On Again....Off Again

I definitely feel like I have a "celebrity" relationship with blogging! Sometimes I am really into it and stay semi-consistent in updates. And then there are the "more than not" times that it just doesn't seem to fit in the priorities...or even the hobbies...or even the I am really bored I should do somethings....
BUT-oh well!! Life goes on none-the-less :)

What's been going on:

Vacation. We headed to Colorado with Micah's family for a week, which was wonderful!! This desesrves an entire post all to itself. That will give me perfect motivation to post again soon :) After Colorado, Micah and I went to Ruidoso for our anniversary trip. SIX years. Wow! Has it really been that long? I guess it's a good thing if you ask that question, right?? Anyway, I will post on that later too.

Schedules. I suppose back to school stuff doesn't technically affect us yet, but we are settling into a completely different schedule from the summer! Instead of Micah being gone during the weeks and home weekends, the trend sort of reverses. We have had LOTS of time together the last few weeks which is FANTASTIC, but hard to get used to! It kind of throws me for a loop, honestly. It's funny how quickly I settle into my own little groove and way of doing things and when that changes I feel a little out of it. For instance, I am not someone who has to be "going" all the time and in fact, if I am not careful, I can be borderline homebody! However, since Micah has been home during the week in the evenings, I keep feeling like we NEED to be doing something. So weird for me!! Our normal schedule usually only allows 2-3 nights home together (counting weekends), so you would think I would be ecstatic just to stay home and enjoy family time every night. But I guess because it's not normal for us, I can't seem to settle into it! Isn't that strange?!!?

Photography. This is something I have done on the side for several years now and I had the opportunity last weekend for several sessions, which was GREAT! I took some pictures for a friend's business, some maternity, and a wedding. I just love photography and it is one of those things that just feels right when I am behind the camera. My preference is to shoot in more relaxed settings and my absolute favorite subjects are children (no offense to the adults...i love you guys too)!! Something about the pure honest emotions you get when you photograph kids just makes my heart pitter patter. Cheesy, I know, but it does ;) Anyway, I have wanted to set up a photography blog for a while now, but hadn't for various reasons, but alas, today.....i did it. It's super plain right now, but the most important decorations are the photos themselves, so it might stay just as it is :) If you like, you can check it out HERE.

Last thing. I was watching my sweet, rambunctious boys run around screaming and chasing ground squirrels and birds unmercifully yesterday at the park and I decided moreso than any other moment in all my years of mommy-hood, that I LOVE being a mom to boys! I would completely be overjoyed if the Lord blesses us with a little girl someday, but for now, all I need are my precious boys!

"The Good, The Bad, The Ugly"

The GOOD-
OK- so I am trying (apparently not very hard) to cut back on DP in an attempt to lose a few pounds, but tonight I was in SEVERE need of a Dr. Pepper. We were fresh out of them. I had just given the boys a bath and was getting them ready for bed when the craving hit, but I was NOT going to load them in the car at 8:00 for a Sonic run. But I still needed one :) SO....... I texted my "sweet, precious, I knew she was one of my best friends for a reason," to see if she might still be at church (very close to my house), to ask if she'd bring me a DP from the machine there. Well, sweet love!! Not only did she bring a delicious, ice cold can of goodness straight to my doorstep, but she brought a whole case!! Now that, my friends, is true friendship ;) Love you muchas mas KIRA!! And I still would even if you hadn't rushed to my rescue tonight, but I am sure glad you did :)


Kira & Me


The BAD-
*Micah was home for 2 1/2 weeks which was AWESOME!!! He left today for a camp in East Texas and I won't see him til Tuesday....I miss him...this is bad. :(

*I use too much excessive punctuation when I write. I used to be an English teacher. This is bad.

The UGLY-
ME!! As in my attitude....YUCK! Can anyone say, Mommy the GROUCH?!!? Uhhhggghh! I have been so impatient, frustrated, snappy, and grouchy this week. Yeah-the whole week. Little things that aren't usually a big deal to me are driving me nutso, I have very little patience for a certain 3.5 & 2.5 year old, and I am just plain not pleasant :( I don't know what the deal is, but "I do not like it, not one little bit!" It's not fun and I want out of the "funk!" So, for the benefit of my sweet boys and everyone else around me, would you mind just saying a quick prayer for me today? Thanks ;)

Summer Fun

*WARNING.....due to the fact that I haven't posted in a month, this post is a little LONG and has LOTS of pictures :) *

