Proud To Be An American

Thank you to all of our Service Men and Women, past and present, for defending our Freedom.

God Bless You All!!

Worship and Praise Sunday: Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord

Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord
Tree63

Blessed be your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where the streams of abundance flow
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your name

Every blessing you pour out,
I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious name

Blessed be your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's all as it should be
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be your name

Every blessing you pour out,
I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, Blessed be your name

~~~~~~~~

It seems like when I'm going through rough times the perfect songs just come to me, or what I really believe to be what happens, is that Jesus gives them to me at just the right moment. This happens to be one of them.

I hope it speaks and ministers to you too.

Have a blessed Sunday!

~~~~~~~~

For more Worship and Praise songs, visit Jen at Following the Footsteps.

Weekend Wordle / Six Word Saturday

To create your own Wordle, go here. And then download MWSnap to save the image. Easy peasy!

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Six Word Saturday:

Carrie Underwood!! We'll see YOU tonight!!

Join Cate at Show My Face for more Six Word Saturdays. She's got lots of groupies that like to play along!

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A dumb Blonde died and went to Heaven. When she got to the Pearly Gates, she met Saint Peter who said, "Before you get to come into Heaven, you have to pass a test."

"Oh, No!" she said but Saint Peter said not to worry he'd make it easy.
"Who was God's son?" said Saint Peter.
The dumb Blonde thought for a few minutes and said "Andy!"
"That's interesting... What made you say that?" said Saint Peter
Then She started to sing "Andy walks with me! Andy talks with me! Andy tells me..."

~~~~~~

There were three people stranded on an island, a brunette, a redhead, and a blonde.

The brunette looked over the water to the mainland and estimated about 20 miles to shore. So she announced, "I'm going to try to swim to shore." So she swam out five miles, and got really tired. She swam out ten miles from the island, and she was too tired to go on, so she drowned.

The second one, the redhead, said to herself, "I wonder if she made it." I guess it's better to try to get to the mainland than stay here and starve." So she attempts to swim out. The redhead had a lot more endurance than the brunette, as she swam out 10 miles before she even got tired. After 15 miles, she was too tired to go on, so she drowned.

So the blonde thought to herself, "I wonder if they made it! I think I'd better try to make it, too." So she swam out 5 miles, ten miles, 15 miles, NINETEEN miles from the island. The shore was just in sight, but she said, "I'm too tired to go on!" So she swam back.

~~~~~

A blonde was driving down the highway to Disneyland when she saw a sign that said "DISNEYLAND LEFT".
After thinking for a minute, she said to herself "oh well !" and turned around an drove home.
On her way home the same blonde drove past another sign that said "CLEAN RESTROOMS 8 MILES".
By the time she drove eight miles, shehad cleaned 43 restrooms.

~~~~~

Q: What does a blonde say when you ask her if her blinker is working?
A: Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. No.

Q: What goes VROOM, SCREECH, VROOM, SCREECH, VROOM, SCREECH?
A: A blonde going through a flashing red light.

I'm Still Here

Sorry for being MIA.

I'm just not "feeling it" right now.

I'm upset with myself about a couple of my test grades, so that's bringing me down.

I don't understand everything I need to know for Phlebotomy and the quarter is almost over.

I start my CNA externship next week and I'm pretty nervous about it.

I'm sick. I have a cold with a stuffy head, runny/stuffy nose, a developing cough oh yeah and AF has made her arrival to make everything in my body feel even better.

I have a couple of giveaways that I'm going to be posting soon, but I just need to get back into posting again.

I'll be back soon.

In the mean time, is there anything you've been wanting to ask me that you've been reluctant to ask? Anything else you'd like to say or talk about? I know I've got some new followers that may have some burning questions.

Come on out lurkers! I'd love to hear from you! =)

Happy Birthday To One; Good-Bye To Another

This is my adorable grandma and grandpa and today my grandpa is having a birthday!!

He is an AMAZING man that I am so lucky to have in my life!!

Happy 80th Birthday, Grandpa!!
I love you!!

~~~~~~

This is another AMAZING man.

Kyle's grandpa, Eric.

We had to say good-bye to him yesterday.

The day started out as all other days for him and by early afternoon he was in the hospital, dying {he had many health issues and we though he was going to leave us a few months ago}.

