Blessings

I was going to tell you about the rest of our Victoria weekend, but I just heard this song again after it's been in my head for the past month and I just need to share it with you.

It speaks so deeply to me right now.  I know I'm being vague about what we're going through right now and maybe in the future I'll share the details but right now, while we're in the thick of it, I don't think I should say too much.

I'm sure this song will mean something different to everyone, but it just tells me that even though we don't know what's going to happen in our current situation, Jesus is here with us.  He's carrying us through it and blessing us along the way.  Maybe not in the way that we would choose, but there's blessings in our trials nontheless.




Lyrics:
We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
As long as we have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not our home

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

Anniversary Weekend in Victoria, B.C.

It's hard to believe that it's already been a week since Kyle and I got up at the crack of dawn to head to Seattle to get on the Victoria Clipper for the 3 hour ride to Victoria, B.C.!

This has been a crazy, insane, BUSY week!  We have so much "stuff" going on right now that is requiring so much of our time.  While the anniversary / birthday trip was a nice getaway, it just put us even more behind.

BUT, I don't want to talk about that crap.  I want to tell you about Victoria.

The last time that Kyle and I were in Victoria together, we had just graduated from 8th grade.  Our class took a trip that started in Vancouver, B.C. and ended in Victoria.  We don't remember much of the trip, just mostly the fact that we were there.  We walked up and down the streets of Victoria.  We walked miles and miles and miles!  On one of the streets, we think we recognized where we stayed so many years ago.  I remember the lobby being dark and Kyle remembers there being a beach volleyball court on the roof.  We're pretty sure we saw the spot.

Friday morning when we docked in Victoria, it was sunny and bright.  We walked the block to our hotel, Hotel Grand Pacific.  Our room was on the 7th floor and we had a pretty good view of the harbor.  In this picture you can even see the Clipper still docked there.

Here's our room.  Nothing fancy but it was nice nontheless.

After we got checked in and got a bit settled, we ventured out to find some lunch.  We found a sports bar / restaurant to eat.  I got some major nachos and Kyle got a burger and fries. It was so much food that we wandered around in a food coma for the rest of the day.

Canada has some interesting stores...

Do you see the name of this store?  Like I said, interesting.  It's a clothing store.

And this...

Another clothing store with a crazy-ass name!

And crazier than the name?

Do you see how SMALL this store is?  You see those shirts hanging on the wall right inside the door?  Yeah, that's how big {small} the store is!  It was the size of a window display in a regular-sized store!  What the heck?  LOL  The cashier was squished in a corner!

I made Kyle pose for a picture along our walk.  He wasn't thrilled but he complied. ;0)

The sun setting over the harbor was so pretty!

Before we knew it the day was starting to come to an end.  We had grand plans of going out to dinner and then coming back to the hotel and watching a movie on Netflix, but...that didn't happen.

We got back to the hotel around 6pm and we sat down to relax a bit since we'd been walking all day.  Kyle ended up falling asleep about 6:30/7:00 and didn't wake up again till about 9:00am the next day!  The boy slept for 14 hours!  I didn't want to wake him up because he obviously needed the sleep.  He works so hard and gets up so early and works late most days so I wanted him to get all the sleep he needed.  I fell asleep too but I woke up a few times before I actually went to bed.  I thought about ordering room service for dinner {which was so dang expensive!} but decided against it.  I was still full from lunch.

We're such party animals, huh?  LOL

I'll update you on the rest of the weekend tomorrow.  I gotta get up and going.  Lots to do today and the sun is shining, which is a rarity these days!

Christmas Crafting - Gifts

I've mentioned a couple of times that I made some gifts for this last Christmas.  Yeah, I know, it's almost February but we all know that I'm a bit delayed in posting about things. LOL

I'm really not a crafty person so I was a bit out of my element but since I'd been seeing so many fun things on Pinterest I decided to give some things a try.

I decided to make a couple of things for my sister, my SIL, my mom and my step-mom.

For my sister and SIL I made ribbon necklaces and jewelry boards.  My sister's is the black and white board and my SIL's is the larger silver, white and teal board.  My mom's is the smaller silver, white and teal board and my step-mom's is the brown and teal board.  I gave them pearl-headed pins to go with them.

