My Valentine

In 2004, Prince Charming swept me off my feet and I fell madly, hopelessly inlove.  He is a man with amazing character and is truly someone that I could respect.  I love his heart and not only who he is but who he wants to become.

This is one of our engagement photos. 

I could stare at this photo forever.  He looks so good in blue.  The color is just the perfect backdrop for his gorgeous eyes.

We had an outside wedding planned and at the last minute, all of the plans had to change and we had to move the wedding indoors.  The arrangements didn’t turn out exactly like I had wanted but to be honest… it really didn’t matter to me.  I was marrying the man of my dreams and we were getting ready to start our lives together. 

Off to the honey moon.

Everyday I fall inlove with this man all over again.  I fall inlove with his character, the way that he touches me, his silliness (yes, even the fart jokes), and his commitment to our marriage.  I will gladly spend my life finding new ways to keep our love alive and growing if that means that I get to hold his hand forever.

 

I just couldn’t seem to keep my lips off him.  :-)  Okay, okay.  Just maybe the photographer was telling us what to do, but I was more than happy to oblige.

The outdoor wedding would have been amazing and beautiful but it was so hot, muggy (it had rained that morning) and the air felt so thick.  I had to move the event inside to make sure that no one (us or one of the guests) passed out due to the heat.   However we were able to get a few photos in the area where the wedding would have been.  They are definitely some of my favorites.

God has blessed our marriage from the beginning.  I have always felt that he was the man that I was supposed to marry.  He was the one that I was waiting for.  We have reached milestones and shared many experiences, both good and bad.  I am so thankful to be sharing this journey with him. 

I love you Corey!  Happy Valentine’s Day.

Sharp Dressed Men

   I can’t get that ZZ Top song out of my head.

There are a lot of handsome cowboys out there, but I don’t think there are any that are much cuter than this little man.  He melts my heart with his loving ways everyday.

Watch out bad guys… He is here to protect and serve.

 

And he has incredible aim.

 

I have to say, he comes by his silliness honestly.  Here is the cowboy’s disco dad.

As Evan likes to say, He’s superfly for a white guy. 

I love these crazy guys!!!!

Technorati Tags: Costume,dress up,never grow old

These kids keep us young!

Baseball Forever

Recently my dearly beloved husband celebrated a birthday.  In case anyone was wondering he turned 21… again.  Don’t worry honey I wouldn’t sell you out.  And yes, in case anyone was wondering, I did rob the cradle. 

To celebrate my hot younger husband, I bought him tickets to the Cardinals / Cubs game.  He went with Evan (our son), his dad & brother & his son, Jett. 

The ballgame was quite an experience for the two young boys.  Jett has been to baseball games, but this was a first for Evan.  (I was praying that he wouldn’t drive the guys crazy before the game was over). 

After driving six hours, watching batting practice, and all the pregame festivities this little man fell asleep during the first inning and slept throughout the entire game.

And then there was Evan… my little energizer bunny.  He was bouncing off the rails, literally.  He had numerous root beers and ice cream.  The little boy was in HEAVEN.  I think that Corey created a lifetime baseball fan. 

If anything baseball crosses Evan’s line of sight, a huge perma-grin grows across his face.

 
 

 

Are We There Yet

 

(Photo taken from our trip last February.  Corey was not going to stop under any circumstances to let me get one this time.  Clark Griswald, I mean Corey, had a schedule).

During a recent trip to Table Rock in Missouri, Evan (aka "Repeat") was in rare form.

(I was trying to get a cool picture to celebrate our fun day at the park, but little man had a different pose in mind.  “Mom take a picture up my nose and see if I have any boogies!” God bless him). 

I have to admit this was only because Lauren (aka "Pete") was catching up her beauty sleep.

(No, we don’t usually let our kids lay down in the street.  But her legs have a tendency to stop working when she doesn’t get her way.  I’m still looking for the medical term for this ailment.  However, I was extremely pleased to get such a pretty picture out of the ordeal).

