Independence Weekend

This was the first year in a long time that I've spent the 4th of July away from home.

When I worked at Hallmark, my boss hosted a 4th of July brunch every year at her home, since the store was always closed that day. It was the highlight of the year for all of us employees. In the evening, I would usually spend time with friends watching the fireworks somewhere.

When Josh and I start dating, his family had a tradition of going over to his grandparents house to let off fireworks in the street. We did that for quite a few years.

More recently, we have celebrated the 4th at his parents house and then headed out to watch the fireworks. We have this special spot we sit every year that has the perfect view of the show. 

This year, we were talking with our Bible study group about taking a trip to a family cabin and spending a weekend on the lake. It just so happened to work out for us to go 4th of July weekend. So, we loaded up two very packed vehicles and headed out on Wednesday night.

We had such a blast! We spent most of the day Thursday and Friday out on the lake...and got to watch the fireworks from the shore. They set them off across the lake from us, so we had the perfect viewing spot. 

We played lots of games, ate way too much food, laughed so hard our stomachs hurt, and had the best time with each other. It went by so fast and we can't wait to go again!

 Kayak time!

Instagrammed pic of the lake

Jet skis!

Hanging in the shade

Dot35 wives!

Silly pics of 3/4 of the guys

Waiting for the fireworks to start!

 We didn't quite finish the 1200 piece puzzle...but we tried!

It was the perfect mix of relaxation and fun! Such a great weekend with friends.

Recent Happenings

June was such a busy month for us.

Sometimes I still wish I was doing the photo a day challenge just so I would have one pic to remind me of what happened each day!

We celebrated my brother-in-law's birthday, I got to spend time with my longest friend before they move away for awhile, we went camping with Josh's family at the beach, we went to a wedding, I had a girls night out, we celebrated Father's Day with our dads, our friend John from Colorado came out to lead worship and teach at church and I got to sing with him, I had a coffee date with a sweet friend, I hung out with my bestie and her precious baby, I had a Scentsy open house, I attended a women's worship night at church, I attended a game night with some girlfriends, I started physical therapy again, I got my first pedicure in over a year and a half, and we had an amazing weekend out of town with friends that are family.

Whew!

Here are a few pics from our month:

My mother-in-law and my niece at the beach!

My brother-in-law, my niece, and my hubby

 My niece and my sister-in-law

She's such a cheeser!

 The lovely bride and groom! I love how they did their cake!

 My sweet friend S.S. and I

 Part of Dot 35 and their wives (and a big congrats to the other guy of Dot 35 who got engaged this weekend)!

The women in our Bible study. They are such a blessing! 

We had so much fun at this wedding! 

Taken by my friend L.Z. from this past weekend. We spent Saturday hanging out on the beach. It was lovely.

 Me and L.Z.

The three of us snuck away on Saturday night for a little shopping and dinner. What a huge blessing L.Z. and L.B. are in my life!

I'm so thankful that we have such amazing friends and family to spend time with this summer!

Moments

Sometimes it's weird to look back on life.

To look at a defining moment...where in an instant, everything changed and suddenly, your life was very different.

I've had many of those moments, and I've watched other people walk through many of their own.

The first time Josh kissed me: I remember everything about the moments leading up to it and the moments afterward. I asked him after if this meant things had changed (because we had broken up two months before after only dating for a week), and he said yes. My life was never the same after that moment (even though we went through another hard break up before he finally realized I was the girl for him).

The day we got married: That morning, I woke up early and took a nice long bath and took my time getting ready. I took a moment during my bath and asked God to show me a sign if I was making the wrong choice. Not because I thought I was, but because I wanted to be 110% sure that Josh was the man I was supposed to marry. And when I started walking down that aisle and saw him waiting for me, I burst into tears, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that God wanted me to spend the rest of my life with that man. My life was never the same after that.

The day I met my longest friend: I went to a youth group for the first time with a friend from my ballet classes. Two of her really good friends attended this youth group as well. She introduced me to her spunky red-headed friend and I knew instantly that this girl was going to be a great friend of mine. We exchanged email addresses and started emailing each other all the time. My life would forever be changed from that moment on.

