Bean's Closet: Hobby Lobby Sale Cycle

So happy someone is doing this! :) I personally want to know when the next .99 cent sale on McCalls patterns is! :)

Bean's Closet: Hobby Lobby Sale Cycle: So now that I've decided I'm going to take the plunge and start selling my "projects" as my husband likes to call them, I am always looking ...

With a Fine Tooth Comb

Josh and I are rapidly approaching our 3rd wedding anniversary and we are hoping that we will finally be able to get out of town.. we have not even been on an overnight getaway for 2 years. Something that I have come to realize over the past week is that I am an excellent researcher when it comes to trying to save money and find the best deal I can... it just takes time, and that can add up very quickly. It can be fun and it can be stressful. Just like something else. What is that thing called again?.... Oh yeah! LIFE lol :D

By the way if you know of a great deal on a trip, getaway, or vacation - Let me know! ;) I'd appreciate it.

~*~Serenity~*~

Something in the Water

Lately – ok, so for the past year – it seems like everyone who is married (or should be) and is of child bearing age is having a baby.

For almost TWO years, just about every month I thought that there would be positive signs or results indicating that we were. Every month I would find our otherwise. It first it was such a relief but then after a year of it started to become a frustration, because I looked prego and not just a little. So the only other logical explanation is that I was F-A-T, FAT. I felt it, looked it and was extremely hurt and mad because I had no baby to show for it, knew some of the comments and remarks that were being made and I had not gone on an eating binge. In-fact I had cut out sugar, sodas, and tried various other things.

I was exercising - I had tried walking, aerobics and then I was even riding my bike 6  miles four times a week. So honestly, I should have lost weight not gained it. The last time I thought I was pregnant, I honestly and truly was so very happy about it. Various things that had scared me out of my mind I had dealt with, had for the most part made peace with, and so on. So with the one exception of Josh not being out of school, I felt ready.  So when I learned I wasn’t I was extremely and utterly disappointed. Remembering, it still brings tears to my eyes.

Now don’t misunderstand me. I love where we are in our lives. It’s great being just Mr. G and I. We are able to do things that we wouldn’t if we did have kids, not to mention the financial responsibility. In addition to that we have been waiting for Mr. G to finish school before we started trying to grow our family. Hopefully he will be finished by the end of the summer. 

I said ALL of this first of all because I needed a place I could say a few of my thoughts and secondly, I because It seems that at least every other week some else is I know is pregnant- There’s got to be something in the water! …Just to be safe you might want to get yours from a private well for the time being. 

LOL,

Serenity

Jumbles

Have you ever had a time in your life when you wanted to say something but every time you tried it came out wrong or something totally off subject?

Well that is where I have been the past few weeks. Every time I sit down to write, my screen might as well be a brick wall for all the words that don't want to translate. OR the rare few times when I thought I had it figured out what it was I wanted to convey- There was something that I need to do or was in the middle of. So instead of a well executed, eloquently written entry on one subject that I so wanted to write - you will get a 3 for 1! Yes folks, that's right 3 subject for 1 blog entry that has been almost three weeks in the writing. Ahh yes, I have the jumbles.

First up is a hope, vision and prayer request (see, another 3-4-1, aren’t you lucky!). Over the past month or two I have started to fell led to start having ladies over during the week. Wither it be for tea/coffee, Bible study, or even occasionally me going over to help them at their house (i.e. help clean, watch their kids, cook) whatever it is that would be a blessing to them.

A few Sunday’s ago at the end of "Life Group" (aka Sunday school), our leader talked about how we need to step up and do various things. One of those is someone (or several people) to coordinate and plan get togethers, fellowships, hospitality and bereavement for those within and close to our group. The door opened, I am walking through it and need your prayers to know what I am supposed to do and how I am supposed to go about it with inviting ladies over to the house and with the Life Group. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated! :)

Now for a bit of fun and quirkiness. ;) For a good while I have felt really bad about Mr. G - the man I love, who loves me, works full time AND goes to school full time- not having a lunch to take with him to work. Now I need you to understand, I am not a morning person. If I have to get up before 5- I would prefer to stay up as to have to get up. Ha ha ha ha ha. Seriously. So when I say that I struggle with getting a lunch prepared for him in the mornings, it is no exaggeration. So when I started thinking about what I should do for Valentines/Our 5th Anniversary of being together, one of the things I thought about were the few and far between lunches he had been getting.
Then my mind flittered to multiple other trains of thought, one of them being how much I would love to travel to Europe and Japan. Ahh Japan - They have great food. I just love Asian food! The girls/women in the anime shows I like always make such wonderful and cute lunches for the people they love and care for. *Starting to get down on myself for not being more self-motivated and dedicated* Gee, they get up SO Early!!! Hours before everyone else.... but I do need to make Mr. G lunches; Japanese food is so good, humm, what if I researched it a bit and see what I find out about the cute and tasty looking meals they have in boxes. So research I did. ... For an entire day.