My husband on the other hand was in not-so rare form. He was teasing and flirting and making me laugh. (He was harassing me endlessly).

(In this photo, Corey is pleading with me to never take his photo again.  Of course, my response is “Me no speak Ingles.” Sorry Corey, I love you too much to not ever take your photo. LOL)

So I lovingly helped repeat out and redirected Evan's focus to Dad... All I had to do was ask Corey once, "Are we there yet?" and for the next ten minutes that's all that we heard from Repeat. Each time made me giggle and laugh. Paybacks baby.

 

Our friend’s beautiful home.  Thank you for showing us such sweet hospitality. 

Still ornery,

J

-- Post From My iPhone

Watch out! She just might explode.

So often you meet those people that seem to have it all together.  They appear to have the perfect marriage, the perfect kids, the perfect well… everything.  For me, it’s those people that I second guess the most… I mean seriously if someone is trying that desperately to cover up the imperfections then I can’t help but wonder how bad it really is.  My heart goes out to them and I want to comfort them.

Then there is the other extreme, just throwing out all your dirty laundry for all to see.  While that can cause some complications on its own, I can only imagine that it would be therapeutic.

My husband is the first type and I used to be more of the second type.  However after almost five years of marriage, I probably fall in the middle.  I don’t blog about my marriage unless it is good and paints him as a saint, but all the rest is out there for all to read.  Out of respect to him, those are the boundaries that I have chosen.  I am not trying to be misleading, but there are some things that should stay behind closed doors (good and bad)… so to speak.  I have had a few anonymous emails lately with questions regarding my relationship with Mr. Incredible, and I will answer all questions with these statements.

He is the man that I chose to marry, the one with who I want to spend my life!  I was very selective about this choice.  I dated, and searched for “Mr. Perfect for Me” for years.  I dated many amazing men, but it was only him that convinced me that he would be the husband I wanted, a good father to the children that I wanted to have, and a friend and partner for life.

To sum up the answer to three other questions, yes, of course, there are days that I feel hurt and alone.  I also know there are days that I know that I get on his every nerve… I can tell by the way his eyes are rolling in the back of his head as I order salad instead of lasagna or pasta while trying to watch what I eat.  And of course, we get on each other’s nerves. 

There are times I think that he has driven me insane and times when I think that I’m about to drive him just as crazy.  It isn’t always “perfect” but it IS always real.  I would much rather have a REAL relationship with someone and know that they love me for me and know where things stand than a superficial one and always have to play a guessing game because my other half won’t tell me what is really going on with them.

However, at the end of the day, we love each other and wouldn’t want to live without each other.  I am not here to paint an unrealistic picture of my marriage.  Just like any other marriage ( I assume, this is the only time I’ve been married), it takes work on both parts to have a successful marriage.  Just like any relationship, friendship, or job, you have to invest time, energy, and thought into your marriage to strive for success. 

Most importantly, for me, it takes a lot of prayer.  Prayer that I make the right choices, that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing to be a good wife (after all it is my actions that I am responsible for…  not his), and prayer for perspective… I pray that God will show me the perspective that he wants me to see.  When upset, I know that it is hard to see your spouse as a good & loving person, but when you ask that God reveal your spouse through his eyes then you are able to see them in a completely different light and sometimes it will remind you just why you fell inlove with them in the first place. 

So the answer is, “Yes we do have a REAL marriage, with ups & downs, and I love him more today than I did the day that I said “I do”.

My apologies

If you are coming to this site via a link that is not working then I apologize. I had to take down a few posts that were referring to a family health situation. Although we are still requesting prayer.

I had tried to be vague while requesting prayer to respect everyone's privacy but someone's privacy wasn't respected and the last thing that I want to do is to make a difficult situation more difficult.

