Full of Joy

Chuck has been encouraging us as a couple to believe God to do great miracles.  The other day he asked me, "What would be a miracle (from God) you would like to see happen?"  He knows I always give the same two answers, so he asked "Besides those two".  I think my faith is pretty small.  I usually only desire simple things, and am pretty content with our life outside of a couple deep desires.  Chuck has a long Bucket List, but I don't even have one.  If I died today, I'd be 100% happy to go straight into the arms of Jesus.  I don't need to skydive, or visit a certain country, or scuba dive, or write a book, or be in two places at once, or get a tattoo (HA!  Anybody catch that?).  In the depth of my heart, though, I believe I long for more in terms of God.  There are several women in my life who I look to and think, "How do they know God in that way?"  I want to know God in the way they do.  In the basement of my soul, I long ...

As always, the Christmas season is flying by at an incredible speed.  I'm already depressed thinking about coming back here and facing the month of January.  Ick.  BUT, it's only December 17, and I am going to thoroughly enjoy the rest of my favorite Christmas season.  Chuck's Advent for me has been INCREDIBLE!  I absolutely love, love, LOVE getting a little (or big!) gift each day.  His thoughtfulness has blown me away.  I'm amazed at the things he's picked out.  It really is the thought behind a gift that touches my heart so deeply.  Each morning I wake up and think, "I wonder what I'm getting today?"  It's been such a blast.  I feel adored.  I am adored.  I love my man. Day 3: Pretty much wear this every day! Day 7:  Peppermint Mocha, thank you very much.  We got to visit our awesome friends Laura and Scooter in Old Town Alexandria one night.  Laura made us a delicious dinner, and we al...

Happy German Advent!  And American Advent, of course.  We opened our big package from Germany yesterday and had a great time indulging in the treats, as well as setting up our new Christmas addition- our Advent Wreath.  Obviously it doesn't look like what we would consider a wreath, and I'm sure Chuck's Mom could shed more light on the topic, but here it is:  Today since it's the first Sunday of December, we lit our first candle: Chuck is especially excited because he has been wanting one of these.  As a kid growing up in Germany, this Advent Wreath was always a big deal.  And now it will be again! I also got to open my American Advent Day 2 gift today.  So far, Chuck is 2 for 2.  I adore my new phone cover!  Plus he got me screen protectors, which I really needed.  It's so cute that he picked out a cover for me.  It's only day 2, but this has already meant so much to me.  "Gifts" are my love language, and I am jus...

As soon as I finished the last post, Chuck hollered down, "I'm reeeeeeeeeeady!"  I jumped up and hurried towards the stairs to find this:  My Advents!  These little stockings are so cute I had to keep myself from crying.  I was completely surprised.  He wanted me to open Day 1 immediately since tomorrow we will open his Mom's package.  The note seen in the picture for Day 1 told a cute little story about how the military uses a tiny object for making food.  Included in the stocking was a mini blade looking thing.  I was then instructed to find my first gift under the tree.  How had I missed it?  I raced down the stairs to see this... He has always wrapped gifts so beautifully!  Tada! My VERY OWN electric can opener!  Lest you feel disappointed for me that I got an appliance, I have been dying for my own electric can opener.  There is one out at the Dubbe family house, and every time we go, I think I say...

I feel something brewing.  It's December 1st Eve, and I found this hanging up in our hallway earlier tonight.  As I write, Chuck is working like a Mad Scientist in our office, and I am forbidden to enter.  He has hinted that the next 25 days are going to be pretty special.  On top of that, we also have a package from Chuck's Mama all the way from Germany with instructions to be opened tomorrow.  It's the most wonderful time of year!

Last year we found a local farm store that sold 6 foot Frasier Furs for $30.  In the past we had spent $10-$20 on a tiny tree so this new find was fantastic!  We spent our Thursday-Night-Date-Night tree hunting.  This means we drove 10 minutes to Meadows Farms .  At the front of the big lot of trees there were tons of $60 trees, $70 trees and a bunch of plants we were not interested in.  I told Chuck we should just keep walking towards the back of the lot.  After several rows of the expensive trees we found a row of $40 and $50 trees.  We began to think the tree prices had gone up.  But we pressed on.  As we continued to walk, and freeze, we saw a cluster of trees sitting in the dark, all the way at the back of the lot.  To our delight, even though it was very hard to read in the dark, we finally saw a sign for $30 Frasier Furs!   It was pretty tough to actually pick out a tree in the complete dark, but we used the flashlig...

