Kady Did

Doctors Visit

2012-01-31T12:09:00.001-05:00

So I went to the doctor. I joked with the nurse that I should get a frequent visitor card like a frequent flyer vard. Its ridiculous. But anyway, I went to the doctor. It was all kinds of fun.

So I talked to the doctor. She is concerned that the vomiting is something wrong with my stomach, such as ulcers or something like that. She put me on a new medicine to try out for a week. Next Monday we are going to see how I'm doing. If the medicine isn't working for my stomach than she will probably send me to a gastrointestinal specialist.

Thankfully the pain is doing a lot better, and the doctor said its looking more like I may not have to have that second surgery. We are really praying that is the case.

Thank you for the prayers.

Post-Surgery Update

2012-01-28T17:12:00.000-05:00

I want to start this post out by saying how much both Isaiah and I appreciate all the love and support we have gotten through this very rough time in our lives. So many people have come up beside us and prayed and loved on us through everything. We really can't thank you enough. Your love and support have really encouraged us.

I cannot believe that one month ago I thought I was pregnant. One month ago I was so happy. One month ago my life was completely different. I feel like I have lived an entire lifetime in one month. I have gone from one of the highest, happiest times of my life, to one of the lowest and scariest times of my life in a few short weeks. I feel like I have felt every emotion known to man.

I wish I could say that through everything, and all the emotions all I have felt towards God is thankful and worshipful, but I honestly have struggled with all that also. I have had days where I am just in awe of Him, and praise Him for whatever He is doing in my life, and other days where I am just frustrated and almost angry at Him for not only taking my baby away, but also allowing me to go through all this with my health. I know its not the good Christian thing to say, but its the honest Christian thing to say. I have struggled with understanding, though I have come to realize that many of the great people in the Bible struggled with many of the same emotions, and yet God holds them up to us as examples.

I keep thinking of Jacob. Like Jacob I am wrestling with God. I am wrestling with Him and not understanding Him. But when you read the story of Jacob and the wrestling, when he wrestled with God is when He got closer with God and God became an intimate part of His life. I can say that through all my wrestling, that I have drawn closer to God, and allowed Him to be more of a part in my life. I don't understand why He is allowing this, but I know that He has never left my side. I feel like I'm caught up in this hurricane (I"m from Florida so I understand hurricanes) of crazy emotions, bad news about my health, and physical ailments and all I can cling to is God.

I will admit I have been somewhat discouraged this week. It feels like we are never getting good news through everything. It feels almost like every time there is "well worst case is ...." its always the worst case. I have to admit I've cried to Isaiah, texted my sister in law in tears, and called my mom just needing some encouragement. My family has been such a help in helping me to stay strong when I need it. God gives them all just the words to say, when I need to hear them.

Physically I am still struggling. My body is just physically worn out. Its not like I'm sleepy tired, its just feeling like my body is physically exhausted of all its been through. I am not able to do much at all. I am still constantly throwing up, and nauseas. We think its honeslty worse than before the surgery. The good news is that I'm losing weight, but not in a healthy way. I'm barely eating, and most of the time when I do eat I throw it back up. The doctor is not sure why I am still so sick, and said that should be happening.

The doctor is also saying that there is a very big chance I will have to have a second surgery to remove my ovary. This second surgery will be much more intense than the first one was. We won't know for sure until at least after my first doctors visit (which is in a week) maybe not for a few weeks after that.

Thankfully the very intense pain is mostly gone. I only have pain when I lay in a certain position or stay in one position too long. That has been one good sign.

So please keep praying for me and Isaiah. All this has been rough on him also. We are still facing a lot of uncertainty about what will happen next, and even what is still happening to my body. It doesn't seem to be over, but I know that God is my Healer. I am claiming that and believing it. I know that He can choose to miraculously heal me, or heal me through doctors. I also believe in James 5:16 "...pray for one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

Thank you for all your prayer, love and support. Isaiah and I greatly appreciate it.

Babypalooza Giveaway Winners

2012-01-28T16:30:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry to everyone for not posting the winners. With everything that has happened since I started the giveaways its just been hard to face posting this. But you all deserve a winner. So here I am, announcing the winner to both giveaways!!

The winners were picked using random.org.

The winner of Giveaway #1 with Amanda Simpkins is:

Angie Alford

The winner of Giveaway #2 with designs by maya is:

deanna

Congratulations to the winners! I will be emailing you today. Please respond within 48 hours or I will have to pick a different winner. I hope you love your prizes!!!!!

Update After Surgery

2012-01-19T09:52:00.000-05:00

Hello my dear readers. I wanted to update you all on how my surgery went, and what is going on from here. I first want to say I really appreciate all the prayers and support that have come from those of you on facebook, on the blog, and others. I have not been able to personally thank every one that has been praying, and probably am not even aware of everyone that has been lifting me up in prayer. The amount of support and care I have had through this rough time has been truly amazing to Isaiah and I. We covet your prayers and thank you for everything.

Also, in describing the surgery I will use some female medical terms, and if that makes you uncomfortable please stop reading now. I don't want to make anyone upset.

So surgery yesterday. Everything went pretty well. Once the doctor actually got in and started the surgery, the situation was a lot worse than originally expected. It turned out that my fallopian tube and my ovary had completely melded together, and then had melded to the side wall of my body. There was also a mass behind my uterus, which was removed. The doctor realized that the fallopian tube was already completely destroyed, much more than originally thought, and had to completely remove. She is a little concerned that the ovary may also have to be removed, but we won't know for another month or so. Also, the mass she found was sent for a biopsy, but she is not worried about it and thinks it is from the miscarriage.

The good news is that I am doing pretty good. I am alert (as you can see from the fact that I am posting). I am very dizzy and in a ton of pain, which makes walking difficult. Other than that I am doing pretty good. Today is supposed to the worst day, and so far not too bad. We will see as the day goes on. Thank you so much for all your prayers. I know they have helped.

An Update on Me, and What I'm Learning about God

2012-01-17T17:28:00.000-05:00

Hello dear readers. Wow how fast life can change in one month. It was less than a month ago that I announced I was pregnant. I look back over this month and feel kind of like its been a lifetime in one short month. Anyway, one month ago I announced I was pregnant ( a little less but you get the picture). Then I found out that I wasn't pregnant, and something was wrong with me, and they had no clue what it was. Then I found out that I miscarried and got a very bad infection.

Because of the infection I started an intense round of antibiotics, which the doctor hoped would basically take care of the infection and that would be the end of it. The doctor did say that if the antibiotics didn't work that I would have to have surgery. So I rested, took my antibiotics and hoped and prayed to get better.

Well, I didn't. I found out that the antibiotics did not work, and surgery is the next option. The doctor considered it serious enough that I have to have surgery tomorrow, as in Wednesday, as in yeah wow.

Right now I am just reeling. The only surgery I have ever had is my wisdom teeth taken out. I am struggling with feeling really scared, and confused honestly. I know that Christians go through hard times, at least I said I know that. But when this all happened to me, its like somehow my heart didn't know it. I struggled so much with why would God not only make me miscarry, again, but then make me sick to the point of having to have surgery.

Honestly for over a week I was just numb. I didn't feel anything for a while. I kind of just lived. My husband kept saying that something would just trigger all the emotions, and then I could finally start working through things. And of course that is what happened (wow he is so smart).

I saw something and all of a sudden, I felt, well everything at once. Honestly the pain was so intense that I just didn't know what to do. I started to feel, and it was not pleasant. I swung between just sad about the loss of my baby, being angry with God for doing this, wondering if being a Christian was even worth it, and just confusion as to why all this was happening.

I have to say writing this is not easy. I hate admitting my failings, especially in this way. I hate admitting to you that I questioned even something so basic to me as my faith in God. I also worry that someone will take it and just roll their eyes and think I am being over-dramatic. Well, that is how I felt, and I promised you all I would be completely honest with you, my dear readers. So there is me, being honest.

Anyway, I was feeling completely, well emotional. I just wasn't sure how to handle all my emotions, and everything that was going. Then two things happened that really helped me and helped me have a peace from God about the whole situation. First the song Stronger by Mandisa came on the radio. It really helped me to see that this is God making me stronger, and God is in control.

Then a dear friend sent me an encouraging note that really helped. She sent me the verses Psalms 16:8-9, which of course, was exactly what I needed to hear.

"I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope."

These verses really helped me to see that God is with me, I don't need to worry, be scared. I will be ok. He is in control. Then I was doing some reading on my own and came across Psalms 121,

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore."

These verses really spoke to me about my God, the Creator of the world, the Lord of the universe, who is watching over me, and already knows what the outcome of all this is. He hasn't thrown me, and those I love, in this situation just to torture us; He put us in the situation out of love

So tomorrow I go into surgery. I have to admit I still have some trepidation and am a little scared. But I know that my God is in control. I know that He already knows the outcome of my surgery, and this situation and He will hold me through it all.

What Is Going On

2012-01-11T19:26:00.000-05:00

I know I never sent you all an update, and I'm so sorry. Since I went to the doctor life has been crazy! So anyway, after multiple tests and several hours spent at the doctor's office, I was diagnosed with an infected tube. I evidently had a miscarriage and not everything passed and it got infected.

I was put on antibiotics, and we really hoping they work. I go back to the doctor later this week to find out if they worked. If they don't, I will probably have to have surgery. We are really praying that the antibiotics work.

We are thankful that it was nothing more serious, and that it will be resolved. We are thankful, that hopefully, it can be easily resolved. It could have been much worse.

Please keep praying that the antibiotics work and that this is a simple solution. Thank you for all your support and prayers. We really appreciate it.

Update on Us

2012-01-09T12:10:00.000-05:00

Wow what a week it has been. It has been a very emotional week that has included many tears and many hard days. Isaiah and I have had so much support and so many people praying. It has meant so much to both of us.

For those of you that don't follow me on facebook, I'll try to fill you in a little more. Last Tuesday I went to the doctor for a routine visit. They did a pregnancy test and it was positive. Everything seemed fine. But then the test changed and went negative. The nurse/midwife was puzzled and sent me for some blood work to check my hormone levels. The results came back negative for pregnancy, and when she called me she said the levels show that something is wrong. She said that from the test results it looks like something is seriously wrong.

She threw some different things around, but basically nothing is for sure. The doctor thinks that it is something serious, and I have to go back in today for more tests and doctors visits.

Its been a very long week, and we would appreciate prayers right now. We don't know whats going on, but we are just praying that its something simple and easily fixed, and everything will be ok.

I know that God is in control, and that He has a plan. I'm trying to know that He will watch over us. Its been rough. God has definitely held our hand through this time, and I know He will continue to.

A Word from Katie's Husband

2012-01-05T22:03:00.000-05:00

Hi, this is Isaiah, Katie's husband with a few words on behalf of Katie.

This past Tuesday Katie went to the doctor's for a preliminary visit. They gave Katie a pregnancy test that started out positive and then faded back to negative. They then ran a pregnancy blood panel on her which came back negative on Wednesday. The doctor's office expressed a lot of concern over this because her body is still reacting like it is still pregnant and the hormone levels her body is displaying is very abnormal. They wanted her to come in as soon as possible for more tests so we are going back to the doctor's office Monday. We don't know what is going on, but from what we are hearing this is very serious.

Katie is upset about all of this and is very overwhelmed by everything which is why I am writing this now. Please keep us in your prayers because we have no clue what is wrong. Thank you for all the prayers. God Bless.

Isaiah

Babypalooza Giveaway #2 Design By Maya

2012-01-03T19:16:00.002-05:00

This giveaway is now closed.

Here is the second giveaway. I am so excited about this giveaway as well. I found this shop while looking for nursery ideas/art. I found the prints so cute,and sweet. I fell in love with everything.I really wanted to share this with all of you, my dear readers. I asked Maya if she would be interested in having a giveaway on my blog and she agreed.

Something she told me about her prints is that she uses only the best ingredients in making her art. The paper is not just typical card stock, but instead high quality paper.The colors she uses are also high quality. And you can see it in her art. They are so beautiful! She also matches art to the nursery bedding!

Maya has offered to give one of her beautiful 8x10 prints to one of you, my dear readers. YAY I am jealous (as I usually am with giveaways) because I am in love with her sweet art.

The giveaway ends January 21. Please make sure your email is visible in your comment or blog. Also. make sure to post each entry as a separate comment to count as different entries. This giveaway is open to those in the United States (I'm sorry to those of who are international). The winner must pay for shipping for their prize.

Mandatory Entry: 1. Give one thing you wish you knew before you were pregnant, or one story you know of your pregnancy, or someone else. 1 entry

Extra Entries:

2. Follow my blog publicly on GCF. 1 entry

3. Heart Design By Maya1 entry

4. Buy something from Design By Maya. 3 entry

5. Blog/tweet/faceboo/post to giveaway site (or somehow get the word out) and post link for verification. 1 entry per post

6. Vote for my blog on the fence (see side bar). This can be done daily. 1 entry per day per vote

Babypalooza Giveaway #1 Amanda Simpkins

2012-01-03T13:39:00.001-05:00

So my dear readers, because of my wonderful blessing from God of my pregnancy I wanted to give back and get you all excited about something. While I can't give you all a baby (not sure if all of you would want that anyway hehe) I can do not one but two giveaways. I'm calling it babypalooza. They are baby themed, but definitely not just for mamas (or daddys) because these giveaways are great for everyone!

I'm so excited to introduce you to this first shop. I found her shop and I instantly fell in love with all her products. Then I started talking to Amanda, and wow I just absolutely love her already. It was one of those times when you just know she is a kindred spirit as Anne Shirley would say. Her sweet personality and obvious love of God was neat. I could tell that God was so important to her and just Everything in her life, which you know is something dear to my heart.

Her shop is so special because she is using to money to fund her adoption (you will hear more from her later) but I thought that was so sweet. Adoption is so special to me, and I was so excited to feature her shop. I don't normally do this, but Amanda is so special and her shop is so special that I really want to encourage you, my dear readers, to help support her adoption and buy something from her shop.

Her shop features bandanna dresses for girls, and art that is personalized. I love her art. She writes whatever you want, and uses the colors you want. Its such a neat idea. I am looking forward to ordering from her when I set up my nursery for the baby.

I wanted to help you, my dear readers, to get to know Amanda a little better so I asked her some questions and asked her to give you all some information about her life. I know you will love her too.

"I started my shop for one simple reason: to fund our adoption from Ethiopia. When my husband and I decided that we would for sure pursue adoption, I immediately went into money mode. I am a teacher, and he is a self employeed landscaper. We do fine, and we are content with what God has blessed us with; however, to try and come up with an extra $30,000 and still raise our 4 biological children was going to be a challenge. We are taking it in small increments, and we pray specifically for a certain amount. When we get that goal met, we move on to the next amount. I decided to begin painting these canvases just to see if they would sell. Any little bit helps. All of the money, every bit, will go straight towards our adoption expenses and help literally save the life of an infant boy somewhere in Ethiopia.

We are using America World Adoption agency. We are in the very beginning stages, and we mailed off our paper application and first fee on Tuesday, December 27. We sat down Christmas night and completed the paperwork. We are requesting to adopt an infant boy ages newborn - 14 months. We have 4 biological children of our own. The two oldest are boys, and the two youngest are girls. Our new son will be our 5th child! WOW! I know...I would have never thought I would have 5 children!! :) My husband and I have been married 12 years. God is so good, he has been so good to us, and we want to extend that love to a child who needs it. I wish we could bring them all home with us! We wil llikely bring home a 7-10 month old boy...who will weigh about 10-12 pounds! That alone breaks my heart. Our youngest daughter is almost 11 months, and she weighs 24 pounds!

In my shop, one would find cute little handpainted name canvases for homes, little girls' rooms, hairbow holders, etc. I am expanding anytime something pops into my mind that I can make and make well. :) I have whipped out my sewing machine, giving myself a few refresher courses, and I am working on adding little girl bandana dresses in the mix. As soon as we get our adoption tshirts printed and ready to go, those, too, will be added in the store! I am excited to see those come! I try really hard to make each piece something I would want to have in my house. My favorites are probably the "Wash your hands. Use soap. love mom" sign and the initial letter canvas made with buttons. :)

In my free time, I love to read. I read all the time! (well, as much as one can with a full time job and 4 kiddos)

Who inspires me? Honestly, I am inspired by Jesus. The love he was able to show everyone amazes me. He willingly tolerated and endured so much. The strength, love, patience, kindness, understanding, etc that he displayed, and still does, is remarkable.

Excluding my family and my Bible, it sounds silly, but the one thing I couldnt live without is the sun. I love sunshine! I could never live in the Alaska or the state of Washington where there isn't much sunshine. We may even move to Florida, the Sunshine state, one day..who knows!

One random thing about me...hhmmmm, I am terrified of the dentist and snakes! Not that they have anything in common.:-)

I am excited to be a part of this announcement. Babies are wonderful in every way! Please pray for both Katie and I as we embark on the journey of motherhood, just in different ways! :) -Amanda"

Amanda has offered to the winner one 8x10 wrapped canvas in whatever colors and wording the winner wants. How exciting is that? I plan to order one with the baby's name and whatever colors the nursery ends up being when the baby is born, but one of you gets it for free!

