Love is ... cookies (Week 3)

LOL I mean seriously, is there any explaination that I need to give more then that? Or maybe I have been doing this Daniel Fast a little too long :)

Okay with a little more background on it, here it is... I miss my brother and his family. We aren't the overly mushy "I miss you" people but I love the chance when I get to talk to him, or catch up with him on email or just get to see his family all in the same room and feel the love that is there. He has been all over the place since he graduated from the USNA but most of the time has been sent overseas! We catch up with each other as often as we can but with our own families growing and demands on our time it gets harder and harder to make the time. And although Skype is nice, its nothing like the real face time you get.

So when I heard that girl scout cookies were out for sale, a light bulb went off in my head. Right now my brother is a ship in Japan and I'm pretty sure they don't get girl scout cookies out there, so I figured I would send him a box, and I figured if I was sending him a box then why not a few since there are alot of our Men and Women serving with him that may like a little reminder from home. So I saved up some of my fun money and order the cookies. The best part... is when a friend found out that I was doing that, she wanted to be a part too so she pitched in and bought 8 extra boxes as well, and then another friend heard, and she bought two extra boxes to be sent as well.
So this afternoon I am off to the USPS to get some FPO boxes, fill them with girl scout cookies and send them on their way. The good news is that I have enough to fill another box to bless someone else, so unless someone sends me some info on a group that needs it, I'm just going to scour the internet for the first one I find that is overseas! So my love is just kinda spilling over to more people, both the giving and the receiving which just makes me smile from ear to ear! I love it!

Project 52 Date #3

This date I have been looking forward to for awhile because it took quite a lot of planning to get it right.... Last week I picked a date specific date from the jar that said " Your off to the Circus, it's in town on the 21st-23rd." (Yes this is two out of the house dates in a month, but it was just by chance) My first thought was, oh no, JT works those nights this is going to be impossible to do! Until I ran across some tickets for the circus in Kingsville on Tuesday night (which I had already set aside for our date night) PERFECT! Okay there were a few other snags that happened, such as the city posting the wrong times on their website, the point of contact for the circus not answering her phone for 2 days, the location of the circus not showing up on any mapping system or JT trying to take over the navigating of the drive to the date. But we decided to chance it all and try our luck for the Circus. Boy are we glad we did!

So we kissed Jocelyn goodbye, and said thanks to Grami for watching her and off we went. We had a nice conversation on the way there (45 minutes to chat) about when we were last at the circus, what were we looking forward to etc etc. Throw in a few conversations here and there and it made the time pass pretty quickly. We get there and we both said "this is it??" It was a small little expo center in the middle of no where. But the good part was, we had front row seats, I mean literally we were three rows from the front. I was even bummed that I forgot our binoculars so we could see all the awesome details but we didn't even need them!

Before the circus started, I turned to JT and said "you are now a 10 yr old boy, GO!" He laughed but it was really fun watching him watch with intensity at the white tigers, chuckle out load at the clown with his stuff elephant (really a small dog in an elephant costume) and gaze in wonder at the acrobatics! We had a really great time.... long drive... but definitely worth it. I'm really looking forward to our next date to see what is in store.

JT Gazing in Wonder

JT Wants to Teach Shadow how to do this for Jocelyn

Maybe our date #4???

JT Says: I knew i had a surprise coming my way on Tuesday night but would never have guessed I'd be going to the circus! I didn't even know there was a circus in town! I'm not a huge circus fan but I do like Lions and tigers doing tricks, and who doesn't like 25 clowns popping out of a little car? So we hop in the car and drive about 45 minutes to K'ville and make our way to this obscure venue out in the boonies(sorta) of Kingsville. It's a small circus run by the Shriner's (we had to google Shriner's on the way home to figure out what they really were). It was great! White tigers and ladies swinging from the ceiling by their fingertips and even stunt poodles! Yes, I said stunt poodles. We didn't stay for the whole show because it's a bit of a drive out there and back but I had a good time reliving some childhood circus memories and creating a couple new ones with Mia.