Though my heart is plummeting face first into the holly, jolly Christmas season I am still reminding myself of all that I have to be thankful for.  On Thanksgiving night, Chuck and I opened up the jar we made during the FFA's and read our little snippets of thankfulness we had written about for the past month.  We had much to thank God for.  I am so.very.thankful. for my husband.  I know that sounds totally cliche to be thankful for my husband, but I just feel like I have been extra-specially-blessed by my man.  He's my best friend, and I love to spend any waking minute with him that I can.  Even going to the grocery store is suddenly fun when my man is by my side.  He gets me, and that gives me a crazy amount of appreciation for him.  He really gets me.   We women are not easy creatures to understand, and to have Chuck's total support of who I am is wonderful. He gets that I love to get my hair done by Sharon alone.  He gets that I ...

My dear, sweet childhood friend, Tricia has been struggling with Cystic Fibrosis for the last 30 years (her entire life).  God has done miracles in her life, including giving her and her husband Nathan a biological baby right before having a double lung transplant.  It's been almost 4 years, and Tricia needs new lungs again.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) morning Tricia's doctors will be deciding if she will be approved for a second transplant she desperately needs.  PLEASE PRAY! You can read about her story here: http://www.cfhusband.blogspot.com/

It's late here for my two babies.  Their necks must be killing them!  But  I'm wide awake, as usual.  Since Chuck objects to "19 Kids and Counting", I'm getting caught up on all my episodes while he dreams. (Don't hate. I've been known to cry during this show.)  I've also been working on some Christmas projects for the past couple of hours.  The Christmas season is upon us, and it just makes me giddy.  There are big wreaths and lights up around all the plazas nearby.  One of our radio stations starts playing ALL Christmas music ALL the time tomorrow!  I told Chail last weekend that I love giving presents more than getting presents.  It's true- I know once I get in bed tonight I will be lying awake thinking about all the Christmas projects I'm so excited about.  Chuck and I finished about 90 % of our shopping tonight- great feeling.   I'm going to end with a random fact.  Michelle Duggar is only sixteen years...

  We had a Halloween Extravaganza for our small group of teens last night!  Chuck found a whole bunch of decorations and props in the youth room and we had a blast decorating our house for the occasion.  You can't quite see in this picture, but we had hanging bat lights on the banister, and spider webs- complete with spiders, all over our big, annoying front bush.  Our group is called The North Group- really creative, I know.  We don't get a say in the name.  Gotta tell ya, we are loving the chalk board wall.  Here's the place all spooked out.  The dining room even had a flashing red light. Here are some of our crazy teenie boppers.  It was pretty exciting to have FIVE kids come that hadn't come before!  We loved having them.  Check out our cute co-leader, Candy in her home-made 50's gear.  (To the left of the pizza, and in the corner of the couch.)  Candy is also my dearly wonderful mentor and...

Happy Halloween!  This greeted me as I was getting ready this morning: Thought it was the sweetest thing- definitely made my morning! Since we're doing our FFA #31 tonight, I probably won't be able to blog about it until tomorrow or so.  Just wanted to let you know so you don't wait up for my FINAL post of Fun Fall Activities.  I know how many of you can't stand the anticipation.  You may be disappointed.  ;) As a follow-up to FFA day #21, here is the final project.    This is our Thankfulness Jar .  Chuck and I have both been writing different things we're thankful for, and putting them in the jar.  On Thanksgiving Day, we'll go through the jar and read them together.  I hope to be greatly encouraged by how God has blessed us both during the month.  I'm sure we won't be disappointed.  And now a little taste of what's to come.  This is the BEST fall treat.  Like ever.  (Taylor Swift.) My Mom has be...

Where did October go? Today is FFA #30!  Somewhere around day 13 I felt like I had so much time left, and now it's only 1 more day of FFA's.  Whew.  What a month.   FFA's wouldn't be complete without some Halloween candy.  Today we ventured out to Target and Chuck picked out the candy we'll hand out tomorrow night to all the little Trick or Treaters.  It'll be the first time in three years (our whole married life) that kids will actually come to our door.  We're pretty excited.  

Dunkin Monday! Today everything and their Grandmother is cancelled because of Sandy and the Frankenstorm.  For our house that means Chuck is working from home and Jovie doesn't get any exercise.  We've been playing ball with her- goodness knows she needs a way to get all that energy out.  I love when Chuck works from home.  It makes everything I'm doing around the house so much more fun and enjoyable.   Today instead of Dunkin Monday, Chuck asked if I wanted to join him and our friend Austin in surprising our other friend Katie, Austin's wife, at Starbucks where she was working.  Umm...yes.  Actually, I was thinking that a Starbucks trip wasn't going to make the cut for this round of FFA's.  Rest assured, we were able to partake in not only a Pumpkin Spice Latte, and a  Caramel Mocha, but also a pumpkin scone.  Sigh.  Katie and Austin came back to our house real quick, which made Jovie's day.  She has a major crush o...

