A good time at the lake!

God has blessed us with GREAT friends and GREAT family. Yesterday, we got to enjoy both! We usually get out on the boat a couple of times in the summer but yesterday was the first time we have been able to go this year. I forgot how much I LOVE it! Hopefully, we can get a few more outings in this year. Our niece Breah was able to go and all things are so much more fun with a joy filled child in toe! Brandon's Dad took us out and we swam around for a little while then rode the boat straight to dinner. We have a restaurant that we go to that is right on the water. I just think that is so much fun. I have put together a slide show so that I could share our good times with you guys! Enjoy!

Vwahh lahh!!

At least when you sound it out...that is the way it sounds like it should be spelled :o)
I forgot to take before and after pictures but I painted our dining room table about a month ago. Surprisingly, I painted the chairs with spray paint and it worked. The table was done with a $5 gallon of Behr paint. Yes $5...a deal that I was lucky to get! Brandon's Mom and Dad gave us this table a little over a year ago when they got a new one. We were very thankful and decided we would like to put our own little spin on it! I have seen a lot more black furniture around and thought it would be great to try it in our dining room since our fixture is black. I have managed to find a before picture in a previous post (kinda...people are in it) and an after picture at my friends Jill's new BLOG. Go check her out and give her some comment action if you would. You know how it is being a new blogger, you think no one is reading due to little to no comments and you wonder if you are just blogging for your pleasure alone! :o) Anyway the after picture has the diaper cake on it so just ignore that and take a look at how it turned out. If you have been thinking about painting something, I encourage you to give it a shot. I was nervous, but my table turned out better than I could have hoped for!

Before


After


Also, if you have not visited within the last couple of days, go to my previous post! Check out my blogfolio for my Holiday decorating business! I will be posting a giveaway for a Christmas in July wreath within the next couple of days so check back!

A Sneak Peak

Go HERE to take a look at my blogfolio! This upcoming year will be my second year working my Holiday decorating business, Decobrations. I will start as early as mid October and not finish until the second week in December. I am trying to get ahead on marketing my services. I would love to have my calendar booked by mid October. I will be sending out emails and snail mail marketing pieces to last years customers and potential customers. There will be an incentive for referrals and early bookings! I have not gotten all of my work up yet but I will within the next couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy the sneak peak! If you know someone in my area who might be interested, please pass this information along!

I made a deal with God this morning and he came through!!!

Yep, you heard it! I made a deal with God this morning. Not because I planned to, it just happened. Plus it was early in the morning and when it's early in the morning, I am a teeny bit stubborn. I have heard all of these stories about people praying to God to help them wake up at a certain time without their alarm clock so they could do their quiet time in the morning before starting their day if he really desired for them to do it, and he did. I never believed those stories for a second. Well, I must have a little because I decided to try it myself. I did not go as far as without the alarm clock but I did do some dealing with Him.

Last night, I set my alarm clock 30 minutes early with one intention. The intention was to get up and start the day with the Lord. As my goal is to do this much more consistently. Well, the alarm went off at 5:15 and of course, I pushed snooze. I decided if I just let my hair be curly (no blow drying no straightening), I could sleep in a little longer and still do my Bible study. Well I pushed snooze a couple of more times and at 5:39 I decided to put him to the test. I made a deal. I said "Lord, if you will help me wake up without the alarm at 5:45, I will get up, come spend some time with you and dive into your word." If I woke up that way, I would know it really was meant for me to get up and do this early morning thing. What happened next you may ask, or did my blog title give it away??? I woke up by myself at 5:47. "Close enough," I thought to myself, and I got up and held up my end of the bargain. It was rough but I did it. I would have been really good to get up a little earlier but hey, it is a work in progress.

Now, I just have to do this all over again for 20 more days to make it a habit. I might have some inspiration coming soon. Not that, a more intimate relationship with Christ and a consistent Bible study time is not enough. Let me explain.

For my birthday in August, I have asked for two things...

From Hubby: some sort of soft comfy sofa chair with a foot stool (it can come from a yard sale or Good Will as long as it is clean. I can always cover it with a blanket)

From Mom & Granny: a porch swing

My ambition for these items are in no way selfish. It is my attempt to give myself a "cozy place." I can get up and go to either place depending on the weather. There, I will start my day with the Lord, Beth Moore (or whoever I am doing Bible study with), & coffee. My quiet time has never been consistent and mostly never quiet. Sometimes I do it in the car while Brandon is driving us to work but that means Ralph from talk radio is my quiet time serenade. Sometimes I do it in our bed while Brandon is working on his school work or coins or something like that but that means I am in a hurry so I can go to sleep cause odds are I am not doing it before 10pm. Some days..I do not have my quiet time...I know, I know...shame on me! Don't worry though I am working on it!

So how about you, tell me about your quiet time. What works best for you? Do you have a cozy place? If not, what is your idea of a cozy place?

Back Yard Bible Clubs

This weekend, Brandon and I participated in back yard Bible Clubs with our key group at church. We hit the inner city of our town! It was lots of fun and the children were precious!

More creative fun!! For a wedding this time!

This is another one for my friend Tiffany's wedding. The wedding is at the end of this month and I am in it! This is my first time being a bridesmaid & I have definitely kept busy!!

The Diaper Cake!!!!

This was my project for the bambino fiesta Saturday!! I was pleased with the way it turned out!! It was fun to make too!!!

Love and Marriage, Love and Marriage go together like a ...

