Monday, October 30, 2017

Eighteen Years: What's Our Secret?

Today marks eighteen years of marriage. It seems like it has gone by in a blink and yet it also seems like we have been together forever. A lot has happened.

Yesterday evening we went on a family hike. It was a gorgeous fall evening, we hiked a path that overlooked the Rogue Valley. It was so nice being out in nature together, lots of room to stretch, breathe and explore freely. A big contrast to what we had experienced the night before. We confirmed our crew doesn't do well in small confined spaces as we attempted to tackle the "Escape Room." All chiefs, no Indians, trying to escape a small, dark, confined space, under the pressure of a ticking clock. Complete and utter chaos, which included tears, a lot of screaming and us realizing that if this was a true scenario, we would all be dead. If only we could have the video footage!

On our hike, we enjoyed watching our kids interact with each other. We were so proud as we watched them converse about various topics, laugh at each other's jokes and lean on one another when the path got steep. The boys would occasionally wrestle with each other, their way of communicating, "I love you." We might not do everything well, like rescue each other from sudden death, under pressure, in a false reality, but we know that no matter what happens in life we all have each others backs. We love each other deeply. They are products of us, our relationship. Not perfect, but passionate and committed. We don't have it all together, but together we have it all. If we've done one thing right, it's show them what it looks like to love.

We were nearing the end of our hike, Erik had been holding my hand the last quarter mile. Matt needed help with his shoe, so we stopped a second. When we started to walk again, Matt grabbed each of our hands individually and joined them back together. He said, "You know Mom, a lot of kids at school have parents that are divorced. But, that won't happen to you guys, because you love each other!"

They are watching us. They know what we have. They are just as into protecting it as we are!


I love this from The Message:

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Our secret is that we don't have the option to give up. We committed from the beginning. At the young ages of 17 and 19, we knew the relationship we were stepping into was forever. When we fail, we still keep going. Always together. There is no option to give up, we have to figure it out. We challenge each other to become better. Loving each other more is our only option.. And so we do. 




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Friday, October 27, 2017

Quick Five Year Re-cap: "What was that all about?!"

I thought it would be good to get caught up. What's gone on these past five years?

Sometimes it feels like this



Since we last met:

We sold the Gypsy Cafe in Bailey, CO.

We sold our house in the mountains. My parents moved to Denver and we bought a house in Littleton, CO.

We re-homed Luke (our boarder collie) because of health issues, cried our eyes out and went and picked him up first thing the next morning.

We decided to travel on the road full-time and sold everything.

We traveled the United States (and a bit of Canada) for 6 months. It was an amazing experience and one we still crave from time to time.

We survived a major accident at the end of our 6 months on the road and moved to Oregon, the town Erik and I grew up in. We re-bought everything we sold.

We've built a successful business.

We've moved five times.

I worked on a few personal photography projects.

We went through therapy to overcome the trauma of the accident (we were a mess), which ended up helping me overcome a lot of hidden crap. Life changer! It's too much to mention here, but I see a future blog post going into more detail.

Erik and I have both gone through topical steroid withdrawal (I might go into my personal journey in a later post, but for those interested now, here is what it is: http://itsan.org/).

The kids have all become pre-teen/teenagers.

We've brushed our teeth approximately 4380 times.

We've spent a collective 7110 hrs eating.

We've vacationed, made life-long new friends, re-connected with old friends, grown closer as a couple and a family and have defined even more what's important to us in life. We've laughed a ton, cried a ton, failed, succeeded, experienced and dreamed.

Oregon has been a great experience, but a new chapter is in front of us...

Where are we heading next?








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Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Resurrected

It's been almost five years since I posted. I can't believe it, time is such a crazy thing.

A lot has happened in five years.

I decided to resurrect this blog and document our lives again. I keep getting Facebook notices of past blog posts and I realized how much I treasure those posts. I don't have a great memory (maybe I'll get into that in a later post) so I truly treasure being able to read back over those precious days with my babies, that are now teenagers... what! I want to remember these days too. In less than five years they are going to start leaving the nest. Accckkkk!! I can't process that right now...

So even though reading back over my past blogs makes me cringe at times, because of bad grammar, poor spelling and a ton of run on sentences. I don't care. I'm older now and I'm caring a whole lot less about what people think, gosh that's freeing! If you don't mind dealing with those flaws, I'd love for you to join me in digging this blog out of the grave and putting some life back into it. Fitting that it's right before Halloween (oh yeah, and you'll also have to put up with my cheesy references and jokes that won't always make sense!)

What you can expect from me:
- Sporadic posting (can't commit to a schedule right now).
- Guest posts from the hubby (I haven't told him yet but he encouraged me to start this blog again, so...).
- Transparency, it's my thing.
- A fun time, because that's what we do best!

And photos...




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