Resolutions

The husband starts a new job tomorrow.  Well not really new - just different.  He has been blessed to return to his former job and work from home.  We are very excited about this opportunity for him.  

Since tomorrow is a new start for him, we've decided to go ahead and begin our resolutions tomorrow as well.  Why wait two more days?

We have a couple of joint resolutions.

*** Eat at home & eat healthier.  These two really go hand in hand.  When we eat at home we tend to eat healthier.  Less fried.  More grilled.  This is the tough one for me.  I do not like to cook.  And I LOVE to eat out.  It's why this is a joint resolution - so the husband can hold me accountable.

***  Exercise on a regular basis.  Oh how I miss Zumba.  I haven't been one time since moving here.  I have found a place that holds classes six days a week and I could not be more excited about it.  Time to shake my booty into shape.    Andrew has decided he prefers to work out in the mornings.  Me?  Not so much.  However, I think this might be the year I start running.  I hate running, but I want to be able to say I ran a 1/2 marathon.  So maybe I will start running in the mornings.

I also have a couple of solo resolutions.

*** I want to learn to use my fancy camera.  I mean really learn to use it.  I want to take more pictures with it than with my phone this year.  I'm hoping I can borrow some nieces and nephews for practice.  Who wants a date night?  Lend me your kiddos for photography practice and enjoy a night on the town. :)  

*** My sweet friend, Miranda, has mentioned that one of her goals for the new year is to send more snail mail.  I love this idea and am totally doing it with her.  I'm hoping to design some cute note cards to use.

*** Speaking of designing, I want to get better at using my digital scrapbooking software and grow my Etsy store.  My goal is to have 30 items for sale in my store.  I have no idea why 30 - it just sounded good.  It would be nice if I could sell some of those items too.

*** Since one of our goals is to cook at home, I want to try out some of the recipes I've pinned.  I'm thinking two recipes each month.  One a month seems to small of a goal but I don't want it to be so overwhelming that I quit. 

*** I also want to complete one home improvement project each month.  We haven't even really started decorating our home.  We've just been living in it and figuring out how each room works for us.  But it is time to start decorating.  I want to do a little before and after post about each project.  

Five on Friday - Christmas 2013 Edition

FAMILY... Andrew & I loved hosting my family for Christmas this year.  My parents & Mommom arrived Monday afternoon and were here until Wednesday afternoon.  My brother & his wife also came Monday afternoon but they went home Tuesday evening so that they could spend time with her family.  Aunts, Uncles, & Cousins joined us Tuesday for lunch and gift exchange.  We loved every single minute of having them here.

FOOD...  We have eaten SOOOO MUCH food this week.  Monday night we had a traditional meal with my family.  It was delicious.  We had a big breakfast Tuesday morning.  We decided to do something different with my family this year.  Andrew ordered a fajita bar from our favorite Mexican restaurant.  OH MY GOODNESS!  There was food everywhere!!

I made my first pie.  Apple.  The critics (my fam) said it was delicious.

Christmas night we ate a ton of finger foods with Andrew's fam.

I tried mushrooms and lived to tell about it.

CHRISTMAS MORNING... We slept in and enjoyed a lazy morning.  We started the day with some delicious cinnamon rolls.  My parents and Mommom left around noon and then Andrew & I took a nice little nap.  I loved every minute of our lazy Christmas morning but I told Andrew that I pray its our last lazy Christmas morning for a very long time.

CHRISTMAS NIGHT... The Billsons hosted Christmas this year.  It was so much fun.  It always is when the Weavers get together.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

FURBABIES... Liberty & Lincoln had visitors over Christmas too.  My parents brought their dog, Ally.  The three of them seem to get along pretty well.  However, none of them liked my uncle & aunt's dog.  Poor Izzy (not pictured).

Five on Friday

Not only is it Friday, but Christmas break has officially begun!  Yay!!

I'm linking up today for some Five on Friday fun.

Here we go.

ONE.

Andrew and I both went to the orthodontist earlier this week.  It was Andrew's 2nd visit and my 1st.  I have an appointment to get a second opinion at the beginning of the year.  We've both wanted to do this for awhile and we decided to just do it.  We are going to do it together and suffer together.  The orthodontist we saw this week wants to pull four of my teeth to make some room.  This doesn't surprise me.  My mouth is small and overcrowded.  However, I'm really hoping the 2nd opinion doesn't involve pulling teeth.  Just the thought causes me to have a near panic attack.

TWO.

Have you been watching The Sing Off?  I am so excited that this show is back.  I LOVE it.  I think this show has my favorite judges.  Ben Folds and Shawn from Boyz II Men crack me up!!  I like Jewel too.  I wasn't sure about her at first.  I hope she sticks around.

