I'm Shocked at this!!! Cadence isn't a name, but it woulda been our son's!!!

So, Jeff and I have been talking about baby names for a long time. After having Ethan, we were trying to think of another name for a boy if we had one. We were listening to an Anberlin song that sang about having "Cadence" which is a musical term meaning that everything is all working together, in harmony, in cadence. I said to Jeff, "That would be a cool name, because it's not a name! I really like that as a name! That'd be a cool name...Cadence." He agreed. We both like it because we thought it was so unique and liked the meaning, especially with Jeff being a musician and it being a musical term. That was about a year and a half ago and we've STILL talked of that name since then saying we'd most likely name our boy that if we had another...well...

Today, I got an email saying "Top 100 Baby Names" and so I clicked on it. Boy was I SHOCKED to see that the name "Cadence" made the 71st name on the girl's chart. It's not a name! How did people pick this?!?!?!?!?! I'm kind of frustrated about it actually!!!!!! Here's the real shocker: Then I went on to read an article talking about the names and JUST READ THE LAST LINE OF THIS PARAGRAPH!!!!!! I seriously cannot believe this!!!! The other reason we like "Cadence" is because it's not a name, it's a musical term, and Jeff is a musician and adding some "Cadence" to our family would just be so great...anyways, I'm a little discouraged about this name now...We had it picked FIRST. before seeing these stupid charts.

Read Article Below:

A good name is like Cinderella's shoe: It fits perfectly. This year, parents rose to the challenge – finding inspiration in everything from the Wild West to the Bible to proper English gents. Everything old is new again. The top 10 list of boy names didn't change at all in 2008 – Aiden has topped the charts four years running – but more often than not, there's a twist. Classics are refreshed with new spellings; last names are used as firsts. And when any old name just won't do, parents looked to sounds and places, even music theory – Cadence, anyone? – for ideas. Clearly, inspiration lies everywhere.


Just a little shocked at that info and had to share it...well, the name search continues...

I am trying to enjoy winter...Skiing and Snowboarding

Last night Jeff and Sarah somehow talked me into going to the slopes with them...

I went snowboarding for the first time about a year and a half ago. It was HORRIBLE. I hated it. I fell like every five feet. It took me the ENTIRE time we were there just to get down the "bunny" hill once!!!! (Sarah said it's a pretty long bunny hill...we rode a chair lift up to the top of it).
Pic from March 2007...I atleast got a good picture out of it hahaha...



















Anyways, last night they convinced me to try again, but try skiing instead...
And I LOVED it!!!!!!!!! It was so much fun! I didn't fall at all on the bunny hills...(which were pretty big and we also took a chair lift to). Jeff and Sarah even brought me down some regular ones but I kinda freaked out and took my skiis off at this mandatory jump. All in all it was a lot of fun though and towards the end I was finally getting a better hang of it. I can't wait to go again!

The three of us at the end of the night...














I don't own snow pants or a "REAL" winter coat, so I'm wearing one of Jeff's coats and wind pants hahaha!
















Sarah and I stopped mid-hill for a picture...
















It was really a fun night. I'm so glad they talked me into going. So glad I gave this skiing/snowboarding thing another chance! Well, I won't be giving snowboarding another chance...but the skiing thing, that was fun!!!

cruising the curvy mountainous coast again

one of jeff's treats to me was a convertible...it has been really fun having it...
if I could figure out a way to upload video on here from my phone that'd be cool...
ok jeff is getting annoyed at me for being on my phone. going to the beach now!

Maui, Hawaii Here we come!!!

Photos of Maui, Hawaii...
















Jeff and I leave for the gorgeous island of Maui, Hawaii in exactly 34 hours!!!

That is, this Saturday the 8th in the morning! We return on Sunday afternoon, November 16th! We'll be gone for about 9 days and we are very excited! It's going to be like a 2nd honeymoon because we are going all by ourselves and without Ethan. I can't wait for some amazing quality time together and with the Lord.

This is where we'll be staying...
This is the only pic I could find online of it...it's a condo stay so it'll be more like a house or apartment than a hotel room so we can do some of our own gourmet cooking (a hobbie of ours) and things like that which will be nice. :)
It's called Maui Beach Vacation Club. I'm just excited for some beautiful weather! It was kinda cold today and very rainy. Tomorrow it's supposed to snow...yes! Perfect timing!













