The Woes of a Fat Girl! LOL

Uggghhh...ever have just one of those days that you just hate your body, hate the way you look...everything about yourself! Yep, having one of those days! I was fine up until around 6:30 tonight when hubby & I stopped at Walmart to do some birthday shopping for our son, Keegan. Hubby's best friend is getting married on the 7th and Hubby is one of the best men (there are 3 best men) so of course he's going to be in a tux, lookin all sexy GQ so I want to find a dress *gulp* to wear so we can get pictures taken together and get all dolled up for a change. Well, mind you I haven't worn a dress for YEARS! I think in the last 7 years I've probably worn a skirt MAYBE a dozen times, maybe a little more but a dress...heck no! So lately, after having lost some weight (it's fluctuating around 16-19lbs, depending on the week LOL) I actually had bought a skirt and worn it! Amazing! I haven't worn a skirt in at least 3 years and I don't look too bad in it if you don't mind my pasty white legs and a few stretch marks in the bend of my knee oh and can't forget the varicose veins! LOL, so yeah, I look sexy! KIDDING! BUT, I don't care, I was wearing that skirt proudly! Well, tonight I look at some dresses at Walmart and let me just stop and ask WHY ON EARTH WOULD ANY DESIGNER MAKE A DRESS FOR FAT GIRLS OUT OF JERSEY OR ANY STRETCHY TYPE MATERIAL?!??!? I just knew it would look bad but I thought I'd give one a whirl just in case...no freakin way! It hangs on EVERY roll and looks absolutely hideous!! I try on 2 of them (different stretchy material) and want to start crying! I try on a skirt (also stretchy) and 2 random tops and they look awful which just makes me spiral down the self-loathing road! I just want to sit in the corner and cry my eyes out! As soon as I leave the dressing room, feeling totally defeated, I announce to hubby that "I'm not going to Moon's wedding!" Now I wouldn't really miss out on my husband's best friend's wedding just because I can't find something to wear but I sure as heck thought about it! LOL The wedding is in 10 days and now I'm feeling panicked that I'm not going to find anything nice enough to wear! I had hubby ask Moon (best friend's nickname) what i should wear to his wedding and he said something along the lines of something overalls...LOL! Really, he wouldn't care what I wore, he's a dude and all he cares is that we're there but dang it, I care! LOL I want my hubby to feel proud to dance with me, proud to be sitting with me and I want to feel good and not be worrying about if my fat is hanging out or whatever! I'm so sick of being fat! The crappy thing is that I get all depressed about my weight and it just makes me want to go eat a McDonalds angus burger or something! LOL I guess I've found out that I'm an emotional eater! HA HAH HAHAHAHAH

So anyways, anyone out there that makes dresses, please don't use stretchy material for plus size girls! LOL It isn't flattering and the sad part is some fat girls don't realize it and wear that stuff anyways! YIKES!
Pray for me, that I can find something ultra sexy/cute to wear to the wedding and that I feel good in it! Better yet, pray that I can wake up miraculously 100 lbs lighter by the day before the wedding! LOL I WISH!

Goodnight friends!!

Yummylicious Pumpkin Cupcakes!!

Pretty much the only pumpkin flavored food I like is this delicious chocolate chip pumpkin bread that my grandma and mom & aunts have made every year since I can remember. I need to get the recipe! Anyways, I found this recipe for "Quick & Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes" and thought I'd give them a whirl! I figured we could pass them out to friends and family that do like pumpkin flavoring! I love finding new traditions to start with my family and I thought this would be fun for us to do!





After making the cupcakes of course we had to taste test them and OH...MY...GOODNESS...GRACIOUS!! These are absolutely delicious! We topped them with cream cheese frosting...oh boy oh boy!! The best cupcakes I've ever had!

So, here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 package (18.25 oz) spice cake mix
1 can (15oz) pure pumpkin
3 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
cream cheese frosting (or vanilla frosting)
sprinkles

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350*. Either use paper cupcake liners or spray cupcake pan with nonstick cooking spray. (We have fall themed cupcake bakeware so I just sprayed with cooking spray.)
2. Blend cake mix, pumpkin, eggs, veg oil and water in large bowl until moistened. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into cupcake pan.
3. Bake for 18-23 minutes (ours only needed to bake for 15-16 minutes and they were done) or until wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean.
4. Let cupcakes cool and then decorate to your liking!




