10

"With you is my very favorite place to be" is what the card on my desk read along with a dozen red roses.

Today marks 10 years of marital bliss for T and I. Today, that word bliss-(Noun) meaning: 1. great joy or happiness 2. spiritual joy; heavenly rapture..... has a lot more meaning than it used to.

Our marriage didn't start out like those Cinderella stories as most do. I was 18 and he was 20. Our wedding day didn't start out in the beautiful church decorated romantically with roses and candles, with a guest list bigger than Texas.... Nope, ours was in my parents trailer home, a justice of the peace man I never met before with just a handful of relatives. I was about 35 pounds over weight, my parents were getting a divorce, I was marrying a man with two children, we were broke and both very very broken -hurting individuals. (sounds like a redneck hillbilly mess to me!)

Lets rem anise a bit shall we?

-T and I met through my mom (of all people) See, she had this addiction with Mexican food ...but not just any Mexican food...it had to come from El Chico's. Anytime we were to go eat out as a family, it was El Chico's, NEVER any where else. All the waiters knew her by name! RIDICULOUS!

One Friday night at the mall, my two cousin and I ( all single) decided to go eat dinner. To my extreme teenager happiness, we had a pretty hot waiter. We ordered, made small talk with him and talked about how hot he was while not present at the table. I must have ate about 5 bowls of chips and salsa and about 20 glasses of water so I and HAD to go to the pee! With great surprise, as I returned to the table.... I had to face horrible embarrassment!!! My cousins, (sneaky craps) had asked him for his phone # while I was away. BUT wait..it gets better. He was not "available", nope not at all. He was actually engaged to be married and his name was Jimmy- Yes Jimmy! Try finishing your dinner with knowing the humiliation that comes with that!

So...with that being said...and as I was saying earlier my mom loved El chico. One special, but normal weekend night she, my grandmother and one of 'the' cousin's decide to go eat. Well golly be dolly guess who was their waiter?! Uhmm uh, yeah you guessed it. So convenient!!! In light conversation, my cousin decides that it would be so "funny" to bring up me again. (I still to this day feel that was total payback!) They all laughed at the "funny" little story (you know the one where they asked for his # and he wasn't "available" while sipping on margaritas and eating about 10 pounds of chips and salsa! This is where it all began for T and me. How so you may ask?

Jimmy mentioned he had a brother that was single that night...........

'the' cousin in her head thinking: " uhmmm, well if he looks anything like you, I want to meet this guy"

....Waiter Jimmy- brings over more chips AND his brother who just SO happened to also be a waiter at El Chico's!!!!!

Waiter Jimmy: "Hey guys, this is Timmy, my TWIN brother"
Timmy: Hi, here is my # (while scribbling on paper).....tell her I'm available"

..... sooooo tickled pink and ecstatic..... they come home with this piece of napkin with his # on it insisting I call him.....and well the rest IS this 10 years that we have made.

God was not in our life in the beginning. He was there, but we were not faithful or living our life Christ like. We have been through a lot of really bad and terrible hardships. We brought our past hurts into it. Tiffany was in a horrible accident and almost lost her life at 18 mths old. Timmy's brother was killed 5 months later, he was in his 20's. We Spent 9 months fighting the court system/state for custody our oldest girls. Timmy had an addiction alcohol and I had an addiction to controlling everything. We had our beautiful son Ethan, then two years later the 7 year "itch" made it to our door step. By that time there was a lot of hate, bitterness and resentment, and un-forgiveness that was deeply bedded in our hearts. We separated for 3 months which brought enough craziness to our "home' and family to put us in a nut house. There were always people with opinions about could'of -should'of- would'of's ....but there was also people praying for us even when they didn't even think "humanly" possible it would work out. But God had other plans and His works in motion.

By His grace, love, and faithfulness, we were able to salvage our marriage ( and 9 months later we had Chloe Grace aka Woo)

God gave us hope. He helped us to break addictions, forgive, appreciate what we had, learn to love and be loved, and gave us healing. God's son, Jesus was offered to us so that all those chains could be broken. So we could be set free. So that Timmy could be saved, so that I could recommit my life to God and to Timmy as his wife, and so that our future on this earth would bring Glory to His name for what He has done and continues to do for us.

10 years is a long time but 13 is even longer. I'm thankful that everyday, whether I felt it or not was a blessing and that God never left us. I love you T. Not sure how or why you put up with me like you have and do, but God is love, so I guess that's a good enough explanation for me

<3 Happy Anniversary

WIN A PRIZE RIGHT HERE!