He left this world surrounded by family and he will be greatly missed. He was 88.

Next week would have been his and Kyle's grandma's 64th wedding anniversary! What a wonderful, full life he lived.

We will always love you, Grandpa Carlson!!!

Until we meet again.

Good-Bye Dirt Devil; Hello Bissell!!

I've mentioned before that we've had a vacuum that doesn't work.

Now, vacuuming is not my favorite chore. At. All. But when it gets to the point that I start seeing this:

Oh hey! How'd Milo get in there? And what is he DOING? Haha!

And my carpet is a different color than it supposed to be...

And there's Chewy before he ran downstairs because he's afraid of the vacuum.

It grates on my nerves.

It HAS BEEN grating on my nerves for quite awhile.

However, Kyle has been in denial about this vacuum issue. Until recently.

Thank. You. God.

The man has come to his senses!

I don't have to "vacuum" with my fingers any longer! Whew! My fingers are thankful!

I bought this vacuum, the non-working one, about 5'ish years ago when we lived in a very very VERY old house with hardly any carpet. Kyle didn't think we needed a vacuum back then either but one day I just went to Target and bought this one for about $70 or $80. He came home and viola, it was there! He couldn't say anything.


It's done it's job for the duration that we've had it except for maybe the last year or so. It's just gotten worse and we can't figure out what's wrong with it. And honestly, I don't really care what's wrong with it. I've been beyond tired of this thing and wanted to get a new one.

So over the past couple of weeks we've talked more and more about getting a vacuum and we've both been reading reviews online for a few different ones that are around our price range.

We found one that we were going to be able to get at Costco but it was around $180 or so and we really did not want to spend any more than $200 and even that was a bit high for our budget. Oh and I think we were gonna have to order it and pay for shipping. Ugh.

Kyle did something to his back {poor guy was in more pain than he's ever been last night} and so he stopped at Walmart today to get a back brace. Why he stopped at Walmart, I don't know, because we do not shop there. I avoid it like the plague. I've heard that there are some nice ones, but they are not here in Washington! So anywho, Kyle called me this morning and told me that the vacuum we were looking at getting was less than $80 at Walmart and I should go get it or a better one that was the price that we were planning on spending {around $150}. I told him I was NOT going to go to Walmart and especially not alone.

Guess what?

I went to Walmart.

Alone.

And just as a side note, I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO thankful that I decided to take the back roads. I can't even express HOW thankful I am.

Why?

Because when I got over near Walmart, I saw that the freeway was NOT moving. Like, at all.

Frozen.

Parking lot.

But me? I was going over the freeway, not ON the freeway. Whew!!

On Twitter I sent this:

@KIRO7Seattle what's going on marysville and north? Freeway not moving!

And they actually responded TO ME!! I feel so special. Haha!!

KIRO7Seattle

@MrsMeganC From @WSDOT: On I-5 NB at 116th St NE there is a collision blocking 2 left lanes. The current backup is 15 miles.

Insane, right? SO THANKFUL I did NOT get caught up in that! The side streets got a bit backed up from people re-routing, but I didn't care. I was MOVING.

So back to my little trip to Wally World.

I know where it is. I've been there before.

But I passed it.

How?

I'm not really sure. LOL

But I did and I ended up going a few miles past it and I actually saw the flashing lights from the accident. I turned around and made my way back. I'm still shaking my head at myself.

Der!

I finally got into Walmart and I found the vacuums. There were two that I was willing to get. There was only about a $15 difference between the two. I could only find the more expensive one so after looking at all the others to make sure that this was the one I wanted to get, I put it in my cart and then went and picked up a few other things, since I was there.

Took me awhile to get home because of the traffic but once I got in the door, I unpacked {and assembled a couple parts of} the vacuum I had purchased and started right in.

This is what I got:



I started in the living room with the area rug and the couch. How disgusting is this?


And can you see how NICE the rug looks now? Now that you can tell which color it's supposed to be?

After the living room I vacuumed the hallways, our bedroom and then I moved onto the computer room. And I must say it again... I did NOT choose the carpet. It was here when we bought the house. Same with the paint on the walls. This entire house is a work in progress and we have not gotten to this room.

