There will be a day...

As a normal start of my day, I turned on my computer at work, logged into my phone, and turned on my iPod. I was listening to my iPod and this song was in my "Love" playlist. I have about 200 songs that I can never get sick of. I have been jamming out to holiday music lately but it was just one of those days today.

This song came on and I had to listen to it twice. It brought me to tears in my cubicle world. Always a pretty embarrassing moment because someone usually busts you! Of course with my luck, I did get caught. I just said my eyes hurt from being away from the lovely florescent lighting for 5 days. So the 2nd part of this year has been a tough one for our family.  We have been through so much, on both sides. Why does it seem that when you are hit with the bad, you never look for the good? We always seem to find more of the bad. God did say He will never give us more than we can handle. I need to focus of that. Things happen. People pass away, friends change, jobs are lost, finances may overwhelm, but it's not anything we can't live through. One thing I do need to remember for myself, personally, is that my human life, my life on earth, is short. Yes 100 years (if you live to be that long) seems to be a long time if you look at it through a looking glass. Once you pull away, and see the whole picture, it's a very short time. I need to focus more on my forever, not just my earthly life. There will be a day, when the things of this earth will seem so small. There will be a day when there will be no worries and no pain. Until then, I need to remember, better is one day in Your house, then thousands elsewhere.

There Will Be A Day

By: Jeremy Camp

I try to hold on to this world with everything I have
But I feel the weight of what it brings, and the hurt that tries to grab
The many trials that seem to never end, His word declares this truth,
that we will enter in this rest with wonders anew

But I hold on to this hope and the promise that He brings
That there will be a place with no more suffering

(Chorus)
There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more, we'll see Jesus face to face
But until that day, we'll hold on to you always

I know the journey seems so long
You feel you’re walking on your own
But there has never been a step
Where you’ve walked out all alone

Troubled soul don’t lose your heart
Cause joy and peace he brings
And the beauty that’s in store
Outweighs the hurt of life’s sting

But I hold on to this hope and the promise that He brings
That there will be a place with no more suffering

I can’t wait until that day where the very one I’ve lived for always will wipe away the sorrow that I’ve faced
To touch the scars that rescued me from a life of shame and misery this is why this is why I sing

There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more, we'll see Jesus face to face

There will be a day, He will wipe away the tears,
There will be a day.

There's no place like....hoooooooooome

We have made it home. No matter where you go or what you do, home is home. It's always nice to come home. We had a very successful trip home and a fantastic trip overall! It seems every trip we ever go on, I learn new things about myself and about the things that are important to me. On my way home, I compiled a list of these facts I have learned over the past few days:

1) You can always count on it being warmer down in Bella Vista, even if it's only 3 degrees, lucky for us it was 20 degrees!

2) No matter where you stay, the water pressure is non existent and hard as stone down there.

3) A sunrise or sunset will always amaze me and bring me closer to God

4) I am very fortunate to have a very well behaved child, I need to remember that

5) You can never throw a football too much, even when your arm is screaming out you, always keep going

6) My child will leave the house if no one is watching. Fantastic.

7) My husband is a stud! He makes my heart soar to places I never thought it would.

8) David gets me in more ways then anyone I know. I swear, it's his gift.

9) We need to really sit down and plan out baby #2, if there will be one, since both sisters are PG and asking

10) Jake and I are alike in more ways then I thought. It's me, but 25 years younger. Watch out.

11) It can never be too quiet.

12) If you turn on the GLEE soundtrack, your car will turn into karaoke 101.

13) Feeding the ducks will always be a favorite past time of mine, along with skipping rocks.

14) The boys (nephews and my son) are blessed with a very energetic "Papa" that is willing to wrestle with them and chase them around for hours

15) I can read 226 pages of a kids story book 4 times and survive. I have got Curious George down!

16) My child will never be a napper in the car, no matter how long the drive be.

17) Gerald's abs in 300 are better than I remembered or ever gave him credit for. Thank you!

18) Gigi, no matter what in her past, loves her family and would do anything for them. She is a very special woman.

19) I am very glad that Jake is not a messy eater. I think my gag reflux hit it's high peak this week

20) Arkansas Wal-Mart experiences could generate about 5 of those photo emails. It's called a mirror people.

21) Laying on a blanket, with the sun beaming on your face, will always be refreshing and should never be taken for granted.

22) I could spend my 401k on the "Twilight Saga" table at Barnes and Noble. (downfall again)

23) Angel food cake with vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries is a little taste of heaven.

24) Make sure to always check when Mizzou and Kansas play one another, traffic can be a pain in your backside in KC.