As you know, (or you may not)....let me just fill you in. I'm a BUSY mother of four and wife to one! One of the MANY things in life that enjoy is using one of my small "gifts" that the good Lord gave me.

*What's that you might ask!?....I love doing artsy fartsy creative things! If you have not seen some of my work, well sit right down and have a looksy!!!

--Take a gander at my Facebook page under Cakes and such. There you will find a variety of cakes, cupcakes and cake pops. These are DELISH and so much fun!! If you want something "different" for your special occasions these lil things are the perfect way to go. You can create just about anything under the moon!

--Secondly, I dab a little in the sewing realm. I have had to put it down for a while but I REALLY miss it! You can view some of the things I've done in the past under the photo album " Handmade for purchase" on my facebook page. I have some upcoming projects that I can't wait to share, but you'll have to wait!


So why are you telling me all this?!! Welllll, I want to be able to put my lil ole name out there so people can call on me when they need such items. I really like to be challenged, so for me, custom ordering is fun stuff!


With ALL this being said, I need your help! That's right YOU!!! (point at yourself). Now give me your best shot (singing) of a catchy, cutsie, fun business name for me!

What's in it for you???? Well, if I like yours best, I'll let you pick one item, custom of course, of your choice as a prize and give your name a shout out that you came up with it! You might become famous one day, you never know!

Sound like fun??!! OK, lets here them! All you have to do is email me your idea to Tsnowangels3@yahoo.com

Good luck and I look forward to hearing what you've come up with!


Amy

Still kickin....

Well
I'm still kickin, just kickin it a lot more than I used to! Whew, I'm a tired woman. Four kids, a job, a husband that is in school, karate and gymnastics twice a week.....well the list could go on and on!

How has everybody been?? We've been up to a lot....so I'll share!

I took Chloe Grace to have her two year pictures made to a friend and school mate from back in the days. I think she did an awesome job. I love her work! Here is her site if you want to look at more of her work: http://www.ashleyisaacphotography.net/
These are only a few of what she did...and I must say, I had a HARD time picking the ones I really liked!

Next I'll talk about Easter. This year it was really laid back. We went to my brother and sister laws house where we ate lots of good food and of course the kids hunted eggs. Here are a couple of just that!

Anne RE RE!!!

Cheeeeze! She's a heifer these days! That smile is deceiving!

We also had a friends birthday part we went to at the park. I made the cupcakes for the party and hit a dog all in one day!

Ethan really enjoy his cupcake...can you tell?!

SO did Chloe Grace!

And I guess she lost some of it in her nose cause she was sure trying to find something!

Next up: Ethan started Karate about a month ago and he LOVES it. Thankfully it exhausts some of that hipper energy he somehow has on a daily basis! This is a picture of his belt test. He had only been in for two weeks and I happy to report he did get his yellow belt! YAY ETHAN!

Warming up for his test.....sorry these are NOT in order!

HAI ( this means HI!) They have to say this every time they walk into the club. :)

Ok, lets see....I've had my hand in crafty stuff too...( I KNOW! where do I find the time!?)


I made this wipe case and this tote for a friend of mine who just had a baby. The babies name is Lennon. LOVE IT!

Soooo with that being said...I carried away and just kept making them!

I made this cute lil one for one of my co-workers grandson. I think it turned out cute! If you want one let me know!

I made this sassy one for Madi and Tiffany's little sister Abbey

Up next: Ethan's birthday is April Fools! He wanted to have his birthday at where? Well of course the coolest place in WM....EXCALIBUR!

My lil man is 7 now! 7! BOO :(

Chloe Grace tearing up some cheese pizza! She will eat anything that doesn't eat her first...and that does include anything on the ground!

Having fun!

This is Peyton. He is Ethans bud that lives next door to us. Love this kid!

" What you said?!"

Ever wonder why I don't have that many pictures of the "big" girls? Well they are NEVER around anymore! The either run off or I can't find them! However, I did manage to snap this one of Chloe Grace and "amy"....Yes, Chloe Grace calls Tiffany, Amy for some reason!

"What I only got his many?!?"

Ok, gonna reverse for a bit...( BUNNY TRAIL) I made this yummo cake pops for Easter. I had chicks, bunnies, flowers and eggs!

I wrapped them up in these cute lil baskets and off they went!

The eggs:

The flowers:

The chicks and bunnies!

