Two Pics

James and I don't have many pictures together, so here is one from Saturday. And this is after we are stuffed to the brim with fondue. All we can think of is how we can't wait to get home and stop sucking in our belly's!

Reminiscing

Yesterday morning I decided to start year 24 off on the right foot by going for a work-out. I got out of bed and dressed in whatever work-out clothes I happened to find first. On my way out the door, James made a comment about how "cute" I looked. Thats when I looked at myself and realized that I was wearing a shirt, capri pants, sports bra, socks and tennis shoes that James had given me for my birthday last year. I have tons and tons of clothes that I always mix and match for work-outs. What are the odds that everything I was wearing yesterday were things that I had gotten exactly one year ago? I said so to James who then began to laugh and asked "do you remember what you did when I gave you all of those things?"

Back-up to April 25th of last year: I was living in an apartment with a whopping 420 square feet 2 hours away from James. He was wearing a huge boot, using crutches and toting two huge buckets everywhere he went to soak his foot every couple of hours. Oh yeah and we had only begun to see each other following the divorce about three weeks earlier. He drove to Tyler to take me out to dinner for my birthday. He brought in two huge bags full of birthday goodies for me. Among them, the clothing mentioned above. With each item I opened I smiled, said "I love it, thank you" and so forth. After opening everything I began to cry and told James that no matter what he couldn't buy me back, this relationship would never work, he may as well leave, yadda, yadda, yadda. I still wasn't convinced that we should reconcile. When he returned to Dallas, he didn't take my gifts with him and I didn't open them again for weeks.

Now fast-forward to yesterday: Could our life be any different? As I spent my half-hour on the eliptical I couldn't help but reminisce about this past year. Of course on the surface, it is obvious that things are different. But it is so much more. A year ago, I didn't know if James and I would ever be able to share our lives together, I didn't know if he would be committed to me forever, I didn't even know if he really loved me. What I did know was that I didn't trust him and I was scared out of my mind! Today, I have no doubt that James is committed to me, that he is in love with me and that we will share a wonderful, beautiful life together. I am no longer scared of him or of loving him.

What a difference one year can make! I think even if I hadn't of had that work-out, I still would have started year 24 on the right foot because I started it with James.

BIG BOY

One of Riley's favorite things to do at our house is look out the front window. I always think he looks so cute and more like a boy than a baby when he is standing there.

Interesting Stuff

We have some interesting stuff going on around here, thanks to our wonderful first-time home buyers tax break. We may not agree with everything going on in Washington, but we certainly agree with the extra cash that came our way!

Hopefully all will be revealed in the next week or so. Love being a homeowner!

All I Needed to Hear

A couple of weeks ago, the weatherman stated that there would not be another freeze until November. That was all I needed to hear. It was planting time!!

I have zero experience with flowers so I decided to go easy on myself and pick flowers that required little maintenance. I realize that there is no order to my planting and already the red flowers seem to be lagging behind the white ones.

This pot was left by the previous owners, so I had to fill 'er up! It's in the backyard, along with another bed that I didn't get a picture of.

I don't think this picture does it justice, but every time I pull into the driveway I tell myself how beautiful and welcoming our house is. I may be a bit biased. People always ask me if I still like our house. I can't describe it and it may sound silly, but I feel myself falling more and more in love with it everyday. It is far more than I ever imagined we would have. I'll say it again, James knows how to pick out a house!

Happy Spring everyone!

JOY

Most of you that read this know the events of the past week, so I won't go into detail here, but I wanted to share a few thoughts and photos from my end. As hard as it was to know that those whom I love were hurting and saddened, it was hard for me to stay down for too long with these two characters filling our usually quiet house with their constant, upbeat chatter. While Sarah and Elizabeth were at our house, my thoughts drifted back and forth from Aunt Joy and those who were with her to the unbelievable joy that poured out of the twins. I learned a lot this week.

Of course I didn't take enough pictures, but here are a few.

These girls sure know how to have fun! The Easter bunny delivered baskets on Sunday morning with a box of Lemon Heads tucked inside. When someone spotted the measuring tape, they immediately had a plan. I think James enjoyed this too.

When they got to our house on Saturday we gave them a list of all the fun things we could do while they were in Dallas. They declined all of my great ideas and decided they just wanted to work in the yard. Fine by me!!

Taking a break from all the hard work and chilling in the tree.

This is a very short, poor video, but you get the idea.

January, February, March and April

I can't believe that it is already April. It seems like Christmas was just a few weeks ago. I am a few days late, but here is an update on my monthly resolutions this far.

January-to work out at least 3 times each week. I am still doing pretty well with that. I did actually join a gym this week though. James and I finally agreed that him training me wasn't the best use of our limited time together.
February-to take my vitamins everyday. As you all know I failed on that one so it had to become my March resolution as well.
March-to take my vitamins everyday. I would give myself a 'C' for the vitamin taking, but I'm still making progress. And for all of you who snubbed my free vitamin offer, I just loaded up my friend Kristin with an 8 month supply!
April-to work daily at improving my prayer life. To become less like this,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_guO3-NLDEs and more like this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di8hv2sLaeg (the first minute and 45 seconds).

Job Fair and Service Day

James and I have had two wonderful weekends back to back, but I will just share two big events that happened last weekend.
First, on Saturday I attended my first ever Teacher Job Fair-WOW!! I was really not nervous about it even on Friday night as James and I ran through every store in the mall trying to find me a suit that would fit before everything closed (I did find one.) I wasn't even nervous going to bed the night before or as I got up at 6:30 that morning to get ready. However, I did get nervous as I drove into the parking lot and couldn't find a spot. That is when the negative thoughts began to fill my head. "Look at all these people here! They all need a job just like me. I'm not even fully qualified yet, why would anyone hire me. I may as well just go home now." I didn't though, I found a spot, walked through the painful wind, caught a bus to the right door and then waited an hour and a half just to fill out my registration. Once I got to the registration table, I was turned away. Yes, after all that, I was told I could not enter. I didn't have a document that they needed from me, even though I had brought everything that was listed on their website for the job fair. Ugh!! Enter my fabulous, heroic husband. I called him, cried a little and probably said a dirty word or two. He said, "no worries, I'll print it off and bring it right to you." And he did and I went back in and was able to pass out my resume and meet a few principles and teachers. Even though I was very discouraged when I left, I know it was good experience for me. Now, onto the next ones! I know I can do this, but your prayers during this job search would be greatly appreciated.

Now, onto the next thing. On Sunday morning our church did not have our traditional services. Instead thousands of people loaded on big, yellow school buses and headed out all over Dallas to do service projects. James and I went to South Dallas to clean an elementary school. Let me just say that I was shocked at what I saw. Shocked that children in Dallas, my city, are educated in such a dark, old, dirty, unfurnished atmosphere. Shocked and grateful for what I was given as a child. The classroom we were assigned to clean didn't even have chalk boards. Can you believe that? It was a great opportunity for James and I to get out of ourselves and our own little world. We both left feeling grateful and had a desire to do more.

Stay tuned for my April Resolution and some other fun stuff. I am finally starting to feel the blog itch returning.