Tuesday, September 2, 2014

What I wouldn’t give…


2 years and counting and it has still not been any easier...I sure miss my best friend!

What I wouldn’t give to have you here by my side taking on the world together. Moving from city to city with the military making friends and sharing our story of faith. Making friends and develop new “families” together while growing our family. But then I think how incredibly blessed I have been with the new friends and church family I have gained since I lost you. I have been forced to gain more confidence and go out and do things on my own. I have developed some great relationships with friends at church through bible study and serving. I have had the opportunity to go to Jamaica on a missions trip and serve with others from my church and had an amazing life moving experience there. 

What I wouldn’t give to have my travel buddy back to explore and have a blast with. We had such a great time traveling every opportunity we had. I loved all of our trips big or small because we always made the best out of everything and lived life to the fullest. I thought I would not have been able to travel with a little one and no travel partner but I have been extremely blessed with many opportunities. I have met many people from Jamaica to Israel and Panama to London.  Between traveling with TAPS to Alaska and DC often and with some girls to Mexico and Jamaica, I have been embracing life still. I have also been on a couple awesome trips with our precious little girl to Mexico. We also made it to LA and Disneyland and she thought it was the greatest place ever! I just wish we could have done it all with you, but no regrets love. 

What I wouldn’t give to have my husband and father of my daughter around to help me raise our sweet little lady! You were so excited to have kids and start our family and I never dreamed I would have to do this on my own. It is hard being a single mom and I even have a hard time with the image I have to strangers of being a single mom, but we have been rocking it babe. She is getting to be so big and reminds me so much of you. We have been extremely blessed to be close with the family and they have all helped me raise her and she makes me proud. She is going to be one strong girl with a big heart, just like we wanted. 

What I wouldn’t give to just have you come home to me in the evenings. I looked forward to you coming home every night babe to have your companionship. I always had a great time with you weather it was lying on the couch in the evenings, or going for a walk on the waterfront or serving at church, I just enjoyed your company. I have been trying to keep myself busy every night since I don’t like being alone. But I have been volunteering with the Jr High at my new church like we did in Washington and have been volunteering down in the inner-city with my mom’s ministry. I also went back to school and finished my Bachelors in the evenings as well as getting volleyball in when I can. I have been blessed to have my evenings filled with some pretty fulfilling things. 

What I wouldn’t give to have back all of our dreams we had for the future together. We always had such big plans and ideas for what we wanted to accomplish and where we wanted to go. You always wanted to make me happy and spoiled me with fulfilling my dreams too. I am now lost on my own but making short term dreams and goals and working on accomplishing them. It is so hard being in this position without you but we will continue to follow God’s calling and pray for Him to show me the way. 

What I wouldn’t give to have a phone call to heaven,  I long to hear your voice again and to talk to my best friend. You were truly all I ever wanted in a soul mate and husband. I am so thankful that I have so many things to long for because we had it all babe. We developed a relationship based on our faith and worked hard at making it the best, and we were blessed. I thank God every day for all that we had. I know he has had his hand in everything and I continue to see if blessings every day. Even though I long for all of these things, I have become a better person and developed a closer relationship with the Lord through all of this. I realize life it too short not to live and love fully…no regrets.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

I went crazy with my holiday baking a few days ago and made some new recipes that we loved! Here are a few of the recipes I used that people have requested. This Cookies and Cream fudge was so great and easy to make!!

Cookies 'n' Creme Fudge

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
3 (6 ounce) packages white chocolate baking squares
1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups coarsely crushed chocolate creme-filled sandwich cookies

DIRECTIONS
In heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt white chocolate squares, sweetened condensed milk and salt. Remove from heat; stir in crushed cookies.
Spread evenly into wax-paper-lined 8-inch square pan. Chill 2 hours or until firm.
Turn fudge onto cutting board; peel off paper and cut into squares. Store leftovers covered in
refrigerator.

Neiman Marcus Bars

***Crust***
1 package yellow cake mix1 egg
slightly beaten
1/2 cup butter -- melted

***Topping***
8 ounces chocolate chips
3/4 cup nuts -- chopped

8 ounces cream cheese
eggs -- slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound powdered sugar

Directions:
Mix crust ingredients together well. Press in bottom of 9x13" pan. Press in the chocolate chips and nuts. Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, eggs and vanilla. Pour over all. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 300ยบ.


I made all of these right before out Christmas parties we went to this weekend (and right before my gallbladder surgery to go out with a bang!!) I had my surgery yesterday and everything went well besides the 5 hour wait we encountered before the surgery...I am just resting at home today trying to get better! Thanks for all the prayers!!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Feels like Winter in Whister!!

We are hanging out in our room by the fireplace while we are in beautiful Whistler, British Columbia! We got here on Saturday and it has gotten a little colder each day - today is only 39! It is snowing up in the mountains but not in the Village quite yet! We have gone out in the Village everyday shopping and eating but this is the off season for the town so it is pretty quite. They are getting ready for ski season in a couple months! Here are a few pictures from our trip so far...







