All posts by Melissa

Our Anniversary- 10 Years!

The Family,
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Our Wedding

10 years ago today, I married my man. The first time I met him was after my high school graduation, June 2008, after the very first church youth rally I went to for Missionary Baptist churches that fellowship together here in Oregon and Washington. I asked Christ into my heart as a child, and had always had a strong desire to serve my Lord. I had been to several other churches, but there was just something missing. I knew that God’s Word taught that I needed to be baptised and  join one of His churches in order to fully serve Him. When I went to this youth rally, I knew this was where I needed to be. The message preached, really wasn’t anything new that I hadn’t heard before, it wasn’t charismatic, nobody dancing around or clapping hands. Pretty much a salvational message, but the Spirit was there. My aunt and uncle are the ones that invited me, and during that summer I spent many weekends at their house. At the time it was kind of the “hangout” for some of the youth from other churches.

I Loved my ring so much! I ended up losing it when our first baby was only a couple weeks old on Thanksgiving at my parents house. We never did find it :(

Throughout high school I prayed and prayed and prayed to God that He would bring the right guy into my life. The one that He wanted me to have, since God knows us best, and knows what is best for us. And this is what happened:

So back to meeting Chris. I remember after the youth rally some of the youth were going to hang out at my aunts nephews house, who was about my age. I remember seeing Chris pull up( he went to the Church there), and thinking “Wow, he’s kinda hot” :) He had some cool lookin’ shades on…lol

So I kind of had my eye on another guy at the time and for a little while after that, but many times when I went to my aunt and uncles house Chris was there. At first I thought, “he’s too old for me” LOL cause he’s 4 years older!  I was 17 going on 18 at the time. But what struck me about him, especially at the time since I was really on fire about wanting to serve God and follow Him where ever he would lead, is that Chris was always talking to my uncle about the Bible. They would always get into some sort of biblical discussion when he was there. He just seemed like he was really serious about God, and that was the most important thing I wanted in the man that I would marry.

Chris also talked to me, unlike the other guy. :) I was very shy, especially around boys…er…guys(men?) not sure what to call them at that age! haha. So he had absolutely no problem taking over the conversation, which was totally fine with me! But he wasn’t selfish either, only wanting to talk about himself. No, he always asked me about myself which helped me to feel comfortable talking to him.

So I know this is getting lengthy, but I love telling “our” story! I think it’s just amazing how God works, and I know without a doubt that He brought us together!

So I waited awhile to be baptised, since I wanted to learn more about this church and what they believed and to make sure it matched up with the Bible, and that this was indeed where God wanted me.

I can’t tell you how my heart lept every time I saw him! And when he asked for my number on my birthday (this was August 7th), I almost died! He lived about an hour away from me at the time, so we only saw each other on the weekends once we started dating…but I’m getting ahead of myself….So we talked sometimes 2 hours on the phone a couple nights a week. I looked forward to those phone calls! We talked, we laughed, we got to know each other.

I absolutely LOVE these shots!

So he asked me out the day after I was baptized on September 1st 1998. We were engaged a year later, and then married a year after that. For two years we pretty much just saw each other on the weekends, unless he had a day off of work or something, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing! I think it was so good for us to spend so much time talking on the phone. We learned to talk to each other, and we talked about everything! We learned to communicate, and that is one of the most important things in a marriage. Now I can’t say that we’ve always communicated well with each other over these 10 years, but it’s something that you have to keep working at. It’s so easy to start taking each other for granted, and stop talking about everything, and before you know it, you’re feeling a bit distant from your spouse.

So that’s our story….Oh yes, the proposal…well, he talked to my dad first, which my dad thought was weird, cause, I mean, who does that anymore? lol, and then he proposed to me out in the barn, with the bales of hay and a few horses as our witnesses! :)  He didn’t get down on one knee, because that’s just not him. Just pulled out the ring, and said “Melissa, will you marry me?”  And, of course, I said”yes”.  Oh, yes, and this was on my birthday that he proposed. It wasn’t a surprise really, we had talked plenty about marriage before this, but that’s ok. :)

A lady from one of the churches made this cake for us! It was very good and absolutely beautiful!

I think it’s pretty neat that Chris was only the second guy I ever dated. If I’d have just been patient my senior year, he could have been the first! (the first guy was a temporary lapse in judgment on my part and only lasted 6 weeks!) I had several lapses in judgement my senior year!lol, and yes, I do regret them, I won’t say that I don’t.

