Living my life on a Charter Bus...

So, my middle school and high school life consisted of choir, show choir....and some other stuff. I absolutely love music and I couldn't imagine my life without it.

We're at a choir concert tonight and it's gotten to the point to where there's no one I'm related to that I get to come and see...I'm just coming for fun. :)

I love the fact that we have such an amazing music program. It makes me really happy that my step kids and future kids get to participate and have such a wonderful opportunity.

My choir directors have definitely had a hand in making me the person I am today. Without them, I wouldn't have traveled like I did, I wouldn't have made the same friends and I definitely wouldn't have met my husband.

My middle school director, Cathy Whitworth instilled in me a love of being on a stage filled with lights.

My high school director, Andrew Drinkall gave me the courage to sing out loud and shaped my voice to where it was comfortable.

My husband taught me that I sounded pretty good by myself, but, with the right voice...we made a great combo. :)

So, I have to say, music had a great impact and brought great things to my life.

So I'm gonna go, the music's about to start.
I hope you guys had a wonderful day and I'll see you guys tomorrow :)

RUNNING! MADNESS! DRIVING FAST!

You know those times when you're doing something important and you lose track of time? Sometimes it's ok and no big deal. Sometimes, you almost forget to pick up your step kids from school.

Yeah. So that happened. I have an alarm on my phone that goes off everyday. 45 mjnutes before they get out of school. That gives me time to come back to earth from work mode and kinda chillax before I have three tornadoes of energy enter my life again. :)

But, that alarm didn't go off today. I don't know why but I was still in work mode when I looked over and saw that it was 3:00. Usually I leave the house around 2:45, I pick them up at 3:30 and we head home. I get there early so I don't have to wait to pick them up. If I'm in the front of the line, they jump in and I drive off. I don't have to wait or anything. It's nice.

I am here to tell you that God was smiling on me today. I'm still in the front of the line! Thank you Lord.

>>>>>>>>>

Ok, so today I noticed that I am up to 1,800 page views. Holy Moses.

I've decided that if we can get it up to 2,000 before the kids go back to their mom's on Sunday, I'm gonna have them do a challenge and I'll post it on here. You can comment below with any of the funny challenges you've seen on youtube (the egg roulette challenge, the smoothie challenge, the baby food challenge-just to name a few. If you haven't seen these, go look some up on youtube!)

So yeah, share this on your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, MySpace, Bebo, Facetime....whatever you do....and we could have the kids do some pretty funny stuff!

I hope you guys have a wonderful day and I'll see you tomorrow :)

Dadurday: Installment #2

Happy Dadurday all.

First, a joke:  What do a church and a lazer fight have in common? 

pew pew pew

I've been asked to discuss my tattoos, which is awesome, because they mean a lot to me.  Each one tells a certain tale about my faith, and are built to remind me of what it means to be me in the Kingdom of God.    

The first two tattoos were done on my inner forearms, and were done as a pair.  They say 'Temple of God' in Greek and Hebrew, with Greek on the right and Hebrew on the left.  If you open the Bible at the two testaments, you'll see Greek on the right and Hebrew on the left: The Old Testament and the New.

I got them for my 19th birthday as a gift from my mom, and they mean a lot for that reason as well as the fact that they represent a truth in my life, that I am now the place where God means Earth, I am His temple, and He dwells in me.  

Next are the two 'gauntlet's' on my wrists: fire and water.  God lead the people of Israel out of Egypt with a pillar of fire and pillar of water (cloud), and so these represent the journey that I am being lead on through all of this life, a journey out of ignorance and into knowing, out of subjugation and into freedom.  As I've been in recovery, these have come to mean even more to me, as they represent the movement I am taking to move away from slavery and bondage and into true freedom of choice and responsibility.

The next most visible tattoo is one that is a work in progress.  It is a fox, snout covered in juice, as he eats from the grapes that surround his head.  This tattoo was inspired by scripture by way of the song "The Soviet" by mewithoutYou (which also inspired the title of that album), 'Catch for us the foxes, in the vineyard [which sneak in and eat the choicest grapes]'.  This is a reminder of the truth that words sneak, worm and wheedle their way into our hearts and destroy.  Foxes are fleet of foot, and words are even faster.  I mustn't let them steal from me what truth I know about myself.  