Oh man! What a crazy summer we are having!! I thought summer was the season when everyone was supposed to slow down and take it easy and I thought we would settle after our trip to the Philippines, but I feel like we have been busier than EVER! Micah has had a very busy summer, which is great because ministry is what he does, but hard because he has been gone from us for virtually 7 weeks (minus a day here and there between camps)! Strangely enough, its gone by fairly fast and its been easier than the past summers that he's been gone, even though its the most he has traveled! Well, for me anyway. Aiden has NOT been very happy about his daddy being gone so much :( In fact, this weekend, he cried for daddy every night! BROKE my heart!! But no worries now, because DADDY IS HOME!! Well, technically he is at my mom's with us, but he is here and that's all that matters! He has a 2 1/2 week break before he has his last camp of the summer...WHOOHOO!

my handsome boys ;) we went fishing at a...ehemmm... "lake" close to my mom's. It was small to say the least! More to come on that story...


Puzzle time with daddy...that's his knee in the corner...apparently i forgot to get a pic with him in it!


Chillin with daddy in the recliner ;)

Anyway, the boys and I have stayed busy too, swimming, playing, running around, entertaining my little brother (10 yrs old) and doing some traveling of our own! We had a blast with Micah in Brownwood at youth camp! The boys and I loved getting to take a special trip with daddy to an event!
Funny story...I told the boys that we were going to get to go to camp with daddy for a few days and they were so excited, but Seth, the literal child he is, processed it as "camping!" So he thought we were going to sleep in our sleeping bags in a tent and that we were going to fish! It just cracked me up, because he has only been fishing once with Micah 2 summers ago, we didn't even own fishing poles, and we have never been on a camping trip. I am not sure where he learned what camping meant, but boy was he ready :) He was so excited about fishing and was telling everyone that we got to go to the "campout" with daddy and that he was gonna fish!! We are so blessed to have thoughtful and caring parents...Micah's dad, who the boys call "Pan," went to Academy and bought both the boys fishing poles (quite nice ones, might I add!!) Pan gave them to the boys Sunday after church and Seth was so excited he held the package all the way to Brownwood and even fell asleep with it in his hands :)


Thats a straw in his mouth in case you were wondering.....
Aiden was just as excited about his fishing pole, but he was more interested in hitting Seth with it, so I had to take it away for the time being!

THEN, on Monday afternoon after being SO patient, Seth got to go fishing with Micah on the lake at the camp. Unfortunately, Aiden had to have a nap, so he didn't get to go with them :( But he was perfectly happy to hang out with Mommy in the air conditioned room! When Micah was getting the fishing pole ready, you would have thought it was Christmas morning! Seth was absolutely precious because he was so excited he just kept talking and talking and talking about fishing! Micah brought some "sausage"" bait we had left over from lunch at Underwoods BBQ in Brownwood and the perch LOVED it!! Seth caught several and even held one of them before they threw it back in the water :) I am so proud of my little guy and I KNOW his daddy is too :)


getting the fishing pole ready..

Seth with a catch!

proud of that fishing pole

another "getting ready" pic

We left the camp Tuesday morning, spent one night at home, then headed to my mom's house for the rest of the week :) We love hangin out at Mamo's!!


wild man!


sandbox fun :)


yay for cupcakes


wanna bite?


push-ups + cartoons= the best life ever!


sno-cone goodness


look at mine!


hanging out at the pool


is this livin it up or what?


big boy swimmer ;) Maybe next summer we will work on losing those floaties!

Last but not least...MORE FISHING!!
We went to a very small lake about 20 minutes from my mom's house today. When we got there Micah said, "This is a lake? More like a pond.." and my mom said, "You Texans have to have everything big!" HAHA. Yes mom....we do!! So we follow Micah down to the water and IMMEDIATELY two beautiful white geese make their way over to us. I, of course, think they are cute and are just coming over to say hi, but as soon as Micah turned his back, they snuck over and tried to get our bait!! HAHA! So my everso courageous husband gently shoo'd them away and said "those silly geese...tryin to get my bait...haha!" Are you kidding me?? NO HE DID NOT DO THAT!! He yelled, "get out of here," and bowed up to them (as if in a fight with another human being)! When they retreated he called out after them, "that's right suckers!!" Oh man, I was totally cracking up! The beautiful geese scattered off a few feet away, but it wasn't long before they made their way back. BUT this time they B-lined straight for Aiden's little leg!!! The wonderful photographer that I am, I was taking pics and couldn't get there fast enough, but our of the corner of my eye Super-Daddy whacks the goose with a fishing pole! The goose hissed, Micah hissed back, the goose retreated, (for good this time) and Micah, in his moment of goose-defeat glory, shouted another, "whats up sucker...that's right!!" Micah the goose-slayer....my hero!! ;)


checking out a weed, er, I mean flower he picked for me


where are the fish? We didn't catch anything :(


Aiden resorted to relaxing in the shade :)


Me and the Sether J...


