Project 52 Date #52

So with family coming into town, work, man trips and just life, we had to squeeze this one in. What we did was take our New Years resolutions from the beginning of our project 52 and see if we accomplished what we wanted to or at least made a dent into it! Very eye opening and motivational to see all that we wanted to get done 365 days ago and what really did get done! All in all a great way to finish up our Project 52! Thanks for following us along this year, and hopefully we gave you some great ideas on how to make simple ideas into great date times no matter what your situation (busy work, kids, etc) Happy New Year!

He says: So at the beginning of 2011 we both sat down and made New Years resolution lists and today we got those lists out to see what/if and how many of them we actually accomplished. I'm not going to lie, my list has rather humbled me. I barely crossed half my list off! Rather disappointed in myself for not making certain things priority this past year. Granted I did some pretty incredible things and those were on my list but some of the things for my personal life got left on the side of the road so to speak. So expect some internal inspection and a little bit of legitimate change from me this next year. Happy New Year!

Love is ... what you make of it (Week 52)

So I was just reading over all the different love is posts that all these wonderful women took the time to write over the past year and I realized that my goal was met... not only did we complete our goal by blogging about what love is once a week for a year but I learned to see other peoples amazing way of showing, receiving and being a part of the love is! Everyone's viewpoint was so different and so inspirational at the same time!

The most that I can take from this year is that Love is where YOU are and what YOU make of it. It can surround you at all times or it can seem to be so very far away. There is a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt that says " No one can make you feel inferior without your consent! I absolutely love this because it can be used in so many ways in our lived. No one can make us feel a certain way unless we let them, and that goes for good ways and bad!

I got an email yesterday from a very sweet dear friend of mine that I haven't seen face to face in years.... yet her kind words brought tears to my eyes and she lifted me up, encouraged me and just spoke sweetness into my day. So remember that you are all apart of someone's love story, every little thing that you say or do and you may not even know it! So make your impact into your friends and families a positive one, let them always remember you as the one that can always be counted on to lift them up or encourage you! This is your challenge for the next year :) I know that you can all do it. So I hope everyone had a great Christmas and we wish you the best New Year possible! Make it Exceptional!!

Project 52 Date #51

So this date was alot of fun. It was a date night for Grami and Jocelyn and a date night out for JT and I. We got all of of Christmas shopping done, picked up of Christmas pajamas, sent out our Christmas Cards, had an amazing dinner out and narrowed down baby names, PHEW.

All in all we were pretty much done with our Christmas shopping but we had a little left to do and after we finished that, we did a little baby preparation shopping too :) Then we headed out to Luciano's for dinner. We had a gift card that some of my co-workers gave me and I just never got around to using it. The restaurant was beautiful and perfect for a dinner for 2. Part of the date night was to narrow down on some baby names. We have our boys name picked out but we were struggling to narrow down the last few names we had for a girl and we have less then 50 days to make a decision! So as we were picking out our meals, I asked our waiter what was his personal favorite between three dishes, he made an excellent suggestion THEN I gave him our three girls names and asked him his favorite as well.... What?? Everyone has an opinion so I figured I would give him a chance to give his :)

Anyway it was a great dinner and the environment was perfect for a quiet conversation between the two of us. After dinner headed home and my Christmas cards had come in, so we started addressing them and got them all out in the mail today, wahoo, better late then never and we loved how they turned out! So a great Christmas date and we can't believe that we are one date away from finishing our Project 52 commitment!

He says: Tonight's date was finishing our Christmas shopping and having dinner out together. We managed to hit Best Buy, Michaels, Toys-r-Us, Target, and Kohls....and have dinner at a decent hour. We went to Luciano's for dinner, one of the best Italian restaurants in town. Its usually quiet and cozy...and it was after the crazy lady at the table next to us finally left(lets just say a bottle of wine and being perturbed at your husband shouldn't be shared with the rest of a restaurant...) We spent dinner talking over baby names and eventually getting the list down to three that we really like. We grabbed a tiramisu(it was incredible!) to-go and got home to find our long awaited Christmas cards on the front porch. We caught up on one of our t.v. shows and stuffed envelopes so we could get our cards out the next morning. I really like Luciano's and who better to spend time with over a great meal! And we got our Christmas shopping done and our Christmas cards out! And we may actually have a name for Tidden baby #2...and wouldn't you like to know what that name is...

Love is . . . a definition for everyone! (Week 51)

Since it is a very broad term, the ancient Greeks managed to define love and in their language there were four different types of love: agape, eros, philia and storge.

Agape is unconditional love with a deeper sense of "true love". Usually referred to as the way God loves us.

Eros is passionate love. It is mostly sexual but can also be passion for anything, such as hobbies.

Philia is displaying love through loyalty to friends, family and community, usually by sharing resources and expecting something in return.

Storge is natural affection that is often felt by a person for related family members.

It's amazing that within one language there is several different definitions of what love is and that is kinda what this whole project has been about. Looking at all the different ways we can love one another and show love and its been awesome to see how everyone views love in a different way. So this week as we approach up on Christmas I want to challenge you to print out this blog and find time to exibit each type of love! There are so many people in need out there that I don't think that you will have a hard time showing Philia. And with family being near and far, finding a way to show Storge shouldn't be hard either. Agape love will be perfect to share with a loved one, best friend or spouse and eros may be a gift to yourself for christmas to encourage a passion you have in a hobby. Anyway I'm interested to get the feedback on what you did to show "love". Merry Christmas everyone!

