Family....lots of pics of Hunter & Raymond!!

My parents really are the best. They are just such givers. I really had such a great childhood - I remember Brandon's first time coming into our world when he came to visit my home during Christmas break 2001 and he couldn't believe it haha. He was like I either just stepped into a fairy tale or the 21st century brady bunch haha he says he didn't know families like us still existed haha. I have just been so blessed and I know I don't deserve it, but I sure do appreciate it.

One of the things my parents do for us every year is take everybody on a family vacation! Even before Roxie, my sister, and I were married the boyfriends were invited (or girlfriend if we're talking about my brother). And now that we are married with families of our own - everybody is still invited and my parents pay for almost everything. One of my life goals is to take everybody on a family vacation and WE pay for everything! I will be soo happy when we can treat mom and dad to a huge vacation!

They have taken us to St Martin twice, Disney World twice, a cruise to Bermuda, South Carolina, North Carolina (obviously), Virginia, Washington DC, Massachusetts, all the shore places on the Jersey coast and our most special family vacation spot - Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. I don't even know how many times we've been there. The family has been going since before I was born. During the high school and college years - we skipped Rehoboth and went to some of those other places - but this past summer we went back and it was sooo great! We got a house right on the beach big enough for all of us and just had an absolute ball. We already booked the same house again for Raymond's birthday week 2008! We are all beach bums of course so that's awesome - but also we love all the other things Rehoboth offers like the nice long boardwalk to jog, walk with the strollers, ride bikes, pull wagons on etc. There is a funland place with lots of games & rides and the boys loved that -- and so do we! see pictures below! haha

The years have been so good to my family relationships - there has been so much healing over past hurts/miscommunications that were just results of those awkward low self esteem yet selfish adolescent years. I have a dream of living close to them again. The cousins already love each other so much - and they remember each other even though they only see each other every 4 - 6 months. We send letters back and forth, talk on the phone and even do the video web conferencing so they can see each other! I want the cousins to all be close. I believe I missed out on not having any real close cousins - I want to make sure to do what I can to give Raymond that opportunity.

You should see the crowds we draw when we're all together because all 3 boys are so close in age! and about the same size now and they all look alike - so we get so many questions - are they triplets? Whose are they? How old are they each? Especially when we dress them alike!

I am so thankful that things happened the way they did - so the boys will be close in age and can play with each other and grow up being best buddies. They are each so different - it's so intriguing to me to see how different they all were right from the start. I look forward to watching their personalities grow and find out what things they each choose to do with their talents!!

Our physical being --- and more thoughts on hubby too! :)

On my post below about "my hubby" I did add in an extra quality after I posted --- and that was my physical attraction to Brandon. And just so you know --- he has a lot of other qualities that are great, that I just didn't list haha. Just because I didn't list them, doesn't mean he doesn't have them.

I want to mention that I really think it's important to take care of all parts of ourselves - for ourselves but also for our spouse. This includes the physical - physical attraction to our spouse is a blessing from God - and I want Brandon to always be attracted to me!

There are so many other reasons to take care of our bodies too though --- it all boils down to the fact that once we have our new spirit within us (ezek 36:26).... God should be the control in all areas of our life, including physical.

"Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, a temple, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body" (I Corinthians 6:19-20 MSG)

So I am thankful that I have a hubby that never has "let it body go"... he's also lucky to have a wonderful metabolism, I don't think he could be 'fat' if he tried haha. I love that he's in shape, loves sports, loves being adventurous, and loves activity! I don't enjoy being (and definitely was not meant to be) a Mrs. Couch Potato - so Brandon was another great fit for me in this area!


He has always been in shape to dance and dance the whole night! haha:

By the way, another quality I LOVE so much about Brandon is how much he loves my family. That was very important to me. I love the relationship he has with my mom and dad, and siblings!! This is Brandon and my mom - aren't they both beautiful!!?!

Another quality I loved about B was this group of guys right here. Brandon has had this group of guy friends forever - and I love their love for one another. I know that I can count on them. They really are like brothers. A lot of them are closer to Brandon than his real blood brothers.

When I was going through the pictures the other day - I found this and was just cracking up - here is Brandon as valedictorian (which I can't spell I guess) of his preschool class! HAHAHHA I think he was just the cutest little thing (next to Raymond)

Again - I love how much my parents love Brandon and how much he loves them.

"Mr B" getting ready to bat in college - sports will always be such an important part of our lives. We both miss playing competitively - but look forward to being in sports again - but in different roles this time (coaching and cheering for Raymond!)
This is one of my favorite pictures of Brandon - my hottie! haha :) This is 2004 I think or maybe late 2003. I loved this goatie (how do you spell that?) but now that he's in the corporate world - no more facial hair.

