Hosea & my husband

I am so blessed to have met some wonderful women at church.  I so enjoy the REALNESS of these girls during our weekly bible study and they have no idea how much they've impacted my life.  I truly value each of them.

Recently, we were discussing who in our lives was our Hosea.  You see Hosea never gave up on his wife even though she left him, publicly embarrassed herself and him over and over.  He NEVER gave up.  He NEVER ever stopped loving.

Who saved me?  Who has always been there unwavering even when I didn't deserve it?

A couple of the girls spoke up about their husbands.  I just kept nodding in agreement and couldn't help but hold back my tears…and I am not really the crying at bible study type.  Crying in public makes me a little uncomfortable for some reason.  Anyway, I digress…

I feel 100% that my husband is my Hosea.  I've joked to people at times since J and I got married that I don’t know what God was doing when J and I got together.  Perhaps he was sleeping?  I don’t deserve J in the least.  Not one bit.  Somehow God saw fit to give him to me as my husband and I am so grateful.  Our first year was rough.  You can read about that here.

Honestly my past was a “past”…

I went through that party girl phase.

I was self-absorbed.

I only cared about what I was doing, accomplishing, etc.

I wasn't very nice.

J was pretty much perfect.  I was a mess.  I liked to think I was good at hiding it.

I regret that person for the way I treated people I love.  I don’t regret that time though, because I firmly believe that made me who I am and am blessed to share my story in even some small way. 

God redeems.  God loves UNCONDITIONALLY, although I think that much love is almost impossible to fathom. 

I pray to share with my kids one day in a way that teaches so they don’t have to have the rough road to hoe.  Although, to be perfectly honest I've always tended to do things the hard way so I pray.  I pray again & I pray some more that they don’t have that gene. 

I pray their Hosea to find them one day.

Speed Date in a Post

One of my FAV ladies is Nicole @ This Little Momma .  Not too long ago Nicole did a really fun “getting to know you” post.  It was easy to read and quickly let me get to know the beautiful person that she is.

 

I LOVED the idea!  I guess I am not the only one who did because she decided to host a link up so we could all get to know each other a little better in ultimate “speed date” fashion!!!

1)  J and I married on July 1, 2006.  You can read the beginning of that story here, here & here.

2)  At that time I made the move from OH to VA.  Someday I might write about that hard transition. 

3)  We had our first son June 16, 2009.  Birth story to come in honor of his upcoming 3^rd birthday!

4)  17 months later we welcomed fraternal twin boys.  Twins do not run in our family and we didn’t use fertility drugs.  BIG SURPRISE!!!

5)  When the twins were born I became a SAHM.  I was having a HARD time and was determined to return to the corporate world. 

6)  I became pregnant unexpectedly 6 MONTHS LATER with our little girl.  I was STILL determined to return to work.  God had other plans.  You can read about my SAHM journey here, here & here.

7)  You can see a typical afternoon in our life below.

8)  I've been in a reminiscing kind of mood these days!  You can read a snippet here and here.

9)  I’m learning to be less task oriented and not so much of a box checker.  I’m learning to bite my tongue.  I’m learning that I honestly don’t care what people think of my decisions and I must put my little family first despite anyone else’s opinion. 

10)  My faith in Jesus is really the ONLY way I get through this sometimes yucky life here on earth. 

PS:  Marrying my husband was the best decision I’ve ever made.  Having my 4 kiddos is #2.  

It wasn't the life I EVER imagined or planned BUT this is one of those things that was DEF God’s better way. 

WIW – Wedding Edition

What a fun idea over @ Absolute Mommy!!!  She’s having a FANTASTIC WIW – Wedding Edition in honor of her 7th Wedding Anniversary.  

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY girl!

I've been documenting our love story recently and although this won’t be our actual “wedding story” post I will give you a sneak peek with some photos from our big day!!! 

July 1, 2006

The engagement – frigid weather and locked church doors

So I suck!!  I am WAY WAY WAY better now but I used to REALLY suck!!

I’ll tell you why…

So J and I had known each other since Julyish, met in person around Thanksgiving and by January KNEW we were going to get married.  

Yeah…fast I know BUT when it’s the right thing it’s the right thing.

 

I will never forget that day…he was visiting me in Ohio and we went to lunch at my favorite pizza place.  I got up to go to the bathroom and in the couple minutes I was gone he asked for their blessing.  So funny now…so informal…in a hole in the wall pizza joint...oh AND his plan was to propose THAT DAY! 

After lunch we headed back to my parents house.  Since we had already decided we wanted to get married and I always KNEW I wanted to get married in my home church he wanted to see where it was we were going to get married.

