to my best friend

These past six years have been fun and awesome! We have two beautiful children and every time I look at them, I am reminded of how much I absolutely love you! I fall more and more in love with you each and every day.

I don’t know how to put into words how much you mean to me. This past year especially has been one that I don’t think I’d have been able to make through without you. I don’t know how it is that you are able to be so patient with me and understanding through all my trials, but you continually support me and do your best to understand what I’m going through. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you stand by me when things get tough. I know things have been tough on you as well and I am so thankful that you are committed to fighting my battles with me.

You complete me. You’re my better half. You’re my best friend. You’re my main and only squeeze. You’re my everything. Aw yeah.

For taking care of our family…
For listening to me when I need an ear…
For being there when I need a shoulder to cry on…
For making me laugh till my stomach aches…
For challenging me to be a better person…
For loving our children…
For loving me…
… Unconditionally!
For inspiring me and encouraging me…
For taking the trash out…
For folding laundry…
For cleaning up dishes…
For helping pick up around the house…
For running errands…
For taking time out of your day for all of us…
For enduring my craziness…
For standing by me…
For holding me up…
For listening…
For your godly example…
For making me feel loved…
And for so, so many more things…

Thank you.

I just love being married to you.

And when I see you, I still hear trumpets.

{Click here: This is for you.}

I am Blessed.

{found on pinterest}

When you have a million hormones warring against each other and your sanity, it’s easy to let the negative ones get the better of you from time to time. It’s one of the downsides of pregnancy, at least in my experience {which would be nearly 1 year total so far}. There have been times when I have found myself thinking “Who in the world AM I?” because I don’t recognize myself amidst the floods of tears {that honestly happen way more than I am comfortable admitting}, the flurries of anger, and those moments when patience just SNAPS.

I know it’s normal. I still don’t like it. I don’t like feeling pretty happy one moment, to waaaay down in the dumps the next, to HULK!SMASH the very next. Who would? It’s exhausting!

There is one thing that does help me, and that is to sit down and realized how blessed I am. Blessed. Me. The crazy, moody, if-looks-could-kill-you’d-be-dead pregnant chick. I really am blessed, beyond measure. I know I could never count them, but I’m going to at least list a few that I’ve been thinking about lately.

.I am blessed with new life growing inside me, being formed, “fearfully and wonderfully made” {Psa 139:14}, and no matter how many bad days I have, I know that the end result is worth more than that one-hundred times over.

.I am blessed with a sweet, sweet three-year-old, who prays for me every night to feel better, who gives me kisses all the time and asks me if I still feel sick. He is so filled with compassion and has such a gentle, kind spirit. I am so blessed to have my sweet Benjamin!

.I am blessed with a caring, loving husband who has gone above and beyond, even on top of everything else he has to do, to take care of me and the baby and Benjamin. I know that if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be able to get through this. He is always asking me if he can help or get me something, or if I just need someone to bawl all over, he is there, no matter how silly the reason.

.I am blessed with a mother and a mother-in-law who have both sacrificed of their own time and money {yeah, it isn’t cheap coming from Georgia to Alabama!} to come and help out around the house while I have been so sick. I shudder to think of what my house would look like if neither of them had taken the time to come down… seriously… it would not be pretty, and I am forever grateful that they did!

.I am blessed with wonderful, caring friends who don’t mind my hormonal texts looking for a little reassurance, or chat with me on facebook to help keep my mind off of feeling sick! It really does make the time go by so much easier!

.Okay, a material blessing, but I really am thankful for my Kindle. I’ve been able to do a lot more studying with it, thanks to a larger font size that doesn’t make me {too} dizzy. I’ve been able to knock out a bit of my to-read list. It’s kept me occupied and I’ve really been enjoying it.

…. I know that all these blessings come from Christ – the Ultimate Blessing, if you ask me – and I am so thankful to God that I can sit down and name a few off the top of my head like this. He really has been mindful of me, and I know that He is taking care of me.

Feeling pretty blessed this evening… not to mention pretty tired, but you know, even that is a blessing… maybe I’ll actually sleep good tonight! Ha!

