Double Blessed....

I know that most people are blessed to celebrate Good Friday and Easter this weekend.  Easter is tied for my favorite holiday, with Christmas of course.  In addition to these precious holidays, we are doubly blessed to celebrate another this weekend.

This Friday marked my husband, and his identical twin brothers, 42nd birthday.  What a blessing to celebrate the birth of two wonderful men in addition to celebrating the death and resurrection of THE Man!

My brother-in-law works for our pest control company (as does his fabulous wife).  We couldn't survive without them.  If it wasn't for the hard work they do, "vacation" wouldn't be in our vocabulary.

My husband, my precious, wonderful, quiet, silly, hysterical, doppleganger to Steve Carrell.... makes life worth living and my days worth waking up for.

Happy Birthday my sweet man!  (and bro too, lol!)

Mine is the one on the right :)  The one on the left, my brother-in-law, had been growing a beard for his church's Easter production.... he played James the Lesser.  The beard..... shaved as soon as he got home, lol!

A Heart's Cry...

For some reason, this week has been rather burdensome.  In fact, to put it bluntly, my heart feels as though it's been used as a punching bag.  Repeatedly.  Hard to handle when you've been hanging out on the mountaintop for such a long time.  I know that "mountaintop" experiences are monumental blessings from God and I also know that they are temporal.  We must go through the valleys in order to appreciate and learn and lean.  Lean, press into, squish up next to, and heavily snuggle into Him.  I think this is why my heart is so heavy this week.  I haven't done much of that.  I miss Him.  I need Him.  I think it's time to fix this.

What does this have to do with roses you may ask?  I came home today, was inflicted another blow to my already battered and bruised heart, when what do I see sitting on the kitchen table?  A dozen STUNNING, GORGEOUS roses!  One of my absolute favorite colors even; yellow, tipped in red.  Yes, yes, I know..... from my husband?  Roses that stand for "friendship blossoming into love"?  It's exactly what I needed.  His love, yes, but his friendship, acceptance, time, thought, effort, companionship; I needed his friendship more than anything today.  Not romance, not red roses.... these.  I really needed this at this moment in my life.

I am married to the most amazing man.  Not because he buys me roses, not because he helps do the dishes, not because he works so hard that I can stay home with our kids; yes, all these things are important and I cherish them greatly, BUT...   The reason I think he is the most amazing man ever???  He stayed.  He has committed to stay with me.  Always.  He has committed to love me, to seek God with his whole heart and stay.  It hasn't always been easy, in fact, there were many times I wasn't sure we'd even make it.  By God's grace, we have.  Greg has been faithful and he has stayed the course.  I am blessed.

Gorgeous roses, when my heart couldn't take anymore squeezing... a MAJOR added bonus :D

Aren't they AMAZING?!?!?!

Playing with a little texture...

Soft and Subtle..

I must say though, I think this is my favorite of the processed ones :)

Precious Bravery...

It was just over 9yrs ago since the last time this precious man donned an apron. My wonderful husband, of 19yrs today, chose to be brave for the sake of his bride :)


When I had Emily, Greg wanted to surprise me by baking brownies and having them ready for me when I walked in the door from the hospital. I had Emily over Mother's Day and what a wonderful present to come home to. Unfortunately, there was a little mishap. The gas oven in the home we were in at the time, decided not to co-operate with the wonderful intentions of my sweet Gregory. The pilot light (we discovered later) had a leak. The brownies, hard as a rock, were totally inedible. Despite his careful preparation and baking, they were a total loss. He swore he'd never bake again. Even though we found out the stove was to blame, he was severely disappointed and took it incredibly hard.


Today, my charming husband had a surprise. He came to the door with bags in hand, producing a dozen red roses and dinner. NOT dinner as in "take out", but as in supplies to MAKE dinner! He took my breath away. As I sit writing this, he is busying himself in the other room. The table is set with the favorable dishes, cheerful place mats, sparkling glasses and my STUNNING red roses. The kitchen smells amazing! I think brownies are in the works. :)


Jesus, I thank you for not giving up on us. It's not always been peachy. In fact, there have been many moments when I didn't know if we'd make it. We have, and we will. He's a wonderful man and I'm so blessed. He is an amazing husband and incredibly loving father. I'm so grateful that we didn't give up on each other and by Your grace, love and mercy.... we are here today. It's amazing to look back and see that it's been this long. Next year will be 20. So many don't make it this far. I'm so thrilled that we have and I can't wait for the next 20!


To my darling Gregory.... thank you for your precious bravery. Thank you for putting up with this emotional, wacky and messy woman. For loving me in spite of my mistakes. For caring about me when I don't care enough about myself. For sharing your dreams. For sharing in mine. For giving me three INCREDIBLE children and most of all, for sticking by me when things got tough. I love you and I will never be able to express in words exactly how much. ♥