Gatlinburg

Well...this is going to be a long over due post. Miguel had been talking about going to Gatlinburg for a while. Well, back in October he received a profit sharing check from work that we were not totally expecting. We decided to use it to take our first real family vacation. We had such a great time and it was amazingly beautiful. Adaliah was such a great traveler for the whole 7 hours it took us to get there.

Our cabin......

The view across the street from our cabin.

One of the things we did was visit the aquarium. It was spectacular and Addie loved the "fishies" very much! Here she is looking at an iguana.

This was the cutest thing. This penguin was minding it's own business when it spied Adaliah up there looking at all the penguin. So, it preceded to waddled over right up to the the glass and just stood there looking back at Adaliah.Downtown Gatlinburg was really neat. It had some of the most unique shops I have ever seen. This picture was taken in a courtyard of shops that was called "The Village". It was beautifully laid out, but we couldn't afford a single thing there. =) It was fun to browse though. We took a tram up 1000's of feet to the top of a mountain. Miguel wanted to take the open tram that was like a ski lift. I told him I would probably have heart failure taking a not quite 2 year old up 1000's of feet in one of those. So, we compromised and went in an enclosed one. At the top of the mountain it was kind of like a carnival with rides and games and shops. They also had a little zoo of sorts that showed animals native to the TN area. One of those animals has now become one of Adaliah's favorite animals.

This was some of the view going up the mountain. The white house at the top left was designed to look like Barbie's dream house. Some of these houses also belong to celebrities but for privacy sake they could not say who's houses they were.

One afternoon we went and listen to a presentation on time shares. They didn't sell us on it but we did get $75 cash and a $50 gift card to a steak house that we ate at that evening. Overall it was a neat experience that we got some cool perks out of. This is the view from the balcony of one of the cabins. The resort itself takes up an entire mountain.

We also did a bit of hiking. Not as much as we would have liked but our time was limited. We left early Monday so we arrived in TN in the late afternoon and we left at around 11 on Wed. Also it would have been too hard on Adaliah to do a lot of hiking. What we did was beautiful though and we hope to go back when she is older and can appreciate the scenery more. It was such a great first family vacation for us! Adaliah was awesome the whole time and we can not wait to do it again.

Miguel and I truly thought that the Gatlinburg was one of the most beautiful places we both have ever seen and we would love to have a second home there. (Hey...like my mom says "Dreams are free!") But for now it was nice to come home.....

Smart Sister and Staircase Redo

Well I have a smart sister. She said the reason I may not be able to upload pictures to the blog is because there were too big. Well sister was correct. So I now can post pictures. Yippee! So of course I started with my beautiful little girl. She is two now. How time flies. She is almost potty trained and talks quite a bit. (Not sure where she got that from.) =) She really likes Barney, animals, her family and is just generally a happy, busy girl. Now that I can post pictures I will be adding some more through the next couple of weeks so you can all be updated on her.

Well we are almost finished with the upstairs of our home. 3 out of the 4 rooms are drywalled, electrical work finished, flooring in and most of the moulding in. We (which means Miguel with help from me when I know what I am doing) just have to finish putting up some moulding and the last room needs to be mudded, painted, flooring installed, and moulding. It is feeling soooo good! One pretty big project was our staircase. Have you ever seen a staircase that is over 100 years old? Well get ready people, it is not pretty!

Lovely huh? The front part of the stairs were breaking off, there were cracks, not to mention drywall mud, primer and paint all over them. It w

as simply a horrible sight. And then enters my talented husband. We had to buy all new risers and treads because they were just in too bad of shape to save. So I painted the risers white with free paint from Me

nards. Seriously any home fixer uppers out there.....watch Menards ads. They do rebates A LOT and one they do semi-frequently is paint that ends up being free. Then I stained the tread parts with Jocobean stain. I sanded and stained the banister in the same color. Now it was hubby's turn to rip up all of the old and install new. There is still some parts we need to fill in with wood filler and some more moulding, but over all I think the end results is a far cry better than what we started with.

I am loving it! Also, notice my cute helper who loves to "help it mom". I have to give credit to a really neat blog that my sister referred me to.

Its thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com. She also redid her staircase and inspired me with the look that she went with.