In Five Years’ Time

It has been five years since I have married my best friend. Five years doesn’t seem like a really long time, especially when you plan to be married for the rest of your life, but a lot has happened in five years and I was thinking about it this morning, thinking about where we were and where we are now… and really it’s pretty incredible this journey we’ve taken together.

In five years, we have moved five times. Well, four if you don’t count moving me up to Memphis.

In five years, we have had two jobs.

In five years, we have had two cars… only one of which we paid more than $1 for.

In five years, we have lived in four houses/apartments.

In five years we have had one child, and have one more on the way.

And, you know, a million laughs.

To my best friend, who makes me crazy sometimes, and cares so much for me, and for Benjamin, and our unborn baby… thank you. For everything. For being a Christian husband and father, for caring for us and loving us. We’ve ‘gone through’ a lot in five years, but I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.

Except maybe what we had for lunch yesterday but that’s not your fault… entirely, ha!

I love you!

unloading.

Today my husband preached a funeral. It was his second funeral to preach (third if you count the grave-side service he led last month). It’s kind of an odd thing to think about for me. My husband is twenty-four years old (freshly, if you remember), and here he’s preached two (or three) funerals… or  maybe it is an odd thing to think that we have only been here since January and he has already preached one funeral (or two). Anyway, I’m proud of him and proud to be his wife. There are so many blessings I have encountered as a preacher’s wife that I never thought about when I first realized that was exactly what I was to become.

I can’t exactly explain how proud I feel sitting there in the pew looking up at my handsome husband as he preaches God’s word to those around me. Nevermind the fact that I am left to deal with Benjamin alone (usually Benjamin is very well behaved in services – there are a few days when my concentration is mostly on keeping Benjamin occupied enough to be quiet), or the fact that I have nobody to hold hands with or loop arms with while I listen to the sermon (you know, besides Benjamin). But to hear my husband up there… preaching truth… I just swell with pride. And when people come up and compliment me on my husband’s sermons… I never thought what kind of effect that would have on me. Let me give you a little insight though. When someone tells me this, I usually beam from ear to ear and thank them earnestly. It’s as if someone has just complimented me, and to be truthful they have because Carl and I are one flesh, after all, are we not?

Anyway, I didn’t intend to go down that rabbit trail, but there I went and here we are, back around. I was going to talk about the rest of our day, but really it was just traveling back and forth and eating and Benjamin and I hanging out while Carl went out to the Cattle Ranch for the monthly Bible study there. I hated putting Benjamin down for bed by myself, mostly because Carl is so much better at going about it for some reason. He just has a knack. Maybe it’s because Benjamin always asks me for “More tisses” no matter how many kisses I have already given him… how mean I feel when I tell him no more for tonight! But if I didn’t, I’d be in there till morning giving him those sweet night-night kisses.

I digress.

Carl is now home. Somewhere in the house, anyway. I’m in my happy place, listening to my new favorite song of the moment (Owl City’s cover of Taylor Swift’s ‘Enchanted’… maybe it’s just the story behind it that has me so ‘wonderstruck’.) and just blogging as things come to me. The streetlight outside is shining on the power lines outside the window and the way the leaves are rustling makes it look like there are twinkle lights out there.

It’s pretty.

Anyway.

I love that dirty-faced kid.

And he loves Fireflies.

But he’s also a little wonderstruck by the video.

And I leave you with that, my dear friends, and a vow to have more fun, carefree,  heartfelt blogs like this one because frankly it has been a joy to … unload. Not that I was burdened. But I enjoyed writing this.

happy birthday to my love

happy birthday to…
my best friend,
the handsomest man,
my favorite preacher,
my ‘other half’,
my entertainment,
my confidante,
my source of strength
and inspiration,
the man I admire most,
the man I adore most,
who challenges me,
and forgives me,
and loves me,

the father of my child,
the best daddy Benjamin could have asked for,

who takes care of us,
and sacrifices so much for us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CARL!
I love you more than words
can express, always.

 

(Friday) Favorites

here are some of my favorite things from this past week.
I had a really great week so I am really happy to share.