25) I missed my dogs, my cat and my house. But most of all, being the 26, almost 27 year old, married with a child woman I am, didn't realize how much I would miss my mommy and daddy!

Until next year, Arkansas 2010. We will have another Olsen on board, which will make it even more interesting! 

Yellow friday

Since it is black Friday, I am changing the name to Yellow Friday. Mostly because the sun was shinning bright, high in the sky all day long! 68 degrees and perfect!

We awoke early and the guys and myself headed out to brace the crowds. One bonus about Bella Vista, it's a retirement community so not too many people are out and about that early! We hit a few hot spots and made bank! We spent $150 at Old Navy and bought 27 items. What in the world?! That is some insanity! Everyone back at the house was trying to log onto Kohls.com, well the website was basically shut down. I felt bad for them! Sounds like they weren't the only people that could get online.

We spent the morning walking around the lake, feeding the ducks, reading out on the deck or dock. Just soaking up the sun. We headed to Gigi's for lunch. Good ole leftovers. After lunch we headed outside yet again. We hung Christmas lights for her and some of her neighbors. We picked up another few hours of throwing the football around. While some people napped, Jake and I sat outside on a blanket and read 215 pages of Curious George. It was so nice. He wanted to cuddle, hold my hand and read. I love that little boy. I am so blessed with him. He is honestly, one of the sweetest most well behaved children! After laying out in the sun, we played some games and had an early dinner. We said our goodbyes and game back to the house. I still can't believe we are already leaving tomorrow morning! This evening we have Laurel a break and are watching the boys. She is taking a trip to Target with her mom. I sort of feel bad because I got them down for bed by 8! Now, Michael, David, Andy and myself are watching 300! Lovely Thanksgiving weekend movie. Not really. Plus they are heading out to go see the Ninja Assassin movie at 10 tonight. Looks like I will be doing a lot of the driving tomorrow!

This has been a great mini vacation! The weather was amazing. More then I could ever hope for! The company was great and we had an amazing time together as a family! I give this trip an A+! Now if only David would get his papers graded!! =) I just let him read this line!

Thanksgiving

This morning we all go to sleep in!! So nice. The fog over the lake was almost a picture out of a movie. It was breathtaking. We all enjoyed breakfast and the kids played while we all watched the parade. This has been a tradition every year. We headed over around noon and the house already smelled delish! We all went out for our normal football warm up. We threw the ball around and get stretched out! Then we had our traditional family football blitz! It is starting to get interesting because the kids all seem to want to play! We got called in and we washed up!! Time for the feast! We ate till our pants had to be unbuttoned.

Every year at the end of dinner we let the food settle and we go around the table and tell each other what we are thankful for. One thing. One thing? Are you kidding me? I have way more then 1 thing to be thankful for. My family, my friends, my faith, my and my family's health, our freedom, I could go on and on. This year I think I went with "faith". We have just been through a lot this year and with out our faith, I don't know how we could have gotten through it. I have been truly blessed with an amazing support system this year and I can't thank all of you enough!

The rest of the afternoon involved my child somehow breaking out of the pack-n-play during "nap time" and ending up breaking out of the house. Only my child! Seriously! Michael, Dave and I took the 3 boys on a nice long walk and then went down by the lake to throw rocks in. Kids always seem to enjoy that activity! We went back to Grandma's for dinner and now we are getting ready to start a made game of Spades with watching "The Grinch" with Jim Carey! Yet another tradition! Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday! Tomorrow is the shopping extravaganza! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Road trip

Every Thanksgiving for the past 1,2,3....5 years now, I have been on the caravan to Arkansas to spend a few days with Michael's grandparents. This year, we are absent his Grandpa. =( So we are bringing an extra dose of pep! We awoke early, got the dogs off, had a fantastic family breakfast and then headed down south. For the second day in a row, rain welcomed us on the road. While we drank down our Starbucks, we set up the iPod. Instead of being "safe" and just going with a playlist, we thought we would jazz it up a bit and go the "shuffle" route. Sure fire way to have a fantastic time. Here are some highlights of our trip:

1) I love how 25% of our trip, I swear, is the northern, middle, southern and suburbs of KC

2) Trying not to crash as Michael dances and sings to Ricky Martins' "Ole, Ole, Ole", "Shake Your Bon Bon", and "Livin La Vida Loca."

3) Enjoying the slight traffic we cause per the above. You think I am kidding!

4) Turning 5724 songs on an Ipod to "shuffle"

5) Being in the groove, and then the next song on the iPod turns out to be a chapter from one of the 4 Twilight Saga audio books. (Side note: I did make Michael listen to the Meadow in book 1, the 'overnight' 1 and 2 and the 'overnight' on the mountain in book 3, and Isle Esme of book 4)

6) Having a rambunctious 2 year old say "Mommy" to everything we drive by because he knows it was annoying me. Don't believe me? Sit in a car for 6 hours with him and you see what happens.

