Marital Advice

Wedded Wednesday is a collaboration
of married bloggers sharing their inspirations,
anecdotes, struggles and thoughts regarding
the amazing union of two separate people, as one.
Check out the other Wedded Wednesday bloggers at Marital-Bless

This post might across as a bit of a tirade but it's really not meant to be. It's merely that Hubs and I have been getting a lot of "advice" these days on what and when people think we should do things... Some of it is excellent wisdom, some of it is opinion and some of it is downright annoying frankly. Sometimes people have very good intentions (at least I hope) but don't have a clue what they're talking about. I'm sorry if that comes across a little strong, it's just seemed like we've been getting a lot of that last one lately. I feel like Hubs and I might have "clueless" stamped across our foreheads or maybe "divine baby makers" or even "marriage dropouts"! My personal favorites (not) are when couples who have been married for less time than we have will offer up their "sage wisdom" when they are still clearly in their honeymoon stage!

Really I'm not sure why it's been coming in thick lately. Hubs and I feel like we are in a great spot in our marriage, get along 99% of the time, the other 1% is merely miscommunication, starvation or exhaustion as the contributing factor and it's never around other people. We don't talk negatively about each other (or our marriage or even life really) in front of others and we're generally pretty laid back and easy going about things. Maybe it's the fact that we're moving into a new house?

Now, don't get me wrong, we always appreciate advice from those close to us: parents, grandparents and close friends. I love that we have these valuable resources close at hand! I welcome wisdom from those who's character I trust. It's just that, if I don't know you...I really don't need you launching in a tirade on my biological clock or telling me my marriage will fail and that we're doing it all wrong. If we're only casual acquaintances, I don't need you to think you need to "teach" me on natural family planning (particularly if you're a guy!!!!!). If the hubs and I want to do something a certain way in our house, don't take personal offense that we didn't stop to ask you first. And finally, just because I come from a large family and got married young and am happy, does not entitle individuals to inferiority complexes and generously dolling out snippy critical opinions!

*Phew* ok, I feel better now. :) For those of you who've been married for five years or less, do you get this a lot? For those of you who have been married longer, does it get any better?

Keep it Cool

Next up on my grocery list is freezer/refrigerated staples. Both lists are much smaller in comparison to my pantry staples list so I decided to combine them together. I'm definitely interested to hear what you guys think is missing because I kind of felt brain dead making this list!

1. peas (frozen)
2. chicken sausage
3. turkey bacon
4. spinach (frozen)
5. juice concentrate
6. morning star veggie burgers/dogs
7. chik patties
8. pie crusts
9. puff pastry
10. ground turkey
11. boneless, skinless chicken breasts & thighs
12. eggs
13. butter
14. yogurt
15. Parmesan cheese
16. American cheese
17. cheddar cheese
18. mozzarella cheese

And that’s it! I told you it was short! I haven’t included fresh produce on here because we will have a special trip down to the produce docks for rock bottom prices and freshness that you don’t find it the local grocery stores (but definitely in a local farmers market in the summer!). I know I must be forgetting items big time though so please leave suggestions in the comments!

For Fwweeeeeeee

A quick post to let you all know about some fun contests going on right now, I'll be back with another post later!

First up is Chloe from trying to throw my arms around the world! She is giving away a barnes & noble giftcard and reuseable shopping bag. I'm really hoping to win this one because there is a certain cookbook calling my name!

Next up is Jenni from Family of Four. She made some gorgeous hair clips from her daughter and is giving a few away as well!

And there you have it! If I come across anymore fun ones, I'll be sure to update this post!

Stocking up the Food

This coming weekend hubs and I have a fun weekend planned full of Container Store, Penzy Spices and the Commissary. A friend's husband is in the military and she offered to take us to the commissary to stock up our fridge/pantry on the cheap. Given how much money seems to be pouring out of bank accounts, I was infinitely grateful for the offer, plus it just sounds like fun! I've been gradually assembling a list of items we need but would love some input from you all. Basically we'll be starting from scratch and need everything, so feel free to tell me what my list is missing! 98% of our meals are homemade/made-from scratch so the start-up grocery list every time we move is always massive. We'll start with the pantry/non-perishables/non-refridgerated items:

1. all purpose flour
2. bread flour*
3. wheat flour*
4. sugar
5. brown sugar
6. powdered sugar
7. cocoa powder
8. cornstarch
9. cornmeal*
10. baking powder*
11. baking soda*
12. chocolate chips
13. butterscotch chips
14. condensed milk
15. coconut
16. oatmeal*
17. cream of wheat
18. brown rice
19. bisquik
20. yeast
21. ranch dressing
22. ceasar dressing
23. Italian dressing
24. barbeque sauce
25. ketchup
26. mustard (yellow & Dijon)
27. salt (kosher and sea)*
28. canned tomatoes (paste, spaghetti& pizza sauce, diced, crushed, whole, etc)***
29. assorted dried pastas & egg noodles***
30. Various oils (olive, vegetable, peanut, sesame)***
31. soy sauce
32. teriyaki sauce
33. worcestershire sauce
34. Vinegar (balsamic & red wine)
35. Red & white wines
36. braggs liquid aminos**
37. broth (vegetable & chicken)
38. molasses
39. honey
40. croutons
41. raisins
42. cereals
43. rice milk**
44. blue corn chips**
45. crackers
46. pretzels
47. popcorn*
48. Canned beans & chickpeas
49. peanut butter
50. canned tuna
51. canned salmon
52. canned fruits (pineapple, peaches mandarin oranges)
53. Nuts (peanuts, almonds, walnuts, pecans)*
54. bread crumbs
55. dried fruit
56. gelatin
57. jello

Sheesh that's a long list! This is going to be quite the shopping experience. I still have to put together our spice list for Penzy's Spices, freezer/refridgeration items for the commissary, produce list for the local produce docks and bread/carb list for the local bread outlet. I think it will be interesting to see what our grocery total spend ends up as! Maybe I should do a post on that!!! The items that are starred will most likely come from specialty stores that are usually cheaper and/or stock better variety; they inclue a local co-op that sells a lot of baking items by the pound (*) and delivers to your door, a fantastic little italian grocery store with the most amazing selections and prices(***) and a trader joes or whole foods for the healthier less-common stuff (**).

So, am I missing anything? :)

Weekend Recap

Well it was a crazy crazy weekend. Definitely not how hubs and I had quite anticipated it all playing out. Saturday was crazy productive, the whole day was spent hauling boxes to the new house, hauling stuff out of storage, cleaning the bathroom and cleaning the disgusting moldy fridge! We didn't end up having enough time to sort everything out like I had hoped. Between the weather and and time moving like lightspeed, we only got through about half of it. The good news is that nearly everything but wedding presents and kitchen items has been removed and either tossed or brought into the new house. The bad news is, we still haven't gotten to enjoy re-opening all our gifts! Oh well, soon enough.

Saturday night was our first night in the house. Hubs swooped me up and carried me over the threshold...it was wonderfully romantic except for the fact that I had a roll of toilet paper in my hands as he did it! lol... Sleeping there was weird to say the least, so quiet and big compared to what we were used to. After years of sleeping together in a double bed, Hubs seemed so far away in a king! I missed him! The first night I slept absolutely terrible...the new bed, the pillows, it just all wasn't working for me and I barely slept at all, however, Sunday night was a million times better so I'm convinced I just had to break in a bit. :)

We were able to get the cable and internet hooked up over the weekend, it was so exciting to see that the 300+ ft. trench that had been dug was a success! Particularly exciting since we had already buried the wires and laid the sod back down! :) This was very happy news, as our original estimate didn't have this tastk getting completed for at least the next couple of weeks. My dad worked especially hard on this, so major props to him, aren't dads the best?! I know mine is!

Sunday was a bit more of a downer of a day, we overslept-missed church, got a later start than we would have liked and then followed this up with hubs throwing out his back....ick...not good! He spent the rest of the day irritated that he couldn't help (as would I had it been me) and following me around, while I did what I could hauling boxes, unpacking, organizing, washing dishes and cleaning. Needless to say, every muscle in my body is screaming at me today! In the meantime, the dryer decided to break a belt which meant hanging several loads of laundry outside...this took way more time than it should have. Soooo, there are boxes filled with junk everywhere, I'm ready to purge everything and throw it all away and spent much of my time in storage (really the whole weekend) wondering why on earth we moved and saved half the stuff we did. :/ I think we both must just be major packrats. Our new rule is if it doesn't fit or will be used in the next year it's out. I'd rather spend the money buying it again then to have it sit around "just in case".

Hopefully soon I will have pictures to post! I am really happy with how it is turning into a home that I feel truly reflects us. There is still SO MUCH work to be done but I just keep reminding myself that it is work that I have been longing to do for awhile now and really we are both very happy to do it. I am excited to be able to implement ideas that I've been longing to do for years!

