4th Anniversary!

I can't believe it's been four years today! Four wonderful, magical, beautiful, happy, glorious years. I can't imagine a better life than the one I share with my husband- it's been four years of "better than I ever thought possible" and "better and better with every passing year."
Sounds corny, but hey, so are we :)

Our computer crashed a little over a year ago and we lost most of our wedding pictures :(
But- here's a few from what's left for reminiscing...

wedding party... :)
The first time we saw each other on our wedding day... :)
our very first kiss was at the altar!! Smooooch!
our first dance as husband & wife... :)

Top FOUR reasons I am still so desperately in love with my husband:

4. He treats me with respect and tells me when he appreciates the things that I do. I've never once said "I wish he knew what I did for him!!" He always knows, notices, and affirms the things that I do. He always listens to what I have to say, crazy or not :)

3. His heart for the Lord- I am blessed daily by Matt's desire to seek God's will and direction for our lives. We would not be who we are without our loving Creator, and our marriage would not be as strong as it is without Matt's leadership through Him. One little example that just makes me melt every time- each morning before leaving for work, Matt wakes me up and prays over me- and I am so blessed by this!

2. How he takes care of me- obviously it's his work day to day that puts a roof over my head and food on the table, but he does so much more than provide financially. He tells me to rest when he can see that I'm tired, like offering to make dinner when I have no energy left, he keeps me sane when my emotions are out of control, he makes sure to comfort me when I'm down for any reason, he never treats me like I'm petty or silly even when I know I am. He holds my heart with the gentlest care.

1. He's the man God chose for me! And it seems more and more obvious with each passing year through the many ways He blesses us. I love Matt for so many reasons- and most of them are things he does or ways he is- but the reason above all others is that he's mine. We committed our lives to one another four years ago today and no matter who Matt is or what he does day to day- I choose to love him. We went into this covenant knowing that it would take some work but that there would be no way out! I just can't believe how easy it's been- how easy he is to love, how easy it is to submit to him, how happy I could be every single day just to fall asleep in his arms and wake up with him beside me! God has made him to be everything I've ever needed and I am grateful beyond words.

I love you Sparky!!

$1.50 cheesecake?

Dear Insider, In a few days The Cheesecake Factory will announce a very special offer in honor of our 30th anniversary. However, as is customary at the Insider's Table, we wanted to share the news with you first! What's all the excitement about? On Wednesday, July 30, Cheesecake Factory restaurants nationwide will offer every delicious slice of our more than 30 varieties of cheesecake for $1.50 per slice - just like we did when we opened our first restaurant back in 1978! It's no coincidence that Wednesday, July 30, also happens to be National Cheesecake Day. After all, what better time to enjoy the cheesecake you absolutely love! As you know, sharing is part of the fun at The Cheesecake Factory so feel free to share the news about this special offer with your friends. So, come celebrate with us on National Cheesecake Day! And, stay tuned for more news about our 30th A nniver sary Celebration! Your friends at The Insider's Table

mmmmmmm........ Our anniversary is the 31st and we'll go to cheesecake factory then (thanks for the gift card, mom and dad!)- so I don't think we'll be participating in this offer. Two days of cheesecake in a row is a bit much... haha. Our wedding cake was cheesecake, thanks to my best friend's brother & mom who made them all- I think there were about 14 cakes total. A three layer NY style vanilla cheesecake, then peanutbutter cup, lemon, margarita, orange, pumpkin, chocolate... was there more? I can't remember. But oooooh- the couple we got bites of were soooo good.... I think Matt's favorite was pumpkin and mine was peanutbutter cup of course, but who can pass up a good homemade cheesecake?

ants!

