No clever title. It is just Tuesday. :)

Just a few new shots of the Diddy girl!

Isn't she a cutie pie? :)


We love her to pieces!

Also, Austin's company has a new website. Please give it a click, if you have time, and let me know what you think!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Motivate Me Monday!

As I mentioned in this post, I have joined the ranks of the 5AM Gals!

Sarah Mae, the illustrious founder of our little group has decided to be even more illustrious (illustriouser, I don't think that's a word) and add a meme to the fabulousness :) Motiveate Me Mondays!

The 5AM Gals (or the 5:16AM Gals as we are now know, see Sarah Mae's post here) e-mail each other on a very regular basis to encourage each other and share what we have been learning and remind each other that we are praying for each other (and that we're not alone in the bleary-eyed caffeine addict club, either, lol - j/k, it really has not been that bad!) However, Sarah Mae wanted to let you all in on the motivation as well :) - You do not have to be a memeber of the 5AM Club to participate, but let me tell you what, it is well worth the investment!

This is an escerpt from my prayer journal from last week:

This morning, I was closer to 6 by the time I crawled out of bed, but I still had a faulous time in the Word. I was reading in the book of Acts, finishing the third chapter and also chapter 4, and I am madly in love with this verse:

Acts 4:13

"When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."

I had underlined it previously, and it struck me anew this morning. It is speaking of the Sanhedrin's reaction to Peter and John healing the crippled beggar (you remember the "walking, and leaping, and praising God" song from Sunday school). The Sanhedrin - who were actually working against the gospel message - could tell that these "ordinary men" had been with Jesus, just by the way that they spoke and acted!

I want this so badly for my life! I want the people with whom I come into contact - ESPECIALLY those who are not familiar with or opposed to the gospel message - to have no other explanation for my words an actions than that I have been with Jesus!

I am so thankful for the accountability the 5AM club has offered me, and at the risk of repeating myself, I have forever struggled with setting a specific, consistent time to spend reading the Bible and in prayer, and I think that this is exaclty what I've needed!

Thank you all for praying for me!

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ Top Ten List

Click here to read about why I started MHR Fridays!

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Good morning everyone!!! Before we get to my top ten list of reasons why my fabulous husband is so very fabulous, we have some business to discuss. Don't worry. It's good business! :)

1. Last week, the idea was brought up that we should do themes or prompts for MHR every week so that those of us who are needing some direction or inspiration can have a good starting place. I for one think that this is a FABULOUS idea, so starting next Thursday (Thanksgiving day :) ) I will post be posting a link to a blog post or an article about marriage, or something marriage related, and your prompt for the following Friday. MHR has never had very stringent rules, and this is not about to become one of them. If the prompt or theme does not do anything for you - write about whatever you want! This is still just a tool for you to edify and encourage your husband, and you know him better than any of us do.

This brings me to my first request: Please comment here or e-mail me with any theme/prompt ideas that you may have. I have a few ideas - well at least the beginnings of what may possibly be ideas, but I know that you are all wonderfully creative, and I cannot wait to hear what you have up your sleeves. Please, help me! I can use all the help I can get!

2. Do not forget that we have another fabulous giveaway (courtesy of the lovely Tara waiting in the wings until we have reached 150 participants!!! As of last week we had reached 128, so we only have to have a mere 22 more before we do another giveaway!

Reqeust number two: Encourage your friends and readers to join us in building up our husbands on a weekly basis!!!

Third request: If your name does not appear on the MHR Participants blogroll, but you are participating, first of all I am terribly sorry to have missed you, but secondly please, please, please, PLEASE leave a comment, or shoot me an e-mail so I can add you!!!

I think that is all the business I have for you today. Oh, one more thing - my 100th post is coming up very shortly, so there may be a party, I don't know - at least a really cool post :)

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Okay, now for the good stuff :) (I mean, I think all of it was pretty good, but come on now, I'm about to brag about the most wonderful man in the world, it does not get much better than that!)

Top Ten Reasons why Austin ROCKS!!!



