2012 Bucket List

So I am not real big on resolutions but I do like the idea of a bucket list things that I want to do by the time I kick the bucket but since I don't plan on doing that any time soon. So what follows is a list of things I would like to do this year.

1. Read my whole Bible this year (I started a plan on the youversion app on my iphone)
2. Lose 100 lbs this year. 
3. Fall more in love with God
4. Fall more in love with my husband
5. Build my marriage stronger with God's help
6. Go on vacation with just my husband
7. Strengthen my Faith and trust in God
8. Get Pregnant (at least would love to get pregnant and have the baby as well this year)
9. Get my office painted and decorated
10. Work with my Husband to build our ministry with God
11. Lead a small group @ Liberty with my Hubby
12. Get involved more @ church
13. Develop new friendships
14. Read 25 books that I have never read
15. Make a difference in someone's life. 

Yellow Roses!

I don't know how many people believe in signs from God. Little things that happen in your life that are insignificant to other people but are huge in your life. I have one that has been in my life since a teenager. It is yellow roses. I fell in love with them when I was around 15 years old. From that point on I wanted my husband to buy me yellow rises and would love to get yellow roses for my birthday and things like that. However yellow roses are not in season at my birthday and so none of my friends or family was ever able to buy me roses. I finally decide after a couple of years I decided in my heart that I would use the yellow roses as a sign that whoever I was dating would be the one that I was suppose to marry. I also had other things of course that my hubby had to have, but the yellow rose was pretty important. I wanted my husband to be able to get them for me before we got married. Shortly after Jeremy and I started dating I brought up what my favorite flowers were (without telling him what the significance was) and his jaw just about hit the floor. Yellow roses are significant in his life and family. He also tells me that he has planted on the side of the house a yellow rosebush. This rosebush blooms at the most unusual times. It bloomed right before we got engaged like maybe a week before and that was in march and than it bloomed again the day we went to get our marriage license in September and than again shortly after we got married in October. I had thought it was dying because it has only bloomed once in the past year since we have been married. Today I was leaving the house to eat lunch with a friend and I noticed for the first time in awhile. It was pretty neat because it blooms usually when something significant is about to happen so makes me excited that this might just be a sign from God that this year is going to be significant year for Jeremy and I. It makes me excited for this year!!!

2011 in Review

I know everyone is writing a new years eve/new years blog and I am joining in. What a year this has been...

January- Was actually a pretty quiet month. We had a decent working van and stayed busy with church, and family, and friends. Jeremy had started working at the church twice a week.

February- I turned 25. Jeremy developed a hernia (which was completely healed by God with no need for surgery). Celebrated our second Valentines day and our first as a married couple. My baby niece turned 3 (seriously where does the time, things have changed so much in that time) Wrote my first blog about our baby journey, and realized 8 years had already passed since Mom has passed away.

March- Went to our church's womens conference where God challenged me to reach out to our neighbors more, talked about adoption. Bought a brand new couch and rearranged the living room. My baby sister turned 9 this year crazy I remember it like yesterday I was changing her diapers.

April- Another quiet month. Not a whole lot of excitement. My dad turned 51 this month.

May-  Osama Bin Laden was killed major major news! Threw my best friends baby shower. Was excited to see her. Our main a/c unit died. Formed our board for our ministry (Jesus Saves International Ministries) and had our first board meeting.

June-  Van broke down AGAIN!!!! Simple air sensor but so annoying. Applied for non-exempt status with the IRS for the ministry.

July- Plain old hot summer especially with no ac. Set a goal for the end of the year.

August- Jeremy became and ordained minister with Liberty Network. 2nd board meeting of the year.

September- Sprung a water leak in our pipe leading  to the house. Best friend had her adorable little boy on the first. Tropical Lee came thru and brought a couple of days of cooler weather (which I loved). Started Herbalife and lost 10 lbs the first week.

October-  Celebrated our 1 year anniversary. Continued Herbalife and lost 17 lbs. Drove to Ga to see my best friends Baby.

November- Adopted another little doggie (although it was short lived because I did not have the patience to deal with housebreaking all over again) Lost 10lbs. Celebrated Thanksgiving with my in-laws. Had family pictures taken. Created Christmas Cards. Decorated early for Christmas this year.