The giveaway ends January 21. Please make sure your email is visible in your comment or blog. Also. make sure to post each entry as a separate comment to count as different entries. This giveaway is open to those in the United States (I'm sorry to those of who are international).

Mandatory Entry: 1. Tell me what wording and colors you would have on your sign, if you won. 1 entry

Extra Entries:

2. Follow my blog publicly on GCF. 1 entry

3. Follow Amanda's blog, The Family That God Built 1 entry

4. Heart Amanda's shop 1 entry

5. Buy something from Amanda's shop. 3 entry

6. Blog/tweet/faceboo/post to giveaway site (or somehow get the word out) and post link for verification. 1 entry per post

7. Vote for my blog on the fence (see side bar). This can be done daily. 1 entry per day per vote

My New Adventure

2012-01-03T12:33:00.000-05:00

It has officially been a year that I have had this blog. This blog has seen me through some very low points this year, (2 miscarriages etc) and some high points (graduating, starting USF etc). So many people are using this time at the start of the year to look forward, and backwards at what last year held, and what we can look forward to this year.

So much has happened last year, and this upcoming year holds a lot of changes for us. This summer we are moving back to North Florida. We will be closer to our families, which will be nice, and Isaiah will be starting a new job. Isaiah graduates in May. But probably the biggest change in our lives this year will be a new addition to our family.

Yes, we are expecting a BABY!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited? But yes, we are expecting in July. I have to say, its been hard keeping it a secret from you, my dear readers. But I can finally spill the beans, and spill I am. Right now I am 10 weeks, and starting to show!

We actually bought our first baby thing the other week. We found an adorable consignment shop near us, and they had the sweetest little rocking horse. We got it. I know its not one of those necessities, but it helped it all hit for me.

Its all starting to sink in. We are looking at nursery ideas, and name ideas. I am super sick well all the time. I am looking forward to moving past that! The sickness would be part of the reason I haven't posted much lately. I honestly haven't felt up to it.

I would ask that you all please be praying for us. Because of our previous miscarriages, its a little scary. I'm working on giving all my cares to God and letting Him handle them, but its been stressful.

Because I'm so excited I wanted to do something historical (well historical for Kady Did). I am doing not one, but two baby themed giveaways (but these giveaways are great for not just mothers etc, but everyone!).I'm calling it Babypalooza. I am so excited. These women helping me announce my pregnancy are awesome, and have some great stuff to offer.

Now I promise that my blog will still feature things God is teaching, and random stuff about my life. It probably will focus on baby T some, but I don't want it to just become a mommy blog. So here is working on making it relevant to others, and God focused!

God has blessed our family in a huge way and we are so excited! Dear readers, come join me in my new adventure!

Find in Me Thine All in All

2011-12-27T15:42:00.000-05:00

Today I have been fretting. Some things where wearing heavy on my heart, and I was worrying and upset. I even called my husband at work and started crying at one point. I was a mess. I was fretting and well just a wreck. My husband (he is so wise) told me to stop what I was doing, rest quietly, turn on some soothing music and rest in God. Well wouldn't you know, I did and it started working? (funny how things work out when I listen to my husband)

I have a pandora channel for soothing old hymns, and when I'm stressed and upset I put it on and rest in my Savior. I put it on and started praying that God would work out what I was fretting about. A peace just washed over me. Yes, the situation was still there, but I wasn't worried about it. I know that God had it under control. My soul found peace in my Lord; He is in control and my worrying does nothing.

Then the song Jesus Paid It All came on and the first verse was exactly what I needed to hear.
"I hear the Savior say,
'Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.'"

Wow! Isn't that perfect? Yes my strength is so small! When I lean on my own understanding, and my own strength I quickly crumple. Life just falls apart when I try to work in my own strength. When I finally gave the situation to God, I realized that I don't have to face it alone. I don't have to face life on my own strength. Because I am a Christian, I don't face life without hope, or alone, I face it with the Creator of the universe!

When I look to myself for strength, I fail. I fall apart. I fret, but when I look to my God for my all in all, then I can face anything. I'm not saying its always easy. And I'm not saying life with Christ is always easy, but I am saying that I have a strength that is not my own.

I know that my strength, in and of myself, is small. I know that when I look to myself I am weak. But I know that the Savior of the world has more than enough strength for me to lean on. And when I find my all in all in Him, I am at peace.

Random Thoughts About Serving God

2011-12-20T14:18:00.000-05:00

Something I'm really thinking about is how much do I share my convictions and beliefs. How much do I say "hey, this is what I believe." or how much do I just let my actions show my beliefs? Its something that I think everyone needs to work through in their own way.

I knew someone that was constantly sharing his beliefs, you can't meet him without hearing about his faith. He preaches on the street corners, and he is so open. But then I know people that completely do not share their faith at all. They just say that God will work through them, but then they act no differently than anyone else, and you can't tell the difference.

Along with this, how do you balance showing the love of God with saying, ok this is my standard and I want to not be tainted by the world. How do you stay out of the world, but take Jesus' example and be loving to people that are obviously sinners?

Honestly, I don't have the answer. I mean to me, I think that my faith is such an integral part of my life. You just look at me and I'm obviously different. I wear long skirts, modest shirts and I have very long hair. But then I want to not just look at me and then my testimony stop, but I want my actions to show Christ, His love and His power.

I have to admit that I need to do a better job of making sure that my God is the focal point of my life. I dont want it to be something that is just a part of my life, I want it to be the thing that guides my life. I want everything to do to praise the Lord.

Something I see so much of is people feeling like they have to follow certain rules to earn God's salvation and favor. I think this is so wrong. This changes the revelations from the Word of God and the convictions that He gives and makes them something that becomes like a prison and pressure. It saddens me so much because my beliefs and the revelations that I have don't mean that I'm in a prison. It makes me happy to follow them because is my way of showing God that I love him. Its like making supper for my husband or getting him a special present. I don't do it because I have to follow some rules to earn favors and salvation, I do it to show my love.

I want God to be the thing that my life wraps around. I want to people see how much joy serving God puts in my life. I want them to see that loving God and serving Him has changed my life and continues to change my life I want people to see that.

But how hard is it balance everything in my Christian life. I think that I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to live in the way that serves my God, and the way He has shown me. God will take care of how people see what I do, and how my testimony gets across. I started to realize that it isn't my job to make sure people get the right idea, its His job. As long as I'm living my life the way He has shown me, and showing Him how much He means to me, than He will have to worry about all his other creation and how they view me.

Making God First

2011-11-30T11:44:00.000-05:00

I feel like our life is changing at a break neck speed right now and I haven't updated you all about it. Well, this post will not be about our rapidly changing life, that post will come later. No I promise it really will. This post will be about something else. Something God has been pounding into my head, and heart, a lot lately. Its come up in so many conversations, and in my Bible reading, and sermons. Just oh so many places.

This thing God has been showing me is how important a personal walk with Him really is. A personal relationship with God has to be everything in your life. It has to be the thing that you make the most important. I have to admit that lately I have not been doing a good job at working on my relationship with God. I have not made it a number one priority. So many times I think about working on my relationship with father, my family and others, and I start to neglect my relationship with God. What is wrong with me? Why is it that my relationship with God is one of the first things that I so quickly drop when things start to get busy? I know, I am ashamed to admit it. It is so wrong. But I have promised to always be honest on here.

So back to what God is showing me. I am realizing that he does not want my leftovers. He does not want what I have left over in my time to give Him. I know that in my relationship with my husband I have to make an effort to build our relationship. I can't just give my husband my scraps of time, and expect my relationship with Him to grow. I am realizing (and yes God has taught me this before, but in my somehow human mind I seem to forget this) that God needs my attention. He needs more than I even give my husband. If my other activities are taking away from my relationship with Him, than it should never by my relationship with Him that suffers, it should be that I need to take something out of my life that is distracting me. Working on my relationship with God should be the most important thing in my life.

Something that I have seen in my growing up (I'm at the ripe old age of 20, gasp!) is many of my friends, and aquaintances that I thought would never leave their faith are leaving everything I thought they believed in. Many people that came from good Chrstian families, and who I thought had strong Christian backgrounds are renouncing their faith. Now in many of their lives, it has to do with many different reasons, and I'm not saying that any one reason causes this, but something I am seeing as a big issue is that these people do not have their own personal relationship with God. In so many of these "good" Christian families the parents have a relationship with God, and teach their kids a certain way to live, but the kids never develop their own relationship with God. They rely on their parent's rules, and their parent's relationship with God, and then they grow up, and their parent's relationship with God will not hold them anymore. They flounder. I have definitley felt that way.

Something I have found, as a wife, is that it is easy to rely on my husband's relationship with God. Its easy to just say ok well He has a relationship with God, so I'm fine (ok well maybe not quite that simplified but you get the general picture). I know, that is so wrong. When I try to rely on His relationship, it puts so much pressure on Isaiah, and not only am I not getting what i should from God, but it hurts my relationship with Isaiah, and his relationship with God.

So here I am, saying that I am far from perfect. My relationship with God is far from perfect. But I need to work on not letting my busy life get before my relationship with my Savior. My Savior should be the most important Thing in my life. But ashamedly I say, sometimes He isn't.

I want to start making my Lord a priority. I want to make spending time with Him the most important thing in my life. I want my God to be first.

Need Some Help From My Readers

2011-11-18T18:47:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been thinking a lot about homeschooling. As many of you know, I was homeschooled until college. It was an interesting experience, and definitely shaped who I am. We were not the family that you think about as "homeschooling". We interacted with others. We had a good education that prepared us for college. We did not wear khaki jumpers (not saying that those who wear khaki jumpers are bad). I am just saying I went through homeschooling and came out the other side.

Now I am studying to be a teacher myself. It has amazed me how much of a prejudice there is against homeschoolers. I know that it is a very touchy subject for many people. But I feel like I am coming from both sides. I went through homeschooling and yet I'm studying to be a teacher.

I also have a unique perspective because I have been all the way through it. I look back and see things that worked well, and things that didn't work so well for me. I have been thinking about an idea. I wanted to get some feedback from you all on it. What do you all think about having a homeschool blogathon? I was thinking about having some moms that homeschool write, and some ex homeschoolers write and all link up. And maybe have an opportunity to take questions from people. If anyone is interested in doing this with me, or would be interested in what would be said, let me know. I am trying to feel out and see if there is any interest in the blog world.

If anyone that has a blog would be interested in reposting this and helping me feel out interest, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

Healthy and Beautiful

2011-11-03T18:56:00.000-04:00

If you go back to my first blog post this year I said that I wanted to get healthy. So far this year I have done nothing but let myself go. I have had stress after stress and lots of excuses. I have gained weight. Its bad.

I hate the way I look. I know its not good to hate the way you look, but then some would say its not good to be content with yourself with you weigh as much as I do. So I guess no matter who I talk to, I'm not a winner. but I do hate myself. It got to the point that I don't want to go out because I'm thinking about what people are thinking about how much I weigh. I don't want to see any old friends because I wonder what they are thinking about the way I look.

I know that I may sound very self-centered, and that added to all the guilt and frustration I had. I felt that no one could love me because of my weight. It was exacerbated by the fact that people so many people started talking to me about the my weight. I know it was because they cared, but it felt like no one loved me for me.

I guess I felt like no one loved me just for my personality. I felt like if I didn't look the part, I wasn't good enough. This comes from many years of feeling fat, ugly and then hear I go, gaining weight. I just wanted to feel beautiful.

Thankfully I had Isaiah telling em I was beautiful even though I was overweight. I guess I didn't believe him. More than that, I wanted to believe that someone God had made me beautiful. I wanted to think that He loved me and had made me special. I felt like somehow He had made me beautiful and yet somehow I had messed it up and He didn't want to look at me.

I know the way I felt was wrong, but I promised to always be honest on here. So I will be honest. I still struggle with all this. Part of my resolution to get healthy was to see myself as beautiful, and I have to admit that I'm still working on that. I still feel ugly because I am overweight. I still hate the way I look. But I'm starting to accept that for some reason God made me not stick thin. He made it harder for me to lose weight. He didn't make me naturally thin, and that's ok. He made me beautiful to Him.

And I am starting to realize that I am beautiful to Isaiah. I am so thankful for a husband that sees me as beautiful no matter my weight. He tells me he thinks I'm still beautiful. I don't understand why he thinks I'm beautiful, but somehow he does.

So I'm still working through how I feel about myself, but today I started working out. I wanted to workout, and start feeling better. I hate how tired I am. I hate how I look. I don't want to lose weight through crash diets, or purging. I want to get healthy in a way that can be long term.

So I start working out. I start getting to a place that I can feel like I'm healthy and I'm happy with the way I look. I know I need to work out how I feel about the way I look.

So as you can see, I'm a work in progress. I haven't arrived. I am not perfect. I struggle, I gain weight. I'm imperfect. But I'm honest with you. I want to feel beautiful and accept myself.

Submission, LDD, Partnerships (and all kinds of things)

2011-10-25T16:46:00.001-04:00

I recently heard about something called Loving Domestic Discipline (or LDD). I saw a comment on facebook about it and it made me want to learn more. LDD is where the husband disciplines his wife using spankings, and other ways of implementing pain for things on their wife. They do this in the same way many spank their children, for disobedience or failing to perform correctly. Also many do maintenance disciplening where they spank or punish the wife somehow at certain intervals to help keep her obedient.

I have to say, after learning about this I was greatly disturbed. LDD is presented as helping women be submissive to their husbands. If the women somehow disobey their husbands, or do not respect them, or are not submissive they are punished.

I am very much believe in wives being submissive to their husbands. I have always heard about marriage being a partnership, which it is. But in any good partnership there is a senior and a junior partner. The junior partner has a say in the desicions, and many times makes many of the day to day desicions, but when it comes down to making big desicions the junior partner knows that the senior partner makes the final desicions.

In my marriage, Isaiah and I work together. There are times when we haven't agreed on a decision and I have to let him make it. Many times it works out much better, and he is able to see things I am not able to see. When I don't agree with him, I voice what I'm seeing, and feeling to him. He is great about listening to me, and taking what I say into advisement. Then he makes a decision. Yes, sometimes I don't agree and I have to give my feelings to God, but it always works out.

I have seen many marriages not do well when the wife tries to take over and be in control. There is no such thing as an equal partnership marriage, or I have never seen one. There will always be a senior and junior partner. Something I have noticed is that typically when the woman says there is an equal partnership, its typically the woman in charge.

I am not saying women are second rate to men. I am not giving up women kind or anything. I also know my opinion can be very uncomfortable and unpopular, but its what I believe.

But I wholeheartedly disagree with LDD. I can't even believe that a husband would want punish his wife like that. This idea demeans women because it makes it feel like they are not as good as men because they have to be punished and are not able to do what they need to do without a man punishing them. It tells women that they are not capable of making desicions.

But my basic issue is that it just seems like an excuse to beat women, without being looked down on. I feel that violence against women is cowardly. Isaiah has really taught me that men don't hurt women. He feels terrible even when he accidently bumps into me, and he has taught me that real men are that way. Even though many of the women say they want this LDD, I feel like a man that would agree to beat his wife is a coward, and not very secure in himself as a man.

The idea that a man would punish his wife for not doing her "work" at the home is something I struggle with also. I know that I have things I take care of around the house, but Isaiah is always there to help me. I can't imagine him handing a list of what he wanted done and knowing that when he got home I would be spanked because I didn't get it done. This does not breed a loving home, and does not create a sense of a partnership.

I feel that that this type of a marriage would breed fear and resentment towards my husband. I can't imagine fearing my husband getting home because he will punish me. My favorite part of everyday is when he walks in the door from work. I look forward to it all day, and thinking about him coming home to punish me makes me very sad. I can't even imagine this idea of Isaiah punishing me by spanking me.

As you can see, I hate this LDD idea, but I also hate any kind of violence against women. I think that abuse against women is terrible, and learning about this made me just mad. I know that submission and partnerships are not easy subjects, and there are many different opinions.

I'm Not Superwoman

2011-10-21T14:08:00.000-04:00

I have to admit, sometimes I think I am superwoman. I think I can take on the world, and handle everything. I know, you are laughing in front of your television screen. Have you ever thought you were superwoman (or man)? I tried to take on the world, and well everything kind of fell apart.

So this semester I thought I could take on all these crazy classes. I took on a lot of heavy homework classes. Even my professor said I was crazy to take all this on. I thought I could handle taking it all on. I thought I could keep up my classes, and decorate the house. I thought I could handle classes, life and everything else.

I thought I could handle everything on my own. I thought I was superwoman. Then God laughed.

Things just started taking a turn for the worse. I found that I was paddling hard to keep up with my school work, but it was still manageable. The house was starting to slip, but Isaiah was helping. I thought I could handle it all. And again God laughed.

Then life started hitting the fan. Things with our family got a little crazy. I found that I was stressing about school, and life. I started drowning in school. I started getting very behind on my schoolwork, and I was constantly doing school. It was to the point I wasn't able to send time with my husband, or ever relax.