All of my tattoos were done by Dave and Robbie at Inkspot in Troy, and more beauty and truth has come into my life (not to mention sobriety and recovery) through that ragamuffin band of brotherly men than anyone could ever have expected.  

Next time I'll talk about the half sleeves, but I think this is enough words for today.  

Go forth and make beauty.  

Long Haul

Another day, another post I almost forgot to write... : / sorry guys.

So, for these past two days, Christopher and I have been on the road to and from Illinois. Our business requires us to travel some times and yesterday was no exception. We visited a couple libraries in Illinois and had to stay the night in a hotel.

Christopher and I love the times when we can just stop off at a hotel if we're tired of driving and just relax. We don't have to worry about dishes or laundry, we can just relax.

If you guys ever have a free night, take a road trip a couple hours down the road, eat at a place you've never heard of and book a hotel for the night. Bring your laptop and watch some Netflix, sit on the bed and eat some pizza, tell some jokes or just sit and talk. It's amazing how being in a different setting will open up the conversation and make the evening more interesting.

And if you guys are anything like us, three straight hours of driving, calling, emailing and laughing really wears you out so, we're gonna take a nap!

Oh! One of my best friends is coming over tomorrow and I have a request! If you guys have an amazing chicken recipe, please send it to me on facebook or share it in the comments below! :)

Thank you guys,
I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll see you tomorrow :)

Unique Situation

"You're friends with her?"

Yes, I consider my husband's ex-wife a friend.

I am so blessed, I couldn't ask for a better situation. We're all pretty good friends. I know I can text Brianna any time and ask a question or if we want to talk to one of the kids the weeks we don't have them, all we have to do is call her.
Christopher is an amazing father and Brianna is an amazing mother, just in different houses. That's why I'm thankful we have such good communication. Rules are rules, in both houses. We all get to have opinions when it comes to the kids and we all have a say.

I was once in a situation where the ex was my enemy and that was not a good time, I can tell you right now. It was so easy to have a genuine relationship the first time I met the kids because Brianna was very nice and trusted me completely with the kids.

We think it's very important to the way the kids view life to have two strong, unified (and pretty awesome if you ask me) families to look to if they ever need anything. I think in the situation that they are in, (two sets of parents) we're setting a pretty good example.

I wish there were more stories like ours. The fact that I can text Brianna at any time during the day or that I can joke with Drew on Facebook makes me happy. I'm glad that I can call them friends and I never want that to change.

They have made our lives so much easier, just by being them.

Thanks guys! Thank you for sharing your amazing family with me :)

>>>>>>>>>>>

If you guys have any questions for me or any topics you would like me to talk about, please let me know in the comments below. Today, my brain was fried. A business trip to Illinois just to end up staying there for the night kind of takes it out of you!

I hope you guys had an amazing day, I'll see you tomorrow :)

Those will look terrible when you're 80...

Let me just start out by giving credit, where credit is due. My tattoo shop is the Ink Spot in Troy, MO. I go to them for all of my work and I'll stay loyal for the rest of my life. I couldn't ask for a better group of people. Big Dave and his crew are the best artists in the area (in my opinion.)

Today I'm going to show you a couple of my tattoos that Ink Spot has blessed me with but first, a message from me to anyone thinking of getting a tattoo.

1. Tattoos hurt. Anything that's absolutely permanent SHOULD hurt.

2. Tattoos don't always HAVE to mean something. It's always nice to hear a story to go along with a tattoo. I also love a beautiful piece of art that you or your artist came up with.

3. Again. They are permanent. So, make sure that you really want this on your body for the rest of your life. Getting tattoos removed is a painful and expensive process I've been told.

