Anniversary

Anniversary Recap:

5/6/09 - 3 years ago today, I married my best friend. This sounds "corny" but Chris is the best friend that I have ever had. God has brought us together, perfectly molding our different personalities into one. So many of the little things that I now do are from my husband, whether they are silly sayings that he always says, or to stay patient in times when I want to pull my hair out. He has taught me so much and I am truly blessed to have him in my life. God has gifted us with each other and chose us together. This is such a powerful concept to me and for those who have God blessing their marriage day in and day out know the true depths of this statement. Sure, there are good times and there are bad, but Chris and I look to our Heavenly Father to protect our marriage and guide us to His will for our lives. As soon as I learned this (and continue to submit to it), I realized that Chris did not have to be the perfect man that I needed to mold into my likings. God changed my heart so that I view Chris with his misperfections and all as the ONLY man that I ever want in my life and when I say that I am BLESSED, I truly mean this. Without God, we have nothing.

5/5/09: I went to work at approximately 11:30 pm (which is not usual for me) to be with a family in the NICU that I felt driven to stand by their side as they made difficult decisions with their little, precious baby. Completely exhausted emotionally, I arrived home at about 4am. I crept into little Luke's room, picked up his sleeping, breathing, body and held him on my chest while we both dozed in his lounger chair. An hour or so later, I woke by his rustling and gently laid him back in bed.

5/6/09: My lovely husband let me sleep as long as I desired, however I did not want to waste away our anniversary day sleeping, so I woke, showered, and we headed to Luke's daycare to drop him off (we have never left him at daycare and not worked, so this was HUGE). Chris and I went to Starbucks, sipped our lattes, read the paper, and talked. It was like the old days when we used to run errands, talk without chatter, basically saying.....we were ALONE!

We headed to Anthony's for lunch and enjoyed each other's company some more! After lunch, I was dreaming of a good nap, so Chris dropped me off at home, went to the gym, and then he picked up little Jammos so that when I woke, I would have my baby with me!

At Starbucks, Chris handed me a little box, which I quickly recognized was from Ben Bridge (one of my fav stores). I opened it and this is what I found! I was shocked because although Chris purchases larger items for me, I generally am the one picking it out (I am a little picky). He did perfect! I absolutely love my new pearl ring. The even more special part is he took Luke with him to about 5 jewelry stores to find the perfect ring, all while little mans was fussy!

It is perfect!

(sorry about the quality of the photo)

More to come on our Anniversary weekend in Seattle!

Living Room

It's Friday, which means "Kellys Korner" has challenged us again to post pictures of our home. This week's feature is "living rooms". Here is a picture from our front door. The columns kind of block the view, but those windows are to die for. We have no houses behind us and are on 3/4 acres, so it is so peaceful to look out!

Here is another angle.....

And another.....

And here is a view of our fireplace/TV stand......I am not a big fan of the back area of the TV! Oh well, it all comes with time....oh and here is Adam, which is by far the most talented American Idol this year!

Check out our two dogs, Deuce and Princess. They are good and laying on their blankie!!

Here are some pieces I picked up at our local store, "Real Deals"....what a great store!

This is the "corner" area I recently put together. As you can see the main wall in our living room is cornered with the fireplace, but I had to put the sofa table and mirror centerd on the wall to match our sofa, however this made a blank space, which bothered me tremendously. We had all of these items, just moved things around a little and came up with this. The best of it is it created even more seating when people are over.

Close up of the mirror, vase, table....

And my favorite for last......our boys!! They are sooo adorable!!

Three more days makes Three YEARS...

Chris and I will be celebrating our three years of marriage this Wednesday (six total together). I knew after one year with him that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I can remember it clearly, sitting next to the pool in Puerto Vallarta, looking at him and saying, "I am going to spend the rest of my life with you"......let's just say, he did not say it back. I think he might have said something like....."Oh that's good". Well I guess he is an honest man. It was about 10 months after that trip that he took me to the Space Needle (Seattle is "our" city as we call it) and answered the prayers I had for so long that the man of my dreams would be brought to me by God. He popped the question March 2005!!

I love this man even more today and am sure my love will continue to grow...........I am so excited to have the day off with him on Wednesday and then spend a wonderful evening in Seattle this Saturday night!!