I finally hit bottom when I started pulling out chunks of hair, because of the stress. I wasn't sleeping at night. I was starting to realize I wasn't superwoman. I couldn't do it on my own.

So I started praying. I was not sure what I could do. I felt like nothing could give. I felt like there was nothing I could give up, and there seemed to be no hope. I just finally gave it all to God and told Him, ok I'm not superwoman. I'm just human. I am not sure what I'm doing here, and I can only do it through You.

So after I gave it to God, I was still drowning. I still wasn't able to get it all done. Finally I just fell apart on Isaiah. Have any of you ever done that? Just totally fallen apart on your man?

So I fell apart and after I calmed down some Isaiah helped me figure some things out. I had to come to the realization that I am not superwoman. I know right, an amazing idea.

Then we realized that with everything going on in life, there is no way I could keep going with the amuont of school I had. I had to drop something. That completely tore me up. I had hoped that I would never have to leave a class. I felt like I was a complete failure because I had to drop the class. I just couldn't believe that I had dropped the ball. I was failing my classes, and there was no choice. I knew I couldn't keep everything up, but I also felt like I had totally failed.

I dropped the class and I felt a huge sense of relief. I realized that its ok to admit you are not superwoman. I had to admit that I'm not perfect.

I realized I'm not superwoman, and honestly thats ok.

Fall is Here!

2011-10-09T23:23:00.000-04:00

Its fall time. I am quite excited about the end of summer, and the start of fall. There are some exciting things happening with this time of year, and I wanted to post some of my favorite ones.

1. Its not as hot! I live in Florida, which is a blessing, but during the summer just becomes brutal. Its the perfect time in Florida in which its 80 ish during the day and 70 ish. Its amazing, beautiful weather.

2. Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back at Starbucks! I always feel safe and cozy drinking one.

3. Sweaters are in the stores. I love sweaters. I wish I could wear them all year. They are so cute, and so much fun to layer.

4. I love seeing pictures of leaves changing. Because I live in St. Petersburg, FL, leaves don't really change too much. I've never actually seen leaves changing in winter in person, but I love seeing pictures of leaves changing!

5. Pumpkins!!!! I love pumpkins! I love pumpkin pies, decorating with pumpkins and all kinds of things pumpkins.

6. Football. Since I've gotten married I've gotten into college football, and now I enjoy it. I am an Auburn tiger fan!

7. Christmas is coming! Fall means that Christmas is around the corner, which is all kinds of exciting (this coming from the girl that thinks Thanksgiving is just a dress rehearsal for Christmas).

Fall is here. Right now, I needed something exciting to think about. What are some things about autumn that you love?

Remembering Faith

2011-09-29T19:50:00.000-04:00

So right now is when I would have been due, if I had not had a miscarriage.Its been a rough journey. I am still going through it, and I'm not sure I will ever be fully done, but these months have been hard, and a time of great change.

And just For those of you who have joined me since then you can find The Day We Lost Faith. If you have never lost a child you cannot understand what it is like. The pain is hard, and it takes a while to work through. I'm not fully convinced you ever fully get through it, and it always stings.

So what have I learned since the miscarriage? I have learned that sometimes life just doesn't make sense. I love babies. I want children. I have greatly struggled to understand why God took away my baby, and gives babies to women who don't want them. Life just doesn't make sense. But I also learned that when life doesn't make sense, and God's plan just does not make sense, all you can do is know that He has a plan, and that He is in control. I still don't understand why God took Faith away, and I'm realizing that its ok if you don't understand. But you can't lose faith.

I also learned that its ok to struggle with your faith in God. During that time I started studying my Bible and I realized that so many of the legends of faith struggled with their faith. They sometimes screamed at the sky "Why?" and felt like God had betrayed them. I felt so guilty for struggling with my faith, and feeling like I couldn't understand God. But realizing that its ok to struggle, and that God is still there to love you. And I slowly came to realize that God didn't take Faith away to hurt me somehow, or to torture, but because He loves me. I still can't understand why God took Faith, but I slowly realized that it was out of love. I don't know why, but I have faith that God will never do anything to hurt me (Jeremiah 29:11).

I learned that something like this is not something you get over quickly. I always got frustrated with people when they were still hurting a long time later, but I've realized that it takes time to work through something. Its not a few days and then you are fine. It takes a lot of time, and then sometimes certain things just trigger something.

I now am able to empathize with women who are having a hard time, and have lost children. I never had a stillborn, or had a child die after he has been living . I can't imagine what that is like. I feel like miscarriage is something we almost don't want to talk about. Its almost like women are ashamed of miscarriages. There are not many resources or information for women having a miscarriage. I've been amazed how hard it is to find information, support or resources about miscarriages. I really want there to work to help women not feel stigmatized by miscarriage, and be able to get the help they need.

I look at where my life is now, and realize how different it would be if we hadn't lost Faith. Soon after we lost her we got our cats, and we absolutely love them. I'm still in school, and for the first time, just relaxing and really enjoying my classes. I am so thankful that I'm in class and able to work towards becoming a teacher. I love where my life is right now.

So yes, I still struggle sometimes with loosing Faith. With this being the time that was the due date, its a reminder that we lost her. I have learned so much to through this, and have grown so much in my relationship with God.

Holiday Traditions

2011-09-26T12:52:00.000-04:00

So our families are planning the holiday celebrations, and Isaiah and I are trying to figure out what traditions we want to have, and how to mesh our families and all that fun stuff with being a new family. Things like Christmas is a huge thing for my family, and I love Christmas, and Isaiah's families big deal is Thanksgiving. How do we celebrate things and mesh our separate family traditions into a new Tamblingson family tradition set.

We know that some members of our family will not agree with everything we do, or feel hurt that we are not including certain traditions, and dealing with that has been hard for me. I want to make everyone happy, but I am starting to realize (after a year plus of marriage) that you can't make everyone happy in both families, and you have to make a new family together.

I think its taken getting to this point for me to realize that its not just two families meshing together, its a new family being created. How do you balance two families coming together, and yet still make your own family? Does it get easier once you have kids?

Ugh, I don't like all these questions. I am so thankful that we have family that wants to celebrate with us, and that have given us some great traditions. I love our families, and wouldn't want to change them. They have passed on some great traditions and holidays to us, and now we have to figure out how to bring everything together.

So right now we are trying to figure out what is us? Last year we tried to make things our own, but we were also just married and it was a crazy time so we didn't really create traditions as much. But this year I am hoping we can really create traditions for us as a family.

I would love to hear from you all. How did you mesh your families into a new family? What traditions are important to you (this is for the non-married folks too)? What suggestions do you have?

When We Grow Up

2011-09-14T20:21:00.000-04:00

I was talking to a friend (who happens to also be named Katie) that I knew when I was 7. We were in the same homeschool small group. We knew each other then, and reconnected lately. Tonight we were talking about something that has got me thinking.

We were both products of homeschooling, stay at home moms who stressed to us the need to be stay at home moms, but who also encouraged us to follow our dreams in school. We were talking about how our generation, as a whole, is in a dilemma right now.

Our parents generation was basically a backlash against the hippy's sixities era. They focused on lots of work, and making money. Now our generation seems to be making a backlash against that idea. We are trying to figure out who we are and what we will do. Will we focus on money, as our parents tended to do, or will we focus more on things less easy to quantify?

It seems we are more and more trying to figure out our own way. Compared to our parents, many more mothers are staying home with their children, foregoing a career to stay home. My generation has a huge focus on serving others and helping those less fortunate. We are, however, a very selfish generation. We are a generation trying to figure out what we want to do when we grow up.

This dilemma is very recognizable in girls like Katie and I. We were both raised by wonderful women who put their lives into homeschooling and raising a family. Our friends were, for a large part, other homeschooling children. We had wonderful examples of woman as wife and mother. We are also encouraged to follow our dreams. Some of us go to college and gain an education. Some of us intern and work. Some of us are involved in ministry. Some of us are preparing to follow our dreams as a homemaker.

So what will we do? Many of us really want to home-school our children, and follow in our mother's footsteps. Many of us can't wait to be wives and mothers. We have that yearning to follow in our mother's footsteps. Many of us, however, are also pursuing other interests. So what do we do? The generation of our parents, which most of our mother's went against, was greatly for a working mother. Our generation is more encouraging of stay at homes, and there are far more resources to help us home-school. But we are also putting all this time into our education, and wanting to change the world.

I am not saying that being a wife and mother is somehow less lofty than a career, or ministry. I believe that they are all lofty goals that God can call you too. As you know, I am a wife, and I can't wait to be a mother. But my generation, especially those of us that grew up home-schooled or with stay at home mothers are working through this.

If we do home-school, how will we do it? Our parents had a very strict idea of homeschooling. Many times it meant a home-school family looked, acted and learned a certain way. Home-schooling was diverse, but now it is so much more so. There is so much opportunity for home-school. I think that my generation also backlashed against the idea of "the perfect home-school family". After growing up, we had enough and realized we wanted something more. But what is that something more? Can we home-school? How will we home-school?

Some girls I know are totally going the opposite way. They want a career. They want to be different than their mothers. While others I know can't wait to be like their mother. So what will the girls of my generation choose? And if we do home-school how will we do? Will we be different than our mother's? When will we figure things out?

What will we do when we grow up?

Legalism

2011-09-11T18:26:00.001-04:00

Today I'm thinking about legalism. What exactly is legalism? I've heard so many different definitions, but none seem to quite cut it. It seems that everyone knows what it is, and can easily say "oh that's legalistic" but not many people can put a good definition on legalism.

Sometimes it seems that the word legalism is thrown around whenever someone's convictions are more stringent than your own. Its easy to dismiss a person as legalistic when you don't agree with their convictions, but when someone calls you legalistic about something you get up in arms. What is it about legalism that has us so up in arms?

The basic question I guess is what is legalism? Is it just a blanket word to throw around when someone happens to have stricter convictions than ours? Or does it mean something about how you gain salvation? Or does it mean something about "the spirit of the law" vs "the letter of the law"?

Dictionary.com defines legalism as "strict adherence, or the principle of strict adherence, to law or prescription, especially to the letter rather than the spirit." and "the doctrine that salvation is gained through goodworks"

But I'm not sure that fully captures legalism. I can see it working. I can see it in the person who refuses to be friends with someone because they do not have the same convictions. I can see it in the child who tattles on his siblings because he feels they are not following the rules set out exactly. I can see it in the person who talks about someone behind their back just because they feel that their convictions are not strict enough. I see it in the person who feels like they are closer to God because their convictions are different.

I think the definition needs to be when someone uses their convictions as a standard for everyone else.

I have to admit, I am definitely guilty of doing this. I have looked down my nose at other people just because our convictions on something were different. Its easy to do. Human nature wants to feel more important than other people. It wants to puff itself up.

I do want to say that not wanting to be legalistic does not give license to allow your brother to sin. If you see your brother in blatant sin, and lovingly talk to him, that is not legalism. Legalism is about convictions, not blatant sin.

Legalism is something that, when it rears its ugly head, can destroy churches, friends and families. It is directly linked to pride, and kills love. God calls us to love our Christian brothers and sisters, and in 1 Corinthians 13:8 God talks about love and what it is not.

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,"

Love is not puffed up. That is exactly what happens when legalism starts. We get all puffed up in how good of a Christian we are, and lose love. How abhorrent of a thing legalism is.

I know that I have to continually be on the watch for legalism. Its easy for it slowly creep up in my life, and drown my love for people. Its something that can easily happen and when it does, not harms my life, my relationship with God, and those I love.

A Terrible Wife

2011-09-07T13:59:00.000-04:00

I am a bad wife. Ok its out there. I almost feel better now. I am a bad wife because I hate cleaning. I love baking, but I don't like to cook. I have a hard time keeping up with everything in the house, and my school. i feel like my school sometimes takes over. My husband has to help me with the house. And, on the final list of bad wife traits, sometimes I just get overwhelmed and totally fall apart and Isaiah has to pick her up off the floor. So there you go, I am a terrible wife.

I look at other wives, and their well kept homes, and their seeming put togetherness and I cringe.I feel like I am a terrible wife because I don't enjoy doing all this. I feel like I need to take a wife pill and become a better wife. I wish.

Ok Im done. I promise. Do any of you ever feel like that? I had these dreams of what I would be like as a wife, and they definitely have not come true. I am not sure if its because I am just busy with school, and trying to keep up with all that? Is it because I just don't like doing it? Is it because I just need to deal with it? Or is it because I'm a terrible wife?

I don't know. Sometimes I feel like the only wife who feels this way? Do any of you ever feel like a terrible wife? Do you ever feel like you can't keep up with everything in the house? Do you ever just cringe at the thought of cleaning the house again?

I would love any advice. I don't mean the advice just to work harder and deal with it. I mean some advice. I woud love to hear from someone who has felt this way and gotten through it.

Being Christian in College

2011-08-30T16:40:00.000-04:00

All my life I have heard about how being Christian in college is tough. I have to admit I have never really understood how tough until this semester. I had taken other classes, and there have been things said that I didn't exactly agree with, but I have never been in a class where being Christian was considered so terrible. Its been a very eye opening thing.

I started college at a Christian private school. It was easy to be Christian there. Though we all didn't agree on everything, no teacher or student was attacking being Christian and it was easily accepted what you believe. There was no person attacking you or making you really think about what you believe.

Then I went to a community college where basically the idea was the professors didn't care what you learned, as long as you got through the class. I got a small taste of anti-Christian ideas in the astronomy class I took when the professor said anyone who believed that a Higher Being created everything was just stupid. I had respectively, privately told him that I believed that God made everything, and that I disagree. When the semester started I had emailed him and told him where I stood, respectively. He was respectful, and nothing major happened.

But now I am at USF. Don't get me wrong, I love USF, and I love the classes I am taking. I am really enjoying the classes I am taking, especially the two history classes I also an really enjoying the professor who is teaching both history classes. He is a great teacher, and really makes you think.

This is the first time, however, that being a Christian has been very openly attacked, and mocked. Sometimes its someone saying something very negative against Christians, and sometimes its an undertone, which is much harder to respond to.

I am naturally not the person who stands up and disagrees with the professor or says something in class about what I believe. I don't try to hide, but I also personally don't just stand up and do something. I am not saying people who do that are wrong, its just not me. I am willing to say this is how I feel personally to someone, or talk to a professor.

These classes are making me take a stand and say, "I am a Christian and I don't agree with that." It is so hard. I honestly get scared of what people will say, or that my professor will hurt my grade. I feel like God is letting me get my feet wet with these classes, in a professor who is open to hearing others opinions and won't persecute me for being a Christian, but it could be much worse.

I am having to say I am different, but am having to balance being willing to stand up as a Christian with also being approachable. I don't want people to feel like I"m so abrasive of a Christian that they don't want to talk to me, because then what has my witness done? Its a thin line between standing up for the faith and making yourself so harsh and unapproachable that people do not want to be around you, and then what kind of witness do you have?

I know that other people would respond in other ways, and I honestly feel like God has gifted them with different ways to witness. I would much rather witness to someone through a relationship with them, and by letting them see how I am different, and bring Christ into what we are doing than stand on a street corner and preach. I am not saying that street preachers are bad, its just not how God gifted me to reach people. I also don't want to shy away from being willing to stand up and use that as a crutch.

Its hard to balance everything. I am honestly not good at it, and still not sure how to balance standing up for my beliefs, and also being open and loving towards people. Its been rough feeling like such a minority, and such a different person, from dressing modestly in skirts etc to praying before I eat to just not agreeing with the idea that Christians are wrong. But I know that God is using all this to teach me and to make me a better Christian.

Giveaway Winner - Carissa's Silver Lining

2011-08-29T08:17:00.000-04:00

I haven't died. I am here. I am have been having some computer issues which have kept me away, but I am thinking they are mostly fixed now and I can get back to blogging yay. Now for the Carissa's Silver Lining giveaway winner. There were 94 entries in the giveaway. Unfortunately I can only pick one. I am using random.org to pick the entries.

Before I pick I would like to say a big 'thank you' to Carissa for making this great giveaway possible. Her work is beautiful and amazing and I am so thrilled to be giving it to someone,

The winner is:

Katy-The Country Blossom

Her comment was #7. Congratulations. I have sent you an email and you must respond in 48 hours or I will pick another winner.

School Days......

2011-08-19T18:52:00.000-04:00

Its that time of year again...... Its the time when the weather gets cooler , the leaves start changing, and everyone goes back to school. Ok well the real story is the weather is not cooler at all because well, we all go back to school in the middle of August. I live in Florida where the leaves are either green or dead, and they are only dead for about 2 months a year. I have never actually seen the leaves change, or been north when I hear they are so pretty during the Autumn. But everyone is back to school. Oh joy.

No I am excited to get back to school. I like having the structure and the assignments beyond the vague do the laundry and clean the house. I feel accomplished when I get assignments done. But I will say that I am not wanting to go back to school at the same time. I enjoy being home and not worrying about school too.

So Monday I start back to school, and so does Isaiah. For the first time, Isaiah and I will be going to the same school, though probably not at the same time. We are trying to get into the same class, but right now its looking like a slim chance.