4. Tattoos are expensive. It's a permanent piece of art that you carry around with you. If you are going to a quality artist, they will be pretty pricey but you'll be happier in the end getting the tattoo that you wanted instead of "that guy's" free hand drawing of what was supposed to be a bird but ended up being a sea lion.

5. If you're going to have someone sit that close to you for that amount of time and listen to you talk about your life story, (or let's be honest, say ow a million times) then you should tip them. This guy/girl is an artist and they deserve a little credit. It's up to you, there's no law stating that you have to tip your artist, but I do. Always.

Now it comes to the fun part! I get to show you my tattoos I'm only going to show two because I have so many pictures of them :)

The first tattoo I got was a birdcage with 2 birds around it on my right thigh. It has a million different meanings but the main one to me is one bird is me and the other is my parents. The open door to the cage symbolizes them as well, always being there for me, with arms wide open, giving me all the support in the world. Big Dave did this one and needless to say, it is my favorite. It's beautiful and I wouldn't go back and change a thing.

It took 5-6 hours total. I was pretty proud of myself being able to do it all in one sitting. It's around 9 inches tall and about 5 inches wide. So my first one was a big one, but I love it. :)

The other tattoo(s) I want to show you guys are on my wrists. These were by Shane Amerosa, another talent from Ink Spot. This one says Let Go...let God.

These...hurt... Much worse than my leg. Once he was done, I couldn't really move my fingers because my tendons were too busy being mad at me for putting them through that. After a couple seconds I could move my hands normally again. Places like your wrists, feet, ankles and other places that are close to the bone will probably hurt the worst.

I love my tattoos. They allow me to show things on the outside that normally, people wouldn't see. They also bring up a lot of questions. Some people hate answering questions about their tattoos, but I'm not tired of it yet :)

I do plan on getting more and maybe on Dadurday I can have Chris write about his tattoos. His are much more interesting than mine.

http://theinkspottroy.com/

This is a link to the Ink Spot's website. Please go check them out and if you ever have the opportunity, go have them create a masterpiece for you!

I hope you guys have a wonderful day and I'll see you tomorrow :)

"I RUINED EVERYTHING!"

Ok, so I asked on Facebook what you guys would like to hear about today. It was between 20 questions about me (boring) or our Engagement story :) and guess which one won!

So, it was getting to the middle of December and we had talked about getting married in passing and I had hinted about some rings to him but he always said, we'll know when it's time. I thought that meant another couple months or even a year! I was so wrong...

I was at work a little late on December 19th and I was in sweat pants and a hoodie. I didn't have any makeup on and I just wanted to go home. It had been a long day and I was just ready to relax with my boyfriend and his kids. But, he called me to the church to work on a worship set for Sunday. usually we would work on it throughout the week but it had been such a busy week that we were doing it a little last minute. I walked into the basement of the church and right then I should have suspected something. No kids. They were always downstairs waiting for me to get there but I wasn't thinking. I just wanted to get to some place warm so I could cuddle up and forget about the day.

I start walking upstairs then I started running. Someone was crying and it sounded like Myles. I burst through the doors and found him in the fetal position in a back pew. Not even looking up, I crouched next to him and said, "buddy, what's wrong?" (I later found out that he was crying because his sister had sat on his head -_-) He looked me right in the face and started crying harder then said, "I RUINED EVERYTHING!" What is he talking about I thought as I looked up and saw the other two holding signs that said "YOU" and "MARRY." I looked up at Chris who was standing at the communion table and I finally figured out what was going on.

"DANGIT!" Christopher said. I was still in shock when I turned to Myles and said, "Hey, you didn't ruin anything. But I need you to do me a favor." He nodded his head and wiped the tears off his face.
"I need you to get up, stand in your spot and tell me when to come upstairs so I don't come up to early again, okay?" He smiled, nodded and ran to his spot with his sign that said "WILL."

I walked half-way down the stairs. My heart was pounding. I thought I was going to faint when I heard Myles yell, "OKAY LYDIA, WE'RE READY!"

I pushed open the door to see four of the happiest faces I've ever seen. Myles' little tear stained smile, Sadie's giggle and Bodyn's beautiful grin were nothing compared to the giant smile I saw on my soon to be fiance's face.

