Beauty for Ashes

If you scoot around blogland at all, you probably have heard about Edie, who lost her home In a fire just days before Christmas.

I was not a follower of her blog before.

In reality, I had never heard of her.

But I started reading her posts over the last few days....

And this post took me to my knees.

And I was reminded of something.

In our darkest days, we have a God of promise and restoration.

It hasn't been so long that our family had our share of dark days.

It hasn't been so long that I went to God looking for explanations and only received these words.

 1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
   because the LORD has anointed me
   to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
   to proclaim freedom for the captives
   and release from darkness for the prisoners,[a]
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
   and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
   instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
   instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
   instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
   a planting of the LORD
   for the display of his splendor.
 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins
   and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
   that have been devastated for generations.

Promises.

Beauty for ashes.

I have lived it.

And I pray that Edie experiences it too.

Beauty for ashes.

And I send this out today, along with all the other bloggers in the world, in honor of her special day.

Check out their posts too! But have a box of Kleenex handy!
Happy birthday, Edie!

The Other {big} Christmas Gift

When it comes to Techy giving Christmas gifts, or any kind of gift, really, technology is always involved.

And this year was nothing different.

Unless you consider the fact that he finally found a gift wherein our passions collided.

Enter the Babylock Ellegante 2

Or for easy reference: The Godfather of All Sewing Machines.

As in, all other sewing machines are mere puppets to this machine.


As in, this machine kills all other machines.

Of course, in my house I may be calling it, "the love of my life".

You get my drift.

So now for the juicy details: 

See that screen?  Um yes.  Touch screen.

See the arm?  Fully detachable/expandable sewing/quilting arm.

See the embroidery hoop?  Um yes.  It comes with 4 of them.  In multiples shapes and sizes.

I can do everything from download fonts/images/designs to quilting.

This thing is rated to quilt through extremely high loft batting.

And I can't wait to get started with this thing.

That's right. 

This beauty has been in my possession for almost a week and a half, and I haven't had an opportunity to try it out yet.

And it's killing me.

But I went out this weekend and got plenty o' fabric and stabilizer and thread so that I am equipped to begin trying it out as soon as possible.

Or as soon as Techy is feeling well enough to manage a 1 year while I go spend days hours with my new toy.

Because everyone knows that a 1 year old boy would love nothing more than playing with my new toy in the face of all his new toys.

Can someone please explain this phenomena?  Why does my child want nothing to do with his abundance of new toys when any type of technology is present?  Remote Control?  Check.  Cell phone?  Check.  iPad?  OBVIOUSLY!

Anyway, all things considered, I think Techy is going to have a very difficult time topping this year's Christmas gift.

For many years to come.

Finally...A Post-Panic Project

Welcome to 2011!  Happy New Year!

In honor of the fact that I should be cleaning, but instead am sitting on my duff playing on the computer and watching Little Man play with everything BUT his new toys - including but not limited to packaging of any kind, soda cans, clothing, cords - yes, cords!!!, remote controls - ALL OF THEM, diapers, wipes, tubes of chapstick, ink pens, etc, etc, etc....  Basically anything but what I WANT him to play with...I wanted to show off my first post-holiday project with one of my awesome Christmas gifts.

Did I mention that I got 2 awesome Christmas gifts?

Well, not just 2.

I got alot of amazing gifts.

But I got 2 CRAFTY gifts.

You may remember one of them....

That's right people!!!

Santa, a.k.a. ME, bought me a Silhouette.

Credit

And the other Santa, a.k.a. Techy, bought me an embroidery machine.

And not just any embroidery machine....

Techy got me the KING of all embroidery machines!

Credit

A Babylock Ellegante 2.

Magical machine of all machines.

But I really need to save the details of that magical machine for another post.

This post is about a quick project I whipped up using the Silhouette this morning while Little Man was throwing some of his Christmas gifts at my head.

And I am so happy about it!

Let's jump on in, k?

And it had something to do with this lovely, faded atrocity.

For some reason, having a faded duck adorn the front of my house just wasn't up my alley. 

In reality, I have been BEGGING Techy to do something about this for 2 years now.

Today, I took matters into my own hands.

Or maybe I should say, I let my Silhouette take matters into its own hands....

A little wall vinyl later....

And then a coat of paint....

And then, just a quick flip of the wrist....

*

Did you hear that?!

My house just thanked me!

And 2 years of complaining are behind me!

To think, it only cost me $199.00 plus $1.98 for spray paint.

Oh well, at least I had fun using it!!!

And there you have it.

My first craft of 2011.

I love it!

*Um, yes.  That is a picture of me.  In my bathrobe.  And this is me saying, be thankful I was wearing a bathrobe! 

What?! It's the last day of the year?!

In honor of tomorrow being the first day of the rest of my life...wait, I think that's another speech....

Anyway, in honor of the new year that is only 6.5 hrs away, I am officially posting my New Year's Resolution....

