I said yes!

Five years ago today my hubby decided to ask me to marry him. I had no idea it was coming. It was a complete surprise.
We started dating in November 2003. First kiss was December 2003. I was pretty darn obsessed with him. I felt and still feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have found my prince charming. I knew the first date that I would/could mary him if he would ever have me and feel the same way (No Lie). It definitely took him longer to figure that out, but I don't hold it against him. I was pretty forward.
It was interesting how we met. We had a lot of mutual friends and had a class right next to each other, which was always convenient to "accidentally" bump into him. Seriously, my heart would flutter on those days I saw him. I was sometimes even stalkerish...
Unfortunately, the whole pi phi house knew of this crush and I would get asked everyday if I talked to him or if I had asked him to this specific, upcoming function. Well a certain someone leaked this info to him and he totally knew I was going to ask him to a function so he set it up for me to ask him. How awesome embarrasing.
I guess it all worked out in the end. We did go to the function and we I had a blast!


The Night we got engaged! Feb, 25th. 2005
Marc asked me to stay in town and go on a date with him, so of course I said I would. Although, all of my friends had left town for the weekend (for reasons I didn't know why then, but now do) I stayed strong and didn't leave.
I waited for him to get off work. He was a bank teller at First Security. We went and ate at the MOST random place ever. Seriously, I have only eaten there that one time and haven't been back. Well we got there at 5, can we say early bird special. No lie, we and one other older couple was in there. Sort of awkward, but funny. The whole dinner he was getting on to me about talking about marriage with my roomate. You should know he told me he loved me 3 weeks before this night. I knew we would get married I just didn't know when. So I was talking about it a ton which he was not appreciating. Side note- We never looked at rings together, and never discussed wedding stuff. He was all about the element of surprise, which is great.


He then took me to this spot on the white river, gave a me a sweet journal that he read to me with many verses in it, and then he got down on his knee and PROPOSED! I was SPEECHLESS, shocked and excited! I could not believe it was happening. It was so memorable.


But thats not where the proposal story ends.
As I was still floating, we get in the car and start driving to who knows where. I didn't care, I was engaged to the love of my life and nothing else really mattered at that moment. I wasn't paying any attention, when all of the sudden we pull up to the springdale private airport. We get there, start walking to a plane and they open the door and my parents and sister are all in there with flowers and roses! Ahh another surprise! It was so fun. Then we flew to Little Rock and were there in 30 minutes. (Another side note. I had not talked to one of my friends, I was still too excited to think who to call, and plus you can't make calls in the plane).
we pull up to my parents house, go inside and most ALL of our friends were there waiting on us! They had made banners, brought gifts and made tons of food. It was another really fun Surprise.


That night I will never forget. It was truly amazing. Marc definitely outdid himself with all of the surprises. I couldn't sleep and was overjoyed that I was going to be able to spend the rest of my life with my dream man. I couldn't grasp that he chose me to begin a new life with.


So there is my lengthy enagagement story.


Here are some pics from my actual album. unfortunately I don't have the digital pics on my computer, so they are really bad quality.

Amazima

I sit here in utter amazement, with tears welling up in my eyes, and a huge lump in my throat. I truly have never heard a story like it.

Let me give a quick preface.
 At community group we are doing a study called "Stuck." It has been wonderful so far. Jennie Allen wrote the study. It is not yet published but should be soon. She conducted this study at http://austinbible.org/home and each week at our group we listen to her podcasts. This last one was on Discontentment. That word sometimes makes me feel a little nauseous. As she was speaking, she brought up this girl named Katie and her blog.




Katie is a girl who up and moved to Uganda because the Lord called her to do this. She is 21 years old and has adopted 14 children. She lived a normal life and intended only to stay there for 1 year. She is now going to live there forever. Her story just simply blows my socks off. It is so powerful. She has SACRIFICED everything of what a "normal" life looks life. She believes nothing is sacrifice in light of eternity with Christ.

