I Love My Husband!

I just found these pictures of Jason and I from our wedding and honeymoon on my computer. These were taken before the days of digital cameras, but I had scanned these to my computer a while back for something else and I forgot about them!

Here we are on our wedding day. May 29, 1999. Almost 10 years ago! It seems like just yesterday. We were just babies; I was 18 and Jason was 20. We have been together since I was 15 and he was 17.

For those of you who don't remember his old beater truck from back in high school...well...let's just say she was sure a beauty. It didn't bother him to drive that truck and it sure didn't bother me to ride anywhere and everywhere with him in it. Right next to him. He went to work full time the very next day after his last day of his senior year. It was the week before he even graduated. Of course, one of the first things he wanted to do was buy himself a new truck. But you know what he did before he bought a new truck? He bought my engagement ring.

Upon his request, I showed him what I liked at the jewelry store. Of course, he went back later and picked out a ring with a diamond that was more than twice the size of what I had chosen. Here is a picture of it today. Shown with my wedding band too, of course.

This was a young man, barely 18, who had his priorities straight.

Since that day, he has always had his priorities in line. I am so thankful for that. Jason doesn't have a need to hang out with the guys. Sure, every once in a blue moon, but hardly ever. He can't wait to get home and be with me and the kids. He would rather be doing anything with me than be with anyone else.

The first thing he does when he walks in the door (after he hugs and kisses whatever children may be in his path) is come find me, wherever I am in the house, and give me a kiss and a hug.

He will do anything and everything I ask him to do around the house. Never grumbles or complains about anything. Just makes sure that I'm always ok. He tells me he loves me at least 50 times a day (no, I'm not exaggerating)!

Here we are on our honeymoon trip to Cancun. We went on a little cruise on this boat. We had a little too much fun on this little excursion!

I'm so thankful to say that we are a million times more in love today than we were on this day back in June of 1999. We've still never had a fight. Sure, we disagree plenty, but we just state our opinion to each other and let it go. (The occasional disagreements didn't happen either until we became self employed and we work together... :-)

God sure knew what he was doing when he put us together. As always, and with everything else, He knows what's best for us.

I'm sure my sweet husband will have a red face when he reads this because he is so modest and has never been one to boast about anything. I did this anyway, because I want him to know how much he means to me- other than me telling him- which I do almost everyday.

I will spare you of anymore mushy gushy for today!

October

Forgive me for neglecting the blog... we have had so much going on, I can't even begin to tell you.

But, life is good and God is good!!! That's what I will say!

Here's pictures of Daddy's "surprise" 30th birthday party.

There was no time for the usual homemade birthday cake. So, a few hours before, we went to Target and I let the boys pick out a box of Little Debbies and some candles.

Braden was keeping watch out the window and we were ready to yell "Happy Birthday" and blow our noise makers when Daddy walked in the door.

Although Daddy had a pretty good idea of where the boys might want to take him for his surprise, he totally went along with all of it. Here's Braden putting Daddy's seat belt on him- since he was blindfolded, he couldn't see, of course!

Here we are at the bowling alley. Which is the coolest place around in our book. Daddy was very tired this night and not feeling too well, but knew the "surprise" was important to the boys, so he had a great time. We all had a great time! We had good food and lots of good family fun!

Daddy's girl

Braden

Rhett

Here we are at Russ and Aggie's annual Pumpkin Carving Party. After we got our bellies full on all of Nanny's yummy food, we headed outside to the driveway for the pumpkin carving!

Here's PaPa showing us how a real man carves a pumpkin!!

By looking at this picture, you'd never know that last year, Rhett wouldn't touch the pumpkin guts. This year, he was all about it. He cleaned out his entire pumpkin by himself!

Gracie didn't want to touch it at first, but she warmed up to the idea of "helping" PaPa. She would take the handfuls of "guts" and walk it across the driveway to Poppy's pumpkin and dump it in his. So cute!