With the old vacuum I went over this area five times, back and forth. See how it did NOTHING?


And the 'After'.

And this?


THIS is everything that the vacuum picked up in the two hours that I spent vacuuming. I'm afraid to see what the stairs and downstairs are going to produce. YUCK!!

Kyle just got home and saw that I'm blogging about our carpet / vacuums. He thinks I'm weird. LOL

And he also said that this afternoon, after wearing the back brace for a little bit, he felt something in his back slide and then he instantly felt better so he's thinking one of his discs had dislocated and then slid back into place. Whew!

So this new vacuum is a HUGE plus in my life right now! It is a bit heavy, but I'm sure I won't be spending two hours vacuuming next time. This time I was working on the couch and whatnot so the next time should be quicker. Therefore, the heaviness won't really be an issue.

I'm just so happy to be able to vacuum again, as much as I dislike the chore itself!!

Good-bye icky, stupid Dirt Devil; Hello beautiful, glorious Bissell!!

Weekend Review or How To Be A Lump On A Log

Photo Credit

I haven't left the house since Friday.

How sad and pathetic is that?

Friday I spent the day running around doing a bunch of errands. I decided where I was going to go first, which was the scrub store, down in my inlaws neck of the woods, to get a blood pressure cuff {because I SERIOUSLY need to learn this and I'm having a horrible time with it} and while I was there I was going to take the advice of some of you and get my neighbor's daughter a gift card to there. I got the blood pressure cuff but COMPLETELY forgot to get the gift card. Gah!

But that store was the furthest away from my house so after that I made my stops on my way back up. Somewhere along the way I did stop and get neighbor girl a card and a VISA gift card.

That evening, I planted myself on the couch and started working on a homework packet that I've sort of forgotten about for Phlebotomy. It's not due till the end of the quarter but I figured it would probably be a good idea if I got started on it. Wish I had thought of that BEFORE I took my mid-term because some of the stuff I was doing in the packet would've really helped me. And I'm not feeling very confident in my test score. My teacher is trying to make me crazy because she takes FOREVER to post test scores and I just want to know how good or bad I did! Anyway, I spent about four hours working on that packet and then I just continued to be a lump.

Saturday was the day of neighbor girls Open House. After all was said and done, Kyle decided that he couldn't go because he had to go to work and I wasn't going to go alone. I wouldn't have known anyone else there, except for her parents/sister and it wasn't just next door. It was quite a ways away. So I stayed inside and did who knows what. Probably played the part of lump on a log some more. I'm good at that, ya know.

Yesterday I had plans of going to church. Kyle had plans of being a lump on a log. He said his tummy hurt. I think he just wanted to watch golf and whatever else he had on. So, again, I didn't leave the house. But my CNA teacher gave us a study guide last week to study for our final, which is tomorrow. I spent the ENTIRE day sitting at the computer working through the questions in the study guide. I'll be doing more of that today. There are 18 questions but a lot more answers than that and I'm writing it ALL down hoping and praying that it sticks and I get a good grade on this final!

After I had spent all day at the computer and my hand was sufficiently cramped up, I decided to go be a lump on a log for the rest of the night.

I should probably leave the house today for sanities sake. Gotta get some food too so we stop scrounging around and finding next to nothing worth eating. LOL

Please tell me we are not the only people that spend entire weekends IN the house, without leaving. I feel like such a hermit when that happens.

How was your weekend?

Worship and Praise Sunday: Change My Heart, Oh God

Change My Heart, Oh God
Eddie Espinosa

Change my heart, oh God
make it ever true
Change my heart, oh God
may i be like you (2x)

You are the potter
I am the clay
Mold me and make me
This is what i pray

Change my heart, oh God
make it ever true
Change my heart, oh God
may i be like you

And another video just because it's too cute. But the embedding has been disabled so you'll have to click over to YouTube. It's a 6 year old little girl singing this song. Click here.

~~~~~~~~

This is another one of the old school worship songs that I love so much. Whenever I hear this song and others from back in the day it takes me right back to my childhood. But the songs are timeless and I still love to sing them.

This song in-particular is so simple but it's my hearts prayer. I'm continually asking God to change my heart for one thing or another.

Have a blessed Sunday!

~~~~~~~~

For more Worship and Praise songs, visit Jen at Following the Footsteps.