I'm really excited to be taking mostly classes that have to do with my major. I have a few various random classes that I have to take, but those are ones that I'm kind of looking forward to honestly.

The HUGE downsize to starting school is that Isaiah starts back into his night classes. Very sad. It means that I don't get to see him much until the weekends, though if we can take the same class it will be a good thing. So for the next 4 months I won't see my husband, but I have to say that I am so thankful for the time I am with him. This summer has made me so thankful for the time we have together, and thankful that he doesn't have to travel all the time, or that he is gone. I get to see him every night, and wake up to him every morning. Its something that I sometimes take for granted.

Starting school back has made me think about stages of life a lot. You know, we are all in different stages of life. Sometimes its hard not to look at other people and want the stage of life that they are in. I think that is one of the biggest struggles with coveting that I have. I want to be in a stage of life that God put someone else in, instead of me. Do you ever feel that way? Sometimes its hard to just be content where I am at in my life right now. I want to jump forward or backward, but God does not design that for me right now. I know that God has a plan for my life. I don't know what those people whose stage I covet, struggle with. I can't see the things that God puts in their life. I need to be content with where God has me right now, which is just Isaiah, me and our two cats and us in school full time. That is the stage that God wants me to be in. Someday He will let me move to the next stage, but while I am in this stage, I need to learn all I can and appreciate all that God has blessed me with right now.

Making Our Home

2011-08-16T18:16:00.000-04:00

Hi. Yes I am still alive. I know I have been totally out of the blogging world lately, but I am still alive. We are crazily trying to unpack right now, and clean up the old apartment. School starts next week and we are also getting everything ready for that.

I can't wait to post pictures, but I also want to get things a little more set up before I do. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be in this place. I finally feel like I am at home. Our apartment never fully felt like home. It felt like a place we were living, but I never felt at home. It was always beyond messy and super cluttered. So many people would make comments about it that made me feel like trash. I hated the comments and the looks. It made me feel like I was a failure as a person. I was trying so hard to make it a home and it was not working.

This place feels like home. Its so wonderful. Its a feeling that I have felt only a few times in my life. My family moved around so much that I had a hard time letting myself feel like I could really feel at home anywhere. Then I moved so much after I left home and then the apartment. I really feel at home here. Its a wonderful feeling.

Our home is coming together. I have a lot of dreams and ideas for our new home, and I can't wait to act them out. Right now I am just unpacking and getting things together. I will post pictures once I have a few more things put together and a few more boxes unpacked.

The biggest thing that has to be done is to get some curtains. We had blinds that came with the old apartment, and so we didn't have to have curtains. Right now we have sheets, blankets etc tacked to the windows with thumbtacks until we can get some curtains put up.

I am so excited. I am so happy that I get to make this house a home. Its such a wonderful feeling to be working on making a home for my little family. I always feel complete when I'm working on the house. I have to say that I love making a little home.

Giveaway! - Carissas Silver Lining

2011-08-09T23:50:00.002-04:00

This giveaway is now closed.

With all the moving, graduating and everything that has been going on lately, I know that blogging has been severely lacking, but I wanted to take a minute from my packing to post this awesome giveaway. I love giveaways; I love winning giveaways, but more than that I love hosting them!

I'm super excited about this giveaway. I know I say that with every giveaway, but I am really excited about this one. I met Carissa from Carissa's Silver Liningwhen I won a giveaway from her shop. I really loved her wire written necklace, and I had a vision for what I wanted. I emailed back and forth with Carissa and she made my vision a reality. Not many shop owners would be willing to customize something for you, and be super sweet about it.

Isn't it a great necklace? I wanted a necklace that reminded me to pray throughout everything. Carissa worked with me and made a necklace that says "pray". She even worked with me on what chain I wanted and what length I wanted. She was so great.

I emailed her and asked her if she would be interested in doing a giveaway on Kady Did. I was super thrilled when she agreed to do it!! I think you will love her shop as much as I do.

I wanted to help you get to know Carissa and her shop so I asked her a few questions. Enjoy getting to know her better.....

1. What is the story behind your shop?
I love taking photographs and I love handmade things! One day I decided to take a few photos and make a few things, open a shop, and see if anyone else liked them. My husband came up with the name Carissa's Silver Lining. I loved it! I'm quite the pessimist so it's kind of a joke against me never being able to see the silver lining in things and a reminder to myself to always try to.

2. Who inspires you in life?
I don't think I really have one person that inspires me but more a bunch of people. Anyone who is honest and genuine. And who strives to make the world a better place by doing something, no matter how small, for someone else!

3. What is something you couldn't live without?
I don't think I could live without my sight. I am a huge visual person and it makes me happy to see beauty in the little things like the colors of the flowers in my garden, or stillness of the lake in the morning.

4. What can be found in your shop?
I'm often trying new projects so some of the items in my shop can change from time to time. But you'll find photographs, jewellery, and other handmade items.

5. What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?
I have a love/hate relationship with hiking. I hate how hard it can be. But I love the feeling when I get to the top or the end and realize it was totally worth it. We bring our dogs with us, I take a lot of pictures, and we find a geocache or two along the way.

6. What is your favorite thing in your shop?
That's a tough one. I won't sell anything I don't love. But if I had to chose one thing it would probably be the photograph called Enjoying the Sun. It's of a pink gerber daisy.

7. Tell me one random thing about you, or your family or anything.
My husband and I LOVE board games. We love to play them together, with other couples and friends, or at family gatherings. We currently have 15, but one day we hope to have a whole bookshelf full (we have half a book shelf now, so maybe one day a lot more!)

As you can see from various pictures I've posted her, her shop has all kinds of fun things, like the necklaces and the beautiful photography. The pictures are some of my favorite things in her shop.

Now to the giveaway YAY Carissa has offered a #10 gift certificate to anything in her shop. How exciting is that? I would say I wish I could win this, but I did on another shop.

The giveaway ends August 27. Please make sure your email is visible in your comment or blog. Also. make sure to post each entry as a separate comment to count as different entries. This giveaway is open to those in the United States (I'm sorry to those of who are international).

Mandatory Entry

1. Visit Carissa's Silver Lining and tell me your favorite item in her shop. 1 entry

Extra Entries

2. Follow my blog publicly on GFC. 1 entry

3. Heart Carissa's Silver Lining on etsy. 1 entry

4. Follow my blog via Networked Blogs. 1 entry

5. Follow Carissa's blog kissed a frog publicly. 1 entry

6. "Like" Carissa's Silver Lining on facebook. 1 entry

7. Blog/tweet/post on facebook/add to giveaway site etc. this giveaway. 1 entry per action

8. Vote for my blog on On The Fence (see below). 1 entry

So lots of ways to enter (my favorite kind of giveaway). Enjoy!

Moving

2011-08-06T14:05:00.000-04:00

We are moving. YAY We are officially moving in one week and its so crazy around here. As you can see, the boxes are taking over the apartment. We are packing up everything. I'm so excited about moving, but there is so much to do.

I don't know how we will get it all done in time, but we will. The rough part is my knee is all kinds of messed up and I can't really walk around so my poor, amazing husband is doing most of the work, and the cooking. I can't wait to start cooking. Anyway, I am doing all the packing I can sitting down aka the wrapping of the fragile stuff and the low cabinets and anything else I can find.

So yes we are moving in a week. Because of that, blogging will be very limited for the next couple of weeks as we move and then get settled in, and I'm not sure about internet access either. So there you have it. We are moving. I can't wait.

Dear Younger Me

2011-08-03T22:18:00.003-04:00

My dear friend Abby at Tickled Pink and Fabulous wrote a letter to herself, and it greatly inspired me. You are supposed to write a letter looking back and giving advice that you wish you had known, or looking back.

Dear Younger Me,

*When all else fails, God does not. Even when it feels like He has forgotten you, He hasn't. Even when you have no clue what He is doing, He has a plan.

*Don't worry about what other people think.Its your life. All your life all you will work so hard to make everybody happy, and you can't. You work so hard to make everyone happy that it dictates everything you do, and you become super stressed and miserable. Try to not worry about it, and be willing to say no.

*Though you have some really rough situations, you will have a great life. You have a wonderful, loving family, an amazing husband and most of all, an awesome God.

*Be willing to let other people see your weaknesses. Realize that everyone has weaknesses, and you can show that you are weak.

*You don't have to hate the way you look so much. Just because you are not the "normal" beautiful, you don't have to hate yourself. You are not fat, like you think you are. Instead of hating your weight and your body all of your life, learn to be happy with the way God made you.

*You will find the love of your life. You will meet a man who perfectly completes you, and who God made for you. He will be more than anything you ever expected.

*The friends you thought were some of your best friends, aren't, and the people you never expected to be your close friends will turn out to be the ones who really care. Even though friends will come and go, your family and God never will.

*You will lose your first baby, Faith Elise, through a miscarriage. It will be one of the worse things you ever go through. Many people in your life will not understand what you are going through, but lean on those who do. God will show Himself in such a mighty way through that, and help you love others.

*You will change colleges three times in three years. It will be crazy, and you will be very frustrated, but you will have so many different experiences and it will be great.

*The first place you live once you are married will not be up to what you always dreamed. It will be messy, overly cluttered and just not what you expected. You will learn so much about being willing to be where God has you, loving your husband and not nagging and so many other lessons. Then God will reward you with an amazing house that is such a blessing.

*Most of all realize that no matter what happens, God never changes.

Love,
Katie

My Bucket List

2011-07-31T22:04:00.003-04:00

I was talking to a friend this week about my bucket list. I realized that I have never actually written my bucket list. So I thought I would write it down, and then see how far I can come on it. I will add stuff to this list, but here is a start.

1. Spend a week in New York City. (note: I have been to NYC but I was young and did not appreciate it, so I want a redo)

2. Go on a cruise.

3. Go skiing not on a bunny slope.

4. Make a flan.

5. Be in a play, or serious skit.(like a skit which people practice for m ore than 5 minutes before its supposed to happen)

6. Visit Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty.

7. Take a trip to visit all of the major historical sites in the South.

8. Read the dictionary straight through.

9. Read the Bible completely through in a year. (I start this basically every year and never finish)

10. Take a trip to Europe.

11. Visit Israel and take a trek through the Holy Land.

12. Try Nutella.

13. Help coordinate a wedding. A dream I have is to coordinate a wedding, or intern with a wedding coordinator.

14. Own a car.

15. Lay in a random meadow with wildflowers and have the wildflowers be so high it hides me.

16. Fly first class.

17. Work, or volunteer, in a museum.

18. Have a beta fish.

19. Live in an antique, 1900's esque house. (is antique the right word here? no clue)

20. Get a locket.

So this is not an exhaustive list. I did not include anything about starting a family, or having kids, because honestly that is something very different from this list. It is something I really want, but this list is just fun things.

I also did not add anything about my relationships with God, Isaiah or family because I feel like that is separate from this also.

Hope you enjoyed reading my list.

Deliciousness

2011-07-27T19:26:00.001-04:00

I'm addicted to pinterest. Yes, its official I'm addicted. I have wanted to do a pinterest post for a while, but have not, so here is one. For those who don't know, pinterest is an site where yo can find pictures and share finds and ideas with other people. Its hard to describe, but its really fun. I have found all kinds of sewing ideas, and my favorite is ideas for my new home.

If you are on pinterest, and haven't added me yet, add me. If you would like an invitation to join, email or facebook me.

Today I am posting some fun, delicious food findings. I love food (as many of you know) and can't wait to try some of the things I found on here. Most of the food includes links for recipes to try.

Doesn't this lime cake look so delicious and wow?

For those of you not from the South or who have not had fried green tomatoes are truly missing out.

These Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies look heavenly, and contain no flour or butter.

A combination of two of the most amazing sweet things in the world. These Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars look awesome.

Ok so a little healthier, but who wouldn't want to try these Caramelized Bananas and Strawberry?

I love potatoes latkes, and these look easy.

Wow. That's all that's needed to describe this Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie 'n' Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar.

I love Snickers, and I can't wait to try this Snicker's Pie.

This post is probably not the best one to write when you are waiting for supper, and super hungry. I can't wait to try these, and other delicious finds on pinterest. Enjoy.

Graduation

2011-07-24T20:56:00.000-04:00

I have posted about school and graduating, and Saturday I did. I graduate with my AA. It was a very good day. My wonderful father-in-law took tons of pictures.

My mother, little brother Joshua, baby sister Lydia, mother-in-law and father-in-law all came down to attend the graduation and then came to our apartment for lunch and spend some time at our place.

The person pronouncing the names got mine wrong and said Carolyn, instead of Kathryn. I stopped and was like "my name is not Carolyn, its Kathryn". Oh my.

Yay for getting my diploma, though the diploma is not actually in there. I can't wait to get the actual diploma.

After the graduation, I couldn't find my family. Finally I saw Isaiah. This is the moment we saw each other and hugged. I love this picture of us.

My mother-in-law

Me hugging my mom

Me with my in-laws.

My mom, Joshua, Lydia and me

My, Mom, Isaiah, Lydia and Joshua

This was my "its a polyester gown in the middle of summer, and Isaiah keeps messing with my tassel" look

I love my husband

My mother-in-law, me, my mom, and half of Joshua

Then we went and showed our parents the new house we are moving into in less than a month. I don't have pictures of the inside of house, but my father-in-law got some cute ones of us outside it.

The new house. Isn't it just so adorable?

Isaiah and I outside our new place. Sorry about the lighting. Its was super sunny.

Joshua and Lydia. Joshua really liked the two climbing trees in the front yard.

10 Day You Challenge

2011-07-17T17:44:00.000-04:00

Sorry its late, I am really hoping to do it everyday from here on out.

So today is nine loves. This should be fun.

As most of you know, I love God. He is definitely my first love, but I didn't put Him on the list, because this list seemed almost too silly to even put Him on it. So before I even start the list I will say I love God.

1. Well this one is easy. I love my dear husband, Isaiah. He is so wonderful. He is everything a true man should be. He is sweet and kind, and yeah. Wow you can tell I'm in love. hehe

2. I love my adorable baby girls, aka my sweet cats. We adopted Abby and Mara from the SPCA, and are so glad we did. I had a friend who said she was not a cat person but our cats changed her. They have so much personality. Abby is our little princess. Mara is our cuddly little thing.

3. I love clean bathrooms. I'm slightly ocd about having a clean bathroom. Its one of my favorite things.

4. I love all things antique. I used to hate looking for antiques and anything antiquey, but now I love them.

5. I love Checker's fries and chocolate milkshakes. Yes, its horrible for me. Its that food that I love when I want grease, and comfort food.

6. I love history. I love reading about it, talking about it and learning about it. But most of all I love teaching about it. I think its such a shame when people say history is boring and they hate it, because history can be so fascinating. Though I don't think it needs to be every person's favorite subject, I do think you can make it interesting to basically everyone (except for those weird people who just refuse to like it). So yes. I love history.

7. I love sweet tea. Yes, I am Southern, for generations. And I love it. I like it sweet, super sweet. And yes, I can tell when the tea was made, and how it was made. I'm just Southern like that.

8. I love Vera Bradley. I love almost (yes almost) all of her patterns. I'm so addicted to her purses, and her duffle bags and yeah well all of it. My favorite patter right now is happy snails, though there are quite a few I love. The funny thing is my amazing mother-in-law (she really is the best mother-in-law a girl could have) has quite a few Vera Bradley purses. I love seeing them.

9. I love baking. I bake something when I'm stressed, and neither of us eat. I almost always have brownies or cupcakes or something that I made that we don't eat. So if you need some kind of baked food, come see me.

Insta-Friday

2011-07-15T23:24:00.000-04:00

Its Friday again. YAY Since its finals day, and I'm doing another post, I will not be doing the 10 day challenge post, but I will start it back tomorrow. But I did want to do a Insta-Friday because they are fun. Ok, yet again (and I think basically all the time, most of pictures are of my adorable cats).

I tried my first cake pop this week. I keep finding yummy recipes, but I wanted to try one. I got a tiramisu cake pop from Starbucks after a date.

And here is after biting into it. It was mind blowingly delicious.

Ok so I didn't take this picture, but its my new background and I love it.

Please ignore the clothes in the background. Its Abby all curled up with Isaiah.

Isaiah was petting Abby and then put her in the clothes basket. 20 minutes later she was still in there.

Sunrise on the causeway. Its so pretty.

Mara and Abby cuddling

So yes, I adore my cats. And with it being the last week of school nothing much exciting has happened in this week. I am hoping that this coming week has more exciting things in it to post.

10 Day You Challenge

2011-07-15T00:07:00.001-04:00

I stole this from Krystal, though I've seen it on multiple blogs and I thought it looked like fun, and a good way to relax so I thought I would try it.

I'm so excited to start. Today is ten secrets. This may be a little hard.

1. I still have my first doll. My grandmother gave her to me for my first Christmas. I called her Rock Rock (mostly because that was all I could say). I would sit in my little rocking chair and rock the doll for a long time and sing rock, rock, rock, rock. The name stuck and I still call her Rock Rock. She has always been special to me because I was very close to my grandmother and she died when I was young. Its one of the few things I have to remember her by. She sits on my nightstand still.

