Babies, Brownies and Blessings

Have you heard about Ebates.com? It's a website that pays you a percentage back for using them to shop at your favorite stores. I ran across it just before Black Friday and am I glad I did!! When doing all my shopping I just clicked on the store I wanted to shop at from their website and they tracked my purchases resulting in CASH BACK! If you do a lot of shopping online, be sure to check it out. They send you a check every three months or so (so they can account for what things you returned) but just for signing up and spending your first $25 through them you get a free $10 gift card to one of several stores like Macy's, Walmart, Target, Kohl's . You can follow this link from which I'll get referral credit or feel free to just go to the website, too. I'm more excited for you to start getting cash back than for me to get the $5 referral bonus. :) I LOVE getting money back for shopping I was going to day anyways, it's almost like using a coupon and...

Thanksgiving begs reflection and this year I decided to give ample thought to all it held. A year ago we were cozied up in our sweet little home where we had celebrated every holiday since we wed. No thoughts of moving, building, temporary housing. Simply content that our family was complete, I finally had no more longings of pregnancy or babies and we were satisfied. Then came February. The month of cyclic dissatisfaction and discontentment. Every.Single.Year. Somehow the house starts to feel small and inadequate that time of year. This year, we contacted a realtor. Long story short, we sold our home in a month and a half and here we sit...homeless and building and grateful. When we got out of debt last year we felt God calling us to give of our finances. There are tons of teachings on giving and tithing and I'm not an expert on the topic. We decided to follow God's nudging and have been giving back to Him. Funny thing, since we've been giving we have not ...

7 years and about 45 minutes ago we met the little boy that changed us forever. He made me love more and know less with his entry into the world. The story of his birth brings back floods of memories as I think about the myriad of emotions, feelings and pains such as I'd never known before. Oh and his beautiful little face... The birth of a child is nothing short of miraculous. The birth of a firstborn alters your world forever. BigBoy #1 was so excited about his birthday that he was literally up most of the night. Thoughts of Pokemon and ice cream cake and whatever other unknown presents floated through his mind all night. Happy birthday, Man-Child...may this year be full of lost teeth, new Pokemon, adventures and the continued molding of your life into the man God has made you to be. I love you and am so proud of who you are. Love, Mom

It has been a couple weeks since the migraine episode . I was surprised at how long it took me to recover (not surprising to those of you who suffer from them frequently, I know!). The next week was marked by a pukey BigBoy #2, a pukey me and a deer-tick bitten BabyGirl. Doesn't life just wear you out sometimes? Each little thing chips away at your restfulness, your contentment, your ability to do what needs to be done. It's easy to feel overwhelmed and ineffective. Life takes on a shade of gray...until you come across someone with real trials. God used several people to remind me of His faithfulness and His covering in the midst of my issues. He used those around me to recenter my perspective and help me to see that I've got it really good. In a short span of time I was given the opportunity to pray for people who have real struggles like the sudden loss of a loved one, an unexpected ending to a pregnancy, a long-term health problem, cancer. Suddenly my probl...

12 years ago today I stood beside the man I loved and promised for better or worse. In sickness and health, we agreed. Til death do us part. Every year we seem to gain added depth of relationship and insight. The big milestones like having children revealed a set of qualities I did not know my man had. The amazing love, desire to teach, and true enjoyment he had in just being with our children was astonishing to discover. The not-so-big things were marked by the realization that we like doing life together. And it was a true mark of maturity when we no longer totally dread those "conversations" that started with a bang and ended with honesty and clarity. This year I saw yet a different side to my man. Pardon the melodrama that is about to ensue but here is my account of my first experience with a migraine and all the crazy symptoms that encompassed that experience and how my man showed me yet another layer of who he is. (Consider it a PSA of sorts (Public Servic...

...If so, do I have a post for you! I'm still in house selling/moving mode and it would seem all I think about. So far the crying and mourning our first home hasn't started but I'm getting a little more fragile. Yelling at the kids more. Requiring more chocolate... Did you know these are gluten-free? Random fun fact...   This weekend we are moving most of our possessions out and close on the house in one week. The house we have lived in since we got married. The one we brought our babies home to. IN ONE WEEK! It seemed we would never reach this date but now that it's near I'm starting to feel the pressure. We will be moving into Bri's folks' until our new home gets built so at least we don't have to worry about closing on a new house right now and I think hope they are ready for us. Now I need to go deal with my Neosporin and sunblock-covered 2 year old. Wish I was lying, but I'm not... ...where are my Milk Duds??

SOLD! Well, almost. At least, we're pretty sure it is because we ACCEPTED AN OFFER on our house! To say we're stoked is an understatement. In the last 50 days I have cleaned my house 19 times from top to bottom to allow people we don't know critique our home and decide if it's worthy of their permanent presence. Thankfully the majority of the feedback was fabulous with many compliments on the updates and condition of our home. The negatives: location and narrow driveway...you don't need to tell us that, we've lived here 12 years and have had our fill of that! With many things still pending like inspection, appraisal, financing, we're doing our song and dance with cautious excitement. Turns out the slowest part of selling a home occurs after the offer is accepted. For 5 days we've sat around twiddling our thumbs wondering what's next and praying that nothing comes up to make it fall through. In the meantime we have been perusing lots and...