Today, I want to share some of my wedding album and our story. How God brought us together.

It all started at Borders Book Store.

Well, no quite. Our story began long before Borders Book Store came into play. Our story started when a college aged guy and girl began earnestly  praying for God to send them their soul mates since it felt like they’d be terminally single forever. At the tender ages of 21 and 24, Mike and I were single and thought we’d never find someone! I had never had a boyfriend and Mike had had one girlfriend at the end of high school and beginning of college.

So…where were we?

Borders.

I was single and hating it. Mike was single and hating it. My sister was working at the coffee cafe in Borders Bookstore. Mike and our friend  Adam used to hang out a lot at Borders and in the process met my sister. My sister became friends with Adam and in turn introduced him to me. Through Adam, I  met Mike at a young adult Bible study we all ended up at. This was in October of 1999.

My first thought when I met Mike? “WOW. He’s tall.” ( My dear hubby is 6 ‘7) My second thought was ” I’m impressed! He’s so nice, and single AND a Chemical  Engineer. Mr. Smarty Pants.” My third thought?

“ I could never date someone so much taller than me! (I’m 5′1) But, I have this friend who he’d be perfect for….”

Mike and I became really good friends. I found him to be super funny, nice, charming, very generous and serious about serving the Lord. He also had a great job, was very smart and had  a sweet ride. We’d have these great, long conversations in his truck after he’d drop me off at my parent’s house. One night, he made his feelings known to me. I was so upset because I didn’t feel the same way about him. The next day he wrote me this BEAUTIFUL email telling me exactly how he felt. It made me cry. While writing my response I bemoaned the situation and why it was that I didn’t have feelings for such a wonderful guy. In my response I gave him the usual “let’s be friends” spiel, and how wonderful he was and that God would bring him the perfect woman for him. Oh, and, LOL, I had intended on hooking him up with my friend! How funny was that??…

His response was very nice and he made sure I knew I didn’t have to feel awkward around him because he would never bring up the subject again and we could just remain friends.

Well, after a while I started really noticing all of his wonderful qualities. Then I started getting a little flutter every time he smiled at me. And THEN I noticed I would get jealous any time he offered that cute smile to some other girl. Mike’s wonderful sense of humor, gentle giant soul, quick wit, kind heart and meaningful friendship had stolen my heart!

After a while, I knew I was starting to have feelings for him and started trying to make it REALLY obvious I wanted him to ask me out again. He acted oblivious. I think I went as far as having my sister tell him while we were all at the movies that I REALLY wanted him to hold my hand. He made it obvious that since I turned him down I was going to have to be the one to approach HIM this time. As far as he knew, I didn’t like him “that way” so he was to go on like we were just friends.

I had never, ever, ever been very forward with boys. In high school I was so afraid of rejection that I would DIE if I thought the boy I liked knew I had feelings for him. Boys I liked never liked me back. It was deny deny deny any time anyone joked around that I “liked” certain boys. Coupled with the fact that I’d never had a boyfriend, I was in very unfamiliar waters at this point in my relationship with Mike.

I knew that if I didn’t do something that Mike would continue to  just be my friend and this relationship I wanted to have wasn’t going to go anywhere. Mike and I had been emailing each other every day, several times a day for several weeks. Even if we hung out during the week we’d still email every day and not run out of things to say. I always looked forward to coming home from work to one of his sweet/cute/funny/flirty emails. So, one day I sat down to respond and wrote exactly how I felt about him just to see what it felt like,with the intention of deleting it. With my hand over the “delete” button I thought ” What if I just send this? What if I take the plunge and finally put myself out there?” So, I closed my eyes and hit “send”! Then I started freaking out, unable to believe what I had just done. This was sooooo not me!!