We're going to have a complimentary luau dinner that came with our booking...and that will be held here: (follow link...I couldn't save the pic)
Lei Greeting and Luau

Ethan was sick last week and then I was sick tuesday night and yesterday and then Jeff wasn't feeling well yesterday either. Needless to say, I'm glad we got that out of the way and are feeling a lot better now. We have a lot to do in the next 34 hours...we both work tomorrow and haven't even begun to pack!

Sarah is going to be house-sitting for us (staying here) and also watching Ethan 5 1/2 of the days we'll be gone while Suzanne and Don are going to be watching Ethan the first 3 days we're gone. I think he'll do just fine. Maybe we'll get Sarah to do some skype with us! (Thanks, Jake for the info on that...)

Well, I probably won't be going online again from here on (unless it's from the airport) so pray for a safe flight!!! (I'm a little bit nervous about flying over the ocean for such a long period of time!) Jeff's already been to Hawaii 3 times so he'll hold my hand on the plane I guess!

And, today, was a good day at the flower shoppe. 5 of my arrangements are on display in the coolers right now (a pivotal moment for me!) and 2 of my arrangements went out for delivery today (another pivotal moment!) The owner said that one of my bouquets was very beautiful (which made me smile) and also said that I'm in charge of the rosedale arrangements (they're more discountish flowers) she said I do the best ones for that and that I should act as the boss over that project kinda when she's not there...which was also cool, but anyways. I am beginning to like working there. I am learning more than I thought I would. I'm getting a lot of practice. Not always what I want to learn, but seeing different ways of doing things (not always my preferred way or the way I'll do it in the future but it's cool to see different ways).

I also am going to be a substitute teacher at Maranatha which I am extremely excited about as well and will also be coaching the 5th & 6th grade cheerleaders this year. I was told I was getting a raise this year...and today I found out what that was...a whole 15 bucks! hahaha I just laughed. $15 is better than nothing. It's not for the money anyway. It's my way of giving back and serving others.

How was that for a life update all in one post, Jake??? Hahaha

Life Update

Last week was rough. Ethan was sick, then I got sick, then Jeff got sick. And all on different days...and it lingered about 2 days each. So we all didn't get much good quality time together. Anyways, I'm glad we're all feeling better now!

Last week was also one of those weeks where Jeff and I were just both kind of struggling with where to go from here. What to do in life, what jobs to have, wanting to be in God's will, but not knowing how to get there...
Ever have one of those days where you just don't know what you should be doing in life and you start looking at your circumstances and the job you have and just feel like there's gotta be more to life than this? That was like our week last week. The devil was just really putting depressing thoughts in our heads and it was really a tough battle. Thursday when Jeff stayed home from work because he wasn't feeling good, we just had a long worship session and just had to THANK God for all He HAS DONE and WILL DO. It seemed like all hope in things was failing, but when we turned our eyes on God, the burden was lifted. Even in the natural it just seems like things aren't going good, but when we completely give it to God and stop giving thought to it, that's when we feel free. That's what I've been doing this whole month it seems (just keep on giving any thoughts to God), but last week I started taking those thoughts back into my own hands. Just wondering what God has for me. I just want to be in His perfect will and it's so hard to know what that is sometimes. I feel like I just need to take steps of faith and just ask Him to close doors where they need to be closed and open them where they should be open. That's the other thing, I haven't been working much (only at the flower shoppe which cancels out Ethan's daycare) and so I've gotten worried about money so much that I have been tempted to go back to Eagle Street. I know I am not supposed to go back there and it was like I kept getting this image in my mind or sentence in my mind (probably Holy Spirit led) that kept saying "It's like a dog going back to its own vomit"
Enough said. I'm not going back as tempting as it is sometimes. It was such good money. Man!

All this to say, sometimes the devil tries to sidetrack us with thoughts and situations happening in the natural, but we have to keep our eyes focused on God and how HE cares for us and how He takes care of the birds and He'll take care of us too. Somehow we always seem to make it. And it's because of God's provision. I just have to keep focus on that. Our God is supernatural and He will always provide.


Here's a little story...some may say it's a coincidence, some may say it's favor!