Okay- so I'm putting up a poll. What's with these little invading critters? We got home last night and there they were- all marching in line across my new kitchen unit in search of the dog's bowl. Eewww....
Honestly, they don't bother me nearly as much as Matt. Why? Because ants just happen. To everyone. Or so I thought. Apparently, Matt's never gotten ants. Not since me, anyway. hahaha-
I remember as a kid that every year the ants find their way in. You take care of them, end of story. No big deal. Kind of yucky- but not like spiders or fleas or mosquitoes or something nasty that bites or even flies which have so many nasty germs- they're just harmless little sugar ants.
So- the poll. Is it just me? Or does Matt just not REMEMBER having ants as a kid? Do you get them yearly? Twice yearly when the seasons change? So often that you've begun naming them and giving them treats like family pets? Or is it really just me and no one else gets ants? We'll find out. ;)
I did discover a cool trick at the condo, however: plain ol' white vinegar. They aren't a fan of it. (who is? it stinks! but just for a minute until it dries.) Just spray it where their trail is and they wont bother going that way again. In this apartment, it seems it takes a few applications, but then they'll leave us alone. Matt wants to go out and buy ant traps right away (expensive, toxic ant traps- to put right there with the food) which to me is even worse than the ants, but hey, if the vinegar doesn't work this time, we'll resort to traps.

Update: it's Monday and we haven't seen the little suckers since! Yay for vinegar again!

Fur Baby

awwww...... I love you, Rusty

Fertilizer #1

Who knows how true it is, but I read that tomato plants love a little egg-shell fertilizer. The calcium is supposed to help prevent blossom end rot, and makes them taste fabulous by helping the plants handle un-even watering. Well- we'll see!

To make your own egg-shell fertilizer:

1. Dry out several egg shells for a few days.
2. grind them up in a blender or food processor
to a fine powdery dust!

3. clean up the mess you made in the kitchen from the flying egg shells... don't forget to clean out the dog's bowl. (sorry, Rusty!)



4. Spoon a little around the base of the plant
5. dig it into the soil a bit
6. and water your sweet little tomato!

I have two cherry tomato varieties. I don't remember what they are right now- but I guess I will when they start producing fruit. I got them pretty late in the season (just last week!) so hopefully they'll do okay and we'll have a few juicy fruits for salads and such. Someday I'd love to have a big old vegetable garden with tons of big tomato plants, but for now, this will have to do on my little apartment porch :)

I made a skirt!

So if you don't know me real well, or.... even if you do... you probably don't know that I can't sew, but would LOVE to learn how. In my sewing career I have made a handful of pillow cases & a few attempts at curtains. Ooooooh- impressive. (or not!) Well now that I'm a homemaker, I have a little more time to experiment. This weekend I sewed Rowen's blanket- just a duvet- to cover a really fantastic down crib comforter that someone gave us. I want to finish the crib-skirt before pictures of that project will be posted.. But here's my first clothing project that I've been working on, and just finished this afternoon!
A jean skirt! Before you're too impressed, realize that I didn't make the whole skirt, I just turned a pair of maternity jeans into a skirt. I got a few pairs of maternity jeans as hand-me-downs with the intention to hem them to fit eventually. Well, now that the weather is hot & no longer suitable for jeans- I decided to turn this little pair into a skirt. (Hey, thanks Kristy!!)
Following a conglomeration of ideas from the internet, here's what I did:

Step 1: chop off the legs around the knees, just make sure it's a few inches longer than what you'll want the skirt to be.

Step 2: the seam-ripper is your friend. Mine however, has decided to run away with my mom's seam rippers so I had to resort to scissors. I don't recommend this method. Pull out the seams up the insides of both legs,

all the way up the back to about two inches from the "yolk"

and in the front up to the zipper. (or in the case of maternity pants, where the zipper would be.

you should end up with something like this!

Step 3: get rid of all that yucky old thread! I found that a piece of inside-out packing tape was helpful. Like lint removal! weeeee......

Step 4: iron it all flat, then tuck it in a little bit and iron it again. Try not to do this in 95 degree weather, the iron is hot.

Step 5: don't poke yourself with the pins. I mean, pin the two legs together in front and back to make a skirt.

Step 6: use a jeans needle and jeans thread to sew the seams you just pinned. Don't forget to take a picture. (oops)



Step 7: Try on your raggedy skirt, and cut it one inch longer than you'd like it to be. It's helpful to measure all the way around, which I did, but mine's still a little crooked. Oh well :) Then cut out notches where the seams are, about 1/4" deep, like so:
This makes the seams not too thick to sew through as you roll them up twice.



