The end of the year

As the year draws to a close, I look back and can't believe that 2011 is over already. This last year has been full of changes for us. Jason graduated with his BA from Colorado Christian University and we moved to Dallas so he could get his THM.

It was difficult to leave Denver, Jason and I are mountain lovers and it was hard to say good bye to the friends we had made. Dallas isn't a bad place to be, it's just a lot more flat! We went from having a view of the foothills to a view of the city. I know that some people like that, but Jason and I are more naturalistic. We want to see God's creation, large and small. Anyways, besides for the scenery and the CRAZY traffic, Dallas has been good to us. We have already made some good friends and the community we are in is wonderful, as I have already stated before. The kids have made friends and it's been a blessing to the whole family. I've also had the privilege of seeing the kids blossom socially. They will go up and talk the ears off of strangers whereas before they would've just hidden behind me. It's been hard being away from family and friends but we sure are enjoying the chance to make new ones!

But with life moving on we also experienced some losses. I don't know if it's because I'm older or if there are just a lot more deaths lately. I see how different people handle death and I'm so glad that I have the hope and joy that comes from Christ. I know that if I died, I would be somewhere better and that hope is definitely lacking in other religions. The one thing I've learned is to love a little more and to fight a little less. Because in the end, it's the relationships that count and not the amount of money in my bank account.  In 1 Corinthians 13:3, Paul states that "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." It all comes down to how we love on another. So let's spend 2012 loving each other more every day.

One week to go

With only one more week to go before Jason and I start Fasting Fridays, I'm excited to see what God is going to do in our lives. How is He going to draw us closer to Him? What are the obstacles that we have to overcome? How will this affect our marriage or the way we treat the kids? These are all questions that I can't wait to get answered. Your prayers would be appreciated as Jason and I embark on this new journey.

Training week of 12/25/11

Merry Christmas!
 This week I took advantage of the holidays and gave myself a little break. However, with my mom in town, there's been a lot more outings than normal so I feel beat! Jason and I did make it to the gym to do some running last night and he helped to keep me on track. hehe...get it? keep me on track? I ended the week doing 19 burpees.

Training Week of 12/18/11

Sunday- I wanted to see what I could do in one minute segments.
   burpees- 9
   right hand kettlebell swings w/baby bell- 31
   left hand kettlebell swings w/baby bell- 29
   reverse burpees- 17
Monday- 9 burpees,  60 one handed swings with baby bell, 10 squats with baby bell
Tuesday-10 burpees- rest
Wednesday- 11 burpees -work on Christmas presents instead of working out.
Thursday- 12 burpees- more work on Christmas presents. Although, I did take the kids to Costco by myself so I think that should count!
Friday- TRX basic training and 13 burpees.
Saturday- 14 burpees.

Blessed

I've been trying to write this post for a week now. But every time I do, it seems so difficult state how truly blessed I am and all the words just seem so insufficient. So  I just wanted to say that I am oh so blessed. These last few months have been full of changes for our family. With us moving from beautiful Denver to hot and flat Dallas for Jason's schooling. The pains of making new friends and just surviving in the city. (The roads are CRAZY!) But throughout everything, we have been extremely blessed during the whole process. 

We were blessed with an apartment in seminary housing called Swiss Tower which was a BIG deal because rent is cheaper. Jason and I were dragging our feet about moving into Swiss because it's a high rise apartment building in the middle of downtown Dallas. But God has been gracious and he has blessed us beyond belief. We have made friends and the kids have made friends. But the thing that still amazes me day by day is the amazing community that we have. Needs are met, people are prayed for, and everyone cares about each other and for each other. 

It's really the closest thing to the first century church that I have experienced. I know that eventually there will be a bad experience or two, but in the end, I am so very blessed by where God has put us. I guess I really just wanted to thank God for all that He's done for us.

Training Week of 12/11/11

Jason got me started on a progressive burpee routine. Pretty much you start doing 1 burpee and the next day do 2 and then 3 the next day and so on and so forth.  Well, apparently, starting with 1 was too easy for Jason so we started with 10. I also wanted to see  if I could do it with my turkish getups. Let's see how long it lasts!

Sunday- 10 burpees, rest.
Monday- 11 burpees, 4 sets of turkish getups, 2 sets of 20 swings with brother bell (35 lbs.).
Tuesday- 12 burpees, 5 sets of turkish getups, 2 sets of 20 swings with brother bell (35 lbs.)
Wednesday- 13 burpees, rest
Thursday- Jason let me move back down to 1 burpee as a start, so I did 5 burpees because I thought it was Friday.
Friday- 6 burpees
Saturday- 7 burpees- Aiden was sick so there was no working out for me.