My goal when I first got him a bento box was to make a lunch for him EVERY day he went to work. Unfortunately I can not report to you that I have thus far succeeded. However I have been making him a lot more lunches and dinners since. Sending an average of 3 a week with him.

Here is a picture of one of the lunches that I prepared for Mr.G and  me:

 

 

Well this is where I will end it tonight. Have a great week! : D

~*~Serenity~*~

A New Leaf & Passion

After posting my last update I re-read what I had written pre-surgery.... and deeply cringed when I read the two sides piece. How self important am I? My goodness. I am so sorry.

This week, well actually Monday, I made it my mission to earnestly try and figure out what I want to do with my life at least till I have kids (I know my goals and just about everything else will change then). I am turning over leaves - both personally and professionally. I promptly started looking at the jobs available. I read descriptions, went to websites, and did some independent searching. After hours upon hours of searching I was a bit flustered. Not one of the prospects even remotely appealed to me.

Then when I was about to try and derive another method I came across an opening at a chain photography "studio." That is when I had a stroke of inspiration. The gears started to come together, what if I did photography? I could capture the moments of new journeys, fresh life, and what ever I wanted in-between! Eventually, I might even be able to open my own studio. Of course I realize this will not happen over night. I need to practice, train and through experiences I will lean. It is so exciting.

I went to the Fort Worth Camera Club meeting on Thursday - which only fueled my desire to start running with my new found pursuit. Today I have priced cameras and done some checking on what it might take financially for me to go to Big Bend in November. It was talked about at the meeting. I have always wanted to see Big Bend and the fall colors (I am hoping) in combination with the scenery will be an experience. Unfortunately, it looks like camping is the only realistic way I can go seeing as I do not own a camper and staying in a motel is out of my budget. so that will prove interesting I am sure. Roughing it is not usually my idea of fun. Hahaha, I just remembered for the second time today, I do not even own a tent. That I will hopefully be borrowing one from someone.

Well it is getting late and I still need to fix dinner, have a great weekend!

                                          ~*~Serenity~*~

MiXed Emotions

Lots of things have been going on since I last posted. Life changing. On one hand, everything is wonderful, I am alive and there is hope. One the other I am just starting to let myself begin to feel what's been happening the last month and a half. Some are of happiness and relief, others are of frustration and loss.

Frustrated because for over two years, I've been living with what had been steadily growing inside of me. Fending off doubts about my body- my self esteem taking a hit every time someone mentioning my weight gain or asking if I was pregnant and after saying that I was not, then being asked again if I was sure that I wasn't pregnant. Frustrated because I had my check ups and the doctors appointments I was supposed to have... they didn't catch it for 2 1/2 years.

Loss, for the not only for the reasons stated above but also for the ovary, tube and decreased possibility of having children.


Happy. I am so thrilled to be alive. There were a couple of points where I wasn't sure if I was going to live through it. That God might be bringing me back to Him. Thankfully, that was not my time and I don't think God ever let Josh get to that point, it wasn't His will, but I was there. It was serious. Things could have most definitely gone the other way. Goodness, my ovary was the size of a very large watermelon. It started at my bikini line and went all the way up to my bra line and then from the outer side of my rib cage to the other. It didn't burst, it didn't rupture damaging any organs other than what had to be removed. In short - it was a miracle.

Relief because I have made it through it all :) I am here today and just so blessed.

For now this is where I will leave it.


      Blessings,
~*~Serenity~*~

Two Sides to Every Fence

Not having any "followers" has been a bit of a humbling experience. I am so used to constantly being watched. For people to add, talk or come to an event, just to see where I'm at, whether out of curiosity or to see if I have some how managed to mess up yet again, so that they can wave it in the air for all to see, I know not. I do hope that more often than not it is the first- but I know better than to hold my breath. LOL Being a PK (preachers kid), yes even still at 24, people are constantly watching everything I do and say. So really it's been quite cathartic to be able to write what I want and at least not definitively be held to the yardstick. It's been a humbling and cathartic experience. First I was very serious and then vulnerably silly. A side of myself that I don't share as much as perhaps I should. That is something that I am working on, and hopefully, slowly but surely I am getting better with it. Anyway, back to the mainstream thought. I would love to know that someone, other than me is getting something out of me sitting down to type out a few of the wisps of thought that go through my head... but I'm also content if no one else does - at least for a while, otherwise I may just return to writing on paper. Either way it has been a good change of pace. Have a great evening, my invisible friends! hehehe

~*~Serenity~*~