Come on, at least try to be excited....

This is major gossip worthy resolution stuff I am prepping to dish....

I like ellipses....

ALOT....

Ok, ok, enough with the nonsense.

On to the resolutions!

1. Lose 17 lbs by March 1.

Note: this would have been 12 lbs, but for the 5 lbs I have put on in the past week of Christmas/birthday/weddingness...

Yes, I have failed.

Fallen off of my own pedestal.

Let me tell you, that's not easy, but I managed to do it.

2. Run a 10k.

Preferably within the same time frame.

Preferably one without hills.

Preferably not alone.

Preferably with an average 10 min. Mile or less....

Lots of training to do....

(did I mention that I really like ellipses?)

3. Sell our land in Virginia.

Because my parents bought bigger land.

And want to give me some.

Also known as, free land is better than land I am paying for.

Which leads me to number 4....

4. Start working on baby #2.

Because we can't afford baby #2, without selling our land....

Because baby number 1 is going to be severely spoiled if we don't add another one to the mix SOON.

Because I have SO much free time that obviously needs to be eaten up with another baby.

Because a dear friend warned me that if I don't add in another baby, my child will continually complain to me about having no one to play with.

And because if I have 2 kids I stand a better chance of having one of them love me enough take care of me when I am old.

So yeah, that pretty much sums it up my New Year's Resolution in a nut shell.

Stay tuned...I am hoping to post my 2010 recap along with a wedding/Christmas/birthday recap post soon.

I know, don't you hate cliff hangers?

1 Year Ago Today

One year ago today our life changed forever.

I became a Mommy....

Techy became the proudest Daddy ever....

And Little Man....

Ah, Little Man....

My beautiful, sweet, hilarious baby boy.

It is so difficult to believe!

Especially when it feels like just yesterday that we were enjoying midnight feedings and endless hours of Game Show Network.

And now...

Here we are...

You make our life so much more fun...

Happy Birthday, Sweet Baby Boy!

Just in the Nick of Time

For all those loyal followers out there, who have been patiently waiting for an update to my "Busy Life, Busy Wife" Christmas saga, you will be relieved to know we pulled out of our driveway on Friday at 4:30 in the morning, and arrived in VA at 11 am.

No Traffic.

No Drama.

No Mess.

With just enough time for Techy to finish his last minute shopping and Little Man to get a quick nap before our Christmas Eve Candlelight service.

During which I wish to goodness I could have taken a video of Little Man.

He danced to every Christmas Carol, clapped at every opportunity given, and loudly cried, "YAY" during every single would-be silent moment and prayer.

Christmas morning was filled with the excitement of a first-time Christmaser, who yet again, danced and clapped at every opportunity given.

The rest of the weekend was filled with eating, cooking, baby-watching, opening gifts, and general merriment.

Oh wait.

Did I mention the snow?!

That's right.

Along with a nice chunk of the East Coast, we got snow on Christmas.

It started snowing on Christmas Eve and didn't let up until yesterday (Sunday) afternoon.

When the wind started blowing.

Strong winds.

Almost everytime they get a road open, it blows shut within the hour.

We haven't left the house since Saturday.

Which sounds wonderful.

Until you account for the fact that 4 grandchildren, 3 years old and under have been in one house for more than 2 days with no escape possible.

My mother has been in heaven.

We parents have been losing our minds.

And in the words of my mother, the kids have been great, it's the adults who are the cranky ones!

Weight Update #11

With 5 days left before Little Man's first birthday, I am proud to say I am only 5.4 lbs.away from my pre-pregnancy weight.

And considering that last week's weigh in was somewhat of a bust at only 1.2 lbs.

This week's 3.2 lbs. is a significant pick-me-up.

Just enough for me to blow over this holiday weekend!

As if that weren't enough excitement for one day, last night I ran my longest run to date - 3.9 miles with my awesome friend Carrie. 

Here's the funny thing - my goal was 3, but when we rounded 2.6, Carrie said, "One more loop would put us at 3.9, you ready to try it?"

I totally wasn't, but she insisted we could slow down if we needed to....

So off we went.

And I felt fine the entire time.

I was expecting our time to slow down alot with that last mile, but we managed to maintain the exact pace I was keeping with my other runs - 10:06. (It helps that we ran our first mile at 9:30!  HOLLA!!!)

And my legs feel great today! 

This is why running partners are so awesome.  I totally would have let myself quit at 3.

One more thing just to get everyone inspired this holiday-eating-weekend....

I officially donned my first pair of size 8 PANTS yesterday. 

No-give-pants, too.

They fit!

No wiggling,

No squirming.

No jumping.

No tying-hair-loops-through-the-buttonholes-to-make-them-work necessary. (Don't pretend like you've never done it!)

It's a good feeling.

Tonight's the debut of the size 8 dress! 

And I can't wait!