A panic text message, and a good laugh

See a dear friend of mine is getting married in 3 1/2 weeks, and two nights ago I get a panicked text message that went a little something like this......."ummmm, is it ok that right before you get married you get in a horrible fight with you fiance about wedding planning?" I laughed and responded with a big YES!! The thing is when two people, like my friends, are living a chaste relationship, are striving for holiness in their own lives, praying for it in their future spouses, and planning on raising their family for Christ; well there is one "soul" out there that wants nothing to do with it......I'll give you a guess his name starts with D and ends with evil
I know for a fact that engagement, marriage, dating, raising a family and so on is difficult for everyone; but with Christ as our guide we have a peace and reassurance that we know the outcome.....it's still hard, it's just hard with faith and hope - don't forget love!

I laughed when she texted me b/c I remember my engagement - I always tell everyone that God gave Alan and I such peace about getting married b/c hard times where ahead (no not the marriage) the engagement. So I asked him if he remembers any silly fights right before the wedding, he too laughed as if to say "are you kidding me, how could I forget!" His thoughts immediately went to the house, he was living there all alone in a big house, no furniture, no wife, no dog, and I wouldn't let him touch a thing without me - not paint the walls that I already had the color picked out, nothing; I just wanted to be apart of it......WHAT WAS I THINKING????????? Anyways, God bless my friend, I know these next few weeks are exciting and hard, but it is all worth it - all the sacrifice to live a relationship as God intended is worth it!! :) I love you girl!!

The things I've learned

Many years ago I was taught that if you want to be a good speaker then make up your own stuff, but if you want to be a GREAT speaker steal from others...... I figure the same principle applies to blogs also :) So over the past few days I've noticed my good friend Lisa's blog change, and then change again, and I kept telling myself - I really like this! So I'm stealing from her, I won't go as far as to become a dot.com just yet I might wait until we move and I can think of fun new name to really describe us then!
So if you want to check out and follow an awesome, entertaining and fun blog from a wonderful Catholic Mommy to 5 (her former blog title) please check her out at http://www.thelittlehousethatgrew.com/

So enjoy, I'm sure my header, background, and everything will change often! And thank you again Lisa for not only your creativeness that I could steal, but also your help in the middle of crazy hour at your house (and mine) while I had a momentary freak out b/c I totally messed up the blog for about 15 mins :)

Labor day, three year olds, and naps

Here we are back from a wonderful vacation at my brother and sister-in-laws house. It was more than a vacation it was a break, a break from the heat, a break from some 3 yr old "activities" that for some reason when you swim all day doesn't have time to appear. So up to Huntsville we went, played and played, swam and swam, then packed up the car and headed home

I keep thinking to myself "can we go back now?" I mean was it the weather that calmed the 3yr old mentality, or the swimming, or the attention, or did I just not care? :)

Not matter what it was, it was a break! Now we're home, my body has decided that the first trimester has just begun again, and well Stephen has decided to make up for a weekend of joy and laughter....
All in all it's nap time now, please forgive me for the momentary breakdown - my hormones have decided to take over, I think I will go back to putting my feet up and thinking of different ways to "release" some of that much needed 3yr old energy :)

The joy of siblings!

I've always known I wanted children - how many, well that's up to God. Right now I have two in heaven, two out of my womb, and two in my womb - I think that's pretty much amazing! And until know, most of what I've witnessed is Abby the little sister following her big brother around and him pushing her down (I was the little sister, so I understand this) :)

Then there are random moments like this, they just click - toys are removed from and area and they play a silly game with just the two of them - then Abby cries (I'll give you a guess why ;) ) But joy is brought to my heart when I remove Abby from the situation and Stephen screams "No mama, bring her back, I want to play with Abby"

So they run off and go bang on their poor pathetic dog's kennel :( Thank God for siblings, I pray they will be each other's best friend!

And I'm back!

First, a minor disclaimer to all my amazing Colorado friends - I love you all and I'm so sorry I didn't see you while I was out there. I truly just flew in to host a shower for Nikki and flew home; I miss you all so much!! But yes it's true, I went out to Colorado and had a great time! I think when I got home I wasn't quite prepared for what was to come - I missed my children, they missed me, I missed my husband, he missed me..... I don't think I missed my dog - until he almost died!

See I returned home, my amazing husband left work early so he could be home when I got there, the kids and I had some fun times together and we were all ready for dinner. So less then an hour after I got home Alan ran off to get us dinner, he received a phone call while he was gone...

He had left Augie (our dog) at his mothers house while I was gone and on his exciting rush home to see me he forgot to pick him up; no worries this happens - but this time for some reason while Augie was at Alan's mom's house he pawed at the glass door a bit to hard and broke one of the small windows. When Alan arrived it was a mess, Augie was hurt very badly and the bleeding wouldn't stop. So off to the late night Emergency room for dogs.... hours and hours later and one surgery Augie was ready to come home. He had severed a major artery, and torn a tendon and some muscles. Now the poor dog has the "cone of shame" around his neck and has to have limited movement for four weeks -and with our exciting children that means, when the kids are around he's in the kennel :(

Poor little guy, poor Alan, I know he was a tired guy the next day! But other than the random craziness when I returned I had a great time, great food, and great fellowship with Nikki and all her family! God Bless Nikki and Ryan as the prepare for their Marriage!

No purse

See, I've had the amazing gift to be with my children (at least one of them that is) every night except 1 since the day Stephen was born!! I've loved it, but with that gift comes some complications... No purse being the main one at this moment. See I'm off to Colorado for three days to host a shower, and well I have some really cute diaper bags - but really no purses anymore.

What is a girl to do in this situation, I'm not sure to be honest with you, I know I'll pack a little purse I use for date nights with Alan but as for something substantial for the airport we'll just see.... I'm sure I will survive the purse issue

I'm not so sure I'm going to survive missing these cutie pies for three days! My world kinda revolves around them, they tell me when to sleep, eat, watch cartoons (maybe I can go a few days without those!) So say a prayer for me and them, we will all be missing each other for sure!!

Hello there!

I feel like the summer has flown by (and yet there is still a heat index of 106 today). The saddest thing - I'm starting to think that over the past few weeks I just haven't had it in me to really share it all with you. See my brain doesn't work, bottom line, end of story.... I have no words, no real thoughts, I just stare at my blog and then go upstairs and go to sleep :)

But i did finally download some recent pics of our awesome cousins that came down to the beach - so I of course wanted to share that with you!

Stephen loves playing with his cousins, they're his age and no matter what they'll always be there - b/c they're family! :) It's funny though, b/c these cousins are like Stephen 4th cousins; but we grew up with them and now my children will grow up loving and playing and spending their summers with them like we did! :) We miss you Rhodes family!