Thursday I turned 33!  I don’t seem any worse off today as I did on Wednesday when I was still 32 so I guess it isn’t all that bad! :o) It was a wonderful birthday celebration.

• Thursday we had pizza at my Mom and Dad’s.

• Friday was Girls Night Out and we went to Nagoya Japanese Steakhouse.  It was AWESOME!!! Thanks to Chell, Manda, Alice and Chasta for celebrating my birthday with with me!

Our Chef

My meal…so AMAZING!

The birthday special…picture with the chef after he he sang Happy Birthday to me while banging the gong…lol!

Another group shot taken at Fat Fish Blue

• Saturday evening Josh and I celebrated with dinner at Carrabba’s, an Italian Grill in Toledo.  We had another fabulous meal!

• Sunday I had a family birthday party at my parents house. Complete with Ice cream cake from DQ.

I am so spoiled by this week-ends great food that eating my own cooking is just not going to be as fun! LOL!  One thing I have learned for sure in my 33 years is that I have the BEST family and friends a person could ever ask for!!!

While watching the news the other day Josh and I saw a clip piece on the big news stories from that last decade.  9-11, Katrina, and Obama topped the list of life changing events.  With tears in my eyes I asked Josh where 10 years had gone.   The last decade was a big one for Josh and I.  Our lives are not even remotely where they were in 1999!  Our biggest fear were computers crashing and the power going out when the clock struck midnight.  Little did we know!!!

Ten years ago we had been married for 3 years, Caleb wasn’t even a year old and I had all of my grandparents.  The last 10 years have held so many heart breaks for me.  In this past decade I lost my 2 grandpas and my Mamaw.  I lost my triplets to miscarriage, we lost Josh’s grandma, our first house and Josh had open heart surgery, just to name a few!

But amongst the lost we have had wonderful, great, awesome, life changing events too.  The birth of Brayden and Andrew.  The revile of God answering our prayers in our time of need.  Josh recovering  from his heart surgery in record time and doing better then we ever expected!  The addition of so many wonderful  people in our lives, like Margie and Beth.  And the reconnection with Manda, has been such a blessing!

We are nowhere close to where we were 10 years ago, but we are so much stronger in self and in faith then where we were a decade ago.  And I can’t wait to see what this next decade and God has in store for us.

Happy 2010!!!

Yesterday, Today and Forever!!!

Our 12 year wedding anniversary is in 3 days!!!

CONTEST CLOSED

WINNER ANNOUNCED SOON!

Love is in the air!!!

With Valentine’s Day just a few weeks away, I started thinking about Josh and I and our past Valentine’s Days.  We have a LONG history together.  And have spent a lot of Valentine’s together.  As a matter of fact on the 28th of April this year I will have been with him half of my life.  I had turned 16 the month before and it has now been sixteen years.  I couldn’t think of a better way to live half of my life!  I am so blessed to have Josh in my life!!!

With all of these years together you can imagine that we have lots of pictures of us together as well.  One of my favorites is the first one that was taken of us as a couple…16 years ago!

Now I thought it would be fun to have a Carnival and have you post your “dating” pictures.  Do you have one from the first date or one that was taken shortly after?  What about Valentine’s Day date pictures.  Do you have one that holds a wonderful memory of you and your honey?  Share a story about a fun Valentine’s day or tell us why you love you hubby!  It’s all about young love!

One lucky blogger will  receive a $50 Tiny prints gift certificate!!!  How cool is that?

Tiny Prints are now offering Valentine’s Day Cards,  Valentine’s Day Party Invitations and Valentine’s Photo Cards.

Step ONE

• Just click on one of the links above and find your favorite card.  Add it to your favorites list by clicking on  “Save to Favorites” from the link with a heart graphic directly under “personalize.”  You will have to register at this point.

• Then come back here and leave a comment with what and why you  selected that particular card.

You MUST follow STEP ONE above to be entered. The winner will be selected randomly from those that saved the card as a “Favorite” on Tiny Prints and commented on this post.

For extra entries:

• (for 2 extra entries) Go ahead and post your pictures and stories to your blog.  Come back here and link up to Mr. Linky then add a comment telling me that you joined in the Valentines Day fun.

