Today: "...let us rejoice and be glad in it."

On an adventure yesterday we visited the Great Lakes Aquarium!  It was little L's first visit to an aquarium.  Our 11 month old wasn't overly interested in the tanks of fish; surprise, surprise!  

He did enjoy the wave machine and small play area and of course all the toys in the gift shop were a big hit! =)  It was a nice escape from the house for Mommy and Daddy though.

While I do love being able to stay home with my little man all day, it is a nice relief from the consistent activities that come from a day at the house. 

Spring couldn't come soon enough!  Both L and myself are in need of the fresh air and adventures that warmer days bring.  

We are currently in the works of finally selling our home in Arizona! (Quietly cheers to self). It is a bittersweet process though. 

On one hand we won't have to worry about paying a mortgage for an empty house on the other side of the country, or dealing with the horrible broker we had while renting out the house (grr), but on the other hand it was our first home and we put a lot of work and sweat into making it beautiful and not to mention all the memories that we started there. 

I will miss every inch of that place most definitely, but selling that house makes way for new memories and new adventures here in Minnesota. As a family.  That has expanded by one since leaving Arizona and hopefully more to come.

 Moving forward is hard when you dwell on past memories but at one point you had to move forward to make those memories happen and so the cycle will continue. Time to make new memories! 

Prayer for a happy heart.

Here is the deal: I am in DESPERATE need of a lifestyle change!

You may or may not know this about me, but I fight a lot of internal battles with myself!

I have some serious issues with self confidence and self worth.  

I am envious and jealous more often than not. That is some serious business!!
I need a big kick in the positive/optimistic direction! Ask my hubby, he will probably tell you that I am the biggest pessimist he knows. That isn't something that I want my husband/family to know me for. 

I always tell myself that I need to start looking at every day with a positive outlook but than I always end up right where I started. I try to pawn it off as being "realistic" but why can't it be realistic to be positive and full of hope?? 

I am a mother now and that alone should make me feel amazing each and every day. 

I LOVE seeing my baby boy's face every morning and when he smiles, I couldn't be happier! I love that little boy more than anything!

That is why I NEED to do this!

I am on a personal mission to rid my heart and head of envy and expectations. 

I hope that every single day I can show him all the love I have for him.  

I want to have an attitude and perspective that he can look up to and learn from. 

I want him to have hope and be able to see the good in every situation and find joy in every moment.

He is so young and will learn so much from this every changing world and I pray that I can be a beacon of light to help guide him and encourage him through it all. In order to be a beacon however you have to have some sort of light that glows bright enough. That sounds like a person full of joy and hope to me. 

So this is sort of my plea or request for help. I am going to need prayer and encouragement from anyone and everyone that I know. That means you! =) However it is that you came to read this right now I ask you to take a minute, even if only once, to say a little prayer and ask the Lord to fill my heart with hope and joy and to cleanse my thoughts and actions of envy and jealousy so that I may be an encouragement in my family's and friends' lives, especially my husband's and my son's. 

I would like to spread joy and love to all the people that I meet. So if you are in need of prayer or encouragement please leave a comment or message me and I will send up a prayer for you in return. Thank you to each and every one of you!

Every prayer and any words of wisdom or encouragement are all greatly appreciated.

Proverbs 15:13 "A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit."

time to live

I need to stop holding myself back, I keep telling myself that I'm not that girl... that I'll never see the world or become anyone... well, no more excuses, why can't I be that girl? The only person holding me back, is me... and I'm tired of it. I want to explore the world and experience that rush of really living that comes flying at a person when they are having the time of their life. I want to find pure joy and be truly happy with my life and all that I've accomplished. And maybe that true happiness and joy won't hit me until I come back home and realize that my life here is such a blessing, or maybe it'll happen in the streets of Paris, or in Africa helping to build a church, or anywhere, but I won't know until I get out there... and that's all I want to do is get out of the mundane, day to day crap that I've slowly been wasting away in... There is so much living to do, and this just doesn't feel like it's right.

more projects

I still haven't gotten around to posting the rest of my Washington pictures, sorry... it takes so much time and I haven't had a whole lot of that lately, but today I have a little time... so I am going to post some pictures of projects and things I have been working on/doing lately! =) Enjoy.

The following pictures are from a chandelier that I brought back to life! I hated this terrible glass frame around the top and gold color, so I revamped it with some tweaking, spray paint and some decorative glass beads. 

VIOLA!!! I still need to find new plastic pieces to cover the light sockets, those tan looking ones kind of clash with the black, but I might spray paint those as well for now. Overall, it looks a million times better than the framed mess it was before. =) 

I took some time a while ago to try and figure out how to organize some photos on our living room wall, and I was pretty happy with how I finally decided to place them. 

I also want to note that I have been thinking lately about starting a crafting club, something for me and a bunch of friends to get together and have some fun and make some crafts and bake and what not, so there may be a bunch of posts to look forward to from our first shot at it!! =) I am super excited about trying this because I need a little excitement and I have SO many ideas for crafts/projects!! =) 

And in the spirit of Halloween, I edited a picture of myself... to give it a little spooky feel. =) (I will hopefully post pictures of our costumes soon too!)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

Vacation in Washinton Part One

Well let me start off by saying, WOW Washington state is BEAUTIFUL, which is probably why I got over 1500 pictures from the week that we spent up there! Oh, just an update, Dustin and I recently took a trip up to Washington state to visit his sister. We were also scoping out the state to see if it could potentially be a place for us to settle down, and it is definitely a possibility because I loved it there! The weather, aka the rain and clouds, was amazing! Let me clarify... D and I live in Yuma, AZ which is the hottest place in the country, no joke! Yuma is known for it's sunny days and scorching summers! I dislike this place with a passion! =) But I am trying to make the most of it here because we are here for a couple more years at least, due to the lovely military! Although I have a hatred building for this place, I have to be grateful for it as well, not only is it the place where D and I have started our lives together but it has also given me an appreciation for the weather that everyone else hates. Rain! I liked the rain even before we moved here, but now I LOVE the rain and I love clouds, thus is why I love Washington! 