Fold up the hem 1/4" and iron it flat. Then fold it up again another 1/4" and iron it flat, pinning along the way to keep it in place. Again, it's hot. Don't try this in the middle of July at noon.

Step 8: Sew around the hem- hooray we're almost done!

Step 9: Put it on and take silly pictures of yourself in the mirror for all your friends to see on your blog.When you see me wearing this in person, do me a favor and don't look too close :)

A blessing in cabinetry!

My mom designs closet systems for Closets to Go. She rocks, by the way. We had such a mess in the kitchen... we've been living out of boxes for the past month because there's no where else to put anything. So she whipped up a little something for us:
I don't have a great "before" picture because I thought about it after we had moved everything from the kitchen floor to the living room floor and dining room. So, here's an idea of the accumulation of junk:

before......

during.......

after!!

Isn't it beautiful?? I am so excited, I can't even tell you. It made me so happy to put everything away! Thanks, mom!!!

Wedding Time

Wow, I'm a blog slacker. You'd think now that I'm home all day I'd be spending all sorts of time on the internet- but it's not true! In fact, I feel way busier than when I was working! How funny is that? Anyway- back to the subject at hand...
We went to a wedding last Thursday (the 3rd) of one of Matt's high school friends. We went with Evan & Jackie (his brother and his brother's fiancee'), and Chase and Lyndsay, (his kind-of sister and her hubby.) It was the first time we met her hubby so that was fun! Lydndsay is also pregnant and about a month behind me, so we spent the weekend sharing pregnancy woes. Hope your back is feeling better, Lyndz! Obviously, she was a bridesmaid in the wedding- they flew out from.... oh shoot I always forget... Arkansas?
Well we had a fun night of dinner and dancing- we don't get to do that very often, so I enjoyed it! The wedding was at Gray Gables and it was HOT in there. Holy cow. I always feel so sorry for men at dress up functions when it's hot- here us ladies can wear little summery dresses and they still have to don the long sleeves and pants! (Well baby, you looked very handsome anyway!)
Oh yeah, and here we are: MAN i'm fat.
Is it the camera angle??? haha. I thought I looked pretty cute that night but maybe not. Check out the stretch in the fabric- whoa mama! I'm getting ready to have my body back. I love feeling him wiggle around and punch my bladder and kick my lungs and all- but seriously, I could use some sleep at night. And walk around for more than 10 minutes during the day without getting winded- and go back to my old work outs- and eat everything that I want to without worrying if it has lysteria or alcohol or something in it! Or going to the bathroom less than every half hour- lol.
Okay, complainings done!! Phew, sorry had to get that out. Really, pregnancy's been great and I shouldn't complain. It could be sooo much worse- and we're getting into the worst part I'm afraid! So count my blessings, I know!! Only 81 days left- 11.5 weeks- 2.5 months- it's crazy how fast it's going! I'm trying to enjoy all the little things that I'll miss- like hiccups! It's so cute! I noticed him get them for the first time during the wedding, actually! We were sitting there listening to the ceremony when I kept feeling this little "tick, tick, tick, tick, tick" in the same spot in a very rhythmic pattern. I was like, "what are you doing in there, baby Ro?" when I remembered reading about hiccups and the light turned on! Oh yeah! So cute :) Little things like that make you realize how human he is.... I also love when he really starts moving- (except when I'm trying to sleep) he kind of kicks and rolls and jabs all day, but once in a while he REALLY starts going- I feel his little body parts all over my belly and if it weren't for all the ultrasounds, I'd wonder if he had more than two arms and two legs! He can flip around so much it's a wonder that the umbilical cord is not in a giant knot. Sometimes I poke my sides until he pokes back, and it's so amazing when I can feel a little hand or foot (or something hard and pokey!)
I can't wait to meet him. (and swaddle him up and put him to bed somewhere other than my belly!)