Movin Movin

It's been a busy time in our house this last week. We've had four hockey games within the last week-playoffs wrapped up Monday night and we've been full force moving in!

Closets are being filled up, dresser drawers filled, beds made up with freshly washed bedding, curtains washed and hung, towels washed and put away in the new bathroom, it's been a lot to accomplish!

The whole house is really starting to take shape and develop a style we never knew we had in us (or maybe it's just the house is so pretty it makes anything look good). Every night we race home the second we can leave work and squeeze an hour or two of moving/packing/unpacking into our evenings. Slowly but surely we are getting there! We reaaaaally hope to have completed enough to be in by Saturday night, the moving won't be done but our goal is to have the house to a place where we can move in and not have it disrupt our lives too much. We can't afford to take time off to get all of this work done so all of the house to-do's have to be relegated to our off-hours. Of course, off-hours from work have shrunk in the last month or so and that coupled with one car out of commission and a bit of extra commuting time for each of us and it's been tough to figure out how to work it all in! It's like dangling a carrot in front of a bunny, such a tease!

We have had more shopping trips to bed bath and beyond, ikea, container store, target, walmart, pottery barn, crate and barrel, etc. then either of us ever could have imagined but we've found some absolutely amazing deals that have helped to cushion the blow to the wallet. More than anything I am so excited to get all of our wedding presents out of storage, it will be like opening the gifts all over again! We were given so many beautiful items and it was painful to have to pack them all away. I'm hoping we will have nice weather so that I can literally haul every single box out of storage, line them all up and distribute them into categories: new house, new storage, give-away and trash. We've invested in approximately 20-30 large rubbermaid tubs and what doesn't fit in those or the house has got to go. I'm sure we will find a lot of fun surprises waiting for us in storage. I know for a fact that food was packed up two years ago with the thought that it would be in storage for a max of a month...2 years later...it's just coming out, it should be interesting...maybe I'll post a picture of some our "finds"... :)

Making a Plan

Wedded Wednesday is a collaboration
of married bloggers sharing their inspirations,
anecdotes, struggles and thoughts regarding
the amazing union of two separate people, as one.
Check out the other Wedded Wednesday bloggers at Marital-Bless

I read a quote the other day by baseball legend (it's that time of year again) Yogie Berra:

"If you don't know where you're going, you'll get there every time."

The more I think about it, the more I love it's application to marriage. Before Hubs and I were married, we talked a lot about relationships, marriage, life, where we hoped to be and what kind of marriage we wanted to have. We still have those conversations now that we're married but sometimes it is easier for us both to skate by every day rather than digging deep and keeping the focus on our goals. Often times, checking the "pulse" of the marriage is forgotten until issues or problems come up. Sometimes we both need a reminder to check in and evaluate how things are going, rather than operating with the "don't-mess-when--it-ain't-broke" philosophy. We've never established an official plan for making our marriage work, but we certainly prescribe to the formula of God + us in our marriage, so I guess you could say we do have a plan of sorts. I love the idea of taking the time to sit down and plan how we are going to make our relationship work, making it something tangible. Hubs and I have talked about before and even worked on it in the past (it was part of our new year goals) but we've never taken the time to finish it.

I'm curious, do any of you all have a plan for making your marriage/relationships really work?

Say Cheese!

In the midst of all the craziness that has occurred since we returned from Disney, there were a few bright spots. The first was a very close friend of mine was married late March. I was given the lovely honor of being her matron maid of honor (I hate the word matron). I'm sure I will have beautiful pictures to post here at some point but for now, think lovely vintage details like a Victrola, milk glass vases, antique dishes and old family photos. It was an absolutely exhausting weekend but it was such a beautiful wedding that was worth it. It definitely had me (and the hubs) wishing we were jetting off to lounge in Mexico along with them right now. :)

The second bright spot was that the hubs and I had the wonderful opportunity to model for a photography workshop taught by Susan Stripling! We were styled by the wonderful Amie Decker team and spent several hours posing on a chilly afternoon (but there was gorgeous light so it totally made up for it) for about 10-15 different photographers. Thanks to Amie for making this all possible! I've only seen teaser shots from two photographers but I couldn't resist sharing! It was so much fun and definitely made me question why I chose accounting for my chosen vocation! ;)

I can't wait to see what some of the other photographers post! All the shots they were showing us the day off looked absolutely gorgeous, I'm so excited to see the rest!