ENJOY!!!! Now we're off to finish making them and start delivering them! We're even taking a batch to hubby's work as a little treat on a rainy day!

25 Ideas to Romance Your Man

Another goody in the book Becoming the Woman of His Dreams by Sharon Janyes is a list about 25 Ways to Romance Your Man...here you go:

1. Put a chocolate kiss in his briefcase.
2. Draw a candlelight bath and invite him to join you.
3. Surprise him in the shower.
4. Warm up his towel in the dryer.
5. Warm up his socks in the microwave.
6. Greet him when he comes out of the shower with a warm towel and a steaming cup of coffee.
7. Watch the sunset together.
8. Eat by candlelight.
9. Take ballroom dance classes.
10. Spray a mist of perfume on his pillow.
11. Place an "I love you" sign in a public place.
12. Write him a love letter.
13. Write him a poem.
14. Write an acrostic of reasons you adore, admire, and appreciate him A-Z.
15. Have a special song.
16. Fax a love note to him at the office.
17. Send him a romantic e-mail.
18. Leave an "I love you" message on his voice mail.
19. Kidnap him for an overnight getaway. (Pick him up at the office. Have his overnight bag packed and kids stowed atay at a friend's.)
20. Celebrate your first date, first kiss, and the day he asked you to marry him.
21. Write him a thank-you note for something specific he did for you.
22. Make a video of your life together using old photographs and your favorite songs.
23. Make a list of 25 reasons why you adore him.
24. Give him a trophy for "Best _____." Trophy shops will engrave anything you like.
25. Give him a full-body massage, telling him what you like about each body part as you move along.

Now aim to do something like this at least once a week, if not once a day for your husband!! It won't hurt, I promise! :) Have fun!!!

My Marriage Testimony

Ok, so I know that the Lord allows us to go through trials and tribulations and testing to build us and help us to become stronger and wiser and to also share what we've gone through to help others through their struggles and to give them hope. What I'm about to share has lots of parts that I am not proud of at all and sadly brings some embarrassment to my husband. He & I have talked about it and although he isn't thrilled with me sharing it, he realizes that it's my testimony and that what I have been through has been used to help friends of mine and may touch other women that might come across this blog. It's pretty long but I'll try to shorten it where I can! LOL

Here we go :)