My sweet friend and faux "cousin", Rachel (Mikes girlfriend) Today was the DC Marine Corps Marathon!  Chuck and I went to support our friend and neighbor who was running, and we also had friends in town who were running as well.  The city was jam packed with people, and I mean jam packed.  Thankfully we got to see each of our friends a couple times, and even got to see them near the finish line.  If you have never been to a marathon, it's a really special thing to witness.  I choke up several times every time I see a race.  There are always amazing people doing amazing things. I've seen a teenaged daughter jump from the sidelines to run next to her Mom for a few miles to encourage her Mom to keep going.  I've seen a Dad push his daughter in a wheel chair the whole race.  I've seen two Marines running while carrying a guy who got injured just so he could finish the race.  I've seen people bleeding, and continue running.  I've seen m...

Again, no pictures taken for the FFA #27.  We went to a neighborhood Halloween party.  There were mostly couples with little kids in attendance, so we brought Jovie.  ;) It was a really cool time to meet more people in our neighborhood, and it seemed like we were all around the same age.  I was especially excited to learn of a girl who does hair out of her home!  Hallelujah, maybe I can finally find someone to do my hair in VA!  (I only get my hair done in PA when I go home to visit my parents.  My girl at home has been doing my hair for years, but it would be nice to have someone here in my own town so my hair doesn't get so gross in between appointments.)  Anyway, a good time was had by all. 

No pictures to show for this day.  But I did surprise Chuck by volunteering to help him with the yard work.  Our yard is quite small so it probably only took us 30 minutes to mow, rake, sweep, and clean up.  It was nice to work together on our "own" yard. 

Chuck and I mutually thought of going to a large mall in our area where we enjoyed walking around and window shopping.  We were even able to spot several Christmas decorations.  This was the perfect ending to our already sweet date:

Chuck's most beloved drink at Starbucks in the fall is the Salted Caramel Mocha.  There really is no other drink like it out there. It's just hot deliciousness in a cup.  Sweet + Salty = bliss.  Well, I found a salted caramel creamer by accident one day at Walmart and could not resist surprising my man.  The creamer did not disappoint.  It's not Starbucks, but it'll do just fine!

Thanks to my dear friend Laura , I learned about this amazing movement going on in DC.  David's Tent has been going on since September 27, and will continue right up until the election- that's 40 days.  40 days of 24 hours a day 7 days a week prayer and worship for our country.  The amazing part is, this tent is set up right in front of The White House.  Chuck thankfully hadn't heard of the event, and was quite surprised.  We sat there in the tent, listening to the band leading worship, observing the other Christians around us, and experiencing the presence of God.  Chuck and I were both encouraged.  Really encouraged.  Sometimes God just surprises us with HIMSELF in ways we couldn't have expected.   There's The White House off to the right

Hello gorgeous!  (The donut, certainly  not me.)  Oh how I love Dunkin Mondays!  I find myself really looking forward to our time together there on Mondays.  This week we made it there before they sold out of the pumpkin donuts.  It was well worth the week's wait.  Although I have to say, the maple donut was actually better.  Another cool thing about Dunkin Mondays is that it has introduced us to Rite Aid.  Because of it's proximity to our favorite DD's, we've stopped in a couple times now to grab some things we've needed.  I am now the proud owner of a free Rite Aid bonus card.  And it has come in very handy.  Who knew their sales were so good?  I am going to start checking my Rite Aid flyer each week from now on.  (In the past it has gone straight to the trash.)  This week they have BOGO half off on...well, I probably shouldn't post the items that I needed, (*Think very special time of the month.) but it ...

We started a FF project today.  Thank you Pinterest!  To be continued...

Happy Birthday to my favorite Mama of all times!  I only wish we had been able to celebrate with her in person! I love you Mother! Day 20 has been a pretty big day.  We lived up the FFA's to the full for sure.  I surprised Chuck with a visit to Frying Pan Park Harvest Festival.  It was on the same farm where we had our Hoedown.  Actually, while we were at the Hoedown, I came across the flyer for the Harvest Festival and was thrilled because it was free admission!  Seems everywhere around here you have to pay no less than $15 a person just to enter a fall festival-type deal.   So our outing consisted of roaming around the last functioning dairy farm in Fairfax county.  Of course there were plenty of barnyard animals to see, and lots of festival-like food to eat, too.  We each enjoyed grilled burgers and sweet potato fries that were out-of-this-world!  We spent some time at the blacksmith's building, watching a guy weld.  ...