7 years and counting

Aunt Martha's Bed and Breakfast

(I stole the picture from their website, as we did not take the camera)

On January 15th Mike and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. I was so thankful for the efforts he took to surprise me with a night away at Aunt Martha's bed and breakfast at Fort Walton Beach! It was my first night away from the children with my man since I was pregnant with Hosea. And I suppose in that case we could say Hosea came with us. :) But that was a trip to Germany, pretty extravagant. Also my first time ever in a bed and breakfast. Anyway, all that to say it was a huge blessing to me! I was a little nervous leaving Aggie, and giving instructions about her over-night tube feeding and such. Mike told me in the morning, so I had the whole day to prepare for the sitter coming that evening. There were many typed out detailed instructions. A good friend from church volunteered to say with the children, on her birthday no less. It was so kind of her, as I especially feel comfortable leaving the children in her care. She has a gift for enjoying them.

So we left Friday night, the 13th for Fort Walton, just over an hour away. Found our room situated cozy on the water front. Then walked to dinner at a nice restaurant, where I had some delicious salmon, rice pilaf, and roasted veggies, and Mike had steak, fancy mashed potatoes along with the veggies. It was tasty. Mike got me a pretty ring as a gift and presented it at dinner, very thoughtful. I think my favorite part of the whole time was in the morning. We tried our best to sleep in..... started stirring at 6, and gave up at 7. We're officially adults. We got around and went down stairs to read before breakfast. Breakfast was elaborate. We were the only house guests that night, so we had the place to ourselves. After breakfast we sat comfortably on a sofa over looking the water out many large windows with the intention of reading, but had the pleasure of conversation uninterrupted until check out time. It was perfect! Thanks babe for all your efforts to bless me, it did!

The House Date

I highly recommend this!! The last few weeks Mike and I have been taking the opportunity on Saturday nights to have a House date. We will put the kids down about 30 min. early, make something yummy, look presentable and eat delicious food with one another. Sometimes we light candles sometimes we don't, add a bottle of wine and .... ta...da.......... a house date. Steak is on the menu tonight, yumm! I LOVE it!

My Anniversary Gift

This is what was waiting for me in our living room the morning of our anniversary, so sweet. Mike got me a new hammock! I've been wanting one for a couple of years now, after ours broke, but we decided to wait, as we knew we would be moving soon. We were originally suppose to move the Summer of 2009. He did a lot of research on hammocks and says this type is suppose to be the most comfortable one, plus it can hold up to 750lbs. In case we all want to relax together I guess. Now the interesting part is this.........my darling groom wants to hang it in the sun-room of our new home in FL. I was thinking the back yard would be nice. It should be interesting to see how this turns out.

5 years of wedded bliss........

Marriage isn't what I thought it would be, but what I had imagined isn't what God had intended it to be. I wish someone would have told me that, but then again, i probably wouldn't have listened, some things we just have to experience to know it's true. As many of you know, Gods plan in marriage is to reflect His relationship with the church here on earth. I suppose if we keep that in mind from the get go, we wouldn't be so shocked by our sinful nature as time unfolds. If you look at the bible and see God's bride behaving in it's rebellious sinful state, time and time again even after given 2nd, 3rd, 4th........ well lots of chances, and His unending kindness and grace, commitment and love to His adulterous bride........ well then we start to get an accurate picture of marriage. Because that is what the last 5 years have been for us, sweet in that "......where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" Ro 5:20. It's not that we became more sinful the longer we were married, but rather more aware of our existing sin, as God reveled it to us. God has been so kind to give us the grace to forgive each other and love each other time and time again, and I know will continue to give us each the opportunity the remainder of our time here as husband and wife. But the encouraging part is this....... God presents to himself a perfect, spotless, sinless bride as we place our faith in Christ whom bore the punishment for my sin, we may stand before Him, not as the wretch we are, but as his beautiful forgiven sons and daughters, all because of the work he did for us on the cross.

Mike showed me this video a couple of months ago. It really seemed to impact him. I thought it was a sweet example of the service opportunity marriage renders. This was Robert McQuilken's retirement speech, once you view it, the reason for his retirement is very clear. I hope it blesses you.