clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=RVX8Ab6Gjhk

This is one of my favorite things to watch. It just makes me roar. The movie Anchorman it's self is pretty dirty but this part has kept me in stitches ever since the movie came out.

easter

Not a lot to write. Spent Sunday listening to a "stop me in my tracks message" by pastor Dave, helping in the nursery and the afternoon with the Ekeland clan. It was a relaxing day to celebrate our Risen King!

Sweet little feet!

Playing hard with her little friends all morning in the nursery

Taking her turn to swing at the pinata at Grandma and Grandpa Ekeland's.

unexpected events...

this week has caused me to be VERY thankful that it's the weekend.
We're all very tired and drained around this house.
We have a very very sick little girl with the nastiest cough she's had yet.
I've had some major unexpected complications from my endometriosis causing me to miss a day and a half of work.
Doctor visits for Jewel's and me.
My poor hubby is so tired from pulling his weight plus mine this week.
Bless my Mom, Dad and Hubby for all their sweet caring this week.


My heart is aching for all the pain in the world around me and especially those that have cancer that are in the community and our church. Observing other's struggles have helped put my week in a different perspective. I may have had some physical health struggles this week, but I am not faced with the challenge of fighting for my life like so many others are.


Through all this choas this week and feeling like every thing is so uncertain, I feel a peace and like we're relying completely and totally on God for healing (for Julia and me) and to meet our needs and that we're (I'm) not trying to "fix" everything on our (my) own. I DO NOT rely on God the way I need to. The way He wants me to. I usually try to over analyze EVERYTHING (just ask my husband!) and try too hard to problem solve and calculate every little thing without factorying God into it.


I don't have a lot of witty or deep things to say tonight.
I'm tired.
I am just so thankful for how incredibly blessed my family and I are...and that God has made that so evident to me this week.

Blessings to you!
Nighty night!

welcome to miami

As most of you know I went to Miami about two weeks ago. It was a beautiful 60-73 degrees there! The scene flying in was gorgeous and the answer to Jeremy's first question when I got back was yes, did it look like it does on CSI Miami. We landed, found a taxi and we were off! Now I've never ridden in a taxi before but they truly do drive like they do in the movies...like a bat out of hades! Some of you know that I get car sick easily and I was SOOO thankful to be out of that car (and that I had taken some Dramamine!)

Here's the room I stayed in. I felt like a giddy little kid being able to jump from bed to bed and not get caught doing it! haha

The view was nothing to write home about. It over looked another roof which was kind of sad and not what I was expecting.


After putting down my bags I found this:

I honestly don't know what it is about my fascination with over priced bottled water. I guess I just think it's ridiculous. They charge $6.50 for their water unlike Atlanta who only charges $4.95. I yet again stuck with tap water. I got their early afternoon and since we didn't have time to stop and get anything to eat from the airport to the hotel I got to order room service. They had VERY good food there. Everything was done to perfection.
This is the back of the hotel where there is a river canal running through it. BEAUTIFUL!


We had our dinner reception on this patio on the canal the night before. love love loved all the palm trees!


The second night we were there we took a tram to bayside and walked to pier 5 for supper. Down there the have an outside shopping mall and restaurants on the ocean. We ate outside at the Hard Rock Cafe. I was awestruck by the handiwork of God on such a beautiful night and the massive waves of the ocean. I could sit and watch that for hours. so peaceful.

See the pineapple in the picture below?! It's a building called Club Cabana. It was a pretty cool looking building.

I was SOOOO glad to get home even though my flight in Chicago was delayed by 50 minutes and I got off the plane to a blizzardy snow storm in a jacket and summer shoes (i.e. no socks).

Going back to when we took the tram through downtown Miami to get to bayside it reminded me of a missions trip that YAC took to St. Louis when I was in high school. There were homeless people sleeping in the tunnels and under the stairs and escalators that took you down to ground level from the tram. Women were walking around by themselves in the midst of men yelling inappropriate and derogatory words as we walked past them. I didn't even feel safe walking in a group of three and wonder if some of those women made it safely to their destination.