Love is... stepping out (Week 50)

For me, stepping out of your comfort zone is a huge sacrifice, but to do it for someone else, especially a child, it is so worth it. We did that this morning by meeting up with a great kid, that we had never met and went Christmas shopping together!
Today I was honored to be a part of Shop with a Cop in our area. This is an amazing community project put on by the Fraternity Order of Police to where they choose needy kids in the area and Police Officers get to take them shopping.
It was simply amazing this morning to drive up to Walmart and walk in to about 50 cops and spouses in uniform, waiting to serve their community in a different way. We had our brief and I was so excited to hear how they were going to organize everything this year. First of all every child has a $100 spending limit that we were responsible for keeping track of. $80 had to be spend on NEEDS (shirts, pants, socks, underwear, shoes, toothbrushes, deodorant, etc) and the other $20 was to be spent on toys. I absolutely loved this idea because not only did they get something that was for fun but they got the items that were really NEEDED.
So we all stood outside as the bus dropped off the excited kids. It was simply awesome to see these kids get all excited to spend time with cops. Not all of them have the best perception of cops so to be able to spend time with them in a giving way, was a great community project. Jonathan stepped right up and got our kid and we were on a mission.
First thing he said was his name and then "cool taser!" :) He was great, he knew what he needed right away and we were off to get him his items! We got hoodies, sneakers, socks, underwear, undershirts, toothbrush, deorderant and then 2 toys! He was so gracious to what we were able to get and how if we got one more thing we had to trade for something else in the basket. The entire time, he was talking about himself, his school and his family. Of course with respect to him and his family I didn't take any pictures but it just melted my heart to see my husband in uniform leaned over a cart of clothes, while chatting with a little 2nd grader like this was an every day thing!
Afterwards we stopped by McDonalds and grabbed an early lunch and just got some more time to chit chat with the kids. This was just such an amazing experience for me and for Jonathan, it just felt so good to be a part of such a fantastic project. The Caller grabbed some great photos of the event that you can see at http://www.caller.com/photos/galleries/2011/dec/08/shop-cop/57408/#section_header
So what I meant by stepping out of our comfort zone was, I didn't know what our kid would be like and if he was even going to enjoy shopping with Jonathan and I. But if we, and all those other cops, didn't put ourselves out there to just be a servant then these kids, and we, would not have had such an amazing morning. So take a moment and see what you can do today to help someone out, even if it makes you uncomfortable!

Project 52 Date #49

I've been looking forward to this one for a while. It was choosing a bunch of different ice creams and deciding which one it was that you could eat a whole bowl of. I had fun picking them out at the grocery store because you can now get the ones that are about 6 good bites and then its gone and I thought that would be perfect for us to try, BUT they didn't have alot of new flavors so we kinda mixed it up. I got some of the classics, some of our favorite and some of the newest flavors. Wouldn't you know it, the top two were ones that we have never tried before! The winner was Ben and Jerry's (and Jimmy Fallon's) Late Night Snack, it was the perfect blend of vanilla bean ice cream, salty carmel and chocolate covered chips! A very close second was Ben and Jerry's Red velvet, it was like have a cold melty piece of red velvet cake, it was amazing. So great date all in all!

He says:I love to eat and I'm really not very picky about what so I loved this date. & different ice creams all at the same time?! And allowed to eat em all at the same time?! Pinch me I must bedreaming!!! Anyways, yeah so 7 different flavors with the goal of finding out which one is the best. We took a spoonful of a flavor and then rated it before moving on to the next. It was a hard choice in the end. We were both torn between Red Velvet(it really does taste just like a piece of red velvet cake) and Late Night Snack, both Ben & Jerrys flavors. In the end Late Night Snack won out because it was something we would both actually eat a whole pint of. Good ice creams all of them, great date with my mate.

Love is.... supporting the right thing (Week 49)

So I am doing an extra love is today because one got left out in October and I need to catch up and it's great to know that God already had this planned out. From July of 1998 - May of 2002 I was honored to be able to attend the US Coast Guard Academy and I had the pleasure to meet and get to know an amazing man to whom I am asking for his help today. He was always one to bring a smile to anyones face and if you really knew him well then you know he got us in trouble a few times for that goofiness :)

But today he is facing a much more serious day. The Coast Guard has brought charges against him for the loss of a Coast Guard helicopter in July 2010, and the deaths of two of its crew members. He is facing three charges from the Coast Guard: One says he failed to navigate away from charted hazards. Another charges him with the destruction of the chopper. Those are both misdemeanors. The third charge consists of two felony counts: It says that he negligently caused the deaths of two petty officers that were working in the helicopter with him.

He was the lone survivor of this crash and has had to go through his own emotional and physical recovery. I'm sure its been a long road but he has made it through with the help of his supportive family and friends. All that I ask today is that you lift up him and his family in your prayers today, especially his wife. She is currently pregnant and I can't imagine the emotional roller coaster that she is personally going through especially today! So if you could take a moment out of your day and help me pray for the right thing to shine through!

Love is.... warmth with personal sacrifice (Week 48)

LOL okay so this one is so simple but for us Texans I think that it is a big one! Today the temperature this morning was in the high 30's which as Texans we don't know what to do in that weather :) So this morning was Jonathan's and Jocelyns morning to go to school together, so I bundled myself up and braved my way with the windy walkway and into the freezing garage! Opened up the door, started up the car and cranked up the heat. I also packed up the car with everything they needed so they could get out the door on time. I know its not a big thing, but you don't understand I was FREEZING doing it, but to know that my little girl and my husband would ride to school in warmth was so worth it! Okay and I'll admit, once they left I made myself a small mug of hot tea to warm me and T2 up :) So take a moment this morning and do something that will warm up your family inside and out !