December- Lost 9 more lbs for a total of 46lbs since Sept. Celebrated Christmas early with my bro, sis-in-law, and nieces. Surprised my best friend for her birthday in Georgia. Celebrated Christmas with my in-laws including brother in law, his girlfriend and grandma in law. Got our approval for for non-profit tax exemption from the IRS. THANK YOU JESUS!!!! That was three and half years of hard work on my hubby's part. Celebrated New Years Eve with the love of my life on the couch watching the ball drop in New York.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and your family! May you be blessed during the holiday season and everyday!

Katie, Jeremy, Angela, and Molly

Awesome Giveaway!!!

I love reading all the blogs by my blogger friend Ashley. I was checking her out today and she has an amazing give away going on right now. It is a $25 dollar giveaway to a very cute etsy store.


Check it out here for all the details:


Lolamae-Creations Giveaway

Roxie

God works in mysterious ways. The hubs and I have talked about getting a second dog for awhile and have gone back and forth on it. A couple of weeks ago a friend on facebook put up that they were wanting to get rid of their dogs because they work so much and the dogs spend so much time in the kennel that they were feeling bad about it and we had decided to wait to get one for awhile but than they put something up again today. I responded that we wanted the little girl dog and we got her today. When they came over the hubs spent time hanging with our friends husband and got to share his heart about the ministry and where we want to go with our home studio and they were such a huge unexpected blessing because of that. So little Roxie ended up being a huge blessing to "J".
Here is Roxie Leigh "E"

Hello Again....

I know its been awhile since I updated this blog and I am sorry to my readers. Not much has been happening in our lives that has been blog worthy lately. But we did get some family pictures taken on Saturday and got them back already a couple of days ago so without further ado here is the "E" Family 2011...

This is us normally

Love it!

My "A" she is an amazing woman and friend. Truly Beautiful inside and out!

1 Year!

Well I know I am about a week late on this post but last Sunday my Honey and I celebrated 1 year of Marriage. I cant believe it's already been a year. Where has the time flown. We went to the same restaurant that we went the night of our wedding and ate our first dinner together as a married couple. We exchanged gifts the day before because we couldn't wait and technically we got married on a Saturday so we thought it would count. I bought Jeremy a book that he had wanted for awhile and I picked out an awesome devotional that was recommended by some close friends of ours and I also picked out some warm pj's as he is always freezing at night. He bought me one of my top two favorite childhood movies Dumbo that was pretty much all I wanted until I found a wallet by Vera Bradley that I loved and he also bought that from me although I didn't get it in the mail until a couple of days after our anniversary. It has been quite an eventful year for us. With all the expenses we have had it's been hard to save up an emergency fund, I am hoping the second year goes a lot smoother. We have another 1 year anniversary coming up and that's tomorrow. We totaled my car exactly 1 week after we got married on our way out to dinner. I know God was in control there as I was thrown from the front seat to the back seat and was at first pretty sure Jeremy had broken his back. Thankfully we were less than 10 miles from our house and his parents were able to get there quickly to take me and our roommate who was with us up to the hospital to meet Jeremy and than they were so gracious to still buy us dinner and pick up his prescription for pain meds. We also have had some extensive ac work and still have to have it replaced and fixed a closet shelf that almost fell on me on our wedding day and a water leak and several several several car repairs. I will be so happy to see that van go in March. It has been such a source of stress and severe limitations this past year. We also still have to go on our honeymoon which hopefully will be in March in Destin. We though have had a very blessed 1rst year and I can't wait for the next 50 years.

You are more by Tenth Avenue North

Listen to this song the other day and it just really encouraged me so I thought I would share the words with yall.

There's a girl in the corner
With tear stains on her eyes
From the places she's wandered
And the shame she can't hide

She says, "How did I get here?
I'm not who I once was.
And I'm crippled by the fear
That I've fallen too far to love"

But don't you know who you are,
What's been done for you?
Yeah don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

Well she tries to believe it
That she's been given new life
But she can't shake the feeling
That it's not true tonight

She knows all the answers
And she's rehearsed all the lines
And so she'll try to do better
But then she's too weak to try

But don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

'Cause this is not about what you've done,
But what's been done for you.
This is not about where you've been,
But where your brokenness brings you to

This is not about what you feel,
But what He felt to forgive you,
And what He felt to make you loved.