I love u Mr B. and I recognize all your wonderful qualities - including physical appearance. I know it's never been a priority to us - but I am thankful that God has blessed us with physical attraction to each other and the desire to want to take care of our physical selves! Love you lots

Time to go read books with Raymond! Reminder to self: I want to do another post on sports and how important they have been to us

childlike love

Along with pictures of Brandon & I that I have been organizing, I've also been finding a lot of Raymond I didn't know I had.... look at this one I found from August 2007 when we visited the family in New Jersey!

That is Tucker, Roxie's doggie and Raymond meeting and having a conversation. It's amazing to me the love Raymond has for anybody and everybody! He is not scared of anybody or anydog haha.

We should all be more like Raymond, who loves EVERYBODY no matter the color of their skin, no matter what they look like! or even what species they are haha. This childlike love is a great example of the love I believe Jesus wants us to have. God looks at the heart, not what is on the outside, and I believe children are the same.... I hope the same can be said of me.

an addition to my last post!

At work tonight, I kept thinking about my previous post. I wanted to be clear that just because I didn't like the qualities of people in my past and those qualities made me respond to their advances with an "I like you but let's be friends" --- it doesn't mean they are necessarily bad qualities or bad people! We ALL have weaknesses, Brandon included (!) but I believe in looking for a spouse we have a predetermined set of qualities we do / do not want! So those qualities were just the ones that came to the my head right away of qualities he had that I loved and didn't have that I was glad he didn't!

But the same qualities that I don't like, a different woman might LOVE and seek and they might be perfect for her!!! Or qualities that I REALLY don't want in a husband, another girl could really not care about at all!



Isn't that awesome to think about? That each marriage was uniquely designed by God - and we fit together just like 3 pieces in a puzzle. The reason I said 'no' to people in the past was because there was something about their piece that just didn't fit right. That's such a cool visual. The person whose puzzle just didn't fit with me, is probably an AWESOME person and his qualities will be PERFECT for his spouse ---- but they just aren't right for anybody else except the one God designed them for!!! I love that!!

I wish you all a wonderful day! and I hope your 2008 started off GREAT! :)

My hubby and thoughts on my past

I have been thinking about my hubby, Mr B, as I like to call him sometimes haha, a lot recently. Probably because I have finally finished organizing ALL my photos and it was nice to reflect back on the past 6 1/2 years thorugh photos. Brandon and I have grown soo much in the past years. We make each other better. I can't imagine life without him. I think about him a lot throughout each and every day, and have for the past 6 1/2 years....but the thankfulness I feel to have found him grows every month. I can't believe we have known each other 6 1/2 years. I can't believe I lived my life without him for the first 18 years!! But I know that if we had met any earlier than we did, our relationship would have never worked. I was not ready for him and vice versa. God's timing is always perfect. This thought on timing and preparation got me to thinking about my past relationships...I'll go there in a second.

I think a lot about how delicate of a thread our relationship SEEMS to have been in the beginning. It seems looking back, like we almost could have missed meeting each other! What if I had not said yes to Ashley to go to that party with her. I almost didn't go. What if Brandon had not made the choose to go out that night and instead stayed in because he had to work late and had family visiting. I know that God would have let our paths cross a different way - but I'm so glad we made it easy for Him! haha It's just cool to think about how little the decisions seemed at the time - but they would end up being life changing decisions with eternal consequences!!!! It's always the little decisions that bring HUGE rewards!

Which brings me to "little" decisions I made for 4+ years before Brandon that were HARD but were the RIGHT decision! Looking back, all I can say sometimes is I am soooo thankful for unanswered prayers! A million times over I can't thank God enough for giving me the strength to say no to other advances in my past from people who I loved loved loved as soul mate friends, but didn't want to start a romantic relationship with. I have to say that numerous times, I almost gave in and gave my heart away to somebody I knew deep down wasn't for me. I was soo sick of everybody around me, his family, my family, mutual friends, saying, just give him a chance.... that I almost just said FINE... and that would have been an awful and potentially life changing decision in a negative way!! Thank you God for not answering the prayers of those that prayed for something that really wasn't good for them! I imagine it must have been so hard sometimes for God to see a boy who loves Him with all His heart, hurting so....but God knew what was best for Him, and I have found out that He has been rewarded tremendously and has been blessed with what he was being prepared for! I hope he also can look back and see God's hand in his life and not feel pain.

I hate that I hurt this person, but I am so thankful to this day I didn't give in to that temptation. I was not ready for the deep mature love this person was offering - and I am soo thankful I didn't say yes to it. Do I wish now that I had understood that love and appreciated it? YES it would have helped my spiritual growth and kept me out of trouble, and helped allieve the esteem & adolescent issues I was going through. But see - those are all selfish reasons!!! Still today, I can say that even if I had appreciated his love, we were not meant to be together, because the only reason I would have ever said yes was for ME.... I didn't love HIM, I loved how much he loved me, that's it!!! Sometimes I used to wish that I could have loved him like he loved me...but NOW I am so thankful I didn't!!! It was hard to constantly have to say "no" to somebody and hear from all their friends and family how mean I was, and how I was such a heartbreaker or had no heart at all, how I loved to hurt people. Sometimes we think the only person hurting is the one getting the rejection - but it's not true. So my point about all that was that the past is gone and I am thankful for that!!! Isn't it awesome to look back at your story and see God's hand. I am soo thankful God gave me the strength to leave my hometown and find myself.