My favorite part of the show is texting with my little brother.  We watch together through text messaging.  It is fun!  We hardly ever agree on the same groups, but I think this year we have pretty much agreed.  We are both hoping Home Free wins.  We will get to watch the finale together Monday night. 

THREE.

I have recently decided that it was time for the ol' blog to get a new look.  I guess I've been spoiled because I had no idea blog designs had gotten so expensive.  I found a few that I liked on etsy, but then my sweet friend Miranda announced that she was going back into the business starting in January.  I could not be more excited about this.  I'm trying hard to wait patiently for her return.  In the mean time I'm planning it all out so that when the time does come I will know exactly what I want.

FOUR.

We had our class Christmas parties Wednesday.  I was absolutely blown away by the gifts I received my students.  They were so sweet.  We had this thing at school called Reindeer Lane where students could go and buy gifts for their family and friends.  One sweet boy in my homeroom bought me a gift from there.  He brought wrapping paper from home to wrap it for me.  

Boy: I bought you a present at Reindeer Lane Mrs. Weaver?

Me: Oh yeah?  That was really sweet of you.

Boy: It is one of the expensive items.  It cost $3.

Two days later I open it.  It's a photo item.  He tells me he figured I liked pictures and photo albums because I teach scrapbooking after school.

BREAK MY HEART.  $3 is a lot of money to this kid.  

I received 4 owl warmers - all different and I love every one of them. 

I definitely went home Wednesday feeling incredibly blessed and loved by my precious students.

FIVE.

Early last month I ordered a pair of leggings online.  Ever since I've been looking for a shirt to go with them.  I bought two that were complete failures.  I finally found one that works perfectly.  Thank you OLD NAVY!  I'll share a pic of this outfit soon.  

Our 2013 Christmas Card

Today I'm linking up with Faith to share our Christmas Card.

People have shared some really beautiful cards.  Like everyone else I love getting the mail this time of year.  It is so fun to open all the beautiful cards from family and friends.  

I keep all of the Christmas cards we receive.  People put a lot of time and $ into finding the perfect card and I want to keep them.  In the past I have placed each card in a scrapbook album.  I love watching how families grow and change over the years.

This year I think I'm going to put them together with binder ringers.  It will definitely be faster and easier than scrapbooking all of them.

Our card this year....

At first I hoped that our Christmas card would have a perfect picture of Baby Weaver.  Then I hoped our card would be our announcement that Baby Weaver was on the way.  When I realized neither one of those were going to be options I set out creating the perfect card to share all the changes that have happened in 2013.  I had the card all made and Andrew decided he didn't like it. 

Grr!

So it was back to the drawing board.  

We ended up with this...

From our home to yours.  Merry Christmas!!

Top Five Christmas CDs (In No Particular Order)

Growing up we only listened to one Christmas CD.  At least that is the way it seemed.  

Naturally when I was old enough to drive and had my own car (oh how I miss that mustang sometimes) I bought the exact CD my mother always listened to.

It was my favorite.  For me this CD defined Christmas music.

# 1

Then I met Andrew.  He isn't a big Anne Murrary fan.  Truth be told he HATES this album.  He forced me to listen to something different.  I tried not to like it.  I tried to stay loyal to Anne.  I really did.  But slowly but surely I began to not just like but love a new Christmas CD.

# 2

Since he had proven himself with one good Christmas CD, I was a little more open to the next Christmas CD the husband introduced me too.  After all I was already a big James Taylor fan.  I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with this next CD.  For the most part I LOVE it, but there are a few songs that I have to skip over because I cannot stand them.  

#3

I discovered this next album through Pandora and I love every song on it.   I dare say it is my favorite Christmas CD.  

#4

This last one is still pretty new to me.  I just bought it last year.  I like it but it takes me awhile to LOVE a new Christmas CD.  It takes me awhile to even get to the point where I listen to it often enough to learn to love it.  Maybe this time next year it will be a new favorite.

#5

What is your favorite Christmas CD?

Working in our Waiting

Christmas is only 14 days away.  14 days ya'll!!

2014 is only 21 days away.  

How crazy is that?!?

The moments of this year have been slow yet the year has flown by.

Ever since we started TTC I have felt like I lived life in two week increments.  There are the two weeks between ovulation and AF when I'm constantly back and forth between convincing myself I'm pregnant this month and convincing myself I'm not.
It's a vicious cycle.
Then there are the two weeks between AF and ovulation when I'm just looking forward to our next chance.  During those two weeks I tell myself it didn't happen this month but next month will be the month.

I'll admit I have found it very hard to have faith in this area of life.  I believe that God will give us children someday.  Yes children - not just one.  Yet each month I find it hard to believe that it will happen that month.  

I believe God did a huge thing this past weekend with my post about waiting.  Andrew & I both received more encouragement than I ever dreamed about.  I have friends struggling with the same thing & I had no idea.  Satan was winning the battle and we were keeping our struggles bottled up inside.

