Project 52 Date #36

JT says: This date brought back some childhood board game memories! Subs n Submarines which translates to sub sandwiches and Battleship! I highly recommend the Chicken n Bacon Ranch from Subway cuz thats what I had and it was really good. When I was a kid I played a fair amount of Battleship and as decent at it so I was curious to see if I still had any naval warfare skills. I do, just so you know. Our first game I drew first blood and sunk Mia's patrol boat almost right away. After that it was game on! It turned out to be a pretty close game but I won. Game two proved much more challenging so luckily I put some thought into my fleet placement. At one point I'm getting totally killed by Mia and she drops what she thinks is the last shot on what she thinks is my biggest ship and then I say "hit" and go about my next move(cuz I had some slick surface warfare setup going on of course). She looks at me and says "don't you have something to say?" I say yeah "B7" and she looks at me like I'm nuts and then explains that she she sunk my ship. I say "no way Jose" and after much mischief and protest on her part we continue on. Turns out to be a really close game and it comes down to one move away from losing but I pull it together and manage to win just barely. I had fun playing an old childhood favorite and trying out a new sandwich too!

She says: This was great fun! we actually had to switch date plans but it kinda shows that you can make a great date in just 30 minutes or less of planning so thats kinda great to know! He did or course beat me at both games but we had alot of fun while I was losing! I take a little comfort in knowing that in the picture we took, he looks like a TRex, big head and little arms <3 br="">

Love Is... serving, no matter how small (Week 36)

So this months love is... is going to be a little different! It's going to be all about serving others but different aspects. I have some awesome ladies lined up to write about where they serve and the difference it has made and I can't wait for you to read them! So I am going to kick us off with an example of serving!
This past month, the students ministry at our church had a large event, called AWAKEN, to where they invited students all over the city to our church. I knew right away I wanted to be involved but I also knew that my time was limited. The student staff did an amazing job and put so much work into everything that everything was great and the event was amazing. I told them that my mom, Jocelyn and I would be there to serve in whatever capacity they needed. So when I got to the event, students were just starting to arrive on campus from the buses. They had food and drinks set up outside but it was Texas HOT to say the least. So we noticed that the drinks would need constant attention of refill and ice. The kitchen and where the drinks were at were on opposite side of the church, so we made it our mission to handle the drinks.
It was a small small part of the event, but someone needed to do it. With every great event that happens there are alot of little pieces that need to happen as well to make it work without a hitch. My point being... serve! No matter in what capacity it makes a difference, it can be as small as refilling lemonade for people or being the main speaker at an event, you each had a part in it. I luckily had a very small role in 350 students deciding to make a change in my life and all it took was a couple hours for 2 nights! It was definitely worth my time and it was so easy! So everyone, get up and serve... big or small, just do it!

Project 52 Date #35

This date turned out to be a hilarious disaster! The date was to draw each other, yep like a portrait. So I gather up the art supplies and I've got colored pencils, crayons, art paper, and even some artsy markers. We sit down across the table from each other and, with chosen medium in hand, start our masterpieces. I choose to go way old school with crayons while Mia goes refined and uses pencil. This turned out to be much shorter date than I thought. Probably because lousy artists draw fast....Anyways our pictures were so bad that we chose not to post pictures of them(taking a cue from Hollywood and not putting our dirt out on the internet). Lets just say Mia's drawing of me kinda looks like a police sketch of criminal(or maybe I just have beady eyes) and mine of her kinda looks like a hot zombie with huge lips...We never claimed to be artists people. Anyways we had quite the laugh when we showed each other our drawings. And my drawing of Mia might have been accused of having lips lips like Joker from Batman, but we had fun and laughed a lot looking at how silly our portraits turned out.

Mia says: This was a real short date because of the master artists that we are :) It was alot of fun laughing about them after but I think my favorite moment would be when Jonathan looked up to look at my face and I would look up at the same time too, but it was a moment of studying face and then back to drawing! Too much fun!

