Mishmash

- That tooth that I pondered? Yup, broke through Tuesday night. Yay for Isaac, although concern has grown for the original happy meal . . .

- Yesterday, it was 5 years ago that Tony sent me the initial email that began our romance. Love the cheese.

- Work still sucks.

- Tony's job still sucks.

- Just an FYI for my remembrance, we did decide to put up our Christmas tree even though Isaac would love nothing more than to entrench himself in it's branches.

- Isaac's got a pretty solid rash going on lately. It started on his chin, but is kind of radiating out and we're not sure what to make of it. ETA: it's worse than what we assumed would be the result of a teething rash. My Mom says she's never seen one so severe.

- I came home last night to Tony in the middle of preparing his newly created specialty. We had breadcrumb crusted baked chicken, poppyseed salad, alfredo shells and biscuits. It was amazing and exactly what I needed. To say the least . . . It's been a tough week.

Here's my ray of sunshine though, thanks G.

Wedded Wednesday

<br /><center><a href="http://marital-bless.blogspot.com/search/label/Wedded%20Wednesday"><img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y154/Leum20/weddedwednesday.jpg" /></a></center><br />

Wedded Wednesday is a collaboration
of married bloggers sharing their inspirations,
anecdotes, struggles and thoughts regarding
the amazing union of two separate people, as one.

Tony and I went to go look at tile last night. We bought extremely, extremely cheapo stuff for our downstairs bathroom, so we didn't really know what we were looking at for the upstairs.

Oh no my dear friends, don't worry, it's not that I neglected to showcase our bathroom renovation in all of it's glory. There have been no updates because the bathroom is still not complete, although it is sheetrocked and mudded, with all new water lines and electricity. It's been torn out since February {with a promise of three weeks until completion}, but really I'm not getting caught up in the details. BWHAHAHAHA. Sorry that was funny. I think I'll hold it over Tony that he's forced me to go to the bathroom down two flights of stairs not only while enduring the last 3 months of pregnancy, but in addition to trekking our newborn {now almost 8 month old son}. Although, I really don't say much about it anymore, in all seriousness. It's just a fact of life. Bathroom's downstairs.

Back to the story, we went to The Tile Store and fell in love pretty quickly with a neutral tile with natural slate accent. We had no clue what we were in for, so allowed the sales rep to write us up a quote . . . at $950 . . . for a 5x7 bathroom. That's expensive! Tony and I were ready to head out the door when I noticed "the look" between the manager and the sales rep we were working with. All of the sudden we were offered 25% off and questioned on our budget. Since we didn't have one, but knew what we couldn't pay, we said that we'd think about it while shopping at Northwestern bookstore, just a few shops down. We thought the tile place would close before the bookstore, where we were going to use our 25% off coupon and check out a Bible for Isaac {thank you for your recommendations!} . . . but quickly found out that the bookstore closed before The Tile Place. Anywho, this meant that we didn't have any place but the truck to mull over our decision.

As we sat and talked, we prayed about it and I felt confident that if we could get 30% we could swing it. We're paying off a loan in a payment or two and they offered us a 0% interest card for 6 months, so we'll essentially be extending the payment for 5 more months.

And this is where the Wedded Wednesday comes into play, I chickened out and grabbed a few groceries while Tony went back in to negotiate.

I can not handle bartering. I hate the uncomfortable squishy questioning, both sides not knowing how hard they can push.

Tony texted me at the grocery store, 30+% secured. :) We got $950 travertine for both floor and shower surround, with a tile accent for $650 - $200 {Christmas money from my Mom, she is the queen of identifying a need and giving us money before the birthday or Christmas lol} and we're looking at $450.

What does your hubs excel at that you can not handle?

An Elephant?

I'm so behind right now, I can't even tell what I'm behind. But if I were to make it out, I believe my google reader would look like an elephant. It's sitting at 288 right now.

Work just won't slow down. We're looking at disenrollment in less than two weeks.

Isaac wouldn't sleep, which make me a very tired Momma.

His rosy cheeks and rash just won't clear up, we're thinking a tooth might pop in the near future.

Both my Mom and Tony are trying to bribe me into doing a Christmas card. My Mom is offering to pay and Tony is offering to address them!

