Fasting...

Just a quick little post to let everyone know if were facebook friends and it seems like I have dropped off the facebook planet well I have, but only until Monday the 10th!! I've decided to give up facebook for fasting this week. I decided that I tend to lean too much on the opinions of others and well I am hopelessly addicted to facebook. It has been good for me. I have dedicated more time to prayer and just plain talking to God. I have been diligent in my Beth Moore study of David. And I have even started to read "As Silver Refined" By Kay Arthur. If you haven't read this book or done the David study then I highly recommend both of these to you.

Well I hope you all have a blessed week :)

So I said....

I would blog more and I haven't really gotten off to a good start Sheesh! I missed the whole month of September! I mean like who does that? Me, that's who...

Well a lot has happened since August, so let me dish....

Time completely escaped me and just a few weeks ago I remembered that "Oh crap! I still have to finish my international craft swap thingy!" So I have successfully finished one project and I have the last three lined up so that I can just knock them out. Yep, that's right I set them up to knock them down :)
So can you guess what my Saturday will consist of when I am not at the park with my little monkey??

My husband and I have started back at our old church again. We just love it so much that we couldn't stay away! Especially when there is one so close to our house :) So on Saturday nights we go to our church up by our house and then on Sunday mornings we drive to the other Church location 25 minutes away and work in the children's minitries. Yep that's right we have the main branch 5 minutes from our home but do we volunteer there?? Noooo, lol. Our family lives in a town about 20 minutes away so we basically visit them every weekend. So we don't mind the trip it always opens up for some thought provoking talk between the hubby and I :)

I have already decided I don't want to minor in art. Yep, I have already changed my mind lol! I am leaning more toward Religion now. I have that very interesting, but you never know I may change my mind again :)

I decorated for fall last night! It was a ton of fun until I realized, "Oh darn, I don't have that many fall decorations..." But it didn't stop there it inspired me I have a ton of frames sitting in a tubberware box in my closet. So I think I am ghoing to frame a sign saying fall or something... I haven't quite worked out all the kinks/ideas yet....

Oh my husband quit smking again!!! WOOHOO!!! I can't tell you how happy this makes me! We went through some rough times and he reverted back to smoking after he had quit for about 8 months. But I am extremely happy to report that he put it down again! It's been almost a week and it's been amazing! He told me after day 3 that he no longer had a desire to smoke! Praise God!!!

My sister in law is getting married in Decemeber so I spent one weekend making the invites and thank you cards for her bridal shower! It was very fun but it was very much crazy work!! My MIL and I had a great time putting them together with her friends from work. Afterwards we went to lunch at Chili's and then headed back to the house. It was a funfilled day. And now that I have the invite hanging on my fridge it makes me smile!! Now all I have to do is pray that God will provide the means for a gift for her in 2 weeks....

Oh I went out on a date with my hubby for the first time in 4 months! That was pretty amazing! If we could I would say we should go on one every week! But I enjoy staying in as well! So I see a movie night in our future. But anyways back to the date... We had a gift card from our anniversary to use and my husband loves the Olive Garden so we went there :) He told me we had to go before October 9th, because that my friends is when the never ending psata bowl ends and you can't miss out on that, that would be a true tradegy! (At least in his opinion, I am happy with salad :) Afterwards we went over to Tin City, which is this cute little place with beach like shops (who would've thought beach like shops in Florida hahaha) well inside Tin City there is a place called the Amazing Cookie company (or something like that) and they have these huge chocolate chip cookies that are perfect for sharing! So we got one of those little gems and shared it and talked it was quite nice :)

I also have a project which I am still working on... It is picture cubes for the bridal shower... They are these little cube blocks that have about 5 wires comming out of them and you stick pictures on them... Well they were red and orange and well didn't really match the theme of the shower... So I have been recovering them with scrap book paper to match the decor and I found some nice ribbon which I am using you wrap them up like a present. They look really cute so far and I will post pictures soon. My sister in law doesn't read or even know my blog exists so I am free to talk about these things :) I will try to upload pictures this weekend but honestly it probably wont happen!

I have been trying a lot of new recipes lately. Mostly from my cooking light magazine. Cooking/baking makes me happy and so does my cooking light magazine. I will post some recipes soon :)

Austin has been improving in school. The third grade has been rough on him! But twice a week I go to the library and I pick up chapter books for him and then I pick up books about the human body, or bugs, or birds and we sit and read them together and learn about them. It has really helped with improving his reading skills. Plus it makes me happy to hear him talk about what he has learned weeks later and how excited it makes him! So needless to say I am one happy mama!

Ethan my youngest doesn't really like to snuggle... I mean he loves for me to pick him up and hold him but he isn't one for snuggling in the bed... Which makes me a little sad but is ok... But 2 weeks ago I came home from work and said hey why don't you tell me about your day (which is what I ask my boys everyday when I get home from work) so he took my hand and we walked into my bed room and laid down on the floor (yes the floor) and he laid his head on my extended arm and he persisted to tell me about his day which is just the cutest darn thing coming from a 2 year old! So it was nice to have him lay with me for 5 minutes! It's those precious moments in life that I cling to everyday!

Well sorry for the random all over the place talking! I guess that pretty sums up the last month or so's events! So I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week! Happy Hump Day!  :)

I lost myself somewhere along the way....

So I tried the whole blogging by phone thing today and well it bombed majorly! So here I go...

I lost myself 5 months ago...