Revised post:

Just a month ago, I was sitting back after a family gathering thinking to myself that I was one lucky individual. I absolutely love my family!! I even wrote about it on Facebook. (Yes, I am a dork like that. When I am happy I love to shout it from the rooftops or Facebook). I felt so lucky to have recovered from my cancer scare and just felt well... lucky.

Within the last few weeks, my husband was injured and had to have surgery on his knee, and then another family member found out that they had liver cancer.

Needless to say, our world has been rocked. I have been praying and pleading for strength for both my self and my other family members 100s of times throughout the day.

Regarding the liver cancer:
In the beginning I felt strong and confident, and I was able to easily calm others and talk them through the process of what was happening to our relative. However, I can honestly admit that I need more information about "the process and the procedures" myself. Not understanding what is happening to their bodies and not knowing what to expect is creating a fear that I can't seem to fight off. I am amazed by the strength of our relative and am proud at the way they are fighting the cancer.

If anyone out there knows anything about liver cancer I would LOVE some information and advice. I would also love advice regarding diet... what foods are easiest to hold down.

I am so thankful to God for taking care of Corey throughout his surgery and he has been healing really well. He is even going back to work tomorrow, just five days after his surgery. I am thankful that he feels good enough to do that. (Unless we are on vacation, he has a difficult time staying away from his office, and sometimes he has a tough time even during vacation not calling 10 times,. His business is his baby). So I know that even taking off a few days for his surgery was hard for him to do. He enjoys his job.

While I haven't been posting as much because my mind has obviously been on these matters, I have been reading yours and have been pulling from your strength as you walk through and overcome different trials and have thoroughly enjoyed laughing at your posts because I can honestly say that I have NEEDED your humor more than you know.

These situations were the catalyst for the Bloggy Kudos post. I honestly don't think I could be walking through these sitautions without the strength, humor and reminders that God's hand is in this! So again, thank you!

A Beautiful Getaway

DISCLAIMER:
Lately I have been busy working on another project so I pre-post for the week. I know that during the week I will be swamped with work and will be unable to take the time to blog. I do stay caught up on reading your blogs on my phone. I can't always comment on your posts because of my fickle phone service, but I am reading them. So I was glad that I had a few blogs pre-posted for this week before I was whisked away on my birthday getaway.

A BEAUTIFUL GETAWAY

This last week, Corey surprised me with a vacation to celebrate my birthday. It was so amazing and so sweet. He took me on a long and windy drive with views like this...

It was truly breathtaking. I have to admit, I enjoyed the drive to Big Cedar Lodge as much as I did the actual place. We had a great time together.

We arrived at the Lodge at night and it was beautiful! I was breathless when I saw it... both from laughing really hard (Corey & I were having fun joking around) and from the site of it. You have to keep in mind, I had no idea where we were going. I had no idea if he was going to take me to a 5 star resort or a tent. I have to tell you that nightfall is definitely the best time to arrive. I wouldn't have changed a thing. The lights were gorgeous reflecting off the lake. It was... okay I'm running out of adjectives to say that it was amazing. But yea, it was amazing! Here is the view from our room:

I took this picture as soon as we woke up (almost 11:00). I felt like a rockstar, sleeping in that late. It felt GOOD! Since Corey & I were in such a hurry to get out of the house while the kids were okay with us leaving we BOTH forgot our coats. This just gave us an excuse to do a little shopping at Branson Landing.

The fountains were a fun distraction from shopping. While we were here Corey informed me that the designer of these fountains was the same designer for the fountains at Bellagio. AND that they were going to be designing fountains for Jenk's RiverWalk. I hadn't heard that bit of news so I was excited to find that little bitty out. (I know it doesn't take much to get me excited).

Later that night snow began falling and created the most beautiful scenery ever. Like I said earlier... it doesn't take much... just a little bit of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice and I'm exstatic. It was everything Corey could do to keep me from going out & making snow angels. (I didn't have the kids with me to use as my excuse). He did sit in the car while I walked around taking photographs in the snow. I couldn't help myself. It's hard for me to stay indoors when it's snowing outside.

