Almost Ready To Party

So a few weeks ago, Stephanie found this yucky toy box at Salvation Army.  White wicker with a pastel liner.
It was a good find, though!  For Lydia's birthday, I wanted to make her something since things are a little tight.

My wonderful husband and baby decided to help with the project - couldn't do it without them!

Well, we got it painted and lined it with some new fabric.

We also put foam on the top so it wouldn't be as rough and "wicker" like.

So here is the final product!  

We're taking this to her birthday party so we can load all of her toys in it to bring home!

I'm very impressed with our project... well, at least one of them...

Anthony has a special one he's still working on... to be continued...

What A Week!!

This week is BUSY!


Sunday at church my husband and I kicked off a 40 day prayer "wait and see what God says".  We are unsure of a lot of things in our future and the only way we're going to get through it is with His help.
Sunday night we met with our Discipleship group and were encouraged yet again.  I love that group of people!

Monday was Valentine's Day.  Lydia's 1st Valentine's Day. 

This bear came all the way to us from my mom and dad in St. Louis!  

Valentine's dinner was stupendous!  I spent the evening with my great friend, Rachel.  She is so encouraging and challenges me at the same time.  We always have a good time when we're together.  

Today is Tuesday, which is pretty mellow.

Tomorrow is Wednesday and we have youth on Wednesday's.  Absolutely love those kids and our time together.

Thursday is Mellow.

Friday is the day before Lydia's 1st birthday.  WHAT?!  1st BIRTHDAY?!  Yep, it's true.  I can't believe it.  Rachel is coming over to help me with cupcakes and finish up some decorations.  I can't believe it's been a year since we were headed to the hospital to deliver our little baby into the world!

SATURDAY IS THE BIG DAY!!   Food, friends, fellowship, and a little birthday girl! 

Pictures soon to follow!

Have You Heard?

We had a blizzard here in the midwest!  I had to call in to work today because my wonderful husband and I spent 20 minutes trying to get out of the cul-de-sac this morning around 7:30am.  This picture doesn't show the depth of the snow because all of the driveways in the area slope down into the cul-de-sac and the drifting snow last night piled our street to a total of 2 feet of snow! 

So here is a photo of my husband and beautiful sister-in-law shoveling our neighbors driveway so she can get to work.  They are wonderful.  She may or may not make it to work, but all power to her!

While they were shoveling, Lydia and I were playing!

She will turn 1 in a few short weeks, I CANNOT believe it!!!!

HAPPY SNOW DAY, KANSAS!

Just What I Needed

I am sitting in a sauna.... Okay, so not a REAL sauna, but I sure did a great job of recreating one!  I now have newly shaven legs, lotioned with none other than Johnson & Johnson baby lotion.  I also have a very relaxed, calm, and genuine happiness that can only come from a warm - no, HOT - bath while listening to my Pandora Radio, JJ Heller soundtrack.  I highly recommend it!  The playlist so far has included the following:

Hungry (Fall On My Knees) 

by Joy Williams

Knees To The Earth 

by Watermark

None But Jesus 

by Hillsong United

When You Come Back 

by JJ Heller

Beautiful Scandalous Night 

by Sixpence Non The Richer & Bebo Norman

Again 

by Jon Foreman

Yearn (Live) 

by Shane & Shane

You Would Love Me Too 

by JJ Heller

Revelation Song 

by Kari Jobe

Beautiful Lord 

by Leeland

If You Want Me To (Live) 

by Ginny Owens

Peace 

by Jennifer Knapp

Table For Two 

by Caedmon’s Call

There Is A Fountain 

by Selah

The Love Of God 

by Lincoln Brewster

Fly Away 

by JJ Heller

Follow You 

by Leeland

Obviously, I've been in here for a while.  Such a long while that my husband came to check on me and couldn't open the door because it was too hot for him to handle.  LOOOOVVEEEE IT!!

My point in sharing this very personal moment with you is for the sole purpose of letting you know how very important it is for you to get by yourself and relax to the point of complete surrender to the world and fall into the arms of Christ.  Every so often I have a breakdown. It's no one's fault buy my own.  It just takes one look at the home decor area in Hobby Lobby for the devil to take me and send me into an oblivion of depression.  My dear, wonderful, beautiful, talented, sister-in-law and I love shopping at Hobby Lobby and love working on projects together, but like I said... the devil loves to pull me down in that store.  December of this past year marked the 1 year anniversary of my husband and I moving in with family to make it through life.  If you do the math, we only lived just him and I (and little fetal, Lydia) for 6 months after our wedding day on May 23, 2009.  We celebrated our first anniversary in my parent's house and will celebrate our second anniversary in my sister-in-law's house.  

Do Not Get Me Wrong!  I love my family and I love my husband's family.  We haven't had a hard time living with them, but I long for the day when I can take every DIY project and every crafty-cute-adorable piece of furniture and decor into a house of our own.  I feel such a desire from God to provide for my family in this way and cannot for the life of me figure out how to do that where I am.  Ryan and Stephanie are so wonderful and are more than willing to let me decorate as I so choose, but I just can't seem to do it.  This cute house is their first home and they worked PRETTY DARN HARD to get it.  They just have hearts of gold and want to serve others in sharing what the Lord has provided them and I have never met anyone so willing to do what they do.  God has definitely blessed us by adding them to our lives.

Things I have learned these past couple of days:

• I'm selfish - so much more than I care to even think about
• My husband and daughter need me to not let the devil into my heart and corrupt my attitude
• Pastor Kevin stepped on my toes today in his sermon, and it felt AMAZING!  Thank you, Pastor.
• I make really good chocolate chip cookies
• My beautiful friend Rachel and her husband, Josh are great with Lydia - and I'm pretty sure they love her.
• Rachel is also great at curly my hair
• My husband misses me and it shows on our dates.  - Love spending quality time with him - 
• I need to lose weight. - my pants are not fitting like they should -
• My daughter will be walking by the end of this week, I just know it
• Stephanie and I should definitely spend one night a week together, confiding in each other. 
• I have so much to learn from that woman of God. (Stephanie)
• It is way too late for me to be heading to bed at 11:30.  

----- with that I will adjourn -----

God is good, all the time - even when I let the devil control my thoughts.  Thank you, Father, for always bringing me back to You.  I Adore You.

First Things First

I'm human.  I mess up.  I can be mean.  hateful. sarcastic. moody. stressed. downright horrible to be around.  I can also be very kind. encouraging. thoughtful. merciful. caring. hospitable.   I am a great listener and am very adamant about my faith in Christ.   

I figured I'd start writing from an honest place because all that I want this blog to be is wonderful, intriguing, educational, thoughtful, and inspiring.  But I know that the one day that I sit down and need to vent, I'll be here... rambling on and on about who knows what. 

Those blogs about Bible studies, devotions, refurbishing, cooking, parenting, crafting, and being the wife every man wants, are all blogs that I love to read.  For that reason, I have been waiting to write this blog until I came up with the perfect "topic" to start a blog about.   Then I thought to myself, I'm not spectacular about any one or two things, I'm desperately trying to be, but until I get there I can blog about that experience!

So here I am... my husband, Anthony is getting lunch ready and just called for Puddles (the dog of the house) to come eat something off of the floor that took a tumble out of the frying pan.  My wonderful daughter, LJ is visiting her Nana and Papa this weekend so it's pretty quiet around here.

You can read the "About Me" section to figure out my drama of a life in order to understand my ramblings.  I hope you enjoy my odes and I hope you don't expect too much of this blog because I'd hate to let you down.