All The Many Blessings!

I just wanted to do a blog about how blessed I feel to have the amazing treat of living with my husband and daughter. In attending a marriage seminar this past weekend, I am once again reminded at how incredible my husband is. He truly inspires, supports, loves and encourages me in so many ways! I really feel honored to be his wife. We had a great time learning about God's best for the marriage relationship. There is so much to learn and still digest, but it is such a GREAT journey! It is definitely not always an easy journey, but NO DOUBT a worthwhile journey. I am so super pumped at all the scripture I read this weekend and how it relates to the beautiful roles God has designed for each of us.
Let me talk a little about my cute, sweet daughter. She is just amazing. Tonight she sang for me for the first time. She has added words here and there, but she actually tried to put some words that she knew from a song.. and some baby gibberish together to make WONDERFUL music in her mommy and daddy's ears. She has also recently discovered the moon. Now she is fascinated with it every time she has an opportunity to see if. We have a little video clip that I am going to try to get on her that shows her pointing to the moon. She does it over and over again. It's just so fun to experience the simple things through her eyes. She is such a happy, passionate little girl. I am so proud of all she is growing to be. Yesterday, I was able to see her training get put into practice. She went to the door and was DYING to go outside, but I told her I really didn't want her to go outside. She could just stand at the door and look. So, she put her foot on the door frame and she had her baby's bottle in her hand and accidentally dropped it. I just kept hearing UH-OH! Finally, I came over to see what was up. She was reaching for it, but she would have had to step outside to get it, but she WANTED to obey. She was HUGELY praised for her incredible restraint. Then it became a game in which she would THROW the bottle just to stand there and say UH-OH! VERY CUTE! I just love her so much! I love her for who she is! She is such an amazing person already! So, I just wanted to take time to publicly praise my family. I think that is important to lift up the people around you.

Weirdness Revealed

Thanks to my friend, Donna B., I will now reveal 6 weird things about myself via the internet. YEAH! I have been tagged. Did I mention how fun having a blog is? I am just kidding.. anyone who really knows me, know I don't mind sharing.
I am not good at following rules, so anyone who reads this and would like to share weird things about yourself on your blog.. consider yourself tagged by me.

The real rules:
"People who get tagged need to write a blog post of 6 weird things about them as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog."

Weirdness:
1. In Elementary school, I was picking my nose with my pencil and got the eraser on my pencil stuck so far up my nose, we had to go to a doctor to have it removed. Ever try to get something in a little space and end up pushing it even further?

2. I LOVE to sing and dance to fun music in the privacy of my home. (My daughter is my only audience)

3. I still sleep with a teddy bear I got in the 4th grade.

4. I am mortified of going to the Dentist! Have a hard time sleeping for days before my appointment.

5. I am a true cook-a-holic. I love to cook and look for recipes until I am incredibly tired! I am doing the perfect job for that though! YEAH Pampered Chef!

6. I am terrified of bees! I am confronting my fear and moving forward with the help of my support group. Well, my hubby support group!

A WONDERFUL FIRST

I know you are thinking.. WOW! 2 blog posts in 2 days! This was definately worthy of sharing. Yesterday, I gave blood for the first time. Mac has been giving blood forever, it seems. Since we were married, Mac has encouraged me to do it once. So Christmas this year, I told him that I was going to do it as a present for him. Yesterday, was the start of a new tradition for me. Did you realize that one bag, can save up to 3 people's lives? When I read that, it put somethings into perspective. Yes, by the time you fill out all the precautionary paperwork and get everything in place and have a few minutes to recover (and eat some cookies) the whole process took me about 1 hour. The actual donation took less than 10 minutes. Drinking tons of water helps with the time, so I drank tons of water all day.. which is also healthy for me. The thought that the Lord can use my resources and minimal amount of time and energy to put a miracle in place for someone else is so amazing! So, now I encourage you to seek out your local Red Cross or Hospital donation center and give it a try. Now I am working on the idea of giving platelets. If you are married, doing it with your hubby is fun and encouraging too!

