Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Colby and I had a fun time at the end of February attending the marriage conference (Crazy Little Thing Called Love) that our church put on for the Life Stage 2 couples. It was a lot of fun and great to spend time with other couples our age and many friends from our small group. It's really refreshing to sit back and take another perspective about your marriage and things to work on. Colby and I are coming up on 6 years, gulp, in May and although we're out of the "newlywed phase" I know there are still so many things that God has shown us that we can do to improve our marriage, and therefore our relationship as a couple with Him.

The conference was at the Gaylord Texan, which is a beautiful hotel and conference center.  Such a cool place! We wish we could have afforded to stay there with the rest of the conference, but just getting to go hear the sessions was great! Here we decided to pose on a balcony and pretend! :)

 Here we are cracking up at the effort it took to take this "pretend" Gaylord picture

 And here's the effort! HA! We love you David, our loyal door holder! Thanks for helping us make memories! :)

 So, I mentioned we couldn't stay at the Gaylord, but don't feel sorry for us, we did get to stay at the Hyatt! Whoohoo! I don't remember the last time we had a little getaway, so this was a rare treat. We did a last minute Priceline name your price bid and got to stay in Grapevine at the 4 star Hyatt for super cheap! Have you ever tried that? We never had, and it was a fun surprise! Especially since we would have had to drive back and forth with early hours. Thanks to the McHenrys for taking care of Rocky for us!

This bed was so comfy! We seriously looked at the mattress and wrote down the model number!

 

Yay Marriage Retreat!

 

 In between sessions, we got to walk around Grapevine Mainstreet, have lunch with friends at a precious bakery, and ooogle over all the cute shops.

 Paige and Briyana, love these sweet girls

Saturday night was supposed to be a fun date night out as a couple, but Colb and I came back home and spent time with a date night in of Rosa's and watching a movie. Just perfect and our type of date! Thank you Lord for blessing us with the gift of marriage!

Living on Less

This is a little different than most of my posts, but I really feel like I need to throw this out there. So a couple of weeks ago at church on our missions Sunday, we received a little bag of rice and beans as we were leaving church. Attached to it was a note with- "What if this is all you have to eat today?  1.4 billion people live on less than a $1.25 per day. What could you give up this week to live on less?" It linked to our church's website that listed facts about other countries, as well as tips for living on less.

 I opened it up when I got home and poured it out to see the tiniest amount of food. For the day? Really? Wow. And then I said, really God? Us live on less? You know how much "less" we live on right now. (said, as I grab my iphone and check up on facebook updates) Oh but Lord it's one of the very first generation iphones that runs slow, doesn't have video, etc. You know we support missions and tithe already Lord. And you know so and so who does X with their financial blessings are way more out of line that we are. Oh justification- sure does make us feel better, right?

I definitely felt a bout of conviction and just feeling "beat down" in general. There are so many times that I worry about our finances and complain on what we miss out on & no extras, etc. with Colby having negative income with lots of tuition, my grad school tuition and half-time nurses salary, bills, student loans building up, expensive medical bills and crummy insurance so that we avoid going to the Dr. while others are going for free, we don't have this or that, or wish we could afford such and such, yadda yadda yadda.  But do I really know what true hardship is? Could I really eat that tiny amount of rice and beans all day?

The answer is no. I don't know what it means. I can still stop through Sonic to grab a lime Dr. Pepper at happy hour and spend that $1.25 that those people live on in an instant. Am I saying that I need to sell everything we own or should I feel guilty for owning the things I do? No. But I should praise God more for each blessing He does give me and really question what I do "need."  Do I need to search harder for things that we really could give up to help others? Yes. And instead of saying "when we are financially stable and both have jobs, or when this changes then we will...."

Really, as I laid my head down on my soft pillow, in my warm bed I just felt led to post this because I need to confess my inmost insecurity of trusting God's provision. And why? Why is it that I still do this after He has shown me time after time that He will provide for us? He daily shows me that He is in control. Yet I become a worry-wart that flips out over littlest thing.

I know several people are in the same situation that we are, or is it just me? So my question is, how do you stay balanced between being able to give, knowing what and when to give, feeling secure in what you do have and not comparing yourself to others, and above all truly having a heart that praises God for each blessing?

I suppose it's a minute to minute challenge and something that I will need to constantly ask God for help with. So my question for myself and others, "What could you give up this week to live on less?"

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" Matthew 6: 25-27
www.ccbcfamily.org/liveonless

Eye-bulls

So, a couple of weekends ago, Colby attended an eye research conference. What is an eye research conference you ask? Well, it's something that's quite nerdy where a bunch of people from all over the country come to present and listen to research about, well, the eye. Retinal stem cells, glaucoma, yadda yadda. Anyhoo- Colby gave up one of his free weekends to attend this. Let me tell ya, the man's committed.