Unfortunately, I can't remember if he said anything after that. All I remember was shaking my head yes and nothing has been the same since.

Whenever I would tell that story to people, they would laugh and say, "Well, that didn't turn out as planned." And I'd say, nope, but it wouldn't have been like our family to get it right the first time. :)

It was perfect and I couldn't have asked for a better proposal. So, for all of you out there hoping for the perfect proposal, remember, if it's the right person and the right time, then it'll be perfect no matter what.

I hope you guys have a wonderful day and I'll see you tomorrow :)

Cooking with Step Monster

If any of you actually know me, you know that I'm no chef.

I used to burn toast, if that gives you any idea of how bad I actually was at cooking. Or my husband's favorite example...I boiled over tomato soup...all over the stove. Smelled like a hot mess for the rest of dinner.

So now, I've been basically teaching myself how to cook, with the help of Youtube of course. :)
Each time I make something new, the kids add it to the list of things that I've made.

So far, I have:
Spaghetti (which I'm surprisingly good at. I got that from my Grandma and Mother)
Stroganoff, it's from a box but still...good. :)
Eggs, only scrambled so far. But I'm getting there
Smoothies. You can ask them, I am the smoothie queen.

Hobo Meals. Can't go wrong with Hobo Meals. I'll have my favorite recipe at the end for these :)
Pies (apple and pumpkin)
Cakes. Rainbow cakes. :)

I'm pretty proud of that list to be honest. I know some people who can go out and whip up whatever they like (my mom) but unfortunately, I did not get that gene. I wish I had, then the kids and I would be set. But as for now, their dad is the master chef...I'm catching up with him though!

For any of you out there who have a husband that does all the work in the kitchen simply because you don't know how-tell him about this new idea that you came up with. Hobo Meals. As long as you (or he) can work a grill, you'll be set because shopping for this is gonna be a walk in the park.

Literally, put anything you want in it.
My favorite consists of:
Hamburger
Mushrooms
Hashbrowns
Peppers
Salt
Pepper
Garlic/Garlic Salt
Onion Salt
Cheese (LOTS OF CHEESE)
Worcestershire sauce
Spray Butter
Tin Foil (to wrap it in, not to eat)

Basically, all you have to do is spray the foil with butter, break up the hamburger, season the hamburger,and then put it all together. Wrap it up and throw it on the grill! That's it, but honestly, the possibilities are ENDLESS!

Hopefully, this gives you guys a new recipe to add to your cook-book!

If you have a recipe that you would like to share with me, please put it in the comments or send me a message on Facebook! I'd love to have some recipe's to add to MY cookbook :)

I hope you guys have a wonderful day and I'll see you tomorrow :)

One Take Sunday!

ONE TAKE SUNDAY!!!
Had some fun, last night, at my Aunt's house. We had a hay ride, the kids had a good time and we had some good food.

Although, they were kinda draggin' their butts this morning. :)

Since we are the worship Leaders at our church, we have to be here a little earlier than most. So we were all kind of draggin' this morning.

Sunday's will be shorter posts than the rest of the days that I write because it's a day for Family. :)

So I hope you have a wonderful Sunday, and I'll see you guys tomorrow :)

Dadurday: The Husband Responds!

I like this idea.

Not only the part where my wife tells everyone the story of our relationship as we go through it, or the part where she goes on and on about how awesome our kids (she went over the our thing, right?) are.

I get the opportunity to make a post which leads with a Dad Joke.

Dadurday was my idea.  When Lydia shared with me that she was writing a blog, I was like, 'Hey!  I should do a post on there like once a week where I give my point of view!'

I have a big mouth.

I am so incredibly proud of my wife.  She has taken on this task, and is not only doing it, but is doing it well.  You guys have responded really well, and people are reading!  Which is amazing.

Because she is amazing. This week, on Wednesday, we all traveled over to my mom and dad's place for Taco Night.  When we arrived, I found my mother is a state of severe confusion and agitation.  She's been having these spells for some time, and doctors are still struggling to discover why it is happening.  I sent Lydia and the kids on to her mom's, called 911, and proceeded to deal with the situation at hand.