17 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights for the Week:

How Far Along: 17 and a half Weeks - each week seems to just fly by

Fruit/Veggie: A sweet little onion (Around 5.1 inches and about 5.9 ounces)


Baby changes: Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop. Those little fingers and toes are now topped by one-of-a-kind prints.

Best Moment this week: Well it was this past weekend and it was completely a 5K and passing up a few people while doing it!

Movement: Yes but since its so early, only I get to feel it so far, something just for me :) Kinda special

Food Cravings: Exact opposite, breakfast and lunch are enough for me recently!

What I am looking forward to: Another glimpse of the baby in a few weeks at our 20 week sono

Symptoms: Ligament pain, oh the joys of getting big again <3 and of course emotions all over the place, but thats probably half me and half the baby!

Sleep : Just fine but not on my belly anymore :( I kinda miss that!


Here's a pic to compare T2 and Jocelyn: So what is your prediction?

Love Is... an encouraging word (Week 35)

Have you ever gone through a rough day and just thought "Oh I can't wait until this is over" and then all of a sudden, you get a text, call or email from a random friend/loved one with an even more randon I love you or encouraging word?

Those are some of my favorite examples of love. You know... the ones that it takes you 5 seconds to send to a friend and you find out later that they have had a hard day or a tough time and there was something about what you sent that just made their day a little brighter. Or one of my favorites is when my mom or Jonathan tells Jocelyn, as I am leaving for the work day, "tell mommy bye bye and you love her" and then she does it! Just melts my heart and makes my day so much better!

I am so blessed to have surrounded myself with ladders (people that lift you up) instead of adders (people that just leave you feeling so low by adding un-necessary gunk to your life) in my life that I get to experience this quite often. Not in a "oh I am so awesome way" but more in the way that my friends know I love it when I get a "Hi, I was thinking of you today" or a "Just thought of the time you did blah blah blah and shot milk out of my nose" you know those normal day to day comments <3

These are a few recent examples that are so simple and yet made me feel so good
- Thank you for being you and helping me out today. ♥
- Praying you are feeling GREAT!
- so happy to see the tiddens this morning! :) it was a great way to start our day!
- I'm super excited for a new recipe that can double as a freezer recipe as well! Yay! Thanks!
- Just stopping by to share a Facebook hug! Miss yall
- I'm reminiscing and missing you. And on a side note our kids our soooo cute together.

So all that to say this, it takes maybe one minute to make a positive difference in someone's life. It can something so small and simple but yet make such a huge impact in our lives. Whether it be someone you know or someone you are just passing by in this crazy life. Take the few seconds to smile, say hi, write a friend, text a family member or make someone laugh. There will never be a time that you will regret too much positive communication with your love ones!

Project 52 Date #34

So sometimes life throws you a curve-ball, like planning a car wash date in the middle of a drought and all of a sudden a huge rainstorm comes in! But we tried to make the best of the situation! The date was to wash both of our cars and then go out to eat afters, so my plan was to take both cars and go to B&J's after, but it seemed like God had other plans, so we adapted!

We figured out that we could wash the cars but then they would just get extra dirty on the roads coming home, so we opted for vacuuming out a car. Well we got to the car wash place and wouldn't you know they had convenient little tarps over the vacuum place, SCORE! So the rain started to come down harder and we began to quickly realize that these tarps were not waterproof :) And that there was a 2 foot gap between tarp which allowed the sideways rain to wash the inside of our car too.

Plan B:
Since vacuuming went alot quicker then planned, and since we already had a babysitter for Jocelyn (Thanks mom) we opted to go see a movie that the both of us have been dying to see. We squeezed in a quick dinner of salads at Montana Mikes and then off to the movies we ran! All in all the night was great and full of laughter and "oh my goodness are you serious" moments :) We had a great time with the car, dinner was fabulous and the movie was great. Fantastic date night!



