I have so much to be thankful for...

Things are not "good" or "easy" in my life right now, but I know my loving Heavenly Father & His unmerited grace! And for that I am beyond thankful. His Grace and Mercy are enough. He is my strength, my song, my portion, my joy and breath. For these things, I am eternally grateful.

Here are a few more things I am thankful for:

my cuddly babies

Wonderful loving goofy Dad
Best sister friend Karie
Best friend and sweet Mom

My oh so handsome husband in who's arms I am at peace.

how can a game be this addicting?!

Dear Sweet Amy

I know I've told you about my sweet Kindred Spirit Amy W. but let me say more.. I love this lady dearly, she's such an inspiration, listening ear, a kind word, a FANTASTIC laugh, a warm hug, a comforter, and a dear friend. She made me these two precious things for my birthday, made them with her own two hands and one big heart... when I opened the package, I held the Yellow hat up to my face and smelled it in, and wept in it... It means so much to me... So here are a few photos of the two of us and the lovelies she made me!! thank you Amy. I love you.

Be Thou My Vision - Lyrics - Selah

So appropriate for right now.

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.


Be Thou my Wisdom, Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight,
Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.
Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower.
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.

"101 Things I wish I knew When I Got Married:"

This is the current book I'm diving into with both feet! I'm not holding anything back! I'm soaking, taking notes, examining... putting a looking glass into the corners of my spirit and heart, and questioning everything.

I highly encourage you to look into this book, and I'm also going to keep up by posting some of my favorite quotes and tidbits from this great book.

side note:
* This is not a " Christian Book" which makes me very Leary to delve in so quickly, but I looked over it before beginning and I feel like a lot of the concepts we went over with our Pastor before we were married, and I know we've been told a lot of these concepts by our Associate Pastor and His wife, when in Post marital counseling. So as a Christian I'm going to read everything in this book, with a biblical filter, and keeping Christ at the forefront of my mind.

Here are a few tidbits!


Things i'm learing from the book, " 101 Things I wish I knew when I got married: simple lessons to make love last"

By Charlie and Linda Bloom

"We are so much more than our emotions."

" Our qualifications are not hanging in the framed certificates on our walls, but rather are the scars and wounds that we have experienced, endured, and subsequently learned and recovered from."

" So it seems to be with marriage: we either learn to grow through the inevitable challenges of a committed partnership, or we risk being broken by them."
-Charlie

"It wasn't the differences the kept getting us in trouble, but our reactions to them."


" Attempting to dissolve our differences hadn't worked, so we began trying instead to meet them with acceptance, gratitude, and appreciation and to see if we could find the hidden gifts in them. We knew at least intellectually, that it was these differences that had drawn us and made us attractive to each other. At the same time, they were the primary source of what triggered out reactive patterns. Thus we discovered that what drove us crazy about each other and what we were crazy about in each other were one and the same thing. The challenge was neither to to try to change the other nor be willing to change for them, but rather to honor our own uniqueness while strengthening the bonds of loving respect between us."
-Linda

more tidbits to come!

A scary hike....

My dad came down this weekend! It was really lovely timing. My heart is going through a lot right now, and I needed a Dad weekend. A Dad hug, and some Daddy attention. All of which I got :) Thank you Lord! The main reason He visited for the weekend was because He comes down every year for our church's annal Harvest Festival! So Saturday before the Festival ( next post) I wanted to take my dad hiking in one of my favorite spots.
We go hiking here OFTEN and it's VERY close to town! Thankfully. If you live in Fresno I'd be happy to tell you where. And as we were driving into the hiking spot, we saw a BOB CAT run across the ROAD! :D SUCH a beautiful creature and an ABSOLUTE treat! I also almost ran over a tarantula... SICK right?! How often do you see one of those?! Not often...

so please follow along with these lovely photos to see what wonderful treats we've found on the trail! :D

Where I dream and breathe...