"A Woman and her God."

"A Woman and her God" is a wonderful book that I am reading that was given to me by my friend Sarah for my birthday. I have to say that I received wonderful, thoughtful gifts for my birthday but this has been my favorite. The book is a collaboration of authors, one of them is Beth Moore. Beth Moore is amazing. I am so excited to be doing a study by her in a couple of weeks with some women from my church. 

Anyway the first chapter is about loving God more then life. This has been something I have thought and prayed about A LOT over the last week. I really love life. I have had to wrap my mind around if I love God more then life and how I can love him more then life. She writes out Psalm 63. This is a great psalm. The first sentence is God you are my God. I think that loving God more then life obviously has to start by knowing him and recognizing that he really is OUR God, your God and my God. Also that God loves us personally and he belongs to each one of us as Abba Father. I have had a new perspective on God this week in the sense of viewing him as my Abba Father. When I consider who a father is in the perspective of humanity God is all that and more, and it has helped me realize that there is no reason to not love him more then I love my life. I could go on and on about this book. The chapter of Self concept was life changing. In the chapter about Self Concept the author talks about what a healthy self concept looks like and what an unhealthy self concept looks like. She expressed that her  whole life she thought that something was wrong with her, that she was weird or different then everyone else. I have shared this same feeling with my sisters and as an adult have still struggled with this but I honestly thought that I was the only person who thought this. I thought it was weird or different thinking. I didn't think anyone would ever understand and that alone made me feel different. So reading this from a woman who is an author of a devotional book was huge for me. It also got me reflecting on the ways that Satan lies to us. Seriously I think that is the one lie I fall for over and over again, I am alone and no one could possibly understand how I feel. Amidst reading all this is when she talks about God being Abba Father and that she never really had a father figure growing up. I have struggled so much in my relationship with my dad in the last few years. It still hurts now as I am thinking about it. I will tell my dad that I love him and he doesn't even say I love you back. He doesn't like to visit and he rarely calls. However, I know in my head that he loves me. What I learned is that I need to recognize God as my father. The one that I look for to receive love, support, encouragement, guidance, and wisdom. He needs to fill my tank and when I do this it frees up the people in my life to be human and make mistakes. They aren't responsible for meeting my needs, anything that they say or do for me is above and beyond because I have allowed God to be everything that I need. Again I can't say enough about this book. I can't imagine that I won't read it over and over again because I know that I will probably need to be reminded of the things that I learned but I am learning so much about God and about myself. 

WORDS WORDS WORDS AND MORE WORDS

Turtle, Tickle, Cow, Sit down, and I don't even know what, are all words that Brody has said this week! It was weird, on a rare occasion he would repeat a word and all of the sudden one night I was reading a book to him and he just started repeating the words that I was saying. He has been doing it a lot ever since. I can't complain, I love it! I have a feeling though that once this kid starts really talking... he isn't going to stop. :)

I'M STUCK...

remember how a REALLy LONG time ago I was happily singing about losing 12lbs... WELLLLLLL I haven't lost anymore weight.

"It doesn't matter, It doesn't matter, It doesn't matter!!" This is me trying to not focus on the weight. However, I would like to loose more weight I would like to weigh a little less then where I am at but I feel really good about where I am and what I have accomplished. I honestly can see me exercising regularly for a long time because I have created a habit and I really enjoy it. I couldn't imagine enjoying exercise but I do and just because of that I guess I could say that maybe I'm not stuck. :)

GAUCAMOOOOLLLLEEE!!!