So that’s it. 10 years and 3 kids later, we’ve had our ups and plenty of downs, but as long as we both stick close to the Lord, we’ll be able to have a happy marriage that will last till “death do us part”. I love my husband, even though I take him for granted way too much sometimes (I’m trying to work on that)

Happy Anniversary Chris!

Learning to Swing x 2…..

Children
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This is supposed to be Wordless Wednesday, but I just had to write some words to this picture :)

My two older boys can now swing on their own! Nboy who is 6.5 just figured it out about a month ago, and now Ekid who is 3.5 just figured it out last week! So now I don’t have any kids running into the house when I’m in the middle of something saying “Mommy, can you push me?”  It’s a good feeling. At the same time it means my boys are growing more and more independent. Well, at least I’ve got one more little munchkin that will be asking me that very question once he’s of swinging age!

Easy Chicken Spaghetti Recipe

Getting Organized
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So I made this great recipe tonight for Cheese Lover’s Chicken, that I found on Allrecipes.com awhile ago. I love this recipe! It’s soooo good! I decided that tonight I would cook up some spaghetti noodles and Whala…It’s transformed into a pretty easy chicken spaghetti recipe!  Gotta love Allrecipes.com. I’ve found so many great recipes there and I love the fact that they are rated, so you can pretty much bet that you’ll like the outcome if it has 4 or 5 stars.

Since I’m feeling lazy about typing up the whole recipe, I’ll just give you the link to it:

Cheese Lover’s Chicken

Tonight I did change a few things. First off, I used fresh basil from my new basil plant just to try it out, and I also had to use mostly chedder cheese and some swiss because what little Mozzarella I had left was getting moldy. So, we’ll see how it turned out. It’s still in the oven….

Hope you enjoy this recipe!

Garage/Yard sale tips-What I learned

Getting Organized,
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So we went through with the yard sale Saturday. I know I called it a garage sale, but since we had it in the front yard and not the old, yucky garage, I thought it fitting to call it a Yard Sale :)

Our First Yard Sale

So, how did it go? Well, not as well as I’d hoped. We came out of it with about $35 and my nephews, who came over for the day and brought some of thier stuff, raked in about $25 from some of thier toys (Bakugan, Yugioh,Bionicles and some Air Soft guns)


What I sold:

  • 2 maternity blouses @ $2 each
  • 1 maternity blouse @ $1
  • 1 maternity skirt @ $1
  • 1 blouse @ .50
  • 2 of my Homemade Soy Candles @ $6.00 each
  • Set of 3 older stainless steel pots @ $3.50
  • can opener @ .05
  • Craftsman lawnmower that starts but doesn’t run well @ $15(I think the guy knew he could fix it easily, cause after he got it started he asked if we were sure we wanted $15 for it, and then when he drove by after loading it up, he was smiling as he went by! Oh, well, we got it outta here.)
  • A funny book about old age @ .25

So, here are a few things I learned. Some are things I did do, and some that I’d do differently next time….

Yard/Garage Sale Preparation tips:

  • Start at least a couple weeks beforehand, depending on how much stuff you have, finding things you don’t need, or love anymore to gather up for the sale.  I was a little lax in this area, and my mom and I had to sort through some stuff still, the night before.
  • Sort things by kind, and then by price. Like with my clothing, we sorted them into Maternity, Baby, Boy, Girl, Mens, Womens, Jeans, Slacks, Shirts, Sweaters, etc……… You get the idea. It’s also a better idea to hang up as many clothes as you can. Makes it so much easier for people to sort through without making a mess. We were able to hang a few things up.
  • Price things low, and then drop prices the last day, if you’re doing a two day sale, or around noon for a one day sale.
  • Two day sales are probably better to do. I wish now, that I’d started on Friday, but oh well, live and learn! :)
  • Put your signs up two days before instead of the night before. I had planned on doing this, but got so busy that I forgot, so my mom and I ended up taking our dog with us Friday night at Midnight to put the signs up. It was such a nice night out and we had a few laughs! :) Memories made: Check!
Boys coloring Yard Sale Signs
Oh, yes, and put the kids to work!! :)
  • Buy neon green poster board to make the signs out of. We used regular cardboard and on Sat. someone else had put up a neon green sign across the road from ours, and even though it was smaller than ours, it definitely stood out better, and you could read it easier.
  • Put the signs on some of the other intersections close by. This is one that if I would have got the signs done and put up earlier, I would have been able to do. We did two intersections, but there are two more intersections I wish I’d thought about.
  • List a few popular or big items on the Yard Sale signs (like my maternity clothes, or baby clothes) so that people will want to go out of thier way to stop in, when they may not otherwise.
  • Put an ad on Craigslist. This is one that I did do on Thursday. I maybe should have put it up there on Wednesday, though I don’t know if that would have helped or not.

