short and sweet

Betsy over at Three.20 posted this survey and asked her readers to do the same... so here you go. I would love for YOU to do the questionnaire as well, it's fun to get to know my readers. :)

Using only one word, answer the following questions. Interpret freely.
1) Your cell phone? boring
2) Your hair? unnatural
3) Your mother? strong
4) Your father? Southern
5) Your favorite thing? creating
6) Your dream last night? none
7) Your favorite drink? hot chocolate
8) Your dream/goal? explorer
9) What room are you in? office
10) Your hobby? scrapbooking
11) Your biggest fear? alone
12) Where were you last night? home
13) Something that you're not? shy
14) Muffins? bald cupcake
15) Wish list item? books
16) Last thing you did? blog
17) What are you wearing? dress
18) Friends? happy
19)Love? James
20) Drinking? strawberry soda pop
21Your mood? relaxed
22) Your car? dirty
23) Your style? random
24) Something you're not wearing? cardigan
25) Your favorite store? Ruche (although I never can afford to shop there)
26) Your Favorite Color? mustard
27) Your favorite place to eat? Casa Del Sol
28) Favorite place you would like to be right now? Balboa Park
29) Your pet peeve? Attention Seekers (look at me, look at me, look at me!)
30) Your favorite website? idk... amazon?

p.s. So I cheated and some of these are 2 words, but you get the point. I would love to see what YOUR answers would be!

Guest Post for Delirious Rhapsody

Today, I guest posted for Deanna at Delirious Rhapsody. Her birthday is today and her son's birthday on Sunday. I wrote about my annual birthday tradition. She has a ton of guest posts and giveaways lined up for this week all in honor of her and her son's birthday. Go check it out!( and go wish her a happy birthday!)


p.s. I would love to know more about my readers! Would you be a dear and answer the blog poll on the left?

Watch this!

I love the band Queen. They are purely awesome. So this video is 10x purely awesome because it has Muppets singing Bohemian Rhapsody.

How do you do it?

I know that most of the mommy blogging community are SAHM's. I love that and encourage Mom's who can afford to do it. If I could afford to stay at home with my little one, I would. I would love to be the one to teach my child, to play and be with her all the time. If it were up to me, I would home school her until she would be in middle or high school.

The reason I don't blog as much as other mommy blogs is because I work full time. Then, I come home and try to get in as much mother daughter time as I can. All while taking care of a household, running errands, leading a big Church Life Group, trying to find time to catch up with family and friends and hoping to squeeze in a little hubby and me time. Trying to that in  the 5 hours between getting home and bed time is exhausting! I felt like it was all a little easier when I was on maternity leave. When I spend 40 hours of that time I would be doing all of those things stuck in an office, it leaves me very pressed for time and a little frazzled. Lately, I have been feeling overworked and over tired. I definitely have not found the time to blog very much (sad!). 

I feel blessed to have a job that pays us well enough to rent a nice place and to hire my sister as our babysitter. I love Chloe, but I know my limits and I know I need a break every now and then. As much as I miss her, I know going to work is good for me to get away and have adult conversations and be surrounded by other adults. I like being able to actually concentrate on one thing only verses concentrating on trying to do something and entertain Chloe at the same time. However, I definitely would trade being at work for being at sahm in a heartbeat. 

The reason I am writing about this is not to throw a pity party, but rather to ask HOW DO YOU DO IT?
That question is for both stay at home moms and working mothers.
If you work, how do you manage your time? What helpful tips can you give me to use my time at home more wisely? What can I do to find this very hectic lifestyle just a little less stressful? what things can I do with Chloe that will give me that mommy bonding time that I feel I am lacking with her? How do you handle being away from your baby for so long?

And if you are a sahm, how do you handle being with your children 24/7? What are some tips to get daily necessity things done while child or two or three?  Also, how do you live with just 1 source of income? It seems as though many of you still live a life of typical spending. I know that if we were living off of 1 source of income, life would be bare bones around here. James and I would like for me to be a sahm and hope that we can within the next 5 years. I would like some advice on what to expect, what can/should we prepare for (emotional and monetary wise)? I am sure there are things out there that we probably wouldn't think of. Any other advice on how to make my dream a reality would be very much appreciated.