I love gaucamole! Did you know this about me?? It's one of my favorite things. My mom used to make gauc from scratch growing up. Well Saturday when we were at Don's sister house she had gaucamole there. mmmmm.....! I was eating corn chips and dipping them in the gauc. Well Brody was sitting in my lap and sees me doing this. He then grabs a chip and dips it in the gaucamole. He tasted it and right away gets another chip and dips it and then tastes it and dips it again and then again... before I know he takes his hand and grabs a handful and shoves it in his face!!! Hahahahaha... I guess he loves gaucamole too. :) 

Midnight Madness

Our weekend was fun and busy. Friday night we went to a fundraiser for Don's cousin. They had a dinner and an Elvis impersonator. Brody stayed with Friends and we went to pick him up afterwards. I was surprised that he went to bed fairly easy when we got home. Typically if he sleeps for awhile and then wakes up he thinks it's time to play. We think this is what may have happened on Saturday but we can't be too sure!

Saturday I got to escape and go to the MALL! I love the mall. The shops, all the people, the smell of naughty food!  It's great. 

I got home shortly after five and we still needed to eat dinner. Don wanted to go to his sister's house in Andover. It takes about 30 minutes together. By the time we got out of the house it was like 6:30. We were just going to hang out and visit. She didn't say anything about making food for us so that is why we ate before we left. Well when we got there she had a ton of food made. She made taquitos, quesadilla's, she had chips and gaucomole, mango salsa... I don't remember if there was anything else. So we all ATE again. Don gave Brodes a taquito. I didn't think that this was a great idea because I thought they were just a little spicy but he didn't think so. Anyway we put Brody in his playpen to sleep so we could watch a movie. He went to bed fairly easy. When the movie was over we walk him up right away and started to get ready to head home. It was about midnight! Well we ended up continuing to talk while Brody started to wake up and play. We finally get in the car to head home, I thought for sure he would fall asleep on the way home. NOPE.. still awake when we get home. So we get ready for bed. Sophie  , our dog, is making a weird gagging noise. Great. Don decided to put her in the laundry room for the night. Off to bed we all went, or atleast we thought we were going to bed! It's 1 am by the way. Brody is screaming his head off. So Don gets up and goes and checks on him. Meanwhile the dog is gagging something terrible and we can hear her in our bedroom. It sounds like she might be dying. It was really awful. When she wasn't gagging she was whining and hitting the door. So I grab a chair and put it in front of the door so that she at least will stop scratching the door. BTW, when I went in to put the chair in front of the door she had thrown up, x3! Nasty. Meanwhile, Don is rocking Brody. Appparently little big man was gassy! Hmmmm.. so is the gas keeping him up or was it because we woke him. and WHY would he have gas??? Spicy food maybe?? 

So Don and I head back to bed about 2:15am. I fell asleep around 2:30. I woke up at 3:30 from hearing Brody crying. I get up and Don and Brody are rocking again. Apparently I fell asleep but Brody did not and Don had been up with him. Needless to say the dog was still gagging and whining. Don just looks at me and says "WHAT is with this night." We all finally went to sleep at 5am and slept until 10am!! It was MADNESS! Sophie threw up ALL over the laundry room and is still gagging. Something clearly is not right with our dog and we are not sure what it is. We think maybe she ate something and got it stuck in her throat. We really just don't know. The mystery with Brody is still a mystery but he literally was up from 12am - 5am. Needless to say we were exhausted yesterday and didn't do much of anything. :)

Some changes!

Clearly I changed my blog. As you know this was not an easy task for me! However I did add some things but they are at the bottom. I added "followers". So if you follow my blog you can sign up for that and let me know it! :) THANKS!!

His Little Hands

His little hands unfolding the laundry

His little hands knocking on the door.

His little hands all over the mirror

His little hands full of spaghetti

His little hands banging on the high chair

His little hands trying to do everything mommy and daddy do

His little hands holding onto my pant leg

His little hands hugging my neck

His little hands holding my face

His little hands holding my hands.

Oh how I love his chubby little hands.

Geeeeezzz... what are you? BRILLIANT?

So as you can see I redesigned my blog!! It's absolutely ridiculous how hard it is! It's not exactly the way I would want it but I think it looks a little better with a personal touch! So to those of you who design blogs, or those of you who have customized your own I give you props because sizing the picture just right and working with them within the templates that they give you is a big pain in the.......... BUTT!! :) 

GO TO FACEBOOK!