My hubby (Josh) and I met when I was 17 and he was 19. We worked together and were just friends. He was living with his girlfriend at the time and their son. I had no interest in dating him but it was fun to flirt. Well, about a year later we bumped into each other and we were both single then so we started dating. We dated for about a year before we moved in together. There wasn't a whole lot of drama with the ex and son prior to us moving in together but there was some. At one point she tried to break us up but after the truth came out we worked through it. After we moved in together it got a lot harder. We had lots of issues and I had a hard time being in the "stepmom" role. After about a year I couldn't handle it anymore so we broke up. We went our seperate ways for a little while but I had developed pictures that were of him and his son so I called to make arrangements to give them to him. A girl answered his phone and I hung up. Later I found out from Josh that he was seeing someone and she had moved in and it was a shock to me. It had only been like a month since we'd broken up so long story short, it sparked some jealousy so I started to pursue him again. His son's mom had moved on and was finally dating someone so she wasn't as intrusive in hubby's life anymore and that was the biggest perk. Hubby very quickly asked his current girlfriend to move out and we started "seeing" each other again. Blah, blah, blah...we ended up pregnant with our son, Keegan. It was a HUGE shock, definitely not planned. I freaked out and thought my life was over. After that initial shock, I fell in love with the idea of being a mom but you know, I was only 21, wasn't really in a serious relationship with Josh so of course at first I was confused and worried. Anyways, we moved right back in together and he proposed but I was still unsure of whether I wanted to be with him or not. As horrible as it sounds, I felt like I had to marry him because we had a kid together. We got married right after Keegan's 1st birthday. Even after getting married I was still half in and half out of the marriage. There was always drama with my stepson and his mom and life was a nightmare. Sure we had our good times and I did love Josh but I always felt like the grass was greener on the other side. Anytime we'd fight I'd threaten to move out or something but felt trapped because I was a stay-at-home mom and didn't want to be a single parent trying to work full time and share custody. Eventually though, I got saved and totally gave my life to the Lord. I went through drastic changes and that brought on different struggles in our marriage. Josh went to church with me for awhile but then said he wouldn't go anymore because he felt like a hypocrit. I went for awhile by myself but there was always that inner battle of wanting to stay home with my hubby but wanting to go to church. After about 2 years I started drifting away from the Lord. I still loved the Lord and tried to be good but I quit going to church and started listening to secular music and eventually started talking to an old guy friend from high school on myspace. It started out innocently, I had absolutely no intention of anything going beyond a friendship but after a few weeks of emailing, chatting online and a few phone calls I started having feelings for this person. I was unhappy with my life with my hubby and to his defense, he was a very good husband but we were still trying to figure out how to deal with his ex and his other son and dealing with completely different spiritual views and a bunch of other stuff. The world tells us to do what feels good, to have fun, to live for ourselves, etc. and I started falling for it. I wasn't happy and dang it, I needed to do something for myself and blah blah blah. I asked for a seperation. For the record, that guy I was talking to was living in Alaska so I never actually dated him or whatever. But I felt like if I was having feelings for someone else then it wasn't fair to hubby or I. I moved out and got my own place. I was working full time, started going to bars with friends again, started seeing someone from work, started smoking again and the whole time I just felt lost. I had gone from being a young, carefree girl to becoming a mother and wife and felt like I had lost myself along the way. So when I left Josh I reverted back to the girl I was before I got married because I didn't know what else to do or how to be me. I knew what I was doing was so wrong. I didn't go to church, I didn't pray, it was so bad that I wouldn't return phone calls to my dear friend Deena because I knew she would quote scripture to me. I was never alone in the quiet. If I was at home I always had the tv or radio on because I could hear the Lord trying to talk to me, trying to tell me that I wasn't doing what He wanted me to do. I would fall asleep watching tv because I couldn't handle the quiet, couldn't handle hearing what God was telling me. I was having fun, I didn't want to deal with my stepson and his mom and I didn't want to deal with having to work at my marriage. The media (tv, movies, music, etc.) tries to make us think that a perfect marriage is one that doesn't take work, one that if full of rainbows and butterflies and constant mushy gushy stuff and that wasn't my marriage. Maybe I married the wrong person. Well, after about a month hubby started talking to a girl and that freaked me out again so I said I wanted to get back together. I worried that if I waited too long to figure out what I wanted then he would have moved on and wouldn't want me back and that freaked me out. I moved back home and we went to counselling for awhile but the lady wasn't a christian counselor and seemed to not really do any good. After a few sessions we quit going. Things seemed like they were fine, we got back into the routine of life and eventually started trying to get pregnant. Well, I got pregnant but lost the baby after about 8 weeks. I was devastated but knew that the Lord had a plan and was in control so although I was sad, I knew the baby was in His arms and that's a far better place then here on earth! I started thinking again that I didn't want to be with hubby anymore and that led to me leaving again. We sold our house and both moved into seperate apartments. This time I chose not to date or talk to anyone. I knew there was something wrong with me and I needed to be alone and try to figure it out. I didn't go to bars, I didn't drink but I started smoking again. After awhile I noticed that on my days off I was spending all my time with hubby and Keegan. We'd hang out at either his place or my place or we'd all go out to eat or whatever. After awhile I broke down crying and asked how he could be my best friend but how I could feel so unhappy in our marriage. We decided to start dating again and gave it a month before we moved back in together. I knew he was who the Lord wanted me to be with. I started reading every christian book I could get my hands on about being a wife, about being a stepmom, about marriage in general, about being married to an unbeliever and I started going to church again. I read scripture after scripture about God's purpose and plan for marriage, about how a wife is to behave and treat her husband. I read Jon Coursin's teaching about dating and marriage and about how we might have married #875 on God's list of husbands for us but the instant we said "I do", that man just became #1 on God's list! Not only did I read all that, I took a long hard look at my husband. This man had been put through HELL by me and yet he still loved me and accepted me. I hurt him more than anyone has ever hurt him but he forgave me and continued to work with me to make our marriage happy for both of us. He worked on some things with the way he deals with his ex and son to help me be more happy and I fell deeper and more in love with him then I had ever been. Divorce is no longer even a possibility for me. Josh is my husband until death and I am 100% committed to him and to our family. I adore him so much. So all that stuff I went through and all that I put Josh through, yes, it totally sucked and I wish it hadn't happened but you know what, the Lord used my horrible mistakes for something truly amazing! My marriage is more than I ever could have hoped for. When I hear of women leaving their husbands it breaks my heart! If they only knew how truly amazing their marriages could be if they'd put the Lord at the center and not focus on their own selfish feelings and if they'd quit listening to the world. I've been there and thought my marriage was completely done and I see it now and I'm totally in awe and on my knees thanking the Lord for saving me from making probably the biggest mistake of my life! Our marriage is not perfect, we still have issues with the ex and my stepson but instead of battling with each other, we're getting better about dealing with it as a team and not letting it upset our relationship. It's been 3 years since our seperations and we both realize that for our marriage to be happy it takes work from both of us. We're still learning how to communicate and I'm doing a lot of reading and studying about what God says about my role as a wife. I'm so thankful that He's given us the Bible as an instruction guide on life. It has all the answers THANK GOODNESS! LOL So yeah, hopefully I told the story well enough. Sorry it was long and hopefully it wasn't too choppy.