2. I hated sewing as a kid. (not exactly a surprise to quite a few people) I hated it with a passion. My mom and grandmother (not the Rock Rock one, my mom's mother) loved it and tried to get me to love it and failed. Everything I touched turned out terribly. I started doing it now and I love it.

3. Isaiah and I carry crutches in our trunk and ace bandages in our car. I am always spraining my ankle and having them has definitely come in handy a couple times.

4. I hate seeing animals hurt. I can't stand seeing pictures of people fishing, or hunting. I have nothing against either of those things. Isaiah loves to fish. I just can't stand seeing animals being hurt. And yes, I eat meat (I love it) but I can't think of the animal. I told Isaiah he can go hunt or fish, but I have to see it as it would come in the store.

5. I don't like toast. For some reason, I just do not like toast at all. I am not a huge bread person, for some reason, toasting the bread makes it super nasty to me.

6. I do not know how to French braid. Yeah, I know its stupid, but I know in my head how to do a French braid, but I can't actually do one. Its silly. I should learn that.

7. I couldn't do a cartwheel until I was a teenager. I was never able to do one until I took a basic gymnastics class and finally learned how to do one. I love doing them. They are so fun.

8. I once took a conversion van down an atv trail, got it stuck between three trees, and they had to cut the trees down in order to get it out. Yeah, that's a story for another day. I still get a stress stomach ache thinking about it.

wow the secrets are getting shorter and shorter

9. I once had a little schoolroom/desk area in a laundry closet. My family lived in a tiny apartment, and there was no place to myself but there was a laundry closet that was about the size of tiny regular closet, but it was just the right size for my little desk, and a chair. I was sit in there with a lamp, and do my schoolwork (I was homeschooled) in the laundry closet.

10. I hate socks. I hate socks with a passion. In the winter I will do anything not to wear them, though they are slightly unavoidable in the winter. Sigh. I hate having my feet enclosed. I also don't really like tennis shoes and other shoes that totally closes in my foot.

That was not easy. whew. I hope you do the challenge with me. If you do, comment me a link. I would love to see what you wrote.

Feeling Insecure

2011-07-14T00:29:00.000-04:00

Preface: I would like to say that this has been one of the hardest, and most soul opening posts I've done. I always say that I'm going to be totally honest on here, and sometimes that is hard. I really wonder if anyone cares. But I pray that what I write helps at least one person. I know that writing it helps me work through things. So please, as you are reading this, don't judge me, or preach to me. I wrote this from my heart. I hope it helps someone out there.

I have a confession. I've been really struggling with feeling super insecure about a lot of things. I am feeling insecure about how I look, how my life is, and just basically everything in my life. Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever been insecure? I think that I can safely say that all women, at some point in their lives, have been insecure at some point.

I think the worse time of insecurity is when you are in middle school, and some of high school. I was so insecure in those years. I felt like a total screw up in so many ways. I felt so fat, and so bad about so many things. I felt like I was not good at school, and not good at keeping things together, and just not good at life. I had so many people tell me that it looked like I had everything together and all, but honestly all the way through high school, I felt like I was totally falling apart inside. I hated the way I looked, I hated my personality, I even hated the way I dressed. I was a total mess inside, and trying very hard to make everyone around me think I had everything together.

As I got older, I will say, I got a little better. I met a man who thinks I'm gorgeous, and tells me that all the time. I got closer to God and started to realize that it only matters to be true to the person God made me, and care what He thinks.

I would love to say that I have everything together. I would love to say that I'm totally secure in who I am, and that I totally don't ever compare myself to other women. I totally believe that God made me perfect and that I don't dislike any part of my body, and I believe that not only in my head, but in my heart. Wasn't that funny? Ok I know. That is totally not how I am.

I still get super insecure about myself. I can not stand the way I look sometimes. I can not stand my personality sometimes. I still feel like I'm falling apart on the inside and try very hard to not let anyone see it. I look at other women, and what they have and covet it. I compare myself and find myself lacking. I am not saying this is the right way to be, but I always promise to be honest, so there it is.

So I get insecure, so I start talking non stop about something, right now its school. I feel like I've been ruining some relationships, and hurting some, because all I talk about is school. To any of you reading this to which this has been the case, I am truly sorry. I do it because I am so insecure about many things, and my coping mechanism is to just focus on one thing and work really, really hard to be perfect at it so I don't feel like a total failure.

I also totally shut down on relationships because I feel like no one would want to be friends with me. I shut down and don't want to be talk, or be with anyone. I feel so fat and ugly that I'm embarrassed to be around anyone and have them look at me. Its a vicious cycle.

I am sorry if, while I have been going through this, I have hurt or upset anyone. Its my fault, and I am sorry. I am finally starting to get to the place where I am working through things right now. I am trying to spend more time with God, and instead of comparing myself to other women, I am trying to see myself through God's eyes.

I have to say that insecurity is something that I have always struggled with, and I'm praying that I work through it. I am trying to see myself, not as a failure, but as a work in progress. No, I'm no where near perfect. I know that. But God is working on me.

I also need to see my looks as through Go's eyes. and be more confident in myself. No, I'm not 100 pounds, blonde with a size 2 waist, but I am beautiful. Ok, I still struggle to see the anything beautiful about myself, but I want to work to see myself as beautiful in the way God made me.

Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one who gets insecure. But then I heard a quote that helped me to see that I am not the only one, "Every women, whether she is sixteen or sixty, still has that awkward insecure self-conscious teenager inside her.""

Is it true? I am the only one who struggles you feel less insecure? Does anyone have a specific verse that helps with being insecure? Do you have something that helps you?

Please Pardon Our Dust

2011-07-09T21:17:00.000-04:00

I am trying to do some blog makeovers and having some issues with it. Blogger is not letting me save the html code for the background. It says javescript void. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them. I am sorry for the issues going on here. I know its not pretty, and pretty bad. But I'm working on it. Thanks for the patience.

Insta-Friday

2011-07-08T21:57:00.000-04:00

So I am going to do a post about my anniversary weekend (I really am, I promise) so I won't post pictures from our anniversary weekend. I'll post other fun pictures from my week.

We got home late on July 4, and I had a ton of homework so we didn't go watch fireworks. My husband, however, loves fireworks so he broke out part (yes part) of his stash and we did some on the porch of our apartment. Ok it was mostly fireworks but it was fun.

Abby is a pyromaniac.

Wow, not the best shot of me. But the sparklers were really neat looking!

Isn't my husband good looking? sigh... ok but being serious, again neat sparklers

This is Mara's "Who me?"

Abby (one on top) had her paw around Mara and they were cuddling.

I look old.... haha I love fun apps.

She was sleeping and looked oh so cuddly.

As you can see, I love my cats. And honestly, besides school nothing much has happened. I hurt my knee so I've been laid up on the couch most of the week. So you get a week of my darling baby girls. But oh they are cute.

I'm linking up, you should too.

Clothing Fun

2011-07-07T19:41:00.001-04:00

I found this really neat website called Polyvore where you can make all kinds of fun outfits and play around with colors. I have had so much fun. I love making outfits and playing around with clothes. I'm not the greatest at it, but I really enjoy it. I wanted to share some of my outfit ideas with you.

You will probably find some serious similarities between my outfits. I would love to have some comments on what you think of the outfits. I've never quite figured out my style, so if you have any insights on to what my style is I would love to hear it.

I love this bolero, and of course Vera Bradley.

Its so happy and colorful. How fun for a summer church day.

I love the yellow and grey with the casual look.

I love the elegance and simplicity of this outfit. It would be great for winter.

I love the rose color with the flowers. Aren't the shoes amazing?

This was the first outfit I made. I love the color, and the shoes especially.

I would love to see any outfits you made. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Life Right Now

2011-07-05T14:59:00.000-04:00

I know that I have not been posting much lately, but honestly life has been happening and sitting down and posting to the blog has taken a back seat. It probably will for about two weeks still. I have two weeks left of classes and then I am done with my AA. I'm so excited! But the next two weeks will be absolutely killer. I wish I could post a picture of my school planner. There are like three things due each day, and I'm behind. Oh joy. But I just keep thinking about my graduation and then about having a month off. I can't wait.

I'm just struggling with keeping everything going. Its a real struggle to keep the house together and take killer classes. I am totally failing right now. Honestly all I want to do is sew, sew and sew. Have you ever felt like that? You just wanted to let the house fall apart and the dishes pile up and the food not get cooked and just quit? I know its not the right attitude but its a struggle right now. I feel like with school and housework something always has to give, not to mention trying to tack on keeping up a relationship with my husband.

I guess that this part of life, but it seems like I'm on this never ending treadmill that is the dishes, the laundry, cleaning and homework. As soon as one thing gets done than another has built up. The laundry right now is overflowing.

I know that this is just a time in my life and that someday having all this homework will pass, though the housework will not. I am so thankful for a husband who has been so helpful in picking up on the things that slip. He is truly a wonderful man.

So what is God showing me through this? Well that I can only rely on Him. I need to put a top priority on my relationship with Him and then on my relationship with my husband. Something I've been thinking a lot about lately is about things lasting. When I look back on my life what will I remember that matters? Will I remember that the laundry was always perfectly done? Will I remember that my husband had a homecooked meal every day of his life? Or will I remember the time I spent with my husband? Will I remember the fact that I worked hard and finished school? Will I remember most of all that I spent time with my Lord?

Its something that God has really been teaching me. Instead of looking at all I have to do, I need to look at the long term (and even eternal) significance of what I am doing. I always wonder if when I am at the end of my life, what will I look back on and be glad that I did and what will I look back on and wish that I hadn't spent so much time on. Would I wish that I had stopped and just talked to my husband and not worried about all the housework?

Of course I am not saying that I am going to let the house totally go down hill and just not care, because that is not what God would want, but I am saying that maybe I shouldn't worry as much about things that don't matter as much as spending time with my husband and with my God.

Insta-Friday

2011-07-01T19:39:00.002-04:00

I found this fun link up and friday blog thing and I loved it. Its a way to post all those random cell phone pictures taken during the week. Since I recently got the iphone (yay) and found the amazing app instagram. It takes cell phone pictures to a whole other level.

Abby was missing her daddy while he was at work. He got home and she hugged with his knee and his shoe (one of her favorite things in the world).

We live near Clearwater, FL and were driving across the causeway in the rain. The water and sky was so beautiful that I had to take a picture.

Mara cuddling with me. Its hard to see her eyes but they are really cute.

This is an amazing donut place near our house. After having their donuts I cannot eat at dunkin donuts ever again. The staff is so sweet and know us in there.

Abby greatly enjoys "helping" me sew. She overseas the whole endeavor.

My really good friend Kaytlyn is spending some time with us. We call her my mini me. She is so great. I love her.

We are about to leave for our one year anniversary weekend. We are staying in Orlando, FL for the long weekend. One of the great things about having our anniversary on a holiday weekend is that we get a long weekend for our anniversary.

Recipe: Mexican Pizza

2011-06-27T20:27:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry its been so long since I've posted a recipe. I wanted to post one that I'm making for supper tonight. Its a recipe that I made as a child, and had forgotten about. My mom reminded me that she had it and tonight I made it. Its so easy, and so delicious!

Mexican Pizza

boneless skinless chicken breasts (I use 1/2 breast per small pizza)
Adobo
other seasonings to taste (I used taco seasoning, garlic powder and a random meat seasoning)
cilantro
green peppers (optional)
onion (optional)
flour tortillas
salsa
shredded Mexican or cheddar cheese
shredded mozzarella cheese

Cut breasts in chunks, about 1-2 inches square. Liberally season with Adobo and other seasonings until well coated. Cook in skillet until white all the way through.

Chop up cilantro, onions and peppers. I didn't use onions and peppers since Isaiah doesn't like them, but if you do, enjoy. Add cilantro, onions and peppers to skillet with chicken until chicken is done, and vegetables are done.

Line baking trays with foil. Put tortillas on trays.Spread salsa on tortillas. Then spread chicken, cilantro, peppers and onions over that. Sprinkle both types of cheese over it all.

Cook at 350 degrees for 7 minutes until cheese and melted and tortillas are crispy.

I make basically one tortilla pizza per person, with a couple left over for leftovers. As you can see, its one of those recipes that is really open to making it as you want. Something I have thought about trying is adding jalapenos to the pizzas, but we are not spicy people so I haven't.

After you make it, let me know. I would love to hear how it turned out for you, and see pictures if possible. Enjoy!

Fairyshadow Giveaway Winner

2011-06-26T18:08:00.000-04:00

We have a winner! I love this shop, and the owner. She has been so sweet and so helpful to work with. The winner gets a $15 certificate to the shop, fairyshadow. Thank you Tania for hosting this giveaway.

So finally, the winner is comment 64. Jesselyn won with her comment:

"Follower via networked blogs, Jesselyn"

Congratulations to Jesselyn. Jesselyn, you have 48 hours to respond to my email or I will have to repick a winner, which would be super sad.

Happenings in the Tamblingson Household

2011-06-25T00:49:00.001-04:00

I know I haven't been posting much lately, but honestly life has been so crazy. But on this lazy Friday night while the husband is playing with a cat, and on his computer, I thought I would share some of my life.

So big news, you know how a while ago I said I wanted an iphone. Well Isaiah surprised me after he got off work and placed one in my hands. He figured it out (I still don't get how) that to get an iphone, and go on his plan (yeah we were still on separate plans) and get an iphone for me. So I'm super excited. I've had so much fun tonight playing around with it. I'm looking for good apps, so if you have a must have app, let me know.

But bigger thing is that we are moving in August to a bona fide house!!! I have been dreaming of this for a long time. You know how a lot of girls dream of their weddings all of their lives? Well I dreamed of my first house. We live in a one bedroom apartment. When we first got married I got so overwhelmed with trying to decorate it that I failed and just haven't redone it so its a total wreck. But now I get to start over and now I have a better idea of how not to ruin it and I can start afresh.

Its a total God thing how this happened. We had wanted to move to a house since we got married. We thought it was would work out. Then I was looking at our finances and realized there is no way we could afford it. I got really discouraged but then thought well we can move to a two bedroom apartment and that will work. Isaiah met with the leasing office and they told him that the prices of apartments. To stay in our apartment we are in now, the price would be raised drastically, and a two bedroom would be out of the question.

I had given it all to God and really was content with whatever. It was something I had really struggled with all year, especially when other women would come over and say my house was terrible looking and how could I live here. It was a real struggle for me. It was a real test in loving my husband and not getting frustrated over his mess, and not nagging. And a lesson in not caring so much what other people thought about things. As a woman, that is a hard lesson to learn.

Anyway, I had given it to God, though I really didn't want to stay here. We realized there was no way we could move, and even to stay where we were would be very difficult. Isaiah was going to have to ask for a raise, and it would be really, really rough. We figured all this out Monday. I was so upset, but I knew God was in control and had an unexplainable peace about it all.

Before all this my mom had reminded me that my grandmother had left a little money in a trust that I could get when I enter my junior year of college. She talked to the person in charge of the trust and called me Tuesday. Turns out the trust would cover some housing expenses. I was really excited. I talked to the person and we figured out that with the trust we could rent a house!

We so knew it was God working all this out. So Wednesday night, after Isaiah got out of school, we drove around our area. We only had one person we actually got in touch with, who owned this adorable little yellow house. They set up a time to meet us today. We looked at it today and it is so cute, and seems perfect for us for right now. We haven't made the final decision, but unless something else comes around that we can see God is really wanting more, this will be it.

Its one of those things that you can clearly see God working. I went from we may not even afford the place we are at, to now we can get an adorable sweet house. WOW

I am getting all kinds of fun decorating ideas. I will probably post them in the next few days. I can't wait to share them with you all.

Glorious Day

2011-06-21T14:51:00.001-04:00

A while ago that false prophet told everyone that the rapture would happen on May 21. I felt so bad for the people that got ready for it, and sold all their belongings and all and thought it would happen that day. But it did make me think about that glorious day when we will see our Lord. What a day.

I love my life, and my husband. Every day I get to bask in the love my husband showers on me, but when I get to be in God's presence it will be so much better. I get to just bask in God's presence. I cannot wait for that. Ever had one of those awesome worship services where you just feel God and know He is there? It will like a continuous one, but way better. I cannot wait for that day.

But looking at all those people it did make me reevaluate my life and think about how am I getting ready for Him? Those people did everything to get ready. They got rid of material items, and were ready for when they though Christ would take them away. Now, I read about some of them like going to Disney World and maxing out their credit cards to get ready, and I'm not espousing that. But I am saying, that we should be ready for Him to take us. We never know when He will require us to come to Him and leave this world, and we should live every minute like its our last one.

Just thinking about being in the presence of my Savior really makes me excited, but then I think about how every day I live in His presence. He is here with me. He is with me every day and wants me to worship Him constantly. I don't have to wait for the rapture, or to die to feel Him and to live in His presence. I can have that every time I play some worship music and just stop what I'm doing worship. I can do it every time I'm working and just stop to pray and talk to God. I can do it when I do my quiet time right before bed and I read all about His greatness. I do not have to wait to worship and enjoy Him until I die or rapture, I can do it right here, right now. I want to live my life enjoying Him.

