Romance On the Town

Ahhhhhh... last night romance was in the air! Mike and I got all dressed up and headed out for a night, which honestly almost never happens.  Not the night out part, but certainly the all dressed up-night out part.  I found a fabulous dress for $14.99 at ROSS last minute. It wasn't there last time I looked, so they must have just came in. Can you believe that a dress can be $14.99, regular price? I love that store!

The Valentine's banquet was delightful.  It was awesome to see everyone dressed so nicely, and to enjoy a night out together, specifically dedicated to celebrating marriage.  The dinner was delish, although I did not eat most of it.  I "unstuffed" my chicken breast, and that was about all I could have.  It was still divine.  We dined and then danced the night away.  I will say that Mike is pretty much terrified of dancing, so we didn't do much other than a couple slow dances which is just fine by me.  It was so refreshing to spend a night out with dear friends and my love. I can't wait to do it again!

Rod & Beth, friends at our table

Nathan & Jesiree, friends at our table

Mike & I

Thomas & Amity

Amity & I

Michael & Kim, friends from Connect Group

Jesiree & I

new friends, Sarita and Elvis

great friends of our, Charlie & Amy

Mike & I

We even came away with $20 to one of Mike's

favorite restaurants!

Beyond Blessed

How are you? We're doing great, except it's been too cold in Texas for about 2 weeks now!  We are just hanging out at the house, doing the family thing while Mike waits to hear where he'll be off to work next.

So, I have a great God story {a.k.a. testimony}to share with you... We were sitting at home yesterday, hiding from the cold, when I got a phone call from the organizer of our church Valentine's Banquet.  Previously Mike and I had decided not to go for many reasons, but mainly because we are trying to be very strict with our budget.  Add to the list that I am on a VLCD (very low calorie diet) and cannot eat what is being prepared, AND we don't have any formal clothes here. Everything we own is still in storage in Canada. **sigh**  

So the fabulous organizer calls me and says that 2 tickets have been donated, and she really felt like they were for Mike and I... would we consider going?  We talked it over and the clothing issue was really frustrating both of us.  We both know that you don't have to dress formal, but we are the kind of people that if we are given the chance to dress up, we love it!  So we were both pretty excited about the blessings of the tickets but didn't know what we would wear, or who we could find last minute to watch over the kiddos (keeping the budget in mind, of course.)

Well let me tell you what! God provided everything!  We are going to the banquet! We have a free sitter and people have lent us clothing! Crazy!!  So grateful that Mike and I have learned to lay our pride aside and accept help and generosity from people when they offer. It's a wonderful blessing to both us as the receivers, as well as the givers.  Boy are we grateful!

I am so very excited about getting dressed up pretty, going somewhere elegant (Fairway Oaks Country Club), just my love and me.  And I can't wait to gush all about it!!

Smooches,
J

my newest layout, photo compliments of

Jill Calitz

Scrap Addiction

I have probably spent about 4-5 hours today (off and on) downloading, organizing and creating with digital scrapbook stuff!  I really love it but find it very difficult to carve out time to sit down and create a layout per day.  Shoot - even a layout a week, sometimes!  Then there are the super-human, bionic moms out there who have 5 kids, an awesome blog, who post several beautiful layout daily, and they still have time to be a mom, cook delicious meals, have a tidy organized home, etc, etc.  How???

If Mike wasn't home I wouldn't have been able to get this cute layout completed today, but thankfully my honey lets me indulge in my addiction, er, I mean hobbie!

I created this layout today while following a tutorial online, so it's not part of a current album that I'm working on or anything. Just a practice piece.

So? What do you think?  Pretty neat how you can't tell that it's all digital and not made with paper!  I can't wait until the day I actually complete my first album.  Truth be told I am still working on getting an album of Mike and I finished before I even start the kiddos... I am WAY behind but the good news is that I'm slowly getting organized on my new Mac and I'm getting the hang of my new version of Photo Shop Elements.  Fun, fun! Thank for letting me share another one of my passions with you.

