Showing posts with label Michael. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael. Show all posts

Friday, January 23, 2009

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ Sacrificial Love

Good morning and happy Friday, everyone! :)


Click here to read about why I started MHR Fridays!

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This week's prompt:
Tell us about a time that your spouse went out of his way to serve you, and love you sacrificially.

Thinking about these things can be very good for your marriage, and definitely for the way you view your marriage and your attitude towards your spouse. Especially if you are experiencing a particularly difficult season in your relationship, or if you feel yourself beginning to have a negative outlook on the situation.

That's the point of even doing My Husband Rocks Fridays in the first place. Choosing to focus on the good in our marriages and in the men we will spend the rest of our lives with. God created marriage to be a perfect picture of Christ's love for the church, so why is it so hard? The devil ABSOLUTELY does not want the world to see that beautiful picture, so of course he will do everything in his power to degrade it and to chip away at our resolve to live that out!

Choosing to dwell upon those things that make us fall more and more in love with our husbands, every day, I believe, is one way that we can silence that nasty, nagging voice that tries to bring up all of the petty and selfish and unkind thoughts we are sometimes inclined towards. At least that's the goal.

I hope that this does not become repetative or rote for us, and I hope that this is not something that we just do on Fridays because that's the blog day to do it. Honestly, that is something that I have been struggling with for the last few weeks, but I am so glad for the accountability of knowing that over 100 other women out there in blogland were doing this with me. I had fallen into the "well, it's Friday, I had better come up with something to write about" while the rest of the week, I allowed myself to wallow in my self-pity and selfishness and laziness towards my marriage. I apologize if I have portrayed myself in an untruthful manner, but I wanted you all to know this because I do not ever want to be accused of being false or hypocritical about any of this.

I praise the Lord that he is using this little blog game, and if he is, it is of no credit to me. I do not ever want any of you to think that I think that we have it all together, or that I in any way want to take the glory for whatever good may come out of MHR Fridays! I know the benefits that it is bringing to my marriage, but even more importantly than that, my thought processes and attitudes toward Austin. This may seem very basic, but for this morning I feel like I really "got it." It has never been my job to change Austin, or to even believe that he should change. My job is to love him and respect him and work on allowing God to change me into the very best possible version of myself so that he can use me to bless those around me - especially my husband! Thank you all so much for showing me, every week, women who love the Lord and are striving to be the best possible wives for the husbands he has given them. I cannot tell you how much that means to me!

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Sorry for rambling. That was all something that has been on my heart for awhile now, and I'm not sure that's even everything that I need to say, but I'm sure this post is plenty long already and I haven't even gotten to the my husband rocking part :)

Austin has always been very good at doing what is best for me and for our family. I know that before he makes any decision he carefully and prayerfully considers the ramifications and decides on the best possible course of action. I cannot tell you how comforting and freeing it is to know that he always has our best interests in mind.

Before we were even married, he showed sacrificial love for me by spending the summer in Colorado, living with my grandparents, the year after we graduated from college instead of living at home where he had a sure-thing job, and all of the friends that he had grown up with.

Since we have been married, he has gone out of his way to serve me and to give me so many of the things that I just want - after he has made sure that, by the grace of God, we have everything we need. The most recent example of this is yesterday. Austin went to work for his normal eight to five shift, came home to have supper with me, left to go help a friend move some new furniture into their house, then went back to work to help with a last-minute job. When my alarm went off at five this morning, I called his cell phone, and he had just gotten home! He will go back into work this morning at eight o'clock and work another full day today! Without complaining about it at all, he just got into bed to sleep a couple of hours before hitting it hard again! I appreciate so much that he is willing to work so hard to build a life for us!
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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!

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday, and a fantastic weekend!

Friday, December 26, 2008

~ My Husband Rocks! ~ Sharing Life


Click here to read about why I started MHR Fridays!

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Good morning, and welcome to another week of ~ My Husband Rocks! ~ Fridays!!! I hope that you all enjoyed a most wonderful Christmas! I know that we have so far! We had a somewhat harrowing (at the beginning) yet thankfully uneventful drive out to Colorado to spend the holidays with my family. Thanks to my amazing hubby and the fact that we had another friend riding with us, I did not have to drive at all (which I greatly appreciated)!