Yard/Garage Sale Day Tips:

  • Definitely have someone there to help. This would not have been so enjoyable if my mom had not been there! Especially when you have kids! So make sure to have someone with you. First of all, it helps so you can have someone outside with the merchandise at all times, and even if you don’t have kids, it helps so you’re not lonely. And if you’re garage sale is actually busy, unlike mine, then you have two people that can take money.
  • Have probably $40-50 in 1s,5s,10s and change. My mom brought $200 in bills and change so we were over prepared in this area. LOL
  • Put any free stuff in front of the fence by the road first thing. We have a fence around our front yard, so even though we had the front gate open by the sidewalk, it’s kind of hard to see into the yard when people are driving by. So I think this was a deterrent since usually people may drive by and see something and stop when they hadn’t intended to in the first place.  So we ended up putting the free stuff out front about noon and had a few people stop to take the free stuff, or to look at it, and then they actually came into the yard and bought something, or at least looked.
  • Be friendly, smile and say “hi” when they come in, and “Thanks for stopping by” when they leave, and just have fun!

Oh, yes, and you should check out some of the pics that Allison O at O My Family has from her yard sale this weekend! Great idea for how to hang clothes if you don’t think you have anything to hang them on!

My first garage sale!

Getting Organized
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Well, I’m going for it now….There’s no turning back…. I’ve placed the ad on Craigslist for it, so I have to go through with it(unless it rains, of course).

We’re having our very first, ever, ever, garage sale! After almost 10 years of marriage and 3 kids later, we’ve never had a garage sale before! Usually we just take stuff to Goodwill or throw it away, but not this time! Now I just need to get it together and go through some more things. I have maternity clothes pretty much all in one spot now, and the dressers we’re getting rid of are mostly cleaned out. I still need to wipe the dust off of a couple stereos and go through my kitchen stuff that is in a box in a cupboard that I haven’t looked in in ages, mostly because there’s something blocking the door from being opened, although I could just move that something, but apparently I didn’t need that stuff down there that bad anyways :)

Oh, yes, and the kids are going through thier toys saying “I want to sell this one mommy” and I’m usually saying” no, lets not sell that one, you just got that one for Christmas this year, lets find something else!” LOL

There are probably other things we could sell too, but I have such a hard time letting go of things until it’s like, 5 or 10 years down the road! Like my pants that I’ve had since Chris and I got married! They don’t fit! And after 3 kids and expanded hips that will never go back to thier original place again,,,, The pants are NOT going to fit….EVER! So I’ve finally come to terms with that. Besides the fact that it’s been so long that I don’t even like that style of pants anymore anyway. :)

So I guess I’ll post an update on Monday about how it all went. Tomorrow I imagine I’ll be too busy to post anything! Although, my mom is coming over tomorrow and spend the night to help out. I LOVE my mom!

Ah, yes, and I forgot to mention that I’ll be displaying some of my homemade soy candles too which will be for sale! I’m excited about this. Hopefully they will sell, or at least people will pick up my card! We live on a main road that is fairly busy, so we should get plenty of stoppers by!

Out of hiding…

Blogging, Children, Getting Organized
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Well, I don’t know what to say. That’s been the problem lately, and why I haven’t posted anything. I just feel like I don’t have anything interesting to say, or like I’m wasting my time sitting here at this computer. I really hate that. I go along really good for awhile and then…BAM…. I’ve lost interest, or I’ve lost the motivation and I quit altogether, at least for awhile. I mean, how hard is it to just make a point to write even just 1 or 2 days a week?

So I’m blaming it on the fact that, well, yes, I am just an unorganized wreck, BUT,, It is really tough with 3 kids. Much tougher than with just two. 3’s a crowd? Yes,,, Yes it is. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE my baby. He’s been a very good baby, it’s just I feel like I’ve been in a kind of survival mode ever since he was about 4 months old and started staying awake for longer periods during the day. The first few months were GREAT. He slept much of the time and so there were many times that it was like I only had two kids again :)  Now I feel like I just want to stop and not do anything until he is walking, sleeping all night in his own room and going to bed at least by 10pm!

Anyway, I know I could avoid at least feeling depressed by all this if I’d just prioritize and organize.  I’ve gotten a bit motivated by Allison O’s Tuesday post for her organization week at O My Family.

So Anyway, here I am again. I’ll give it another go….(but I’m not making any promises! :)

"Road of Life"