So, that is one project we have been up to. Of course there will be more to follow, especially since you can now see pictures. And I shall leave you with another of my Miss Adaliah....

After Affects of Joy in the Journey

First off, I know I have been promising updated pictures of Miss Adaliah Ruth but I can not get them to upload to this blog. Not sure what is up with that, but hopefully I will figure it out soon.

I usually enjoy the changing seasons and I do not even mind winter or snow or cold. But, my dear friends, I am finished this year! Adaliah asks to go outside and play every time I let the dog out. We are down to about 20% left in our propane tank and the propane people can not get to our tank because the drive has about a foot of snow with ice on top of it. So I am finished with winter. I am ready for the sun, and green, and my vegetable and flower gardens. With that in mind I have been pouring over gardening books and online sites. Has anyone every ordered plants online? Did you have much luck that way?

A few months back I posted about "Joy in the Journey", about how God was dealing with me to just "Be still" and enjoy the journey through where He is taking me. Not to always be worrying about just getting there. (Yes, I know I just wrote about not enjoying winter any more, He is still working on me people!) Well, amazing things have been happening in my life personally as God has been dealing with me about this. I have started to change my eating habits and do some (and its kinda of little some) exercising. I have been shocked to see 15 pounds drop off. It has just been little things like switching to skim milk and not putting handfuls of cheese on everything and watching my portions. I go to bed full every night and it has been so easy. I have been so amazed and happy. I also have more energy and just mentally feel better.

Other area of my life that has been personally affected is my finances. Anyone who knows me knows I have always been a saver. But, it seems like we were always wondering where our money went to. So I decided it was time to enjoy the journey more by getting our finances under control as well. I tracked what we spent for three months. We saved EVERY receipt and I imputed them into an excel file according to the category it fell under like, house expences, gas, eating out ect. Then based on that I could set up a realistic budget that we started at the begining of this month. We are doing the envelope system which means I get X amount of dollars for groceries and that cash goes in an envelope. Thats all I get for two weeks. So it means I make up menus and have to shop with a calculator in my hands. Its amazing when we take the debit card away and have cold hard cash how much harder it is to part with the cash. So far so good. We are hoping by being more diciplined with our finances we can accomplish some goals we have in our life, like getting this house finished, doing some traveling, and being completely debt free in 12 years or less (this includes our house). So anyone else have a budget. Any tips? Rememer as you go about your day that God has come to give us life more abundatly. So enjoy your day. Sing while you do the dishes. Thank God that you have all of these nice clothes to wear as you fold them and put them away. Just have joy today! God bless you all!

Your Choice

There was a battle raging and choices had to be made

Amid the smoke and noise the soldier had to have his mind set

This battle escaped no one regardless of gender or age

The choice of weapon was crucial and the answer had to be determined before the enemy was ever met

Both choices of weapon had their cons and pros

One was a nuclear warhead with the power of destruction on a grand scale

It was the latest in technology, the most accurate, wiping out the eneny high and low

With this weapon there was a guarantee that one could not fail

The next choice of weapon was a pile of rocks

Damage could be done but one needed to be in close range and accurancy was not for sure

No guarantees were given on this choice of weapon and one needed to remember that the enemy was as wise as a fox

Though the enermy had never been met, the soldier knew he was as deadly as a disease with no cure

So the soldier considered carefully the weapons before him

He then made his choice to be known, the rocks were his selection

Ludiccrous! Why had he made this choice? From what did the choice stem?

In reply, he stated that the rocks are not as heavy nor do they require as much mental recollection

The soldier said that he did not need to invest as much energy or time

If the nuclear warhead had been chosen, study on it would beed to be done and they are not as easy or convenient to have

I can see heads shaking about the choice the soldier made, surely he has lost his mind

Why would be chose rocks over something so powerful, like having a lion fight a baby calf

But do not be so quick to judge this soldier's choice

Many of us make the same one day after day

We chose to carry our own burdens refusing to lift them up in prayer as though we have no voice

Prayer is the most powerful weapon we have but we choose to do it all our own way

So dear soldier in this battle so grand

Your weapons are before you, doing it in your own strength or bringing it to God in prayer

Waling alone or holding on to the great Creator's hand

So make your choice here today on the battlefield, but remember choices make us who we are layer upon layer

Connected Again

Good evening! I have had a three month lapse from updating, but this time I had a good reason. We didn't have the Internet. Shocking I know but we did live without it for 3 months. You see when we decided for me to stay home we knew that we were going to have to make some sacrifices and our Internet was very slow anyways so we got rid of it. A few weeks back we received notification that we qualify for a government program to get satellite Internet at about half the cost because our location does not have high speed Internet options. So we are now...connected again.