Jeff wanted to go get some beans for coffee from Starbuck's...so we went there to get it and if you pay with a Starbuck's registered gift card, you get a free drink. So, we decided to load a card and then pay for it and get our free drink.
I guess you could say it wasn't really planned and the money would come out of our grocery fund...we decided we'd put $20 on the Starbuck's card. Don't know why $20 since beans cost $10-$12. I pulled $20 out to put on the card. After giving the cashier the money, I looked on the floor and said, "Jeff, I think you dropped this" and he said "I didn't drop that, I didn't even have a $20 bill in my wallet" The $20 bill was folded so I knew it wasn't in my wallet either (I keep my cash straight). After talking a little bit about it, we realized it was a random $20 and that paid for the $20 re-load on the starbuck's card. After finding it, it was like God was saying to me that He'll always make a way to provide. Even for the little enjoyable things in life. Some would say it was a coincidence that we found $20 on the floor and decided to put $20 on the Starbuck's card all at the same time, but some of us (me) would say that is just one way our supernatural God works and one way that we get favor in small situations like that. (Thanks, God for the coffee money...haha)

I hope whoever reads this finds some encouragement in it, and if no one reads it, that's ok too because I really just enjoy journaling about life. Let GOD be your source of provision today!!!!

6 Random Things...(Well, kind of random, not super random)

Evan tagged me a little while back and I just read it! So I'm gonna do it!

-Write 6 random things about yourself.
-Tag 6 people at the end of your post
-If you were tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag.

6 Random things about myself...

1. I'm weird and crazy and spontaneous. Especially when it gets late at night...I start saying things like, "I crack myself up like an egg ahahahahahaha!" and then laugh uncontrollably...or laugh about the bird pooping on my head story even though no one else gets it. I just love being weird and crazy and meeting weird and crazy spontaneous people!

2. I can eat a whole jar of green olives in one sitting.

3.In high school, I went to the dentist after not going for a while and found out I had 14 cavities! 7 on each side!

4. I like unique things...anything that is different from the average thing...and I LOVE giving unique or hand made gifts.

5. I save wrapping paper. That's right. Well, maybe not the actual paper, but the ribbons, bows, and bags...I save them...and then I reuse them. That's right re-use. Because I'd rather spend more money on a gift than part of the money on the wrapping paper!

6. Not sure if this is something random or not, but I can't think of anything else...
I LOVE and THRIVE on deep conversation! I love being transparent and I love it when people are transparent with me! I love just being real.

7. Nate's made me think of this...I was the only one in my family (of my siblings) that was not born in Minnesota...I was born in Colorado! My brothers always teased me and said that the altitude affected me (in a negative way). Aren't they nice?


I don't know what else...If I think of something better, I'll edit this!

What's Five Bucks to Ya?

It's a pint of organic strawberries to me...

Tonight Jeff and I were at the store picking up a few things for the week and organic strawberries were on sale 2/$7 so we grabbed one. That's right. One. Not two. At the lovely Cub Foods they always have these signs that say 2/$5, 3/$4 etc etc... but, it's all just marketing. You really don't have to buy 2,3, or 10 to get the deal. You can grab one 2/$5 item and it'll be $2.50. Good to know, right? (although last week we fell for the 10 for $10 avocadoes deal...)

Anyways, I always read over my receipt when we're leaving and tonight I noticed they charged us $4.99 for the strawberries instead of $3.50. Only a $1.50, right? (In a normal world maybe...) but, we were still in the store grabbing a free redbox dvd (free because we get free codes to rent free movies and it's great) so I went to the customer service counter and asked them about it...
The guy apologized and said, "Here's Five Bucks (not $4.99) for a refund" He refunded the strawberries completely!!! He said, "It's part of our right price scan guarantee...if it scans wrong, we'll refund your money on the first one and charge you the right price on the 2nd one."

Awesome, huh? It seems that many times probably 1 out of every 3 shopping trips we find some sort of mistake on the receipt...which brings me to my next point...be aware! Don't just sit back and expect everyone to do everything for you...be proactive and save five bucks once in a while!

And, another thing, if you're not on a budget five bucks doesn't really seem like any sort of a big deal, but when you actually watch where your money is going, five bucks can be a dealbreaker. That's all.

And, today Pastor Peter Haas' sermon was awesome. He talked about just being smart with your finances and even gave a plug for Dave Ramsey. He showed a little video that they made that you should watch when they post it this Tuesday. I think it'd be great for anyone who has purchased and financed a new car.

That's all.

P.S.
Jeff and I have for the first time in our lives been on a "budget" or "spending plan" for more than 3 weeks at a time! In fact, this Tuesday, October 7th will be our 3 MONTH MARK!!! And, this is the first month that it has actually caught up to us where there is actually extra money in the bank at the end of the month!! Big Shock!!! It's great. We're slowly but surely going to become debt free!!!!!!!!!!