7) Pulling the "Lloyd Christmas" as people pass you or as you pass people.

8) Starring people down in cars using dead eyes.

9) Singing at the top of our lungs to B Spears, NSYNC, Bon Jovi, 90's one hit wonders and many more

10) Realizing how awful I look in the sunlight without make up on!

11) Realizing how pale I am in the sunlight

12) Watching Michael play air guitar and head bang to "Enter Sandman" and then turn around and pull out a Zac Efron to HSM

13) Having a contest to see who can go longer without having to use the restroom....I so won! 
14) Michael acting like a tour guide as we pass towns

15) Having a 2 year old not take a nap the whole time in the car.
16) Actually seeing the sun!

Now we are here. We have a beautiful house on the lake and we are waiting for everyone else to arrive! Ready to get our football game on tomorrow! Yeah for Family, food, fun, football, faith and Friday shopping!!!

Emotion taking me over

I wasn't always this way. I swear. I would get emotional over the normal things. Funerals, some weddings, a sad movie, maybe a friend in need. Recently, this is not the case. The smallest of things can make me break down. No I am not pregnant or anything. This has been happening over the past year. I was starting to find myself shedding a small tear at the end of a happy movie. No big deal. Brush it off, it's a movie right? I found myself getting touched by a friends story. There are have been some cruddy things that have been happening to people around me and just hearing some of them, I would once again, find myself getting moved to tears. Then the small, insane things started making me crumble. A song...okay, many songs. I would be sitting in my cubicle, listening to my iPod and a song like "Gravity" would come on, and I would be a sobbing fool. This could happen even more then once in a day. Just depended on my mood. An email, this is definitely a new down fall of mine. A commercial. Commercials? Honestly? These aren't even Hallmark commercials. A State Farm and a Army commercial had me a blubbering mess the other night. I even cried at "The Office" when Pam and Jim got married. What is wrong with me? Then today. Today just had me wondering. We were getting ready and Michael had turned on VH1's Jump Start. A Nickleback song came on, "Never Gonna Be Alone." As the video progressed, I noticed a trend. By the time the climax of the story hit, I was crying on the edge of the bed. Michael then walked in and said, "Honestly woman, what is wrong with you?" Then I got emotional telling someone about it. I have no idea where this surge of hormones has come from. I don't mind being a little emotional and being someone with feelings, but not this many. If it gets worse, I am not sure what else I can do.

Here is the video from this morning. If you aren't moved by this, tell me how. I need to break free! Or tone it down a bit!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GWQ-oDMG6g

Gearing up for the Thanksgiving napfest.

Tomorrow is our family Thanksgiving! Start of delicious food week! We were having the debate with friends if the turkey or the sides are better. I still don't think we came to a conclusion. It's all just so amazing. There is just something about having potatoes come straight out of the oven, stuffing smelling up the house along with the turkey and the crescent rolls. My stomach is growling just thinking about it! We have double almost all the recipes so we can all have leftovers. Works for me. We are only here 2 days next week!

Since, not sense, we are leaving for AR on Wednesday morning we are starting to get everything ready now. I have 3 lists made! A Jake list, our list and our "extra's list". It's pretty sad all the things we have to take on this 5 day trip down to Bella Vista. We did do most of our grocery shopping here though. That was nice to do instead of going down there, the day before Thanksgiving and having to deal with the crazy retirees of Bella Vista! As long as we have 10 items or less, we will be out of there in 10 minutes or less! It will be nice to have a mini vacation. I don't really consider it much of a vaca though. Have you met my son? Oh well, I love him! At least it's suppose to be in the 60's all week so the outdoors will wear him out! For the first time in 5 years, Michael's parents are staying with Gigi. That means, our family, Laurel's family and David will have the rental house to ourselves!! Wooo hooo!! We are looking forward to hours of conversations and games!

One thing about going down to The Vista is we have quite a bit of down time! I have always been into autobiographies. Not matter who it is. It's always interesting to find out how someone because they way they are, how someone got to where they are at or just to see their point of view. A friend of mine highly recommended Sarah Palin's new book. I thought I would give it a whirl! Especially since this friend really isn't to reading and the book just came out and they are done with it. I think the next one I want to read is Michael J Fox "Always Looking Up" but I have to get through this one! I also want to read Hp 6 and 7 again. They were so good!

PS-

This is only for 1 person who had doubt. Did you see how much it made on Friday? $70mil! One and half stars doesn't stop the die hards! I still love ya!