I need to step it into gear. My goal is to start running and adding a mile every week. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up better when Jason is done with the semester.

Mac and Cheese = love?

I have recently given up dairy because it was doing bad things to my GI tract. I started in about September or so and it was fine and dandy until the holidays started. I never realized how much dairy was in my life until I couldn't have it. Jason and the kids still get their dairy and love to eat it. The most frustrating part is that I sometimes have to make cook twice for a meal. Mashed potatoes with nut milks is surprisingly good and it isn't too big of a deal to make a dairy and then a non-dairy version. However, it gets sketchy when there is dairy in the main course.

For example, I was craving beef stroganoff and bought everything to make it. I went excitedly to the kitchen to make it yesterday when I remembered that I couldn't have sour cream. So I cooked the stroganoff for Jason and the kids and I had to find something else to make for myself.  But that was after Jason looked at me with his amazing baby blues and told me that he was craving mac and cheese. How can I say "no" to him? I can't. Just like how I can't stay mad at him.

So tonight, I made mac and cheese from scratch and I scrounged up something for dinner. It was a little bit of an annoyance when I smelled the deliciousness coming out of the oven. But in the end, it was just another way of me showing Jason that I love him. In 8 years of marriage, I have found that the more I put Jason first, the more he puts me first and so it makes me want to do more.

Mac and cheese might not be the fanciest or most romantic thing to make. But it's the fact that I wanted to bless Jason with his craving that matters to him. He sees that I love him enough to make him something that I can't have. In the same token, imagine how much more God is blessed by us sacrificing a little of ourself to please Him.

Carolers, Candlelight and Confederates

Jason and I took the kids to the Dallas Heritage Village's Candlelight tours today. The park is full of Victorian buildings that have been relocated into the village for all to see. Jason and I bought the Groupon for it thinking it would be a fun little outing and we invited our good friends The Altmans. It was a day of good fun.

Hanging out at the entrance.

While it was fun to look at all the Victorian buildings and see how people lived a hundred years ago. The best part was spending some quality time together. The kids love Mack and Zoe and it’s fun to see them being goofy together. 

Feeding the baby beer (root beer!)

There were arts and crafts to do throughout the park and the kids made some buttons. 

 The Wells Fargo Men had their campsite set up and were cooking dinner. I was amazed to see Aiden go up to one of the men and ask him if he was a cowboy. My kids are usually so shy it’s nice to see them come out of their shell and talk to other people. 

Can you imagine cooking like this all the time?

This Lady was playing an organ in an old church so that we could sing Christmas Carols. Jason said that it was worth the price of admission just to be able to sing carols in an old church. 

We saw some Civil War soldiers in their campsite. We established that Jason will be teaching history since I called them Confederate soldiers when in fact, they are Union soldiers. Jason even put me on a time out to “think over what I did wrong” and I still kept calling them Confederate soldiers. I just figured since we were in the south, they wouldn’t be Union soldiers. I guess I won’t make that mistake again.

They were cooking dinner.

The kids had quality time with Father Christmas. The kids all talked to him and there were no tears! YEA! Mack was also a good sport but Zoe was not having it. 

 I really wanted to see some carolers(in fact they were the reason we bought tickets to the event), so we hunted them down. They were very nice and stopped for us. They even had Jason pick a song for them to sing and blessed the kids with some candy canes. In fact, candy canes were handed out quite generously by everyone involved and the kids appreciated that immensely. 

 We were having so much fun that before we knew it, it was time to go home for dinner and we had only seen half of the park! I guess we’ll just have to see the rest of it next year!

Training Week of 12/4/11

Since I need to get from my couch potato state to Tough Mudder ready in 4 months. I need to get off my duff and get moving. So this is what I did this week.

Monday- Kettlebells: swings with the baby bells and turkish get-ups with 10 lbs dumb bells, stretches, planks and pushups.
Tuesday- Kettlebells: swings with the baby bells and turkish get-ups with 10 lbs dumb bells, stretches, planks and pushups.
Wednesday- swimming: lots of laps :)
Thursday- Rest my sore body
Friday- TRX- We call it the T-Rex basic training.
Saturday- Mini session with kettlebells and burpees.

I would post pictures up, but it's not pretty. So you get this instead.