Weekend Wordle / Six Word Saturday

To create your own Wordle, go here. And then download MWSnap to save the image. Easy peasy!

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Six Word Saturday:

Somewhat gloomy within. Glad sun's shining.

Join Cate at Show My Face for more Six Word Saturdays. She's got lots of groupies that like to play along!

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A blonde watching the news hears that 2 Brazilian men died in a skydiving accident. She cries: "OMG, how many people is a brazilian"?

~~~~~

A blonde goes into a nearby store and asks a clerk if she can buy the TV in the corner.

The clerk looks at her and says that he doesn't serve blondes, so she goes back home and dyes her hair black.

The next day she returns to the store and asks the same thing, and again, the clerk said he doesn't serve blondes.

Frustrated, the blonde goes home and dyes her hair yet again, to a shade of red.

Sure that a clerk would sell her the TV this time, she returns and asks a different clerk this time.

To her astonishment, this clerk also says that she doesn't serve blondes.

The blonde asks the clerk, "How in the world do you know I am a blonde?"

The clerk looks at her disgustedly and says,"That's not a TV -- it's a microwave!"

~~~~~

A blind guy on a bar stool shouts to the bartender, "Wanna hear a blonde joke?"

In a hushed voice, the guy next to him says, "Before you tell that joke, you should know something."

Our bartender IS blonde, the bouncer is blonde. I'm a 6' tall, 200 lb black belt. The guy sitting next to me is 6'2", weighs 225, and he's a rugby player. The fella to your right is 6'5" pushing 300 and he's a wrestler. Each one of US is blonde. Think about it, Mister. Do you still wanna tell that joke?"

The blind guy says, "Nah, not if I'm gonna have to explain it five times."

Meshing Friday 'Stuff'

THANK GOD FOR FRIDAY!!!

That's pretty much all I've really got to say today, but while I'm here I might as well empty out all the other stuff that's rumbling around in my brain.

*******

Yesterday I had my mid-term in Phlebotomy. I'm stressed. Really, really stressed. Like I'm up at 7:30 am on a non-school day - stressed! I know I got a bunch wrong. Hopefully not A LOT, but I know for sure a good handful. And I'm stressing about it big time. GAH!!!

*******

I also had my disease/illness/disorder presentation with my friend Megan yesterday. Her sister came in and did "party tricks" since she's really flexible and stuff {we did our presentation on Elhers-Danlos syndrome if you weren't here when I mentioned it before}. Megan asked our teacher what we got and she said 50 out of 50 but then I looked at my grades last night and she gave me a 49. WTH?!?! One point isn't a big deal but I'm still uber irritated by it!

*******

My cousin Eve recently had to completely re-do / start a new blog because her other one blew up in smoke and now she's got to re-build her readership. You should go over and follow her because she's awesome and takes fantabulous pictures. So fantabulous in fact, that she also recently opened up a photo studio in Moses Lake, WA. SO proud of her and I can't wait to go over and see it!!

*******

You see over there on the right, the Facebook 'LIKE' box? You gotta scroll down a little, but will you PLEASE push the 'LIKE' button for that? For whatever reason, that I have yet to figure out, the 'LIKE' box on here and the 'LIKE' box on Facebook are not connecting. So I've got 7 wonderful people 'LIKING' my blogs Facebook page but it's not transferring over here and my cousin Eve is the sole 'LIKE' on this box and she's lonely and it looks pathetic. Will you 'LIKE' it pretty please so I don't look like such a loser? LOL

*******

My externship for my CNA class starts REALLY soon and I'm rather nervous about it! We went on a tour of the nursing home yesterday and I just can't imagine just stepping in and getting to work there. It's gonna be WEIRD!!

*******

Also, yesterday, we did our first hand draw with butterfly needles in Phlebotomy. Have you ever had blood drawn from your hand? I'm pretty sure that was a first for me and I could FEEL the blood going out of my hand. It sort of made me nauseous. It's the strangest feeling. Oh, did I mention that my classmate that drew my blood was born in frickin 1992?!?! Duuuddddeeee!!!!

*******

I really need to get my hair done. The roots are showing and Kyle has started standing over me starring at my head and calling me a silver fox. Haha! Yeah, it's time.