I was surprised when...

I opened the toilet to find this:

thankfully the toilet was clean and the shoe salvageable.

before...

Before I left for Atlanta Jeremy told me that he was going to start painting the bedroom. We have had it painted super dark since we bought the house almost 3 years ago because I was working night shift. It wasn't the most romantic or attractive decor but I was able to sleep during the day due to the darkness...guess that was the point. We've been wanting to change our room but haven't had the time. Well...when I got home he had ALL the painting done. Such a sweet husband I have!

Here's before:


and after:


We still need to finish painting the trim white (from the horrible 1950's orange-ish wood stain) and eventually we're going to buy actual night stands and matching bedroom furniture...HA! But for now we're just thankful we have furniture in our bedroom to hold our clothes and it reminds us of when we were newly married...when nothing matched and we barely scrapped by with what we had. None of that mattered though, we were super in love and that's why we are where we are today. Love you forever and always babe!

I got the mirror from an estate sale. I love love love it! It has so much character.

welcome home to me

Jeremy picked me up from the airport late last night. It felt sooooo good to be in a town where I knew where I was going!

Atlanta was a b~e~a~u~t~i~f~u~l 56 degrees while I was there. I didn't even take my coat with me on the plane and was glad it was nice enough there that I didn't have to worry about hauling it all over the place. Atlanta airport is absolutely ginormus! I was with Michelle from work and was so thankful I wasn't by myself. Since this was my first investigator meeting, Michelle was there to help me along. Thanks Michelle! I was VERY anxious about this trip mainly because it was my first trip and I didn't know what to expect and also because they serve a lot of alcohol...I mean A LOT. I didn't know what to expect as far as how crazy some people get when they drink but God's presence was definitely felt and He calmed my nerves and everything turned out great!

My flight went very smooth and thanks to Dramamine there was no nausea or sickness involved. (can't say the same for some of the people I saw in the airport after they had landed and didn't have time to make it to the bathroom or a trash can, yuck). Once in the Atlanta airport we took a tram to get to the opposite end of the airport (this place was HUGE!) and a valet driver was waiting for us holding a sign with our names on it. This car was a smokin' smooth ride! I didn't feel one bump in the road and the driver was super nice giving us details and history about Atlanta our 30 minute ride to the hotel. Once at the hotel we checked in and then went across the street for some dinner (or lunch as they call it there). Definitely got my fill of "southern foods" the past two days. I was served lots of rice, mac n' cheese, mashed potatoes, fried chicken, roasted chicken, lamb, some kind of roast beef, lots of greens, bread pudding, peach cobbler (I passed on these two desserts...I don't care for either of them, so I went for some amazing chocolate cheesecake instead!), ice cream with rum and bananas topped with rum and brown sugar, jumbulia pasta, ravioli, cornbread, fried green tomatoes, corn, beans, and list goes on and on for breakfast foods. oh my word. That's like 4 lines of food listed above! Granted that was over 2-3 meals but wow. I was sad to see all the left overs just being dumped in the trash knowing that there are millons of people going without food.

At the end of the second day we were shuttled back to the airport on this HUGE bus...this did make me (and other people) nausous because it sat up so high and swayed back and forth.

The rest of the story is sitting in the airport for about 4 hours waiting for our plane to leave. Below are some pictures of the room they put me in...it was very relaxing. I didn't take my good camera so the point and shoot camera will have to do...

I loved this lamp shade. It shimmered...the picture doesn't do it justice!

This shower head was amazing! two in one! haha


Do you see the price on one of those bottle's of water?! $4.95! ouch. I'll take tap water thank you very much!

These lights were hanging in the dining banquet and the meeting banquet rooms. I thought they were pretty. The camera didn't do these justice either!

I got a very big greeting by my sweet hubby (who did something absolutely Amazing and romantic...post to follow) and little girl when I got home. Julia must have missed me because she has refused to take a nap and has been glued to my side the whole day.

I missed them both. extremely.

it didn't feel right being gone without them.

so happy to be back...until I leave for Miami a week from this coming Tuesday bright and early at 0635.