Let me tell you...he asked me prior to his visit to see the inside of the church.  Now, this church is SMALL and it’s just not open any time.  I would have had to contact someone to get a key and it honestly would have been a pain in the booty to do...so I didn’t do it.  WE WERE GOING TO CHURCH THE NEXT DAY…so to be perfectly honest I thought it was dumb he wanted to see the inside before that…you know a big waste of time.  WHATEVER.  (Told you I was a jerkface!)

Ok…are you still with me?...so on the way back to my parents J wanted to drive by the church…I was like “Ok, fine”.  We drove up and parked.  He wanted to get out and see if it was unlocked.  My goodness gracious I’ve been to this church a zillion times in my lifetime and I KNOW it is NOT UNLOCKED.  He went on up to the front doors and tried to open them anyway.  FORT KNOX.  I’m thinking.  DUH, I told you…

You’d think he would get over it…right?  NOPE!  He walks around to the back to try to get into the BACK doors!!!!  OMG!  People are going to call the cops on us!!!!!  I’m DYING here!!  Like, WTH are you doing dude!!!!!!!!???????????!!!!1  I was getting SUPER annoyed.  

It is FREEZING too…forgot to mention that part.  It’s January in Ohio and it’s WINDY and COLD and my not yet fiancé is traipsing around outside my church looking like a cat burglar trying to steal the offering plate and communion wine!!!

He FINALLY gives up and I THINK we are headed back to the car and the heat and HE STOPS IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH and turns around.  I am EXASPERATED at this point.  

He starts telling me all these sweet things that I can’t even remember because I was annoyed and cold and all I could think of is WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!?!

THEN he pulls out a little box, gets down on his knee and asked me to be his wife…………….


The REASON he wanted to be able to go into the church?  His plan was to PROPOSE ON THE ALTER of the church where we were going to get married!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEP WHO’S A BIG SUCKY JERKFACE????  WHO'S SO THANKFUL HER SOON TO BE HUSBAND SAW AROUND THIS???  


THIS GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS:  I said yes.

The story of how we met

You know the story…those 2 people that have known each other since they were kids.  They grew up hating each other but then about 8^th grade they both realized the other isn’t so bad after all.  These 2 went to all the homecoming dances…went to prom together…graduated high school and college and then got married.  That isn’t our story…

Then there are the cool college kids…they met in psychology and were inseparable…except when they had a fight…but then they were inseparable again.  They got engaged junior year and got married right after graduation.  Well, that isn’t our story either.

I was 25 working at my first REAL professional job.  I had finished college a year prior, owned my own condo, my own car with a sunroof.  I had friends I loved and who loved me.  I had been a bit unlucky in love I guess you could say…had a few boyfriends but no one I should have ever settled down with.  I was pretty content with what was going on at that point in my life. 

There was a super kind guy I worked with named Justin.  He worked in VA and I was in Ohio.  We started adding little personal notes to work emails…and before I knew it we were telling each other about our weekends, families, friends…our lives.  

So I look back and think "that was sorta weird" but at the time it seemed perfectly normal I promise.

I think we stared working together in Julyish?

My birthday is in November and he was the first person to wish me a happy birthday that day!!!  He made an e-card and called me by 10am to ask me if I got it.  I couldn’t view it at work so I gave him my personal email so I could look at it at home.

That night I had plans with a group of friends to go out to dinner for my birthday.  After I got home I looked at the ecard.  It was a ridiculous dancing monkey…at least I think it was a dancing monkey…it sang a song I think…I don’t remember very much just that it was this funny monkey.  Haha!  Maybe you had to be there but it was funny! 

I emailed him back to say thank you and HE EMAILED BACK right away…somehow I gave him my number and he called and we talked on the phone from about 1030 that night to about 4am!!! 

Note of importance here is that neither of us like the phone.  If I don’t call you it’s not that I don’t like you…it’s that dang phone.  Text messaging was made for me!

Somehow in the next week we decided I should come to VA for a visit.  

To me it was a fun adventure (I was a bit dumb back then…I mean the guy could have been a killer or stalker or something!!!!!).

Thank goodness he turned out to be the most “gentlemanly” guy I’ve EVER met!!!! 

We had an AMAZING first date and it’s a good thing because if it had been a disaster it really would have been AWKWARD…I mean I didn’t fly home for another 2 days!!! 

He took me for fondue at The Melting Pot!!  I LOVE that place!!  We shared a bottle of Riesling and LOTS of yummy fondue. 

We had the BEST table in the house.  It was back sort of away from everyone else in the corner.  We had a WONDERFUL view…of an industrial size garbage bin….hahaha…despite the view it REALLY was the best table in the house…it wouldn’t of mattered much anyway I don’t think. 

Note:  This is us on our honeymoon...it was only 6 months later...yeah that's another post...

I remember as we walked into the restaurant I slid my hand in his and I know this sounds cheesy but I SWEAR it just felt like I’d always been there.  I know, I know...CHEESE BALL but its true!