I have to say that I don't do a very good job of living my life in enjoyment and service to Him. Stuff just happens. It seems like at the end of the day I get to it and life just took over. Homework eats me alive, or housework or something and I realize that I did not spend enough of my time just focusing on my God. I am not saying you should become someone who neglects everything to just sit around worshiping God, because all the things you do can be part of your service to Him. I am saying that sometimes I need to stop and just worship Him. I need to stop housework and facebook and homework and everything else that distracts me and just focus on my Savior who loves me so much and yearns for time with me.

I want to spend more time thinking about my Savior and getting ready for that glorious day. But for now, I just want to serve and worship Him with everything that I am.

I wanted to post a song about this, and one that I love to just stop and worship God with. Its really a great song that just begs to have you stop everything you are doing and just worship our amazing God. Do you have a specific song that makes you just stop and worship? Do you do anything special to remind yourself of that day and our God? I am always looking for new ways to serve God and focus on Him, and if you have one I would really like to hear it!

Today, try to spend a few minutes just worshiping and thinking about that glorious day, and our amazing God.

Beautiful

2011-06-20T00:02:00.000-04:00

Something I struggle with a lot is not feeling beautiful. I could list off all the ways that I think I'm ugly/fat/not good looking. Then I start thinking about all the ways that I wish I could change myself. I have to say I can remember doing this all my life. As a little girl I would think about all the ways that I would change myself. The worse thing is when I compare myself to other people. I look around at all the other women and start wishing that I had her nose, or her eyes, or her body.

I definitely can't say that I've conquered this problem. Every day I still look at myself and see something, or multiple somethings, that I don't like about myself. I will say that realizing that God made me this way and I need to see myself through His eyes would help. But honestly I have to admit that I don't. Having a husband who thinks that I'm beautiful. But seeing myself as beautiful just isn't happening.

We all struggle with this and I've noticed that women are the first to tear each other down and hurt each other. We like to put other women down and the way they look in order to feel better about ourselves. I have to admit that I have done this, and have had it done to me. I'm not perfect and in my mind I have definitely thought well at least I'm better looking than her, or even gossiped about other women. But its so wrong.

So if we all struggle with this, shouldn't we be encouraging each other? I have to say that when another woman gives me a compliment and says I am beautiful or compliments me on the way I look it makes me feel so much better.

Is it wrong to worry about how you look on the outside? Is that caring too much about my outward appearance? I know that God says in 1 Samuel 16:7 that God looks on the heart, and we should look for the inside man but I honestly look on my outward appearance and just don't like it.

I want to start trying to compliment other women on how they look and hopefully encourage them. I want to help other women feel so much better about how they look.

I want to post some videos about seeing yourself as beautiful, and knowing that you are beautiful. I really want to help women see that they way they are is beautiful and encourage them that they are special and beautiful in everything about them.

I know this post has been a little helter skelter but I hope someone, somewhere was touched by it. I really want some woman to know she is not alone and that she is beautiful. Because she is.

Does you struggle with this? Be honest. What is one way you have learned to help yourself or other women realize how beautiful they are?

Giveaway - Fairyshadow

2011-06-14T20:35:00.006-04:00

This giveaway is now closed.

I'm really excited. I have another awesome giveaway. This time its from the shop fairyshadow. I love etsy, and I found this shop through etsy randomly. When I saw the items in the shop I fell in love immediately. I really wanted to introduce it to you so I contacted Tania (creator of the shop) and she was excited too. Something I've seen on other blogs that I wanted to start doing for my giveaways is interviewing the shop owner/creator so you (and me) can get to know them. I asked Tania questions and she sent me some information about her and her shop. Her life sounds really neat, I am sure you will think so too.

I have enjoyed looking at Etsy for years and from time to time considered setting up a shop but I did not have internet access that would allow for all the time required to work with internet sales. Our family decided to install a satellite and now we have high speed service so that block was no longer in place. But still I held back. Last year my 16 year old daughter was diagnosed with cancer and went through surgery and chemotherapy. She has proved herself to be a courageous and strong young woman and is free of cancer. We are so proud of her. As pleased as we are with the work of her doctors and hospital we are still faced with the bills the insurance did not cover. I was motivated to find additional income and decided if my daughter could face the challenges of cancer I could very well get over my own insecurities about working online.

My children inspire me to push passed my own fears. Yay for the blessings of children. The favorite thing in my shop is photo of my daughter wearing a blue flowered garland. It reflects the sparkle of her bright blue eye and the spirit that shines through it.

So what can I make without spending much while building inventory? I began sorting through the resources available and started making flowers with felt I had left over from my days as a production dollmaker. Then I turned to our closets and the abundance of t-shirt that overflowed the drawers and the upcycled cotton flower barrette was born. I now collect material and buttons from a local shop which benefits the senior center and sells donated craft supplies. Friends also pass on clothing they no longer need. I love the rich diversity of colors I have to choose from. It makes for truely unique pieces. In my shop you will find the results of my flower making mounted to a variety of hair accessories as well as some of the dolls I have made.

Our family raises sheep and cattle. I sometimes call myself the electric shepardess because we use a portable electric fencing system to protect the lambs from the coyote who find lamb especially delicious. This means that three or four times a week we must shift the fences to allow for fresh grazing for the mammas and babies.

You ask the one thing I couldn’t live without? I know its basic but I would hate to without running water. I can look down our valley when I wash dishes and see the old brick lined well about ¼ mile away. Whenever I feel crabby about the unrelenting chore of dishwashing I remind myself there are millions of women who must carry the water from the well before they can begin the unrelenting chore of washing dishes. Keep your
blessings close to your heart. In my spare time I garden, knit, and paint. All these occupations sooth me.

Isn't the picture of the stuff she is making really neat? I haven't seen that before and I thought it was so pretty and so brilliant. Here's some more stuff from her shop:

Isn't it just the cutest stuff?

Tania is also looking for some wholesale opportunities. If you are interested (or know someone who would be interested) in this opportunity you can contact Tania through the shop.

So now for the giveaway. Tania has generously offered a $15 gift certificate to her shop to the winner of this giveaway. I am super jealous. There is so much from her shop that I want. But I'm giving it to you.

The giveaway ends June 25. Make sure your email is visible in your blogger profile, or in your comment. Also, make sure each entry is in a different comment to count. This giveaway is only open to those in the United States (sorry those of you worldwide).

Mandatory Entry:

1. Visit fairyshadow and tell me what your favorite item in the shop is, if you can pick just one. (this must be done for other entries to count)

Extra Entries:

because everyone loves extra entries!!

2. follow my blog publicly via GFC. 1 entry

3. Follow my blog via networked blogs on facebook. 1 entry

4. Vote for my blog "on the fence" (see below for link). 1 entry

5. Heart fairyshadow on etsy. 1 entry

6. Buy something from fairyshadow. 5 entries
7. Blog/tweet/post on facebook. (post link) 1 entry per action
8. Post this giveaway on a giveaway site. (post link) 1 entry

Enjoy!

Thinking About Who God Is

2011-06-13T13:28:00.001-04:00

Yesterday during service I got super convicted about something. We were singing a song all about who God is and His attributes and it hit me. Lately, all I think about is myself. All I think about is how God can help me, and what is He doing to serve me. Wow, what a wrong way of thinking. God was not made to serve me, He created me to serve Him. I had things all kinds of mixed up. Lately all I an think about is myself and its so wrong. Instead of thinking about myself and how God can serve me, I need to be thinking about God and how I can live my life to serve Him. I wanted to spend some time thinking about who God is, and His attributes. I wanted to post some attributes for you to read. This list is not of my creation, though I did edit it some, but you can find it here.

God is Jehovah. This means "I am I AM"

God is Jehovah-M’Kaddesh. This name means “the God who sanctifies.”

God is infinite.

God is omnipotent. God has all power.

God is good.

God is love.

God is Jehovah-jireh. This name means “the God who provides.”

God is Jehovah-shalom. This name means “the God of peace.”

God is immutable. God cannot change.

God is transcendent.

God is just.

God is holy.

God is Jehovah-rophe.

God is omniscient. God is all knowning.

God is omnipresent. God is everywhere.

God is merciful.

God is sovereign.

God is Jehovah-nissi. This name means “God our banner.” \

God is wise.

God is faithful.

God is full of grace.

God is our Comforter.

God is El-Shaddai. This name means “God Almighty.”

God is Adonai. This name means “Master” or “Lord.”

God is Elohim. This name means “Strength” or “Power.”

I wanted to post some songs about God and songs that have helped me think more about God, and not myself. They are all about God and who He is.

2:30 am Ramblings

2011-06-10T02:48:00.001-04:00

Its 2:30 am and I'm up. I'm not up because I have to be. I am not trying to accomplish something great or anything. I'm up because its been a very rough day and my mind just won't settle very well. Yes, I've tried reading my Bible. I tried laying in bed and listening to my husband (and cat) sleep. I tried all that. But it didn't work. I needed to relax, so I am doing the thing that really relaxes me, I'm blogging about my day.

You know a day is bad when you start it out with a nightmare about how everyone in your church is talking about you and mad at you because you have been missing so much. The dream was blown way out of proportion and was this long drawn out nightmare, but that was the gist of it. I have to say, I've been feeling guilty about the amount of church being missed and I guess it was just a dream because of that. I'm not sure why I'm feeling guilty. I don't have a real reason to. We have been missing a lot lately, but every time we missed has had a real, legitimate reason (such as grandmother being in the hospital, me having the stomach flu, me having a really bad other flu thing etc). To be totally honest, I am not guilty because I've done something bad by missing church, I'm worried about what people will think of me for missing church. I'm worried about what people in my church think of me. I know that God and I are ok with why I missed church but I worry that I'm being judged by people in the church for some reason. Isn't that ridiculous?

Anway, that was the start of my day. I wake up to a dream about how everyone in my church is talking and mad that we are missing so much, and then feeling judged and all. Then my day goes from there. I realize we have no food in the house at all, and I'm still not feeling up to going out to get it yet (you should hear me, I sound like a cross between a frog and a cat whose tail is being pulled). Then I find out some bad news about this weekend. I won't go into what all it is, but lets say my weekend is not shaping up exactly as I had thought.

I sit down to do my homework and I realize that this assignment is due on anti-Semitism attacks and prejudice. For some maybe this would not have been bad, but for me it was really hard. I was reading all about these attacks on people and basically trying not to cry my head off as I'm writing this paper. How fun, not.

Thankfully, bright spot in my day, I find out for sure that I get to see my mommy and little siblings this weekend. YAY I think we are going to a spring that we love to have a picnic. yay

Another thing that was happened was all tide up in our housing situation. We live in a tiny one bedroom apartment and I've been looking forward to moving basically since we moved in. Its really crowded and yeah no fun. There are many reasons as to why I can't wait to move, but that's one. A big one is that we think something is wrong with the AC and its making us sick a lot, which is why we've been sick so much this year, and especially lately. So we were planning on moving out into a house in August. We have been having a very hard time finding any kind of house to move to, and then today we looked at things and it looks like we may not be able to move after all with money and all unless we can somehow find a house in our price range. So sigh. I'm trying to give it to God, and work on being content but its a hard blow

I did finally get my sewing machine cranked up and started on that skirt I've wanted to work on since I got the machine in February. Honestly I've been scared. I've never sewn anything on my own, and what I sewed before (with lots of help from my mother) was a dismal failure. Well, tonight I wanted something to concentrate on that would take my mind off life. I was working hard on it, and got it all done except putting in the elastic. Then I couldn't get any elastic. The store was out and nothing else was open. I know it sounds silly, but I was so close to being done, and it felt like the last straw.

There have been a few other things, but I would say that is a lot of it. Some other things are weighing heavily, but thats a lot of it. I know, to a sane person who is not rambling at, well now its 2:45, I am probably making no sense and it seems like no big deal, but today its all kind of piled together until it all seems like a big deal. So as my husband sleeps peacefully, I will finish this up. I know that God has all my problems already handled and figured out, but to me, right now, they seem pretty rough. So here's praying that I can give it all to Him, and have some peace. Oh, and finally go to sleep.

My Body, and How I Feel About It

2011-06-09T11:49:00.001-04:00

Back in January I said that one of my new years resolutions was lose weight and so far this year I've just gained a ton of weight. I weigh so much and I hate it. So I'm finally doing something about it. I've started working out everyday and working on portion control. I was eating a ton every time I ate but right now I'm working on eating a lot less. I want to not worry as much about a number as looking better and fitting into smaller clothes. Around my wedding last year I looked good and I want to get back to that. So that is my goal, and so far I have been doing pretty good. Right after I started working out I got really sick (like high fever all day and miserable kind of sick) so I didn't work out, but I did still work on what I ate, and now that I feel better and am going to get back to working out.

But you know how I also said in January that I wanted to love my body, because God made it and honestly hating how I look is bad, but I can't say I am there. I will love my body more when I lose weight, but I want to love my body the way I am, and just want to lose weight because I want to be healthier and feel better. I really want to get to the place that I don't hate how I look because God made me the way I am. I am not naturally skinny, I'm not blonde, I'm not blue eyed, I'm not small chested and I'm not tall (all things I have wanted). But God made me beautiful in my own way. I know this, somewhere. But I have always (since I was a little, little girl) hated the way I look. I wanted so many different things to change, and I've never worked through that fully.

Thankfully I have a husband who constantly is reminding me that I am beautiful in the way I am right now. He is amazing in supporting me in everything, and trying to help me see that I am beautiful the way I am. I am so thankful for His support.

I have to admit, this has not been an easy post to write. No one wants to tell everyone what they don't like about themselves, but I hope that someone else can appreciate the honesty and get something out of it.

Fighting For Relationships

2011-06-07T16:26:00.001-04:00

I heard something that really impacted me and made me think about relationships. It reminded me that just because you are in a right relationship doesn't mean things won't be hard, or that your relationship won't ever be rocky, but its a good relationship because you value that relationship so much you are willing to fight for it.

Before I got married, honestly I thought I would somehow never have a rough time in my marriage. I thought somehow things would be perfect between Isaiah and I forever. I knew some things would happen outside our relationship but I never thought about having to fight for our relationship. But I do. I've learned that when you really value your relationship you want to fight to make it work.

I look at my relationship with Isaiah and realize that when I vowed to be Isaiah's wife for the rest of my life it means that I vowed to fight for my relationship with my husband. I vowed that with the rest of my life I would work hard to make my relationship with my husband be the best, even when things aren't the best.

I was thinking more about fighting for your relationships and I thought about my other relationships. I thought about my various friendships and realized that there are some friendships that I am willing to fight for, and some honestly that I'm tired of fighting for. And I've been wondering, when do you stop fighting for a friendship and hang up your gloves and walk away? Do you always fight for a relationship, or do certain relationships come to an end and you have to stop fighting? When do you pick your battles and let some relationships go?

Finally, (I know I'm kind of everywhere with this post) I was thinking about how God fights for us. He fought so much for us that He died on a cross. He didn't want to let our relationship with Him go down without a major fight. And everyday He fights for us and our relationship with Him. Isn't it great that the God of the universe fights for us?

So I think about all my relationships, with Isaiah, with my friends and with God, and I think about how much I am willing to fight for them. I really should be more willing to fight for my relationships. I should fight more for my relationships. My relationships are worth fighting for, especially my relationship with God and with Isaiah.

I hope that this post made sense. It was kind of all over the place, but it was something I was thinking about and wanted to share.

1st Anniversary Help Needed

2011-06-03T22:39:00.000-04:00

Today is officially 11 months of being married. I can't wait for our one year anniversary. Its been a wonderful almost year together. I can't wait for our anniversary, but I have a dilemma. Isaiah and I were just talking abut how we have no idea what to get for each other. Evidently Isaiah has been discussing with some people at his work (including his bosses wife) what to get me, and we are both pretty stumped.

I told him, I didn't need anything, and I'm happy with just spending time together. But alas he won't go for it.

I will have to say that I did suggest My Wishlist (which I updated some, so check it out) , but something tells me he won't be going for it. He says that most of the stuff is not "anniversary" enough.

But now I need your help, reader. I cannot figure out what to get Isaiah, and since he doesn't read my blog I am safe to talk about it here. Do you have any suggestions on what to get him, or what to do for him for our anniversary?

Also, do you have any anniversary memories? Or if you aren't in a relationship, what do you dream about for an anniversary?

Summer Splash Blog Party

2011-06-01T13:56:00.004-04:00

I don't usually participate in blog parties and link up with other people's stuff, but this one sounded really fun so I thought I would participate. This blog party is being hosted by From Under My Little Umbrella and Virtuous Girlhood. To be a part of this party you answer certain questions and then link up to From Under My Little Umbrella. One of the neat things about this blog party is there are even prizes. YAY.

Here are the questions/my answers:

What are two songs that describe you? "God Bless the Broken Road" is the song that really describes my life and my relationship with Isaiah. God took a very broken road of my life and it led me to him, who is my prince charming. The other song would have to be "In Christ Alone". This beautiful song talks about Christ being what you stand on, and how He has overcome sin. It talks about so much more, but I don't want to spend an entire post on this song. Maybe someday I will write a post about it.