Love is... Helping Others (Week 2)

It's me again, I'm going to go ahead and do the first 4 weeks to give all the people that offering to participate some time to come up with some post ideas.

So this past week I thought about all the different ways that we show love and the first thing that came to mind were the five love languages. If you have never heard of this phrase, the 5 are words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of services and physical touch. I know that there are many other ways to show love and my personal love language is receiving gifts (it could be a flower from the side of the road because you thought of me, or a smoothie because you knew I was hungry etc )so I was trying to think of other things to do for people instead of just gifting people with things.

As I was thinking, I went along with my normal to do tasks and went off to the grocery store. I was standing in the cereal aisle deciding what type of oatmeal to get Jocelyn, when an elderly woman in her motorized cart came up next to me. She too was browsing the oatmeal's, but from a distance due to the cart. I pondered for a minute, debating on asking to help out or not, with the only thing stopping me was if she didn't want me help. I realized that what was holding me back was my fear. (Really what could she have said... No??)

So I asked.... "Can I grab an oatmeal for you"

She replied "Would you? That would be so helpful! My provider seems to have gone somewhere else and I can't reach it"

Easy enough, so I helped her out and then took it a step further and asked if there was anything else I could do. She had this shocked look on her face as though to say "really??"

She said "If you wouldn't mind there is a few more things on my list that I could use some help with"

So off we went to complete her shopping, all the while Jocelyn and she were smiling at each other, making each other laugh. It was actually a welcome break in my day and it seemed to bring her a smile or two as well. Funny that I was willing to let a little thing like "no I don't want your help" stop me from doing the right thing and helping out someone that was in need. I could have been any of the people that walked by and saw her in need and did nothing.

Please do not mistake this for any kind of bragging because it is quite the opposite. Often times I am that person that is often to busy to help others as I am trying to get in and out the store in less then 15 minutes :) But this one day reminded me (and I hope that it encourages you) that it only takes a few seconds to make a positive difference in someone else's life and also in all reality she made an positive difference in my day as well!

Project 52, Date #2

So I picked a "going out" date from the jar and it was to create the atmosphere of a blind date. The idea was to act as if we had just recently met and were going on a blind date.


I went and bought a new shirt so I'd be wearing something she hadn't seen yet and tried to pick a place she'd never been to before(more on that later). I left the house at about 5:15 and told Mia I'd be back to pick her up at 6. So at 6 I pull up and park in front of the house and walk up and knock on my own door. I'm greeted by a little girl peeking through the side window curtain and smiling at me(Jocelyn). We hop in the car and so our date begins. We chit-chat on our way to dinner about each other and fabricate a few stories about friends we both know and things we know about each other. Mia pulls off a veiled story that paints her as a bit of an Internet stalker. Mia asks where we're going and I tell her it's a surprise(thinking it will be). We drive through restaurant row on Water St. and pull up to U&I Steak and Seafood. Mia says "oh I've been here". Little did I know she'd eaten there with her dad when she first moved to Corpus, and there goes my thinking I'd picked a good place.

So we got seated and look over our menu's and continue our charade of getting to know each other a little more. Our orders are taken and we chat about our families and the towns we came from. Our food arrives and it is good. I drop the bomb of being home schooled on her and along with all the home school stereotypes I've somehow managed to shed. We talk about what Mia's "type" is. I'm only 2 out of the 5 she lists. I'm thinking I may not get another date. We talk about my "serial dater" days...all lies for any of you who have told her these stories...We finish our meal and head back to the house.


I park in front of the house and tell her I'll walk around and open the door for her to get out. I open the door and she hops out. I pull her to me and tell her "look, you're the hottest woman I've ever seen" and steal a kiss amidst a great deal of laughter. I steal another one and tell her "so hurry up and kick the babysitter out so we can go in an...." Well anyways....

We had a great time and some good laughs throwing in funny things that would be definite red flags in a real blind date. Dinner itself was good too. We had a whole lot of fun pretending to go on a blind date! Hope y'all had fun reading about it!