Ducks synchronized swimming
(Yes I know that they are really eating)

I truly love this weather.

We had an amazing time during out trip and enjoyed having the opportunity to relax, sleep late, and spend some time together.

This post comes with a warning label

WARNING: for those of you that have a weak stomach, here is your warning to pull up the trash can.

Corey thinks it's absolutely funny & is almost in tears every time he relays the story, but his stomach is made of steel.

Due to our ever-changing Oklahoma weather Corey's sinuses have been terrible for the last two months. He has tried everything and unfortunately did not receive any relief. Until about two weeks ago a patient walked in his door and told him about Mucinex nasal spray. I don't know who this patient is, but I envision them with a hallow and wings. If that kind patient is a reader, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. Anyway, while the spray has not removed his allergies it definitely has helped him to breath. The next morning, Corey was using the nasal spray and after carefully studying him Lauren asked, "Daddy what are you doing?"

Daddy: I am using this so I can breath better.

(After seeing visions of Lauren putting things up her or Evan's nose so they can breath better, I felt the need to make sure that she understood that this was special medicine).

Mom: Daddy's nose is stuffed up and he uses this special medicine to get the boogies out so he can breath.

Lauren took a brief second to process this then she turned to us & said,"You mean, so he doesn't have to use his finger?"

The Category 5 Tornado

Yeah, it is bad... very bad. The category 5 tornado has touched down in our home then rolled around and thrashed & rolled some more. Before anyone starts checking the weather channel I need to be perfectly clear that it was NOT an actual tornado. We are in the middle of rotating our house. And I say this with my eyes completely loaded with tears of sadness (not that my house is in shambles but having to use the word "rotating".

It's funny how songs, places, and even words are associated with different times in our lives. I can't hear the song "Jesse's Girl" without smiling and thinking of my awesome friends & memories that I cherish. I can't drive by a boat-filled lake without thinking of wonderful summers spent with my friends & family that were filled with laughter. And I can't hear the word "rotating" without thinking of countless hours spent in my dad's garage trying to clean the garage, but there was a catch; we had received STRICT orders to NOT throw anything away. Due to the rules attached to cleaning the garage, my brothers, sisters, & myself renamed the dreaded chore to "rotating the garage". Does anyone know how hard it is to actually clean something if you are not allowed to throw away 20 years of accumulated trash? If you can't throw things away & actually clean then the chore NEVER ends. In looking back at the other parenting methods that my dad implemented, I realize now that he probably did this on purpose. He probably had us forever cleaning a space that could never really be cleaned to keep us busy. (Yes Dad, if you are reading this be forewarned the waterline story will be blogged someday. And I love you).

Needless to say my memories of sweating like a pig while rotating the garage in the hot June -August summers isn't one of my fondest memories (Yes Dad, I can hear you laughing from HERE). So when I think of rotating my own house, I can feel chills down my spine & my eyes swell with tears. When we first moved into our house only two years ago, our kids were not old enough or capable (although they would have tried) to use the stairs so I moved them into bedrooms downstairs like any other paranoid over-protective parent would. I do realize that MANY homes only have one bedroom downstairs and all the youth bedrooms are upstairs. I also realize that all the children in those homes grew to be happy healthy adults but at the time I couldn't do it. What I found humorous is that when I stated that it was time to make the transition, it was my husband who didn't want them to move upstairs NOW. Now they are totally capable, but he was concerned. It felt really odd being the one who was positive that everything would be fine and and watch him be over-protective. Usually it's him saying "oh, the kids are in the street... it's OK honey, they are fast, they can dodge that car". And me: SUCKING ALL THE OXYGEN out of the two mile radius surrounding me as I gasp when I see anything that could potentially hurt them. (I am over-exaggerating a bit here... well about Corey anyway). I am getting better about this due to Corey, however this definitely proves to me that God does put the people you NEED in your life to become the person that He wants you to be. (No, I don't think that God wants me to constantly look for ALL the DANGERS, I do believe that He wants me to have a little more faith that He will take care of things... despite things from my past).