So if you want to check out the pictures from my birthday I recommend you just go to facebook! Sorry but I don't feel like trying to figure out why these ridiculous pictures don't want to load onto my blog! :) 

Urrr... after all that work.

I finally uploaded and edited some of the pictures from when we went to the apple orchard. I have been wanting to get some of them uploaded and I finally take the time to do it and the upload gives me a bad error!!! WHATEVER.. I am going to bed and you all will have to wait to see the pictures. TTFN!

My baby's coming home to me!

Don has been at a men's retreat all weekend. I know that it's only been 51 hours since he left!! :) BUT I miss him so much and I can't wait to have a break. Hehehee.. I am ancy as he literally should be walking through the door any minute. 

I got to see my best friend Sarah this weekend. My sister who is another one of my best friends. I had some really good time with God and learned that I could survive a weekend on my own. I even slept all night by myself one night. I know that this probably sounds small to some of you but I have a phobia of being home alone at night. It was daunting but I woke up feeling victorious!! :) It was a big step in my faith with God and I praise him for giving me the courage to get through a lonely night. 

The Spoiler..

Today September 18th, 2008 I turned 32. :) It was fun to see your votes for what we should do to celebrate, even though I already knew before I put the poll up. There was two that were probably tied in my desires which was to get a facial or go to a hotel for a night with Don. I would love to go away with my husband. Regardless I can't complain. My Don is a spoiler from beginning to end. First of all he took the day off of work. :) That in itself is thoughtful. I got up this morning  and exercised and got ready for the day and we headed off to the apple orchard. It was a beautiful day. We ran around and took some pictures, ate apples, ice cream and donuts. Aren't we naughty!! :) We bought fresh apples and apple butter and then ran off to Taylor Falls. Basically we walked around the town and looked through the little shops, we also bought fresh vegies at the farmers market. Then came the downer!! Seriously it was awful, I was humilated. We went out to dinner at AppleBee's. This was mainly for convience. Do you KNOW what happens at AppleBee's on your birthday? The staff all come out singing and clapping... the song said something about getting old, turning red, and I don't know what else but I don't think I have ever been more embarrassed. Seriously I just turned away from them put my hand up and couldn't look even of them in the face. I thought I was going to throw up. We ended the night at Target running around, which was kind of putting us all over the edge but it was still fun because I ended up returning one of Don's gifts and I got a CD and sunglasses. Anyway it was a great day with my family and to top it all off I got A TON of emails, phone calls, messages with lots of birthday wishes and singing!!!!! THANK YOU for thinking of me. :) 

Prayer for Brody~

For the last several months Brody's hemoglobin has been low. I haven't been real concerned because it's pretty much normal in my family to have a low hemoglobin and it's always been normal for me to have a slightly low hemoglobin. The Doc wanted to put him on iron because they tend to suggest iron with a low hemoglobin. However due to family history I didn't feel peaceful about this and suggested that they test his ferratin levels. This would tell us whether or not his iron is low. His ferratin levels were slightly low but just barely. Since then the Dr. called and left a message stating they want to do further testing. Today I spoke to the doctor directly because Don and I didn't want to do more testing unless it was absolutely necessary. Basically the doctor feels that it's important to proceed. We aren't really sure what they are looking for. I know that they want to take a closer look at his red cells. I think we both are a little scared about what this could mean. If we knew what they were looking for maybe it would be less scary but the unknown takes your mind to places that are unmentionable. Next Wednesday we will both be taking Brody into the lab for more blood tests. Don and I know that Brody belongs to God, we place him in his hands and trust that God is in control of the situation and Brody's life. I love the verse Jeremiah 29:11 " For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to proser you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

We would greatly appreciate your prayers. We don't want to just talk about trusting God but that we will completely trust him and sometimes it might be day to day or minute by minute. This might be nothing and that is what we are hoping for but like I said it's the unknown that can be haunting. Thank you for your prayers, love and support. 