Snow Day Fun with a little glimpse of everyday

We had so much fun in the PERFECT snow. It was just the right amount! We did not have house fever, because as expected it was mostly gone by late afternoon. Some serious family time was being had by all of us. We all went out ASAP.... just gave the baby some milk and hit the snow. It was so fun to watch Vivian's first snow experience. We had to carry her kicking and screaming into the house. We perfected the sled thing by using our own make shift sled from one of our storage tops.. worked like a charm. Vivian REALLY enjoyed that. She still gets on the lids and acts like she is sledding. We TRIED to build a snowman. Everytime I made a ball, she would grab it, toss it up and watch it fall into a million pieces. It was cute to watch her. So, I started making smaller balls so we could toss them up and lets them break apart. Did I mention how perfect this snow was? In Georgia, manytimes the snow was "dry", so it was hard to make it stick together. ... NOT an issue with this snow. Mac gave Vivian a lesson on the right kind of snow to eat. VERY funny! I, of course, wore the wrong pants, so we have video of my pants falling a bit in the back as I bent over and my long underwear showing. It could be worse.
VIVIAN UPDATE:
She is very much into things these days! She is incredibly verbal and actual had a moment in which I could see her brain ticking away. I asked her where her knee was, as we are learning all of our body parts. She stopped and her tongue came out (in thinking mode, like her daddy does). After I had lost hope for a response, she says knee and points to her knee. WOW! How fun to see her have the motivation to really think about stuff at such an early age. Can you tell I am a teacher at heart?
She lOVES to read.. as always, but she is now starting to fill in words of books that she knows. Predictable text is so much more fun than it has EVER been.
She LOVES to color! She actually said the names of a couple crayons this morning. But only having them repeated for her first. Still very exciting. She LOVES the game night, night. Basically, she finds a pillow or any surface will do really and she lays down and says night, night and then gets up really fast.. as to say.. ok I am done! And then repeats again. Her favorite place to do this is on our bed.
She has also started making a point to say Hi to everyone she can. She really has the concept of coming into a room and saying hi to people... or any new person that enters the room. Her manners are improving daily with constant use of please and thank you.. which warms mommy and daddy's heart.
The most fun game recently, is let me get out of my PJ's before mommy comes in to get me out of the crib. The other day, I stopped her right before she was about to undo her diaper. YIKES! That would not have been pleasant.
MAC AND DAWN UPDATE:
Mac starts school this Thursday. Say a little prayer as he adjusts to not having ANY free time. Dawn is loving being a mommy and is getting involved in some new ways at church and with friends. We both are still working out EVERY Tuesday. We are starting to see good changes in our body! That is always a good thing. We still have not sold the Honda, but we are hopeful. We have found a car we would LOVE to own. We will see if it's God's plan!

SNOW!!!

I woke up to SNOW this morning. They are suspecting that it will be gone in a few hours, so I am going out to play. Will post more later.

Still Searching

We have had a very up and down kinda weekend. In our car search, we have come to a place of hault. On Saturday, our buyer called and said some finanacial things were happening and he was not going to be able to purchase at this time. So, we are back on the market. Yesterday, in hopes to do everything possible to make sure we were selling an excellent car, we took it to a mechanic that we trust and had him look it over and do a full inspection. The report was that we have an amazing car. That is always good to hear, when you are passing on a car and people are well aware of your relationship with Christ through the title of "Seminary Student". We went to see one of the cars we were eyeing. We LOVED it. It seemed like the idea fit and the ideal price. On the way there, and while we were test driving, we got 2 separate phone calls scheduling to view it. WOW! We kept thinking, "WOW! this really is the right time". Everything seemed to be falling into place. Upon arriving home, the first person canceled his appointment. The other person never called back. Things can turn around quick and in a hurry, but we are praying and waiting for the right time and situation. Vivian is quite over all this car stuff. She was so tired last night and so happy to be home with her toys. So, our journey continues!

Fun with friends

We have had a very exciting week! Vivian is having fun and developing neat relationships with other kids. She and Anna Kate (daughter of one of Dawn's close friends here) have enjoyed playing and hugging each other.. as shown. For those of you who do not know, we have been trying to sell our 2002 Honda for a couple months. Well, we found a buyer and are suppose to close the deal on Friday. Say a prayer for us. This is the first car we have sold ourselves. We are SOOOO ready to get into a minivan. Having Vivian has made us realize something... kids use alot of stuff!!! And we are under the notion to take tons of stuff with us wherever we go.. to make it easier. How ironic! This will also help Dawn as she does Pampered Chef shows and has to haul her kitchen around. So needless to say, we are excited. We will show you our new car addition as soon as we get it. Thank you for all your prayers on this matter.

A New Year, A New Blog

This is our very first posting on our new Blog site. Yes! It took us forever to get up and running, but here we are. We are very excited about sharing our life's events and experiences with you in a personal way. Our first picture shows our 30 minute process of looking through the dictionary for something that didn't sound too cheesy or too fat. YES! I said too fat! There are an amazing amount of words that begin with G that could refer back to being fat. We passed on the Gunnels': gorge, glutton, glob, gulp, globular, grotesque.. just to name a few. Our New Year is starting with a new vigor to honor God with our bodies. We are starting with our much needed utilization of our YMCA membership. We have Tuesdays at 4:30 reserved for our highly intense circuit class.
Well, my time is up to post tonight. I will post more later in the week!