Lookie, Lookie!!!

I received an email last Thursday from Jaelyn's teacher advising me that Jae was going to be recognized with an award this past Friday morning.

Mind you that Dirk and I had plans to leave town early Friday morning for our trip, but we wouldn't have missed this for anything.

During the school assembly friday, Jae received the"Exceptional Character" award. I don't know who was more proud, Jae or us!

Look at the proud look on her face from the time she walked to the stage to the time when I was able to take a picture of her holding the award in front of her.

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

Hey friends! WOW! I sure missed you ladies! I guess I really, really do like this blogging stuff! lol! However, I enjoyed getting away with my sweetheart more!

So, here's what I planned.

I planned a weekend getaway for us to go to Fredericksburg to a bed and breakfast. Fredericksburg is roughly five hours from where we live. We have many friends who love bed and breakfasts. We'd never had the experience and so I thought that it would be something fun and different. I was right!! It was fun and wayyyyyyyyyyy different!

We stayed at the place called Trois Estate at Enchanted Rock. And since it was our first time to experience a bed and breakfast, we really didn't know what to expect exactly. Okay, Dirk loved the place. I liked it just okay. It was a very clean place which scored big time in my book. It was just really different and really strange.

The are ten rooms on the property. Every room is built out of stone including the shower and the floors. The owner's home was also located on the property. Get this... the owner's home was underground. Yep, built underground! We were given a tour of the premises by one of the workers. I must say that the owner has a very different/strange collection. In just one building was a whole collection of cap guns. They were all locked away and nicely displayed in beautiful glass tables. There were hundreds of them displayed in glass top tables and glass cases. Seriously, no joke! We were told that this little collection was valued over 2 million dollars and that it is the largest cap gun collection in the world! How ridiculous, huh?

Once we got checked in Friday afternoon and toured the place, we decided to go out and explore the city a little bit. We did a little shopping downtown and then ate at this neat little German restaurant. We had never tried German food before. It was really good. It was also reasonably priced which made the experience even better. The only complaint was that they only took American Express, Discover or personal check. I've never heard of any place not accepting a Visa card before. Since we only had our debit card with the Visa logo on it and a checkbook, Dirk had to write a check for dinner. That was weird!

Saturday morning, we were treated to a wonderful breakfast at Trois. The dining room was the only room that I didn't think was totally weird. Well, except for the glass top tables that had weird things locked away inside them such as; pipes, indian artifacts, fossils, skulls (primate, maybe human!), and straight razors to name a few.

It was soooooooooooooooo relaxing not being on a schedule and not having to take care of anyone for just a little while!!! We had left our girls in very good hands and just didn't have to worry about them at all which was a huge blessing.

Saturday afternoon, we toured the place more on our own and took pictures. We later went into town to do more browsing at different stores, sight seeing around the city and ate out again.
Now that I write this....we did a lot of eating this weekend and WE DIDN'T HAVE TO COOK ANY OF IT!!!

I could share more, but I will share some of the pictures with you all and I am WAY behind of reading your blogs to see what's happening in your world.

All being said, Dirk was very happy with what I'd planned which is all that matters.
He did tell me at the end that I was truly a Ritz Carlton kind of girl. lol!

Anyhow, here are a few pictures of our weekend.

See You Soon

Remember, I had something special planned for Dirk's Birthday??? Anyhow, we're finally celebrating his 40th b-day this weekend! I will tell you ALLLLLLLLL about it on Sunday!

Have a great weekend friends!

Thankful Thursday ~ Life

This week our host Iris at Grace Alone has chosen the theme, life ~ physical and spiritual.

Earlier this week, I was reminded of how blessed our family is in that we're all pretty healthy. More specifically, I was thinking that until Morgan was in eighth grade, she never missed a day of school. Jae is now in second grade and just missed her first day this year. I just celebrated my 15th year at my job and have more than 700 hours in sick time accrued. Dirk is the same as being healthy. I am very thankful that other than minor aches and pains, our family has nevered endured a big sickness. Thank you Lord!

As far as my spiritual life. I have been on a strong path the last several months with being in the Word more. I have been able to maintain a consistent study pattern. However, I am far from where I WANT and NEED to be. I grew up in church, but had no idea until later in life what was really required of me to have a close, personal, and intimate relationship with my Heavenly Father. As with any relationship, it's hard work, but so worth it. When I say hard work, I think of the constant disappointments that I have brought to Him; such as broken promises, disobedience, lack of communication, and on and on. I am thankful that my Father is gracious and merciful to not only forgive me when I ask... but remembers it no more.

I truly can't imagine a life of hopeless wandering and without following Jesus!

I've Been Invited...

and I am totally not afraid to admit 15 things about me.