A big thank you to my amazingly fabulous husband! I know it's not easy having me share what we went through but if it helps even one marriage then it's so worth it! I love you babe, thank you for loving me way more than I ever deserved! I hope to spend the rest of my life making it up to you and showing you just how much I love and adore you!

25 Ways To Show Respect To Your Hubby

As I've mentioned before, I'm reading Becoming The Woman of His Dreams. I couldn't sleep tonight (yikes, it's 2:30am and I have to teach childrens' church at 10am) so I got up to spend some much needed time with the Lord. Once I finished my devotional I got back to reading in this book. At the end of the section about showing respect to our husbands the author had this list of 25 ways to show respect and I thought I'd share it on my blog! I'm still learning about how to show respect so this was quickly copied into my notebook and I'm even toying with the idea of framing it! LOL Anyways, here it is:

1. Don't talk down to him.
2. Don't talk badly about him to others.
3. Don't check behind him to make sure he did something to your standards.
4. Don't disregard his wishes.
5. Don't ignore his requests.
6. Don't laugh at his mistakes.
7. Don't make him the brunt of your jokes.
8. Don't compare him to other men.
9. Don't complain about your finances or his ability as a provider.
10. Don't speak sarcastically or with verbal jabs.
11. Don't roll your eyes when he makes a comment you don't agree with.
12. Don't continually "have a better idea."
13. Talk to him in a pleasant tone.
14. Speak highly or compliment him in front of others.
15. Allow him to do tasks his own way and then thank him when he is finished.
16. Value his opinions.
17. Support his decisions.
18. Try to fulfill his requests.
19. Thank him for providing for your family.
20. Allow him to make final decisions.
21. Support him in his decisions, regardless of the outcome.
22. Avoid the words, "I told you so."
23. Take care of your appearance.
24. Ask his opinion about your clothes and hairstyle.
25. Tell him you are proud of him.

Sugar-and-Spice Twists

Tonight my little man, Keegan and I made something YUMMY for dessert! Super quick, cheap and easy, here's the recipe:

Sugar-and-Spice Twists
Ingredients:
1 tbs. sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 package (6-count) refrigerated breadsticks

**I didn't measure out the cinnamon & sugar because I already had a container with them mixed together from a previous recipe and the only fridge breadsticks I found came in a can of 12.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350*. Spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
2. Mix sugar & cinnamon together in a shallow dish or on a plate; set aside.
3. Divide breadsticks into 6 pieces and roll each piece into a 12" rope. Roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Twist into pretzel shape. Place on baking sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from baking sheet, let cool for 5 minutes then serve warm.

**I had a hard time getting the pretzel shape so I just sort of tied a knot in the dough and left it at that. Also, I sprinkled more of the cinnamon-sugar on top of the knot right before I placed them in the oven. You can also use colored sugar sprinkles instead of the sugar to give it a fun holiday color or party color.


Here's hubby digging in:

A big hit for the whole family!

ENJOY!!

Uggghhh...bad weigh-in!