Mia Says:

This date was a lot of fun. Although there was one thing we didn't plan out very well. Jonathan and the sitter were to arrive at 6 which left we 45 minutes to get ready. Our oops was that Jocelyn hadn't woken up from her nap, so I needed to get her up, go potty with her, give her milk and feed her dinner.... oh and get ready for a date :) So I got to experience being a single mom for a little bit, oh well :) I borrowed a shirt from Regina (so it would be something new on me), curled my hair, spent a little time on me and got blind/first date ready. Bailey our sitter arrived and I had managed to get Jocelyn and myself ready in time.

Jonathan came to the door and I had Jocelyn greet him, and then we went off on our date. It was fun talking to each other as though we didn't know everything and I am sure that I learned a few new things along the way. We got to throw in some information that actually came from our meeting 6 years ago as we talked on the way to dinner. Dinner was fantastic and the conversation was fun! But the laughter at the end made the date perfect. Way to go babe A+

Love is... paying it forward

Okay so last year I knew that there were a few things different that I wanted to do this year. One of them was the project 52, another was to blog more often, and lastly was to bless others with the many blessings that I have been given. I have struggled to be able to find out how I was going to do this and more importantly how to explain to everyone what it is about. I even did this amazing Ruth Bible Study that motivated me, at the exact right time, even more to do this project.

So here I go...

Love is ... bringing out the best in each other.

One of my favorite cartoons of all time is called "Love Is . . ." It's a cartoon that I read as a child and often my mom would cut it out and put in my lunchbox as a reminder of what love is all about. I really like this cartoon because it's always about the simple things and often times the different things that each one of us views as ways love is expressed.

Often times I am blessed by the little things that people do for me, but I often get down on myself and think, "I wish I had more time to do things for others," and I find that I lean on that excuse more times then I care to admit. Where as the truth is, that it doesn't have to be a big thing but it's often the small things that matter just as much.

Love is... making time for each other.

So I am going to try to do 52 weeks of "Love Is..." paying it forward! Every Wednesday I"ll post a story about doing something that was simple and really made an impact on someones day/week/year. It can be your spouse, significant other, friend, family member or just a stranger. But I challenge you to do one thing each week to make a difference in someones life. I'll even have a guest share a story or two once in awhile, so I have asked (or will ask) a few amazing women in my life to share their stories to help motivate others to remember that we are all placed on this earth to love and motivate each other! "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" - Proverbs 17:17

So I have a little bit of a cheat for my first Wedsnesday because it's kinda been in the works for a while, but I really really wanted to talk about it. My first post is about Project 52. When Jonathan and I talked about starting it, we let all our friends know about it as well because we wanted everyone to feel the kind of love and enjoyment that you feel when your significant other puts together a special time and date for just the two of you! Although we only have a few people doing it with us so far, (8-10 couples) we are just overwhelmed with the postive and motivated response it has already created. In a world where the divorces are outranking the amount of marriages that are staying together, Jonathan and I are commited to make our marriage as strong as possible and also motivate others to do the same.

If you want to join in or participate, just leave a comment below about something that you did or plan to do to show someone how much you love them, how important they are, or just something that makes someone feel special. Thanks everyone, love you all!

Project 52 Date Night #1

So we kinda already have a leg up with the date nights... let me explain
A very good friend gave me a jar of date night ideas, she colored coded the dates for "going out", "staying in", "St. Patricks Day", "Valentine's Day", etc. So this really makes it easy for us when we don't already have an idea picked out for date night. Anyway she had one that was marked "For Date #1" so I chose it and it was said "Make appetizers at home and discuss your new years Resolutions"