1. He loves the Lord! And he lets everyone know it!

2. He takes such good care of our family!

3. He loves people, and would give you the shirt off his back, a hot meal and a place to stay after he had worked all day helping you paint your house, or put in a bathtub, or whatever other project you needed help with.

4. He is such a hard worker.

5. He is a wonderful provider, and loves to give me the things I just want, even after he has taken care of the things we need!



6. He is thankful for everything we have, and does not presume to act like he is the one who deserves the credit for it. He is always quick to give the glory to God.

7. He is very wise, and not likely to react rashly and emotionally.

8. He is a wonderful money manager, and takes that responsibility very seriously

9. He is hillariously funny, and we have so much fun together.

10. He is a total hottie!!! :)



I told you he was great!

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I did not have a pre-MHR e-mail this week on Thursday, but I did come across a fabulous blog with a wonderful post about refreshing our marriages that I would like to share with you!

Refresh Your Marriage by Laura.

The post is fabulous, but you should also definitely follow the links at the end of the post to read her inspiring story, too! Laura is a member of the 5AM Club, and a wonderful woman of God!

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Be sure to check in with the other ladies who are bragging on their rocking hubbies today by clicking on the "My Husband Rocks Participants" button in the left sidebar.

(if you would like to add the MHR Fridays button to your sidebar, use this code ).

<a href="http://honestandlasting.blogspot.com/2008/06/my-husband-rocks-friday.html"><img src="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/katylinvw/mosaicmhrf.jpg"/></a>

If you're not a blogger, but still want the world to know about your amazing husband (or wife, or husband to be, or wife to be, etc.) leave a shout-out in the form of a comment! If you're unable to comment, e-mail me at katylinvw [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll add your shout out to this post!

As always, on Fridays From*me Tees will refund your shipping on any order of two or more items if you mention the great adventure and ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ in the "how did you hear about us?" section of your order form, so run on over there and check them out, too! Thank you From*me Tees!

Thanks for reading everybody! Have a fantastic weekend!

5AM Club! & NaNoWriMo Blues

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5AM is a darkly hour;
My body says, "It's night."
But rise I shall,
'Cause I'm a 5AM Gal
And the Lord gives me the might.


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The above poem was written by Lisa over at Stop and Smell the Chocolates in reference to the 5AM Club started by Sarah Mae at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee. Lisa is a member, and so am I. The purpose of our little group is to intentionally set a time every day, first thing in the morning, to spend some quality time with the Lord. And let me tell you what - whoooey! 5:00 comes pretty early, in case you were confused. But these ladies have all committed to it (the exact time is different for everybody, but . . .) and we have also committed to praying for each other to be able to keep this committment. (Not a great sentence, but I think it makes sense.) I have always struggled with maintaining a consistent time for my quiet times, but I am loving the 5AM Club, even though it is early, and even though it is cold outside of our warm covers, I believe that this accountability is exactly what I needed!


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On another note, I am behind on my NaNoWriMo. By exactly 13,814 words. Thirteen. Thousand. Words. People!!! This is craziness! Now, I am not throwing in the towel, because that is what I always do. I am not good at sticking with anything that is, well, not easy, so I have decided that I will finish these 50,000 words if it kills me - and it just might. I think I have hit what some seasoned Wrimos have called "the wall" - only it's lasted for about 5 days, so I really need to get back on track!


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That's where I'm at on this beautiful Wednesday.

And for your further bloggy enjoyment:

When You Call Yourself Names Wow. Can you say goosebumps, and weeping? - great post!
All Is Well That Ends Well the whole post is great, but I especially like the poem at the end!
Dear Mr. Obama she says everything that I would like to say to our President Elect, only better.

Have a great Wednesday!

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ real

Click here to read about why I started MHR Fridays!

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Austin is so awesome! :) I think I'll keep him forever and always! One of the things that I love the most about Austin is that he is 100% genuinely himself all the time. He does not change who he is depending up on the situation or the group of people he is with. He just is who he is, and he doesn't pretend to be anything that he is not.