This is a big move... for us as parents, we have to admit that our babies are growing up and our children are ecstatic about the change; they think they are so BIG now. We have experienced a little attitude from our Evan, who is 2. All it takes is a soft whisper about his new room and he begins to strut around the house and talk about his big boy room. It does bring me joy (and laughter) when someone who is soliciting comes to the door and the kids talk their ear off about their new rooms. I have to draw the line when they want to invite them in so that they can show them. Usually the sales person is grateful for the exit at this point so they don't push for any sales.

We actually began the transition on Christmas eve. Yea we are those parents, we incorporated moving them into their big kid beds with Christmas gifts. Well for all that we put into it... it was a HUGE gift. We didn't exactly throw a mattress down and say Merry Christmas, I built & decorated and my husband drove HOURS to pick up our bargain purchases. So for the BIG DAY we moved everything around as much as possible so that at least two of the rooms were completed.

Now as for the rest of the house, well let's just say it is a work in progress. Let me tell you what the transition (I refuse to call it rotating) actually includes; we moved two bedrooms and the kids bathroom, and playroom upstairs. Then we moved a guest bedroom, bathroom, his office, scrapbook room (15 years worth of supplies), and family room (Corey's video game room) downstairs. The only rooms that remained as they were would be the kitchen, our bedroom, and our bedroom and MY OFFICE was the catch-all room. Sadly, it reminded me of what the garage used to look like, but with prettier walls of course. I couldn't even get to my laptop. However, this did provide motivation. It motivated me to work, clean & organize faster so that I could catch up with all that was happening in your lives. I have missed my blogging friends.

We have definitely made headway in most of the rooms. We still have to paint the guest room, do some work in the closets, move a few more pieces into the attic, CLEAN my office (I need more than just a path, and with each day it is all improving. Consequently, I can say I will not ever rotate my house again. It honestly felt like moving without the boxes, but I am glad that an end is in sight.

On the bright side, I will have two years worth of Tackle-It Tuesday's blogs if I break down each project & take pictures of the progress.

CNN Hero of the Year

A MOXIE MOM'S HERO
Seriously, if I had only known that this contest existed I would have nominated my husband. He really is an amazing man that gives lots of his time & resources to helping others, everything from buying groceries, paying their bills, yard work, helping pay for their cars to be fixed, moral support, and even helping them rebuild their home when someone was living in an unsafe environment. He really does a lot for others and for our community and I love that about him. I do believe that we are all supposed to take time and give to others whether it be time, friendship, moral or financial support, but what my husband is best at is giving others hope and happiness. He is great at making others smile and helping them enjoy themselves (much of the time he makes them laugh at his expense). I'm only sorry that I wasn't aware of this contest in time consequently, I'm announcing the WINNER of A MOXIE MOM's Hero of the Year Award:

Congrats Corey. We love you!!

Now, as far as CNN is concerned they are putting together their own contest. These men & women are wonderful applicants (I still think that Corey would have won), so choosing just one may be difficult. I really enjoyed reading about the wonderful things that they are all doing!!!

I'm a strong believer in "paying it forward". I want to say a special thanks to any and all of you that aren't on the list that donate your time and your efforts to helping others in need, thank you for sharing the love!!!

Here's a list of the TOP 10 Heroes with details about why they are being considered for this honor. I'm not campaigning for any particular person so here is the why & who so that you can make your own choice.

Top 10 List

All those listed have taken the time and put forth lots of effort to help others in need to make our world a better place. Please take a LITTLE moment to vote. Most people do these wonderful deeds out of the goodness of their hearts I think that honoring them is a nice way for us to say that we appreciate them (and hopefully motivate more people to think of other's needs).

Vote Now