So I gave Jonathan a heads up last week, to write down some new years resolutions so that we would be sure to have some things to discuss, (I didn't want to sit down to talk about resolutions only to find that JT didn't have any) So late yesterday afternoon I started setting up our dining room table, usually saved for company, for our date night. I'm putting little touches onto the table throughout the hours, and dinner approaches. JT brings in the dinner and set it on the dining room table. My response "Oh were eating here?" He said "Yah you set it up for dinner right?" LOL oops, so we moved dinner into the kitchen and my date night set up remained in place. Next we needed to put together Jocelyn's new crib and dismantle the old one before she went to bed. So as we dismantled it, we started bringing the pieces downstairs, I asked JT to put the pieces in the bedroom so they were out of the way. We finished everything and even put Jocelyn down for the night and felt pretty accomplished! So we came downstairs and I went through the dining room to put the finishing touches on the table only to find the entire crib in pieces ON the dining room table :) LOL SERIOUSLY?? Okay so I told JT to push back the date time 30 minutes and I took and put away each piece of the crib and re-established my date table :) 30 Minutes later our date night was ready, with several different appetizers, a little dessert, special music and candles added to the table and his favorite bottle of wine as well.

We brought out our lists and I wanted to do something a little more in-depth then just reading the resolutions. With each resolution he stated, I followed up with the question, "OK, what can I do to help you achieve that?" I wanted our resolutions to be something that we did together, and not just struggled at them alone, even if it was a personal journey, if I could be his cheerleader then I wanted to make sure to know what it is that he needs me to do! We went pretty in depth into a lot of the resolutions to see what we REALLY could do to make them a reality. So we have our list of resolutions, I'm going to take his list and type them up and pretty them up with some scrapbook fun and then frame it, so that he can see them all the time and hopefully that will motivate him to be able to hold true to the things that he wants to improve upon.
All in all it was a fantastic date night and a great start to Project 52!

JT Says :
I have to be honest and say that I've never been one for New Years Resolutions. So when Mia told me that was what my homework for date night I knew I was going to have to think hard about what I wrote down because I knew she'd hold me to whatever I listed. I made my list a couple days before and looked at it every so often to see if I came up with anything else or wanted to change any of it.

Date night time arrived, Jocelyn was soundly sleeping upstairs. Mia had some music(our wedding music CD no less :) going on in the background and appetizers on the table. We snacked a bit and then started going through our lists. We both had the ones everybody has....work out more, spend more time with God, etc. But in the course of sharing our lists we delved into some rather personal things that we were working on that we probably wouldn't have talked about as in depth under casual conversation circumstances. I personally have a hard time with sharing my feelings most of the time and we discussed some weighty things that I hadn't imagined we would get into. Once or twice we really put our hearts on the table about some things and I'm really glad we did. The evening became what I did not expect it to but I realize now that it was a really good thing. I think I learned a few things and I'm excited to see how we grow. I think I'm really going to like Project 52.

Project 52 Starts in 2 Weeks

Life as you know, gets kinda busy.
Our own personal life, with a changing schedule and multiple jobs, seems to get busier every day! Luckily we have great family and friends that allow us the time to make sure that Jonathan and I have time for ourselves, so this upcoming year we want to challenge ourselves either further!


We are going to take on Project 52......


What is project 52 you ask, well here you go!! I follow a blog called Simply Modern Mom and she started this project, it's basically one date night a week, no kiddos, either at home or out. Sounds simple right but we all know how other things creep into our schedule, until there isn't any time left to have a date night, so this is what we are going to do to combat that. We are going to try to keep them at home, after Jocelyn goes down for the night and see how creative we can get. The main points will be creative, cheap and spending quality time together. Now the best way to do it, is to set aside the same day every week to do dates, but most of the couples I know are military, cops or firefighters so that's not possible, but what is possible is to look at a months schedule ahead of time and choose your date nights early. Fill in your calender with your spouse before any other commitments. We are going to try to do some out of the house dates at least once a month and we are also going to alternate back and forth on who is in charge of the dates.


Whoever plans the date will blog about the date and whoever is "taken" on the date will give critiques. I hope that you will post and comment about what your date was for that week so that we can all share ideas and come up with interesting and fun way "date" your spouse.


So if you want to join in, just print out the pledge here and fill it out and put it somewhere where it will be a contast reminder to each of you. Fill in the criteria that works for YOU and your family. You may even decide to swap babysitting days with another couple that plans on doing this so that babysitting will be free. We hope that this will be a fun experiment and i know that I have tons of creative friends so I completely plan on stealing ideas :)