This Place Just Makes You Smile

Each year our small group is blessed to spend a couple nights at the Elizabeth Lodge.  This year we had the privilege of spending our time during the summer.   Our weekend was full of food, games, laughter and MUCH bonding time.  We love each one of these couples and are so fortunate to have them in our lives.  I had a hard time picking just a few pictures out of the 457 that were snapped!

My Dad Would Be Proud

One of the things that my dad loved to do was garden.  This is where I get my love for gardening and I hope that I am able to pass the same passion down to our children one day.  They will know their Grandpa would have loved to teach them everything he knew about playing in the dirt!

I must share with you what I have growing in our backyard this season:  tomatoes, sugar snap peas, shelling peas, green beans, onions, carrots, cucumbers, pickle cucumbers (which I hope to learn how to can), summer squash, zucchini,  lettuce, and spinach.  Each year I hope to add something new, but this year I went a little CrAzY!  I added grapes, blackberries, raspberries, and rhubarb.  Why not, right?  I also decided to transplant my strawberry patch and I am proud to say the transplant went great.  Everything is growing and doing great! I still have so much to learn, but as the years go on I will sharpen my skills.  I love coming home each night and tending to my little home garden.  There is something about gardening that makes me feel accomplished! 

My newly transplanted strawberry patch.  I have a
feeling next year I am going to have to expand it!

Tyler taking a break from playing
to enjoy a little snack!

Sharing a few snap peas with the family!

Nikki's amazing shot of the Gerbera Daisies on our deck.

 Peonies from the bushes in our backyard.  
One of my favorite flowers!

The Warmth of Texas

Kevin and I had the privilege of going to a Marriage and Mentors conference in Texas this last weekend.  This was our 2^nd year to be a part of this conference, so we knew our hearts would be rocked.  There really are no words to describe the amount of love that the men and women of this Texas church showed to all the attendees of the conference.  They truly get what it means to serve others for Christ.

I honestly don’t know where to start on summarizing what I took away from all the speakers and sessions.  I do know that I will be pondering over all the teachings and testimonies for months to come.  I pray that I will turn the knowledge that I now know into wisdom over the years.

 As I sit here and flip through the pages of my notebook it excites me to know that the real miracle happened over 2000 years ago and all the struggles and heartaches in our marriages that we are living through today have been healed and forgiven.  That truth opens my eyes and helps me understand that sometimes God is willing to keep me in my struggle if it keeps me dependent on Him.  The freedom is knowing the struggle is never in vain.  I often forget how much more committed the Lord is to me then I am to Him.  That alone gives me so much hope and encouragement!

It saddens me to realize how closed off we are in sharing our deepest struggles that we have in our marriages with our family, friends and church leadership.  We openly talk about sins in our lives such as gossip, laziness, lying, worry, alcoholism, gluttony, etc., but why do we not face the truth that marriages are struggling and falling apart behind closed doors.  Is it because the biggest struggle has something to do with a sexual sin?  Do we feel all alone and that no one else could possibly be going through the same sinful feelings or actions? I can almost promise you that you are not alone.  I say this with experience.  I finally came clean and shared with Kevin a sin that I committed against him.  I kept it hidden for 4 years.  Why did I hide it for 4 years? It was because no one I knew ever talked about committing the same sin that I allowed myself to commit.  I felt all alone and did not want to be labeled. The crazy thing is I have been a part of many different “Marriage” Sunday school classes.  No one ever talked about the “junk” they were going through in their marriages openly.  It seemed to me, by all the discussions, that everyone had a darn good marriage.   It takes just ONE person to open up.  Did it really have to be me?!?!  Once I came clean and started confessing my past struggle with others, I found out that I was not alone.  If we all could be open and honest about our “junk” we would have more support than we would know what to do with.  Secrets have a way of growing in power.  We must always remember that our sin and feelings do not define who we are in Christ.  The head pastor of the church that held the marriage conference said, “All of us have junk drawers in our homes, but that is where we go to get the one thing that  matters most”.   So true!

I could go on and on about the sessions we had especially on sex, but I will save that for some GOOD one on one discussions!   I do hope that if you are in a current struggle that is affecting your marriage you can find the strength to share it with others.  Not only does this help you be relieved from shame, but it helps others know they are not alone.

Thank you Sheldons and Bristols for this weekend of bonding and worshiping the Lord together. We will hold this time spent together close to our hearts.

Stitching Away

I have finally fully committed myself to taking up the hobby of sewing. I have made my Nana proud! After making trip after trip to my sister-in-laws house to work on small sewing projects, I told my family it was time for me to get my own machine. I requested money for my birthday and to my surprise I was able to buy everything I needed to get started! Kevin spent hours with me searching for the perfect sewing machine. After reading review after review and searching for the machine that fit our budget we settled on the Brother Project Runway Limited Edition. It is PERFECT!



 I have now finished my first sewing project! I am at the stage where I am soaking up all the knowledge and skills I can get my hands on. This summer I am hoping to take a sewing class in order to learn all the basics and the correct way to sew. Right now Google is my best friend! One thing that really excites me is the fact that I will be able to pass down the skill of sewing to our children one day!

Sporting the apron I made!



Merry Christmas!

Hello Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas! Thank you for taking the time to come to our family blog to read our 2010 Christmas letter. As I am sitting here, Kevin is outdoors snow blowing snow that has fallen from a record breaking snow storm. Neither of us has ever seen this much snow fall in one day. Crazy! We have enjoyed being snowed in for two days now. I must say we have done a lot of relaxing!

Once again, we are able to share with you that the Lord has blessed us in numerous ways over this entire year. This year has been mixed with a lot of fun activities and a lot of relaxing moments. We thought it would be fun for us to share with you 5 hightlights of our year by bringing the words to life with pictures. Enjoy!

1. Summers are always short here in Minnesota, so you will see that we cram in as much fun as we can while the warm sun is shining. In June, Kevin and I decided to run our first 5K together. You would not have wanted to witness our attitudes at 5 am each morning as we began training. After a few weeks of training Kevin and I were able to share a few smiles with one another. We are hoping to run our 2nd race next summer.



2. We decided to take a road trip to Colorado with two other couples for our summer vacation. We knew that we were going to have a blast, but what we didn’t know was that we were going to make memories that would last a life time. Words cannot express the amount of fun we had!



3. Kevin informed me that he was in need of a “man trip”. Being a loving wife I told him to go and have fun! Kevin, along with 3 other guys rented a motor home and took a road trip to Ohio and visited the largest theme park in the world, Cedar Point. Good times!



4. We celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary this year by heading to Minneapolis to enjoy the Musical Footloose. It was a wonderful weekend away. What made it even better was that my boss paid for the entire weekend. Thank you Steve!



5. For the last couple of years we have wanted to go see the musical Wicked. When we heard it was coming to Minneapolis there was nothing that was going to stop us from getting tickets to the show! We were able to enjoy the evening with our dear friends. The show was phenomenal!



We have saved the most exciting news last. We are happy to share with you all that we are done with our adoption home study. We are officially “waiting” to be chosen by a birth mom. We are beyond ready to have our family of two become three! Our prayer is that next year we are able to share with you that we have been blessed with a child to raise for the Lord!

May Jesus always be your joy, your hope, and your song. We pray this Christmas and each day of the New Year be directed by His guiding hand of love! Have a wonderful Christmas and a safe New Year!

With Love,
Kev and Cole