I know, you're waiting for the point and my corny post title. Well, part of his registration packet included a night out at Billy Bob's Texas, which if you don't know is one of the largest Honky Tonks in Texas. And this night included entrance fee, dinner, drinks, bull-riding, and a Miranda Lambert concert (that was sold out). So I say to the hubs, we're going right? And he says, no I need to study. Whaa?? You're telling me that you've been sitting all day long listening to research and then you're going to go study for the rest of the evening? Did I mention it was FREE? Boo... Well, I was not a happy camper, but it just added to the con column of the medical journey.

Well, a couple of hours into his studying, I tried again....are you SURE you don't want to just go and get dinner? eh? eh? And what do you know? He caved! Wife wins! But then he said, "if I fail my shelf exam, it's your fault." Ugh! Pray he didn't fail it, or I'm in T-R-O-U-B-L-E!
Anyhow, we got to pop into Billy Bobs for a couple of hours, ate dinner, saw a little bull-riding, then bee-lined out of there before the teenage girls crashed toward the stage. Sorry Miranda. Wish we could of danced, but just walking is a little difficult for me right now with my knee, so that was a bummer.
And what do you know, when we got home, he studied. Love him.

 Well it's bulls and blood, it's dust and mud...

 Hello cowboys

 This guy didn't wear a helmet-yikes!

 I always love the rodeo clowns

Will you be Mine?

Valentine's 2011 came and went pretty quickly. We both were at the hospital most of the day on Valentines, but did come home and have our traditional meal of crab legs. I love having a nice meal at home away from the crowds. I guess we never really have been big Valentine's celebrators- is that even a word? Colby sent me flowers one year when we were engaged and living in 2 different places, but other than that- I'm more of a "just because" kind of gal. Although, I love getting cards and words of affirmation no matter the holiday! So I did have one of those tucked in my purse that morning. :)

But, my favorite part about holidays is decorations! I love it! Guess I got that as a hand-me-down from my mom who always decorated when I was growing up and she sends me something fun each year to add to the collection. Colby rolls his eyes and grumbles about something else to get out of the attic, but I guess it's something I want to be fun for my kids in the future. I loved having my red and pink around all month long. And don't be fooled, most of the decor is from Big Lots, Hobby Lobby the previous year after holiday-sale, and The Dollar Tree. They have such great finds!

My favorite little guy. Wanted to take a Heart Day pic, but he was a little afraid of the heart, ha!

Ok mom, I'll pose with the flowered rose ball, feeling the love now?

 

Our traditional crab, as seen here, and here, and one more place that I didn't blog about. True story, I ask Colb if we're still planning on our usual dinner, and he looks at me like, what dinner? I then proceed to click through the blog and show him evidence, and he says, well, you proved me wrong! See how blogging spurs the memory! I can't wait to print mine out into books. :)

My Valentine

Yay for love and crab legs- Thanks Albertsons! They are always on sale on Valentines weekend and they steam them and flavor for free in case you didn't know! Just add yummy garlic butter sauce with some parsley.

 

This is probably my favorite little Decoration

I had several scripture blessings from my bridesmaid luncheon, and many of them are about love. So I placed them all over the house as a reminder of God's love for us and His promises. This one was Colossians 3:12-14 which was in our wedding ceremony. ^"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

 

 Then from the same luncheon, my hostesses wrote out a beautiful toast, so I placed this on the mantle as kind of a blessing over our marriage. It looked really pretty too!

 

I have been loving using things I already have and then sprucing them up for the holidays. I put snowflakes on this swag for Christmas, so it was fun to do hearts as well. And thanks to Target's dollar section, stay tuned for some cute Easter eggs! :)

  

Once again, already use this wreath, so put some cute metallic mini hearts on it

 

Pink, red, and glitter, yay!

I put the same mini hearts on all the cabinet knobs, oh Colby, he sure tolerates me well :)

I've had lots of fun changing this little basket on the island out for different holidays, etc. Got to put out the pink flowered balls that I had from college with a little crinkled wrapping and the same mini hearts. They came in a pack of 24 for $2 at Big Lots. I just tell you that to encourage those that are on a budget like us, you can even get good groceries at BL!

And last, my new addition from my mamacita, looked so cute on the front door, but gave Rocky a heart attack every time it hit the door from the wind, may be bringing it inside next year!

Happy Valentines! Hope you had a wonderful day and know that God's love for you surpasses all understanding. Nothing can separate you from His love! May you all be filled with the fullness of God!

