Craft Ideas

I wanted to get these posted before Mother's Day and Father's day, but I failed...you might be able to do these another time with your kiddos.

I smiled at Momma

I told Turner that all I wanted for Christmas was for him to look at me, recognize me and smile. I got what I wanted because on December 22 when we woke up, we laid in bed and stared at each other and I was talking to him when he gave me the biggest grin. My heart was so warm and fuzzy and melted right there. He continues to smile more often and is starting to make little cooing noises. Turner is such an easy baby that I am getting spoiled.

Turner is already so blessed

We have daily seen the blessing of the Lord being poured out on us and I just stand in awe as I have been so short on faith and trust in the changes we are dealing with.

I am so glad that God is God and I am not. He graciousness to me has my heart so overwhelmed.

Here are some gifts we received from work. God provided for us in such a real way through people at work. I had expected nothing and definitely not what they shared with us. We are so grateful for the gift.

Turner's Second Shower

Turner's Grammy Mary (Torrey's Mom) had a shower for us on October 4th. I took Torrey with me because the invite list was designed by Mary and I didn't know any of the people attending...well, the ones that I "knew" I had only met once.

It turned out very nice although I had been having contractions or something that whole day and could hardly walk.

Here are the gifts that Turner received.

Projects and Gift cards

My mom made a cover for the glider and ottoman that we found at a garage sale for $10 and she also made me a blanket with the pattern that I have always wanted since I was in highschool.

At the shower we got a few gift cards and some money and I went to Kmart the other day and they were having a great sale and so I found a kick-n-play on clearance and then a photo album book that is from my Aunt Sheila.

They also had a bunch of diapers on clearance, so I cleared them out of the size 3's.

Then Logan's Grammy Al gave me some coupons with her gift so I used those to get some jammies, diapers and wipes.

I love clearance.

Oh, here is a great story of God protecting me at Kmart (and this is the Kmart that we found out we were in fact pregnant).

After shopping I loaded the car up and went to Amy's home for Logan's party. When I got there, I felt like I should find my envelope of gift cards. The thing is, I didn't see it and rather than clear out the car, I felt the urgency to go back to Kmart and look to see if I left it in the cart and if not, then I would clear out my car.

The whole way there, I was praying that God would blind everyone's eyes from the envelope because I had cash and $75 in gift cards in it. I was sick that I just spent money and saved on clearance items and then lost money that would could use for our son.

As I pulled up to Kmarts doors I stopped at the cross walk and there in the MIDDLE of the cross walk was my envelope. I jumped out and people all around me looked at me like I was nuts.

I grabbed the envelope and parked the car to check it out. All the gift cards were there, but I didn't see the cash. Then I remembered I had tucked it in one of the envelopes for the gift card. I just sat there and praised Jesus for protecting something that seems so little yet so big to our family at this time.

God protects even the little things. He has the best in mind for us even down to the smallest of details.

More Gifts for Turner

Throughout this week we have received packages in the mail and from friends that were unable to make it.

Here is a view of the items...

Peaceful Backyard

For our wedding we received some gift cards to Home Depot and we used them to get the swing and the gazebo for our backyard. We just got them set up as we purchased them at the end of the season for a GREAT discount in price that allowed us to get both of them.

We haven't finished anchoring the gazebo yet as it took me more than thirty minutes to put one anchor into one leg. UFFDA.

We have entertained only a couple times since putting it up. We had another couple over that just recently got married and then for Memorial day, we had my family over. The day was nice until it was time for everyone to come over and then we ended up with rain. It didn't spoil our fun. Mom and I played Badminton in the yard and the guys got a fire going in the pit. It made us long for camping and boy did we smell like he had been camping when it was all over.

Torrey and I enjoy sitting in the backyard and having our meals, taking a nap in the swing, brushing the dogs or just being. It is nice to have a place to go that feels so relaxing. We just pretend that we are in the country as this might be the closest that we get outside of vacations.

My Candy Letter to my Bit-O-Honey

Torrey got several cards for Valentine's day and presents to go with them.

His first was from the dogs and they gave him some stuffed dogs that matched them (black & white).

His second gift was the book "Guess how much I love you." This is one of my favorite books and I give it to everyone of my nephews and niece when they come into the world. I decided that Torrey should have one too.

His third gift was a candy letter and with it he got two old fashioned candy jars. One of them holds candy to help him on evenings when his blood sugar drops and he needs something, the other is when his mood drops and he needs encouragement. Here is the note that was attached.

My Bit-O-Honey,

I Skored the day I met and married you, but I would never have guessed that the day I went through your line at Safeway. I thought you were a Nerd and boy oh boy did I Snicker after I left. But I have now come to know that the Goober I first saw was a Life Saver to so many people because you are unafraid to share the truth of Jesus.

Even though we don’t have 100 Grand in savings, I do hope that our Almond Joy will bring us a Baby Ruth and we together can be the Three Musketeers until God will bring us more and more Sugar Babies. We will teach our children to invest their Pay Day and to love and honor God.

You are such a Fun Dip and hope that we will get to take trips to the Milky Way and sit back together and see the Starbursts in the sky and be Carefree together, but for now, let’s take a “visit” to Israel and be Sweethearts together.

You are my Hubba Bubba boyfriend, and I want to get my Hugs and Kisses from you and you alone both Now & Later and forever.