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

You've been remade
You've been remade.
You've been remade.
You've been remade

Finding my life while losing myself

Yep thats what I said... I started another blog yesterday as I also started an incredible personal journey of weight loss and healthy living and permenant lifestyle change. Come check it out and maybe leave a shout of encouragement a long the way. But remember the old adage from your momma, "If you can't say anything nice you shouldn't say anything at all" This has been an extremely personal battle that I have fought and lost (most of the time) all of my life. So I invite you to come along and watch but nasty comments or jokes will not be tolerated if you don't care about it than don't follow. I will be posting a lot there as I also plan on finding out the reasons behind why this has been a battle and hopefully and prayerfully this will no longer be a battle with me.


Finding My Life While Losing Myself a Journey to Weight Loss and Life.

Liebster Award.

I was awarded the Liebster Blog Award from someone who I consider a friend that was only made possible by blogging. Wilma at Life In Our Corner Of The World. Liebster is German for dearest, favorite or beloved.

The receipent of this award should link back to the one who gave it to her and pass it along to 5 bloggers who have less than 200 followers

So Here are my Liebster Awards

Wilma at Life in Our Corner of the World

Christy at Fearfully-Wonderfully

Adrienne at Lovng Me Now

Jessica at How BitterSweet It Is

Mary Beth at The MaryBeeBzz

All of these women behind the blogs whether they know it or not have been an inspiration and source of encouragement to me in my life.

What's been going on?

So I know it's been awhile since I posted anything so here's the long edition update! Since The last time I have updated my best friend has had her baby (YAY! Can't wait to go see my new nephew), found out we have a water leak (fun fun), had a tropical storm come thru, and lastly cooler weather has come in.


First my best friend had her first baby a little boy. Samuel Allen was born on September 1. He is one of the cutest babies I have seen. We are trying to plan a trip in the next couple of weeks. I can't wait I am so excited. I will be posting pictures from our trip if I can figure it out.


The water leak, ya so we found this out by getting a 100 dollar water bill. It was totally unexpected and the water company has not been very helpful. While we have a small small water leak somewhere it isn't the whole issue. Our meter reader is less than honest from year experience with this company. Found out that our neighbor who only has 2 people living in it had a few high bills like we are talking 15,000 gallons ain't no way and his sister who lives next door by herself and also had a 16,000 gallon bill and no leaks. The company doesn't do anything to insure that the meter is read accurately or even read every month. So tomorrow out comes the plumber which is crazy expensive, makes me want to just go dig a well and have well water so I don't have a water bill. For the locals we don't have ECUA we have a small water company a couple of miles from our house. So frustrating because our water line runs under our in-laws and next door neighbors driveway and under part of our driveway so I pray that it isn't under our driveway or theirs where the leak is. My biggest pray is that there isn't a leak at all and the issue is all on the water company. Part of me wants to go I told you so I told you that it wasn't right and I knew it was on your end. I also am doing daily meter readings myself to make sure I am getting an accurate reading on my bill.

Tropical storm lee blew thru the area causing lots of rain and wind. But the best thing about this storm was it caused it to cool off big time. Last night it was around 68 at 10 and this morning at 830 when I left my house to go babysit my baby niece it was only 64 I had to pull out a jacket. It's awesome! I was so excited to have the windows and doors open tonic and better yet none of the drifted escaped and no strays walked in although Molly probably would have taken care of them. I have the cutest video of Molly I will have t see if I can post on here or if I will have to post on YouTube or Facebook however I figure it out.

I think this covers everything will have to let y'all know what the plumber says tomorrow prayerfully this won't be expensive.

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year...