Ephesians 3:19

Superbowl XLV

 Once again, our favorite small group leaders The Dunns hosted a fun Superbowl party. This was at the end of the very long snow week, so it was great to get out of the house and spend time with friends that we hadn't gotten to see previously in the week since we didn't have Bible Study b/c of the ice. It was a unanimous crowd going for the Packers, but I mean- I was only rooting for them b/c I love me some Green and Gold, ha! Go Bears! :) We were definitely ready for the Superbowl to come and go, because it seemed like everything in town was Superbowl focused. Trash pickup, iced roads, electricity outages, traffic, blah, blah, blah...Jerry's World. It's sad how much money truly does go into something like that. I mean really, football? Too many starving people in the world in my opinion. Although, I guess it's still a good time to fellowship with friends.

Carolyn's cute (and delicious) cookies!

 

Umm...so The Jackson's cousin won the burrito prize pack at Chipotle which consisted of 25 burritos, guac, salsa & chips. Yummo! So sweet of her to share with us! We had Chipotle for 2 days!

 

 Yummo!

 Love us some Chipotle!

 Colby and Kyle were both on call that night and had to leave the game early to tend to the Trauma ER and the Psych ER. How cute are they in their matching JPS scrubs? :)

 Fun friends

 Phillip, do I have to share?

 Harrison wasn't feeling good, and Dr. Kyle had to check him out!

Love these sweet friends. So blessed for their friendship!

Snow Days

Well, once again the month is going to pass by! Better update! :) February started out with the craziest ice/snow days yet. Colby was on call the night it blew in and came home about 4 in the morning when the sleet was starting. I'm so glad he got to come home a little early, or else he probably would have been stuck! When we woke up that morning, our street was an ice skating rink with about 2 inches of ice! It was freezing cold temperatures for the whole week, so it took awhile to melt! Ugh! There's a reason we live in Texas folks! When Colby was accepted to med school in Pennsylvania first (love you Camille!) I was dreading the whole "winter thing." Relieved to stay in Texas, yet we've gotten a pretty good taste of it after moving from San Antonio to here. People who know us know that we are way too cheap to pay for air conditioner, and let's be honest living tight means something's gotta go. We def lived in San Antonio in a 2 story house and our most expensive electric bill was like $70 bucks in the dead heat of summer. Well, things haven't changed here, we just don't run it too much. But peeps...when it comes to cold- I hate it! I have the space heaters in front of me wherever I sit all winter long, in the bathroom to pre-heat so I can take a shower, am wrapped up in a blanket always, ugh! I just don't like being cold! So this was a hard week. We had several hours without power, and a frozen pipe in our bathroom. However, it made me so grateful to have a warm house to be in. I prayed fervently that week for the homeless that they would find a warm place to sleep.

So we ended up having 4 snow days where Colby was excused from rotations. I was supposed to have Psych clinicals, but since the place I was scheduled operates based on the school district, I was canceled too! So we hunkered down in the house for the week. Ok, I will admit on Tuesday I begged Colb to take me to Rosa's for Taco Tuesday...yah, that wasn't a good idea. We slid all over the place, and barely got Colby's truck back in the driveway. It was great to be able to spend time together in our pajamas. I did have to work on one of the days, since the hospital wasn't closed of course, and mercy- it was a long drive there! It was blowing snow the entire time I was driving at 5:30 in the morning and you couldn't even see where the lanes were on the highway! I prayed the whole drive and thankfully got to and from work safely- Thank you Lord! I gave myself plenty of time and honestly, the scariest thing is the other people driving. I was passed several times by yahoos going way too fast! All the Northern people probably are laughing at our snow days, but frankly, we don't have the plows, snow tires, or equipment to make things still function and it's not safe b/c people don't know how to drive in it! Which makes me wonder- if we consistently have weeks like this each year- how come we don't have snow plows? Hmm... anyway, wanted to remember our cold winter!  PS- I haven't really blogged about this, but since the ski trip, my knee has been doing all kinds of crazy things. So, I've been on crutches, going to physical therapy, etc. and it still isn't really feeling better-prayers appreciated! Just wanted to document that ice and crutches def weren't a good mix, ha! :)

View of our street

 Thick ice

 So, Tuesday was supposed to be trash day, but obviously the trucks couldn't come to pick them up. Everyone's trash cans were literally iced to the road all week.

 Colby about to break his neck ice skating down the driveway

 More surfing- crazy guy. Our kids are in for a heap of a bad example, ha!

 Me waving from the safe un-iced garage

  And this is pretty much what we did all week. Here my boys are the happiest they could be! Rocks snuggling by the fire and Colby snuggling in front of the playstation.