Catching up on my 'Revive My Marriage'

I am a few weeks behind on my Revive Your Marriage weekly challenges.  We are on week 4, but I am going to jump back to week 2.

WEEK 2-That topic was working on our attitude.  Reflecting back to when I was dating my husband and our marriage, it brings a smile to my face because I remember how and why I fell in love with him.  He was attractive(which was the most important thing to me at the time), then his morals and what he believes were 2nd.  It didn't take long for us to figure out we belonged together.  Before we got married, a co-worker I worked with at Kohl's told me that the wedding day will be a blur so to get lots of pictures.  Well to be honest, I thought she was just telling me a bunch of nonsense.  I thought "hmm...it's the most important day of my life, I have to remember it!"  I like having a video of our wedding to re-watch and remember the exact vows I said to him.  Speaking of vows...this is a little side note, but in the movie the Vow, the vows they exchange are exactly what I feel along with the traditional parts too :)  It's very creative and touching for me!  A wedding vow is a positive promise that 2 people make to each other that is supposed to be forever.  Generally most brides have a positive perspective and happy attitude on their wedding day.  The positive attitude can be soon lost when things don't go our way after our marriage begins.  It is important to get back to having a positive attitude for your husband, your marriage and lastly yourself.

WEEK 3-The third topic from the Women Living Well blog is working on a shoulder to shoulder friendship with our husband.  I heard about this this past season in my MOPS group.  I was like YES! That is so true.  Since my hubby likes to play Call of Duty, I figured that would be the perfect opportunity to be his "friend".  I tried that silly game and played for maybe a minute but I could tell he enjoyed my effort.  The challenge says to "savor the moment like during the dating days".  I will be working on this and I think it will make us have a better relationship by doing things he likes to do-even if I don't really enjoy them.

WEEK 4-Finally I am caught up to this week!  This week's challenge is list 5 things I admire about my husband.  I did this and put in on the steering wheel so he will see it in the morning.  I'm not sure if you can read the 5 things so I will just tell you:
-willing to cook
-grill master ;)
-athletic
-good listener
-put up with me on my not-lovable days
It is a lot easier for me to come up with things I want to change about him or anyone for that matter! How sad is that?  I seriously hate that I am so naggy and nit-picky.   I am working on it but it is a process.

Anyways, those are the challenges from my point of view so far in a nutshell.   If you want to follow Courtney's blog yourself it's www.womenlivingwell.org

Money doesn't make you rich...

Every morning, I watch re-runs of Boy Meets World on ABC Family.  I have seen every episode so many times, but I still laugh at the silly lines they say sometimes and feel sad when the characters feel sad.  Today was the series finale which I have seen before, but never really paid attention to the line "money doesn't make you rich, life does."  Today, that stuck out to me.  With money you can buy worldly things and be happy for a certain amount of time.  But I feel rich because of my life I am living!  I have a supportive and a loving God, family, husband and son.  Having the love and care I have in my life is the best kind of riches money CAN'T buy!!  Don't get me wrong, money is nice to have...especially when you have bills, groceries, and essentials you need to survive in this life.  So I ask you, are you rich? Not the worldly kind...but the kind that really matters!


Here's how to be the kind of rich that really matters:
-Love God.
-Love yourself.
-Love others.
*In return, you will feel the richness of the love that is the most important part!

Reviving Our Marriage

I have recently gotten into blogging as you probably have noticed.  I am following the Women Living Well and have been for quite some time now.  Courtney is the blog writer and is a very inspirational, Christian, down to earth woman.  Right now, there is a series for the Mondays in September called Revive Your Marriage.  Week 1 is revive your prayers for your marriage.  She says to say a little prayer every time you see your wedding ring.  I think that is a great reminder to pray for my husband.  I get so caught up with what I want and my "needs" that I often forget to pray for Tom.  He has a very stressful job being a marine and being gone more than he is here with us.  A book that is a good outline to go by what to pray for when you are praying for your husband is Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian.  I forget that he needs prayer too, in every aspect of his life!  Some of the list are: his work, his finances, his priorities, his trials, his fatherhood...the list goes on!  I am challenging myself to pray for him before myself.  Sometimes, however, I do pray for him before me.  It's usually because I am so frustrated with him that all I can do is pray because I don't want to say or do something that is not pleasing or honorable to him and God.  Marriage is hard.  Prayer works.  God has the answer and is there for you!  I have learned this time and time again.  I encourage you out there to follow Courtney's blog with me :)


Her blog is http://womenlivingwell.org

Have a great day!

3...2...1...POTTY TIME!!

Here we go...my baby has officially started potty training.  It makes me sad and happy.  Sad because he is not even 2 yet and already on the potty a few times a day.  I need to come up with some type of chart or reward for going pee and poo on the potty.  I've thought about stickers because he really likes them.  But he also loves food so I think maybe a little treat would be good too.  I am open to suggestions though!

Levi has officially gone  #2 in the potty!! It's so exciting! Of course I had to grab my camera...for the scrapbook ;)  Tom thought I was completely strange but hey there is a first time for everything.  So for the record, August 2nd, 2012 was his first pee pee and August 27th, 2012 was his first poo.  Now since I have those out of the way, I just need to keep at it!  I am still a first time mom experiencing new milestones with my Levi all the time.  Some things new moms do, I think they are a little nutty, but celebrating and giving him praise and taking pictures like I did today, I think it was totally acceptable ;)

The picture above is him standing next to his first poo poo in the potty!! Big boy!

Anyways, I felt I needed to blog about it tonight and write it down later.  Have a super day :)

The first 5 years of marriage

Where do I begin?