 

 

sleeping in.

having a husband who is willing to take Benjamin to work for the morning while I sleep in.

getting up to do the dishes to find they have already been done.

a wonderful husband who cleans the dishes for me, unexpectedly.

cheerful tulips outside the screened-in porch.

peaceful mornings.

laughing hard and loud with Blythe.

Fringe.

Sonic vanilla cherry cokes, and getting them unexpectedly from that sweet husband of mine.

playing

in

the

sunshine.

my sweet boy who has such a joyful spirit.

nighttime prayers with my husband.

studying the book of Esther.

Bible quiz with Benjamin, and listening to him answer correctly!

Benjamin singing “Clarity” by John Mayer … over and over… oh I just love it!

blue eyes.

making awesome blackberry cobbler for the young adult devo

and not having any left afterward

{because that means they loved it!}

mom calling at 9PM to talk because she’s bored.

packing suitcases for the MSOP lectureship,

and looking forward to seeing friends again, and family!

making shadows,

finding lizards outside,

and just loving each other.

this week has been so blessed!

One Thousand.

1,000.

One Thousand.

That's a big number. Huge, to me. $1,000 may not seem much to some people, but to me, that's huge. 1,000 anything would be a lot.

Today, officially, my husband and I have been married for 1,000 days. One Thousand Days.

One Thousand Days of ups and downs. One Thousand Days of laughter and tears. One Thousand Days of growing and learning. One Thousand Days with the man I love, who I knew I loved within a couple weeks of knowing him. Not many people know this, but Carl and I met on MySpace, through a mutual friend. I was dating someone at the time, but it didn't take me very long at all to realize who I really wanted to be with. We've been through a lot. I can't imagine anyone else I would rather be with for the rest of my life! One Thousand Days seems like a LONG time. It hasn't even been 3 years yet!

Today we will be parting ways for the weekend, and it makes me really sad! I will be looking forward to seeing him again on Sunday!

Carl, I love you! I have loved you more each and every one of these 1,000 days, and I pray that I will continue to do so!



And every time I see you
I still hear trumpets

It'sha Burfday!

Today is a very special day, friends, because today is my sweet husband's 23rd birthday!

Happy Birthday, Carl!

You see? I rarely put his name in the blog because I thought maybe that would make it more secure... really I don't know why I do it anymore because you already know everything else. Okay now I am scaring myself so... moving on!

Anyway, I'm a big birthday person, but Carl on the other hand is not, really. I've been asking him for a while now what he might want to do or where he might want to go on his birthday but all he has said is nowhere special, he just would like to hang out with friends since we haven't in a while {on account of us being out of state}.

However... we've been sick. I dunno if that is going to happen today, sadly. But, we're going to make the most of it, aren't we, babe?

In fact I'm going to make special cupcakes for him! Hooray! I feel really bad because I was unable to get out and get anything special for Carl for his birthday... like, really, really bad. So hopefully a good old blog post dedicated to my sweet husband will do the trick... And here is where I gush about him!



My husband is a really, really amazing dad. He is so involved, and so loving and caring. I knew that he was great with kids when we met, but I never imagined that anyone could be such a wonderful father. Happy Birthday to the best daddy I could ever want for my children!



My husband is so good looking. I hope you all enjoyed that first picture! That was definitely not me shaving his head. No, I was too busy busting my tailbone outside in a rainstorm. Seriously. {and then a couple days later we found out we were expecting!!} Anyway, he is good looking. He asked me a few times who was better looking, him or Johnny Depp? And I say MY HUSBAND, of course! Sorry Johnny! My husband is the most handsome man! Happy Birthday to the most handsome fella in the world!


My husband is fearless. I can't count how many times he has killed a bug for me when I am just shaking with fear. Okay so maybe I'm a weenie. But still. I always feel so safe around my husband and I know that no matter what, he is always going to take care of me. Even when there is a roach the size of my hand {not exaggerating, folks!} running at me on the wall in the bathroom... Carl, you know what I am referencing to... Happy Birthday to the man who will always protect me!


