Lazy Days

It’s been pretty peaceful around the house this week. Tuesday was Grey’s last day of school, I have to say even I was a little sad to say goodbye to Mrs. Karen.

We spent yesterday watching the cicada’s on our tree hatch and dry out. It’s a pretty freaky looking process but the boys were completely enthralled. We decided to pick the empty skins off the tree and try to fill up a jar…there was way more that a jar. It took Grey about 10min. to fill it up.

    

Micah has been enjoying some quality time with the boys after three straight weeks of traveling. He loves reading the boys Dr. Suess, I’m pretty sure they enjoy it as much as he does.

Oh, here’s a pic of my sweet boys new summer haircut.

Dreaming of the great outdoors

I’ve been daydreaming about the deck at the house we are trying to buy. It’s 12×18, so it’s got lot’s of potential. I’ve been scouring the outdoor fabric on the net, to make cushions, because it seems like everything out there looks like a horrible floral from the 80’s. The fabric’s below were found on fabricguru and joann.

   

I would love to put a metal daybed outside and the one from IKEA is hard to beat at $99, and their wicker chairs are only $35 (they even have a kid’s version for $20). I also love this candle chandelier($30), but I can decide if it would be a fire hazard hanging under the gazebo.

  

Top it all off with this gazebo from Target, at $180 it’s a steal and would make a nice cozy outdoor room.

Amazing Sculpter

Check out Tom Mobergs work, he sculpts using joint compound!

10 things on Tuesday

I’m trying to get back in the grove of blogging regularly and since I was out of ideas this morning I decided to steal this idea from Emily and Maria…

10 things I’m good at

1. Organizing Spaces
2. Making Cakes
3. Bargin Hunting
4. Cooking
5. Breastfeeding
6. Cuddling
7. Giving Gifts
8. Sleeping
9. Being a wife
10. Dreaming Big

My new favorite song!

Say a little prayer for me

Micah and I have had a contract on another house for 75 days and have had our house on the market for the same amount of time. We have 45 more days until the contract expires and we either give up on the house we both desperately want or we have the option to rent it (or buy it) and carry both the bills. My heart and head have already moved in to our little house on Bouvart Ct., I’ve decorated every room, landscaped the yard, and chosen the spot for the swingset. It will be a real blow to us if we have to back out of the deal. So please pray for us and pray the God is preparing a family to prosper in our home.

Brock & Laura’s Wedding

Brock and Laura got married this weekend. It was incredibly beautiful and Laura was stunning. Micah was the best man and he gave a heartfelt speech that made me cry (I’m so proud to be his wife!). I also go to Nora Paige for the first time, she’s just a month old and not even 7lbs.

Here’s how it began…

It’s been nearly two weeks since our anniversary and today is the first chance I’ve had to upload pics. I’m still having problems with the layout of some pics. so just overlook the doubles.

The story goes as such…my instructions were “to wear a sundress, wear my hair up, to pack an overnight bag.” So I did the best I could and tried to plan for every contigency. I had three gifts for him a new watch, letters from all the men in his life, and a new swimsuit (for me not him).

So he fessed up that he had three gifts. We decided to trade them one for one. So my first gift was a Kentucky Oaks poster, Ya!!! We’re going to the oaks. So when we got to the Downs (in the pouring rain, in our XL ponchos  I gave him his watch, which he loved and desperately wanted to fiddle with, but we didn’t have time. Unfortunately I don’t have any pics due to the pouring rain, but we had a great time (and my hair held, Thanks Sara!).

  

So then it was off to dinner, we stopped at our old laundrymat downtown to pop our clothes in the dryer before our reservations. So my next surprise was that we were eating at Buck’s, which is the resturant below our first apartment building. The meal was wonderful, I had hazlenut crusted sea bass and Micah had the pecan crusted and brie stuffed chicken breast. After dinner we snuck on the elevator to go look at our old apartment door and then as if by magic caught the freight elevator back down. At dinner I gave Micah his letters and he really enjoyed them (Thanks Guys!)

       

    

So then my “last” surprise was going up to our old sledding spot on Dog hill and dancing under the stars. PERFECT! Afterwards we headed to Uncle Doug’s to stay the night and after being up for 18 hrs. we were pooped.

After being asleep for only four hours I wake up to an extremely jubilant man (Micah of course) leaning over me saying “don’t ask any questions, I have one more suprise, I need you to shower and be ready in 15 min.” Let me point out that it’s 4am, a time I never want to be awake. But I thought that he probably wanted to do something cute like watch the sunrise. But when we get in the car he sheepishly hands me a box and upon opening I discover, sunscreen and a swimsuit…”what have you done Mr. Needham?” he replys “we are going to Mexico, our flight leaves at 6″ my reply “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

So off we go to Los Cabos, Mexico. He got us an ocean view suite at the Hotel Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Holistic, Retreat and Spa (which is extremley fun to say after a few Pina Coladas). I’ll let the pictures say the rest, but it was the most amazing and blissful time we have ever had together. It was definatly the best time of my life (aside from the kiss at the alter and the birth of our sons).

By the way the food was out of this world. The last night we did the 5 course meal, Mmmmmm

5 senses, 5 elements, 5 sheaths

5 phases for the tree of life

1. Seed
2. Root
3. Tree
4. Branch
5. Fruit

I think this is a great way to look at our  anniversary. I know for me I have felt like we have really been in the process of bearing fruit this year, and I love the imagery of our life being a growing tree over the past 5 years. I’ve felt more in love lately than ever, but it’s different than I thought. It’s a deep respect kind of love, an awe inspiring love, a giddy school girl kind of love, an irresistible attraction kind of love, a more than I ever thought possible kind of love.

I am so excited for tomorrow, just to have some alone time with Micah but more than that I can’t wait to spend the day cherishing all the sweet things about our life. The preciousness of our beautiful sons. The joy of shared dreams. The healthy hearts created by our faith. The peace of a shared future. The knowledge that I am so truly blessed is overwhelming some days. And I’ve been blessed to know him for 2890 days.

The bursting tenderness I feel everytime I look at my wedding band still gives me butterflies. Funnily enough my band has 5 pointed oak leaves on it, and I’ve always thought of our love as a mighty oak tree, sturdy, deep rooted, and able to provide enough shelter to rest in. So maybe our sixth year will be spent resting in the shade we have spent so long growing, and if you have read my blog over the past year you know how painful some of that growth has been for us. My dream is that one day our branches will reach so far and be so strong that our grand children, children, family, and friends will hang from the branches, lean on the trunk and sit in our shade. And for our branches to be that strong our roots will have to run so deep that nothing can destroy us.