And I want to give a big, "YOUR AWESOME" to ALL moms out there, working or not. We all bust our butts to make our homes a loving and good place to raise a family and I commend you on all your hard work!

Q&A: How we met {He Said}

Hello everyone. James here, to fill in the gaps of our love story. My lovely wife spilled out her heart to you all and told the story of us on her last post...and that's all fun and sweet, but here's what really happened...

It all started on Halloween night [insert evil laugh in the background]. Now I absolutely love Halloween, so this actually makes the story just a little bit more special to me. Surprisingly, I had nothing planned for that evening though; no crazy shenanigans, no trick or treating dressed as Cat Woman, not even a gore-fest movie night. Lucky for me though, I received a call from a buddy trying to get me to come to this party. Now, just so you know, I am horrible with crowds and mingling with people I don't know, so flying solo to some shindig without backup was pretty gutsy of me. Shoot, I didn't even have a costume. So on came probably the most random assortment of retro clothes I could find in the closet. When I get there, I'm already almost regretting leaving my comfort zone, but just a moment after, the most glorious thing happened. I'm greeted by an angel...or tooth fairy, or whatever the heck this was. Seriously, kinda hard to tell, but she was wearing all black and had black wings to top it off. My friend, Willy, introduced me to the few people right there and I'll never forget the words to come out of this beautiful, dark tooth fairy of death...she said "Hi, nice to meet you". Wow, I mean trumpets were playing, quire was singing, and the whole world seemed to stop in that moment for a while. Then just like that, she left the house. I was stunned at how I just encountered the most beautiful creature on Earth and then have her vanish as if it was some sick mind trick. Come to find out later that night, she did infact really exsist and her name was Michelle.

Skip ahead maybe 2 weeks and you'd probably find me on Myspace doing something stupid or trying to figure out which pics make me look most emo and cool with the whopping 10 photo maximum at the time. I must have been looking gooood cause I received a random message from a random young lady. The message read, "Impressive movie selection". Now of course I know my list of favorite movies was impressive - wait, this was that angel that walked in and out of my life just a couple of weeks prior. She didn't know who I was or that we "met" before where she took my breath away. She just saw a cute guy on Myspace and couldn't help but make contact some how. So we wrote each other a few times, but I was too timid to really try to take things anywhere.

Another couple weeks later there's another party at that same house, but this time it's a going away party for Willy. I'm just getting off work at der Wienerschnitzel and it's got to be after 10pm when I'm just hearing about this. I've got to say bye at least. So I head straight over there dressed like a bum and smelling like kraut dogs, who cares. As I walk up, SHE walks out, "No, not again!", I think to myself as it looks like she about to walk out of my life forever again. We caught glances and she says, "Hey, you're that guy from Myspace, huh?". HA, I got her! I can't let her get away this time! Luckily though, she was just grabbing something from outside. The rest of that night consisted of me trying to keep a conversation going, but shyness really got the best of me. Michelle was very nice and gave me the grace of still being interested in hanging out. I learned a lot that night - we have a pretty big group of mutual friends, although we never knew of each other; She is not very good at ping pong, but can still pretend she's having fun doing it; and I am honored to hold the bathroom door closed while she pees because the door doesn't exactly stay shut on its own.

It's wasn't very long after that when we made a plan to hang out on maybe a "date" thing. Santanas Mexican Food. After both of us waiting for the other for about about 30 minutes in our own cars parked on opposite sides of the building, we finally figure it out and meet inside for a shared plate of pollo asada chips. I'm nervous as heck and just praying I don't look like a dork. Michelle, of course, is great and carrying along the conversation nicely. We meet up with friends downtown for a while and we all do our best to act ridiculous. This is where Michelle and I have our first picture taken  together.