God Bless,

J

Snowed In

I would have wrote sooner, but we've been snowed in all week!! In Texas!! This is a crazy experience for me.  Monday afternoon was a beautiful 75 degrees!  On Monday evening it started to rain, then pour. We had a pretty amazing thunder storm for a few hours, then the temperature dropped drastically and it began to snow.  By Tuesday morning we had about 6 inches of snow cover!  Since the temperatures have been so bad (averaging around 18F), the snow has stayed all week.  Schools have been cancelled, many stores closed and not many people were able to go to work.  Our whole city practically shut down! I can't help but giggle a bit because what is so abnormal for Abilene is just another (fairly mild, I may add) day in Alberta.

Mike's sister, Randa, was scheduled to substitute teach this week at a school near us and came to stay so that she wouldn't have to drive as far in the bad weather.  It was a fun week for us because school ended up being cancelled every day, so we hung out with Randa all week! We all had fun playing and spending time with her, especially Harrison and Heidi.

The pipes in our kitchen have been frozen since Tuesday night, probably since they are on an outside wall of the house.  I'm kind of getting the idea of what it was like to "go fetch the water" in the old days.  We've had to get water from the bathroom at the other end of the house for any kitchen related needs.  We lost internet from Tuesday until late Thursday afternoon.  There have also been scheduled or rolling power outages so that the extra power usage wouldn't crash the grid.  Fun times!

No, we did not go out and make snowmen with our kids.  I opened the back patio door and dipped Harrison upside down into the snow and that was enough for him. Besides - who has snow suits in Texas? Ours are still packed away in our storage room in Cochrane, Alberta!

We've watched movies, played with Play-doh, and started re-watching LOST.  You can never go wrong with LOST!  We're all getting cabin fever though and need to get out soon.  Hopefully the forecast stays above freezing for Saturday.  Then all the headache, I mean snow, will melt away.

Here's to sunnier days!! Soon!

HAHA! 

Daddy being silly with Play-doh

Harrison posing! Yes, his hair looks like a mohawk!

huge icicles

frontyard snow

backyard snow with animal tracks leading under the shed... yikes!

more backyard snow

French Fries and Fish Sticks

What were your dreams as a child? I don't necessarily remember all of mine, but some are recorded in a special keepsake book my mom helped me with all throughout grade school.  I'm so glad she did because I wouldn't have remembered all of them! I don't have it with me at the moment, but I do remember looking through it in recent years - reminiscing about former dreams and aspirations.  Each school year there was a spot to record what I wanted to be when I "grew up".  For many years I wrote "teacher", then it changed to "doctor", then to "lawyer"; this was all before 7th grade!

I never did achieve any of those goals.  I did, however, receive a degree in Environmental Science.  Sometimes it saddens me that I can't use my degree in Abilene, as there just isn't industry to support it. Overall I understand that God knows what's best.  Sometimes I miss having a career though.  Putting in effort and receiving a "reward", also known to most people as a pay-check.  I liked annual reviews that allowed me to reflect on my past responsibilities, hearing feedback from my boss, to learn from challenges or mistakes and mostly to get ready to take the next step up the corporate ladder.

None of what I learned directly relates to being a homemaker. Sigh. I know and have known many moms who say "parenting is it's own reward" while smiling all a long, but can I be honest and say sometimes it doesn't feel like it?

In this season of life I am finding my main struggle or challenge is to be present.  To live for and love the season I'm in, without wishing it away for someday in the future.  I look around at friends with older children and see the freedom they have with their time, while most of my days start at 2, 3, or 4 am with my little gentleman poking me in the face saying "it's time to wake up momma."  I still have small children who are very dependent on me and it can be taxing at times.  Another challenge I'm walking through is to search out the rewards. They aren't always obvious, and may not come regularly, but they're there.  Just as I was typing out these thoughts my two-year-old ran up and gave me a squeeze and said "I love you berry so much mom" and took off again.