And the week I came down to school, I met Brandon. God's plan and timing is always perfect. I get chills when I think about how much things have just 'fallen' in place.... all orchestrated by God the past 7 years. With Brandon's peaceful, patient, calm, non judging personality - I was given the room to grow, make mistakes and find myself with him by my side the entire time. We are perfect for each other.

There are some reasons that I said NO right away to all my previous advances from guys --- and when I noticed that brandon didn't have any of these negative qualities...that is when my love for him really started to grow. (ex: He never "tried too hard" to win me if you know what I mean.....He is incapable of talking bad about others.... He is non judgemental in a way that is remarkable to me. I remember growing up in the church, when I was a baby christian and (didn't know any better) I really formed my reputation of the church from the 'friends' around me who were more mature in their christian walk than me, one being this guy who liked me so much-- I would get so upset when I would hear them judging others. Or saying things like, "they are no good" or "they'll always be like that"....that was so weird to me. I used to think, is that what christianity teaches this person? I am glad that I grew up and stopped looking to others on how to live a godly life.)

I could go on and on about qualities that others had that automatically made me want to say NO to them but Brandon had none of these. I can't say that right when I saw him, I knew he was 'the one'. I didn't even think we would have a long term relationship at first, but as we spent more and more time together and I found out about him - I knew he was the one I had been waiting for. He was the one God had been preparing me for. All of my NO's finally lead me to this perfect YES!!!

I have never and I believe I will never meet a man that can even be in the same ring as Brandon for me. He is a Man's man which is hard to find. His personality is the hardest to find in population statistically - and then on top of that his experiences and wisdom and love for the Lord makes him literally 1 in a gazillion.

Some qualities that he DID have that none of my other guy friends/relationships had are:

a) he's a dreamer! He is a man with a huge vision. I wasn't happy 'settling' for a hometown guy and a very predictable boring life. I didn't want our life to be filled with the mundane. A marriage where the biggest decision of the week is where to go out to eat on Saturday or what movie to rent on Friday is not for me. Brandon is a man who I will be happy to follow for the rest of my life. He's a leader and attracts people to him. I am honored to be at his side. God has huge plans for our future!!


b) He has guts!!! He stands up for what he believes in and he's a fighter! It still bewilders me how he can always be so non threatening to others and so peaceful - but yet he never lets anybody step all over him! He has a personality that is humble and none offensive so people listen and respect when he finally does say something --- but before you know it - he has stepped all over your shoes and beat you upside the head - but you walk away not even knowing it haha. He steps all over your toes, but never scuffs your shoes as somebody once told me haha. I always wanted a man who I knew could protect me - and unforunately I have witnessed Brandon's pre-saved days so I know that he could protect me physically...but more than that, he can protect me in all areas. I didn't want to run the show, I wanted to be a godly wife and let the man be the leader, so I am happy to say I found somebody who knows how to calm me down and run the roost haha.

c) he is so slow to anger and always thinks before he speaks.

d) he's a good dancer and knows how to have fun! I wanted somebody who I could have fun with!! We love to dance, go snowboarding, water skiing, jet skiing, everything. He is adventurous with no fear and I LOVE it! :)

e) he is social. Brandon is soft spoken but NOT anywhere near shy. He has so much confidence and is the center of any dance party, but you would never know that about him haha. I wanted somebody who loved people like me not a homebody! To bring others to Christ, I believe we have to be social - and we have to love people and we have to know how to have fun!!!!

My brother in law (sister's husband) at our wedding said..... we loved Brandon right away because no other guy has done for her what he does. The changes we have seen are incredible. She is at peace around him, she's calm, she is maturing. He is the only person we've seen that helped her appreciate stillness & quiet. And it's true! Just "being" is one of my favorite things now! I LOVE silences now - but before they would drive me pretty crazy haha

f) he's hot! haha obviously physical attraction is not a top priority to us, we look so much deeper than that, I have rarely mentioned Brandon's physical blessings at all in all the blogs I have written about him ....but let's be serious - physical attraction is a necessity in a marriage and we have been blessed with having that for each other...something I didn't have for any of the 'other' guys haha. I won't go any further than that haha

oh wow --- I have been typing for quite a while and didn't even get off my heart 1/2 of what I wanted to say. There are 3 more qualities I want to write about that Brandon has that others never did....but I don't have time!

