Saturday, February 27, 2010

Sensational Saturday!

I must admit that today was such a great day! Phil and I took the two youngest kids I watch to a pancake breakfast to support the church's youth group and afterwards we took them to Toys R Us and let them each pick out a little toy. It was great to be able to spend some time with them and not be in "nanny mode."

We followed that by going to the mall where we hung out and shopped for a couple of hours. Since the mall in town is small and doesn't have any good stores, I love it when we venture the 40 (or so) minutes to the bigger mall with all of the great stores. I may or may not have been a little discouraged by not finding anything that currently fits me well and I may or may not have splurged at Victoria's Secret. I also found that if the clothes would fit I would totally shop at J. Crew. It reminds me a lot of American Eagle, but for adults. This just might have to be one of my new goals.

After the mall we headed on over for an early dinner date at The Melting Pot. If you have not been there, seriously go...like now. It is a little expensive, but the four course fondue meal is fantastic. Our two favorites were the cheese and chocolate.

We finished the evening by having a family game night that his parents hosted. It was great to see his aunts, uncles, and one cousin for a few hours of playing games and just spending time together. I love his mom's side of the family and really look forward to seeing them every chance we get.

Tomorrow will probably be more of a relaxing day seeing as we've been so busy today, but it was great to have a whole day with him and know that we still have tomorrow together before the work week starts up again.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Friday=Snow Day

Well it's snowing up here once again and the kiddos are off of school. We've been instructed to stay inside all day because of the winds and snow. The winds are said to get up to 50mph and with the flurries and drifting going on there is no way I want to get out right now...that is unless it is to go to Phil's house and snuggle under the covers while he's at work!

I've been in a great mood lately and wasn't upset at all about the kids staying home. It sure was frustrating when it was for two weeks straight, but today I can totally see why they did it. I'm just hoping for a good day. I figure I'll let them all do what they want as long as they behave.

I've emailed Phil to give him a head's up and was hoping that he might come home a little early today, but unless it gets really bad it doesn't look like that's happening...oh well.

So for right now, I'm just chillin on the internet and relishing in the peace that is the kids doing what makes them happy at the moment. Oh and I may or may not be totally craving cinnamon rolls today...it happens every snow day!

What do you do when it snows?

Thursday, February 25, 2010

You want me to do what?

It's been a whole month to-the-day of when my car accident happened. The day of the only major complaint I had was that my right wrist hurt so bad. The ER wasn't sure if it was broken so they sent to to a specialist who has determined that there is no fracture, just a bruise on my bone. He put me in a removable brace and sent me on my way.

Since then the pain has only gotten worse. It is sharp and intense whenever I try to do anything with the right hand. Luckily, I am left-handed with most things, but there are still a number of things I need my right hand for. Being that it got worse, I headed back to the doctor today only to be told that it was "odd" and "not normal" for there to be intense, sharp pain. He still refuses to say that it is anything more than a bruised bone and said that the reason for the pain must be that the "tendons are inflammed." He wants me to go to physical therapy and see him in 3 weeks.

Unfortunately my insurance does not want to pay for it up front and says that I will have to pay for it and wait until they decide to reimburse me from the other guy's bodily-injury coverage. I have been told that I should not have to pay anything out-of-pocket and that since it was decided that I am "not at fault" then his insurance should cover it.

I have a lot of thinking and decisions to make.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Happy Wednesday!

I must admit that I am in a super fantastic mood today! During the couple of hours of break I get while the youngest is in preschool I managed to get a lot accomplished. You see, I really love when my apartment is clean and picked up, but with the majority of my time either at work or Phil's that leaves little time for me to be there. Lately every room has been picked up except my bedroom. It was driving me crazy. When the bedroom is cluttered and messy it really affects my sleep so today I finally decided to put my mind to it and pick it up. It took a little bit of time and effort, but it looks much better than before!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Overcoming

Here's the excerpt from my morning devotional. And this is why I continue even when things are difficult...

"Difficult relationships can sometimes make us feel like we are being dangled over a fire of unreasonable expectations, can't they? It seems easier to simply give up and walk away from all of the emotional stress of trying to make the relationship work. When we make the choice to love a sandpaper person, we are inviting God to work in us and through us to bring about change - to create His image in us so we can then see His image in others. Difficult relationships and combative interactions do not hold up well in an atmosphere of love, because it is through love that stubborn wills are compelled to yield. Under the influence of God's love in our lives, winning no longer seems important to us, as we recognize the value and worth of a soul."