Paranoid.....

So I must say that I love the blogging world. What a way to connect with others around the world, inspiring comments, a place to encourage others, pray chains, etc, etc! I was and still am at times very reluctant. You see, I am a social worker that works with some challenged people. I love my work, I love my job......I must say, nothing is more rewarding them helping others through counseling. To be blessed with the gift of helping others change their lives is a GIFT from GOD above and only HIM! It is amazing when I am able to speak of HIM with others. This is a complete NO..NO in most terms, however when people bring it up, I share HIM with them and it is such a blessing. I always keep in the back of my mind that HE is using me to share HIS works with others. I have seen some AMAZING miracles. You see I work part time as a family therapist for CPS referred clients, and also as a Social Worker for Neonatal Intensive Care, Pediatrics, and Labor & Delivery. I am soooo blessed!! There is a part of me, however that keeps my life VERY private as it makes me and my family vulnerable to the evils of the world. I have to make reports to CPS frequently about mother's/father's who are abusive or neglectful to their children......so you can see that I would want to protect my family from outsiders!! Keep my little boys safe from the harm that someone may want for ME!!

TO make matters more complicated, my husband is a police officer. I could not be more proud of his work as he protects not only our family, but our community from drunk drivers, domestic violence, etc, etc. YES, YES, he gives those annoying speeding tickets, but hey it is part of the job.....right??? Anyway, this is ANOTHER reason why we need to protect our family. Every post, I think, maybe I should make our blog "private", but this makes me sad, because I do not know how many are effected by our blog.....maybe people do not leave comments. I read plenty of blogs that impact my life that I do not always leave comments.....

Anyway, enough about this, just wanted to let you know that.......I LOVE BLOGGING!!

Show Us Where You Live Friday

I am joining along with kellyskornerblog.com! I do also love my kitchen as many other bloggers I am finding out do. I am not the best cook, however have a wonderful husband who is not picky. He only needs fine cuts of meat, but the rest is EASY! I do love to have dinner made for my family so that we can sit together. We began holding hands and praying with every dinner a couple of years ago and are diligent now about it. I think this is why I love the kitchen, because we are teaching our children about Jesus!

View from the great room. This house is WONDERFUL for entertaining. Many times you will find everyone congregating around the bar, laughing, and talking! (This is also great because it keeps people off of the carpet...I am a little obsessive when it comes to the carpet)

View of the island/bar.....

Little decoration I picked up from a local store.....Real Deals! I LOVE this store and seriously not only do they have great items, but they really are a great deal!! They are only open on Thursdays and Saturdays and they are ALWAYS packed!!

Bananas are the only food product that stays out on the counter and it is tucked in this corner behind the fridge. I am wierd about not having a lot of "clutter".

Canisters that I love....good deal from JC Penneys

The best investment we made in our home. We changed the plans in the kitchen to hold a trash compactor. I will never do it any differently. I HATE the trash being out in the open....under the sink is how I was raised, which is great.....this just took it one step further.

My hubby and older boy go through more than a gallon of milk per day, so you could see where the compactor works great so that we are not overflowing on trash day!!

Breakfast nook off of the kitchen (obviously).....we eat almost every meal here. The kiddos eat every meal here, remember the comment about the carpet from above. They are not allowed to have any food/drink product near it!! Poor guys....they will make their wives happy in the future!

Thanks, more to come future Fridays!!

About two weeks ago..

One thing I love to do is to watch Luke on the baby monitor. He is hilarious!! Chris and I had talked about lowering the crib once AGAIN as he was beginning to stand on his bumper and look at Mr. Dino (his dinosaur he sleeps with), which he was loving to drop over the side after waking up from a nap. This day, I had urgently jumped out of bed, ran across the house, because he was standing on the bumper and had his abdomen pretty much on the top rail.....ugghhh scary!!

Basically it became crucial this day to watch him on the monitor as I could not lower it until Chris woke up from night shift. I was cracking up watching him. He had somehow loosened the bumpers and was having a hay day......Check him out!!

A little tumble while crawling over....
Probably thinking....when is my mom going to get off of the computer and come get me already!!

I will show these bumpers a thing or two....