Projects

This Christmas, I've taken a lot of projects upon myself. I've made some owl hats for the kids.

And a new bubble skirt for Audrey.

But I still have to make matching scarves for all three kids, another skirt for Audrey and 2 new messenger bags for the boys. As well as some special surprises for other friends. I'll keep you updated on how the projects go!

My own private concert

With the holiday season upon us, there are a lot of Christmas concerts around us. As much as I love my Frank Sinatra and Michael Buble (Jason calls him Bubbles), I was graced with the best concert I could ask for. And it was free! Thanks to my wonderful performers!

The other family living with us

I wanted to introduce you to the other family that lives with us. 

They are Russian kettlebells and are an amazing workout. I use the baby ones which are 12kg. (26 lbs.) and Jason uses the 16kg. ( 35 lbs.) consistently. He also bought the large bells this summer. He has a pair of 28kg.(62lbs.) and a pair of 32 kgs. (72lbs.). Jason is working his way up to the larger bells and is doing an amazing job.

The reason why we love to use the bells is because it's such a great total body workout and it is actually really good for rehabilitating joints. Since Jason has trouble with pretty much all of his joints, it's been great for him to use the bells without injuring himself more. I know that a lot of people are jumping on the kettlebell bandwagon lately and I have to say that I completely understand why. It's just an amazing way to work out. It's been a staple in my training for Tough Mudder.

I'm international!!

I was so ecstatic the other day when I looked on my stats page and saw that I'm being read in 3 different continents! So I wanted to thank my international audience the best way I can. With pictures of the kids goofing around!

And if they ever ask, you don't know who they are. They're in disguise!

A dear friend of mine posted this video on her facebook. 

It combines my love for Star Wars and classical music. Jason has a fondness for John Williams and will just sit there listening to his music. This video is pretty awesome but so is this...

But we listen to more than just John Williams in the house! Here is  the kid's favorite song of late.

The Jump

Jason was attracted to my red hair.

Right before the Jump!

A lot of people laugh when I tell them that Jason and I met bungee jumping. It seems like such an adventurous way to meet. It was but it was also a total God thing. You see, I've always wanted to go bungee jumping. So my bff, Lindsay,  decided that she had heard enough of me griping and took me for my 20th birthday.

On that warm spring day in March, we head out to the Angeles National Forest in Azusa. We were supposed to meet the group in a supermarket parking lot. We get there and as we head over to the group, I notice two guys that I automatically pick out as being military by the way that they carry themselves. We all say our pleasantries and caravan over to the National Forest where we get to hike 4 miles along the canyon to get to the bridge we are jumping off of. You see, they were working on building a road through the park but a flood took out part of it and they decided not to continue. So now they have The Bridge to Nowhere and people jump off of it. Let me assure you that the bridge is perfectly sound and sturdy. We all head off on the hike and of course, these two military guys are way in front of the pack while my bff and I are in the back enjoying the hike and stopping to take pictures. Well, during the hike there were a couple of river crossings and I have the balance of a top, so I decided to just wade through the streams because I knew that I would get wet anyways. This got the attention of one of the guys and he shot me a smile with his baby blue eyes that made me swoon. I smiled back at him and went on my way. I still remember the group stopping for a break and he started throwing grapes at me! I threw them back at him and was about to say something when he offered me cadbury eggs. I quickly forgave him. When we finally make it to the bridge, I needed to go to the bathroom but my shoes were all wet. I asked to borrow some dry shoes and Mr. Grape Thrower offered me his. Since our feet were nowhere near the same size, I took them and went off in my clown shoes to the bathroom.

Once back, we start talking and he told me that his name was Jason and that he was a Marine. Our first conversation went something like this.

 Me: "So, are you in the Army?"

Jason: "No, I'm a Marine"

Me: "Oh, I know your type."

Jason: "We're not all like that!"

Me: "Sure!" -Please note the sarcasm.

 Well, Jason spent the rest of the time proving me wrong. We joked around and laughed and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. I jumped 3 times and Jason jumped 5 times and so we said our goodbyes and Lindsay and I started heading back to our car. I think we got lost because before we knew it, we were at the bottom of the canyon and not sure which way to go. We were starting to freak out when we climbed up a little hill and guess who was at the top with his hand out to help me up. My knight had showed up to take me to the car. We eventually made it back, but we spent the rest of the time smiling, laughing and flirting. He told me that he had never been to In N Out Burger, so Lindsay and I took him and showed him the light. Then I gave him my number and left with a huge smile on my face.