(I just felt like wedding pics today :)

This brings up a very important issue for all of us. I fear I have misled some of you, and for that I am truly sorry. My intent for ~ My Husband Rocks! ~ Fridays was never to give anyone the impression that we need to pretend like everything is okay when it is not, or portray a false image of our marriages in order to have a great "MHR post." I completely understand and appreciate that we are all going to have weeks when it is hard to remember something about our husbands that makes them so amazing. This does not mean that we love them any less than we do on the weeks when our lists are overflowing from the computer screens. It just means that they are human, and so are we. MHRF is there to encourage us to choose to focus on the things we love and appreciate about our husbands instead of dwelling upon those aspects of their personalities that make us want to scream. I believe that when we do that, it will lead to harmony in our homes because what we choose to think about and focus upon has the most tremendous impact on our attitudes.



I am not sure that any of that made much sense after it came out of my brain, but it has been bugging me for the last few days, and I wanted to be sure that I cleared it up.

Anyway, back to my rocking awesome husband! :)

It has been pretty cold here this week, so every morning as part of his routine Austin makes sure to go out and turn my car on so it has time to warm up. I did not ask him or expect him to do this, he just did it.

He has also been very tolerant of my projects. I am the kind of person who always has way too many things going on at one time. I know this. I am admitting that I have a problem. Recently it has gotten very crazy. In addition to all of my real responsibilities with the house and food and hubby and dog, I am in the middle of reading at lest three books, writing mine, getting ready for the holidays, and this week I decided that I should make a quilt. Oh, and I think I have a half-crocheted baby blanket somewhere, too. My poor born-organized hubby cannot understand this compulsion, but he has been such a sweetheart this week. I know that having the quilting pieces laying out in the family room is not his desired decorating style (and I do tidy up when I am not working on it) but he has not complained about it at all, and he has even been very encouraging about catching up with my NaNoWriMo novel (I'm about 5,000 words behind at this point, and he is very good at reminding me that that project actually has a deadline).



So, suffice it to say, my husband totally rocks!

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Be sure to check in with the other ladies who are bragging on their rocking hubbies today by clicking on the "My Husband Rocks Participants" button in the left sidebar.

(if you would like to add the MHR Fridays button to your sidebar, use this code ).

<a href="http://honestandlasting.blogspot.com/2008/06/my-husband-rocks-friday.html"><img src="http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn135/katylinvw/mosaicmhrf.jpg"/></a>

If you're not a blogger, but still want the world to know about your amazing husband (or wife, or husband to be, or wife to be, etc.) leave a shout-out in the form of a comment! If you're unable to comment, e-mail me at katylinvw [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll add your shout out to this post!

As always, on Fridays From*me Tees will refund your shipping on any order of two or more items if you mention the great adventure and ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ in the "how did you hear about us?" section of your order form, so run on over there and check them out, too! Thank you From*me Tees!

Thanks for reading everybody! Have a fantastic weekend!

Missions Matter!

Patty over at Patterings has been hosting a wonderful "Missions Matter" carnival for the past forty days to celebrate her 40th birthday and to highlight missions around the world, and as is typical, I am finally getting my post done on the final day! (I may even be too late) :)

Happy birthday Patty!

I wanted you all to know about this precious family. The Hoyt family.



I have known Steve and Melinda Hoyt for most of my life. Before they were married they began attending the church where my dad was the pastor, and my sister was even the flower girl in their wedding. While they were living in Colorado Springs, they had two beautiful daughters, who I got to babysit frequently, and they loved on me and my sisters all the time.

~

When Steve and Melinda made the decision to move their family to Uganda to serve with eMI, Engineering Ministries International, our church family was behind them all the way, even though we knew we would miss them.



They are working on the Music for Life Primary School.

Through the course of their ministry in Uganda, their adorable little family has grown. They adopted the gorgeous Janet, and are currently pursuing legal guardianship of baby Hannah.

~

They have a blog, but are unable to update it very regularly. If you would like to receive their e-mail updates, I'm sure they would be happy to add you to their mailing list. Steve's e-mail address is available in the Contact Info section of his Staff Bio page.

~ ~ ~

Please join me in praying for the Hoyt family, and for our brothers and sisters in ministry all over the world!


Be sure to check in at Patterings to see all of the other Missions Matter posts!