I was so freaked out that I ended up making myself sick over it. By that night I had a fever! But, somehow I knew that after sending that e-mail, I’d be seeing Mike that night. Even though he didn’t respond, I knew he’d be coming over to my house. I put make up on, fixed my hair and got “dressed up”. Then I sat on the couch in a feverish daze, waiting. And just like I thought, the door bell rang later that night and there was Mike! He had a big grin on his face and told me he got my email and would I like to go out to dinner? Since I was already prepared for it, off we went. Our first official date was at Chili’s. That’ s where we discussed in depth our feelings for each other. Mike still had feelings for me (thank God!) and wanted to know if I was his “girlfriend” now. We held hands. It felt so weird that this moment I had been waiting for since I started liking boys was finally here. It was all very sweet. He told me how thrilled he had been to get that e-mail from me and when he read it, he leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk. He then looked at his co worker and said ” She likes me for me!!”. (Does anyone remember that song by Third Eye Blind? That song has been our inside joke since this very day). This all happened January 10th, 2000.

On April 16th, 2000 he proposed to me in my parent’s living room. And on August 4th, 2001 we got married!

Now 10 years, one condo,one house, three adorable kids, one miscarriage, several life changes and many pounds later we’re still madly in love. I can’t thank the Lord enough for bringing this wonderful, godly man into my life.

(This was taken on 4th Of July of this year)

(Also taken this July)

God had a perfect plan for us. What were we worried about???

Thank you for reading our story!

We all have our  “go-to” products in our home. From beauty products to cleaning products to cooking products.

Here’s a list of my ten favorite!!

**Note: I was going to add pictures of each of these products but Wordpress is giving me issues with trying to post pics. So I’m going to make this short and sweet and hit publish before I have any more problems!

Beauty Products:

1. St.Ives Naturally Clear Green Tea Cleanser.

Hubs and I both use it. We love it! It really keeps our faces fresh and clean.

2. Oil Of Olay  Original Facial Moisturizer.

I love the scent of this moisturizer. It’s a tried and true favorite that’s been around for years. Plus, it reminds me of my grandmother who still uses this moisturizer and always smells good.

3. Neutrogena Sesame Body Oil.

Love the light scent of this body oil. I put it on before toweling off after a shower. I rub the oil in and then towel off. I smell good and my skin is soft!

Household Products:

4. My Shark Steam Cleaner.

I love that I can steam clean my kitchen tile and my hardwood floors with this without chemicals.

Electronics:

5. My Nook.

Got this for Christmas and love it! It’s so easy to read in bed.

6. Audio books and other stuff on my iPod Touch.

I love how I can be listening to a great audiobook and check Facebook while doing the dishes.

7. Netflix Instant Streaming Through PS2.

My hubby and I have enjoyed catching up on a bunch of new shows on Netflix in the evenings. Without having to wait for the DVD’s.

Kitchen Products/Food

8. Ziploc Zip N Steam Bags.

These make steaming veggies so easy. And they steam to perfection every time. Yes, I could be steaming my veggies on the stove and being greener but I always over steam or under steam my veggies. I’ll splurge on these.

9.Frozen Waffles.

I usually make my stuff from scratch for the most part but waffles I cannot seem to master. I even have a waffle maker and I end up making a huge mess with it. My girls love waffles and frozen ones make breakfast so much easier.

10. My Keurig Coffee Maker.

Kona coffee is my favorite. I love that I can have a freshly brewed cup in 30 seconds or so each time. Ahhh….

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday hosted by Oh Amanda.

1. A Voice Character For Disney Movies- Yes, I’ve dreamed of being Ariel or Jasmine. Well, at least getting to do their voices and singing parts. I think that would be so fun!

2. A Nutritionist- I find nutrition and healthy eating interesting. Even if I don’t always do so myself.

3.  A Zoologist Working For A Zoo- I don’t think I could do this job for more than a week. After the cuteness factor of the animals wore off the gross parts of caring for them would start to set in. But, it would be interesting work, nonetheless. And some of those animals are pretty cute!

4. A Professional Dancer- I love dancing and I love watching dancing! So You Think You Can Dance is one of my favorite shows. Oh how I wish I could move like that! And be in that fit!

5. An Actress- Yeah, yeah, it’s cliche. But, it would be so fun and interesting to see what being in a movie  would be like!