Here goes:

1. I can't leave home without ALL beds made. Crazy, I know!
2. I sit on the floor in my closet to have my quiet time in the Word.
3. My house must be cleaned (for the robbers) before leaving for a vacation
4. I am severely OCD about some things. I betcha you already figured as much!
5. Germs tend to freak me out.
6. I don't watch much TV. If it were up to me, we wouldn't own any.
7. I love to scrapbook and to blog
8. I weighed 95 pounds when I married. Trust me, I wasn't comfortable with it.
9. I have to wear socks to bed at night, actually a pair of Dirk's sock.
10. I don't ride roller coasters
11. I love to play the arcade game Pac-Man and have one sitting in my gameroom.
12. I MUST have at least one Coke a day
13. I don't do well being unorganized
14. I must have my to-do-list written out each day
15. I collect crosses and hang them up all over my home

Thank you to my new blogging buddies over at Shortybears Place and Speaking from the Heart for tagging me with this.

I am supposed to tag others, but I think that this is fun and whoever is reading and wish to pick up this tag and come along, please do so.

I really enjoyed doing it. Now you know even more strange and interesting things about me. LOL!

Keeping It Real With....

Marie-Antionette-REAL Person Award. You get this award for showing your heart and for being your real-self and transparent.

My dear friend April gave me this award. Thank you, April, for thinking of me. You're truly a REAL blessing to me! If you haven't already stopped by April's blog, you're missing out on getting to know another wonderful person.

Now, here are the rules for this award:

1. Please put the logo on your blog.
2. Place a link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate at least 7 or more blogs.
4. Put the links of those blogs on your blog.
5. Leave a message on their blogs telling them they've won an award!

Oh, wow! This is going to be hard. I have met so many wonderful women in blog world. I look forward to reading ALL of your blogs daily. However, since I must follow the rules, I can only pick 7 of you.

I give this award to;

Heather ~ Forever Family
Rebeckah ~ Life with Kaishon
Jessica ~ Jessica & Matt
Stacey ~ Poofing the Pillows
Jennifer ~ Chameleon
Tonya~ Safe in His Arms
Amy ~ The King's

There are so many more of you that I wanted to give this award to. Please be sure to take a moment and go by and visit these ladies, they would gladly welcome your visit. Thank you all for being REAL!

BIG NEWS!!!!

First things first, before I go into my actual post today; to my friends who have tagged me with different awards and meme(s), I promise to post mine this week. I actually have several subjects that I want to share with you, but for now this topic at hand is a little more pressing and by the time you finish reading it, you'll see why. Okay. I had to get that out. Thanks!

OKAY..... here goes!

I'm going to have a baby in my home soon.

What in the world am I rambling about now? Let me explain.

For a long as I can remember (& my mom tells me that it's been all my life) I've had this one great fear that I've dealt with for many years. I feel that I've restricted myself in a lot of ways in my life with this fear. I say that I've buried this fear because I was never forced to deal with it. However, I have shared it with many people not only for prayer, but in hopes that I would one day be healed.

Ready to know what it is?

ALL of my life, I've have been deathly afraid of ALL animals; mainly dogs and cats. I was never attacked by either of them. We never had a pet when I was young. I didn't go to other friends' home if they had a pet. In my adult life, I have restricted myself from environments where animals are. Okay, for Moms that are asking yourself if my girls have been to the zoo? Yes, they have, but it was torture for me most of our visit there. I never go to anyone's home without first asking if they have a cat or a dog. If they own either, I will ask if they mind putting it up during my visit. Fortunately, I've never had someone who would not put their pet away.

Okay now that you have a little history, let's fast forward to a few weeks ago.

I am totally aware that God does not give us a spirit of fear. In fact, I have heard many sermons and other teachings about how we should face our fears head on. Well, it's only taken thirty-eight years for me to REALLY grasp these words.

To sum it all up and after recently listening to yet another sermon on facing your fears ......I FINALLY GOT IT!!!

I'll spare you the details on the sermon and what actually happened with me during the service (including friends of mine staring at me - holla Jessica!).

The main thing that I wanted to share was that I have made a promise to my family that I would try this...facing my fear head on. To finally answer your question dear friend April, YES WE ARE GETTING A DOG!!!!! And YES, an inside dog!!!!

Dirk is doing lots of research to get the perfect dog for our family. Wow! That sounds weird! I have requested a couple of things from him;

1. Must be a miniature dog
2. Must be short hair

Now friends, I need your help in a couple of ways.

1. Please pray for me about this. I do have peace about this, but Satan keeps showing his ugly face and trying to talk me out of dealing with this issue.

2. Right now, we are thinking of getting a Mini Dachshund. However, we are not 100% set on it. Sooooooooo, we are somewhat open for your suggestions and comments on this.

We've already heard that dachshunds can be somewhat difficult to house train. I also know that there's not going to be a perfect dog. Darn it!! So with that being said, give me your opinions and comments.

Whew! I've wanted to share this for a few weeks, but I've had so many other subjects to post about.

I must admit that I (and a whole lot of other people who know us) am very surprised that I am doing this, but I feel good about it!