I am so thankful for my fantastick husband this week! (I'm thankful for him all the time, but there's just something about Christmas that makes everything all warm and fuzzy, you know?) I am so appreciative that he brought me to Colorado to see my family for Christmas! This has been one of the greatest gifts for me! I have also been reminded very intensely of the blessing we have in the form of his financial savvy! Because of his skill in this area, and great blessing from the Lord, we are able to have and do and experience so many things that I never would have imagined possible! I also love how he is able to make people laugh in almost any situation! He is also so hand that he was able to fix my parent's vacuum, and my niece's (well my cousin's daughter's) Elmo doll :)

One moment of this past week really sticks out in my mind as a reason why my husband rocks! After the Christmas Eve service at my parents' church they had my grandparents and their new neighbors over for supper. Their neighbors moved to Colorado from Texas, and the wife is originally from Germany. They have led fascinating lives, and we had a great time talking to them. At one point they both stated that they sincerely enjoyed traveling alone - and had done so many times before they were married. Austin said that he would rather have someone to share it with, to which they responded that you take in so much more of the sights and culture when you are there alone. Austin's response just melted my heart: "I would rather miss some of that, and have someone to share it with." Later on we were talking about this, and he told me, "Life is meant to be shared!" I am so very grateful that he chose to share his life with me, and that I get to share mine with him! Thank you so much, hunnybear! I love you!!!
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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!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

What everyone should know about their husband . . .

I found this quiz a looooooong time ago on Jenny's blog The Sound You Hear Is . . . LIVING, and I'd been such a blog slacker as of late, so I never got around to posting it! I thought it was appropriate for today, as today is the final day to enter our fabulous MHR/Austin & Katy's Anniversary Giveaway!


How Well Do You Know Your Husband?

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(blast from the past dating pic, lol!)

1. Sitting in front of the TV, what's on the screen? Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, or Man v. Wild

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? No salad - Bacon Cheeseburger, every time! (If he got a salad, it would be ranch dressing)

3. What's one food he doesn't like? Seafood

4. You go out to a bar. What does he order? Long Island Iced Tea

5. Where did he go to high school? Homeschooled w/ Abeka curriculum then Public School for his senior year

6. What size shoe does he wear? 13 or 14 depending on the shoe

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Money, lol (inside joke, sorry)!

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Cold cut trio with mayo and lots of pickles

9. What would this person eat everyday if he could? A bowl of cereal. He pretty much does that already :)

10. What is his favorite cereal? Cinnamon Toast Crunch

11. What would he never wear? He's pretty brave where fashion is concerned, but I don't think he'd be too keen on wearing women's clothing, lol :)

12. What is his favorite sports team? default to Iowa State Cyclones (he's not a big sports guy)

13. Who will he vote for? John McCain

14. Who is his best friend? Me! Of course! His parents, sister, Craig, Tyler, and Michael probably come pretty close :)

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15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Get involved in girly drama - I try so hard, but it just sucks me in!!! (That's a cop-out, I should try harder, it's not something I'm proud of!)

16. How many states has he lived in? 2ish

17.What is his heritage? DUTCH!!!

18. You bake him a cake for his birthday, what kind of cake? Chocolate cake w/ chocolate frosting, or strawberry cake w/ strawberry frosting

19. Did he play sports in high school? Soccer, I don't think he was in swim team in high school, but he was when he was younger.

20. What could he spend hours doing? Riding his motorcycle.

21. Does he belong to any men's organizations? Nope.

So, how'd I do honey?

If anybody wants to participate, let me know I'd love to see it! It may also earn you a few extra entries in the giveaway as well! *smiling slyly* :)

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Things to do on a Friday night in a small town . . .

. . . go to the emergency room!!!

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Yep, that's right. Life is certainly never boring, I'll tell you that much. You see, it all started at the fair. Austin and I rode up to Des Moines on a Harley owned by our friend Craig, and camped with Craig's family in their motor home. Well, when the time came that evening to move the bikes from general parking over to the campground, I had changed from my jeans to shorts, but didn't think much of it as we were just going to move the bike, not ride it for an extended period of time. So we hop on and cruise up to the campgrounds, where the parking is very, very tight. Thinking that I'll just get off real quick so that Austin can maneuver the bike more easily, I slide of the right side (big no-no) and land my exposed calf right on the VERY hot exhaust pipe! It didn't take me too long to move from that position, but as I was trying to get away from the pipe, I turned and scraped the back of my thigh on Craig's bike's license plate holder!