The Goodness of the Lord

Psalm 27
Of David.
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh, [a]
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.

3 Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.

4 One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

5 For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

6 Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.

7 Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.

8 My heart says of you, "Seek his [b] face!"
Your face, LORD, I will seek.

9 Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
O God my Savior.

10 Though my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.

11 Teach me your way, O LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.

12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
breathing out violence.

13 I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

This passage was the basis of our pastor's sermon this past Sunday, and it was such a fabulous reminder for me that I thought I would post it here in its entirety. The main theme of the service was this: we are as close or as far away from God as we choose to be. I am as close to God as I make the effort every day to be. It is similar to the bumper sticker/billboard I have seen that says "If God feels far away, you are the one who moved."

This one really hit home for me. I seem to need the constant reminder that God is always ready and waiting for communication and fellowship with me, I am the one who crowds him out with all of my other "necessary responsibililties." This is not to say that the things for which I am responsible are not important, but the only way I can truly acocomplish anything well is if this relationship gets my first and best all the time.

Nothing tremendously profound, this is just what was speaking to me this week :)
Hope you're having a good one!

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ quite the list!

Click here to read about why I started MHR Fridays!

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In case you missed the memo, my husband rocks! Like the entire party, no joke :) lol! In fact, he rocks so much that I have a list of things just from THIS WEEK that make him amazing!

1.) As I have mentioned before, he absolutely loves his job. One of the things he loves about his job is that he works for an incredibly strong Christian man, so he gets to be very open and vocal abot his faith without being afraid of any reprucussions that would be negative to his career (not that that is really a concern to him, as we saw in last week's post). Austin is not one to shove anything down someone's throat, he is just very real about what he believes and what he is struggling with, and how his faith affects his life and those around him. One very exciting result of this is that one of his co-workers asked this week if he and his famil could go to church with us this weekend! :)

2.) On Tuesday morning, we awoke to find that my car had a VERY flat tire. We realized this too late to do anything before work, but after work, Austin went straight to work removing the tire and hurrying to take it into the tire place before they closed. This rocks in and of itself, but my hubby took it one step further. He was intelligent enough to know that the way the tire went flat seemed unusual, and pointed that out to the tire people. Sure enough, the tire split from a manufacturer's defect, so we went home with a brand new tire without paying a dime for it!

~ ~

3.) Austin is very patriotic. He made sure that we knew where our voter registration cards were and where our polling place was, and that we got there on time to be able to do our civic duty and vote. Not only that, but even though I know he was disappointed as well, he whipped his attitude into shape long before I did, and I know that he will continue to lift our nation and its leaders up in prayer just as he did before.

4.) He is an awesome puppy daddy. Sure, he may talk like he was a little uneasy about having her move into the house with us, but I think he enjoys having here more than I do. He is always playing with her, or letting her rest her head in his lap (absolutely adorable, and it melts my heart every time), or laying on the floor with her. Last night it was really chilly in here, so he had covered up with a big afghan. When he got the blanket, Diddy already had her head in his lap, so he just covered her up with him, and she stayed that way for quite awhile!

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(if you would like to add the button to your sidebar, use this code ).

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If you're not a blogger, but still want the world to know about your amazing husband (or wife, or husband to be, or wife to be, etc.) leave a shout-out in the form of a comment! If you're unable to comment, e-mail me at katylinvw [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll add your shout out to this post!

As always, on Fridays From*me Tees will refund your shipping on any order of two or more items if you mention the great adventure and ~my husband rocks! Fridays~ in the "how did you hear about us?" section of your order form, so run on over there and check them out, too! Thank you From*me Tees!

Thanks for reading everybody! Have a fantastic weekend!

President-Elect

It probably comes as no surprise that I was less than pleased with the results of Tuesday's presidential election. I was honestly hugely disappointed; however, in my blog reading this morning, I happened upon this post by Beth Moore, and found myself very convicted by what she had written.

I admit, I had a pretty bad attitude going to bed on Tuesday night, and Austin really humbled me by asking "So, you're saying God did not see this coming?"

Ouch.

Today, I have decided three things:

1) Complaining, griping, grousing, and pouting about the outcome of Tuesday's election will not change anything. It will only frustrate me and everyone around me.