JR :)

Creating a rucus!

Today I was on the elliptical, happily watching The View. The t.v. keeps me distracted from my aching back, jelloey legs, and the disgusting sticky wet feeling from being drenched in sweat. :) AND yet I keep going back. Whoopi G. was talking about how crazy people are for not evacuating their homes when a life threatening storm is heading right for them; AKA: hurricane Ike. 

Her rant was funny and of course as I chuckled out loud I hear another boisterous laugh come from this cute pudgy gray haired man next to me. He noticed me laughing as well and got rather excited, which made us both laugh harder. We made somewhat of a rucus. :) Seriously people were looking. However Whoopi is just so funny. This cute old man was rather excitable and very talkative. Then there was me trying to smile and be polite while practically hyperventilating trying to talk to him back. He loved that I was watching the View and was telling me that it gets him through his work out! Barely able to speak I reiterated the same thing but I don't think he could hear me because I was breathless and who knows maybe he was hard of hearing. I am sure we were quite the site. 

Back at the ranch!!

Life is starting to get back to normal and slowly we are getting used to our new home. The apartment is basically unpacked and organized, except for one box. The one box isn't anything that I have wanted to deal with yet but I will get there. Hey it's been a week and a half. I think that's pretty good. :) It is really comfortable, cozy and feels SAFE!! I can't explain how good it feels to feel safe. 

 After weeks of having a crazy schedule Brodes and I are back at the gym pretty regularly. I wish I could say that I lost more then 12lbs but I did and then I gained back about 3-4 lbs. So honestly I think I am still at 12lbs. :) Oh well. I am still loving going and am happy that's it's becoming a lifestyle change. This is where I try to focus. :) 

Since we are getting into the fall season programs, Bible studies are taking off and I am looking forward to a few activities this year. I signed up the kid and I for an ECFE class. It starts next Friday and I am really looking forward to it. I am hoping to meet some moms that live close and have kids Brody's age. They also talk about parenting techniqes and I think that will be fun. I will also be doing MOPS this year and even though they have daycare I will get to go by myself. :) YEAH! Last but not least in October I will be starting a Beth Moore Bible Study which I am very excited about. Everyone raves about her studies and it will be the first time I have done one. :) 

Along with fall comes Don going back to school as well. I am a little nervous about this year because I know that he will be working more then he has in the past on top of school and doing an internship. It's going to be a busy busy year. 

boisterous laughter!

A couple of weeks ago at the gym the girl next to me laughed out loud at whatever she was watching on T.V. It was kind of funny. I remember thinking that I was surprised I hadn't done that because I am the person who laughs the loudest at the movie theater. :) However, I also thought to myself that I will have to make a point to try really hard NOT to do that because I would be so embarrassed.

So last week I was thoroughly enjoying watching Regis and Kelly as I was booking it on the elleptical. :) Which is my fave. (the elliptical.) I can't tell you what was said or what happened but I laughed LOUD and HARD outloud at the gym. :) Honestly I didn't even realize it at first or think about where I was. After a few seconds when I finally realized it I looked around rather sheepishly but I didn't see anyone laughing at me so I turned around and tried to pretend that it hadn't happened. :) :) What can I say, I love to laugh. 

I'm back!

So I have been checking blogs throughout the week at the old house. We still have internet connected there. However, I was typically limited for time as I had a 15 month old running around  the house with free reign, so I would read and run. BUT NOW we got the internet hooked up at the apartment and all is well in my soul!! HAHAHA... :) It's a little sad how much I missed having it easily accessible. 

Will be Missing you!!