What do you most fear? I would say I fear the unplanned. I know it sounds silly, but I love plans, and I fear what I can't plan and what I am not expecting most. I don't like not knowing whats coming or having things happen that are unplanned. I know, things happen all the time that are unplanned but I don't like it, and I fear the unplanned in life a lot.

What color(s) dominate(s) your wardrobe? Does black, denim and gray (or is it grey? I can never figure it out) count? No? Ok well then I would have to say blues, greens and purples. I honestly wear mostly neutrals.

How do you normally do you hair? When I'm out, in a big loopy bun thing with some kind of flower/bow/hearband in my hair. I almost always am wearing something fun. When I'm around the house, its mostly down or in a braid like when I'm working out. I will say that my husband likes me to wear my hair down or in a looser bun with a sideswept part/over my face thingy happening.

Do you prefer milkshakes or smoothies? I love smoothies, especially tofu smoothies. I sometimes crave milkshakes, but its rare for me to really like them. I really like smoothies. My husband makes the bomb diggitiest smoothies on the face of this earth!

Do you like the color pink? I used to hate it, with a passion. Now I don't have as huge of a hatred, but its not my go to color. I have one pink shirt, and that's all I have that is pink. I also don't like it in my house (not that my husband is sad about that).

What is your favorite flower? I love hydrangeas. They are my favorite by far. In my wedding I based the entire wedding on hydrangeas. It was the theme (along with chocolate). I also had white roses as accents, and I love them too

. How many states have you been to? Oh my, 19 plus Washington D.C., so would that be 20 or 19?

What is your favorite thing about June? Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of June. Its the month that separates my birthday and my anniversary. Any month without presents is not a good month. Just kidding, but honestly its not a huge favorite. Its nice that its when the summer showers start here in Florida. In Florida, almost every day in the summers we have a storm in the afternoon. Its funny because today is the first day of June and right now we are having the first summer afternoon shower.

Describe your "dream wedding location." I already had it! We got married in an adorable church, and the best part was that it was blue (Isaiah's and mine favorite color).

I hope you join in on the blog party. You don't have to have a blog to join in. They let you email, twitter or facebook your answers, and the prizes are beyond amazing. It really is fun (and a great way to procrastinate from homework).

Things I'm Thinking About Instead of Doing Homework

2011-05-31T15:03:00.000-04:00

I have to admit, I'm not doing homework. I'm supposed to be doing my world religions class reading and then dishes, but for some reason today I'm just having trouble buckling down and doing homework. So I thought I would share what I'm thinking about.

Right now, I'm thinking about wanting to go see my mom. We are really close and with the ups and downs of things with my grandmother, we are really missing each other. Its been really straining on both of us.

I'm also thinking about graduating from SPC. Its about two months away and I can't wait. It will be so exciting to know that I'm at least part way done with everything.

Along those lines, I'm thinking about the fact that I need to find a dress for graduation and can't find one anywhere!

Also, I'm thinking about the fact that I'm going to have some issues with USF because the major I want to do is not available at the St. Pete campus and I'm not sure where to go from here. I know that God will work it out, but there you go.

I'm thinking about the amazing frappucino poster I made (top of post) for my favorite frappucino from starbucks: mocha frappucino with extra mocha, espresso shot, extra whip cream, caramel drizzle and chocolate powder. It sounds sinfully delicious.

I'm thinking about how much I am missing my husband right now. With him being in classes 4 nights a week, I see him for 30 minutes for lunch and supper and then I don't see him until 10. I know it could be worse, he could at war or traveling all the time. But its been rough. Thankfully this last weekend we were able to spend time together and it was great. But it has been rough. Oh well.

Finally, and most importantly, I'm thinking about how much God loves us. Sometimes its hard to remember how much God loves me. I know His plan is amazing and I know He loves me, but sometimes its hard to remember when bad things happen. This weekend though, I was really reminded over and over how much He loves me.

What are you thinking about? Are you having trouble getting to whatever you are supposed to be doing too?

Birthday Giveaway Winner

2011-05-26T00:20:00.000-04:00

Well, we have ourselves another winner. Our winner will get a $15 credit to UUPP. How exciting. I really, really love basically everything in her shop. I have to say, I'm pretty jealous. I would like to say thank you to Carrie for hosting this giveaway. I appreciate it.

The winner of this giveaway (picked at random from random.org) is Lucky Luna from Luckys Luna. She won with comment #39:

"My favorite item is the Every Woman Should Have a Blowtorch - Julia Child quote, so funny and cute!!".

I will be emailing you, please respond within 48 hours or I will pick another winner.

P.S. If you are interested, or know someone who would be interesting, in hosting a review/giveaway, please shoot me an email at katietamblingson at yahoo dot com. I'm always looking for something fun to giveaway to my readers.

School Frustrations and Excitement

2011-05-25T15:51:00.001-04:00

A while ago (like January while) I wrote about my school and all that was going on. At that point I had done a year at Clearwater Christian College (CCC). Then I took a semester off and was about to start at St. Petersburg College (SPC). I was so nervous. I had never been in a public school setting before since I was homeschooled since kindergarten, then went to a tiny Christian private school for my first year of college. Transferring to SPC was definitely the right decision, but it was not easy.

I went through my spring semester and after much going back and forth realized that it looked like I could graduate with my AA from SPC at the end of July. YAY I went and met with an advisor to check on it, and she looked at the class schedule I had and (being totally serious) suggested I get counseling because of the workload I had. Then she looked at my classes and agreed with what I had already thought, that if I took 3 rough classes this summer I could graduate in July with my AA. For those of you who don't know, an AA is an Associates in Arts degree or a two year degree.

My work load last semester was pretty crazy. Thankfully my dear husband took up the slack around the apartment since he didn't have a hard semester and encouraged me. I can't tell you how many times I called my mother super upset because my husband was doing laundry and dishes. I felt like a terrible wife because I was doing school and he was taking care of the house. My amazing, wise mother kept reminding me that it was ok. This is the period of my life I'm in. She reminded me that my husband really wanted me to get my education and the amazing man that he is was happy to help, and that it was ok. I have an amazing husband and mother!

During the spring semester I applied to the University of South Florida to enter in the fall. Isaiah goes to school there for business and they have a great social studies education program (my major). Honestly, I didn't think I would get. My grades were not stellar and to be honest, I never thought I would be good enough for a state school. It was like I had always thought I was not good enough for it, and I would be going to small schools. It was a hard time waiting to hear whether I was accepted. Honestly, I checked everyday. hehe

I ended the spring semester having a 4.0 semester (which brought my GPA to 3.2) and was so relieved to be done. I got a week off of school (so did Isaiah so it was nice) to recoup and (I thought) catch up on the house. God had different plans. Instead I got the flu, then when I was finally better, my grandmother went into the hospital. Oh well.

I started back to school with 3 classes (though they are summer and thus condensed so, according to the advisor, its considered twice the work). I have world religions (its.. interesting) and 2 sciences. UGH I'm takig oceanography and biological issues. I have to say, its different. I'm aweful at science so we will see how this goes. If anyone wants to offer tutoring..... lol

I started this semester with a bang, or my grandmother being in the hospital etc. Then this week I found out I got accepted into USF!!! I am now a bull. I am so excited. I'm really praying I can have the same schedule as my husband for fall, so we can at least drive to class together.

I am so tired of school, honestly. I can't cont the number of times I have questioned why I am doing all this. I know that God has a plan, and I'm ok with that, but sometimes its hard. My husband, thankfully is super beyond supportive and helpful, but its hard.

I have to say I'm excited to be graduating this July with my AA. I feel like its not a big deal, kind of like graduating from middle school. I feel like ok, yes I worked hard to get here, but it really does not count for much. But its something.

It will be nice going to school at the same school with Isaiah. And to being a bull (USF's mascot). So that is my school right now. How exciting. Or not.

Blessings Through Raindrops

2011-05-22T18:01:00.001-04:00

Ever going through something and then BAM a song comes on the radio. The song really speaks to exactly what you are going through. That happened to me. I was really questioning God at one point. I was wondering why God would do things this way. Its been a pretty rough year. It felt like God was almost enjoying throwing things in our path. Ever felt like that? Am I the only one who has felt like that? I'm not saying that its the right way to feel, but it was how I was feeling at the time. I was wondering how God could keep giving us hard times. My faith in God was shaken to the extreme.

I was driving home from somewhere and suddenly the song Blessings by Laura Story came on the radio. It was like God was speaking directly to me. God was showing me that His plan doesn't always make sense to us. His plan can be painful, and miserable. We pray for God to bless in so many ways, but what if His blessings came through the painful times?

Through this time, my faith has grown in leaps and bounds. I am working things out, but I know that God is using all the rough times to bless me. He loves me so much, that He has a perfect plan for me and sometimes it includes pain. The peace that comes through having faith in God and His plan is beyond comprehension. I don't have to worry about anything, because my God is in control. His plan is perfect, even when His blessings come through raindrops.

Blessings by Laura Story

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

Its My Birthday

2011-05-18T12:01:00.000-04:00

So today 20 years ago I was a little red, thing with lots of hair. I would post pictures, but my mother has all the ones of me as a cute little kid. Oh well. But today is my birthday. I am officially not a teenager anymore!! WOOHOO.

I love birthdays, and to me this is a big one. I can't tell you how many times I was told I was a baby and how am I married and on and on. Honestly, the teen years were not the best. So all that adds up to me being very excited about my birthday today. YAY.

We are not doing anything big. Isaiah has class tonight and I have school so its pretty low key. Last night Isaiah's brother Reuben, and his wife, Candace, surprised me and took Isaiah and I out to dinner at Red Lobster. I had crab legs for the first time EVER. YUM. Though the legs were a lot of work. And I have coconut shrimp left over for lunch.

Tonight, after class, Isaiah is taking me out to Outback (my favorite nicer restaurant). I am so excited. And before that my friend Heather is surprising me and we are doing something fun. Isaiah says he has something planned for Saturday, so I get to look forward to that.

The best birthday present I got was to have my grandmother be doing great though. She is probably getting sent to rehab today! She came through her surgery pretty well. My mother finally got to go home for the night last night in a long time. That is a great present to be getting.

So far, I am having a wonderful, lazy birthday. Its been wonderful.

Birthday Giveaway - UUPP

2011-05-15T23:33:00.008-04:00

This giveaway is closed.

After the crazy weekend I've had (that is another post for another time when I'm actually awake) I needed something exciting and fun. Well here it is. My birthday is Wednesday (I turn the big 2-0) so I'm giving you a birthday present. Carrie from UUPP offered to do a giveaway and I was so excited I wanted to post it early, before my birthday even. So here you go, happy birthday to me.

You may remember UUPP from my wishlist. I fell in love with her Home Is Where Your Story Begins print. I really want one. Someday.

One of the neat thing about her prints is that she lets you customize a lot of the colors of the prints. And she has all kinds of fun prints, and cards.

Here's some more fun stuff from her shop:

But for now, you my dear reader, get to get something very exciting from her shop. Carrie is offering one of you a $15 giftcard to her shop. YAY

The giveaway ends May 25. Make sure your email is visible in your blogger profile, or in your comment. Also, make sure each entry is in a different comment to count. This giveaway is only open to those in the United States (sorry those of you worldwide).

To Enter:

Mandatory First Entry: (this must be done before any other entries)

1. Visit UUPP and tell me what your favorite item from her store is in a comment.

Extra Entries:
2. Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect. 1 entry
.3. Follow Carrie's blog, Happy to be UUPP. 1 entry
4. Follow my blog via Networked Blogs on facebook. 1 entry
5. Vote for my blog on "On The Fence" (see side bar). 1 entry
6." Heart" UUPP on etsy. 1 entry
7. "Like" Carrie's facebook page. 1 entry
8. Buy something from UUPP. 5 entries

Lots of ways to win this one. Enjoy.

Please Pray

2011-05-13T14:29:00.000-04:00

I would like to ask those of you out there who read this blog to please pray for my Meema (or grandmother for those of not from the south). She has very severe Alzhiemers. Late last night she fell at her nursing home. My mother did not find out until today. But evidently it is very serious. She broke her hip and leg, though for those who understand medical things I do not have much more information. The doctor says she has to have surgery, though are not sure when yet.

Its very hard because with her Alzhiemers she does not understand what is happening to her or why she is hurting. She has a compulsion to take off any kind of dressing or bandaids or pull out stitches. This surgery is supposed to be pretty intense, and we are concerned with her recovery.

Isaiah and I are headed to see her, and my family after Isaiah gets off work today.

I would ask people to be praying. I will know more when I get there tonight, and if possible I will post more. I just ask you to be praying for her and for my family.

Let's Get Excited!

2011-05-10T15:27:00.000-04:00

Church on Sunday was amazing. I could write a weeks worth of posts about what I got out of it, and what I learned. It was a real revival. Sunday morning service was amazing. After the sermon, the altar was four and five people thick. Over a quarter of the congregation were at the altar. It was so moving. The visiting preacher really preached his heart out. It was one of those services you remember your whole life.

Sunday evening service was moving, but in a different way. The preacher preached on getting excited about God. It really convicted me.

How many times have I sat in church and thought about all kinds of things that were not about church? How many times have I woken up on a Sunday morning and not wanted to go to church? How many times have I spent times have I talked about God in a way that was boring?

I can't count how many times I've gone to church basically dreading it. I've gone just hoping to get through the day, or wanting to get through service just so I can talk to my friends. But how many times have I been excited about an Auburn football game, or going to hang out with my friends?

How convicting it is to think that I'm more excited to go to Starbucks with my friend than worshiping my God! I want to be like David who was so excited to worship God that he danced around the ark. I don't want to be like Michal who looked in scorn on David's worship. 2 Samuel 6:13-23

I want to be excited about God. I want people to see how excited I am about my Savior. Its an exciting thing to serve Him. Its an exciting thing to worship Him. Its an exciting thing to follow the plan He has for my life. Its an exciting thing to love Him.

Another thing that the pastor talked about in his sermon, that really hit home, was that children will mimic the worship and excitement about God that their parents have. I can see that in my life. I have seen families where the parents do not act excited about God. They act like worshiping God is a chore to be done. In those families, you can watch the children and quite a few of them have fallen away from the faith or don't have a good relationship with God. Then I see those families who parents have an excitement about God and their families and the children are close with God. I am not saying that all children that fall away from the faith are caused by parent's not be excited about God, or that children whose parents aren't excited about God can't be excited. I am just saying that I can see a correlation in my life.

I want my children to see my worship of God and want that. I want my children to get excited about God because they see Isaiah and mine worship and excitement of God.

Worshiping God should be the highlight of my life. It should be the thing I get the most excited about. I should get ecstatic about the chance to go to church, read my Bible, pray and all other acts of worship. Everyone around me should see that worshiping God is the highlight of my life and want to learn more.

I Got An Award!

2011-05-08T00:52:00.000-04:00

ver·sa·tile/ˈvərsətl/Adjective 1. Able to adapt or be adapted to many different functions or activities

blogger / blog / noun 1. Blog - is a short form of “web log”. Log means a diary or journal, usually a notebook where you write regular reports of what you did or thought.

I am really excited. My blog was awarded The Versatile Blogger award by Ruth (my wonderful sister in law), at Life With Ruth Is..... Thank you so much Ruth. Check out her blog, she has all kinds of poetry that she writes, and her musings on life. I am supposed to write a few things about myself, and then nominate a couple other blogs with this award. How fun.

About me:
1. I love pasta. I have never met a pasta I didn't fall in love with immediately. Its a terrible obsession, but its my lifelong love (yes, my husband knows of this love).

2. I am Italian and Irish, with a few others things thrown in but those are the main two. Its a random combination, but it made me.

3. My mom is my best friend. We talk just about every day. After my husband, she knows the most about me.

4. I love history, and politics. That is why I wanted to go into social studies education. I can't wait to teach teenagers about history and government. Lots of people tell me I'm crazy.

5. I teach piano. I only have a few students for now, but I wouldn't mind growing it some. I am just starting to teach, but I enjoy it.

6. I love sweat tea. In that way, I am a total souther girl. The more sugary and syrupy the better.

7. I am almost wearing some kind of flower, clip or bow or something in my hair. And, my hair is almost always up in a messy, curly bun thing.

I am awarding The Versatile Blog to learning to love and Fit, Fierce and Fabulous.

My Wishlist

2011-05-05T21:51:00.006-04:00

As of this afternoon I am officially done with this semester. I start back to another semester in about a week and a half, but for a blissful week and a half I am school free. To celebrate I am doing some dreaming and hoping and wishing and posting a list of a few things I am wishing for. Some are more realistic than others, and honestly there is probably other things I would wish for, but here are a few things.

I am not trying to sound un-thankful for the wonderful things I have. I have a wonderful husband, two adorable cats, food to eat and an apartment. But these are just a few things I am day dreaming about, and wishing for. Oh, and its almost my birthday so its nice to dream about that too.

