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!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Hanging out with family and friends, firing up the grill, and yard games are all things I enjoy doing to celebrate the 4^th of July.   After talking with a couple of friends and finding out they did not have plans for the holiday, we all decided that we would be each other’s plans!  We gathered at our place and spent the evening relaxing in our backyard.  You know the saying “Boys will be boys”?  Well, you will see (by the pictures below) what our biggest entertainment of the night ended up being.  Thanks to Aimee and her dedication behind the camera we will always have the memories of the boys playing with “fire” and their experiments!

What is the 4th without Hamburgers and Hebrew National Dogs?



Longest game of ladder golf...the winner only
won by 1 point!



Kathi, Me, Beth and Aimee laughing and relaxing
 as the guys entertained us.

Our home where it all took place!

Out With The Old…In With the New

Kevin and I have been searching for new couches for some time now.   We were looking for comfort with style… on a budget.   One evening we had about 30 minutes to spare, so we stopped by Ashley Furniture to check out the clearance section (Thank you Beth Bristol for the idea) and low and behold we found exactly what we were looking for.  We purchased them on the spot!   Once we got home we had to figure out what to do with our current couches.  They have been a part of our lives for the last 10 years.  We were beyond excited to get rid of them, but on the other hand we were sad to let them go.  Many memories are attached to those couches.  Kevin decided to try out Craigslist for the first time.  We posted them for sale at 10:30 p.m. and at 10:40 p.m. they were SOLD!  I would say we had a good first experience with Craigslist.   We have now owned our new couches for several weeks and they have lived up to everything we wanted.  We are ready to make many new memories with our new cozy couches!

You were good to us all these years!



Pure comfort and happiness! 
I hope to have new pillows sewn by the end of the summer. =)



Intentionality and Date Nights

Kevin and I have recently felt a great need to be more intentional about the life we are living together.  In all honesty, it feels that we fly by the seats of our pants ALL the time.  There are few things that we are consistent about in our life and this saddens me.   This is a big topic that comes up often in our home and we are ready to move on to bigger and better things to talk about.  During one of our family night discussions we decided that the biggest reason for our inconsistency is simply business!  Kevin said it perfectly, “WE. MUST. SLOW. DOWN”.  If only he would have shared this wisdom with me years ago.  If only I would have LISTENED to him years ago.  The next big word out of his mouth was “intentionality”.  We talked for a long time about what our life would look like if we were intentional about our relationship with each other, our family and our friends.   We moved on to talk about being intentional about how we eat, working out, time spent in the Word daily, dates, etc.  Ahhh…it was wonderful!  I brought up to Kevin that I often hear couples with children say the one thing they miss is having dates with their spouses.  HELLO…we don’t have children and it is rare that we make the time to have a “true” date.   Right then and there we each grabbed a piece of paper and decided to write down different ideas that we would enjoy doing together as a date.  It actually was a lot of fun!  When we read them out loud you could tell who the selfish one was in our marriage…ME!  Actually, if Kevin had it his way every date would have ended with a three letter word.  =)  I decided to take this exercise one step further and typed out our list of dates,  cut them into strips and placed them  in a “date mug”.   We will be adding new date ideas as the seasons change.

Here are  a few of our dates that we look forward to doing together:

Candlelight dinner at home

Bike ride and a picnic

Head to Lanesboro to float the river and go to our ice cream shop.

Go fishing for the day

Go out for wine and dessert

Play strip Tetris attack

Frisbee Golf

Watch Friends episodes with orange Julius and popcorn

Riverside Concerts (Thursdays)

Play Scrabble or game of choice

Play the “Get Lucky” coupon booklet!

Go for a walk. Come home and sit out on deck to talk about topic of choice.

Bake cookies together while listening to Michael Jackson.

Go to DQ and share a blizzard of Nicole’s choice. 

Watch movie of Nicole’s choice in bed.  Nicole gets a foot massage for 15 minutes

Dinner and a Movie

Go bowling

Play tennis

Go for a run

Go to a hockey game

Go for a hike

Go for a drive and find fun places to take photos together

We both know we have the desire to want to change the way we live out our everyday lives, but we must have the self-control to put our desires into action.  This brings me back to a Beth Moore study we did recently with our small group called Living Beyond Yourself.  It was on the Fruit of the Spirit.  I do pray that Kevin and I, as a couple, will both have the self-control to be intentional about the way we live our life towards one another, our family and our friends!

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Galatians 5:22-23

Happy Easter!

We had a nice Easter relaxing at home with family.   Lance, Tami and the kids headed over for a grill out after our morning church service.  This has been one LONG winter so it was nice to sit out on the deck, play yard games and do a little gardening.  The guys even snuck in a nap while Tami and I had a nice talk.   After all the “activities” we ended our Easter Sunday by gathering in the living room to do our yearly tradition of having the kids open resurrection eggs and discussing what each one represented.  What a perfect day celebrating our risen Lord!  

It's Good To Be A Little Flaky...

...When it comes to making a pie crust from scratch!  I will admit I have never enjoyed baking.  I have not had the patience and I make a huge mess in the kitchen.   Well, for some reason over the last couple of months I have caught myself searching for homemade dessert recipes.  After flagging pages and printing recipes online, I decided to write down the most common ingredients to pick up on my next grocery run.  I also asked my close friend Candace to teach me everything she knows. She is an amazing baker!  We had our first lesson on how to make a homemade cherry pie.  We used the cherries from Candace’s cherry tree.  YUM! Candace, Allison and I had a fun “girls morning” laughing, baking and taking pictures. One day I hope that I will enjoy baking as much as I LOVE cooking!

Filling - Mix tart pitted cherries, sugar, salt, and flour.
 Mix well and set aside.



Cut butter into salt and flour until crumbly. Add water.
 1 T at a time. Make sure to use ice cold water.




Use hands to form ball.



Cut in two halves. One for bottom crust and one for the top crust.



Roll out dough.  It is good for it to be a little flaky!



Put bottom crust in pan.
 As you can see I had some problems.

Pour filling on top of pie crust.

Top with small chunks of butter.

  

Roll dough to form the top .  Cut strips for top of crust.

Layer strips to make a basket weave.
Finish off edges.

Candace, Allison and I with our finished pies ready to be baked!



Kevin having the first piece of the pie!  It might not have
look like a million bucks, but he said it was a keeper!





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