*******

Kailani says: In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

My question is:

What do you get someone that's not exactly close to you, but that has just graduated from nursing school? Is a card sufficient?

My neighbor's 23 year old daughter graduated last Friday. She's spent the past 4 years having no life and dedicating herself to school. We don't see her a lot and aren't close at all, but I think we're going to go to her Open House tomorrow and I think we need to bring *something*. Just not sure *what*.

For more Aloha Friday and Friday Fragments, visit:

An Island Life for Aloha Friday!

and

Half-Past Kissin' Time for Friday Fragments.

Friday Follow celebration hosted by One 2 Try and Midday Escapades!

Writer's Workshop: Hiding Places

Today I'm participating in Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop. The prompt I'm using is:

Whom did you hide from? Write about a hiding place you haven’t used for a while.

At the point of this story, Kyle and I were both 16 and had been going out for just over a year. The people mentioned are from the church we attended back then. Unique is my step-sister and Dawn is my sister.


This is my diary entry from March 31, 1996.

Dear Diary,

Tonight I was gonna go home after Destiny {choir} and not stay for the service, but then I was waiting for Kyle to leave.

Kyle's mom was in a meeting and he was waiting for her to get out to leave. Unique never found out if Aunt Lois could bring her home, but she ended up staying anyways.

After Unique and Dawn went back up to the service, me and Kyle went to move the car. Then we went and sat in a different spot then we had been before. After awhile, we heard Unique and Dawn coming so we hid outside.

Then we went into the kitchen. We were in there for about an hour and a half tickling each other and talking. After awhile, the lights kept coming on and then going off. About the last 15 minutes we were in there, it was pitch black except for a clock on a microwave flashing. We could hardly see each other. Kyle said that he couldn't see me, but I could see him more then he could see me. For about 10 minutes we just starred at each other and tickled each other a little.

Then Kyle KISSED me. Not kissed me, but KISSED me - FINALLY!!

I had a feeling we were gonna tonight. We were kissing for probably 5 minutes. Then we stopped and Kyle said that we should probably go find out what was going on.

We came out of the kitchen just as Mr. Conn was walking through the room. While I was going down the hall towards the stairs, either Pastor Brent or Jason (don't remember) was coming up the stairs on the other side and said, "There they are!"

All of these people pop around the corner saying, "Where?!!"

Then they asked us where we were and how we got in there. Pastor Brent was making fun of us {added now: and it didn't help that our cheeks were flushed and my bangs, cuz I had bangs back then, were stuck to my forehead!}.

Mr. Conn was totally mad and said that he wanted to talk to us both later. Kyle's mom was totally mad, Unique and Dawn were saying that they had been looking for us for an hour and a half and that practically the whole church knew that we were "missing". They had people praying that nothing had happened to us. Unique and Dawn were telling me how many rumors were gonna be going around about us now. They had called the Hoovers, Jill's, Magelssen's, Kyle's dad, a few other people and they were about to call 911.

I don't think that me and Kyle are gonna be hiding from anyone any time soon! This all happened because we wanted to play a joke on Unique and Dawn! Jeez!

Diary entry from April 22, 1996:

Dear Diary,

An update on the last time I wrote.

Neither me or Kyle got in trouble. Kyle's mom just told him that she hoped he felt REALLY STUPID for having all of those people looking for us. Bill {ex-step-dad} just wanted to know why we got home so late. Dawn and Unique told him we were playing hide and seek. I told him that the clock in the kitchen was wrong (because it was).

Kyle had to apologize to Pastor Brent, Jason, Laura and Mr. Conn. Mr. Conn still hasn't talked to us. I don't think he's going to though. AND Kyle HASN'T kissed me again!!

Needless to say, we never hid from anyone again and we still laugh every time we talk about getting caught in the church kitchen kissing. LOL

Wordfulless Wednesday: A Leetle Friend

Come and meet my leetle friend.

A couple weeks ago I went to the park to study while I had some time to kill. This particular park is right near a Wendy's. I'm sure this leetle guy was hoping I had some fries for him, but nope, I just had a Frosty...and not for him. ;0P






I know some {most?} people think that squirrels are gross, but I think they're cute.

How can you resist the adorable face?

