Love and Marriage

A little background on my little family prior to my actual blog:

I met the man that is now my husband when I was 15 years old. I met him through my cousin one night on msn messenger and from that point on we talked every evening online until the one day he finally let down his guard and gave me his phone number. We continued casually talking on the phone and through msn messenger until one day when I was lounging around my house and my cousin gave me a call and told me that she had brought Shaunn over to meet me for the first time. I quickly darted downstairs to my room and threw on a less than modest shirt and some overalls. I did a quick check of the hair and make up and ran out to meet my mystery man. When all was said and done and they had driven off I called my cousin and told her "Autumn, I'm going to marry that man." She giggled and called me crazy and next month we will be celebrating our 9 year anniversary.

I am writing this particular blog because as life goes on and we find ourselves drudging through the day to day sometimes we forget to stop and take in all the wonderful things in our lives. I am blessed with a wonderful husband that while yes, he does have faults, is a damn good father and husband. I have taken him for granted in the past and even caused him deep wounds. Our marriage is like the tide, ever changing, sometimes it's calm and other times it's rough. Right now we are at a very good place in our marriage. I find myself at the end of the day awe struck at how great my life is.

My husband had a friend over tonight for a friendly game of pool and while sitting in the garage he said something that almost brought me to tears. He told his friend that I am amazing and that he appreciates how hard I work. Hearing him say this made my entire year. As a mother and wife my work does seem to go unnoticed and that is a tough pill to swallow because my work is constant. I find myself trying harder and harder to be the "perfect housewife" I want to be that wife that he can brag about taking care of him. I want him to never run out of clean clothes, have the clean house, and a wife that can cook him meals every night for dinner.

Kc has provided me with a great source of inspiration. I look up to her in so many ways. She has inspired me to work harder as a mother and wife. She never stops amazing me with how dedicated she is to her family. She puts so much love into everything she does and even though most of it goes unnoticed she still wakes up before the sun and does house chores, makes breakfast, wakes her husband up with hot coffee and a steaming shower, cleans all day, and makes her husband an amazing meal which she then has to clean up.

I don't believe in the perfect marriage. I don't believe that anyone can sustain a marriage without hardship and the occasional disagreement. I do however believe that if you love someone enough that even the hard stuff can be worked through. I am a quitter in most things in life but the one thing I will continue to fight for is my family and my marriage. The day I said I do, I meant it. I meant every word. I will stand by his side until death do we part. I will honor him in sickness and in health. He is my other half. We balance each other out with our differences and strengthen each other with our similarities.

Trust your spouse. Believe in the power of marriage and in God. All things are possible in faith and Christ. Take a time out to remember why you are with your spouse. Remember all the amazing things about them that brought you together in the first place. Having children and working full time definitely allows a gap to wedge between two people but as long as you find that place for just the two of you love can prevail. For Shaunn and I that place is in bed when our feet just magically find one another, or camping when we can relax and just take in the fresh air, or even on the couch snuggled together watching a good movie. It doesn't matter what that place for you is. Just make sure you take the time to find your spouse. :D

Good night and God bless!

The modern domestic goddes

This weekend has been full of exciting things. Friday night Breyauna started puking, just when I thought we had safely escaped this awefull stomache bug. I spent almost all day Saturday sleeping because I was so exhausted from being up all night with my very sick girl. Once I finally woke up I spent my day cleaning (as usual) and planning out the days meals (or what was left of the day anyways).

My husband was busy out in the garage with my brother putting upgrades on my brothers car while the children ran around the house randomly stopping to watch sprout on the television. After doing some laundry, clearing out some clutter, and doing 3 loads of dishes I finally sat down to decide on dinner. I decided to make one of my older recipe's that my family adores. It is this delectable stir fry with a special glaze to coat the meat and veggies.

I pulled dinner off beautifully and everyone was super happy with it. There is nothing more fullfilling than creating a nourashing meal for your family to enjoy. Once I was done cooking I did more dishes and let the kids run around until about 9pm when I carried them upstairs for bed. Then I grabbed my amazing book and laid down in the spare bedroom and enjoyed some quiet reading. I have decided that reading is my new escape. It captures my attention and takes me to another place outside of house cleaning, bill paying, kids, and over all stress.