So, like I said I have over 1,500 pictures from our trip, but I am going to put my favorites on here... which mind you is still A LOT... so if you are brave and have some spare time on your hands, you are in for a treat, because these pictures turned out fabulous if you ask me. So... Let's begin... 

D and his sister in Tacoma after a little breakfast. 

My lovely hubby posing by a tree.... which wouldn't be significant to anyone except that we flew from Yuma, where there are no Trees taller than 10 feet so we were impressed right away! =)

This was a fun little pond in the middle of the park. Again, Yuma has no water so we were fascinated! 

The following are a serious of lovely ducks that were floating around the pond on this lovely rainy day! 

I love the raindrops on the water here!

Dustin's sister is also an avid photographer/artist so she wanted to snap a few photos of us walking through the park. Ahh Love. =)

I already miss wearing a jacket. =(

Some interesting trees and shapes! 

Autumn leaves! I miss the seasons! Curse you Yuma! 

This was a beautiful drive through another park in Tacoma. Gorgeous!

A cool shot of the fall leaves through another tree.

This tree looked like it was meant to be sat upon, so he did indeed sit upon it and we took pictures. 

The Pugit Sound

So, this tree was really cool, the textures and colors were amazing, and Dustin was teasing me because instead of taking pictures of the scenery, I spent a lot of time taking pictures of this tree. 

This racoon was fearless! He just popped up to say hello and then scurried away like he was just strolling through the park. He was a handsome little devil though. =)

Another interesting tree. It almost looks like paper peeling off of someone's skin...

Handsome Hubby and I in front of the Pugit Sound.

The fog was rolling in.

A large and fabulous bridge.

I enjoyed some of the architecture and brick buildings, we don't see much of that down here. 

The Pugit Sound on a lovely clear day. 

This was a beautiful walkway along the water

It was romantic strolling along here, holding hands and taking in all of the beauty of nature!

We walked through the woods on these paths for a while, it was incredible! Nature is so serene and beautiful! I enjoyed this more than Seattle I think. 

Some berries along the trail. 

This tree looked very large (later we'll see more large trees, but this was early on in our trip)

VERY TALL! 

And very big around. 

Some lovely green!

After walking through trails, we went into the park and there was this beautiful flower garden... and I had a lot of fun with my camera here! 

I loved these flowers! 

These colors are AMAZING!

Just outside the garden was another little pond, and there were SO many turtles, so here are a few that I caught on camera. 

This guy looked grumpy and he kept his eye on us the whole time! 

These two looked like they were gossiping about all the other turtles. 

This tree was really big! (there will be more later)

I sat down for a while and tried to get this duck as he was bathing himself, and I got some cool photos from it. 

This was a shot of the rocks along the shoreline, I try to find the beauty in everything...

This tree was gigantic! I would like one in my front yard. =)

This was down by the beach, looking out on the Pugit Sound.

The color contrast here looks amazing!

We stopped here and rested a while and relaxed on some driftwood. 

It was peaceful.

The driftwood made for some very cool pictures!

Sailboat

I love the texture of this piece of wood. 

Dustin was carving a piece of driftwood, he was making a fishing rod. 

I love the water!

I wish we could have gone out sailing or kayaking or something, the water looked so inviting.

Dustin took this picture of the little tugboat. 

Mt. Rainier, it was pretty cloudy so I never did get a good shot of the peak. 

More racoons, they were everywhere. 

I think on a little 5 mile strip we saw like 8, and a couple ran towards the car like they were going to jump in the window and mug us. =) 

A peaceful little bird perched on a fence in front of the water. 

This view is from on top of the Space Needle in Seattle! 

Mt. Rainier, still a little cloudy.

Dustin and I on top of the Space Needle

It doesn't look very tall here, but it was!

Dustin and I in front of the Space Needle.

Pike's Place Public Market! 

There were a lot of people, but it was a cool place!

Being a fan of Starbucks coffee I naturally had to stop in to The Original Starbucks for a Cafe Mocha! 

The market was really cool! I could have spent a lot of time in there just taking pictures of foods!

These were cool hanging pepper ornaments. Would be cool to make and see down here in Yuma.  

The ceiling inside part of the market was rich and pretty!

The famous Pike's Place Fish Co. (We didn't get to see them toss any fish but they sang/chanted a little)

So many beautiful fresh foods!

We spent 2 days of our trip driving around the peninsula, and it was gorgeous everywhere we went! It was such a great drive, and we of course had to stop a million times for some BEAUTIFUL pictures!!! 

 This looks so much better in the larger format, but gorgeous nonetheless. 

A lighthouse off in the distance

It was early in the morning and the fishermen were all out, and I got to capture this and it looks so peaceful.

The colors were amazing too!

The mountains in the distance 

I love fences!

Another view of the water and fishermen.

Dustin and I by this lovely white-picket fence, there was a lovely red barn and farmhouse here too, it was a beautiful piece of land. 

A hawk flying over a field. 

A path along the ocean shore. 

Looking out from the bluffs at the mountains and the ocean's shoreline. 

THIS IS PART ONE OF OUR TRIP! SOO MANY PICTURES TAKES TIME TO LOAD, SO LOOK FOR MORE SOON!