Full of Joy

Uncle Dave, Aunt Becky, Gabe, Jase, & I Uncle Chuck and Jaden  I mentioned a trip to a farm in a previous post, and it was a great outing.  Chuck's sister and her family visited us for Easter weekend.  We were excited to have them here and wanted to do something to get out of the house.  A friend recommended  Flinchbaugh's Farm  where they held a Spring Fest.  Our nephews are 6 and 3 so they got to participate in an apple hunt in the corn field.  Sadly I think they only got one apple each, but hopefully they still had fun.  We all went on a hay ride, the boys pet some animals, painted Easter baskets, dyed eggs, and drove little tractors around hay bails.  It was a gorgeous day to be outside!  Check out the surroundings- seriously beautiful scenery.   Our nephew, Gabe- in the red pants  Uncle Chuck being enthusiastic about Gabe's one apple! Jaden, 3- not so excited about only finding 1 ;)

You all know Jovie, our sweet little pup.  The first picture was taken the night we got her- it is my favorite Jovie picture of all times.  She was only four months old and God used her to bring such joy to my aching heart at the time.  She is such a sweet puppy- loves to sit on my lap, loves to cuddle, loves to follow me around the house- an all around precious girl.  Fast forward two years to this past Easter Sunday.  The whole family was outback while our nephews were climbing around on the play ground.  We were taking some family pictures for Easter, too.  At one point some kids and their dog came running out and I got all excited because I could tell the dog was a half pug of some sort.  I thought it would be great for that dog to play with Jovie, but she was tied up on our patio.   Well shortly thereafter Jovie started pulling on her leash and whining.  I jogged down the hill to check out the situation, and even checked behind...

Thank you to those of you who participated in my first ever book give-away!  It was sweet to read your comments, and I was encouraged by each one of you.  Keeping with the spirit of the contest, I would like to share that I am thankful for Chuck!  I'm thankful because he supports me wherever I'm at- whether it be in a sad mood, a bad mood, an excited mood, or a happy mood.  He gets me, and I'm thankful.  I love him because he leads our family with Godly wisdom- even when I'm dragging my heels, he makes wise choices. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for!  The grand prize winner of her very own copy of, "For Women Only" is:  MELODY!  Hip Hip Hooray!  Just to be fair, I wrote all of your names on little slips of paper, put them in a bowl, and drew Melody's name. Congratulations Melody!  I will deliver the book into your hands during our next M2M meeting.  Thanks for commenting- hope you enjoy the book.  =)  

Just a reminder- tomorrow is the final day to enter my first ever BOOK GIVE AWAY!  (Read previous post.) Our home is taking on a simpler agenda these days.  A little over a week ago I decided to deactivate my Facebook account.  I have a couple friends who don't have an account and I had been finding myself being envious of them.  I would think things like, "I wish I didn't have a Facebook account."  It was silly to think that because I don't have to have an account.  There are many, many reasons why I finally decided to take the plunge and press that deactivate button.  I won't bore you with the inner workings of my mind and heart, but basically I just don't like the "Facebook Pressure".  There are always several messages to respond to, comments to "like", questions to answer, pictures to post...and I just got tired of keeping up with it all.  I didn't like that I was sitting on the computer while Jase was watching me.  I hated ...

I give full credit to this blog post idea to one Mrs. Lindsay Jacobs!  She wrote a blog post about the book, "The Power of a Praying Wife" by Stormie Omartian- you can read her post here .  I have been praying through this book since Chuck and I were engaged, and it's amazing to see how God has answered those prayers.  Lindsay actually had a give away of this book on her blog, and it inspired me to do my own give away of a different book. (*Fun Fact:  Lindsay is the sister-in-law of my "old friend" Amber I wrote about in my last post!) Chuck's older sister recommended the book, "For Women Only" by Shaunti Feldhahn when we were engaged.  I read it back then, and then recently re-read most of it.  Ironically, a woman from our church gave me another copy for Christmas (but I just got it in March, ha!).  Soooo, I thought I'd do what Lindsay did and offer a brand new, FREE  revised and updated copy of "For Women Only" to a randomly sel...

It has been an incredible gift to have girl friends in my life, some of which I have known for over 20 years.  My first friend (that I am still close with) is probably my cousin, Heather.  I'm sure I must have met her within my first year of life.  She stood up with me at our wedding, and I'm really grateful for her. Amber is another one of my oldest friends. (I don't mean she's old!)  I can still clearly remember the very first time I met her.  We were both 10 or 11, and were sitting in a choir class at our church.  Amber was sitting next to me and proudly announced, "I have 52 brothers!"  I remember thinking to myself, "OH brother.  She thinks she's so cool!"  =)  Amber's parent's were dorm parent's at BBC, which was the college across the street from our church.  Whenever we got together, I would be so anxious if we played in her home.  I had such a fear of walking into a GUY'S dorm where females were not allowed.  I ...

The past several days have been unbelievably amazing weather wise.  I mean like the perfect, too-good-to-be-true weather.  For three days straight!  My heart never feels more alive than when the weather is warm.  Today, for instance, our windows are wide open with the breezes flowing through- airing out the winter, stale, cooped up yuckiness.  HELLO SPRING!  Today the high is 73 degree's.  73!  Hallelujah!  After Jase's nap, we'll be hitting the streets.  Jovie will get a walk, I will get a walk (which my fat butt really needs), and Jase will get plenty of fresh air to fill and refresh his little pneumonia-infected lungs.  Don't worry, he is all better, but I feel like the fresh air will just be good for his little bod. The past two weeks have been akin to a nightmare, but we are putting that behind us and moving towards the joys of Spring.  I may write about Jase's first, incredibly frightening illness, but I may not.  ...