Of course nobody told me we were taking a goofy picture. I don't know why I'm so serious in this, though. My nerves must have me frozen in boring face mode.

After that you could probably call us inseparable. Just a couple of kids madly in love.

Q&A: How we met {She Said}

My blogger friend Deanna asked how James and I met. It is actually sort of complicated. More like a He said, She said kinda thing.... So here is MY version. James' version is TOTALLY different.

When people ask how James and I met, I always say through our mutual friend Willy. I guess technically that is not how we met, but that is how we started talking and that is when I first realized he existed.

James is introverted and used to mainly keep to himself (that's until I came along). James had (dressed all in black, mind you) showed up at Willy's going away party. He showed up late, and hung out in the corner, hardly talking to anyone. (Later, I found out he was dressed all in black because he had just gotten off of work. And he was really tired from work, so he didn't feel like socializing.) Being my outgoing self, I came up and introduced myself and started asking him all sorts of questions to get him to open up. I don't know what it is about shy people, but I am drawn to them. I guess I like to see them as a challenge, I want to get them to open up.

After a while of chatting, I started to feel like this guy was getting annoyed or bored with me. He seemed too nice to say "leave me alone", so I eventually said good night and continued on with the party. A couple days later, I found out that James somehow knew all of my closest friends, not just Willy. How did this cute (but strange) guy know all of MY friends and how have we never met before the party??? I mean, I hung out with this group of friends almost every single night. James claims he had been hanging out with them too and that he met me before that party. I disagree. He must have been some sort of stalker or something. No, seriously, we joke about him being my stalker all the time. Although, sometimes I think he is serious.

Eventually I found James on Myspace (yes, I had a myspace. I don't anymore, but I definitely like it better than Facebook.) I can't remember quite how I came upon his page, probably through one of my friends who apparently knew this stranger.


Fast forward to a couple weeks later and we were going on our first date. Although, we never called it our first date. We were just planning to meet up to "hang out" and then go meet up with our mutual friends. We met at our favorite taco shop, ate yummy pollo asada, and laughed a whole lot. He didn't seem that shy anymore and he was super funny. We then met our friends downtown and walked around the Gaslamp. Eventually our friends parted ways, but we didn't really want to call it a night. So James took me up to this mountain near where he lived and we sat up there, under the moon and stars and talked until it was morning.

And from that night on, we have been inseparable.
Stayed Tuned! James will be sharing HIS totally different version of how we met next!

Q&A: My Testimony

There is something powerful about a testimony. It's something others can relate to. It speaks beauty and truth. It shows vulnerability and weakness (something all humans struggle with, but don't really like to admit). It's something that shows just how wonderful and amazing our God is. I love hearing other people's testimony. It makes me happy to hear about one more person who found peace in their soul and lives to share His word and His glory.

I didn't find the lord until I was 21 years old. I thought I finally figured out what I wanted to do with my life, what morals I wanted to have and the standards I wanted to live my life by. It's strange because I took 21 years of my life to figure out who I am and what I stood for. Then when I found the Lord, I had to reconstruct my life all over again. Finding Him seriously turns your life upside down and inside out, but it a good great way.

I had a pretty rough childhood. My family loved each other very much, but we are all pretty hot headed and stubborn and that can get in the way sometimes.  We have come a long way from how our dynamic use to be. We were kinda crazy when I was younger. There was a lot of fighting, screaming, cursing and anger. My dad pretty much abandoned us when I was 12. He wanted a new life with a new family and it felt like he didn't want any of us anymore. He moved away to the South and we only spoke on Christmas every year. I tried to pretend like I didn't care, but it was pure heartache. I was not one to fill the void with other guys (Thank the Lord for that!). Instead I became extremely independent. I didn't need my dad and I didn't need anyone else.

Then my step dad moved in and we never really got along (until I was older). He was a marine drill sergeant and I think that was all he knew how to be for a long time. My sisters and I always got into fights with him and my mom and him would fight too. I felt like it was just an angry household. I was angry at a lot of people and I held on to that anger for many many years. I took that anger out on the people who loved me most and I think the rest of my family did the same. We knew we loved each other, but I feel we just didn't know how to handle the stresses of life that came our way.

