a pinterest project...

I have had this HIDEOUS brown picture for awhile. 

I have tried a couple of times to turn it into something else tolerable.

I have failed every time.

Today I tried a pinterest project on it.

I forgot to take pictures every step of the way, but basically I painted over the ugly brown thing. Then put the love never fails stickers on it. Then painted again, pulled the stickers off and.. here is how it turned out

There is a good chance that this will be in the trash before Kyle gets home... unless it grows on me.

mornings

When the alarm goes off at 4am I really struggle to get out of bed. 

However, I am always thankful that I do.

I love the quiet of mornings.

I get Kyle ready for work and out the door by 5am, and then it's my time. 

I make some oatmeal, grab my Bible and devotional and of course a cup of coffee.

Then I sit on my porch, read and watch the sunrise. 

There is nothing quite like reading your Bible as the sun comes up.

red table project

Kyle and I are in that stage of life where our furniture is a bit.. hodge podge. Most of our furniture has been given to us, and while we are thankful, we have also been on a mission to make it all flow a little better. Strangely enough red seems to be the theme of our apartment. Neither Kyle or I thought of ourselves as big red fans, and yet we get more of it all the time. 

Our newest project was to turn a table that was painted brown into something that tied the room together a bit better. Neither of us is quite sure what we think of it yet, but I'm pretty sure it'll grow on me. If not I'll be blogging about the re-do.

this, next to a light bookshelf, next to a black lamp didn't really "flow"

the real Valentines date

Saturday came so quickly, it was a pretty busy week for us. We decided to sleep in and enjoy a relaxing morning. 

Then we started our date. First we went to Peterson's. It's a bakery in Escondido that has really good donuts and coffee. 

The donut was HUGE, we could only eat half of it at a time. 

Then Kyle took me to Coronado. We rented bikes and went all around the island. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was such a fun time together. 

these little ducks were following us for a bit. We decided they were like Kyle and I. Tall and white, short and brown

aren't they cute!

I've always wanted to go to the Hotel del, I don't really know why, just always have. We finally got to. I forgot to take a picture of it! 

Then we went to dinner at Peohe's. It was the perfect end to the date. 

 

Valentines.... week?

It seems like everyone this year is saying "I'm not much of a Valentines Day person, but..." Well that's just not me. I'm a Valentine's Day person. Ever since I was little my grandma would come over while my sisters and I were doing school (getting tutored upstairs) and she would decorate our dining room with Valentine's Day decorations. On our break we'd run down and then we'd make these amazing lemon sugar cookies and frost them.

My grandma is an amazing cook and probably an even better baker. She would decorate the cookies to look like candy hearts and make my sisters and I our own "candy heart" cookie. 

Grandma had us celebrating EVERY holiday.

I have had Kyle to share it with the last 3 years, and while I don't care if we do something big or not, I enjoy the excuse to just love on each other. 

This has been Valentine's Week for us. Not really on purpose, it's just happened. 

Monday I made him a yummy dinner

 and then we went to see the Vow. I read the true story that inspired the movie, very sweet. Kyle was skeptical, but we really enjoyed our date night.

Tuesday we did a Valentine's Day dinner with our small group. We had a ton of fun! Our small group leaders daughter just got engaged, she came home from her date with her fiance and you know she had to be wondering why a group of young married people were all together on Valentines' Day instead of on romantic private dates... Well we were all celebrating on a different day (Tuesday is a work day!) We're so mature and practical now ;-) 

picture stolen right off our small group leaders facebook page. I forgot to take one

This morning I woke up with Kyle, and sometime between us getting home late and waking up at 4:00am he put roses and a really sweet card on the table for me to wake up to

Saturday is our "real" Valentine's Day celebration. I have such a wonderful husband that is so fun to love! I am thankful for him daily

A little Valentines Day Baking

Baking seemed to be the theme of my day. We were out of bread, and Kyle definitely need some sandwiches for lunch so I baked two loaves of honey wheat bread. Then, I needed to bake some dessert for a Valentines Day dinner our small group is doing tonight.  Bring on the Sugar Cookies and Blackberry Pie!

I hope everything tastes alright... If not at least I had some fun baking while listening to music. (one of my favorite things)

still hot..mmmm

Blackberry pie is one of Kyle's favorites

sugar cookies are a Valentines Day family tradition

our "thing"

We finally did it. Kyle and I had a completely schedule free weekend! It was a blast. We didn't do much, which was kind of the point. We did sort of celebrate 3 years since the day he asked me out. (He's really good at remembering dates like that)

The next couple of weekends are already filled up so it was nice to have this little breather to just enjoy one another. 

Someone asked me on Sunday what Kyle and I like to do together, if we have a "thing". I was kind of stumped at first. We enjoy doing everything together. We like to hike, camp, climb, (anything outdoors really) watch movies, play catch, work on projects around the house, read together, etc., but we don't really have a "thing".

I asked Kyle the same question that had been asked me. He was quiet and then said, " honestly I like doing everything with you, we don't have a thing I guess, it's more like everything is the stuff we enjoy together. I just like being on your team."

I guess that's not super romantic sounding, especially with Valentines Day tomorrow, but I think it's perfect.

P.s. I keep on getting random texts from him saying things he enjoys doing with me, just so I don't think he finds us boring..as if life with Kyle could be boring

Reading

I was doing my daily reading today, and couldn't get past 1 Timothy 2:9-15.

"Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, ¹⁰ but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. ¹¹ A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. ¹² But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. ¹³ For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. ¹⁴ And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. ¹⁵ But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint."

John MacArthur's commentary on verse 10 is this: Those women who have publicly committed themselves to pursuing godliness should support that claim not only in their demeanor, wardrobe, and appearance, but by being clothed with righteous behavior. 

I pray this is the woman the Lord grows me into!

On a different note, I am going to recommend two books. The first one is Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Kyle finished it last night and now it's my turn to read. I've barely gotten into it, but so far it's wonderful and listening to the bits that Kyle read to me I highly recommend it. It's a World War 2 Survival story. 

The second book is The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. It's such a popular book I'm sure most of you have already read it, but I wanted to re-read it before the movie came out. Tolkien is an amazing writer! It was worth the second read.