Me and the Pot-Pie :)


Aiden takin a break on the dock with my beautiful momma


Dad...i think the fish are over there....

how much longer do I have to pretend to fish? Can I have a snack?


such a pro


the infamous geese....

This boy is somethin else!

So my sweet little Aidie-pots is quite the character and lately he has been CRACKING me up because he will fall asleep just about ANYWHERE when he is ready for his nap! He must be making up for his whole first year of crying and no sleeping. Well....actually, he still does the crying (especially when dadda is gone-this summer's been rough), but the sleeping has improved 100%. He no longer fights sleep nor only remains asleep for short moments at a time, but will fall asleep at the blink of an eye and stay that way for a long time...praise the Lord!! I can't tell you how many times I have left him awake one minute looked back the next minute and he was conked out :) Gotta love him. Precious boy!!

Anyway, here are a few pics of him "sleeping:"


asleep on our bed. i dunno if he was propping himself up with his arm?!!?


This has to be the funniest!! we were eating lunch, he got down from his chair, put his head on his "nite-nites" and seconds later was out!! He stayed that way for at least a few minutes until his legs started to give way and we decided to forsake our laughing moment to put him in bed :)


Same naptime- after Micah moved him to his room, this is how he ended up :) Crazy boy...


He was on the couch watching "toons", his diaper was off, ready to be changed before naptime, when my mom and I got distracted talking...it got REALLY quiet, and this is what we found....HA!!


Couldn't leave Seth out! He stuck his head between the cushions and fell asleep this way!!

It's a Love-Hate Relationship, but first....

Here are a few pics from the trip (I finally loaded them on my computer)!!


Scenery on the way to the province where Lakan's uncle lives. I took this pic from the "window" of the jeepney while we were driving :) Not too bad, eh?


This might seem weird, but this is actually a pic at a cemetery and that building is one of those "enclosed graves." I can't remember what they are called..help me out Ryan D! You know, the coffin isn't buried under ground, rather just freestanding in the building?? Anyway, I thought it was VERY interesting, that some people actually live in those (as their home) because they are to be responsible for being the caretaker of their deceased loved one's resting place. Apparently, it's more efficient to just live in the building than it is to travel there to care for it. As we drove by, you could see house decor and furniture!! Isn't that so interesting?


here is Micah in front of a Jeepney. This was our main means of transportation while we were there.


This was INSIDE the mall we went to in Manilla!! Super cool and Super nice :)


Me and the Rachie girl! Best sis-in-law a girl could ask for!


One of the favorite dessert of most Filipinos- Halo Halo. Yummy Yummy! Its a mixture of ice cream, gummies, coconut, and something crunchy in coconut milk (I think?!?!).


The Micah Mariano Band- :) playing at the concert in Cagayan de Oro. Micah (lead), Boshi (keys), John Bautista(drums), and Rachie (viola).


my hottie rockstar hubby ;)


check out that banner....enough said!


Lakan's uncle that saved him from the flood.


This is where Lakan grew up before the flood. I am not sure which house was his, maybe the middle section? Anyway, you get the idea :)


Here is my hottie hubby again! i totally think he could pass as an Arab sheik or some sort of Arab royalty!! We did decide it might not be best to sport this look in the airport security lines though ;)


Me and the Sweet Rachie again by the beach in Cagayan


HELLO!! Is this sunset amazing or what? The mercy and magnificence of God, the Creator, totally just hit me in this moment....


Can you tell which part of the trip this is? Welcome home.....
Funny..i actually took this picture when we were getting our bags after going through Customs, and APPARENTLY, you aren't allowed to take pictures in that area, as I quickly learned when the guard arrived promptly at my side when he saw the flash...oopsie! Thank goodness he was nice enough to let me keep my camera!!


And now our "Feature Presentation"
I:
*LOVE a clean house...HATE doing the cleaning!!

*LOVE when my hubby comes home from a trip...HATE that he has to be gone :)

*LOVE clear skin....HATE that I have never really had it!!

*LOVE wearing comfy clothes all the time...HATE that as a result, I am not very trendy.

*LOVE the idea of organization.....HATE that I am not organized at all. It's frustrating.

*LOVE junk food and snacking......HATE that it doesn't help my weight loss goals :(

*LOVE the way I feel after working out..........HATE that I won't actually do it consistently, which also consequently does not help my weight loss goals!

*LOVE Circle E candles.......HATE that I only get to buy one 2 or 3 times a year :(

*LOVE when all the laundry is done(or at least the clean laundry put away).....HATE that that NEVER EVER EVER happens at my house.