My tank has been filled up a little more. So I keep pressing forward, trying to remain present, grateful and to keep my eyes open for those little rewards that make it all worth it. You can't trust your feelings, you know, but you can trust the fruit of your labor.  Thanks for hearing me out on the woes of motherhood... it's time to run - again.

French fries, fish sticks, funny faces and funky smells are calling me! Until next time...

J

Where Has All the Time Gone?

Today I wasn't feeling so great. My stomach has been upside down since about 5:30 am and I can't really tell if it's the cheese pizza I ate last night or that silly stomach bug trying to take me down again.  I pray it was the pizza, since I'm fairly lactose intolerant it would make sense.  And since sickness isn't welcome at our home, Im sure it was the pizza.  Either way, today was a good day to hang out at the house!

I finally tackled a task today that I have been procrastinating on since July. Seriously.  I'm not really a procrastinator. Go ahead, ask my husband.  I like to get things done, especially if I get to check them off my list! HA! I know. It's sad. But I'm ok with that!  Today I finally transferred all my files that used to be on my PC and have been sitting on my external hard drive since July, onto our Mac.  Ugh. What a job.

To the best of my knowledge (which isn't much, technology-wise) there isn't software that can do that for you, so it was a very tedious job.  Years of data, pictures, records etc.  Making sure they were all not only transferred but also somewhat organized, so I can find them again!  It literally took all day.  I'm still not done with the organizing bit, but at least they are on the Mac now. Somewhere.  Thank the Lord!

This afternoon I had a really marvelous time watching my life flash before my eyes - in pictures. All 20,000+ of them.  It was really great! We've done some crazy things since getting married. I really had a moment laughing out loud thinking of how the last 3 years will look 30 years from now. HA!  Here are a few treasures I dug up today.  Hope you enjoy!

 newborn

 6 months

1 yr

18 months

Flood

I'm not sure how many of you follow international news.  I'll admit I'm pretty out of the loop because everything that makes the headlines is bad news, for the most part.  I don't receive a local newspaper, I don't have TV (gasp!!), but I do occasionally read the headlines of various papers online.  When I get the chance I like to catch up with the BBC.

Recently there have been reports of the flood disaster in Teresopolis, Brazil.  If you've seen any pictures of their housing situation, it's not really a mystery why whole homes are swept away when heavy rain comes. The "homes" are built on the side of steep hills - because it's the land that's affordable, or even free because it really shouldn't be used.  They are constructed out of scraps and the cheapest building materials available.   All because the biggest challenge with Brazil is that 10% of the population earns more than 50% of the wealth.  The poorest 10% share about 1% of the income.  That leaves a devastating gap between the well off and the poor of their nation.  {Please be in prayer for the leadership of their country to finds ways to lessen this gap.}

The headlines have also reported that over 800 people have died, directly due to the recent floods.  The morgues are full so they are having to bury bodies without identifying them first.  Early on in the flooding they were already low on plasma supplies.  But in all this devastation, and during a week of mourning for the city unbelievable news has rose up in the headlines, due to a different kind of flood; a flooding of the Holy Spirit.

A small group of Christians in the medical field were already in Brazil before the floods started and quickly realized their trip would have a whole different purpose.  God is so good, and His timing is literally perfect.  The local news papers are reporting about a group of American Christians who started a small local riot when by the power of the Holy Spirit they raised 16 flood victims from the dead!! Don't take my word for it, please read the news links for yourself! Absolutely incredible!! 10 bodies that were dead in the morgue for over 3 days, as well as 5 more that were literally stacked outside the morgue were raised from the dead! This is the Good News of the gospel and the power of Jesus Christ.  And it's real.

I don't know if you've ever been to church, or currently go to church, or maybe feel like you'd burst into flames if you got too near one (you know I'm kidding, right?).  Regardless of where your faith is today, THIS is the Jesus that loves you. Forget what your idea of religion says about Him.  He is alive today and wants a relationship with you so badly He is will raise you from the dead to have it!

I think we'd all eagerly read the news if more headlines were like this!!