4 Years

Josh and I celebrated our 4th anniversary last Thursday, September 30th.  We decided since we didn't have a newborn and we weren't on a family vacation (both of things have happened for at least 2 of our previous anniversaries) to take an overnight trip.  My parents were kind enough to come from Georgia and watch the kids for us (we certainly didn't have to beg them to come!).  I was able to get my hair cut and fixed on Thursday afternoon before we left.  I don't know if you are like me, but the hair stylist always makes my hair look better than I can.  She curled it really cute and sprayed half a can of hairspray on it, but Josh loved it and so did I. 

We didn't go too far for our overnight trip.  Thankfully, we have a beautiful city with a great downtown not too far away and decided to go there for the night.  I have always wanted to stay in the Westin Poinsett on Main Street because it is a gorgeous hotel.  We checked in around 6pm and then went to dinner at a great restaurant right across the street.  It was so nice just to have time alone without any interruptions.  If you have/had small children then you know interruptions are the norm, so it was especially lovely for us to talk and even hold hands!  I forgot how much I miss holding hands, but with two small boys we never have a hand free.  After dinner we walked down Main Street and ended up in a nice toy store where we gathered some ideas for Christmas (can you believe it is less than 3 months away?). 

The only downer to our trip was our room at the Westin.  We had turned on the air to 73 degrees when we got there around 6pm and when we came back around 9pm, it was at 75.  Josh turned it down to 66, but two hours later it was still on 75.  After calling the front desk a couple of times, we asked to move to another room because we weren't going to stay in a nice hotel and burn up.  Unfortunately, they didn't have another room available with a king bed, so we were moved to a room with two double beds.  We both were really looking forward to sleeping in a king bed (we have a full size at home). Thankfully, they willingly reduced our cost. 

We are so thankful for the chance to get away.  It really is great for our marriage to have time just to be alone.  It feels like we are dating or newlyweds again (especially considering Thomas was born a month shy of our first anniversary).  Most of all, I'm thankful for my wonderful husband.  God gave me more than I had even prayed for in Josh and I'm honored to be his bride. 

Learning About My Husband

One of the best sessions at the True Woman conference was the first breakout session with Bob Lepine.  He is the host of Family Life Today and the topic of his session was "What Your Husband Wishes You Knew About Being His Wife."  Sound interesting?  It really was great.  Bob Lepine used a lot of humor and his own observations and illustrations from his 30+ years of marriage.  These are the 10 observations he gave about men: 

1. Your husband needs you to be a helper.  He doesn't need you scolding, shaming, griping, insisting on your way, or nagging him. 
2. Your husband needs your perspective.  You need to do it with respect and humility. 
3. Your husband is insecure and not confident of his abilities in some areas.  Therefore, be kind!
4. If your husband isn't winning at what he is doing, he will quit and find something else.  This is especially true with marriage and family.  If you are constantly criticizing your husband, he will just give up.  You are your husband's cheerleader and your husband needs your affirmation. 
5. Your husband needs to know you aren't trying to use your relationship to manipulate him.
6. Your husband needs grace and love even when he makes mistakes and fails. Galatians 6:1 You need to always speak the truth in love and again affirm him even when he make mistakes. 
7. Your husband would rather be respected than loved.  Affirm him in what you respect about him.  And remember it is God's job to "fix" your husband; you aren't the Holy Spirit. 
8. Sex is one of the most powerful ways to affirm your husband.   1 Corinthians 7:3-4
9. Stop trying to control your husband!  1 Peter 3:6
10. Make it your goal to fulfill the "one anothers" in your marriage. 

I think the message will be online in the coming weeks and you can check out the True Woman website to find it.  I really was encouraged and challenged to be my husband's cheerleader.  The world doesn't affirm him, and even his role as a pastor can be very discouraging sometimes, so I need to affirm him and pray for him.  I've come to realize that Josh is very aware of his flaws, as I am of mine, and there is no need to point those out and be critical.  Even though this was a women's conference, it also helped me in loving my husband more! 

Weekend To Remember

This past weekend, Josh and I had the privilege of attending the marriage conference Weekend to Remember. It is a conference hosted by FamilyLife and I first heard of it while at the True Woman conference last year. We have never been away for a weekend since we have been married and this was a great opportunity to not only get away, but to think about our marriage as well. There are WTR conferences all over the country and we were able to go to one very near our home.

The best part of the weekend? Spending the entire weekend with Josh and not having to think about the routine things of life. We stayed in a hotel and I didn't have to cook the whole weekend! I also really enjoyed the application projects at the end of the sessions, because it made us think about certain issues in our marriage and evaluate how we are doing. Josh and I have a healthy marriage and the conference helped us to see areas where we could improve. Since I come from a divorced family and we know friends and church members who have been divorced, we realize that to keep a marriage healthy and strong you have to work on it. Thankfully, Christ is the foundation of our marriage and He continues to sustain us and keep us as we both seek to walk with Him - which is the key ingredient to a great marriage.

This was our first weekend away from Thomas and all three of us did better than I expected! Thomas stayed with my parents and he had the best time...well, my parents probably enjoyed him more than he enjoyed them! I don't think he really missed us while we were apart, but he realized he missed us when we got home, because he has wanted to be especially close last night and today and we eagerly give lots of hugs and kisses! Now my dad is anxious for us to go on another trip, but it will be a long while before I'm ready to leave my boy again. I'm already dreading being away from him while I'm in the hospital with Josiah.