In the middle of ALL this......Ethan was proud to announce that he lost his 1st tooth! He got $5 dollars and a new Wii game. We've come a long way from just getting a quarter! =/

Here are those cupcakes I was talking about. I made Lady bugs, butterflies, beezzzz, and flowers! Happy Birthday Lauren!

This June 10th Timmy and I will be married 10 years! OMG...I said 10! SOmetimes it seems longer and then some days it seems like yesterday! So to celebrate, we went our a cruise to Cozumel Mexico!!

We left from Port New Orleans on the Carnival Triumph

It started raining as we left so i wasn't about to get good pictures leaving the port. Here is Saint Charles Cathedrial, well what you can see of it!

Lets take tour of the ship shall we?

This is a map that was set up to show the course of where the boat was at all times. I thought that it was pretty neat idea! Can you see the triangle?

One of most favorite spots on the boat was the coffee bar....can you see why?!!! All those little thingy's you see, well that's CHOCOLATE people! You could special order cakes for your occasion.

This isn't a great picture of this elevator, but here it is. There were two of them that were located in the mail lobby.

There is art work everywhere on the boat. This was a glass mosaic thing of the globe.

And of course, the nekad mermaids!

This is the casino behind us. Timmy lost like all 8 dollars :(

OK...lets stop and talk about this for a minute. LAWDY MERCY, I gained 5 pounds in 5 days from eating this kind of crap! I'm telling you what...if there is no other reason you want to go on a cruise...it would be for the FOOD! You eat yourself silly. There is food at all hours of the day at your fancy!

This my friends is apple tart....I had cheesecake almost every night....and yes, I've still got all of those 5 pds to lose! HUFF!

HA! This cracks me up looking at it. On formal night, the staff got up and dance and sang for us. This one particular man....well lets just say...he came to get down! He smacked it all over the place! LOL

This was our sweet waiter for the week. He was from Jamacia. He had two kids who were both in college. His oldest daughter was in school to become a doctor. I forgot what his son was in school for

Me on formal night. I loved these doors, but they were heavy as heck!

Sheila (my sister-in-law) and myself. Jimmy( timmy's twin brother) and Sheila were married a week before us on the 3rd, so they decided to go on the cruise too! Our babysitter and her husband also went. I must say....I'm glad that we all went together because there is only so much you can do together as a couple...it's just a lot of fun with a group, to me anyways.

HOLA! Como estas?? hehee, this little lady was in Port Progresso which was our 1st stop on the cruise. She was trimming the beats in the market. I thought she was cute so I snapped a picture of her, well then she gave me a dirty look! OO WOOPS!

All the pretty colors! HOWEVER, I would not purchase any of it! *questionable*

The water was too cold to get into, which I was not too happy about. The wind was almost too cold to lay out on the beach either, but I did it! Here is a picture of the lil man that ask you as MILLION times if he can play for you. I suppose Jimmy and Sheila said yes!

The water was SO beautiful! I've never seen water that crystal blue before. Can you see our ship in the background?

These are of Cozumel. It is much nicer there than it was in Progresso, BUT we were able to haggle people down a lot better in Progresso than in Cozumel.

This is the buggy that was offering rides....for a small fee of course!

After 10 years married and 12 together, we still look like we at least like each other ;)

This is the "public" beach in Cozumel. You had to order food from the bar to use their seats and umbrellas. I suppose paying 10$ for chips and salsa that you don't get refills for was worth it.

We recieved great care from your stewart. Each night they would come in and turn our beds down and place a cute lil critter on our bed. I liked the frog( frigget) and dog the best.

We really had a great time. It's about the cheapest vacation you can go on. We defiantly will be going again.

Last but not least of my post is the Mardi Gras Marathon that Timmy and Jimmy both ran along with some friends from the running group. We were late leaving WM because Jimmy and Sheila ...Sheila would say Jimmy forgot their birth certificates which they HAD to have to get on the boat....so we were RACING to get to New Orleans to pick up their packets.

Here is this picture we are "throwing" them out on the side of the road so they could hurry and get their stuff before the place closed!

Again in no particular order, here are the boys after they completed the race.

The weather was BEAUTIFUL! It was much nicer than last years too. They changed the route so that it went down into the French Quater. After our peeps passed Sheila and I went to enjoy beignets and coffee from Cafe De Monde :)
YAY He finished. He didnt' do as well as he did on his last marathon but hey...HE FINISHED! I think running for 20 something miles is certainly an accomplishment. Proud of my man.

Well I guess thats if for now....until next time!