Darn it all to heck! LOL PMS got the best of me this week and I managed to eat just about every sweet in the house that wasn't nailed down or in someone else's mouth already! LOL I gained a whole flippin 2.4 lbs this week bringing my total lost back down to 16.6 lbs! Grrrrr.... I even went for my 3 mile walk but only one night and boy howdy could I tell that I had already gotten out of shape! I guess it's been over a month, at least, since I was walking regularly so to go all gung-ho and do my lengthy walk was pushing it! I got all huffy and puffy up a hill that wasn't even phasing me before and my legs & butt hurt for 3 days! LOL I've really been slacking on my diet for the past several weeks so I'm actually surprised that I hadn't had a big gain prior to this one. This is the kick in the butt I needed to jump start me again! Our home life schedule is slowing down (Praise the Lord) so I'm hopefully going to be able to start going on my walks again or at least squeezing in a workout sometime during the day! I think I'm going to make an appt. with my Dr. to get my hormone levels checked out. I've noticed that since I've had my daughter there's at least one week of the month that I feel so low in energy and I have no patience whatsoever which I know is what everyone says PMS is but in my whole 28 years of life, I've never had the mood swings or the loss of energy or any of that and I sooooo don't want to live like that! I don't want my poor hubby to deal with it or for my kids to grow up remembering their mom as a crazy person! LOL Maybe I need to be put on birth control or something to regulate my hormone levels...we'll see! Just not sure which Dr. I need to call...my regular Dr. or my OB-GYNO Dr??? Thankfully that horrible week is over or at least getting there! I was able to get some house work done today that I haven't been able to do the past 5 days! So weird!
Anyways, we have our homeschool co-op tomorrow and it's 10:40pm and I don't even have my lesson plan together...YIKES! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

My heart is sad...Marriages!!

I don't even know how to start this, I'm just so sad! It seems like almost on a daily basis I'm hearing about marriages just being torn apart, people seperating and just giving up. It's so frustrating because as a person that has been there and knowing what the Lord showed me and all that I've learned about God's view on marriage, ways to have a happy marriage, etc. and just seeing people being selfish and prideful or thinking the grass is greener on the other side. I just want to shake them and tell them that they are making a huge mistake!



In our homeschool co-op the moms are reading Becoming The Woman of His Dreams and I had brought the book to work with me the other night and that sparked a conversation with one of my co-workers. She asked me if they made books like that for husbands because she said her husband really needed it. I said that I was sure there were books like that out there. We got to talking about how in God's Word, wives are commanded to respect their husbands. This means even if they don't "deserve" it and probably especially when we don't feel like giving or showing respect. You could tell this really bugged my co-worker and she made a remark about not giving respect if her husband wasn't going to treat her right! That's the part that frustrates me. Now don't get me wrong, I am FAR FAR FAR from the good and respectful wife that I long to be BUT I'm constantly working on it. I grew up basically with a single mother that had been abused by previous husbands and even her current husband and she was very open about telling my sisters and I never to rely on a man to support us, never to need anything from a man and I was never shown how to show/give respect to man. I'm learning as I'm going along in my own marriage and it's tough! I honestly had to look up in the dictionary what respect was. I mean I knew that you were supposed to show some kind of politeness to people in higher positions or elderly but I didn't know exactly what respect was. For those that are curious, here's what I found. I took out the stuff that didn't fit what I was looking for and this is what was left that helped me:


RESPECT =
*esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability

*deference to a right, privilege, privileged position, or someone or something considered to have certain rights or privileges; proper acceptance or courtesy; acknowledgment

*a formal expression or gesture of greeting, esteem, or friendship

*to hold in esteem or honor

*to refrain from intruding upon or interfering with



In Ephesians 5:33 it says:

However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.



In the Amplified bible, this is what Ephesians 5:33 says:

However, let each man of you [without exception] love his wife as [being in a sense] his very own self; and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly].

That was a huge eye-opener for me and I'm really working on doing all of those things but sadly, I fail more than I succeed! But at least I'm trying! I'm not digging my heels in and saying that I'm not going to do those things unless hubby does these things! It totally goes along with the Love & Respect seminars (they have a book and workbook too along with DVD's of the seminar...I HIGHLY recommend that every couple do this at least once a year)! The whole cycle of a woman feeling unloved so she reacts with disrespect, the husband feels disrespect so he reacts unlovingly and on and on and on! It takes a mature person to step back and say WHOA, we're not going to do this anymore! It takes work to have a happy marriage and it makes me soooooo sad that the world is telling us that we need to do what makes us feel good, what makes us happy and if something isn't making us happy then we should just drop it and seek out those things that do make us happy! We get so caught up in the sugary sweet goosebumps, butterflies in the stomach, etc. that we get when we first start dating someone and when the newness is gone and we don't have all the "warm fuzzies" then we go out seeking it in other places! Hello people, isn't there something awesome about growing old with someone and knowing that person is going to be by your side through thick and thin and no one will know you better than your spouse and on and on?