Well, let me give you the low down on the last three months. Adaliah had her second birthday. The whole family went to Build-A-Bear and Micah, Nehemiah, Addie made bears. It was great fun! We have been plugging away at the upstairs. Miguel is laying the new floors and installing moulding. I can't hardly believe it. I spend one whole day painting over 100 pieces of moulding and staining the new pieces for the stairs. It took me DAYS to recover from that. I have muscles in my arms I didn't know I had. Miguel spend that whole day laying the flooring so he complained about his knees. It sounded like a nursing home here for awhile. I will post before and after pictures when it is all finished.

As sad as it sounds that's really about it for our three month update. I do have a question for anyone reading this.....what do you do to conserve energy to help with the heating bills in the winter? Our electric bill and propane bills are not fun at all. Does any one have an Eden Pure? Do you like it? Any other conserving options?

Joy in the Journey

First off.....thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your prayers, phone calls, visits, meals, love, and concern during this difficult trial. I can truly say that satan can never tell me again that "no one cares about you", because God has used all of you to show my family and I that there are people who really do care.

There have been so many changes in my life lately and I believe God is very clearly telling me to "Have Joy in the Journey". For those of you that knew me growing up I was always a relatively happy person. I always saw the best in everyone and everything. As I grew older life handed me some pretty rough blows. Then I got married and more responcibilities were heaped on my head. I started to realize that I had a slight problem when I would be bothered if all of the shampoo bottles were not facing the same way. I am not a perfectionist and my house is not always the tidiest, but I realized that little things were really starting to get to me that never use to. If I did not get some project done around the house I felt like a failure for the day.

Now fast forward to losing my brother. It really rocked my world. I still can not put into words everything that is going on in my heart and mind right now. One day I am having a conversation with him about "no I can not put a pig into my backyard" and the next day he was gone. Life is so fleeting. Moments, days, years slip away and we look back and say "where did time go?" I now have the answer to that question. We mourn the loss of time because when we look back we realize how life and time were marching on while we worried and fretted about the shampoo bottles not facing the same way, or how we have been working on the house for 4 years and it is STILL not done, or about money. Through God speaking through circumstances in my life and through 3 separate people in one evening speaking the same message to me I know God is extending grace to me one more time. There will always be more things to do around the house, laundry, dishes, etc. Why stress it? Why not have "Joy in the Journey"? I am not saying we should all let our houses fall apart or sell everything and live in a VW bus....although that idea does have some merit some times. =) I am simply saying why not just enjoy life? Make the projects fun, sing more, worry less, dance around the house with Adaliah, not do anything one day and just take the day to see the world through her eyes, spend more time in quiet time with the Creator of the heavens and earth. I can not say I will be perfect at this new path I am choosing to take, but when I stear off of the path I will work my way back to the joy in the journey. After all, I only get one shot at life. Enjoy the day and God bless you.

Jason Timothy Daniels 6/16/91~9/8/10

I Am From...

I am from wreckage, from a home broken from within.

I am from success, from a family that has set goals and achieved them.

I am from a paradox, from somewhere that is good, but not good for me.

I am from a small town, from friendly neighbors who gossip about me.

I am from religion, from a society that conforms to non-conformity.

I am from family, from protection, harm, encouragement, and discouragement.

I am from God, from a higher power that has set me in this test called "Life".

I am from love, from a love for all that is "Right" and "Godly".

I am from hate, from a hate for "things of this world" and for "wrong-doing".

I am from you, from the person who cares enough to listen to what I have to say.

I am from them, the people that criticize me and bring me down, so that I can rise above it.

I am from a higher calling, a calling that leads me to believe.

I am from believing, from a belief that Life is gerenally good, no matter how bad it may seem now.

I am from myself, from my inner beliefs that make me my individual self.

Written by Jason Daniels on September 2, 2009

Forever Loved and Forever Missed