I was able to deal with the immediate emergency because I had a partner to help.  I had someone who was not only there and ready, but happy and willing.

She took over all of the parenting duties for the next 48 hours, as I had to be with my mom in the hospital.  My dad would have loved to help, I'm sure, but he was being discharged from the same ER we arrived at on Wednesday, being that he'd just flipped his concrete truck earlier that day!  It was the perfect storm of just absolute chaos.  Through it all, Lydia was firm, strong, and able.  It was a beautiful thing.

She took on a lot when she took us on as a family.  She's younger than me, she was getting three kids, and she was getting a husband that, statistically, wasn't doing so hot on the whole marriage front.  Indeed, I spent the entire first date telling her she was making a mistake.

I hope she keeps making it.  Because this has been a beautiful, crazy, wonderful run, and its only two months in!

I'm sure these posts will get less sappy as time goes on, and I'll respond to the actual things my wife is writing during the week, but come on--how could I not take my first opportunity to post to brag on my beautiful amazing wife?

I mean, think of the brownie points alone!

Til next week,

Christopher

Being the Wife of an Addict

Good morning everyone, I hope you are all having an amazing morning.

We're still moving a little slow from our trip to the hospital. Christopher got home some time around 12:30 last night and we're kinda dragging today.

Alright, I'm sure you're curious about the title. Some of you might not know but Christopher is an addict.

Not a practicing addict, mind you. But an addict none the less. He was addicted to over the counter, prescription drugs and alcohol. Now, I wouldn't be a good wife if I didn't brag on him a little bit. He has been clean and sober for 4 1/2 years now. :)

He even quit smoking a couple months after we started dating. Now, if that's not something to be proud of, I don't know what is.

To answer some of your questions:

I love the husband I have now. Do I love the things he did in the past? No. Are they in the past? Yes. Forgive and forget.

Would I stay with him if it happened again, I would try every outlet to help...but if that didn't work, if he chose narcotics over me or our family, I would definitely leave.

Have I ever done drugs? No, I've been around people that smoke and I do have the occasional drink.

Do I drink around him? I tend not to, but there are times (when we're out with friends, we're at a concert, or if we're at Buffalo Wild Wings and we're watching the Cardinals or the Blues) when I always ask first. If he says no, I completely understand and I don't drink that night. The last thing I want to do is make him uncomfortable.

Is he okay with you drinking when he's not around? If I go to the bar or if I'm with friends, all he cares about is me getting home safely. I don't go out much so he understands that when I'm out, I do drink. But he trusts me to make wise decisions and get back home to him with a sober driver.

Has he ever mentioned wanting to try drugs or alcohol again? Everyone has one of those days where all you want to do is go home and have a beer or a cigarette (if you smoke, I've never wanted to smoke a cigarette). So, yes, there has been times where he says, "man, I could use a cigarette." Or, "That beer looks tasty." Always joking, mostly. Sometimes it's scary, sometimes I can't tell if he's joking. We haven't had any slip-up's yet so...let's keep it that way.

Does he go to meetings? He used to, and I would go with him. Granted, I don't have a drinking or drug problem, but the meetings I went to were open and I went for nothing but support for him. I enjoyed the meetings and the people there. For all of you wondering what they are like, it's not an interrogation. You messed up, but you're here trying to do something about it. Good for you. Come celebrate life and recovery with us.

When I met him, he was clean and sober. Would things have been different if he wasn't? Absolutely. I think God brought us together at just the right time and said, "This is unexpected and weird...let's try it." Well, so far it's working. :)

If you guys have any questions for Christopher or about Christopher, please leave them in the comments. Tomorrow is Saturday so he will be home. I asked him, since I was doing this post today if he would tell his story and answer any questions you have for him. He agreed to it :) so please ANYTHING you have to ask, please ask it. He's an open book.

Thanks for reading today guys, I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll see you tomorrow :)