My husband is so giving. It may look in that picture that both of those ice cream cones were his, but they weren't. One was for me. I was at home, moaning and groaning about my broken tailbone. Or maybe I was sick... I dunno! Either way, it was for me. He carried the whole thing back for me. But that's not just it. He is always so very giving. He showers me with things that I don't deserve, like my chocolate chip waffles I had to have last night. Or that shirt we paid full price for at Target, that is still eating me up with guilt! Happy Birthday to the man who is always so giving!


My husband is my favorite preacher. He is such a good speaker. I am really proud of him and so proud to sit by him as the preacher's wife. He loves God's word and you can tell when he delivers the message in the pulpit. He will go to all lengths to teach and bring others to salvation. I admire him in so many ways. I wanted to marry a preacher, and boy howdy did I hit the jackpot on that one! If you want to listen to his sermons, you can check 'em out here. You can also read up on what it's like to be a preacher on his blog. Happy Birthday to my favorite preacher, hands down!



My husband is a silly nerd. I say that with the most affection. He is always making me laugh, even when I don't want to laugh. It is really fun being married to him and it's really interesting sometimes because you never know what he'll do next... I love him to death and I am so glad that he is a silly nerd because he's my silly nerd. Happy Birthday to the man who keeps me laughing!

I really could go on about how loving and forgiving and honest he is. If you know Carl, you know how much he loves our family. He makes mistakes, and he fixes them, and I love him so much for it. It says to me that he's not prideful. He knows that he is not always perfect and he strives to be pleasing to God. He's perfect for me. Even though we're not perfect. {Does that make sense?}

Happy Birthday to my best friend, my husband, my companion.

I love you!

a shared hobby

The conversation went a bit like this:

"You'll be proud of me - I did something today... not related to the house."
"Well, what?"
"Guess. It's one of your passions."
"You ... took a picture?"
"No..."
"You baked a cupcake?"
"No..."
"You ... bought a puppy?"
"No. I started a blog."

My husband is a blogger! I never thought I would see the day!

I do think you should all check it out. A Preacher's Life is the title and topic of the blog.

I would blog a bit more, but I am oh-so-tired.

In fact, I'm drawing a blank at how to even end this entry... so I'll end it the best way I know how!

laying up for myself

This evening, there are a few things on my mind. I've had a pretty relaxing day, a productive day, a blessed day. I've spent time with my mom and my son and my dad. And "my" dog. And my camera. And my Lord. And it's been a good day.

But, I miss my husband. Do you get that from my recent posts? I really do miss him. Tonight is Lost night, and usually we watch it together with our friends, but tonight... tonight is the first night in a long while that we haven't watched a new episode together. This may seem silly to some of you, but we enjoy spending this time together. Or, at least I do. {ha ha}

And I think about Hubby all day long because I spend all day with Benjamin, who is exactly like Hubby in so many ways. His curiosity, his wildness, his spontaneity, his blue eyes.



Sigh.

Yeah, I miss him. Kinda a lot.

Anyway, I'll stop boo-hooing and show you a few of my favorite things:



Oh, if I had all the money in the world. I'd have all the bright and colorful things my heart desired! And then some.

You may not know it, but I am rich. I may not be so rich to buy all the little extras, but I'm pretty rich.

"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:" Matthew 6:20

That pretty much sums up my thoughts this evening.

home is where the heart is

Benjamin,





and I are on a mini vacation, visiting with my parents, for the week. We got here Friday night, and will be staying until next Friday.



So far, it's been nice.



I kind of feel like a single parent at times, but it is really good to spend time with my mom and dad, and for Benjamin to spend time with his Nana and Papaw. We're also visiting with my grandmother, who is still in need of prayers.





It has been a lot of fun, though. I'm sleeping in the room that was mine when I lived at home. The lime green walls are gone. Some mushroom color has replaced it. It's filled with antiques and photographs of ancestors. Plus some "nifty golifty" {as my mom says} old cameras. It feels homey.



And it's good to be back "home".



but



we really miss daddy.



"Home is where the heart is" and mine is here and there.



Daddy, we just wanted to let you know...



We love and miss you!