{Of course, I'd never touch him / them though...they are pretty dirty little varmints. lol}

For more Wordless Wednesday go to the WW HQ here.

For more Wordful Wednesday go to Seven Clown Circus.

Numb Nuts

I mentioned the other day that last week and for the next week or so we're doing disease/illness/disorder presentations for my CNA class.

Well, today one of the groups {of two} did their presentation on Tuberculosis.

Now, these two ladies are from Vietnam I believe, so English is their second language. One of them {lady 1} I can NOT understand, ever. She talks SO fast and it sounds like gibberish. The other lady {lady 2} also still has difficulty speaking English but I can usually tell what she's saying.

So these ladies are giving their presentation and at one point lady 2 says 'numb nuts'. I snorted a little bit but obviously just continued to listen. A little bit more into the presentation she says 'numb nuts' again and this time our teacher corrected her.

"You mean Lymph nodes?"

Lady 2 and the class got a good laugh.

Hysterical!

I mean seriously. How do you get 'numb nuts' out of 'lymph nodes'?

It was really funny.

Then in my second class we were getting ready to leave for the day and someone was trying to figure out if something on the floor was a piece of gum or something else. She says "Oh, it's a nut!"

The girl that had been sitting there says "My nuts exploded!"

It was just one of those kind of days!

A Little of This, A Little of That

Last Monday, my FIL went to the doctor. I guess he's been having some symptoms that he was worried about, but the main one was that he was having very blurry vision. After the doctor took a bunch of blood he came back and told my FIL that he has diabetes. And because it had gotten to the point of his vision being blurred, he's probably had diabetes for 7-10 years!

Also, my FIL left for Armenia on Saturday. The doctor did NOT want him to go. My MIL says that they butted heads for a little bit because there was no way that my FIL wasn't going to go on this trip.

When the doctor got his sugar numbers back, they were rather alarming. Normal is between 80-120 {and my teacher that is a nurse and has been for the past 30-35 years, says that they're now saying that 100 is the max that you want it to be} and my FIL's was 361!! The doctor was surprised that FIL was still functioning and / or alive!

FIL also had an EKG done and thankfully that came back normal. The doctor gave FIL two prescriptions and told him that he has to check his blood four times a day and when he gets back from his trip {2 weeks} he has to have a full heart work-up done. He's also going to be attending an all-day meeting/event/whatever it's called with a nutritionist to find out ways to change his diet.

MIL thinks that without actually saying it, FIL was scared outta his mind. In the week since he found out his diagnosis, he already lost four pounds {doctor wants him to lose 50}.

Anyway, it was a crazy week for MIL & FIL leading up to his departure. The good thing is that there's an EMT on the trip with FIL so if anything SHOULD happen, he's at least prepared. The EMT was sure to bring along a bunch of emergency meds for FIL.

~~~~~~

I mentioned the other day that I won a giveaway from Tiffany at The Pifer Family that she held during NIAW. I got it in the mail on Friday and it's just perfect!!

This is what she says about the necklace:

This beautiful hand stamped necklace has been made especially for those who are dealing with infertility.

The stones used in this necklace have been chosen specifically to aid you in your journey. Moonstone is a beautiful milky white stone and is said to enhance feminine energies (helping with fertility, PMS, pregnancy) and is a stone of protection especially during childbirth and pregnancy.


I wore it yesterday on Mother's Day. I took it in the car, with my phone, so it's a bit blurry.


Thanks Tiffany! I love it!

~~~~~~

As I mentioned yesterday, instead of going to church and being surrounded by all the Mom's, Kyle and I went to MY mom's and made her breakfast or as it turned out, brunch. LOL

I didn't want my mom to do anything but she can't help it so she did a little bit here and there.

Because my mom has Celiac disease, everything had to be gluten-free and we accomplished that with lots of yumminess {yummyness?}.