The day I took my last birth control pill: I had a big last hurrah with some friends that week and had what I thought would be my last bit of alcohol before I got pregnant. We had so much fun that night, playing games in our old apartment until 1 or 2 in the morning. My bestie and I laughed so hard all night. But the day I took that last pill, I had no idea how much my life would change...or where I would be almost four and a half years after that.

The day my dear friend text me and told me all the pain her sister had been going through was cancer. No one expected that and we most certainly had no idea how much life would change in so many amazing ways because of her battle.

And more recently, the day we were supposed to find out the sex of a baby someone very close to my heart is expecting...and instead we received very heartbreaking news. The moment I received a phone call the next day, saying we needed to go to the hospital, my heart stopped and all I could say in the car was, "Jesus, please...". We had no idea the night before how much our lives were about to change.

There have been many other days that have brought huge life change. Days that stand out in my memory and moments that I will never forget. But through it all, there has always been one constant: Jesus and His love have never failed me. He's never left. He has remained faithful. And even though I lose sight of Him way more often than I should, He always welcomes me back with open arms. I don't deserve His love at all, but I'm so very thankful for it.

I Love...Books!

Today, I am going to continue my I Love series with a different love: books!

Some of my fondest memories growing up revolved around devouring lots of books. I read almost every single Baby Sitter's Club, Nancy Drew, and Mandie book. I would read anything I could get my hands on.

As an adult, my reading habits have slowed down quite a bit...but I do have some favorites and some that I could read over and over again and not get bored.

The Harry Potter series

Yep. It's no secret around these parts. I love Harry Potter so much. I didn't start reading the books until after I got married; I finished reading them the year the movie for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out. The fun thing about waiting so long to read them was that I was able to read all of the books and then watch almost all of the movies after I was done.

My favorite, by far, in the series is the Prisoner of Azkaban. I think it's probably because Sirius *spoiler alert*, Harry's godfather, is my favorite character. I also love the time-traveling section in the book. I've always had a fascination with the concept of time travel and how it works when people jump from one time...but are still living in another...or even living in the time they jump to (some of my favorites on that subject are the book The Time Traveler's Wife - the movie was a bit disappointing to me - and the TV show LOST).

I don't always cry when I'm reading books, but I definitely did while reading this series. I also cried a lot while watching the last three movies. I know they aren't religious and they deal with magic...but I see God and His story all throughout the pages of this series. There are some beautiful parallels illustrated throughout the books, that are especially seen in the final installment. If you've never picked them up before, I highly recommend them. I think the series is fabulous.

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The Divergent series

This one isn't finished yet (Allegiant comes out in the fall!), but it stole my heart in the first book. I love the interactions between Tris and Four, the depth of the story, and the thought of living in a world like that: where people are pigeon-holed into a certain faction depending on how they score on a test. It's a fascinating and exciting read. I, as well as my friend who got me hooked on the books, really believe that there's a lot of Jesus stuff in the pages of this series as well. The struggles that Tris goes through internally seem very similar to the struggles someone would have when trying to figure out faith and life and everything in between. I read these books after the Hunger Games trilogy, which I thought was the best thing I had read in a long time, and I definitely enjoyed Divergent much more.

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The Hunger Games

Ok...I know I just said I liked Divergent better, but the Hunger Games trilogy really is amazing, too. I remember being in a restaurant with my author-friend a few years back, and she was explaining to me and another friend this book she had recently read about teenage kids who had to kill each other to get food for their families. I thought it was the craziest thing ever and quickly decided I would not be reading those books. Little did I know, just a few years later, that I would read them, and love them. I really enjoyed the first movie as well, even though there were some key things, especially in the beginning, that irritated me. I am a fan of the love triangles, and I love seeing what side people pick early on, before they know who is picked. So far, in all of the love triangle books I've read, I pick the guy the girl picks. Except for Vampire Diaries (the TV show. I haven't read the books). I've not a fan of who Elena is with currently. I'm holding out hope for the other one!

