i met the sweetest blog friend. her name is kaity and i am thankful for her. she is beautiful and so is her blog. kaity, i stole these pictures from your blog. i hope you don’t mind. 🙂
she tagged me in these two different posts. one about making lists of fours, and the other, seven random things about me. i’m combining them into one post and tagging ten of you.
do ya get it? can ya dig it?
four shows i watch:
(can i change this to four blogs i read? okay, good. i don’t watch tv…ever! i used to watch my fair share of giada de laurentiis, paula deen and iron chef america. now, i just catch glimpses of the yankee game or the giants game from afar. i try to limit my media intake. but, if i am intaking, i am intaking the interwebs.)
so, here are four randomly selected blogs i read that i love:
four things i’m passionate about:
1) Jesus Christ. i am sinner, saved by grace. His grace. i am not worthy, but He is. no matter the circumstance, He is worthy. I am striving to live a life that pleases my maker. He is faithful, He is forgiving, His mercies are new every morning.
2) prayer. my conversations with the Lord and my desire to bring everything to Him has strengthened so much this past year. the power of prayer.
3) family. i’m living my dream. my heart lives outside my body now.
4) friendship. my friends have taken on a whole new meaning in my life as a mother. i laugh with them and cry with them. i pray with them, and for them. i rejoice over the births of their children and all they accomplish. my heart breaks with them over the babies that have gone to heaven before we ever even got to hold them. we are there for each other on the roads we never wanted to walk, and on the roads that we dreamed of our whole lives. we call each other on the long, hard, trying days. we long for our girls nights. i love them, i trust them with my children and i count them some the greatest blessings in my life today.
four phrases i say a lot:
1) seriously?
2) are you kidding me?
3) brody, do not touch your brother!
4) what are you doing?
these are pretty self explanatory. most of the time i say all four as one big run on sentence.
four things i’ve learned from the past
1. be a listener first. a talker second.
2. take the metal spoon out of the dish before microwaving
3. don’t worry. pray.
4. guard your heart, wait on the Lord.
four things i did yesterday
1. gave my money to help build a well in africa. did you?
2. smiled as i walked past my fridge and read the magazine clipping that says, “we must kiss before we eat dinner” and then kissed my honey.
3. changed five too many dirty diapers
4. heard my big boy sing away in a manger, one of the sweetest sounds.
four things i am looking forward to
1. finally getting around to spray painting our craigslist headboard and footboard.
2. a white christmas. please?
3. the look on my son’s faces when their bride is walking down the aisle.
4. when new york starts testing for state troopers again.
four things i love about winter
1. snow!
2. not sweating!
3. scraves, hats, gloves, boots, oh my!
4. breaking out the nsync christmas cd in early november.
four things on my wish list:
{i decided to go with more of goals than wishes, if you will. i also combined some, just go with it.}
1. give back more than i take in. pray fervently about adoption. give it to the Lord. follow what He commands us to do, take action on what He calls of me.
2. run in a race. chasing my kids around and running away from them does not count.
3. learn my camera more. take more pictures. of you.
4. manage my time better.
1) i met my hubby ONLINE. it was so totally random. in fact, as i am typing this i am saying “what?!” he lived in california and i lived in new york. it was a beautiful, whirlwind romance. we first talked online one day in january 2005 and on the phone only three days later. he flew out here to meet me in march and we flew back and forth across the country the next few months. he came out here that june to do an internship, we got engaged on july 16th, and he never moved back. we married the following year on september 16th, 2006.
2) the summer after i graduated high school i hopped on a plane in new york city, flew to belgium, then to denmark and made my way to sweet, sweet sweden. i love it there, it still has a little piece of my heart.
3) we honeymooned in st thomas in the virgin islands. hello, heavenly.
4) i think you should all read the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society. i really, really loved it. i wish there was a sequel. the next two books i want to read are bittersweet and cold tangerines by shauna niequist.
5) i love cities. i love manhattan, i love seattle, i love boston, i love chicago. but, i love living in a more countryesque home. i love that my boys will run around like little banshees in the woods with their daddy. just like he did when he was a boy. i also love hawaii. and northern california is one of the most beautiful places i ever did see. mt. shasta, to be specific.
san franciso is not northern california, people.
6) i went to school for early childhood education for two years then, after some serious contemplation, i took a semester off, got married and prayed. on my own i interned with a wedding and event coordinator and fell.in.love. i then continued my education online, through liberty university, to receive my BS in business management. booya.