6. A Recording Artist/Singer- Yes, another cliche. But, I love to sing!

7. FBI Agent/Secret Agent- Do you think it’s anything like what you see on t.v?

8. Professional Blogger- Like, actually have lots of readers and get paid for the hobby I already love.

9. A Novelist- Writing a book has also always been a dream and interest of mine. When I was little I actually wrote a little book that I was very proud of. It was the first of  a mystery series I had created (in my mind) in my elementary school years. The main characters were a set of 8 year old twins named Lance and Lacey Milton.The first book in my little series was called ” The Case Of The Missing Bike.”. (Can you tell I was into Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden??). It was painstakingly handwritten and stapled together to look like a book. I was super proud of it. I think I still have it in a binder somewhere…

Alas that was the end of my illustrious writing career thus far. I’ve come up with several book ideas and story lines in the years since but have never actually sat down to write. Maybe one day?

10. Interior Designer- I love seeing the work of interior designers and their thought process into how they design a room. I love how they creative they can be in putting patters, fabrics, decor and furniture together. Watching reruns of ” Who Wants A Clean House” is an indulgence of mine.  I wish I had their decorating and organizing talents!

So, what kind of job would you like to try out for a week?

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday hosted by Oh Amanda.

Here are the girls opening their stockings first thing Christmas morning:

Drum roll please….

The Girls’ Gifts:

Fur Real Friends Dogs

Disney Princess Dolls Gift Set

La La Loopsie Dolls

Pillow Pets: Katelyn wanted the unicorn and Maddy wanted the ladybug.

Step 2 New Traditions Kitchen: I  didn’t realize how small the kitchen was. I was a tad disappointed when we opened it. It was on the young side for Katelyn. She’s actually taller than this thing. Maddy will enjoy playing with it and Jocelyn can play with it as she gets older. I was excited because this was on sale at Target AND we had a coupon! I guess we should look at the measurements the next time we try to buy the girls a kitchen….

Various Barbies and Barbie clothes.

Disney Belle with rose dress and Beast/Prince Dolls: The girls had wanted these two for awhile. Belle plays music and the roses on her dress go in and out while the music is playing. They’re afraid of the Beast head that goes over the prince so they don’t play with that part!

Leapster2 plus 3 games: Katelyn received this and she LOVES it. I have to make her put it away several times a day or else she’d play it all day long.

Leap Frog Scribble And Write: This is Madelyn’s. She thinks this is her equivalent of the Leapster.

Fisher Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera: Katelyn loves to take pictures so she was thrilled to get this. We were thrilled at how chunky and solid it is!

Tea Cup Pigs with extra clothing and accessories: Have you seen these? They’re pretty cute!

Calico Critters Hedgehog and Mouse family: ( I am in LOVE with this line of toys. They are adorable! Aren’t these just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? Click on the link to see all of the different little families available for purchase. I want to eventually get several more families for the girls. They are just too cute!)

Katelyn got the Pickleweeds Hedgehog Family and Maddy got the Norwood Mouse Family.

Several Tag  Reader Books.

Zhu Zhu Pets and Zhu Zhu pet beauty salon.

B. Critter Clinic: Maddy got this: It’s so cute and right up her alley.

Parents Little MD in  Carrying Case: Katelyn got this. She’ s fascinated and morbidly interested in all things medical. So, we thought this would be something fun for her to pretend with. As of right now, all of her “patients” are always dying. I hope we get past this phase!

Various art supplies bought with gift card.

Disney Princess storybooks that include the girls’ names in the story.

Here’s a picture of my girls with some of their loot:

My Gifts:

A Nook!! I received this from my inlaws. I love it!! I’ve read several books on it already. It’s so easy to use and much easier to read in bed than a book. I could never find  a comfortable way to hold my book while reading in bed. Anyone else have that problem?

24 Piece Pyrex  Storage Set: This was also from my inlaws. I was thrilled to get this as well. I’ve wanted to get rid of my plastic containers for awhile and this gave me a head start in getting there. A post about that coming soon!

Miscellaneous Beauty care items

Gift Card to the Outback (For both Mike and me)

Black Ugg knock off boots from Target ( I’m going to get myself a brown pair too. I love these boots. They are super warm and comfy for my pregnant feet. I don’t wear any other shoe when going out right now) I bought these with a gift card from my sister. Thanks, Steph!