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Code Name Verity

I just finished this book yesterday and it was really good! It was the quickest I have read a book in the past year. I devoured it in a couple of days. It was a pretty easy read. A little hard to get into at first, but it definitely picks up and sucks you in. It's a beautiful story of friendship, set during World War II. I tend to like historical fiction quite a bit, and this book did not fail to deliver. My author-friend bought it for me for my birthday, saying it was the best book she had read in awhile. I highly recommend it if you're looking for something new to read.

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I am getting ready to start reading the Mortal Instruments series, followed by the Infernal Devices. I've heard the latter is better than the first, but since they both have some of the same characters, I'm going to read them in order.

I am very excited to be getting back into the habit of reading more and I can't wait to find some other good reads after I finish what I have planned.

Randoms for the Week

I started writing out a post the other day about all the things that I'm not doing in my life right now that I wish I was doing.

After typing it all out, I decided it was not going to be published. When I re-read it, I realized how ridiculous it sounded.

Here I am, writing about all these things I need to change or add or do differently in my life...when what I should have done was close my laptop, get up, and do them! I have since made a point to start changing some things in my life.

I love having down time and relaxing, but I'm realizing that I crave a lot more than just that. And instead of writing about it, I need to just get up and do it sometimes.

*****

We watched the series finale of The Office last night with some friends. I had been dreading and anticipating this moment all week...I just have such a hard time saying goodbye to shows. It wasn't as intense as I felt when LOST ended, but it still felt like I was losing some of my best friends. The last couple of episodes leading up to the finale were so good...I told my husband that fact alone was making it even harder to say goodbye. The show hasn't been the same since Steve Carell left, but those episodes were really making up for it for me. So while last night's episode was hard to watch, I couldn't have been happier with the way they ended things. And man...some of the wisdom they imparted to us viewers was just priceless:

Be strong.

Trust yourself.

Love yourself.

Conquer your fears.

And fast...

because life just isn't that long.

(The Office)

*****

The tough stuff in life is still tough...but we are slowly getting to the light at the end of the tunnel in some of the situations. We have definitely felt people's prayers and are so grateful for them as we keep walking these roads. My heart gets overwhelmed if I dwell on things too long, but knowing other people are out there thinking of us and praying for us has been such a huge blessing.

*****

I am finally getting to the bottom of some of my neck and back issues. My doctor sent me to another department and I've had some tests done already to try and figure out what's going on. While we haven't gotten a lot of answers yet, some of the tests have come back normal, so that's at least encouraging. I'm also going to be getting some pain relief next week that I am super excited about. For someone who's been living with pain and stiffness for almost two years now...this news is incredible!

*****

I am still plugging along with the healthy eating thing! There have only been one or two days in the last two weeks that I've gone over on my calories...and I haven't had any soda in three weeks! I don't even miss it anymore, which is crazy to me. I'm learning to love the foods that I've been eating and I'm craving things like avocados and mandarins all the time now. Iced unsweetened green tea is my favorite drink right now, other than water. It's crazy living in this world, but I'm loving every minute of it.

*****

My oldest niece is turning 6 next week! Where has the time gone? We got to meet her the day she came home from the hospital and it was the best day ever. She brings so much joy to our family, even though she lives far away now. We are so in love with all of our nieces and are so blessed and such better people with them in our lives.

*****

I haven't talked a lot lately about my infertility issues. They are still there, and I am obviously still not pregnant or a mother. It's weird to be over four years on this road looking back at all of the trials and hard times we had to endure along the way. While I still have a great desire to be a mom someday, I also am really happy with where I'm at right now. Especially with all the pain issues I've had the past couple of years...I think getting pregnant during that time would have been so horrible. I trust God knows what He's doing in my life and this season will pass someday...

There's also a part of me that is kind of freaked out at the possibility of becoming pregnant. I've watched a lot of people in my life walk through some very hard things in their pregnancies and the thought of having to go through something like that really scares me. I know I have to trust in God's plan for my life, and I have to trust that whatever happens, I will be fine...but there's still a part of me that's a little scared.

*****

This weekend is full of fun! I'm going out dancing with some friends, we are attending a sweet little girl's 1st birthday party, and I have Bunco with my friends. I'm hoping we will be able to squeeze in seeing Star Trek as well!

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