7) i felt like i was dying a slow death after i gave birth to my first born. could someone have prepared a girl? breast feeding was hands down the hardest thing i had ever done in my life. i labored for 10 long hours, pushed for 2 and a half, gave birth to a 10 pound 12 ounce baby boy, au natural. i would have taken that any day over my recovery. could someone have warned me that i was going to flooded with raging opinions of every one in my life? that i would be a sleepless, emotional, hormonal mess sitting topless on my couch for two straight months trying to feed a baby that didn’t latch, all while syringing breast milk into his mouth and crying so hard i was choking on the chicken dinner that my sweet friend made me? that was the longest sentence i ever typed. or how about how i couldn’t even lift my leg to step into the shower, or walk, for that matter. or that my arms were going to FALL OFF because they ached so bad from holding my legs back while pushing. or that i would feel things i never felt before. or that i would be very depressed.
…all that to say. it was very worth it. each day got better. i forgot the pain, clearly, cause i got pregnant with foster when brody was 10 months old. can i get a whatwhat? i had a beautiful, wonderful, labor with foster. got to the hospital, not thinking i was in labor, and i was seven and half centimeters. a couple hours later after laboring in the massive tub of warm water and listening to some sweet praise and worship, i pushed for just under twelve minutes and had my second born in my arms.
*****
this was super fun for me to do. it even got me a little emotional. i really, really like lists. maybe more than one person should ever like lists.
here are the ten of YOU i am tagging: kristin, erin, jami, kirra, katy, heather, cherish, april, carly, and annie.
happy tuesday!
I LOVED your list, all your wonderful thoughts, and memories!
I had to giggle…b/c I too broke out the Nsync Christmas cd…right after Halloween! 🙂
Thank you for sharing your list!
this is so awesome! learned some new things about you. we'll see if i can get my act together and try to do this. don't be mad if i don't!
I love lists too, and this was a great one!
I love reading about people's lives in list form 🙂
You are adorable. Loved the lists. I second you on the breastfeeding. Same deal with both kids. Hardest & most painful (for more than one reason) thing ever. Why does it seem so easy for everyone else????? I am encouraged this morn by your passion for prayer too. That's next in my day…
Great list! Loved this post! Now I want to do it! 🙂
oh my goodness! i've never been tagged before!
what you described about giving birth and then the recovery = my exact feelings on the entire matter at hand. 🙂
I loved reading this! and i was fresh out of inspiration for a blog post until I noticed that you tagged me! so mine is up on my blog too!
And breastfeeding SUCKED. lol
I might have to play this one! It looks like fun! Which is also how I would describe your adorable blog!
I am following you now. Maybe you'll return the favor? <3
What would you do with a $75 gift card? I have a giveaway on my blog right now for just that!
Come on over and enter!
oh friend, don't even get me started on birthing stories people never warned us about. let's just say my first was large enough he required a vacuum to yank him out and i spent the next 3 months in and out of surgeries trying to recover from it.
but you know i'd do it all again in a heartbeat.
loved your lists and thanks for tagging me. now i know what to write about later this week. 🙂
ok here goes… haha!
Yay for the Nor Cal shout out! 🙂 Mt. Shasta is truly, truly amazing.
I'm a list girl too. And a lover of Jesus. Thanks for sharing all this!
You are too cute!! 🙂
I had a c-section with my babe…talk about a sucky recovery as well. but like all mothers say….I would do it all over again 🙂 some how we forget about the pain, which God made it that way so we can have more babies 🙂 🙂
LOVE that you love Jesus soooooo much 🙂
Thanks for a beautiful blog post!!!!
xo
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I met my husband online too! (My parents thought I was crazy, at first.) Met online in June, I flew out to meet him in CA in August, he flew out to meet my family in NJ in December, we were married in March. Love your lists!
I love all your beautiful pictures!
I have a giveaway going on right now that you might be interested in!
I can't even remember whose blogroll I saw your blog on but I am so, so glad I read the part about your birth/recovery. I too did au natural but that part wasn't so bad to me. Recovery was downright awful and I have been scared of another baby ever since in some ways. Kelly
wow. so i just found this blog through now and evermore (kaity's my best friend) and am ecstatic! i absolutely love your lists! i love nsync's christmas album and the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society. after those two things i just felt a connection. you're definitely being added to blogs i follow! 🙂
oh dear. there are people out there like me.
listaholic. postpartum issues (I call them issues b/c that is what they are for me). and 2 boys 18 months apart. woo. i could go on, but you've said it for me 🙂