And for me to sit here today, knowing everyday I think about ridiculous things, such as coveting other peoples clothes, blogs, or what size they are. How unfortunate that I am that selfish. Knowing that I sacrifice nothing everyday to spend eternity with Christ, but yet He still loves me.
I want to hear Him to say one day, "Well done my good and faithful servant, I am so proud of you."
This story has truly opened my eyes. It will make me think twice about when I need to go shopping or if I'm feeling jealous of something or someone.
I also think, how do I get to that point of being willing to sacrifice and being willing to go anywhere. There is a song we sing at church, "Where you lead me Lord I will follow, where you lead me Lord I will go." I most of the time don't sing that part becasue I know I would not just up and go if I was called too and I know that I'm not willing yet, but I sure need to get there. I think the hardest thing is praying for the Lord to break you of something, not knowing what it is or could be. But knowing that He will and knowing that is what makes us stronger in our faith, and that is when sacrifice comes into play.

Although I know some of you already know of her, I just wanted to share her story because of how powerful it truly is. Go to her blog and read some of her posts if you haven't ever. They are life-changing and will make you weep. http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/.


Michelle

Valentines Surprise

For Valentines this year my parents came to surprise me. I had no idea they were coming. I was absoutely shocked when they knocked at my door saturday afternoon. I had talked them earlier that day but they said they were going to hot springs. Marc told me that he was so excited to spend the day with me and to not make any plans with anyone. It was such a fun surprise. We went to dinner at Mama Z's which is super yummy, and then we went to a casino in Siloam Springs, which was hilarious. Lots of interesting people to see.

Of course they came bearing gifts!

They brought us a lot of random groceries as you can see!

It was a wonderful weekend. I felt so special that my parents would drive 3 hours to see me. I also realized that surprises are one of my love languages! Ha. I just love them.

So thanks mom and dad for making me feel so special. I love yall so much.

Snow day, take 2

Well again this Monday & Tuesday we woke up to more snow! This time it was just beautiful to look at. The roads weren't too bad and kids only got 1 day off. Apparently they won't be getting out of school til the 2nd week of June. I would not be so thrilled about that if I was still a teacher.




Here is our sad little snowman from the other day




So dear snow, I'm over you. Although you are beautiful, you are very cold. I'm dreaming of my cruise that will be in 5 weeks! Yay, I just need to lose a few more lbs if you know what I mean!

Have a happy valentines weekend for those of you that actually celebrate this holiday!

Baby thoughts

This little guy makes me want a baby boy so incredibly bad!


He is cute, cuddly, chubby, sweet, entertaining, and so loveable!






Unfortunately this little guy makes me not want one...

He is a mess. Spoiled, needs tons of attention, sasses me all of the time, throws fits and is just a pure wild child. I have been getting up with him at least once a night (usually more than that) for the past 3 years of my life.

Makes me wonder... Which one will my child be more like. I'm hoping more like Sawyer but thinking more like Louie. Oh well, I guess we will all have to wait and see....


P.s.- Just to clarify, I'm NOT preggers.

Snow Storm 2010

Well last year in 2009, we had a huge ice storm, little did we know we would have another storm just 1 year later. Good thing there was much less ice, still some, but not a ton!

It was a great snow weekend. Friday, Marc and I both worked from home. Marc also smoked a ton of meats. He smoked deer meat, 4 chickens, and some sausage. We had quite the feast with our neighbors.

On saturay, we played like a bunch of kids. We did some 4-wheeling, sledding, donuts, shoveling. It was the ultimate snow day.

Backyard

guys working hard on their snowman

Finished Product...

Then saturday night we went to Savor to celebrate Aubrey and Katies brthdays! Even all the snow didnt keep people from turning out for their birthday bash.

Happy Birthday Katie! She is 25 today (Feb 1st). She also has just launched a new blog. It is called, "From Passys to Parties and everything in between". Check it out here! It is wonderful and full of great ideas and of course cute pics of Sawyer!

Marc Snowboarding behind the 4-wheeler