Zing, Zang, ZOOM...an afternoon at the circus

Today we ventured over to see Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus with Jenna and Kelly. We KNEW Jenna would love it and she did. She loved the popcorn, the candied cashews, the soft pretzels and everything else. It was so cute to watch her enjoy something like that for the first time.

Me and Jenna. She did not want to have her picture taken at all! In the other picture she is holding the toy that Nana gave us money to buy for her. She loved it.

Her with her new toy. It was so much fun!

Jenna with the elephants in the background. She did not want to leave when it was over. She danced and "felt the music" during the entire show. PS--she looks just like Kelly in this picure!!

The tigers. They did not like to perform and even Jenna noticed how "angry" they were.

The elephants. They were impressive.

We had a great time and it was so much fun with Jenna. We have a ton more pictures but I am sure you will see some from Kelly too!

By Your Side

Here we are again…another song post!! I love music, what else can I say? This song is by Tenth Avenue North. I heard it for the first time probably about a month ago on my fabulous XM radio (thank you Jon). It is called “By Your Side” and it is just a wonderful song, it really makes you think about your life and your relationship with Christ. I love songs like this one. It is such a pretty song and the words if you really listen to them can really affect you. I love to listen to music on my way home from work. It gives me perspective when I have had a bad day or if I am down and upset it can bring me up again and make me realize that life isn’t really all that bad. This song will really lift your spirit if you need it and if you let it.
Tenth Avenue North: By Your Side

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

Chorus
'Cause I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

Chorus
'Cause I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

'Cause I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

Chorus
'Cause I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

'Cause I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

You can listen to it here:
http://www.tenthavenuenorth.com/media/music

Live Your Life!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Second post for today, see below for another post...

Saturday night we had Jeremy and Laurie and the kids over for some homemade pizza and Guitar Hero World Tour. This game is so much fun and the whole family can really enjoy it. Emma loves it and tried her hand at the drums
She was really good at it, even though the drums were turned off she did really well. Then she decided that she wanted to sing.




Singing is by far my favorite, especially if I know the song. Some of the ones on the game are Heartbreaker (Pat Benetar), Go Your Own Way (Fleetwood Mac) and many others that are so much fun to sing. Anyway, Emma decided she wanted to sing. Well, we left the mic on and decided to see if she could get us through the song and beat with her singing whatever she wanted. It worked!! She sang the same song over and over and we beat at least 4 songs like that!!! As long as she was in the same tune/range the game considers you to be doing well.
This is the best part. I got video of Emma singing, which she loves to do. During dinner Emma was humming and I couldn't figre out what she was singing and then I caught part of it. She was singing the very beginning of the song "Live Your Life" by T.I. and Rhianna. The begining is the only part of the song that I really like anyway. It is Rhianna singing and Emma apparently liked that part too. Anyway, when we were playing and Emma was singing this was ALL that she sang. You will recognize the song if you have heard it before. She gets SO into and we were all laughing SO hard!!!!!!

Here are Jon and Jeremy and Laurie being Guitar Heroes. They are so hard core!!

Breaking Free...

As I mentioned in an earlier post Jon and I made several resolutions/goals/dreams for 2009. There are many of them that I really want to accomplish this year. I was telling Jon today that this year just feels like my year. For those of you who do not really know me do not know that I am often crippled by my fears. I have been studying a lot lately and read a book recently about believing God; which I do believe in God but my fears often get in the way of that. Someone told me several years ago that fear is the opposite of faith; and I will never forget that. It truly stuck with me because I often let my fears get the best of me. I had two experiences this week regarding what to me is my biggest fear...flying. Now I have flown before, when I was 4 and then again when I was 6. We flew overseas to live in Sicily. I remember flying and the experience but I do no remember being afraid. I remember sitting by the window on the plane and being totally at ease. Well, as I have gotten older fears have defiinitely gotten the best of me and then 9/11 really got me. I refused to fly anywhere for our honeymoon and have refused to fly ever since. This might be the year that all that changes. So, back to my experiences... I was at work yesterday and I just started feeling like this was something I could do, something I would do this year. Jon and I love to travel, but we have always driven to where we want to go. Jon has never left the southeastern part of the country and I know he would love to see this country. I have been to the west coast and to the Pacific Northwest and have always wanted to go back but again been too afraid to.

Anyway, so I got this feeling that it would be alright and that God would take care of me no matter what. No matter what happened on that plane that I would be okay and that I could do it. I am so tired of being held in captivity of my fears, it is tiring to say the least and worst of all life continues to pass me by and I do not get to do the things I want to do because of my fears. That is unacceptable.

Then today as I was working out and listening to music it hit me again... I do not want to be enslaved by fears. It was very surreal, I felt like I could do anything. It is hard to explain... Anyway, I talked to Jon about it and told him my feelings on the issue. I want to do it. There are so many places in this beautiful world that I want to see and that I also want to show him. People fly every single day. This is my year that I plan on breaking free.