This is what we made:

Spanish Tortilla

Breakfast Sausage

Sauteed Apples

We spent our time together making the food and it took longer than I had anticipated. Because my sister and her husband were taking my mom and his mom to the Mariner's game, my mom had to leave pretty quickly after we ate. It was ok though. Before we departed though, Kyle took our picture.

~~~~~~

After we left my mom's we headed to my inlaws. Kyle's brother wanted to take their mom to lunch for Mother's Day but thought it'd be weird just the two of them so he got all the rest of us to go, too. {All the rest of us being Kyle, me, their sister Heidi and her husband Chad.}

We sat in the inlaws driveway till MIL got home from church and then we left together a little bit later to go to one of MIL & FIL's favorite restaurant. It's called Todo Mexico {I think?}. Kyle and I don't really like it but that's besides the point. LOL

Kyle and I weren't very hungry since we had just gotten done eating, basically. But we got chicken fajitas to share. It was fun just hanging out.

After the restaurant, Heidi and Chad headed out on a little getaway and the rest of us headed back to the inlaws where we hung out for the afternoon. It was SO NICE out!!

I got MIL hooked up on Skype and Oovoo {both the same thing but I'd never heard of Oovoo before} so she can video chat with FIL while he's across the world. We were playing around with the video chat software that comes with each of those programs and laughing our butts off! The different features that come with those are hilarious! At one point, I thought hitting 'capture' was for taking a picture, but nope, it was recording us! Oh, wow! This thing was making us look like aliens and it was recording us laughing hysterically. Kyle kept coming in the kitchen to see what we were laughing about. I wish I could show you but it's probably a good thing I can't. LOL

~~~~~~

And why were Heidi and Chad going on a little getaway?

To celebrate one year since this happened!

Crazy how fast time flies!!

Heidi doesn't read my blog, but Happy 1st Anniversary to them anyway. ;0)

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend spent with my hubby and family!!

Did you have a good Mother's Day weekend?

Worship and Praise Sunday: Hold My Heart

Hold My Heart
Tenth Avenue North

How long must I pray, must I pray to You?
How long must I wait, must I wait for You?
How long 'til I see Your face, see You shining through?
I'm on my knees, begging You to notice me.
I'm on my knees, Father will You turn to me?

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart?
One life, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You're everything You say You are
Would You come close and hold my heart

I've been so afraid, afraid to close my eyes
So much can slip away before I say goodbye.
But if there's no other way, I'm done asking why.
I'm on my knees, begging You to turn to me
I'm on my knees, Father will You run to me?

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart?
One life, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You're everything You say You are
Would You come close and hold my heart.

So many questions without answers, Your promises remain
I can't see but I'll take my chances to hear You call my name
To hear You call my name

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart?
One life, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You're everything You say You are
Won't You come close and hold my heart.

Hold my heart, could you hold my heart?
Hold my heart.

~~~~~~~~

As we all know, this is Mother's Day. For us 'infertile's' it's not easy to be out and about and putting on a happy face when we don't feel 'happy'. I know for me, I try to avoid places and situations that are going to be uncomfortable because I don't want to feel any worse than I'm already going to, and this includes church. So instead, I'm going to go to my mom's and make her breakfast.

This song can be interpreted many ways for different situations, but it speaks to me because I can not tell you how many times I've thought / said this:

How long must I pray, must I pray to You?
How long must I wait, must I wait for You?
How long 'til I see Your face, see You shining through?
I'm on my knees, begging You to notice me.
I'm on my knees, Father will You turn to me?

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart?
One life, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You're everything You say You are
Would You come close and hold my heart

and

So many questions without answers, Your promises remain
I can't see but I'll take my chances to hear You call my name
To hear You call my name

I pray that if this is a difficult day for you that you feel Jesus' love and know that through your pain and my pain, Jesus is there with us even if it feels like we're all alone sometimes.

If you're a Mother, I wish you a Happy Mother's Day and I pray that you know how very, very blessed you are to be called 'Mother'.

~~~~~~~~

For more Worship and Praise songs, visit Jen at Following the Footsteps.

'Infertile' Mother's Day Poem

To create your own Wordle, go here. And then download MWSnap to save the image. Easy peasy!

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Six Word Saturday:

Spending the day with my hubby!!

Join Cate at Show My Face for more Six Word Saturdays. She's got lots of groupies that like to play along!

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The other day Tiffany at The Pifer Family posted this poem and I loved it so much I wanted to share it with all of you.

“Happy Mother's Day”
It comes around every year;

but when you have empty arms,

it's very hard to hear.

It's a day to celebrate a mother,

for all the trials she overcame;

and a reminder to an infertile

of her loneliness and shame.