Today has been pretty busy as well. I double mopped the floors downstairs, prepped and am currently cooking dinner, did laundry, washed dishes, cleaned up the house. My next project is completing the laundry, finishing what I hope will be my last load of laundry, cleaning my bathroom which by the way is a complete disaster, bathing my children, putting them to bed, and doing the final go round with straightening up the house. Oh what a very exciting life us SAHM's have.

Time to get to work! Hopefully Kc and I will have a date this week, I need my fix lol.

What a day!

I spent the night at my mother's house last night because I had to drive way out there to pick up pull ups anyways. My kids went to bed easily and I thought to myself "hmm...perfect opportunity for some good reading!". I sat on my mom's ultra cozy couch reading until about 3am when I finally realized that I had passed bedtime by about 3 hours. So I reluctantly put the book away and laid down to get some rest.



The "day" started with me waking up to a very yucky coughing sound. I sat up and looked around and noticed Natilee was wretching so I ran over to her and she puked all over my mom's air bed. While cleaning up my little sickling I noticed her entire onsie was brown. My daughter at some point during the night had an explosive diaper. At this point I threw my hands up in the air and said "bath time". One thing about me (on a side note) is I am a MAJOR germaphobe. I hate all things germy and especially the fluid exploding types.



At this point I'm carrying my baby away from my body dry heaving the entire way to the bathroom praying that none of it touches me lol. I tossed my little girl into the bath and got her nice and clean and then laid her down in her playpen. She continued throwing up for about 2 hours after that. When the throwing up subsided enough for us to catch some Z's I crashed hard. I had intended to throw Nati her 3rd birthday party this weekend but now it looks like it will be a private family function.



Now Natilee is feeling great and after yet another two days of dealing with Breyauna puking I can officially say I do not intend on having any more pukey children for at least the rest of the year. I have my puke stripes now and it's only fair that for the remainder of this year they stay healthy. Well now that I have finished this update it's time to do my weekend update :D.

Improvements and progress

So my last post was basically a vent about my life in general as a mother and wife. I must say over the past few weeks my life has improved quite a bit. I'll start with my marriage.

My husband Shaunn has always been a fairly selfish person. Recently however, he has really stepped up to the plate and been the husband I have wanted all my life. It's as if a magical light switch has flipped in his head and he gets it now. I started going to my mother's house to help her out on the weekends since my step dad is over seas and can't help her with the many daunting tasks she has on her 1/2 acre of land. I spend one or two nights at her house and return home on Sunday. This all started as a way to help her out and spend time with her and some how transformed into an amazing cure for our bland marriage. When I come home on Sunday there is this sort of renewed appreciation that him and I have for one another. We are happy to help each other out, happy to spend time together, and we remember why we are together in the first place.

I have no bitter feelings towards him at all any more. Two weeks ago I had so much resentment towards him for reasons I can't even explain and now all of that is gone. Every marriage is different and I can appreciate that spending time away from your spouse may not be good for you but for us this works. I think the longer you are with a person the harder it becomes to find new things to talk about, new ways to "spice" up your love life, and to appreciate what they bring to your family unit.

I can tell you with a shadow of a doubt that I am a lucky girl. My husband, despite his sometimes selfish behavior, is a very hard working man. He supports this family alone and ensures that we have the best life we possibly can under one persons salary. He is my crutch when I can't walk and my best friend for life.

My new project for this week is to find one thing everyday that I love about him and in some way without making it totally obvious, let him know what that is. I want him to know everyday how much I appreciate all he does for our family. I challenge other's to fight for what you have in your marriage. Something drew you to the person you are with and the day to day drag sometimes fogs up that reason. Divorce is not a word I use lightly. Divorce is a last resort and she be treated as such. Fight to find that common ground. Fight to find a way to make the pieces fit again. God bless and goodnight.
-Lainy