Halloween is right around the corner and I found a cute clown costume for Chief! Enjoy the pictures! (He hated it but was a good sport!)












A picture of all our kiddos - they wait for me on the stairs when they hear the garage door open! Cheese, Chief, Princess and Chad!



Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Getting Ready for the Holidays!

This is going to be the first year we are away from our families for Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas too! So we decided to make the best of it and have gotten together with our friends here to plan a big Thanksgiving celebration! I am going to host a brunch here with a few good friends so we can lounge and watch football all day...then our friends Jette and Ryan and hosting a big dinner at their house that will be a lot of fun! We will miss our families but I am sue this is something we will have to get used to:)

There are so many cool places to go here around the holidays too! We are going to try to make it to Leavenworth, WA for the Christmas lighting ceremonies in December. It is a Bavarian town set out east in the mountains! Hopefully we will get a chance to go there for the holidays this year!

But anyway, we are off to Whistler this weekend! We leave Saturday and will come back Wednesday! We are really looking forward to going to such a neat town where the Olympics were held earlier this year...It is about a 4 and a half hour drive north and we will go through Vancouver also! We are staying at a neat resort right in the village of Whister and our room has our own private sauna in it! I was checking the weather and it looks like we will get to be there for the first snows of the season on Tuesday and Wednesday, so hopefully we will be able to make it home like planned on Wednesday!





The Village of Whistler!



Our Resort - The Mountainside Lodge! The heated pool is open year round!!


Monday, October 11, 2010

So its been a while! Many new and exciting changes are happening! I was able to go back to Kansas about a week ago for Lucas and Lauren Bingham's wedding...it was good to see the family and Clay was home too!

I also got a new JOB!! I am working with a Financial Planner like I was back in Kansas City. I am really excited about the opportunities I will have working with Bill Sydor with the Householder Group. It is just a part time position for now so I am still working a few days at World Market too! I am keeping busy at work and Traveling!!

We have a vacation booked to Whistler, British Columbia, Canada for October 22-27th that we are really looking forward to! It is supposed to be a very cool town set in the Mountains where the Olympics were earlier this year...

I also have a trip booked to Scottsdale, AZ with my work for the first week in November which will be great training for me!

Well here is a great recipe that Audrey made for me and Mike last time we were home. I have made is a couple times and it is a big hit and very easy! Enjoy!


Sopapilla Cheesecake:

Mix together 1/2 cup sugar with 1 TBS ground cinnamon. Set aside.

Mix (in mixer) 1 cup sugar, 2 packages cream cheese- softened, and 1 TSP vanilla until well blended.

Take 1 package of crescent roll dough and press in bottom of an 8x13 (ish) pan and close seams.

Evenly spread cream cheese mixture over bottom crescent roll dough. Top with 2nd package of crescent roll dough (closing seams).

Pour 1/2 stick of melted butter (or margarine) over top.

Then add the cinnamon/sugar mixture evenly.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes (recipe calls for 30 min but in my experience thats too long. I check it at 20 and go from there. You will see that the crescent layer has risen and the sugar and butter have candied themselves.) Serve warm (and yummy cold, too!)

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Portland and more...

We went to Portland last weekend! It is a pretty cool city set on a big river...we went to the Saturday market and Voodoo doughnuts where we stood in line for over an hour! We also went to Multnomah Falls! We met Tom and Amanda at the falls and did a mile hike straight up to get to the top of the falls!


We had a great time with Tom and Amanda in town for a few days! We went to Seattle and saw all the big spots along with the Troll under Fremont bridge...It was a perfect day!! We also showed them around Tacoma and took them kayaking on the Puget Sound! It was good to have some old friends come up and visit!


While they were here we grilled out and they taught us how to grill peaches and it is so good!! All you do is cut the peach in half and take the pit out...then dip the peach into a little melted butter and then dip into a brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and grill face down! I think they grilled them for about 4-5 minutes and serve with vanilla ice cream!




Saturday, August 21, 2010

Travel Travel and more Traveling!

So I LOVE our location here in Washington because we can get to so many places in such a short time! We are about 3 hours south of Vancouver, BC and 2 hours north of Portland...

We booked a weekend trip to Portland next weekend! Tom and Amanda are driving up from Denver and will meet us in Portland on Sunday then they are coming up to stay with us on Wednesday! We can't wait to see them!

I also booked a trip today to WHISTLER BC! I have heard it is such a cool town up in the mountains we are excited to spend a week there in October! Whistler is about 5 hours north set in a valley of some beautiful mountains where the 2010 Olympics were held! We got a loft room that sleeps 6 and had a sauna in the upstairs bathroom so hopefully we will get some people to go with us!

I want to see all that we can while we are up here...we have done a lot but have not even made a dent in all we want to do!