Monday, February 22, 2010

Stressed

I feel like life has thrown me a curve ball. I am stressed, overwhelmed, frustrated, and tired. I feel like my relationship is falling through the cracks and I'm not sure how it can be fixed. I've worked hard and loved him for so long and did everything I could to make him happy and comfortable, but what do you do when the person you love isn't happy with anything and hasn't been for a long time? I can only make my self happy and no one else.

His mom suggested that we drop the subject of marriage for a month and learn to enjoy the relationship and one another for at least a month. She said we needed to start going out of the house on dates and have fun together. I said that I would plan something for this weekend that we can do together that he can enjoy.

My fear at the moment is that he's not going to want to be happy and change his attitude. He is great at appearing happy, but not really being happy. All I can do is pray and try, but right now trying is really hard. I want to give up and move on. I love him and have put in so much, but there comes to a point where if things don't start to change, then it's not going to work. I think we have a rough month ahead of us. I need God's help with this one...it's too big for me.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Our Valentine's Weekend

No, he didn't pop the question yet, but he said very soon! We did have a great weekend and really celebrated a lot! Last night Phil took me to dinner at Paradisios which is a really nice restaurant in the area. We both got dressed up and had a lot of fun. The couple to our right talked really loudly and I may or may not wanted to bang my head against the table, but we managed to entertain ourselves by taking funny pictures. Classy, I know.

One of the more normal pictures we took.

Today we continued the celebration by exchanging cards. Since Phil got his gift early he gave me mine. I got a dozen red roses, a willow tree figurine of a couple representing "together"-ness, some of my favorite candy, and highlights for my hair! We also had a special dinner of salmon wheels with crab florentine with candles lit all around. We finished our night at the marriage couples bible study and had a lot of fun.

This was one of the best Valentine's Weekends I have ever had. I love him so much and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Phil and I are off to Bible Study, but I wanted to wish you all a happy valentine's day! I'll post pictures later!

Friday, February 12, 2010

The Lord is Good No Matter What

This morning as I sat down to check my email I saw one from Phil that said "Needing a new game plan." Thinking it was about me going to the doctor's for a follow-up on my wrist from the car accident I opened it immediately. Unfortunately it had nothing to do with the doctor's appointment or road conditions, but rather Phil's job status.

He was hired this past October for a 13 month temporary assignment that "may turn permanent." It was his first big job and somehow the peace of the Lord came over me thinking of this assignment. I just knew it was all going to be ok and we wouldn't have to worry about it and we just needed to have faith. Apparently those words continue true today.

Phil's supervisor was told to come and remind him that he has a temporary assignment and that it will not become permanent. They told him to start applying for the same position within their company and to start doing so now. As much as this is not ideal it could be worse.

The way I see it is that they are not opposed to have him continue working there...hence the "apply for the same position starting now." In fact, I think it is a blessing that they told him now as opposed to October where he would have just one month to figure out a new job situation.

Even though there is a slight bit of panic in me thinking about all of the "what ifs" that could happen, I am incredibly calm and at peace with it all. I know without a shadow of a doubt that God has a plan and will provide. It might seem like the end of the world for him now, but it won't matter five years from now when he is in a better place.

God has blessed us so much and right now I am choosing to believe and have full confidence in His mighty power.

I find it ironic how much strength God can give women. When it comes to my job situation I can be a hot mess worrying and wondering, but when it comes to the man I love nothing can stop me from having faith, being strong, and believing. I will be there for him, tell him how proud of him I am, encourage him, listen to his fears and desires, and overall give him all of the love and support he needs and more. This is my job as the woman in his life.

God definitely knew what he was doing when he created woman for man. He knew that no matter what man would need the love, support, and unconditional strength of a woman during these trying times.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Short Work Week

With the massive amount of snow we have received over the past weekend and yesterday I was lucky enough to only have to work Monday of this week! Phil hasn't had to work yet, but it seems as though he might have to go in tomorrow :( I am super bummed about this and am feeling incredibly selfish at the moment with wanting him to be home with me.

To be completely honest, I would rather have to go to work then for him to go. His work day requires him to be up at 3:45am and at work around 6:30am. He works a long work day and doesn't get home until 5:45pm with a 2 hour commute each way.

Right now I feel super guilty. I've been saying so much today that I wanted another day off. Complaining, griping, and grumbling have been a large part of my demeanor when it came to thinking about going back to work. The thing is that my job is great. I love the kids I watch and have a great time doing it. They have been fantastic with all of the snow days and I still wanted a fourth day off.

Well, they say be careful what you wish for. I did get my fourth day off in a row, but Phil didn't. It would be great if I could run to the stores, clean up my apartment, and get ready for our Valentine's celebration on Saturday, but with the roads being so icy I'm not so sure I'll be going anywhere tomorrow.