But what really makes a mother,

Is it just conception and birth?

Or is there something more,

that shows a mother's worth?

It's putting your child first,

in everything you do;

it's sacrifice and determination,

and love and patience too.

An infertile woman makes all her plans,

around a child not yet conceived;

she loves them even though they aren't here,

more than she ever could have believed.

She appreciates and understands,

what a blessing that children are;

she works hard for just a chance,

that motherhood is not that far.

All odds are stacked against her,
and yet she still has hope;

everyday is another struggle,

finding ways to help her cope.

So even though her arms are empty,

she can still be a mother too;

So say a special “Happy Mother's Day”

for those waiting for their dreams to come true!

Accidents, Commercials, Mom's - It's All Fragmented Today!!

I just woke up. I've still got sleep in my eyes and I haven't even had my coffee yet. So what am I doing on the computer already? Uh, I don't know. But I'm going to empty my brain of some Fragments that are floating around while I'm sitting here so let's hope for something good to spill out.

*******

Oh wait. My mom told me to check out a picture on Facebook and I couldn't see it very well on my phone. So that's why I'm here now. My mom is taking a photography class and she's learning some fun things. I'm assuming that this picture was taken this morning. She lives right by the beach. This is what she caught on "film". Cool, huh?!

The sun is shining nice and brightly. Hopefully it sticks around today and the rest of the weekend!!

*******

My friend Megan and I are supposed to give a presentation on a disease or illness/disorder next week. Because it's something that her and her family have, she's been the one gathering all the information because her sister has fully researched it all. I feel like a slacker and a schmuck for not doing much. Supposedly we're getting together today to put it all together on poster board and figure out how the presentation is going to go. Hopefully actually doing SOMETHING will make me feel useful. Oh our presentation is going to be on Elhers-Danlose Syndrome. Yeah, I'd never heard of it before either.

*******

The other night I was watching tv and a commercial for Tampax came on. Towards the end of the commercial they described the tampon as "cute". Really? That's the last word I'd use to describe this item. How 'bout you? LOL

*******

My hubby has been gone since Tuesday and he's coming home tonight. I guess I should probably clean the house so it doesn't look like as much of a disaster as when he left. Haha! I miss the booger and am looking forward to seeing him. Awww.

*******

Yesterday there was a car accident right in front of the bus area at school. I heard the lady that got hit freaking out on the phone. She didn't have, what appeared, to be much damage to her vehicle. But the lady that hit her had a pretty smashed in car. Turns out that Megan was walking by right when it happened and she went and stayed with the lady that caused the crash {she hit the gas instead of the brakes}. The lady that got hit just left! Megan told me all that when she got to class. Why would you just leave? Very odd. Both ladies were fine and in the couple of minutes it took me to get to class the firetrucks, police and ambulances were already almost there. They were mighty fast!

*******

I drew more blood all by myself. The first one I just barely missed the vein and my teacher helped me re-direct the needle. I was REALLY nervous doing that one for some reason. I felt bad because I felt I was making my "patient" nervous with my lack of confidence. I did eventually get some blood from her though.

And I did really well with my second draw. At the beginning of class we're partnered up and then we do draws on each other all day. I just happened to get partnered with someone that was mildly sick, who has bad almost-impossible-to-find veins and who was born in 1990!!! Dude! I feel so old in this class. Haha!

*******

I won a giveaway this week! I hardly ever win things and I'm really excited about this one. Can't wait to show you what I won. =)

*******

Kailani says: In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

My question is:

What did you get your mom / MIL / step-mom, etc. for Mother's Day?

I'm totally and completely stumped on what to get my mom and MIL. Help!

For more Aloha Friday and Friday Fragments, visit:

An Island Life for Aloha Friday!

and

Half-Past Kissin' Time for Friday Fragments.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Wordfulless Wednesday: On The Other Side...

...Of the needle.

Yesterday I did two blood draws and the first time {pictured} I had help and the second time my teacher just sat there next to me while I did it all myself. Yikes! I was really nervous but I did it and I did it well!! Yay!!!

As an aside, do you see my teacher? She's the same age as me! Less than a year older, I believe. So crazy!

For more Wordless Wednesday go to the WW HQ here.

For more Wordful Wednesday go to Seven Clown Circus.