As I got older, I tried to avoid my family as much as possible. Since it seemed like all my family ever did was fight, I figured it was best to avoid them all together. I tried to keep myself super busy. I had a job at a movie theater, I was super involved in school and clubs and I tried to always make it a point to never be home. It was easier my senior year because my family would go away on weekend trips all the time. I would have to stay home to work and then the off times I would have my friends over to keep me company. Pushing myself away from my family made me depend more on my friends.

I found a sense of belonging with my friends, yet I still felt like something was missing. I never knew what that something was and I never fully realized how big of a hole I had in my heart until later in life.

When I was younger, I was always open to who God was, but I never really felt in my heart that I really had any interest to learn anything about Christianity or God. I didn't really know anyone who was super close to me and openly shared about there faith. So I felt like I wasn't really exposed to Him very much.

Fast forward to when I was 21 and dating James. He had been a Christian pretty much his whole life. He was not as strong in his faith around the time that we started dating, but for some reason, one Sunday he felt compelled to go to church. He asked me to come along, and I am always interested in people's beliefs and religions (even if I don't feel the same way) and so I went to see what it was all about. As soon as the service was over, I was HOOKED! God really pulled at my heartstrings. I asked James all sorts of questions about Christianity and what it meant to be a Christian. I wanted to learn more and I wanted to feel more of what I felt on that Sunday. We started going to church pretty regular after that. We really just jumped right in. A couple of months later we started attending the College Group. That was where I really learned so much of who He is and what my purpose in life was. Being surrounded by people my own age who were on fire for Him blew my mind and helped me grow so much.

The thing that God really helped me with was FORGIVENESS. He forgives me each and every day, for minor and major things. He forgave all my transgressions from my past, the things that I am very ashamed about. He helped me to forgive myself so that I can let go and grow. He helped me forgive those who have hurt me and wronged me so I could move on. He made it possible to forgive my father and my family so that now we can grow with love and respect for one another.

The hole that had once existed in my heart filled with Him. He saved me. He forgave me. He loved me. I am still so amazed at the grace and mercy he shows me with every new day.

I would LOVE to hear your testimony. If you have written a post with your testimony, just linked it up below. And if you haven't, I encourage you to do so. You just never know who might need to hear what you have to say.

wordle

my friend Betsy at three.20 blog introduced me to WORDLE. It's a fun and unique site where you can input your blog url and it will create "words of art" from words found on your blog. Then you can play around with colors and fonts. Here is what it came up with for me:

Go check it out and create one of your own!

Mumford & Sons... oh and $3.99 CD's

New favorite band? I think so... well, almost favorite. I mean, Emery will always be numero uno. I guess Mumford has been around for a while now (and by a while, I mean about 2 years). Seeing how James and I have no radio reception thanks to someone stealing our antenna off our car, I never get to hear about new(ish) bands. So when someone mentioned them to me today, I looked them up and was hooked! I absolutely love them. They remind me of The Snake The Cross The Crown. I have been listening to them all day at work and am definitely downloading the album when I get home.

banjo and upright bass? swoon...

$9.00 for cd & $8 for Mp3 dowload on Amazon.

Speaking of music.... I have been a part of "Your Music" for about 5 years now. They sell CD's for 6.99. They don't have any of the brand new released cd's, but they have a pretty good variety of music. Well, now they are going out of business and they are having a sale on ALL there cd's. Each CD is only $3.99 with free shipping. I have purchased 10 cd's in the last week for future birthday and Christmas gifts (yes, I shop this early for Christmas). They have ran out of stock on a lot of cd's now, but you may just find something you like or someone new to check out. Go check it out and make sure to type in 399SALE for the discount code...

So funny I cried!

I watched this little YouTube video from my friend Betsy's blog at Three.20.  Seriously, so funny that I was laughing with tears. You should definitely watch it!

I don't care whether it is real or not, it is just too awesome!