If any of you who read my blog have never been to a Weekend To Remember, we would highly recommend it. After attending the conference, Josh and I have decided we want to attend a marriage conference every year if possible. Having a young family and Josh's responsibilities as a pastor can make life very busy and we realized how wonderful and refreshing it was to get away. We were reminded again this weekend that our spouse is the most precious gift the Lord has given us (apart from salvation) and we want to make each other a priority.

Appliances & Customer Service

Last week, Josh and I finally decided to buy a new washer and dryer. The set that we had never worked correctly. We just needed something to get by when we purchased the used washer and dryer pair from a used appliance store right before Thomas was born. I had always had trouble with the washing machine not spinning out the clothes, but the past few weeks it stopped spinning completely. Have you ever had to ring out every load of laundry? It was very time consuming and irritating - especially with towels!

I researched the brands, sizes, and cost for the past couple of months. Ideally, I was hoping to wait until the fall because I read that stores deeply discount last year's models to make room for the new models. However, it became very obvious we weren't going to be able to wait that long. After looking around online, I decided to purchase a Maytag Epic Z online from Home Depot. Josh wasn't crazy about purchasing online, but he said okay. Side note: We had looked at washer and dryers in the store about 2 months ago.

Yesterday morning the new washer and dryer arrived around 10:30am and I was thrilled! We had to wait a week to receive them because they only deliver in our area once a week, so you can imagine the piles of laundry that were waiting to be washed. Before washing the first load, I read the quick start guide and learned that I needed to run through a cycle without any clothes to make sure the inside was clean. About 30 mins into the cycle I heard a loud "pop, pop, pop," and the washing machine completely turned off. I tried turning it back on and it wouldn't do anything. I looked at the owner's manual and decided maybe something was wrong with the power source and reset the electric breaker. The washing machine came back on and I thought, "Maybe that was just a fluke."

Well, I put the first large load of white clothes in the washing machine and after running about 3 minutes it did the exact same thing. I called Josh and he called Robert, a man in our church who knows how to fix everything. He came over and discovered that the delivery people had not installed the washer correctly and had left part of the power cord in the back of the washing machine!! The popping I heard? The cord short-circuited in two places.

After many hours on the phone with Home Depot and Maytag (I'll spare you the details) we are getting a new washing machine, but it may not be here until next Wednesday. We tried exchanging it with a local store, but we bought online so the store can't do it. I didn't get anywhere on the phone with customer service, but somehow Josh was able to get 5% off the order and a $100 gift card from Home Depot. Plus, the supervisor he spoke with last night is trying to use his clout to get the washing machine to us by Saturday, which as we kindly explained to them would be the best scenario.

Needless to say, yesterday was a very trying day and I found myself constantly trying to fight my sin. Unfortunately, my anger at the lack of customer service and no one willing to take responsibility got the best of me at times. I had a lot of confessing to do this morning! I also had to admit to Josh that he was right: we should have bought the appliances in a store. Ironically, I admitted that as we were watching the final few minutes of American Idol last night. You know what Randy Travis and Carrie Underwood were singing? A new song titled, "I Told You So!" At least we were able to laugh at the end of an exhausting day.

Update: I am able to use the current washing machine until they bring another one because Robert took out the short circuited part of the cord and rewired it back together. I think the ability to fix everything must be a spiritual gift!

I'm Not Creative, But....

I had a little help for Valentine's Day in being a little bit creative. On Thursday, I went to Target to find a card and box of "good" chocolate, such as Reese's or Snickers, for Josh. I picked up a card and went to the Valentine's section of the store and found an even better gift: A Scrabble Valentine's!

You may be thinking, "Scrabble is a good Valentine?," and yes, for my husband it is. Josh loves Scrabble. When we play board games he ALWAYS want to play it. He really likes words, but also likes to beat me because I rarely win. I blame it on always getting the bad letters (what can you do with 4 I's), but he reminds me it is all about skill. Anyway...I saw this Valentine and I just had to get it because I knew he would love it.

The Valentine is a game and a card. There are 100 tiles and you can use up to 25 of the tiles to form a message in the card. I wanted all the letters to connect just like a game of Scrabble and amazingly, I was creative enough to make it happen! Here are the results:

The message can read: Josh you have all of my love. Or, Josh you have all of me.

And yes, he was pleasantly surprised and delighted by his Valentine. He was amazed that I made all the words connect! Maybe it means I'm getting better at Scrabble! Oh, and I did get him a box of Reese's too. A gift isn't complete without chocolate for my husband!

Our Special Day

At this time two years ago I was a nervous wreck, because I was about to walk down the aisle in front of a bunch of people! I wasn't nervous because I was getting married, but of a slight fear that I would trip and fall! Thankfully, everything went smoothly and Josh & I were married in a beautiful ceremony at 2pm on Saturday, September 30, 2006. We have had many adventures in our short married life, with the most obvious being our sweet son Thomas.

Josh is the man that my grandmother and I had asked the Lord to give me for many years. It took me a long time (a year and a half) to figure out that all I had been asking for was standing right in front of me! Josh truly is my best friend and sweetheart and I'm so thankful the Lord sent him to me!

And as the song goes, "I love you more today than yesterday..."