Here's Gracie and my nephew Tre sharing some love while we were getting ready for Halloween Trick or Treat.

Gracie- Little Red Riding Hood. Or as she called herself, "Princess".

This girl was all about the dressing up!!!

Rhett was the White Ranger. Of course, he's been a Power Ranger for the last 3 years!!!

Braden was Darth Vader. Minus the floor length black cape, which Mamma forgot at home and we were in Berryville. Sorry Braden!!

Here's Daddy, Nanny, Poppy and the Kids trick or treating in our neighborhood. As usual, Mamma and Daddy were bringing up the back of the line and sneaking in a little PDA. Hee-Hee! :-)

We're In

We're in the house. We're unpacking boxes again. It REALLY stinks, but we will be unpacked soon. We feel like we're living in a mansion after the apartment experience.
Rhett has taken 3 jacuzzi baths in the master bathroom already.
Gracie slept all night in her own bedroom last night! That was the first time she's ever slept in a room all by herself. Me and Jason couldn't get over having the room to ourselves for the first time in MANY MANY MANY years!
Well, got lots of work to do and lots of unpacking still to do, so I'm outta here.

A House!!!

Last week we looked at a rent house and loved it. We got all the papers filled out and talked to the owners earlier in the week. We just found out today that we are going to get the house!!! After living in that shoebox sized apartment for the past few months, I'm going to feel like I'm living in a mansion! I am so thankful for this blessing. It is twice the size of the apartment, has 3 bdrms and 2 baths and tons of storage space. Best of all, is that it has a fenced in back yard. The kids can go play outside again!
I am in Berryville for the rest of the week doing a huge garage sale with my mom. Jason is home holding down the fort and tending to the boys. He and the guys that work for us are going to be moving us to the new house beginning tomorrow.
Wooooo Hooooo!!!!
Please say a prayer for us if you think of it. We really have WAY too much going on right now to be trying to move again...

P.S. There are officially "For Sale" signs up!! We've had 2 calls already. I'll have to post pictures of the house, it looks SO good. All I had ever dreamed of and more...

P.S.S. We found out today that we have to replace the heating/ac unit at the house. We were totally not expecting this, so an additional cost of $4,000 right now is a little hard to stomach. But, we know that it's the right thing to do and I pray that whomever buys this house will appreciate all the hard work, time and money we put into the house to make it what it is today.

For Sale

All I have time to say is that we're FINALLY going to be putting up a for sale sign in our front yard today. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.