Yes, I am still terrified if I stop and dwell on it; and I will probably be terrified until I am safely back on the ground. But it is truly something that I feel like I can do and that I need to do. I can in fact do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We want to travel while we still are on our own and do not have kids, because once we have kids we know that it will definitely be harder to travel like this. So, please pray for me. I know it may seem silly to be so afraid of flying but it is really a struggle for me. If you know me then you know this. It is my biggest hurdle, and I want to finally conquer it. I really want this to work out. If we do get our chance to travel this year it will be later this year. Many things have to fall into place before we go, money for one and me getting over my fears and onto a plane is another. But, if any of you have any encouraging words or thoughts I would appreciate it.

Holy Water...

This is one of Roxy's bad habits...drinking out of the dirty bird bath. She LOVES it. I love that I was able to capture this with the sun and lighting like it was. It was perfect!

Something Beautiful

For those that have read my blog before you know that I often post about music, Christian music mostly. Well, today I heard a song on my iPod that I thought I would share. I had the great pleasure of seeing the Newsboys for the first time last September. They have been around a LONG time and Jon and I had never seen them before. I was kind of excited about seeing them but nothing prepared me for what I saw once we arrived. It was easily one of the best concerts I have ever seen. Anyway, this song is called Something Beautiful off of their current album "Go." I will post the lyrics and then post my thoughts of this song and why I chose to share it with you.

Something Beautiful

I wanna start it over

I wanna start again

I want a new a new beginning One without any end

I feel it inside Calling out to me

CHORUS

It's a voice that whispers my name

It's a kiss without any shame

Something beautiful

Like a song that stirs in my head

Singing love will take us where

Something's beautiful

I've heard it in the silence

Seen it on a face

I've felt it in a long hour

Like a sweet embrace

I know this is true

It's calling out to me

CHORUS

It's a voice that whispers my name

It's a kiss without any shame

Something beautiful

Like a song that stirs in my head

Singing love will take us where

Something's beautiful

It's the child on her wedding day

It's the daddy that gives her away

Something beautiful

When we laugh so hard we cry

It's the love between you and I

Something beautiful

I loved this song the first time I ever heard, hearing it live was even better. As I grow ever closer to my 29th birthday (eeeek!) and my 6th wedding anniversary I have been very nostalgic lately. I realized that I have known Jon for almost half of my life, and dated him since I was 17. This year we will have been together for 12 years!!! Incredible, I don't even feel old enough for that. I have been so blessed to have Jon in my life and realize that it is only through God's grace that we are where we are today. Sometimes life is hard, we have been there; sometimes it is trying, we have been there too. But, above all I realize how lucky I am to have him in my life. We truly share a beautiful life together and I would change nothing about it or how we have come to where we are now. Tough times often bring people closer together and we are a true testament to that. Things happen in our lives to make us realize how lucky and blessed we truly are. One such thing happened in our life this week. It really makes you step back and look at your life for what it is, and really appreciate all of the blessings that God has given you. So, anyway; with all of that said...I heard this song today and it just really made me happy to be where I am in my life; and it made me happy knowing that Jon is in my life. I could not EVER imagine myself with anyone else and I know that God let us find each other. I am so blessed and so loved and hope that everyone else out there feels the same way---Something Beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJVrkRxIJQ

Something Wicked This Way Comes...

So, I am so excited! Jon mentioned to me the other day that at his job they can get discounts on some of the shows coming to town. Well, he remembered that I have talked about "Wicked" for some time now. It is a Broadway musical adapted from the book, "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" written by Gregory Maguire. I don't know that much about the show other than it is the other side of the story, it is all about the witches of Oz. I am so excited! The show runs in town from April 24-May 10, we haven't gotten our tickets yet but plan on it soon. The only other musical I have seen was Phantom of the Opera and that was YEARS ago. It should be a great show and I cannot wait!

New Year's Resolutions...

So, this year Jon and I did something a little different. Jon knows someone that said every year they make posters expressing their resolutions, dreams and goals for the new year. So this year we decided to try it out. Last year my biggest resolution was to lose weight, as always. I actually did it!! I lost 15 pounds last year...however, I still need to lose more so it made my list. Anyway, back to the story. So, we bought a poster board and each got a half of it. We bought markers and made them all colorful and pretty (in my case). Then we hung them up in a place where we will see them all year long. We weren't sure where to put them initially and then decided to put them up in the pantry, right inside the door. So, we will see them MANY times a day. Jon also wrote his down so he can look at them at other times too. I will share with you some of the ones that I had on my board. Like I said they are dreams, goals and resolutions...so, lose more weight, exercise of course, read my Bible/study everyday (we each bought a new Bible that has reading the Bible in a year so easy, it is all set up for you with dates and everything!!), pray more, simplify my life, keep to a budget, start a vegetable garden, let go of my fears and worries to God, slow down and enjoy life more, less tv and internet, Saturday night cooking nights (something we started where we cook a new recipe together on Saturday nights), get a hobby, not be afraid to fly, make a list of things I want to do with my life, have deep and lasting relationships...and on and on it goes. I feel really good about the things I put on my poster. They are all achieveable, all within my grasp and seeing them everyday will remind of the things that I want to accomplish. So, I encourage you to all write down your resolutions and maybe you can achieve them this year. Or if you actually read this blog you can share some of yours with me. I hope you all have a happy and blessed new year.

New Year, New Blog

We are moving our blog over to Blogger after much trouble with Wordpress. Here's to a new year of blogging I hope I can keep up with it!