5 Essentials for a Thriving Marriage

Wedded Wednesday is a collaboration
of married bloggers sharing their inspirations,
anecdotes, struggles and thoughts regarding
the amazing union of two separate people, as one.
Check out the other Wedded Wednesday bloggers at Marital-Bless

I've missed a few of these posts the last couple of weeks but I'm back with an article from Family Life today. The following was sent out in an email a few weeks back:

Five Essentials for a Thriving Marriage
by Dennis and Barbara Rainey

1. Be thankful for your spouse.
The demands of life, family, and work can cloud your attitude toward the one you chose to accompany you through life. Thanking God often for your spouse is a practical way to focus on what is good and admirable about him or her. It is helpful to occasionally reflect on the early days and recall what attracted you, what made you pledge your life and love to each other, and be thankful.

2. Practice communicating from the heart.
It is vital to communicate authentically in both the good and the difficult times of marriage. As you grow together, you will learn more about the how and when of communicating well with your spouse, so pay attention to what works and what doesn't. Transparent conversation where each of you risks revealing your deepest thoughts, ideas, fears, hopes, and dreams creates the strong foundation of a lasting marriage.

3. Be intimate.
From relational intimacy springs sexual intimacy. The safety of being known and still being accepted--in spite of our flaws--finds its expression in marriage through sex. It is a gift to married couples from God. Relational and sexual intimacy keeps a marriage from deteriorating into little more than a legally arranged partnership. Remember, it takes time and attentiveness to nurture this kind of relationship.

4. Practice the power of forgiveness.
Because we are broken, imperfect human beings, we will fail our spouse repeatedly. We will focus on flaws, cease to communicate, and offend each other without trying. All of this demands a steady supply of forgiveness. There is great power in forgiveness; it says, "The fight is over and I will not try to punish you." Failing marriages can be revived by forgiveness; healthy marriages are sustained by it.

5. Be teachable.
Marriages are always a work in progress. Each spouse is changing and developing, which means there are new things to learn at every age. Sometimes marriages run into problems that need the help of a third party. If this happens in your marriage, find someone who will work in support of your marriage, not just agree with your grievances. Make sure this person is committed to both Christ and the two of you.


Sadly I feel like I've been falling short on probably all of these lately...probably #3 the most! It's so easy to fall into the trap of busyness and life getting in the way. Crazy busyness and intimacy are very hard to have go hand-in-hand.

Being teachable (#5) is something that I ALWAYS need to work on, it's easy to fall into the mindset that you know how to do everything. I need to just repeat the mantra "pride goeth before a fall" to myself daily, I always want to be teachable, while it hurts to fall on your face, I just have to remind myself that the most important thing is being the best that I can be. Any in particular that stand out to you?

Tap Tap....

Tap...tap...*ahem* is this thing on? I'm so sorry to have dropped off the face of the earth you guys, it's been so long I've almost forgotten how to blog! *insert sheepish grin here* Please excuse me while I get my blog back on. When I dramatically disappeared (not), I was promising Disney recaps and unfortunately, I'm going to have to hold out a bit longer on you. I have them nearly written, unfortunately, my camera cord/reader was temporarily misplaced with the move and it just doesn't make for a good recap without photos...but I'm close to finding it my friends, I can feel it!

Oh, and did I say move? Why yes, I believe I did. One of the many many reasons why I have been gone these last couple of weeks. Our furniture arrived March 29th and what was supposed to take an hour took closer to seven...yeah, I never did make it back to work that day like I promised them I would. Whoops! After that, decisions for the house-what color marble, granite; do we want smooth top, coil or induction for the stove; save up for the black granite double sink or buy the stainless steel cheapo now; chrome, brushed satin nickle, bronze for the fixtures, closet set-ups and organizers; moldings for all the windows; digging a 300+ foot long 12 inch deep trench for cable and internet and laying the wires down through conduit tubing; the pricier egg-shaped door knobs or the cheapo standards.....decisions decisions decisions!

We've been hauling stuff slowly out of storage and blowing years of dust/cobwebs/spiders/mouse poop (um gross) off it...fun times! We are still living in our one room cave but it has turned into mass disorder as items are slowly boxed up and moved to their new home. We might move in as early as this weekend or it might be a few more more weeks...it depends on how we're coping with everything else going on in life.

Other life goings on that have kept me from blogging include:

-being asked to take over as hockey team/general manager for my husband's hockey team
-blowing the transmission on my husband's car (wonderful Easter present btw)
-lack of internet
-husband's horrible work situation (boss turned nasty) + lots of work + one car = plenty of time waiting in the parking lot at his work for him to be able to leave

How is everyone else doing? I was just catching up on blogs from the Disney trip when all this came crashing down!