Love you Mounds & Mounds,

Your Tootsie Roll


His last card was a poem from God and I fixed his Israel watch and gave him a video "Walk where Jesus Walked."

God’s Valentine Gift
By Joanna Fuchs
God’s Valentine gift of love to us
Was not a bunch of flowers;
It wasn’t candy, or a book
To while away the hours.
His gift was to become a man,
So He could freely give
His sacrificial love for us,
So you and I could live.
He gave us sweet salvation, and
Instruction, good and true--
To love our friends and enemies
And love our Savior, too.
So as we give our Valentines,
Let’s thank our Lord and King;
The reason we have love to give
Is that He gave everything.

Torrey and I went to Carabas to eat and then went to MadCap Theatre to laugh our heads off. We had a great Valentine celebration and determined that next year we would celebrate after the day as it would be cheaper and not so time consuming. Had we not called ahead for seating at Carabas, we would have waited 90 minutes. What surprises me is that people were doing it.

There's no place like home

My trip to San Francisco last week turned out to be a good trip despite the fact that I would have rather stayed home and been with my honey for my birthday.

I had the opportunity to talk with my "boss" about my position and what she desires my position to be. It didn't start out great, but I feel that at the end we both understood each other and better knew how to help the Automotive division move forward.

While I was in California, I got the pleasure of seeing some of my friends, so I really didn't have a lot of time to be on my own.

I went out for Sushi with my friend Kevin and we got caught up since the last time we had seen each other. We are both struggling in our careers right now so we got to spend some time sharing ideas and possibilities.

For my birthday, I had so many people call me and send me emails that I felt truly loved. There were people that I never would have thought would have known, that poured out their care on me. After my conference was over, I snuck out and caught a taxi to the Ferry station and then took it over to Larkspur where my friend Patrick picked me up. He and Ric treated me to a nice meal at a quaint little restaurant in San Rafael and then we went back to their home and Patrick had made me a cake, so they sang to me and we talked for a bit. It was nice to stay in a home and not a hotel.

The best part of the week was coming home, but I the expectations of coming home change a bit when you have someone to come home to.

I was so excited to see Torrey, but I was also incredibly tired from traveling for 8 hours. When I got home, my knight came out and got my bag. I came in to my room and on the bed was a cute little "stuffed" flower and to the side was a gorgeous display of flowers, some champagne and cake to celebrate with me. I laid down on the bed for a few minutes to try to rest so I could spend some time with my boyfriend, but as I laid down, he started to put the things away as he wanted me to rest. I just wanted him to lay with me and hold me for a bit and then I would have the energy to spend some time catching up. Like I said, the expectations of coming home are different when there is more than one living in the home.

I failed to appreciate his care as I should have and he didn't catch on to my needs. When you love someone it seems that you want them to hear the unspoken, but the unspoken is interpreted based on what you know or what you would want. It is always best to try to speak and remember to do it filled with love.

God has the best instructions for loving our spouse. I continue to learn more and more. I hope that I learn quickly before I spin my wheels too long that Torrey doesn't feel the love and care from me that he should.

Birthday Celebration

Since I was out of town for my birthday, Torrey took Saturday off to celebrate me. It was nice to have time with him.

We started out by stopping by my parents new home to see what they had painted and done while I was gone. We got to have some time catching up with them. From there we decided to go eat lunch. Where we wanted to go we decided against it as it would be too heavy and we had my birthday party that night.

I can tell you the place that we went was not my favorite at all and I will not be frequenting it again. I am not all about the global warming stuff, but I am about taking care of what God has given us. Well, this restaurant was a dine in yet everything they put on the table beside the silverware and cup was all stuff that you throw away. I don't get that at all, they have the ability to wash it, so why wouldn't they.

After we ate, We went to Butterfly Pavilion. I had never been there and I really enjoy the opportunity to take pictures for fun. I am considering how I can go about displaying them for resale, but haven't taken on that effort yet.


Torrey was really good at finding things that I would like to take pictures of. I enjoyed the flowers a bit more than the butterflies. There really weren't as many variations as I had expected. I will have to go to the Botanical Gardens with my love sometime soon. I need to get him a point and shoot camera as I think he might enjoy doing that with me, but maybe he just likes finding the shots for me. I might have a good partner in him.

While we were in the gift shop, we decided that as a family we will collect playing cards. That is how we got to know each other, what we had at our wedding and just seems like a fun and inexpensive thing to collect.


We bought our cards and headed to starbucks and played some games until it was time for the party.

I continue to love my Love Bug more and more each day. Despite the hard times, he is a man that I long to grow old with and serve the Lord with.

Love is an Oreo Cookie

My darling husband did the sweetest thing the other day. We are still working hard to get used to being married and doing it to glorify God. It is not always easy, but each day is a better experience and one that is continuing to grow us.

Anyway....on to the sweetest thing he did.

We both really like oreo's and my husband had a stash in his car for snacks or if he needed something quick to get his blood sugar back up. I saw them in his truck and was very sad that he hadn't brought them into the house. So, the other day after we had a struggle and talked through it, he decorated the bed with oreo cookies in the shape of a heart and them put in cards that had verses on them.

He was very kind to love on me and to share his cookies with his undeserving wife.