We are moved. Now it's time for adjusting for everyone. Sophie has been pretty wound up, Brody is trying to get used to sleeping in a new room and so am I, and I am adjusting to taking care of Brody in a new place. It's good changes but I am tired. I am hoping in a couple of weeks we will be more settled and used to our new place. The unpacking is coming along smoothly and we have A LOT done! It's weird because I don't have internet there. We actually still have the internet hooked up at the old house and have been going there to clean, do laundry and check on the place. So here I am sitting and writing to you all. I am not sure when or if I will get internet at the new place so I may be reading and responding to your blogs less and writing less. :( I will do my best to try and keep up. I will probably be back tomorrow afternoon but after that not sure. Take care and I'll be checking in when I can. :)

Cruising right along!!

Well Don and I have gotten quite a bit of packing and moving done and it's not even the weekend!! SWWWEEEETTT! It feels good to see our new little place coming together and weird to see our house becoming more and more vacant. I am going to be going to the house this afternoon to do some more unpacking and some cleaning. Maybe I will try to take a few pictures and post them. We have moved two loads over to the apartment and one to storage already. However if you look at our house we still have quite a bit of stuff. It's crazy. I didn't really how much STUFF we had stuffed into our little house.

Anyway, this is what I have been up to and it's kept me pretty busy. However this morning while Brody slept I decided to take the time to catch up with the blog community. I had a great morning. Don spoiled me this morning and I got to go to the gym by myself, then I showered and got ready for the day (by myself!)  and then I ran an errand to target to get some more stuff to help us organize our new place. So that's life from JP and the boys! This weekend I get to go to a Fisher Price play date and spend the weekend continuing to organize our new place. It will be nice to be moved in and get settled. :)

MORE MORE MORE!!!

I really wasn't trying to allow the dog to keep doing this but I was getting them playing together and it just happened!! You would think that Brody would learn to close his mouth. :( eewww..

Regardless they completely love each other. Brody laughs harder when the dog is around then any other time. It's so cute. 

The night the goose came..

Sarah's oldest, Nathaniel!! Isn't he the cutest. I was at the hospital the day he was born!! :) 

The boys on the boat. Brodes thought that Caleb was hilarious!

Brodes loved standing at the back of the boat. We would stop and restart and he loved the take off. It was hilarious!
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Just the girls!

After bathtime we read the kids a story. TERRY was a brave man. He gave all of the little kiddo's a bath together. It was so cute. :) Thanks Terry!

What a little wise guy!

Isn't Sarah beautiful! LOVE YOU LADY!

Look at that handsome little dude! He looks so happy.

Little M... she is just a peanut and is a few months older then Brody. 

Love my MAN!

This is my favorite... could that be any cuter?? I don't think so.

Last Wednesday I was so excited. We were going to be heading north to go visit my girlfriend Sarah and her family. Sarah has been one of my best friends since college and she is the best!! We have so much fun together and we always always laugh... she is hilarious. :) They have a pontoon and when we go up there it's always nice to go out in the boat. The first time we took Brody out I didn't have my camera!!!! Isn't that a shame. So this time I brought our little point and shoot, for convience purposes but I still got some cute pictures. Oh wait, I am getting ahead of myself. So anway Sarah kept telling me about the night before they saw this goose that flew right up to the boat and was following it. She said it was the craziest thing.. well here we are out in the boat. They kept wondering if we would see this crazy goose again. On the shore line we see a goose but he didn't come over to the boat so they thought that it wasn't the same goose!! WRONG... all the sudden here he comes, parks himself along side the boat and follows us for a bit and then starts to lag behind and then goes away. It's quite amusing. We all got a kick out of the little guy. Anyway we had such a great night with our friends. Here our some pictures. 

Why you shouldn't run at the dog with your mouth open...

 GROSS!! Hahahaha.... 

Moving on..

Since I have been married Don and I have never really been settled. I guess the most settled we were was in our first house. However, even then I knew it was temporary. I knew he always wanted to go back to school. Since we have been married the longest we have lived in one place has been about 2.5 years. We have been in transition since he decided to go back to school and we have two years of school left. There is apart of me that is ancy and ready for the transition to come to end. I am excited for Don to be done with school and to find a place where we can stay and raise our children, a place that they can call home.