My brain hurts and I feel like a hypochondriac assuming it's a tumor.

Tony and I are almost set for presents, $20 limit on each other and we've decided in concept that we're going to get Isaac a Bible, but we haven't decided which one yet . . .

Are you guys keeping your heads above water?

You know what's prettier than a picture?

Giving. And an easy way to give, that involves plenty of eye candy, is popping over to Gina's photo blog and leaving a comment!

For every comment she will donate a nonperishable canned good. Please participate! It ends today!

Wedded Wednesday

<br /><center><a href="http://marital-bless.blogspot.com/search/label/Wedded%20Wednesday"><img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y154/Leum20/weddedwednesday.jpg" /></a></center><br />

Wedded Wednesday is a collaboration
of married bloggers sharing their inspirations,
anecdotes, struggles and thoughts regarding
the amazing union of two separate people, as one.

There is no secret to marriage.

Be All In.

Q&A: My faith and some insight to this crazy chic

To go back to the wonderful post in which I was blessed with ample writing material, I was asked these lovely questions:

• Megan said: When and how did you accept Christ as your Savior?
• Fah said: If I remember right you went to a church based (can't think of the word I want) school and then switched to a regular public school in middle or high school. What affect if any did that have on you and your faith?
• Amy said: You seem like a very faith driven person. Have you always been involved in church, church activities etc or is that something you've found and been brought to since marriage? What would you suggest to someone who is looking to get back into the 'church scene'?

I think that I can address all of the above questions pretty well in my testimony and then take it a little bit further. Now, before I turn a lot of you off by thinking I'm going to get all churchy up in here, please know that this will essentially be the story of me. My faith is inseparable from my growth as a person, so you'll get both.

My Mom grew up Lutheran, while my Dad's family was the quintessential Christmas/Easter church going type. Somehow though, I was raised in a non-denominational Christian home. I can clearly remember my Mom crying as I asked her how I would go about accept Jesus into my heart. She was just getting me out of my bath, enveloping me in a towel, repeatedly saying "Mommy loves you, loves you, loves you. Loves you, loves you, loves you," as she rocked me back and forth to dry per our ritual. Just as I now say to Isaac. While I can't proclaim to remember the rationale of my 5 year old self, I can bet $5 it happened then and there because I did, and still do, relate Jesus to love.

A child's faith is extremely pure, as the world is pretty simple. Cause and effect. Right and wrong. Good deed, bad deed. My parent's divorce shaped my prayer life and my sense of self worth for awhile. Oh how many times I prayed for their arguing to stop. I would kneel over the bright orange and brown 70's flowered ottoman, my hand's clenched, certain that if I just prayed a little harder . . . As the divorce was finalized, my Mom had my brother and me see a counselor, for I was certain it was my fault.

For some time after the divorce and my Mom's remarriage, most of my memories of church and faith are of trying new churches with my Mom and Stepdad. I do recall forcing my Dad to drive me to church on Sunday mornings of his visitation weekends, only to have him return and pick me up after the service. I continued on with the youth group at the church my parent's had attended as a family, although neither of them would ever return. I was adamant to attend, because my friend's were there, since the private school I attended was based in the same church.

Northside Christian School, I believe, may prove to be one of the most shaping decisions of my life. My Mom worked three jobs in order for my brother and I to attend, and that we did from Kindergarten to 8th grade. I never felt as though the education was lacking or for that matter better than my friends that attended public school. However, we were without a doubt sheltered. The things that we heard from the neighborhood kids would usually shock us, sometimes purposely so. Our faith was not questioned though, it was not ridiculed. In fact, it was encouraged to question it yourself, in an environment where answers could be provided and ultimately growth accomplished.



There was chapel on Friday, but honestly, I can't remember now if there was a "Religion" class. How odd is that? I truly can't remember, although I do know that Bible verses were memorized and world history definitely elaborated world religions.

Upon 7th grade there was the option to do missions, either in Minnesota or Mexico. Funds were raised through Delicious Drama {play and dessert}, candy bars sales and the like. I was able to go 4 times, 7th through 10th grade.


9th grade?


I used to be quite fluent in Spanish . . . that's another story for a different day.