1. This purse, Olivia, from the amazing Vera Bradley. I really love the colorful flowers, and the cute bows. Oh, and did I mention its on sale?

2. This wallet from Target. I have had my whole wallet for a while. I love it, but its starting to get old and I would really love to replace it sometime soon.

3. I found this etsy shop through a blog giveaway and I totally fell in love with some of their prints. This is probably my favorite one. This print from the shop UUPP is just so cute.

4. Now comes the more expensive stuff. We REALLY need a new car. I am in love with this car. I am a huge Chevrolet fan (I come from a Chevy family) and I love this car. Its big enough to grow into as our family grows in the future, but is not as large as an SUV. Its the Chevrolet Traverse.

5. I love Starbuck's Frappucinos!!! My favorite is the mocha flavor. I get mine with extra whip and with caramel drizzle. I know, its terrible for me. But I splurge every couple months and get one.

6. If you wear skirts, like I do, you have to check out Style J. I have one of their skirts, and I fell in love with them. They are very comfy and modest. Oh, and did I mention cute. This is the one I really want to get next.

7. I found Lilla Rose through a blogging giveaway and I have to admit, I really want one. They are so pretty, and (from the reviews I've read) work well for holding up masses of hair, like mine. This is the Celtic Know clip, which is special to me because I love all things Irish.

8. Here's another expensive one, but maybe more on the radar. I do not like my phone. Its really frustrating, and does not work well. Now that the iphone is on Verizon its possible. yay. I am up for a new phone this summer, so we will see.

9. This one is a little different. We live in a tiny apartment in not the best neighborhood. I've always dreamed of having a cute, vintage, wooden house in a quiet neighborhood. No, this is not the exact house, but its the basic idea.

10. I really love this slipcover. Our couches were generously given to us by my dear sister in law, but I would love to get this slipcover and then sew some accent pillows.

11. Finally, I really want to do a photo shoot with me and my dear husband. Our wedding pictures turned out, well less than stellar. I have wanted to do this since we got married.

12. I love this necklace from The Vintage Pearl. You can have your initials on the little heart. Its called Vintage Lovebirds. Its my favorite of their necklaces.

13. Finally, and this is the new one that I just added, I love these shoes from Toms. I think its great that they donate one pair of shoes for every pair of shoes that is bought.

That is my wishlist. Its things I wish for, most of which I will probably never actually get. But its nice to dream.

What is something you wish for? Do you have a wishlist?

Weekend in Orlando

2011-05-03T18:14:00.003-04:00

This past weekend Isaiah and I stayed stayed with my biological dad in Orlando, FL (only like a 2 hour drive from where we live in St. Petersburg area). It was really nice to have a relaxing weekend to unwind before finals week (which I'm in right now, double ugh) and the summer gets into full swing. I hadn't seen my dad since January (which is crazy for us) so it was nice all the way around.

We left after Isaiah got off work on Friday. We stopped for Chipotle (my favorite restaurant) on the way over as a special Friday night treat. YUM! Then drove on to Orlando. We got there kind of late, but it was nice to see my dad. We chilled and went to bed early (at least early for us, which is like 12 pm).

Saturday we stayed at the hotel (more like a small apartment, with a kitchen and all) most of the day. Isaiah went swimming, I napped and my dad had some work. It was super relaxing. Saturday evening Isaiah, my dad and I went to Citywalk at Universal Orlando. Its an area with all kinds of shops and restaurants. Its really a neat place. My dad took us to eat. I had an amazing hamburger, with guacamole, cucumber, tomatoes and ranch dressing. Yes, I'm odd, but man was it good.

Me and my dad outside the Hard Rock Cafe.

Isaiah and I at Citywalk.

I love my husband! <3

On Sunday, we slept in. My husband spoiled me and made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. We didn't eat until 12 ish but it was worth it.

Isaiah making me breakfast.

As Isaiah says, "Chocolate chips with a little pancake thrown in to keep them together." And its pretty.

My dad waiting for pancakes too.

That afternoon we met Isaiah's brother and sister-in-law at the Florida Mall. They go to church in Orlando, so it worked perfectly. It was really fun. Then we went and met Isaiah's sister and her boyfriend for supper at T.G.I Fridays. They had gone to Seaworld. I have to admit I was a little jealous. We honestly didn't plan for all of us to be in Orlando the same day, but it worked out that way.

Isaiah and I stopped for lunch at a McDonald's with a bistro. I had never been there, but Isaiah had gone there the morning of our wedding, so its kind of special to us. This McDonald's is crazy. You have the regular McD's food there, but there is also bistro type pastries and sandwiches. Inside its set up kind of like a fancy coffeehouse. On the second floor, (yes there's a second floor) there is a full arcade. It was crazy.

Isaiah sitting in the very comfy chairs. Isn't my smoothie pretty?

If you have never been to the Florida Mall, its a crazy place. There is a hotel that is connected directly to it. It amazed me. Its huge. I could easily spend days there.

In the Florida Mall there is a an M&M world. I loved it. Chocolate is my downfall. I'm still trying to figure out what happened to make that splotch on my shirt. Its not actually on the shirt, odd.

Isaiah's little sister, Abigail, and her boyfriend Matt at supper with us.

It was a really fun weekend. As you can see, I ate way too much. It was nice to relax. Now to get back to the grind of studying for finals.

Giveaway Winner - Laurelleecreativity

2011-05-01T11:32:00.001-04:00

Folks, we have a winner! We are on vacation this weekend (pictures and post to come later) but I wanted to post the giveaway winner. I have to say again, I'm super jealous. The giveaway was for a headband from Laurelleecreativity. I really encourage you to check out her shop, and buy something. Her blog, Create, is a lot of fun to read.

The winner was picked using random.org and the winner was #8, Marija with, "following you via GFC". Congratulations. I am emailing you today. Please respond within 48 hours or another winner will be picked.

P.S. I love hosting giveaways/reviews, especially for etsy or handmade items. If you have an etsy shop, or any kind of product and would be interested in doing a giveaway/review on my blog, please let me know. Email me at katietamblingson at yahoo dot com.

Art I'm Loving 2

2011-04-28T20:26:00.001-04:00

Today was my last class in humanities (except for the final, yuck) and I wanted to share another art I'm loving post. I have a lot of art I'm in love with so I won't put all of it in this post. I will probably do another one. But I wanted to post one because its fun. yay

This is Caspar David Friedrich's Monk by the Sea. It shows a loan monk looking out into the vast horizon as a storm starts to form. It is one of the first to not fully feature the human in the picture. It was revolutionary. Its very peaceful and moving.

This is Jean-Francoise Millet's The Gleaners. It was inspired in part by Genesis 3:19 ("In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread."). Its controlled dignity and beauty shows the hard working lower class women. Before this time, painting the lower classes was almost unheard of but then during this period it became more and more popular.

When photography was invented, it revolutionized art. Julia Margaret Cameron took photography from just documenting people, to an art form. The subjects of her photographs tend to look wistful. It makes you wonder what haunts them, or what trials they have that would make them look like this.

Claude Monet was part of a group of artists in France known as the impressionists. They changed art forever. Before them art was supposed to be about remaking things to look exactly the same they do in real life. Impressionists wanted to change that. As you can see, this art is not completely clear. Its more dreamy and makes you see the subject in a different way. Monet is my favorite artist. I love his dreamy, serene pictures. This is his Waterloo Bridge, London.

This is Georgia O'Keefe's Cow's Skull with Calico Roses. While it is different I think its beautiful and different. Usually you would not think a cow's skull is beautiful, but O'Keefe makes it beautiful in its starkness and as paired with the rose.

My mom loves Mary Cassatt. Her pictures of mothers and children are very sweet. She paints the sweet moments, and everyday moments between mothers and children. I honestly had a hard time picking a picture of hers. There are so many I love. This is her Breakfast in Bed.

This is Edouard Manet's (not to be confused with Monet) Madame Manet and Leon. The bright, clean colors make me think of an early, relaxing morning. Her gaze seems to look right inside of you and knows every thing about you.

Finally, this is Romero Britto's Sweet Kisses. My father knows him, and I grew up going to his gallery in Miami Beach a lot as a child. His bright colors and cartoon like subjects are so pretty, and cute. This picture is so cute and sweet. I really want a print for my house.

So there is some of my favorite art. I hope you enjoyed seeing some of it. I have to say its not all of it, by any stretch of the imagination, but its some. Do you have any favorite artist or painting?

Easter

2011-04-23T23:16:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is the day we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. I really wish I had more time to stop and write a long post about my Lord, and God coming to earth and becoming Man, and all the pain and struggles that go with being human, and coming down because our debt had to be paid. I'm in awe of that kind of love. Jesus, our God, the God above all gods, the Lord of the universe, came to earth to satisfy my sin debt. What love.

He went to that garden and waited for the men to come. Can you imagine what he went through for us? The literal torture. I once read a breakdown of the torture Jesus went through, but I try to keep this G-rated. Just know that it was terrible. If you want to know more go here.

But after His death, the story does not end. He is put in a tomb, and prepared for burial. If the story ended there, it would be nice but would have no power. It is what happened after that that the entire Christian faith is built upon.

Jesus arose! The earth could not hold Him. He was resurrected. The tomb could not hold Him.

Sometimes that story gets lost on those of us that have heard it all of our life. We have heard the story so many times that the major impact seems to have been lost. But it should not be. It is the most powerful story in the history of the world.

I wish I could write more, and go on about it all, but alas it is 11:00 pm and we have to get up early for church tomorrow, so this will have to suffice.

Here is a Easter Montage done by the local radio station. Also, here are some of my favorite Easter songs. I hope you enjoy it.

How Big Is Your God?

2011-04-18T00:01:00.001-04:00

Today in church our pastor's sermon was on how big our God is. He was talking about how we tend to make God so small. We tend to look at our life and think that God is big, but maybe not big enough to handle.... (you fill in the blank). For some reason, we think that our God is not big enough to handle whatever it is we are going through. We hear how God worked in other people's lives and think that God was big enough to handle their problems, but He's not big enough to handle ours.

If we only realized how huge our God is. If we only were able to believe how huge and powerful our God is it would change our life. We would realize that all of our trials and problems are nothing compared to our God than we would live our lives in a totally different way.

We serve a powerful God. We serve the God who knows everything about us. We serve the God who created the universe. This is the God we serve.

Something my pastor said that really hit home with me was that God does not need us. He is still our Savior, whether or not we receive salvation. He is our Redeemer, whether or not we ask for redemption. He is also still our Healer, whether or we not we ask for healing.

We serve the same God who did so many powerful works in the Bible. We serve the God who stopped a funeral procession and brought the boy back to life (think about being on the way to bury someone and some Man stops you and brings the deceased back to life, wow). He is the same God who raised Lazarus from the dead after 4 days. Lazarus was stinking already and he was brought back to life. This is the God who healed the woman that had been bleeding for years and years. He healed her immediately. This is the God who came into the dust of this sinful world and became Man. He went through the pain we go through, and understands our pains. And guess what, that is the God we serve.

Our pastor told the story of the Elisha and his servant. Elisha was surrounded by the king of Syria who wanted to kill him. His servant boy looked out at the huge Syrian army surrounding the city and was scared. Elisha prayed to God and asked that God would open the young man's eyes. When the young man's eyes were opened he saw that the mountains were filled with horses and chariots of fire. (2 Kings 6: 14-17)

That is how it is with our problems. So many times we are like Elisha's young servant and all we can see is the trial. What we cannot see is how much bigger our Lord is. If we were able to see how much larger our God is than our problem, how much pain and anxiety could be taken away?

My pastor shared a quote someone told him that really spoke to me. A man my pastor was talking to one time who said he believed in God, but nothing backed it up, and the man told him a very powerful thing, "When you think you have God figured out, you've limited Him."

My pastor had us sing this song twice today, and after thinking about all this it really impacted me.

I know so many times I limit God. I look at the mountain which is my problem. I tell God how huge the mountain of problems I have is, but I should be telling the mountain of problems how big my God is.

Giveaway - Laurelleecreativity

2011-04-16T20:11:00.002-04:00

I now I just did a giveaway, but I have another one. I won't post them so often, but I wanted to post this one. I'm really excited about it. I love giveaways. I've won a few, and they are so much fun. I don't want my blog to focus on giveaways, like a lot of them do, but I like doing them when I have the chance. It feels like I'm giving back.

I love Laurel's blog and her shop. Her blog, Create, is really cute. She talks about her husband, and family. And her fun shop. She announced that she is pregnant. How exciting! I really enjoy how god is such a part of her life. Its so a part of her life and you can tell. Her relationship with God isn't forced, or put on, but just a natural part of her life. I have to say I really love her name. Its so creative and different, unlike mine.

Her shop, Laurelleecreativity, has all kinds of cute, handmade items. I really love her hair clips. Everything in her shop is very original. One thing I was really impressed with was in February all the proceeds from her shop, yes ALL, went towards her brother in law's tuition in a faith based program. That was really special to me.

Laurel is giving one very special person a handmade headband. Its really cute.

Isn't it pretty? I love it. I really love original, and cute hair stuff. I'm sure one of you will really like it. The giveaway ends April 30. Make sure your email is visible in your blogger profile, or in your comment. Also, make sure each entry is in a different comment to count.

To Enter:

Mandatory First Entry: (this must be done before any other entries)

1. Visit Laurelleecreativity and tell me what your favorite item from her store is in a comment.

Extra Entries:

2. Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect. 1 entry.

3. Follow Laurel's blog, Create

4. Follow my blog via Networked Blogs on facebook. 1 entry

5. Vote for my blog on "On The Fence". 1 entry

Enjoy.

Our Universe

2011-04-15T23:59:00.001-04:00

Right now I'm taking astronomy, and lately we have been learning about the stars, and the planets in our solar system. Its been all about all the different things in the universe, and its been amazing. I wanted to share some of it with you. I am so glad I took astronomy. It has been really fascinating.

This nebula is a star nursery. I won't go into the details about how a star is born, but it is truly amazing, and this is so beautiful.

This is the crab nebula. It was formed when a star died. This star blew up and was recorded by Chinese astronomers in the 1000's.

This is Saturn. It is actually not the only planet to have rings. Its rings are just very well seen. The rings are very thin, almost transparent. The gap you see, and the way the rings stay together are because of Saturn's moons.

I think this where a star blew up again.

This is another star nursery. If you enlarge the picture, and look at the tiny balls sticking out like little eggs, those are stars being formed.

Its the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter. You can see the big red hurricane. Jupiter causes all kinds of havoc in the solar system. It is basically a big ball of gas.

Isn't God great? That He could do all this? Wow. Just think about all He did. He didn't have to make it so beautiful, or fascinating, but He did.

Taking a Break

2011-04-12T23:46:00.000-04:00

I just wanted all you readers, or the ones who care about the blog, that I am taking a few days off from the blog. I'm going through some tough right now and I just need a few days off. Please pray for me as I make some hard decisions and go through everything. I will write more and start back soon, but for now, I haven't forgotten about you, my wonderful readers (though honestly not sure if I have any but I'm being optimistic). When I get back, hopefully I will have a lot say.

Please be praying for me. I could really use it right now.

Here's my challenge. Tell someone how much you appreciate them today, especially a friend. I have found that we don't share appreciation enough. We tend to take each other for granted.

Finally, I guest blogged on The Type A Housewife. I hope you enjoy it.

Giveaway Winner

2011-04-09T00:18:00.000-04:00

We have a giveaway winner. WOOT WOOT!!! Congratulations to Krista from A Southern Belle's Crafty Tales. She won the two blooms from Petunia Blooms. She was picked using random.org as comment #31. Please respond within 48 hours to receive the blooms.

I have to say, I'm jealous. These are beautiful.

Be on the lookout for another giveaway coming soon!

Bring the Rain - The Continuing Story

2011-04-07T20:29:00.002-04:00

Its interesting, but right before we lost loss of Faith I wrote a post called Bring the Rain. It wasn't until we lost her that this song really became real to me. It was the song Isaiah and I clung to during everything. We sung it in church on Sunday and I wanted to post something on here about it. I didn't even realize that I had already written something about the song, but this one is the more personal side of it.

I still struggle with losing Faith. I don't think a day goes by that I don't think about what happened. But I know that God had a plan. Doesn't that sound almost trite? When you are going through something hard and someone tells you, "well honey, God had a plan." don't you just kind of want to punch them? Maybe I'm overly violent and a terrible Christian but its hard to hear.

Long ago I told God that my life was in His hands. I guess I did not realize what all that would mean. But through this I realized that sometimes it takes the storms in life to praise God.

Sometimes God send the rain into your life to bring you to Him. Its during the times in my life that have been terrible that I've grown so much closer to God. And God wants to use it to praise Him through your life. Also, it tends to be the storms in your life that strengthen your testimony. How many testimonies of God's goodness have you heard that come from easy parts of life? I'm sure its happened, but usually its the storms in life that we can use as testimonies to serve other people.

I want my life to be a testimony to other people, and a way to show God's love to people. Sometimes that means God brings the rain and that's ok. I want my life to be a praise God and sometimes that means that He brings the rain.