Cousins

I enjoy spending time with family. I don't even want to try and count how many cousins there are on my mom's side - there's so many of us. I know it's well over 20 and now we're all getting married too. It's crazy! JM and I went back to my grandparents to visit and spend time with my beautiful cousin Alyssa from California! It's very rare that I get to see her. Although she's a  few years older than I, she and I share the youngest child syndrome and get along very well!! In celebration of her being on the East Coast, several of us cousins got together, told stories, ate delicious food and ice cream, sat out by the pool and just relaxed on the Farm! Here's a few photos of our summer fun! Unfortunately I only used my camera one of the days.

Gram & Gramp's Pool on the Farm!

Alyssa & I (JM in back)

Mel, Alyssa & I

Grampa's Pride: Rooster

Alyssa, JM, Me & Ashley

Alyssa, Me, JM, Aaron, Holly & Mel (not even all of us that were there)

A beautiful photo of my dear Gramma & Grampa by: SCP

24 years!

Today my husband turned 24. I like to say that I'm older and wiser, but really I'm less than a month older than him. It's funny to imagine that our mothers were pregnant at the same time, wondering if they'd have a boy or girl. God has blessed our families and our lives and brought JM and I together in a way that I can only give Him thanks. We met our freshman year of college. A time of adventure, insecurity, and questions. We were discovering ourselves as individuals rather than just kids living with their parents and following their rules. In a way, we were on our own and becoming adults - very slowly. Although I didn't know JM until college, we did a lot of growing up and maturing together. Ironically, we both dropped out of school after 3 semesters because we had no idea what to do with our lives. He joined the Coast Guard and I took 1.5yrs off until I went back to school in TN. We've seen each other at some of our lowest points and constantly encourage each other to grow closer to God! I'm so thankful to call JM my husband and I am thrilled to see him father our children one day and just continue to grow old together. It was the best idea to marry my best friend! 

Happy Birthday JM, my incredible husband!

handmadecolectibles

It is over a month past due, but I wanted to share my 6-month anniversary gift from my husband crafted by the one and only Cole. I discovered her here:

As I understand, I received one of her last individual orders before she went to more of a selection for wedding designs. For months I told John Mark that I loved her whimsical felt flowers and he definitely got my clues! So today I just want to say thanks to my husband and to the beautiful designer Cole, for my lovely felt flower bouquet! Please, stop by her blog and etsy shop!

The BIG 3-0!

Me and My Brother

Today is my big brother's 30th birthday. He's the oldest of us 4 kids and the only boy. I'm the youngest of the kids and 6 years younger than Milo. Although we had a large gap in age difference, we are finding out more and more how similar we are. I guess we were never really "friends" when we were kids. He was a boy, he wrestled, and he basically would just wrestle my sisters and I until mom or dad would say... "don't break your glasses" (we are all nearly blind). We are both extremely stubborn so we mostly just fought or schemed against each other as kids... but sometimes we were good accomplices.  I still am afraid to walk in front of the shopping cart at a grocery store in fear that my brother will be behind ramming my ankles. But somehow, when Milo's friends wouldn't be able to hang out, he could always get me to go sledding, skiing, 4-wheeling and so-on because I was stubborn enough to try and keep up with him. But all that aside, in the last 6 years or so we've really gotten to know each other and we have a great friendship. He is an amazing mentor and big brother. He looks out for me and gives great advice and is close with John Mark too. Best of all, he was the officiant of our wedding. A few days ago my parents just celebrated their 31st anniversary and today Milo is 30! We've been through some experiences as a family but I am so grateful that all of my siblings and parents love God and serve him. I am blessed without a doubt with an amazing family and the best big brother an annoying and stubborn little sister could ask for!

A vision of Love!

I am overwhelmed by my study this morning. If you ever question God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth and his motives in all the cosmos, he reveals his nature all throughout Scripture. But today my reading was so clear, so obvious, so true: 

Via Pinterest

Moses asks to see God's "glorious presence" in Exodus 33:18. But what does God show Moses? He says: "I will make my goodness pass before you (33:19)" God is so powerful that he did not show his face to Moses because it would have killed him. But God shows Moses even better than a tangible vision of himself. He shows what humans can relate to; not his mighty power, but his LOVE! His love revealed by his character and nature. Basically his ultimate being!


Reading further, God speaks his being of love to Moses on Mt. Sinai
Exodus 34: 5-7 NLT
5) Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh. 6) The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out,


   “Yahweh! The Lord!
      The God of compassion and mercy!
   I am slow to anger
      and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
 7) I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.
      I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.
   But I do not excuse the guilty.
      I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren;
   the entire family is affected—
      even children in the third and fourth generations.”


Our God is a loving Father. He does not let our sin go unpunished... but he forgives and forgets. God's glory that Moses asks to see is revealed in his mercy, grace, compassion, faithfulness, forgiveness, and justice. How can we deny a God that has the best intentions for his people?! 


How did Moses respond? "Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshiped (34:8)."

Confinement

Well, for the most part we are moved in. We've had no time to rest all week! A few guys from JMs work along with his parents and sister Jessie helped us move out of our apartment and move in our house in the same day. Last minute, we decided to paint our bedroom Friday night before we moved on Saturday. We were at the house finishing up close to midnight but it was a choice well worth it. Jessie was on Java patrol for the most part while we moved to keep her calm and from getting overly anxious. We have a very anxious doggy when it comes to change! When we got to the house momma Redwine and Jessie were great in unpacking our entire kitchen. What a help! Did I mention we had a storage unit to pack and unload too... and that our apartment is on the third floor? I'm incredibly sore! Sunday we picked up a few household items and after JMs parents headed home we cleaned up the leftover items and cleaned the apartment spotless! When we got to the house we noticed some ants and other critters... gah! Pest control came yesterday but we also noticed fleas on Java. We don't think its from the house because we realized we forgot to give her medicine in the chaos of the last few weeks. So we gave her a good haircut, her medicine and confined her to her crate and the wood floor. We hope she doesn't associate our new house to confinement... that would be sad because she should have more freedom here! We picked up bedroom curtains and a ceiling fan last night and worked on that after dinner. The fan was hubby's first time installment. A few times I got stuck holding it over my head for long periods of time while he did the wiring and installing and a few trial and errors. Did I mention I'm sore?! What a few couple of days.. but hopefully today i'll be hanging pictures and decorating! I'm updating you from my phone, so when we get internet again I will share our progress!

Busy Bees

My husband and I have been very busy for the last few weeks. On top of the busyness, we decided to take a 6.5hr trip to my grandparents' house for the 4th of July weekend. I basically see it as a retreat they call "the Farm." We absolutely love spending time there. Aside from his full-time job, my 70 year old grandpa runs a farm training reining horses as well as growing beef cattle. We made this last minute decision to go so we could take some time to enjoy family and the summertime. Several of my extended family and their dogs were there and it was an all around great weekend. But now we are suffering a little. We are moving this weekend into our house and I've been trying to pack and clean all week while John Mark has been working on two research papers on top of his regular schoolwork and a full time job. Let's just say we haven't had the chance to talk much, but we are definitely looking forward to this move! So until we get our house in order and everything settled, I may be missing from my blog! I'm so excited to decorate and start over, but also skeptical of the lack of closet and bedroom space we'll have! I'm going to have to learn some small home storage tricks for our 1930's house. I'll be sure to post pictures in the process. Until then, happy summer!

Me with the flaming head and my cousin Mel