When the jump finally did have to be made from small private school to large high school . . . I jumped, full out. I wanted to play soccer with my friends at the public high school and I was ready, so I thought, for some worldliness. There was still youth group and Youth Alive conferences in the fall and spring, in addition to the long summer camp.



I largely remained unscathed in high school. I was able to tilt my head and laugh questioningly at the off jokes. It literally took a month for me to realize the boy sitting next to me in my first class , first quarter freshman year was making fun of me by nipping out everytime he asked me: "Are you cold?" I avoided the "bad kids," stuck close to those with the good grades and continued to push myself academically and athletically. There were boyfriends and make-out sessions with doors wide open, as we both listened for the first footfall which would obviously result in a mad scramble to appear studious. But honestly, I was a good kid. Our high school was large enough that our "group" of friends could have been considered: The popular, non partying, good grades, jockish group. I made it to Homecoming Court {can I write this without sounding stuck up, even 8 years later?}



And then, I decided to go to school 3 hours away from home, including leaving my boyfriend behind to do the long distance thing. I wanted to know what it felt like to be unsheltered. Make mistakes. Almost intentionally hurt myself. It didn't happen right away. I still abstained from alcohol until the end of my freshman year. I was the permanent designated driver. I carted friends and teammates all about town. I never turned down an invitation to go out, I just turned down too many drinks to count. I think it was fear of the unknown. I had never given into peer pressure before, so why would I then. I went to church once, but I didn't know the people I recognized from school . . . and I never went back. By the end of my freshman year I'd already begun to alienate myself from almost everything that had previously identified me. My faith was present, but more in the "I'm a good person" type, not a faith of action or in word. The clincher - I broke up with my boyfriend, for virtually no good reason.

It's a decision that I still regret to this day. Not because he was my first love, that we spoke about marriage or that he was genuinely a good guy, but because if we had just lasted another year I would have saved myself the worst pain of my life. He remained as my only checking point. He was the only one who could keep me reined in, a reminder of who I was, who I was straying away from. Just another year . . . and we would have known we were not intended for each other, but I would have been another year more mature. Oh this decision that broke the camel's back.

And so the end of my freshman year, sophomore year and half way through my junior year were lost.



I never did anything terrible in terms of the world. Nothing that my college friend's thought was terrible, or for that matter even bad, but the end of my sophomore year? I still clearly remember sitting on the floor in front of my mirror and sobbing. I could not recognize myself. There was no resemblance of the person I knew reflecting back. Nothing. My image was shattered, values scattered. If my sole intention was to hurt myself, I'd more than accomplished it, as I'd also strained my relationship with my Mom.

I was still reeling when I updated my profile on the dating site with my email address. I was still thoroughly confused with myself when Tony first contacted me. I was still making poor decisions up until the day we went on our first date. But God healed me, through Tony. God allowed the man that was to be my husband to take my pain, swallow it whole and tell me to my face that not only did God forgive and love me, but that he did too.

Take a second and re-read that if you will. I'm almost crying to the point that I was that day in hearing those words. What a man my husband is. What an absolute man of God.



I can't say it was that second that I began to live my faith instead of desecrate it, but the change was put in motion. Tony showed me again, who I was, who I could be as a faithful woman. One who's joy is to be a delight of the Lord's.

I walked down the aisle to Tony, accompanied by a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace. It may have gone unnoticed by our guests, but it was the absolute perfect selection to Tony and I. We are together, only by God's amazing grace.


I don't feel hypocritical now and I think that that is my only answer to Amy's question regarding joining a church again. People are not perfect, that is why we need Jesus. Christian's do not think they are perfect and they should be soundly aware of their humanity. Go, be yourself, with an open mind, hopefully you will find like minded people who will see you through your reconciliation.

Hockey Skates

Everyone keeps asking us if Isaac has skates yet, reluctantly Tony has said no. There just aren't any small enough yet, {thankfully!} but back before Isaac was Isaac, when he was still deemed Baby Bless my Mom bought us these guys from Etsy.


I really should have taken these pictures before the mobility!


Doing his eyebrow thing again!


The blades aren't quite stable enough to be stood upon lol.


Little chubbers.


Isaac's thoughts on being in hockey skates. :)


Put me in coach, put me in!