On the plus side...we now have power back at the house! We were without power for a full 24 hours (minus about 15 min) and it really wasn't that bad. It was a little boring, but we survived and really made us appreciate lights, heat, hot food, and (for me) the tv and internet...as if I didn't already. lol.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

I may be slightly crazy

The day of the car accident my boyfriend broke the silence and told me that he had put a down payment on a ring. This is great news considering I have been wanting to marry him since the first month we started dating. I just had this feeling and knew, then, that he was the one. Since then, we have continued dating and talking about marriage for the duration of the relationship, mostly because I knew that God had him in my life to be my husband.

It has been almost 20 months since we've started dating and he has a really great job that would allow for us to consider marriage. This began more serious talks of getting engaged and married sooner. I may or may not drive him crazy with the amount of wedding talk I do and seriously schooled him in the ways of buying a good diamond, teaching him the 4 c's and how not to be ripped off by jewlery stores, especially in the mall.

Ever since he told me that he was getting it, my mind has been on overdrive. I overanalyze every move he makes and may or may not have looked through his phone history and a receipt for lunch to find out if it was near where he bought the ring.

I am not a person that deals well with surprises and likes to plan everything. This, of course, is all up to him. He's pretty much decided that there might be little to no chance of actually surprising me because I just tend to "know" things. I have an idea of when it might happen, but for right now I've been thinking it could happen pretty much any waking minute since I know he wants to surprise me and to do that he would have to do something totally random like pop the question at the breakfast table or something. Lol.

Tonight I decided to confess that I looked at his lunch receipt and saw that he had called multiple times over the past week to the jewler. These are terrible things to do and I feel like I'm going crazy not knowing. It's too hard to just sit around, wait, and not think about these things when ideas swirl through my mind a million miles a minute.

I have decided that there is no way that I will be looking through his house for the ring. I'm not that crazy. You know, like on Bride Wars where Liv accidentally found the ring and wanted to look at it before her boyfriend gave it to her. I totally want to see it for the first time when he is holding it, down on one knee.

As for now, I feel much better getting it all of my chest and maybe if I can sit back and relax for a little while he may feel inspired to ask and I just might have to accept. lol.

More Snow!

This weekend we got a lot of snow. In fact, there was 22" outside the house where we were at. Schools have been closed for yesterday, today, and tomorrow and now we are expecting anywhere between 10-20" more today starting in the early afternoon. I'm pretty sure there will be no school at all this week and there's even more hope for no work days for me or my honey.

Luckily Phil was off yesterday seeing as the roads in DC are not passable, but I still had to work. Today, we are both off and trying to get to Ikea! We've been trying to go there for a while, but every time we have been snowed out and stuck in the house. I really want to find some cute curtains for my bedroom and maybe some other things while we're there because Ikea is awesome!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Snow Days

Luckily since they were predicting a lot of snow yesterday and today my boss decided to text me and give me yesterday off! Phil had taken the day off as well so we got an extra day to spend together! Any time it snows, I stay over at his parents' house because 1) I have no tv or internet at my apartment, sad, but true, 2) I have no access to a 4 wheel drive vehicle 3) I do not own a snow shovel and with my wrist hurting can not shovel at the moment, and 4) Staying at his house means that I get to socialize with his family.Phil absolutely loves snow and even though we got 22 inches of snow he still would like more lol.

As we were snowed in today we started talking about surprises and how I just tend to know what they are before they happen. In fact, I guessed where we were going for dinner to next Saturday to celebrate Valentine's Day. It's a bad thing, really, especially since he's trying to plan something and I keep ruining it by guessing. I wish I could stop, but I like to have things planned out and it's hard to let that go.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Good News

I've been a little discouraged lately because working out has not been a great option with my back pain and the car accident. Instead I've been trying to eat better here and there and guess what???

I've lost 6 pounds!!! I was 194 in January and now I weigh 188! I'm super excited and I'm going to see my trainer one day next week to see if we can do some cardio.

I feel extremely blessed right now to know that amist the poor economy, both Phil and I are doing well. I know a few people who are struggling and I thank God for blessing us.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

update

it's been a pretty great week and a half since the accident. i had an mri done on my wrist and find out if it's broken on friday, but for now i am thrilled to be in a removable brace.

it's been snowing a lot here so between that and spending last week at phil's house we've seen eachother a lot lately. i keep telling him God is teaching us partnership...lol.

we also checked out a new bible study and loved it! the kicker...it's for married couples. we were more than welcomed bc we are planning on getting married and it was great!

overall things have been great! God is blessing us in so many ways.