2) Refusing to respect the man who was elected by the majority of American citizens is not only unfair (as I would expect others to respect McCain had he been elcted) it is downright sinful.

3) My God is still on the only true throne, and places people in position of authority according to His will. And, I hate to spoil the surprise, but I've read the end, and we win! :)

So, I will continue to pray for our nation, and our new president. It cannot possibly be an easy job, and he has a lot of difficult decisions to make in the weeks and months ahead.

For more thoughts and reactions to President-elect Barack Obama, click here, or here, or here, or here!

Hope everyone has a fantastic Thursday!

Randomness . . . Caution, may contain a rant.

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Good morning and happy Monday, everybody! I hope you all had a fantabulous weekend.

We had a grand old time this weekend. We went to Des Moines on Friday night with our friend Michael and partook of free Chipotle. It was free because we dressed up like burritos (and by dressed up, I mean I had a headband made out of alluminum foil, while Austin fashioned his piece into horns that he stuck under his baseball cap to hold in place).

After that we headed to the Blue Moon Dueling Piano Bar, which was a blast! They have two grand pianos set up on the stage, and three guys who rotate throughout the evening, and it's an all request show. They're also big on audience participation, so everyone's clapping and dancing and singing along. From the piano bar we went to the Funny Bone comedy club and saw a couple of hillarious comedians. Eddie Gossling was the headliner. Great times! Then, since our cover was good for the whole night, we went back to the piano bar for a couple more hours, then went home.

Saturday Austin and I spent the majority of the day (after sleeping in, of course) installing a garage door. I would have taken pictures, but I'm a bad blogger and I forgot, so no pictures right now. I will take pics of the finished product, but at the moment we have only two of three doors in.

We have learned that with an old house, projects always take longer than you expect them to and this was no exception. The wood to which we needed to attach the tracks was so termite eaten that we had to completely remove it and put in new. Which is not necessarily a problem in and of itself, except that one new garage door track was already attached to it. So we had to remove the left track of the center door and kind of prop it up so the whole door wouldn't come crashing down. Then Austin cut the board so it would fit in the space, and nailed it in. We re-attached the existing door's track and went to work on the new door.

We were both pretty pleased with the way it turned out, and all in all it didn't take nearly as long as it could have had more things chosen to go wrong. :)

Sunday I decided that it would be a great idea to get my grocery shopping done. New month = new grocery budget, and we were VERY low on, well . . . everything! (This is where the rant comes in, don't say I didn't warn you!)

To start off, apparently everyone in town had the same idea that I did because the store was PACKED!!! On Sunday, how wierd is that? I'm the kind of person who likes to zoom in, get everything on my list in a particular order, go through the self checkout, and zoom out again - usually completing the entire process in about half an hour (fantastic for those lunch hour grocery trips). The sheer volume of people clogging every aisle on Sunday made this utterly impossible. Strike 1.

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I have to preface this next part by saying: I love Christmas. I really do, I love everything about it, the food, the snow, the music, the presents, the family, the church pageants, everything! Honest! But really now people, it is only the. third. of. NOVEMBER!!!!! Is it really necessary to have a Christmas tree already set up? Or an entire aisle dedicated to the cheesy, cheap food gifts? Or to be blaring Christmas music in every corner of the store!!?!??!? What about Thanksgiving!??!!? Thanksgiving is a VERY, VERY, VERY important, wonderful, fun holiday, too!!! Why has everyone forgotten that Thanksgiving comes between Halloween and Christmas?

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I'll tell you why - Thanksgiving is not a cash cow! You can only sell so many gourds and ears of indian corn and turkey window hangings. Christmas is what brings in the big bucks, so who really cares about Thanksgiving?

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I DO!!!!!

I love Thanksgiving, probably as much as I love Christmas - we may move to the more side of that gauge because I am going to be so tired of hearing Christmas music and seeing the blasted decorations by the time December 25th rolls around!

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Don't forget about Thanksgiving! It's a fabulous holiday, and the food is just as good as Christmas, maybe better!

Thank you for allowing me to vent :) Have a great day!