Our 17th Wedding Anniversary!

Today was our 17th wedding anniversary!  It seems like we just got married - I'm not kidding!

We can't believe how the years are flying by.  We were talking about how in 17 more years Anna will be 30 and Holly will be 28!  Yikes!

I'm very grateful for Brian and the hubby and father that he is.  I don't give him enough credit and I take him for granted, but I do praise God for the love He has give us for each other.  I can honestly say that I love this man more and more each day!

Brian had to work this weekend, so we celebrated early on Thursday evening!  We had a very informal date night. :)

Tonight I cooked meatloaf with all the fixin's for my honey since he had to work day shift.  When I opened an almost empty ketchup bottle that I had draining upside down, some squirted out onto the counter and it formed a heart!!! :)

Ephesians 5:22 

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord."

Ephesians 5:25 

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;"

Proverbs 5:18-19

"Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth."

Here's My Heart

We were cleaning out our attic tonight and came across a little treasure. I made this box for Brian in my art class my Junior year of high school! It was for our 6 week anniversary! On the bottom it says: "Here's my heart" and on the note that was with it I had told him that I'd given him my heart with a reminder that it was breakable! :) I'm very happy that he is still my sweetheart 18 years later and my heart is also very much intact!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

18 Years Ago

18 years ago today Brian and I had our first date! I usually always do a post on this day, but I dug out our "old" (haha!) photo album from when we were dating and scanned in a few new pics.

This was the Sweetheart's Dance on February 25, 1994!
In Pigeon Forge, TN April 1994. :)

Brian's HS graduation June 4, 1994!

Holly called this our "Catfish Anniversary" tonight, because Brian ate catfish on that first date (I had lasagna!:) We have now been together longer than we've been apart. And I honestly don't remember much before January 29, 1994. I'm a very blessed woman to have such a godly and humble man to still love me after all of these years!

My Birthday Blessings

We celebrated my birthday today with a little lunch at my favorite eatery, Papalenos! The girls also surprised me with a new skirt they had made for my sock monkey!

I told Brian that instead of buying me a gift for us to take the girl up to Perfect North Slopes and go tubing! So that's what we're gonna do tomorrow!

#290 - Another Round of Golf

After our homeschool co-op this afternoon we went to the Par 3 course and this time I got to join in on the fun!

We were able to warm up on a putting green before we played. I snapped a few pictures here because I didn't want to pack my camera around the course. Brian has been teaching the girls all kinds of tricks. :) Holly looks like a pro! Hehe!

We played on teams - Anna/Me and Holly/Brian. Holly and Brian beat us by 4 strokes. :) Anna and I were actually up for 2 holes, but we couldn't hold on for the win!!! It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to go back again!

Psalm 27:14
"Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!"

#286 - Sock Bun Results

Since Anna has been fixing Holly's hair so much, I asked her to help me straighten mine with the Chi the other night. I helped her get started and then she did the rest. When I usually try to do it (which isn't very often:), it takes over an hour! So it was nice to have some help! That night I did the sock bun curling method.

To sum it up - we straightened my curly hair, just so I could re-curl it. :)

Here is the results! It looked very different. It's nice to have a change occasionally, but I'm ready for my mousse and spritz!

Psalm 40:5
"Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works
Which You have done;
And Your thoughts toward us
Cannot be recounted to You in order;
If I would declare and speak of them,
They are more than can be numbered."

#229 - A Few More

There were a few pics from my cell phone that I wanted to add from our TN trip.

Brian went out (with my new camera) on a rock in the middle of the stream to get a little better view than from the comfortable edge where I was standing to get some awesome pics! :)

We tried out the Mellow Mushroom.

We shared a pizza and a calzone. Pizza was pretty tasty....calzone was ehh....just okay.

Before coming home we had to stop by the Apple Barn to pick up some yummy apple butter!

Side note - it's already almost all gone:( We'll just have to go back and get more soon!

And guess where we stopped before hitting the interstate home?!
Did you notice my photo skills in this pic?! Pretty good huh?!.......haha!

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

#224 - The Anniversary Trip

Brian and I decided to head to Tennessee for our 15th Anniversary! We were excited to go, but sad to leave our girls. But they encouraged us to go and have fun....so we did:)

To start the trip off:

Brian totally knows my love language of Mickey D's Sweet Tea! I could almost swear they put some sort of drug in that stuff! Brian picked out our hotel and did an excellent job!:)

I'm not going to recap our entire trip, but I'll just share some stuff that I want to document.
The girls had given us a package to open on Wednesday the 10th - our anniversary date.

It was a very sweet card and a watercolor that Holly had painted of a beach. :)

Loved it!

We LOVE to drive through Cades Cove near Townsend, TN when we are down there and this time we drove through there and also discovered another motor nature trail near Gatlinburg. It was a shorter drive than Cades Cove, but it was very pretty and had some awesome views! Here are some pictures from our driving trips:

We've always wanted to see bears while driving through the Smokies and particularly through Cades Cove and we've never seen any. But this time we saw one....wink.wink.