My parent’s gift to me and Mike was flying in for the week of Thanksgiving. It was an awesome gift!

So, there you have it. I worked long and hard on this post so you could “ooh” and “aah” over our Christms gifts. So go ahead…. start “oohing”!!

*wink*

“The secret to good makeup is not over doing it” says Madelyn to herself while applying her “makeup” the other day.

Those wise words were apparently spoken by Ruby of “Max and Ruby” fame.

Truer words (in regards to makeup) have never been spoken.

“I have a wonderful make-up crew. They’re the same people restoring the Statue of Liberty.” ~Bob Hope

“I will not retire while I’ve still got my legs and my make-up box.” ~Bette Davis

“Use a make-up table with everything close at hand and don’t rush; otherwise you’ll look like a patchwork quilt.” ~Lucille Ball

“The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.” ~Albert Einstein

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30

This post is linked up to Wordful Wednesday over at Seven Clown Circus.

*Quotes taken from BrainyQuotes.com

Anyhoo, as you may remember I enjoy writing some of the weird search terms that have led people to my blog. Sometimes they’re scary, sometimes they’re funny and sometimes they’re…”who searches for stuff like that??!!”

Here are my favorites for the past several weeks:

*Children’s shows  I can’t remember*

I don’t think Google will be much help there!

*How many cry during the Star Spangled Banner*

Me!! I’m one. I know exactly how they landed here on that one. I mentioned in a Top Ten post that our national anthem chokes me up every time.

*MckMama Drama/Anti MckMama blogs/MckMama hate/MckMama hate blogs*

I still get  many of those hits on my blog because I mentioned MckMama before. My cousin told me that she did that search and my blog was one of the top ones that came up! I like MckMama and you won’t find any MckMama bashing here! For the record. Great, now my blog will still come up in those searches since I mentioned all of those terms here again.

*Good reads blog button*

I hope my blog qualifies as a good read AND I have a blog button too! They came to the right place.

*Why does my best friend make me cry?*

Ok, I thought this one was funny. Maybe they should ask they’re best friend? Just a thought.

*Family prayer on giving to others*

Awww, this is a nice one.

*Top 10 boys favorites*

*Top 10 things kids hate to do*

Clean up. Go to bed. Share. Eat veggies. Go to the doctor. There’s five.

* Cry without teas song*

Ummm.. did they mean “cry without tears song?”  Never heard of it!

*Layla Grace suffered so much*

This one made me sad. Obviously someone was searching for blogs mentioning Layla Grace and how much she suffered in her short life.

*Flooding her boots*

Haha! I would love to find out why this person was using this particular search term. If your boots are flooded take them off! Duh!

And my favorite this time around:

*Mel smells of poo*

Who and why are you searching for that? Did someone actually write a blog post about a Mel smelling like poo?

What are some funny Google searches that have landed people on your blog? I’d love to hear them!

Oh, and I’m having  a hard time coming up with a clever title to these Google search posts. If you can think of one and I’d like to share it with me please do!

That’s right,  their honeymoon. They were willing to share part of their honeymoon time with us! For those of you who don’t know, Lauryn is my cousin….sort of.  In law.

When they visited our church yesterday everyone was trying to figure out how we knew each other. Some thought it was a surprise to us that they came while others thought they were a visiting couple that we just happened to hit it off with. And some are probably still not quite sure how we know each other.

Lauryn and I share the same uncle. I’m his niece on his wife’s side of the family (my maternal aunt) and Lauryn is his sister’s daughter. She’s my cousin’s cousin but not my cousin. Sounds like one of those logic/math word problems, doesn’t it?

Lauryn’s mom and my mom have been good friends since they were little meaning Lauryn and I have “known” each other since we were little, although I’m several years older.I haven’t seen Lauryn in almost 10 years.