Raymond's going to be getting up from his nap soon - so I just want to end with the fact that I love my Brandon, with all my heart and soul and I am so thankful that God never allowed me to love anybody else. I love our life and our relationship. I am happy to say I live my life with no regrets - because there is no room for that in a heart that Loves the Lord!! My wise ole owl (another nickname for Brandon) and I are going to be used this year and we are going to help others become fully devoted to Jesus Christ!! We are a perfect team. I believe God's decision to put us together will positively affect the live of many others! I am soo happy that God always controls everything and that He always does what is right for us in the LONG term even if it hurts temporarily!!!! That is true love!! :)

Christmas gifts

I have been meaning to do a post about some of the Christmas presents we all received, but keep forgetting! I only have time to talk about a couple for now, and will add another post later.

This wood wall hanging is one of the gifts from Brandon to me. I was so excited when I opened it - I can't believe he remembered me saying I wanted a plaque like this, I haven't mentioned it in forever! What a thoughtful hubby! He really does give such great gifts! We hope that this plaque absolutely can be a true statement for our house in 2008. We love the Lord and want to continue to get closer to Him. We want Him to be the priority of our household and where we get our purpose and meaning.

The other really special gift Brandon gave me which I can't really take a picture of - is ballroom dance lessons for us for 6 weeks!!! Isn't that an awesome gift!!?? He is a really great dancer - and I enjoy dancing a lot - so we are soo excited for this. It is going to be a great date night once a week for us! I know we're going to wish we did this BEFORE all the weddings we attended in the past 2 years haha but that's okay! :)

Life is good, God is great - I am so extremely blessed. Blessed with tangible gifts but so much more so with the intangibles! :)

love you all

January 1st

We started the new year HAPPY! We love playing as a family. Brandon and I are so much like children in how we love to play games and such so we all have a lot of fun together. We love to dance together, and chase and just be silly! It's supposed to get real cold (40's during the day 20's at night which is real cold for us) so we wanted to get outside today -- So we went to the park down the road.

I was totally cracking up in this pic because I was trying to get up this tunnel and kept slipping. I wasn't wearing the best outfit for playing and running and crawling and ducking and chasing! haha At the park we actually met a nice mom and her daughter who were originally from New Jersey like me! There are a lot of young couples and families here - and a ton from up north. Our undiscovered treasure of a town is being found by all!

God has blessed our day and I hope He has yours too.

I know this isn't the best pic of us - but that's okay - the pic cracks us up! :) My smile with my big puffy pink coat taking up the whole tunnel haha and Raymond's face saying, "daddy why is she laughing so hard" - is too much hahaha.

2008 is here!

Well HELLO 2008!! I am happy you are here. I believe this year will be a year full of blessings and dreams come true for our family! We had a great night together again last night - and we look forward to another day together all 3 (plus Lennox is 4) of us! Raymond is already down for a nap - he is teething again (he has like 15 teeth now!) so was drooling everywhere so we are letting him rest!

To tell you the truth, we weren't even awake to watch the ball drop at midnight! I'll keep this G rated, but as soon as Raymond went to bed, so did we and loved it! :) I hope you all had a great new years celebration together!!!

I LOVE how organized I feel right now. The past month I have been working on many different projects around the house. I have thrown out boxes and boxes of old school work and old letters (which I have no idea why I kept), random papers, clothes, soo much. Just like I have been purging in a lot of other areas in my life, I have felt the need to purge so much of the 'stuff' around us and it has felt great to just get rid of the junk and start fresh! :) I also rearranged our room - I always wanted to have our BIG window showing without the bed in front of it - but because we had a huge bookshelf in the room, we couldn't rearrange it the way we wanted it. SOOO I got rid of the bookshelf - Brandon promised in our next home in the guest room or the 4th bedroom/FROG I can display ALL my books and have a little library - so for now all my books are packed up and away in boxes! :) Here is how the bedroom looks now.

I'll take some better pics soon - I just took this one quick to send to my mama! We still have a lot of things we want to do in there, but at least having things put away and organized is a great start! We got a cute little new file cabinet that works as a nightstand - so combined all our papers that were in separate bins to ONE place which is awesome. I wish I took the picture from the door of the room, to show the height of the ceilings which I love and also how big the room is compared to our old one - but instead I took it from basically the center of the room. There's a hallway behind me that has the closet and then to the right is our master bath. We have been totally blessed this past year. Even through our struggles, family members leaving us to go to heaven and other lows, we have learned from all of them and have grown stronger and closer to the Lord. We have been blessed this year without a doubt - in so many areas, financially, spiritually, physically, in our relationships. God has been so great to us and we look forward to an ever greater 2008!

God bless you all! HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)

My next blog: pictures of some of our Christmas presents and also gifts that mom brought down for me to have, that she found while cleaning out grandma's house.