Ha! Brian tricked me! "Jenn get your camera ready - there's a bear right over here!"

The views of the mountians are absolutely gorgeous!

There are some cabins and old churches there too.

And plenty of deer!

On our way out this one was standing right beside the road.

We were very blessed on this little trip we took and have lots of great memories! I love my hubby and am very grateful God placed him in my life. I look forward to the next 50+ years with him!!!

Ephesians 5:25
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;"

#222 & 223 - Anniversary Preview

Brian and I have been gone to Tennessee for the past few days celebrating our 15th Anniversary!!! I'll update soon with a few more pictures from our trip, but until then here we are enjoying the Smokies!

Psalm 119:14
"I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies,
As much as in all riches."

#84 - Date Night

Sissy's b-day is next Tuesday so tonight she invited the girls to Gattitown and for a sleepover! This afternoon I called Brian at work and he said - whatdoya want to do tonight?! So we went to eat at Red Lobster (great coupon HERE) and then we went to watch Lincoln Lawyer. It was a pretty great night. The movie was very much a thriller and had a good plot. There was a little bit of language, but other than that it was pretty good.

My honey and me :)

I've been asked to come and take pictures tomorrow for a St. Baldrick's event where they shave heads of hair for children's cancer research. I don't think I'll be joining in, but I'll have some cute pics to share of other's bare heads!

Psalm 85:10-11
"Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven."

#32 - Blast from the Past

After uploading my picture of the day on our other laptop, it is now acting kind of crazy......so I had to improvise :D

A friend of mine on facebook posted this picture the other day. It was taken at a high school softball game. I think we were cheering (read - laughing at) our teammates while we were sitting on the bench (read - my HS softball career:)!

This picture also appeared on the front page of our county's newspaper.

And yes that would be me - the laughing hyena!

Job 8:21
"He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy."

#29 - Half of Our Lives

Today is the day that Brian and I went on our very first date - 17 years ago! It's hard to believe we've been together exactly half of our lives. But I am so very thankful that he is who God intended for me to marry and spend my life with!

Here we are in our Ag class shortly after we started dating.

And here we are 17 years later :)

******************************************************************

The temperatures today were near 60 degrees, so we made it a work day! Brian and the girls cleaned out the flowerbeds and I cleaned out the van. :)

Anna also got a package from her friend, Morgan, from Alabama!

We have finished the day off with spaghetti and sopapilla cheesecake!

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."

#19 - Crunch Time

This morning I started back with my crunches. Brian and I got this ab cruncher about 14 years ago - that is why it looks like an antique! But it still works, if we'd use it......haha!

I have a love/hate relationship with this fine piece of equipment. I'll do really well for several months and then something will throw off my schedule and blah, blah, blah, excuses, excuses! :)

This morning I did 200 crunches! I plan on combining crunches with a small pilates workout in the morning. Going to the gym is just not always possible with the girls school and Brian's work schedule so I've just gotta work it in however and whenever!

1 Timothy 4:7-8

"But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come."

#7, 8, & 9 - The Recoup

*(Updated with pics below:)

This is a quick update and I'll add a few pics later on :D

I did indeed have my wisdom teeth removed Friday afternoon and to be honest I've felt so loopy that I hadn't had the mindset to post anything! I HATE taking prescription meds, but I also know that it is the only thing that can really cut the pain. I just hate the way they make you feel. So I've tried to do without them and just up my Motrin dosage. Today my jaws have been stiff and more sore. But hopefully tomorrow will be better! Looks like the girls and I will be doing a "reading" day tomorrow for school!

Here is a wonderful "after" pic of me Friday night. I started not to post this pic, but in hoping to document our year, I want to add the good, bad, and ugly! Ha!

When Brian went to the store that night to do some soft food grocery shopping he picked me up a few bags of peas! These are wonderful to help ease the pain and swelling!

Proverbs 17:22
"A merry heart does good, like medicine,
But a broken spirit dries the bones."

#6 - Awesome Apples

Anna got the game Apples to Apples for Christmas and we've played it as a family almost everyday! We really like it a lot!

You are suppose to play on the "judge's" emotions when you conisder your red card. I totally played on Brian's tonight! His green card was Awesome and how could he not pick Clint Eastwood?! Haha! I think we own every western movie he has played in!

*As for an update on my wisdom teeth......I went to the oral surgeon today and I have two that are impacted and two that can be pulled.

.....And they had an opening tomorrow and Brian is off, so I figured why wait any longer. The good news is our dental insurance will cover it 100%! Brian keeps threatening that he is going to video me in the recovery room. I dared him! I can be goofy enough without being on medication, so you can imagine being out of my head after sedation!

So if I don't do a #7 post tomorrow I'll try to catch up this weekend.

(Definitely without a video of my recovery!)

Have a blessed Friday!

Psalm 17:7-8

"Show Your marvelous lovingkindness by Your right hand,
O You who save those who trust in You
From those who rise up against them.
Keep me as the apple of Your eye;
Hide me under the shadow of Your wings,"