Thank God for Beautiful Days!!!

It just doesn't get any better than today! It was mid seventies here today, sunny and just plain GORGEOUS! After work I came home and we packed Mickey into the car and took him to the park and let him run and run and run, such fun. Then we came home and had hot dogs off the grill (well, since Tim and I are still on our weight loss plans they were turkey dogs for Tim and low calorie Metts for me, but still, on the grill anything is yummy). After dinner we headed over to the park for Lauren's first soccer practice, while she practiced I did the exercise trail around our park. It makes exercise fun when you are out enjoying the fresh air, it was just a wonderful workout. After Lauren's practice we took the kids to get ice cream. To cap off a perfect night I had bought a HUGE bubble kit with over 20 different bubble type of things (pipes, blowers, etc.) and Luke and Lauren along with several other kids from the neighborhood played outside with bubbles, sidewalk chalk, riding bikes, scooters and the Power Wheel while we socialized with the adults out on the culdesac until it turned dark. WHAT A GREAT DAY! Thank you Lord for beautiful days to enjoy with my famliy.............. I am soooooooooooo thankful!

I love my husband!

Tim and I have been married now for 10 years and I'm happy to report that our marriage has gotten even better and better over time - I am truly married to my best friend. A marriage definitely has it's roller coaster hills of ups and downs. You have the honeymoon period, the getting to know and trust one another periods, the having kids and losing your sense of self and ignoring the "us" period, and then - fortunately for us you get to the point of putting the "I" to the side and it changes to the "us". You start to self lessly put your spouses needs ahead of your own and love to just make that other person happy. You learn to know what makes the other person tick and what the other person needs. What a great feeling to have a strong marriage, a happy and healthy marriage and to have a best friend for a mate.
That being said . . . .Tim did an amazing thing for me this week (he always is doing little amazing things that make me thankful that I am his bride).
It was your average day, it had been a long day and I wasn't feeling 100%. I was getting ready to play a board game with the kids and Tim called me upstairs. I was so excited when I saw this:

amidst the toys in our tub he had placed candles and lit them, dimmed the lights and
drawn a nice warm bubble bath for me. He brought me some wine, and closed the door and told me to take my time and enjoy it. It was amazing!!!!!!
What a blessing to have a husband who can do these little things for you, I am truly blessed : )

Dancing In The Rain

We had an INCREDIBLE weekend of unseasonably warm weather. We enjoyed a day outside of sunshine and mid 70 degree weather. Each of the kids had friends over to play, we got much needed yard work done and I took Mickey on a long walk around our local lake. We even enjoyed grilled hot dogs on the grill for lunch, it was WONDERFUL.
Today was another unseasonable warm day but it started raining this evening.
When the Lord gives you lemons, make lemonaide right??? : )
Well, the kids decided the rain wasn't going to ruin their fun, they decided to dance in the rain:


What fun!!!!



Thank you Lord for beautiful sunny days and EVEN the rain!

Hide and Go Seek

Being a mom brings me so many small little blessings it is hard to put into words. I am really having a hard time coming to the realization that this year I will be the mom of an 8 and a 6 year old. WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE!?!?! I am so fortunate that my two "babies" still love to just PLAY with me! I cherish those times when they come to me and beg me to play and know in my heart that I better take full advantage of those times while they still think playing with mom is fun.

Tonight the kids came to me and wanted me to play hide and go seek with them. What a great time it was. We chased eachother around the house, we screamed as we found one another.
As I hid crouched down in the closet while I heard the kids run by me and Lauren say "Wow, mommy is a REALLY good hider" my eyes welled up with tears. I wanted to freeze that moment in time so badly, to just capture it in my mind forever and not let it go. My babies............. their love for me................... playing together and making memories together...................... I am so truly blessed!

Just Keep Swimming. . .. . . . .

Well, as I mentioned in my blog earlier, Lauren came home with a fish from a b-day party as a favor about a month ago. We came home from Luke's school carnival today and I'm sad to say the fish was laying on it's side, it was still alive but this poor guy looked pitiful. I prepared the kids that he may not be alive very much longer. I cleaned out his bowl and put food in and he didn't even attempt to eat it (this fish could EAT). Poor Luke (my sensitive little guy) started freaking out about it. Tim came up with a great idea that we should flush him down the toilet and let him go to a creek since our bowl must not be big enough for him. The kids loved this idea. Lauren was the one who did the flushing. Luke was still upset and I said "Luke, remember in Finding Nemo when Nemo got flushed down the toilet and ended up in the ocean, I bet Goldie is loving his new water", that's all the kids needed. PHEWWWWWWWWWWW, that ended more peacefully than I ever could have thought.

Lose it

I am ashamed to say, that in my 32 years of life I have never really and truly been on a diet or an exercise program. In my younger years I was a great swimmer and tennis player and was pretty active. I was blessed with INCREDIBLE metabolism. Well. . .. .now I am in my 30's and my metabolism has slowed a little and when I look in the mirror I see about 10 pounds I would love to shed to have my old body back (doesn't every woman). I didn't know how to begin to be honest.
My husband Tim has struggled with his weight throughout our marriage and I've watched his exercise and diet payoff immensely, it has been awesome to see his results. He introduced me to a great program on our iPhone's called "Lose it", it is my new "best friend"
This little icon is on my phone:


When I clicked on it the first time I entered my personal information and my goals. My goal is to drop ten pounds by Spring Break. That goal only allows me a calorie budget of 1300 calories. I love how easy this program is. Every day I plug in what I've eaten and how much I've exercised/calories burned and it shows how I am doing for the day.
As far as working out I:
1). Walk the dog as often as the weather allows
2). Do Jillian's 30 day shred level 1 and level 2
3). Do Jillian Michaels Wii workout
My favorite is the 30 day shred. It has 3 circuits: strength, cardio and ab's and it rotates you through the 3 circuits 3 times. It is a great workout.
I've also dropped my Mt. Dew and Regular coke habit and replaced it with ALL water and 1 diet coke per day. I am not a coffee drinker to begin with so I don't worry about that.
It has really opened my eyes keeping track of my calories, boy was I doing a lot of things wrong before : )
So............ I'll update you on my progress. I'm so excited about the "Lose It" program and how user friendly it is - it really is brainless and I can't wait to see the results.

Lauren's Baptism

About a year and a half ago my very curious 4 year old told me she wanted to talk to me about asking Jesus to come into her heart. I will never forget that moment. We were at the park for her soccer practice and on the way over we stopped on a bench by the lake and had a talk and at that very moment my beautiful, trusting, honest, God loving daughter asked the Lord to come into her sweet little heart. That moment leads me to today, Lauren's Baptism.
She has been taught about Baptism and ever since she was saved she has been inquiring as to when it will be her turn. I asked our Pastor (who is also Lauren's grandfather - Tim's dad) if we could have a baptism service soon, and it was scheduled for today.
She was very nervous and excited at the same time this morning. I got her all ready and my parents came to watch as well, it was great to have them there. When she and I went back to get her changed she BROKE DOWN. I couldn't get her to stop crying. She was so nervous to do this in front of everyone. I didn't think I was going to go through with it. I prayed with her and was able to calm her down and she went through with it. Here are some pictures from today:
Answering the questions about salvation:

Getting ready to be imersed to identify with Christ's death and burial:



Coming back up to identify with Christ's resurection:


I am so proud of her for calming down and going through with this, and that it was all initiated by her. Tonight when I told her I was proud of her she said " I just wanted to make Jesus happy Mommy" What a proud mommy I am : )