A couple days later, he sent me one of those corny e-birthday cards and I thought that was so sweet. We started to hang out, which was a bit of a drive since Jason lived on Camp Pendleton. But we still saw each other every week and sometimes a couple times a week. We didn't want to start dating because he was slated to deploy in June and had lots of training to build up to the deployment. I remember how sad I was when he told me that he would be on ship for 2 weeks. I figured that I wouldn't hear from him and it was a big deal because we talked into the late hours every night. But I remember him surprising me and calling me from the ship. It was incredibly sweet at a dollar a minute.

One thing led to another and one night he went in for a kiss and I slammed the door in his face. Then I quickly opened it and told him that we needed to figure things out. A week later, we were at La Jolla Beach sitting on a bench. I remember I was in the middle of a sentence and he just leaned in and kissed me. I was shocked but I told him that he was being rude and continued talking. He promply told me to stop talking and kissed me again. It was magical.  I had come to realize that I loved this man and that he was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. But every day brought the dreaded deployment closer.

June came faster than ever and Jason was getting on a ship to leave for six months. I remember dropping him off on his ship. There were lots of people there and Lindsay and I got the grand tour. Eventually Lindsay and I had to leave even if I wanted to hide in his sea bag.  We emailed each other, wrote and he called when he could. But it was amazing how much I still missed him. We had moved so quickly and I was ready to marry him, in fact, I started sending him links to diamond rings. But even half a world apart, we grew closer and more in love.

December came and he was coming back!! I was so happy when I got the call that I could go pick him up. The unit was going to be back at night and I remember being so excited to see him again for the first time in months. As I was waiting with all the family, I was ecstatic when the men started coming out of the building. And then a horrible realization hit me. Everyone looked the same!!! I was kicking myself for not bring a picture. How was I going to pick him out of the crowd? I stood there stunned like a deer in the headlights when a very tall Marine made a beeline for me. We embraced and kissed. And boy am I glad that it was Jason and not some random guy! As happy as we were, there was still a nagging thought in the back of our minds that Jason might have to head right back to Iraq for the war. But we just tried to enjoy the time we had and we were planning on visiting his family. I went to pick Jason up to go on leave when he told me that his leave got recalled and he was going to war. That night, we cried together but we still had hope.

Three days before Jason was going to get on another ship, we were in his barracks packing. I was so upset I was about to cry when he looked at me and asked me to marry him. I did the only thing my brewing emotions would let me and I laughed and laughed and laughed. Looking back, it was probably not what he was expecting! I finally got control and said yes.

Jason left for the war and I had a horrible time. I wrote him everyday and ran to the mailbox everyday but for three months I got nothing. What made it worse was that I had a classmate that had a fiance in the war and they talked everyday! Then finally, I got a letter from him. Well, it was more like a postcard. He had torn up a box from his MRE and written on it. Then the mail came more frequently and finally he came home in May.

The best day of my life.

My favorite wedding picture. 

We didn't waste time and were married on August 16th. It was the best decision of my life and I'm still so blessed by my dear love.

The Adventurers

Me: I'm a follower of Christ. He is the reason that I'm so blessed in my life and I try to live up to his teachings. I'm married to my best friend and the most wonderful man on earth. He has showed me so much about love and sacrifice. We have been married for 8 years. While I spend most of my time at home with our 3 kids, I still find some time to enjoy crafting every now and there. I really get excited when I see something that I just made out of some fabric or a ball of yarn. I also like to find ways to be a self sufficient family. While I don't have space for a garden, I've been able to find ways to make things from scratch at home and it has been so wonderful for the family.

The love of my life: His name is Jason and he is both the funniest and most serious person that I know. I met him when he was in the United States Marine Corps. We had a whirlwind courtship and was married a year and a half after we met. However, since he was deployed so much, we were only in the same state for 6 months of those 18. He once said that he could never be a pastor. So now we are at Dallas Theological Seminary so that he could study to be a pastor. I love God's sense of humor!!

Audrey: My dear daughter wants to grow up to be a ballerina, trick riding cowgirl. She is adventurous like her parents and randomly bursts into song and dance. Kind of like the old musicals that I love to watch so much!

Gabe: My snugly son has a tendency to build things. Whether that is with legos, blocks or random stuff that he finds. He also finds random things along the street and makes it into weapons. He's all boy!

Aiden: My Booboo is the baby and he knows it. He has major ninja skills and is able to sneak things like food and toys in a way that Jason and I just don't understand how he does it.