Well, I will start of how we met and go from there!  We met in Gering, NE on August 3, 2006.  We were both fresh out of high school and ready to see what life had in store.  At the time we had no idea that we would be living the life we are today, which is better than either of us could imagine on that day!!  I was on vacation with my family there for my grand-parents 50th wedding anniversary.  I was hanging out with my cousin who is the same age as me and her friend.  Her friend had to work later that night but wanted to go eat before she worked that night.  I don't remember the exact conversation, but I ended up driving us to Country Kitchen, where the girl worked, to eat dinner.  I was 17 at the time and all I wanted to do was have some fun on the family vacation.  I see this guy and my first thought was "WOW! He looks just like Ken the Barbie doll!"  He had blond hair, blue eyes, tan, tall, and very muscular!  So the night goes on and I was all giggly because here is this hot guy that I wanted to get to know.  So the girls called him over and I'm sitting there blushing like a little school girl with a crush.  We got to talking and he was getting off work the same time my cousin's friend had to work.  It worked out wonderfully!  I gave him my number on a little piece of paper that wraps around a silverware set at a restaurant.  I almost forgot to put my area code on it since we weren't from the same area.  Good thing I double checked!  He called me after work and wanted to hang out.  Of course I agreed ;)  I brought him to my cousin's house.  Technically we snuck him in and out. Haha but it was worth it!  Then I made him walk home because I didn't want to get in trouble if my aunt woke up and I was gone and so was my car because she knew I was staying the night.  I was all worried about getting in trouble.

Fast forward a year and 6 days later(August 10th 2007), was our wedding day.  Over that time from the day we met until our big day, we only saw each other 31 days in person.  Kind of crazy I know!  Looking back and reflecting, no wonder everyone wanted us to wait.  But we have learned a lot.  Matured a lot and have grown together.  He had to fly back to VA where he was stationed a day after our wedding.  I drove out the next week to set up an apartment all by myself.  That was fun. NOT!  I didn't have a power of attorney because we had just gotten married and hadn't even got my name switched or anything.  That was a huge fuss and was not very pretty.  But thankfully a couple hours after dealing with the apartment complex office, they let me move in!  It was a relief.

Our life in Virginia was a fast one.  We only lived there just over a year.  Over that year I had 3 jobs.  Dillards, Kohls and QVC.  I really liked QVC!  I just had to answer the phones when people called in to order.  It was a call center for the show.  I made a decent amount of money there.  But we lived in a not so good neighborhood, and he was deploying for 6 months or so.  I didn't want to be there alone.  I could have done it but I wanted to be home with my family.  I moved home shortly after he left.  He was gone over the holidays and my Christmas present that year was a plane ticket to Japan for 8 days, because that's where he was deployed to.  It was awesome.  The flight there was nice too.  I had my own personal TV where I got to choose what I wanted to watch.  I think there was over 300 movies and shows to choose from.  Then there was a wide variety of games too.  I had a lot of fun visiting Japan.  We went to this place that was like a Japanese version of SeaWorld.  We also went to Kamakura which is where the picture to left is taken.  By the time I was finally getting used to the huge time difference, it was time to head back to America.

After he got back from that deployment, we got stationed in southern CA.   We really like it out here.  Lots to do.  Expensive but we can always go to the beach since we live right by it!  We got pregnant with Levi in early 2010.  We were so thrilled because we had been wanting a baby and it finally happened!  I found out the day after he left for a 2 week training in the ER.  I was there because I knew I had a UTI and didn't want to wait for an appointment.  I also could tell something wasn't quite right.  The nurse asked if I could be pregnant and I said "well yeah, but we have been trying without any luck." So she does the test and then we are sitting there chatting about I don't even know what then she checks the test and said "it's positive!" I asked "what's positive?!" At that very moment my heart started racing because she told me I was pregnant and showed  me the test! It was very positive indeed.  I cried because I was so happy.  I went out and called my dad and told him where I was and why I was there then said congratulations! You're gonna be a grandpa!!  I'm pretty sure everyone we knew, knew I was pregnant before Tom did.  It's hard keeping a secret especially when that's all I want to talk about!!  Long story shore, he was elated once he got done training and was back home with me.

Wow, this blog is getting long. Lol.  So I will sum up the last 2 years for you as short as I can.  I had Levi on November 10, 2010 at 10:54AM all natural! No pain meds! Woohoo go me ;)  Tom unfortunately missed the birth, which we knew was a possibility but hoped that wouldn't happen to us :(  He met Levi 5 weeks and 2 days later.  It was rainy and cold.  We were sitting outside for 4 hours until he finally was released.  That was the longest 4 hours ever.  This was the moment I waited for ever since he left.  I pictured it in my head.  My hair was going to be perfect and so was my makeup.  I ran out of contacts the day before and was thinking that I would just get some on the way, but when I got to the Walmart by the base it didn't have a vision center!  I was not a happy wife.  Plus the weather was horrible and with a newborn it was just making the day so gloomy.  But I got him back and wasn't going to let go :)



Now here we are, present day.  Levi is almost 2 and we have been married 5 years already!  Lots has changed but for the better of course.  Toddler years are fun, frustrating, overwhelming, hilarious...pretty much every emotion!  But one thing is for sure, it's the best blessing I could have asked for!  Now we start the potty training chapter in our lives.  It has been fun.  On my birthday this week, he did not want to wear his diaper really at all.  He would potty in it then take it off.  He especially did that when he would go #2.  I love this little boy more than anything.  I don't know how we could have lived without him!!  That's about it for now.  It's time to start our day!