JT: So the date night was for us to go wash and clean out our cars together and wouldn't you know that the day we plan that is the one day in the last 100 days that it decides to rain! I'm not complaining because we needed the rain but it was kinda funny. So we get to the carwash place and it's raining lightly and as soon as we start cleaning out the car it starts raining harder. So we're starting to get wet because the tarp canopy roof they have isn't really offering any protection but instead has just enough gaps in it to let the rain get to us. So we hurry up and get the car all nice and clean and get outta there just in time, as soon as we got in the car again it started raining even more! SO now it's time to grab some dinner so we head over to Montana Mikes and kill a small mountain of cheese fries followed by a killer salad(yeah real healthy...). Then we top the evening off with a trip to the movies and watch Rise of Planet of The Apes! I highly recommend this movie, it was so much better than I anticipated. I'll warn you though, it may change your mind about that cute little pet monkey you've been wanting lately.......

Love Is... New Life (Week 34)

Earlier this week I was sitting down brainstorming what I should make the topic of this week's edition of "Love Is..." and then, all of a sudden, it hit me. Literally. First in the hip, then in the ribs, and then lastly, straight to the bladder. So this week I decided to write about my new, tiny, growing life. So, here I sit- 30 weeks pregnant with a little baby bug kicking, hitting, moving and shaking all around. Feeling SO blessed to be expecting my second darling daughter. Deciding to have children is one of the MOST wonderful, most terrifying adventures any couple will go on. And some of us are crazy enough to have more than one! :)

But, getting pregnant or staying pregnant, does not come easy to everyone. I know couples who struggle for months and years to conceive a child... and for some that dream never comes to fruition. Thankfully, with the help of modern technology and a God that has been SO good to us, we were able to have our healthy, beautiful, spoiled rotten little girl in July of 2009, and her little sister will join us in October of this year. They did not come without heartache, though. After two miscarriages in 2008, my doctor ran a series of tests on me and my husband to see if there was any reason why this was happening to us, or if it was just a case of- "this is not your time."

Before getting pregnant the first time, we had prayed faithfully and truly felt like God was giving us the green light. So after our second loss, we were really struggling to understand why this was happening. To say I was angry at God.... would be an understatement. I was livid. I cried, John cried, we were crushed. Then- my blood work came back. My doctor called us in to the office to tell me that the tests showed two abnormalities with my blood. One- a folic acid deficiency, and the other- a blood clotting disorder. Both with a high miscarriage rate. She told us right away that she had seen this before and it was a TREATABLE condition. AMEN! We were so thrilled to know that other women with this disorder had successfully carried a baby to term. Then came the "bad news." The treatment?? Daily injections of blood thinner. that I would do myself. in my stomach. everyday that I was pregnant. SAY WHAAAAAAAT?

John and I talked about it... for about half a second. I immediately knew I wanted to do it. I have known since I was about 6 years old that I wanted to be, no, that I was CALLED TO BE, a mother. So my doctor sent us to a Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor. He told us the plan was- as soon as I got a positive home pregnancy test, I was to go to the pharmacy and fill my prescription for a drug called Lovenox. It's a once daily injection, straight in the gut. So, we tried again. and got pregnant right away. Hallelujah! So off I went to the pharmacy, got my prescription and went home and gave myself my first ever shot. I ended up doing 232 shots my first pregnancy. It was not NEARLY as bad as I had first imagined. For the miracle that is our sweet Kennedy, it was an extremely small price to pay.

So, in my 30th week of pregnancy with baby #2, I've done approximately 161 shots... not that I'm counting. ;)

People go to MUCH greater lengths than I have to have a baby. I've known people that have spent their entire life savings on fertility treatment. A friend of a friend re-mortgaged their home to do ONE.MORE.ROUND of IVF... so I am counting my blessings. I am grateful, thankful and extremely happy that all I have to do is a tiny little shot in the belly everyday. Every time I tell people my story, they immediately say "there is no way I could do that." To which I reply "You could if you had to." And it's true, if you were really faced with that choice, you'd do it... because THAT'S what Love is.



Rebekah