...well almost. I absolutely LOVE,LOVE,LOVE fall. There isnt one thing I can think of that I dont like. One thing about living in Florida is that at least is cools down from our hot summers and this summer has been record hot at least it feels that way to me. Although this summer has been fun. I have been able to spend lots of time with my nieces and I know that will change a little more once school starts although I might actually get my baby (she doesnt think so) niece more as my sister in law is going back to school the same time my two older nieces go back to school; but anyways enough about summer. I love fall for the cooler weather, falling leaves, open windows and doors, fire in the fireplace, my anniversary, pumpkins, scarecrows (although those are actually more springtime and summer), sweaters, jackets, hot apple cider. Than there are the emotions that go along at least for me, I always feel closer to family in the fall and winter maybe because of all the holidays, and thankfulness, and gratefulness, and blessedness (if that is a word). Also another thing about fall that tops my list is that my absolute favorite holiday is coming and that is Christmas of course with Christmas comes hot cocoa and carols and christmas lights and buying presents and giving gifts. This next season makes me very reflective on all of the blessings I have in my life and how thankful I am for them. This year I do have one more thing to be very thankful for and that is the fact that I have been married for 1 year this october. I can't believe its already been a year, I thought for sure this year would go by so slowly and for whoever said that the first year of marriage is the hardest I sure wish they could have had our first year, It was actually pretty easy. I am so thankful even now.

Goal for the End of the year! (Originally titled Goal for April!)

So I have decided I definitely need to set goals in order to accomplish the rest of the unpacking. (yes after almost 11 months there are still boxes) Also I need to get the decorating on the way and finished although it took me a little over 2 years to hang up any pictures in my apartment and I already have pictures out and on the walls here already. (YAY! for that) My next goal to accomplish is to set up my office/craft room. I spent two or three hours unpacking stuff on sunday now today I am going to hopefully get some things moved into the closet and some pictures and shelves hung on the wall. I will be so happy when that is finished and I have it all done. I am on the look out for a big comfy arm chair to go in the corner for a little reading corner. So I still have boxes that need unpacking upstairs in my office. Although I have managed to get new furniture and rearrange my living room a bit and get some more stuff hung up in there. I am now working on a collage frame for our bedroom to hang up. Hopefully will be able to get that done in the next couple of weeks and hung up. I am waiting for it to really cool down before I do a lot of work upstairs as our ac has been out since the end of may on the main part of the house and as a home owner there is no landlord or anyone else to go to that will fix the ac or put in money to help so we are trying to save up the 3500.00 needed to replace the inside and outside units. Thankfully because of the way the house is built we have 3 seperate units on our house and we have air where our bedrooms and our downstairs office and dining room is at. Our roommate does have a window for her room and bathroom upstairs, which makes the house pretty managable and with all the rain we have been having we have been pretty cool in the downstairs part of the main house. Anyways I know its been forever since I have blogged on here and there really isnt anything major happening in our lives that has stopped me, life has just been busy but pretty mundane so not really anything to write about. Jeremy is going to become an ordained minister through Liberty Network, which is through our church. That will happen wednesday night and we are pretty excited about it. YAY!!!! I know this is really exciting for my hubby. We have been keeping my nieces on Sunday and monday night and part of tuesday. I am so excited because my oldest niece is coming home tomorrow from almost 2 months being gone in California with her dad and I get to have her on monday night with her sisters at my house. Tomorrow I get my baby niece which I love having she is so stinking cute and her new thing is knock knock jokes. My brother and sister in law just moved to a new house and she was so excited when I brought her back to the house she was running around saying I love my new house I love my new house. Well there isnt much else to write about not a lot new going on. I am going to try better to keep this up to date more.

Fun Friday

I know I have been incognito for a little bit now and to come back I thought I would fill out this fun little survey to get to know me a little better!
1. How close to your childhood dreams is your life now?
My childhood dreams are almost exactly where I am at right now. The one thing I need to complete those dreams and will happen in due time is babies. I am married to the man of my dreams and we work together at our church and also have our ministry.

2. What is one must have item for the summer?
A/C, Seriously!, you do not want to meet me when I am overheated.

3. Do you have your kids stay up on school stuff during summer vacation? (Or, if you don't have kiddos, did your parents make you keep up on school stuff during summer?)
My parents did not make me keep up on school stuff. I went to my granny's house during the summer and we were too busy playing to do school stuff

4. Do you can or freeze fresh produce?
No.

5. Do you get ready for the day first thing in the morning?
Nope I am a stay at home wife and somedays I do not get out of my pj's