Not anymore!  

I'm not alone in waiting and neither are you.

My sweet sister-in-law Joy, along with several others of you, shared some pretty awesome things with me.  You may not be waiting for a baby like I am, but so many of you are waiting for something.

You are waiting for a job, for a husband, for a healed marriage, for a loved one to find their way back to Christ, for a drug addiction to end.... the list could go on and on.

We seem to all be waiting.

Waiting is hard.  In my simple mind NOW is the perfect time for a baby.  But I also would have said that this time a year ago - before I knew that God was going to provide Andrew with a new job and us with a new adventure that meant living apart for six months.  That would not have been the most fun time to be pregnant.

God sees the bigger picture.  He sees the whole picture.  He knows what is ahead when we can only see what is right in front of us.

As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:9

After my last post I received so many encouraging words and scriptures that have been my anchor this past week as I learned that I'm hearing again this month "Not yet my child".  I want to share this encouragement with you for whatever it is you are waiting for.

This is a song that Joy shared with me.  I've only listened to it a thousand times since she shared it with me and every time results in a big ol' ugly cry with arms raised in worship to my Father who is with me.  He is always with me.  He is working in my waiting.

Waiting

It's something we do every day.

It's something I struggle with.  Often.

I tend to be a little impatient.

I pray for something and claim to trust in God's perfect timing.  But with my very next breath I decide I know the best time and that it is now.

I think to myself I've waited two and a half years and I'm okay with that.  I have survived that.  But please don't make me wait three years or five years or more.

You may or may not remember this post I wrote back in 2010 about submitting to my husband in the area of children.

Not long after I wrote that post, Andrew and I decided together that it was time for me to stop taking birth control.  

I just knew this was God's reward for me because I had submitted.

We began planning exactly when we would have a baby.  And then we didn't get pregnant in the month we had planned.

Several more months went by and there was still no positive hpt.

I have cried and I have stressed.

We agreed not to share our decision with anyone for several reasons.  

We had no idea it wouldn't happen right away.

There have been many times when I have hated keeping it a secret.  I did share with my best friend, Traci.  I am so incredibly thankful for her listening hear and shoulder to cry on.  She has let me talk when I needed to talk, vent when I needed to vent, and just remain silent when there were no words.  She has encouraged me and hoped with me each month.  Poor girl knows as much about my monthly cycle as I do.  Ha!

Of course Andrew has done all of those things too.  But sometimes you just need a woman to talk to.  

There have also been many times when I've been glad it was a secret.  There was no one constantly asking how it was going.  There was no outside pressure.

Over the past few months we have started to share with people if they happen to ask.  I'll admit I was not happy about sharing at first. 

But I find such peace and am constantly encouraged in knowing that others are praying for Baby Weaver right along with us.

I've debated blogging about all of this for a long time.  I'm afraid that I will use this as a place to vent/whine when I'm having a hard day.  I don't want to do that.

I don't want our struggle to have a baby to be a constant conversation.

I need people to let me talk when I want to talk, but to otherwise know it isn't an approved topic of conversation.

That may be harsh.  But there are times when it just hurts too bad to talk about it.  If you have struggled to have a baby, then I'm sure you understand.

It's not that I don't want to talk about it at all, but I don't want every conversation I have with people to be about having a baby.  

I need people to understand when I say I can't talk about it right then.

Most days I don't mind talking about it.  But then there are the hard days...

I'm not ready to use the word infertility to describe our situation.  I'm not ready to have people feel sorry for us.

But I am ready to share that we've been waiting over two years.  I'm ready to share that I believe ALL hpt return a negative result.

I'm ready to share that we covet your prayers.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be thirty years old and married for almost ten years and not have someone to call me mommy.

I think that's why I had such a hard time with turning thirty.

I know God's timing and God's will are perfect.  No matter what that means.

But I'm believing Him for Baby Weaver.  I'm expecting to be expecting soon.  I'm praying and trusting that God will give me the desires of my heart. 

It would mean the world to me if you would pray and believe with me.

Snow Day

Arkansas is experiencing a winter storm.  To be more specific we are experiencing Cleon.  Apparently they are naming winter storms these days.

We were sent home from school at 2 on Thursday and told that we would not be there on Friday.  It is always nice to know the day before that school is cancelled.  I immediately turned off my alarm for Friday morning.

Andrew has been sick all week.  I was thankful the weather was forcing him to stay home and rest Friday though he seemed to be feeling better.

We had the perfect Snow Day.  And by Snow Day I mean Ice Day.  

Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast. 

Lots of Snuggle Time.

Fun little walk to the grocery store.

We finished putting up the Christmas tree.

And even wrapped a couple of presents.