of my girls and I attended the wedding of some
friends from college. They now have the cutest red headed baby boy!

I love having girly pages once in awhile! Here are a few pix of me and my girl-friends!

This is the first page that I've actually used a blog post as the journaling.
I love the way this page turned out!

I really like this one of my sister Lauren and Nate. They're so cute!

This page documents the beginning of Joe's therapy through First Steps. He has
improved since these pictures were taken. I'm sure we'll have many more
pages like this as we continue on this journey with our special little guy.

Its National Scrapbook Month!

I am super excited right now... Sniz and I are going on a scrapbooking retreat! We found The Gathering Retreat online and they were having an introductory rate that was a real deal. Its within an hour or two of us. We're both looking forward to some serious scrappin' time! I think Sniz is a little more dedicated of a scrapper than I am... she has scrappin' goals for the weekend. My goal is to not change any diapers, clean up anyone else's messes, fend off any temper tantrums... and any scrapbooking that gets done is gonna be more than I would have gotten done if I'd stayed home! Anyway, I'll post about it when we get back!

I'm looking forward to meeting other scrappin' bloggers via the Scrapping Servant Blog Party! I'll be having a Scrappin' Giveaway. I've got a bunch of handmade embellishments (at our church scrap nights I sometimes end up just fiddling around with other people's tools and end up making embellishments all night!). So... comment on this post and at the end of the blog party (probably on May 25th) I will draw a name from those who commented. I send a bundle of embellishments to the winner!

Jessica Weiner - Looking for Women to Interview....

Have you heard of Jessica Weiner? I have not read any of her books (yet) but I've seen her on a few talk shows and while I don't necessarily think she is a Christian, I do appreciate her passion for transforming the self esteem of women and girls worldwide. She says: Once you appreciate and accept yourself, then you are on your way to feeling good about your life and your relationships. I am dedicated to making a new space in the world for teens and women – a space where we can all exist and raise our voices and feel empowered. I just got this bulletin from Jess' myspace Do you have an Eating Disorder but nobody seems to have noticed? Are you having trouble getting treatment because you don’t appear ‘sick’? If this sounds like you or someone you know, please help me write a powerful story for a national women’s magazine. I am looking for brave women ages 21 – 45 who have struggled with eating disorders in the past or are currently struggling with Anorexia, Bulimia, EDNOS or Bing Eating disorder. This article will be a positive, proactive approach to sharing with the world that eating disorders come in all shapes, sizes, races, and ages. I welcome women with a diverse range of body types, stories, and less obvious signs of eating disorder behavior to share their stories and raise awareness of the many women whose suffering goes unnoticed or untreated. Please Email info@jessweiner.com with the following information: Name Phone number Age A paragraph or two about your eating disorder history, any treatment, and why people may not have known you were sick. I will keep your personal information in confidence BUT you must be willing to have your name and photograph used in the article, should you be selected. I will need to find a variety of stories, so please spread the word and send this message to a friend!

What a Girl Wants

I've been reading some Christian chick-lit lately. I found myself surprisingly hooked on What a Girl Wants. So much so that I had to hurry to the library to get the sequel: She's Out of Control. They're both Ashley Stockingdale novels by Kristin Billerbeck. I love her style of writing. The characters and situations are so real. Its not the rose colored glasses kind of romance. They are stories about a real girl going through life, trying to find what God's will is for her, wanting to find Mr. Right, fearing she's going to mess it all up. You get to hear Ashley's inner monologues and rantings that are hilarious and much like yours and mine!
If you are interested in buying one of Kristin's many books they are available on amazon.com. If you want to learn more about Kristin and her writing she's online at myspace and she blogs with a couple other Christian writers at Girls Write Out. If you have any book suggestions send them my way!

MommyFest Blog Party -

Confession time... I really like the blog party thing... I know not everyone gets into it... but I do. I like getting new visitors commenting on my posts, I like checking out other mom-blogs, its fun. So here I go, joining in another blog par-tay for moms! I'll kick off my party posts with 5 Things about This Mom!



1. I'm a movie buff... and I remember dumb movie facts/trivia/etc like very few people I know. Not in a cute/funny way (well, maybe to some people) but in a "I can't stop myself from sharing this useless knowledge whenever it pops into my head" kind of way.

2. I get addicted to tv shows. I am proud of myself for not getting into watching soaps... but the shows I watch are just as bad sometimes. I love Greys Anatomy, Lost, Heroes, The Office... those are my main few, but I also like CSI New York (hate CSI Miami!), Without a Trace, House, and Numbers.

3. I really get into my blog. I wonder sometimes if I might be too into it at times... but as a stay-at-home-mom I have few daily pleasures... and this is one of them that I really enjoy.

4. I'm a wannabe crafty person. I can do some crafty things ok, but I aspire to do more than I actually do. I blame it on having toddlers, not having enough time, etc. But when it comes down to it its not all that, its me.

5. I don't like to talk about myself. Isn't that weird. I have a blog... alot of it is about me, but sometimes indirectly... you know what I mean? Usually its a topic and I'm talking about what I think about something, but I'm not actually talking about myself. When its specifically about me, I kind of get weird and uncomfortable. Oh, well... one more thing on my list to do - get comfortable in my own skin!