**Addition to original post: click HERE to see the marriage challenge made by Christine at Fruit In Season**

Marriage...what a topic! Since I am 2 years young to the marriage experience, I like to talk about it. I still have all of those young wife qualms to work out. There are so many things I could do differently! I could do better with laundry, weeds, being submissive (yeah that is a biggy, my personality tends to be a tad bit strong), being respectful, & handling money like my husband wishes I would (although I have come a LONG way in the money department from where I was when he first met me)! It is not that I do not do some of these things well some of the time. I just can not do ALL of these things well, ALL of the time! I know that our God does not expect that but I get so mad at myself sometimes.

I have said this before but I will say it again, I thought I would be the perfect wife and then....I got married! Marriage discussions have been floating all around the blogosphere! I think it is God's way of telling us something ladies!! We have to step up and be the wife that he calls us to be. We have to work! work! work! on the subject. Our marriage should be really high on the priority list. Honestly, let's think about how often we allow it to be.

Let's talk about nagging. I think there is a perception issue with the term nag or nagging. What our guys perceive as nagging, I like to refer to as constructive suggestion making. Our husbands translate it much more differently than we do. We simply want to help them remember. After all, we know their hearts desire is to make us happy...so of course they would want us to remind them!??

Over at Beth Moore's blog (click HERE to see it) she has left us with some good finds from some sort of survey that she gave to several men. I really enjoyed this blog entry as well as the comments. My favorite comment was the one of the ones relating to intimacy:
My husband and I will celebrate 6 adventurous years at the end of July; while in seminary early on in our marriage at a women's event at our church a woman once said this in regards to INTIMACY - there are Snacks, Dinners,and Banquets. Snacks are short, Dinners are longer than snacks and Banquets, well, that might me a few hours worth. My husband and I loved that so much that it's the lingo we use.

My girlfriends and my husband got a good laugh out of this one! I just had to share. :o)

So in closing I feel like I need to reveal a list of things that I feel I want to work on to make sure that my husband feels that our marriage is priority to me:

1. I want to be more agreeable. If I do not agree just think it rather than feeling my opinion is always needed. If I turn out to be right just enjoy thinking about it too :O)

2. Make sure Brandon knows I appreciate him and respect him! He works so hard and is so dedicated to providing for our family for the long run. I respect that and I am very thankful for it!

3. I would like to brag on him more when he is around as well when he is not. This man cleans our bathrooms sometimes and pulled weeds for me the other day. What's not to brag about??

4. Pray for him every day sometimes more than once a day! I heard from Beth's survey conclusion and I have heard from many other areas... Nagging and trying to change him is not going to work. I will have to get down on my knees and discuss it with the Lord if there is a true issue that I/we need worked out! It is the only way.

There is a tidbit of a verse that I think I can get the most clear instruction and reminder from:

Love is patient, love is kind. 1 Corinthians 13:4

Those are the two things that would help me to go a long way in my marriage!

Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun... and That We Did!!

Girl's Night was all I had hoped it would be and more! Some of the details are below!

This first picture below is all of us!!! The salon had just enough chairs to fit us all in a row! We had lots of laughs and fun! It was an especially special moment when the lady was trying to get all of our back massagers working and turned on the "bum massager." Yep, that's right, the chairs had a setting for a massage on the bum. It did not take long before we all asked her to turn that setting off. It felt like a bunch of golf balls rolling around on your buttocks area! Yeah...we laughed hard at that one!


The finished product!! Which one do you think is mine?


This is the part of gang that was left after dinner! Some of us headed over to Cocoa Mocha, a new coffee shop in our town, to squeeze in a little more girl time! It was yummy! We sat on the patio until after they closed and the only reason we left then was because a couple of us had to go the restroom and, since they were closed, the only choice we had was to head home! It was such a fun night and we hope to do it more often!

Family, friends, & crafts Oh My!!!

We had a great weekend! Friday, I was able to enjoy some girl time with my very good friend and neighbor, Hannah! We have a craft fair at work every year and Hannah and I have decided to put our craftiness to good use. We plan to make decorative cards, book marks, lamp shades, luggage/diaper bag tags, place mat purses, canvas art and many other boutique style decor & gifts. It is in October so we are starting early. We do not want to overload ourselves! We spent Friday and Sunday evening working away on some cards and book marks. We are so excited about our creations! Here is a picture of some of the hand made cards we made. I apologize for the quality. I am having to use my phone for pictures now that our digital camera is out of commission. I am going crazy without it!!





Brandon and I watch his niece and nephew every other weekend while their Mommy works. They usually arrive Saturday afternoon and then head home with Mommy on Sunday evenings. Saturday afternoon was spent at the pool with my Dad, uncle, little sister, our friends Clay & Hannah, & Breah and Colton the niece and nephew. Everyone had a blast. We were not sure how Colton would respond since he does not seem to care too much for baths but Colton loved it! We got a float for him but he is a little on the small side for it so I felt most comfortable with someone holding him. Every time we put him in the water, he started to fall asleep. We kept him entertained to prevent it though. He loved to stand on our chest and pretend like he was skiing :o) He liked to splash too as long as the water stayed out of his eyes! Breah, the 4 year old, is a regular fish. She spent 3 hours jumping in the pool and then doing it over and over. Towards the end of the day we were able to convince her to practice swimming without her swimmies and she went right for swimming under water. She swam about 6 feet at a time without swimmies and without coming up for air. We were so proud of her!