I'll have to save my marriage testimony for the next blog posting because it's long and I have to make sure that my hubby will be ok with me sharing it. I was making HUGE mistakes and heading the wrong way but I just praise and thank the Lord that He not only pulled my head out of my selfish butt, but He gave Josh a forgiving heart! The biggest reason I want to share my marriage story is to give people hope! I was at my wits end and was so done that I was ready to sign divorce papers and walk away. I want people to know that life is sooooo much better if you can just stick it out and WORK AT IT instead of giving up! My marriage is so much richer and more wonderful now then I ever could have imagined! The Lord will bless you for trying and for sticking it out! Life isn't always going to be rainbows and butterflies and your spouse is probably the one person on earth that can really push your buttons and get on your nerves but please know that divorce is never the answer (unless abuse is involved), marriages can be repaired!

Here are some things that helped me:

Jon Coursin's study on marriage

The Bible (of course)

Love & Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs

The movie Fireproof is great too!

A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George

A Wife After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George

Created To Be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl

The 5 Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman

Love Dare book

Those are just some to name a few! LOL I'm telling you, please, please, please don't give up on your marriage! You can never regret putting your all into saving your marriage!

To be continued...

3rd and final post for today...hopefully! LOL

Ok, so yesterday was just such a great day and I took about 255 pictures so I thought I'd break my posts up into 3 seperate ones so sorry about that! LOL Scroll down to see the other 2 posts if ya want to! :)

We went to a really cool pumpkin patch that we'd never been to before and had a great time!! We went on a tractor ride through the pumpkin patch, pet some goats, walked through a huge corn maze and just looked around at everything! Keegan (my almost 7 year old son) proclaimed, "This is the best day of my LIFE!" Awwwww....that's what parents love to hear! I'm so glad he had such a great time! The Lord blessed us by keeping the rain away and we got lots of great pictures!

Here are pictures from the corn maze:
The kiddos in front of the corn maze sign.

Off we go:

I sure love him!

Keegan & I acting scared:

Daddy helping Tatym through the maze:


This is the ginormous apple Keegan picked out for a snack! No joke, the thing was almost as big as his head and it weighed 1.27 POUNDS! YIKES!

So big, he couldn't even eat the whole thing! LOL


The kiddos:




Mining area:


Feeding the goats:



Getting goat kisses:


Daddy caught with his pants down! LOL


Our trip through the pumpkin patch:

She loves pumpkins!

My boy & me! :)
Tatym wasn't too thrilled about riding behind the tractor:

All-in-all it was a fabulous day!!! We agreed to make the 2 1/2 hour trip to this pumpkin patch a new family tradition!!!

Pretty Pretty

(This is my 2nd post of the day so scroll down to read a little about our day yesterday!)

Just wanted to share some great pictures I got yesterday on our drive out of town! I'm just so smitten with the skies lately and all the colors changing for fall! Fall is definitely my favorite season!!!
ENJOY!

FOOTBALL

Our family!!


This year my stepson, Taylor is playing football and we were lucky enough to get to go see one of his games! My hubby works 6 days a week so getting a day off during the week is hard and Taylor's games have been on Tuesdays & Wednesdays. Things worked out that hubby was able to get yesterday off so we drove the 5 hours over to where Taylor lives and watched him play!!! His team played really well, spanking the other team 26-0!! WOO HOOOOOOO!!!

Here are some pictures---mind you I'm taming it WAY down! I took about 100 pictures from his game! LOL

Keegan & I made signs to show our support:


GO #51!!!!




We're really hoping Taylor sticks with football, he seems to be a good player and enjoys everyone cheering for him and watching him play! Hopefully next year we'll get to see more of his games!!!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We made our annual trip out to the local pumpkin patch and what a gorgeous day it was! The weather was PERFECT (THANK YOU LORD) and the kids had fun! Here are some pics from our special day!!