The burn hurt like the dickens, but didn't seem too bad, so we just walked down towards the fairgrounds and got some ointment from the police officers on duty, which cooled it and formed a kind of second skin which protected it nicely. This is what it looked like that Sunday morning:
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It blistered and popped, and I thought that I was doing a fantastic job of keeping it clean. I put triple antibiotic ointment on it regularly and cleaned it out at least once a day with hydrogen peroxide, but by the end of the week, it was obviously infected and it hurt to even stand on my right leg for any period of time. By Friday night the redness of the infection had grown to an area of 8x11 centimeters at its widest and tallest points, and our friend Michael, with whom we were hanging out and playing games expressed his concern that it may be a Staph infection, and strongly suggested that we visit the emergency room immediately. This is what it looked like on Friday night:
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(The flash washed it out a little bit, but I've drawn a line around where the redness was.)
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(This one shows it a little bit better, but my calf just looked so defined in the first one, lol!)

Tyler and Emma went with us to the emergency room, and we were processed very quickly. The doctor said that even though it was not a Staph infection, it was very good that we had come right away because it was very infected. She prescribed an antibiotic and wrote on me with a surgery pen, instructing us to return if the infection spread rapidly in any direction, or if it was no better by Sunday night.
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Tyler and Austin waiting for our names to be called (we were the only ones there)!

Thankfully, the antibiotics are doing their job and the infection has decreased significantly. It's still a little tender, but that's to be expected. We were a little shocked at the price tag on six pills: $134!!! Thank the Lord for good health, because I cannot imagine spending that kind of money on prescriptions on a too regular basis!

I've been feeling kind of funky all week, and I wasn't really sure why, so I did some research. The antibiotic, called Levaquin, is reported to have the following side effects: Headache, difficulty sleeping, agitation, anxiety, back and joint pain, changeable emotions, depression, difficulty concentrating, disorientation.(source) Which is a pretty good summary of the way I've been feeling. Thankfully this is the last day I will be taking it, so I'm really looking forward to the weekend.

Sorry I've been MIA this week. When I would get home from work, I would just crash - terrible headaches and the trouble sleeping at night has made me very emotional and weepy. Next week will be much better!

Thanks for reading, and for sticking with me through the slow weeks!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Special Occasions . . .

Happy Thursday all!

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I know, I know, I promised vacation details on Monday and here we are wrapping up Thursday and they have yet to appear.



It's been kind of crazy around here.

I feel like I have been on emotional roller coaster for the last week, the stress of preparing to leave, the excitement and joy of being with my family, the stress of the work computer issues, the crazy pace of all of the fun activities we did with my family, the sadness of goodbyes, the stress of coming back to work and getting my house put back together (I hate unpacking), plus several other emotional issues have combined to make me a wreck. And now I'm whining on my blog. I hate that too!

I'm sorry.

Things finally slowed down (somewhat) and Austin and I were able to enjoy an evening together yesterday. We also got to see and spend some time with our very good friends Tyler and Emma who I had not seen since before we left for vacation (Austin gets to work with Tyler everyday, but that doesn't really count). Everybody was pretty wiped out so we made it home early and got to relax a little bit just the two of us.

It seemed like a nice time to have a glass of wine. Our friend Michael had given us a bottle as a gift and Austin asked if I thought we should open it. Before I could answer, he said, "Or, maybe . . . should we save it for a special occasion?" In a somewhat silly manner, I answered with, "I think life should be a special occasion."

Our little exchange wasn't tremendously deep, and said in a corny, joking attitude, but it really got me to thinking. Life should be a special occasion, a great adventure, if you will (:>). Our time on earth is so short and so fragile, and I sometimes feel like I'm just rushing around with my head down trying to get from one "event" to the next. That is the last thing I want for my life, for my marriage, for my family. For my legacy. I want to be remembered as someone who thrived, someone who "sucked the marrow out of life." I want to use the talents and the personality that God gave me to bring joy and light and ultimately point others to Him!

When I get so caught up in the mineutia of the business of life and forget to live, I don't think that is pleasing or glorifying to God, and I get so bogged down with the stress.

I don't know if I really had a point that I was aiming for, or if it all just came out sounding like a second rate eighth-grade graduation speech full of "seize the day"-type platitudes, but this is where I've been the last few days. Thanks for indulging my introspection. I'll leave you with one of my recent favorite songs:




And a "teaser" pic for the vacation stories that will show up sometime next week!





Austin and myself (in the middle) you know, but the two lovely ladies that you can almost see are my gorgeous sisters. Kindra (middle sister) is on the left and Kelli (baby sister) is on the right!


Thanks for reading!