Busy Week

I haven't posted this week because I have not had the time... I've been a single working mother of 3 this week. I am so thankful to say that Jason finally has some new employees that he can now let work on their own from time to time. So, that frees him up to do other things as needed. Jason and Rhett went to BV on Friday night with a load of supplies so that Jason could get some extra work done. Me, Braden and Gracie stayed here and got everything packed up for the weekend. After Braden's 2 soccer games on Saturday morning, we headed to BV to join them. We worked hard all weekend and didn't get home until 8:30 on Sunday night. We were in separate vehicles, so the kids all rode home with me (since the Suburban has the DVD player, of course!) I stopped to get food for all of them and we hit the road. Only to find out that my phone, my brand new phone, wasn't working. So, I caught Jason while he was going thru the drive thru at Mickey D's to tell him and he followed me in case we needed each other.
Braden spilled KFC mashed potato gravy all over himself and the car not once but twice. I was in such a hurry to get them home and bathed and in bed on this school night, that I threw him a box of baby wipes and told him to clean it up. He ended up having to take his pants off the 2nd time, b/c the mess was all over him but he was upset b/c he didn't have any underwear on under his pants. (My boys hate underwear. They always have. As soon as they get home from school, they go straight to the bathroom and take their underwear off. That is, unless they manage to get out of the house without any on, which does happen from time to time... little stinkers! I have no idea where this comes from, because I can assure you that both their mother and their father wear underwear on a daily basis.) So, I managed to get my jacket off while driving and throw it to him so he could sit on it and cover up with it. Then he started getting car sick with all the commotion, so he had to make his way up to the front seat. Gracie had been screaming bloody murder the entire time and we had been on the road about 40 minutes at this point, so I finally pulled over to check her diaper. She has been doing this alot lately, and it's never her diaper, she's just throwing a temper tantrum to get out of her seat. This time, it was a poopy diaper, so I got her changed and she settled down. Rhett had also fallen asleep and had a night terror in the car as he was in his car seat before we got home. By the time I got them in the house, got the car unloaded and bathed them and got them in bed, I was exhausted. Jason made it home a while after we did and he got the gravy mess cleaned up for me.
So, in a sit down heart to heart, I told Jason (again) that I just can't keep going like this and we have to get this house finished. So, bless his heart for loving me so much, he woke up early Monday morning like usual, got his guys started, unloaded the trailer of stuff from BV at our storage unit here and headed to BV to work on the house.
The last time I saw him was on Sunday night when we went to bed. He didn't plan to stay there all week, but the more he's getting done, and the more his guys are ok working without him, the more we wanted him to stay and GET IT DONE. He went to Wal-Mart and bought some clothes and he's been staying at my mom and dad's house at night. Yesterday he worked until after midnight and was up and back at the house by 7am. I love him for so many reasons, but the fact that he is just such a hard worker and so dedicated, is one of the main ones. I don't say it enough, but I am so glad I'm married to him. I do not deserve him.
Hopefully we will have the house officially for sale by the middle of next week. We will be working there as much as we can this weekend after soccer. We have some other fun things planned for me and the kids this weekend, but Daddy will be working.
Praise the Lord we will be getting it done soon. We are exhausted and burnt out, to say the least. We need a normal weekend where we can rest!
I also have to say that tomorrow is a very big exciting day for my dear husband. He is turning the big 3-0!! I've been thinking for weeks about planning a big hoop-la shin-dig, but I'm sad to say that I'm just too exhausted. This has been a good week, but definately a long week here by myself holding down the fort without my helpmate. I'm looking forward to him coming home tomorrow night. Hopefully we can take Daddy out for dinner or something. I hesitate to get a cake because I don't want to be tempted to eat it!
Tuesday was my weigh in and measure day. I am up to 10 lbs total in 4 weeks and also I lost several more inches. I'm well on my way! Couple more pounds and I'll be 1/3 of the way to my goal!
I'll leave you with a prayer request. Could you all please pray for our house to sell? I feel like it's selfish to ask for that when others have such big needs, but I know that God calls us to pray for and with each other, so please whisper one or two for us when you think about it. We know that His perfect plan and purpose will be carried out, and we're committed to hanging in there until that time comes. Now that I'm writing this, I suppose that what we really need prayer for is just that we can remain faithful and that we will be able to not worry about it and keep seeing this whole thing through God's eyes and not our own.
I am so thankful for praying friends and family.
And I'm also exhausted and am hoping to sleep all night for the first time in a very long time tonight. So, goodnight!

I've Been Tagged

My friend Rachel at Just Another Day in Paradise tagged me. It was neat to find out Random/Weird facts about her.

About Me:

1. I can type 80+ Words Per Minute. Now you know why I always have such long posts! I can type a lot in a short amount of time!

2. I LOVE to cook/bake. But HATE to clean up the mess!

3. I HATE housework. Mostly laundry, but I hate it all. I am not the world's greatest housekeeper.

4. I sleep with 4 pillows and a heating pad every night. That's one thing about me that is high maintenance!

5. I've had at least 1 child sleeping in my bed or my bedroom for the last 8 years. Lord help me... and my husband... :-) This scenario isn't easy on a marriage, so the fact that we're still crazy in love is even more of a miracle to me.

6. The thought of being pregnant again, ever, terrifies me.

7. I always have my toenails painted Red.

I tag only 6 because that's all I know!

Mindi

Marci

Sonya

Amber

Rachel

Jill