Tatym ran around hugging the bigger pumpkins...it was precious:


Mommy & Keegan:


Hubby & Me:


Mommy & Tatym:


Daddy & Tatym:


It was impossible to get Tatym to hold still long enough to get a good picture of the kids together so this is as good as I got!

Family Fun

Sundays are so hard for me! I'm a Jesus loving christian girl married to a man that isn't so sure what he believes and that makes life hard sometimes! I hate going to church without my husband but he doesn't want to go because he says he'd feel like a hypocrit! If he only knew just how many hypocrits fill those seats every week! LOL Anyways, I was planning on going to church today but felt torn because hubby works 6 days a week and only has Sundays off so those are the only days I get to spend an entire day with him. Now don't get me wrong, my ultra wonderful husband is VERY supportive of me going to church and he's very considerate because he knows that my faith and relationship with the Lord is the most important thing in my life. He makes jokes now and again about me being a "bible thumper" but he's never tried to stand in the way of me going to church or bible study or anything like that! He lets me homeschool Keegan because of how strongly I feel about the whole thing, we're involved in a christian homeschool co-op, Keegan goes to AWANAS every Wednesday and we have other faith based things going on all the time. So this battle I feel is strictly within myself. I'm always torn between spending time with my husband and going to church. Thankfully our church has a Wednesday night service so I just drop Keegan off at AWANAS and head to church. Hubby picks Keegan up from AWANAS and then when I'm done at church I come home. So really, I'm at least getting bible study on Mondays at church and then the Wednesday night service as well, along with my daily study at home. The Lord has promised me that Josh will be saved I'm just not sure of when and I really hope it's before the rapture! I'd love to walk together with the Lord even for one day! To pray with my hubby and to study God's Word together...wow, that would be amazing!!

Anyways, I decided to skip church to hang with my whole family. Hubby, Keegan & I made some caramel apples while Tatym was napping! YUMMMMMM!!! I think we're going to deliver them to some friends and family and of course eat some ourselves! :) This is the first time I've ever made caramel apples and was nervous about how sticky/messy the caramel would be but to my surprise it wasn't bad at all!

So we begin:

My wonderful assistant, Keegan!



I joke that this is every woman's dream; Hubby doing the dishes and son doing some cooking! Seriously though I feel like these are my jobs but it's nice to have some help once in a great while! I had a hard time letting hubby do the dishes but I think he wanted to bless me so I just helped dry and put away! See what I mean, a GREAT guy!


Keegan & I!! I absolutely LOVE being his mom!!


TA-DA!!! The first batch (the 4 in the back) didn't turn out as well because we were learning as we went along! If you hold the apple and rotate it for awhile so the caramel cools down, all the caramel stays on the apple. We were just dipping then setting down on the pan and all the caramel started slipping down the apple! Oh well, still gonna taste great!!

Saturday Fun!

WOW!! My first thought seeing this sunset is that God is the greatest painter of all! This is the sunset we saw on our way home from a day my family & I went out of town! A perfect ending to a perfect day!


Well, today is Saturday so that means my son, Keegan has a soccer game this afternoon! I just love being a mom and especially being blessed with the honor of getting to stay at home with my kids! My hubby works VERY hard so that I don't have to work, well, I work one day a month but c'mon, that's nothing! Josh (hubby) knows that my biggest passion and desire is to be a homemaker and he works long hours and 6 days a week so that I can stay home! See what I mean, a great husband!

Keegan is in AWANAS and loves it! Since Halloween is coming up (ugghhh...hate Halloween) the theme of next weeks AWANAS is Orange Night so Keegan and I thought it would be fun to decorate an orange shirt to look like a jack-o-lantern. We had bought some iron-ons that had the pumpkin face but long story short, we put them on wrong and instead of ending up on the orange shirt, they ended up on my husband's white shirt that I was using as a barrier when ironing! LOL Of course I have to learn the hard way! Anyways, we bought some orange and black puffy paint and went to town on the shirt! Here are some pictures of the process:
Keegan drew a picture of the way he wanted to face to look and then asked me to paint the outline for him. Here he's started filling in the areas:


I love his concentration faces:


A smile that melts my heart:


Ta-Da:


I love doing projects with him!!!

Well, I better run and get us all ready for the soccer game!
HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE!!!