Right now we are in transition again. We are moving. Most of you know this. It has been stressful as the circumstances are far from ideal. (In terms of why we are moving.) Regardless of this we have been packing and tonight we started to move stuff to the new apartment. We will be living with Don's mentors in their house. They have an apartment in the basement of their home. Today as I packed I felt more content about his move since we first knew it was going to happen. Tonight however as we were sitting there and putting furniture where we want it, unpacking our stuff I could picture us living there. I am excited to move on. I am excited to live somewhere that will feel safe and  secure. I am excited to be close to family. They are truly family. I am excited that Brody will have his "adopted" grandparents upstairs. They adore him. They are so sweet and thoughtful, they told us that they are willing to keep an eye for Brody at night if he is sleeping and we want to go out for ice cream, or for a walk. It's just nice to know we have the option. I will say that there is a small hint of sadness as we leave our home where we became a family. Certainly this house holds many memories but I know that it's time to move on and have peace about our newest endeavor. 

Catching UP!

I am so bad at blogging. I am behind in pictures, stories and everything. These pictures are from the weekend of the dedication. I love watching Brody interact with friends and family. He loves his cousins. We have also discovered that he loves football. Don keeps telling him that he can love to watch it but he can't play it. I have a feeling that when the time comes Brody will tell us if he wants to play it or not! :) We will see. While the boys were here they brought a little football with and it has replaced the big football for now because it's easier to carry and he carries it around everywhere. He is such a boy! 

This weekend was busy but a lot of fun. Saturday I shot a wedding on a boat in Afton. It was so fun. They were an adorable couple with such a fun and close family. I hope to be posting the pictures on my business blog later this week. After the wedding we headed to my parents for the weekend. It's been awhile since we have traveled home or any kind of long distance with Brody!! I was shoved back into the reality of why we don't travel long distances anymore. It's amazing how a 3 hour trip can get drawn out. We left our house at 4pm on Saturday and got to my parents house just before 10pm. Now I will say that we had to run to Home Depot and get gas just after we left. Then we took the wrong road by accident while we were leaving town and had to turn around. Then of course we stopped and got dinner, then later had to stop again for a bathroom break. Every time we stop we have to let the dog out to go to the bathroom so it's never a quick stop. Needless to say by the time we got there we were tired and a little crabby. Then Brodes decides he doesn't like Grandma and Grandpa's house and screamed bloody murder for about an hour. The first night was a bit tough. However we got through it. :) Sunday we stayed home from church. Don got up with Brody and let me sleep until about 9:30. Honestly I was so tired I went back to sleep and slept for another hour while Grandma took Brody to the park. When she got back we gave him lunch and he took over a 3 hour nap. :) Grandma napped too and I worked on pictures. My Grandma and my aunt Suzie stopped by while everyone was napping and I had a fun visit with them. Then in the evening my parents took me out for dinner for my birthday (early birthday dinner.)! It was nice. Then we went to see my sister and my nephews. It was really fun. Brody was so happy and excited to see them. He was making us all laugh. He kept putting a blanket over his head and running around with it. He is in this stage right now where he thinks it's really funny but then he runs into things. It is funny! He cracks me up. We left my parents at 10am Monday morning to come home and again we stopped quite a bit. We went and saw my other sister and nephews. That was really fun. Her boys are very close to Brody's age and they all just seemed to love each other. It's so fun to see Brody interact with other kids and get excited to see them and play with them. They had a big stuffed alligator and it completely freaked him out. He was crying hysterically. I am such a bad mom. I was laughing at him and I didn't mean to but it was sorta of funny! I guess you would have had to been there. :) Anyway it was a good weekend. I ended it by going to a movie with my youngest sister and it was really fun. I love spending time with her. We saw "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2". We laughed and cried together.  All in all it was a good weekend. Hope you all had great weekends as well!!