Lauryn got married two Saturdays ago in Texas and her and her new husband are honeymooning here in New England. Since they were about three hours away from us they thought they would stop by our church for Sunday morning services and then go to lunch with us after. It was a great visit and we were happy to get to meet Daniel for the first time. Daniel and Lauryn are a super cute couple and were glowing from happiness. This was also Lauryn’s first time to meet Katelyn and Madelyn after having read so much about them on my blog! Katelyn quickly attached herself to Lauryn and Daniel and wanted to hold hands with them. Lauryn even kindly took Madelyn to the bathroom while I was waiting to rehearse a song after church! And she didn’t even complain when Maddy got some urine on her. A gracious young lady all the way!

Congratulations Daniel and Lauryn! It was great seeing you! God bless you two as you build a new life together. Love you guys!

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As I’ve mentioned we just started attending a Financial Peace University Class  by Dave Ramsey at our church. Tomorrow night will be our second class. Mike and I have been working on our budget all week. We’ve always had a very loose budget and …wow…this budget we have to create for the class is showing us how way off we were living before! We’re also having to share with the instructor {privately} how much debt we have-i.e loans, credit card, mortgage etc. Thankfully we only have a mortgage and some credit card debt.  We could be in a much worse financial situation. We cut up our credit cards over the weekend. That was a liberating (yet scary!) feeling. I closed all accounts except the one we have debt on still. We had several accounts open that we weren’t using so it was nice to close those down and be done with them.

I have to say my biggest struggle is going to be a food budget! I’m not used to having an exact, cash only grocery budget. I know we spend way too much on groceries and that’s with the  coupons  I use when I can. I’m going to try to implement a weekly menu plan, including snacks, and start buying a lot of generic stuff.

I don’t know what the average family of 4 spends on groceries. I don’t know what is considered about right or way too much. I have a feeling we are in the “Spend Way Too Much” category. We usually spend, on average, $160-200 A WEEK on groceries. That makes about $800 a month on just groceries!  Our new grocery budges is $100 a week. This will help in our losing weight endeavor as we’ll have to make sure our food lasts the allotted amount of time. We have budgeted  eating out on Sundays because that’s what we do. We eat out after church on Sundays and we won’t be be stopping that any time soon. It’s our weekly treat.

This will be an interesting journey but I know we’ll come out ahead! Like Dave Ramsey says ” Live like no else so you can LIVE like no one else!!” (or at least, I think I got that right!)  If you get the chance to take this course- DO IT! Even if you think you’re pretty good with your finances it still holds a wealth of info to make your finances even better. He talks about paying off  your house sooner, planning for your children’s education, planning for retiring with dignity, and building your wealth. All with wise saving  and spending and budgeting.  He doesn’t have any get rich quick schemes. His advice and methods are actually hard work and all about delayed gratification- i.e being an adult!

I will most definitely be blogging about our progress!

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To end my post today I thought we’d do a  “Guess Those Scribbles”  game. Instead of guessing what Katelyn drew you’re going to guess what she was trying to write in this photo:

What was Katelyn trying to write?

I’ll give you some choices:

1) Katelyn Mietzner

2) Katelyn and Madelyn

3)Ni Hao Kai-Lan

4) It’s K-Mart Smart

5) Katelyn and Mommy

Go!!

*Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and/ or fan my blog on Facebook!

I found Mr. Ken Doll hanging out like this in the playroom the other day. Barbie was nowhere in sight.

Hmm…..

What do YOU think he’s doing? Make this Wordless Wednesday not so wordless!!!

Well, I guess the “wordless” part is already shot to you-know-where…

Anyway…

It’s stapled shut. There’s a picture of what appears to be a candle that Katelyn drew, cut and colored stapled to the front with a snowman drawn on the bag underneath the candle.

There is definitely something in it but it’s not very heavy or thick.

Katelyn told me I can’t open the bag until tomorrow after her school Christmas party and that it has to go in her closet until then. So, now, it sits in her closet. I”m amazed at how well she’s keeping this secret. She told our Chiropractor yesterday all about it while I closed my eyes and covered my ears.(Yes, she told me I had to close my eyes too!) He just laughed and said it was awesome and what a great idea. I’ve been a good mom and haven’t peeked.

But I’m dying of curiosity!!

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS IN THIS BAG????

Any guesses???