The teal necklace I made for my SIL and the other three I made for my sister.  I had a lot of fun putting these together for them and finding the pieces that I thought fit their personalities the best.  I think that they love them so that makes me feel good that I was able to make something fun for them.

SO that's the first set of things I made.  I also want to show you the decorations that I did this {last} year because I'm really proud of how I made things {with my mom's help} and had it all come together.  I think it all turned out great and festive!  I'll post those soon but I'm going to be pretty busy the next few days so it likely won't be till next week.

Oh, also, I must give credit where credit is due.  Kyle painted three of the four frames for me.  I could've done it but I am so NOT a painter so it would've come out all gross and drippy and he's fantabulous at it so he was willing to help me out with that part.  Love that man! :)

Facebook Follow-up... A New Meme

My cousin started a new meme.

It's to look back on the things that made it to Facebook {or Twitter} that didn't make it to your blog.  I know that I definitely get more things to Facebook that I do here so to start this off, here are some highlights from December:

{My dad joined a choir for the first time in years and he was really excited about it.
This was his first performance with the group.}

{Kingston turned 4!}

{This is the school that I went to for 3rd & the first half of 4th grade.}

So I guess that's my snippet of things that happened in December.  It was certainly a busy, busy month and I've definitely been a slacking blogger so I think this will be a fun thing to do to update everyone once a month on the things that I've lacked to blog about.

Now it's your turn. . . 

If you'd like to participate and show off your favorite facebook moments from the month, all you have to do is create a post of your favorites and include a link back to my cousin's post so that others can participate!

10 Amazing Years!

Today as we sit in our house, snowed in for the past week or so, we're celebrating 10 years of wedded bliss!

It's crazy how fast time flies!

I wrote this post about all the details of our wedding back in 2009.  I still love looking back and reminiscing.  It truly was a magical day.

As I was posting about our anniversary on Facebook this morning, one of my best friends commented on one of the photos that has my flower girl and ring bearer in it.  Once upon a time, both her and I nannied for them. She was asking me if I remembered their last name and I didn't.  A few minutes later she had found Hayden, my ring bearer, on Facebook.  Ohmygosh you guys!  He's all grown up!  He's one handsome dude, too!  I'm guessing he's about 18 now!

Like I said, time flies!

Kyle and I are hoping that we'll be able to get out of the house long enough to go and grab some dinner tonight and then next weekend, we're headed up to Victoria, B.C.  {the last time we were there together was right after 8th grade...that was quite the trip with our class...Kyle still had cooties then. ;0) } And THEN we're hoping that sometime in the next year we'll be able to get together enough money to head somewhere warm with white sand and tropical fruity drinks.  Crossing our fingers!

Because we've been snowed in, I don't even have a card for my Honey.  But I did make him pancakes because he IS the Pancake King.  {He's obsessed.  Seriously.}

This past year has been a tough one.  Not for our marriage but just life in general and it looks like this year is starting out a bit rough, so many unknowns right now, but I have to say that I have the perfect partner to go through all of this with.  I'm one lucky lady and I'm so happy that I've gotten to spend the past 10 years married to my very best friend.

Happy 10 Years, Honey!  

Here's to many more to come!  

I love you!!

Cabin Fever

Hey Peeps!

Sorry for going MIA!  Sometimes I just don't feel like writing and before I know it so much time has passed.

Right now we're in the middle of a snow storm.  It's been snowing on and off since Saturday, I believe.  I'd say we have a little over a foot and I haven't worked all week.  Which is nice and all, but I don't get paid when I don't work.

And I've started getting cabin fever.

Kyle is being overprotective and won't let me drive anywhere {I've seriously driven in worse conditions so I'm not really sure what's going on in that head of his. lol}. Except yesterday when I drove just down the hill for my physical therapy appointment.  It's literally at the bottom of the hill.  I don't even have to go through a light to get there.  On my way home, the whole two minutes it takes me, the snow from the roof of my car decided to slide down onto the windshield almost completely blocking my view.  Thankfully I was able to get to a side street fairly quickly to wipe it all away before I continued on home.

I was just looking through my photobucket album that automatically loads when I take pictures on my phone and I've taken A LOT of pictures the past few days! LOL  Here's just a little bit from the past few days of our adventures.  We're getting ready to go back out to the park that's right outside our door to play in the snow with Chewy.

First of all, this sunset picture was taken last Friday.  The next day it started snowing!