• Add this contest to Twitter.  Come back and leave me your screen name in a comment.

• Add my button to my sidebar.  The code can be found in my left sidebar.  Then come and leave a comment with a link to your blog.

There you have it, FIVE chances to win the awesome prize from Tiny Prints.

The fine print…

•       Winner responsible for the full purchase price of any
items that fall outside of contest winnings.
•       Contest to run from January 20th through the 30th 2009.
•       Open to contestants worldwide.

Be sure to check out my other giveaway a $25.00 CG for Families with Purpose!

Thanks…

for opportunity for this giveaway.

For more great giveaways check out Bloggy Giveaways

There are going to be over a thousand giveaways linked up this week!!!

Today is Josh’s birthday!  I don’t spend a lot of time talking about my wonderful husband on my blog.  I should spend more time doing so!!!

Josh and I met my freshmen year.  I was only 14!  He was in the 10th grade.  I walked into my science class and there he was.  I thought to myself “I hope I can sit by him.”   The whole love at first site thing, yeah I believe in it, I knew that he was someone special.   I can’t really tell you what “it” was, it just was!  Well, we did sit beside each other that year.  We wrote notes back and forth, we were lab partners, he kissed my finger when I burnt it on the Bunsen burner,  I talked about my boyfriends and he hugged me when one broke my heart, we got in trouble for talking to much, and we really got in trouble from his then girlfriend.  Oops!!!  HAHAHA!!! I found out later that Josh had told his Grandma that he had met a girl at school that he wanted to date.  :)  But with my strict parents I couldn’t date until I was 16.  He told her that he would wait.

My 10th grade year Josh went to the vocational school, but we still didn’t lose touch.  His girlfriend and him broke up and he quickly started calling me more.  He wanted to date me, I told him no.  I broke his heart and I still feel bad about that.  But this was not a line, I swear, I didn’t want to ruin our friendship.  I valued our friendship.  I loved having him as a friend.

The next few months kind of run together but Josh and I did end up dating.  Our first date was April 28th.  I will never forget our first kiss, those soft lips that had kissed my finger in science class were even softer on my lips.  I will never forget the first time Josh told me that he loved me, it was worth getting “caught” by my dad, kissing him.

Lots of water passed under that bridge of ours; lots of wrongs on both our sides.  But our love, that love at first sight, has always held us together.  That love at first sight was God leading us together.  The story of us continues on from those first few moments of love at first sight.  Together Josh and I have grown in our love.  We have had lots of firsts:  our first apartment, our first Christmas, our first home, our first, second and third children.  We have had lots of heartache.  The loss my three grandparents, his grandma, our miscarriage, the year we spent on the string because of his job.  We have had lots of happy times, oh so many, to many to list.  I look forward to the future and spending it growing old with Josh.  Watching our boys grow in to men, seeing our grandchildren, walking beside him holding his hand though it all.

Josh is the best husband and father I could ever dream of and to this day he is still my best friend!  That love at first site thing… it is still working pretty good for me, 16 years later.

Happy Birthday baby, I love you with all of my heart and SOLE!

…in a galaxy FAR FAR away!!!

…we started living our happily ever after!

So they are no longer two, but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.  Matthew 19:6

Thank you Josh for 11 wonderful years!!!

After last weeks Throwback Thursday, I am going to have to take a brake for the sad “missing my grandparents” pictures. I cried a lot while getting the post around and reading your wonderful comments about my Mamaw and Papaw. Check back next week for some neat pictures of my maternal grandparents, and you can “meet” my Grandma Smith with whom I am lucking enough to still have in my life.

But this week I am going to Throwback to Josh and I as awkward pre-teens.

Do any of your remember the plastic charm necklaces? I have one on in the picture. I loved mine. I had tons of little plastic charms, some with bells, and googly eyes. And my bracelet was one of those tubes filled with water and glitter. I always played with mine until it busted open and spilled everywhere. The coolest in costume jewelry.

And how can one not dig Josh’s glasses…lol!!!

For more Throwback Thursday fun check out Pinks and Blues blog.