I lost who I was and what I wanted in life. I felt like I was a completely different person! I am getting better now. Not 100% yet but better. I don't really know what happened to me. I think I became depressed with my life and what it had become. I started to feel sorry for myself instead of proactively trying to change it. I let so many things drag me down and before long I was no longer me.... I was only a shell of my former self... I don't know if any of this is making sense... But my point is I have had a difficult 5 months....

I have lost my job of 6 years... I have a new job now (Praise God) It doesn't pay nearly as well as my last job but it's a job... After losing my job I realized that I haven't doen anything with my life... I felt like a failure in so many ways... My eyes have been opened to the things and people around me and I have finally decided to take the plunge and apply to college's in my area. For the longest time I have wanted to major in business and now I have found my true calling! I want to be an Elementary School teacher... I want to help mold the young minds of our future! I am very excited about this new challenge I have put before myself and if it is God's will I know I will accomplish it! So I will attend school for my degree in elementary education with a minor in art... So now all I have to do is actually apply to these schools... This scares me to death but I feel it's time to step outside my comfort zone and more on to bigger and better things. And well I don't have it all figured out I have but a small part one step in the right dirrection.... And honestly as long as I have God in my life I can only go up. I just need to keep my focus on him and know that if I do then nothing is unattainable!! So here's to a new better verison of me... One molded by God's love and never ending grace....

This weekend didn't go as planned....

Well this weekend didn't go as planned to say the least! But it wasn't bad either. So here is what happened.

So I was driving home Friday from work and I was two minutes away when I realized I had forgotten to stop and get gas. My gas light came dinging on as a big reminder, "Hey dummy you forgot to fill me up!" So I had to make a detour back to the gas station. As I was pulling in my phone rang. It was my husband I could hear Ethan (our youngest son) screaming this blood curtailing scream/cry in the receiver! My heart started pounding. I knew that cry, that was his "I'm hurt mommy" cry. I felt this urgency. I put enough gas in my car to get me home and get us to the Urgent care place! I couldn't hear what happened to him because Jon couldn't talk over Ethan's scream. When I got home I had no idea what I was walking into. I barely put the car in park before I was out in a dead run for the house. I grabbed my baby and saw that he had a big gash above his eye. I felt horrible! I immediately ran to the car and put him in his car seat. I sat in the back with him the whole way. He was fine, I wasn't. I maintained composure of course but I just kept praying that this would be the only thing wrong that he would be fine and nothing too serious would come of this! We were finally seen after 45 minutes (Which really wasn't that long but felt like eternity!) And then we sat back there another 45 minutes and then in 5 minutes everything was done. Ethan now has 4 stitches above his eye. He is doing well but I'm still not great. I am just so grateful my oldest (Austin) wasn't home. He would've lost it! He has so much compassion for everyone else that his little heart just can't stand to see others hurt! It brings him to tears every time!

So now Ethan is sporting a very nice shiner! I am hoping the swelling will go down soon. It hasn't really yet and he doesn't like it to be iced. What two year old would??

Just a little something to show I'm still Alive....

I have about 4 unfinished blog post waiting for me to have time to upload pictures and post them. But in the meantime I thought I would spout off at the mouth err hands a bit. No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth I have just been overly busy! Between working full time, being a full time mom, and full time wife, all while still finding time to make beautiful things! This past week I have been in training at our downtown office and trying to make up hours. I have been covering my bosses areas of responsibility as well. One is on vacation and the other has been in and out of training all week. I have been delegating work to the guys, covering a meeting, and keeping the peace with an angry customer. So all in all I am looking forward to this weekend. A weekend of rest, a weekend of catching up on blog posts, a weekend of going to the beach, and a weekend of bike riding and enjoying the beautiful Florida weather with almost all of my beautiful family!

I was talking to my sweet Austin last night at bed time and he was (and has been) telling me how much he is going to miss me this weekend. I told him I would see him Monday but that wasn't good enough for him. Let me explain my situation a tad bit before I continue. Austin is my oldest son from my first marriage and while I have him full time during the school year (except for 2 weekends a month) I don't see much of him in the summer. Last Summer Austin had a melt down after not seeing me for a month. He started going a tad crazy, screaming at his dad, having problems sleeping and well the list goes on. I'll never forget that day when I got that call from Austin's dad telling me I needed to come immediately to Tampa and pick Austin up! My heart was beating so fast. Of course the question "what's wrong is everything ok" came flying out of my mouth! He explained about the breakdown and told me Austin had to see me ASAP. So since that day Austin hasn't spent more then 4 days max away from me. So I am worried about spring break this year and then of course the impending Summer vacation! So back to my story I spoke with his dad this morning and voiced my concerns  he said he would be keeping a very close eye on him. I hope he does so. He's not always the most reliable person!

Well I think that's all I got for now! Have a great weekend everyone!

Earing Swap!!

I am excited to be participating in this earring swap! Swapping parties make me so happy! So here are the deet's in the Spring Fling Earring Swap:

1. Sign up by March 1st (details below).
2. Buy a pair of earrings for your swap partner. The limit is $20.00. That means if you score a cute pair of earrings for $6, you buy three!!
3. Mail out your earring goodness no later than March 20th.

4. If you'd like, blog about what your swap partner sent you (with pictures! We'd love to see!) then come back here and link up with a special linky in the first week of April.
***A word about sending your swap partner earrings you've made yourself:

Please don't, unless you have your own handmade shop where you already sell quality handmade earrings. Let's leave the earring-making to the professionals, shall we?

Please stop by Yes Teachers blog and participate in this lovely swap!!!

The Craft Swap!

I am totally participating in this and you should too :) I am so excited I could just scream! Please go check out her blog! I hope you all are having a blessed day!