*LOVE Dr. Pepper..........HATE when it's flat or not ice cold!

*LOVE having a tan.....HATE that I am pasty white right now, especially compared to my dark skinned boys :)

*LOVE knowing that God is absolutely sovereign......HATE not understanding why he created chiggers that seem to derive great pleasure from attacking MY legs!

*LOVE napping....HATE the grogginess that follows!

*LOVE watching my sweet boys grow up.....HATE that they won't be my "babies" forever!

*****thats all I have for now ;) Anyone else have a love/hate relationship you wanna share?****

Jetlag Anyone???

Hello friends! So first of all, I just realized that I completely meant to blog about going to the Philippines before I left, but don't ya know I didn't get to it....oopsie! And then I "planned" to blog right away when we got home, but that didn't happen either! I will blame it on jet lag :) That stuff is a KILLER!! I couldn't figure out what time it was for about 2 weeks! Sheesh! I don't know what my excuse is for the other few weeks?!? Ummmm- how bout......ummmm......nope, I got nothin. Anyone else have an excuse for me?

Anyway, for those of you who didn't know, I had the most fortunate opportunity to go the Philippines for two weeks with the entire Mariano Family (minus the boys who stayed with my momma & grandmomma- THANK YOU)! It was amazing! Micah's dad grew up in Manilla, so we were all able to meet his family-sister, brothers, neices, & nephews- and some of his high school friends. We LOVE his family! They all got up at 3:30am to make sure they were at the airport to welcome us...talk about sacrifice! They were all so hospitable and made every effort to make sure we were well fed :) One of my favorite moments was when we got to meet Lakan's uncle who saved his family from a terrible flood when they were very young; Lakan was 5. His uncle, who happened to not go into work that day and who happened to be a great swimmer and only swimmer in the family, found a garden hose and would tie it from one house to another. Then he would take each member of the family one by one until they all reached that house and then do it all over again until the family was safe from the flood. WOW! It was precious to watch my father-in-law interact with his uncle. I felt honored to have been there. It was a bit of an experience traveling there as we rented a jeepney (see pics) so we could all ride together. Unfortunately, we hit some MAJOR traffic the ENTIRE way to the province and it took us 4 hours for what should have been less than a 2 hour drive. This was one of the few times I was thankful that a certain 3 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old were not with us ;) Anyhoo- it was completely worth the trip and such a blessing to watch Lakan reunite with the man who saved his life. He said several times, "If he had not saved us, none of us would be here. God used him to save our family." Isn't it wonderful how God ordains every event in our lives! Very cool.

We spent about a week in Manilla, then flew to Cagayan de Oro (another island). Did you know that the Philippines is made up of over 7000 islands!?!?! I bet Ashley Honea does! Cagayan was much more rural than Manilla, which I happened to love. There were still a lot of people and CRAZY drivers, but it seemed much more "hometown" to me than the humongous city of Manilla. Micah did a concert in Cagayan to help raise funds for a new building. His brother, sister, and a friend of ours also played with him. I think we were all surprised at how much work and how big the event would be; there were probably about 500ish (maybe more) that attended the concert! They even advertised it on the radio...I always knew my hubby was a super star :) The people from the church were amazing and went to every length to make sure we were all taken care of ;) Ya'll are awesome!!

I must say that one of my favorite highlights of the trip was getting to meet with some people from the Philippines that our church partners with. Unfortunately, I cannot divulge much information via internet for security reasons :( But they were all incredibly amazing people and I am completely humbled by their faith and dedication to the Lord! I will tell you that I "thought" I knew what it meant to claim that Christ is sufficient and that I "count all things loss for the sake of knowing" Him, but good night nurse if God didn't open my eyes!!! These people literally risk their lives to share the good news of Christ and they consider it pure joy ;) And here I am scared to invite the sweet little old man that lives across from us (not you Ryan...you are to our right ;) ) to church!! HELLO!!?!? Anyway, it was a blessing in every way shape and form!

I don't have my pictures on my computer yet, surprise....but if you are on Facebook, you can check them out on my profile via my mother-in-law's photo album. I will work on posting some on here as well!

Hope all of you are doing great! I have missed keeping up with all of you ;)

Look at these CUTIES!!

Just some pics of the boys for this post :) No marathon stories for now ;) I know, I know...you are all so upset...hehehe!


ummmmm, yes, he does think he is this cool!


sunglasses, friends, and fun! (the other little one is Jackson Moore)


ok- seriously, does he not have the greatest smile in the world?



sweet boys :)


my little camera ham!!



Remember the story in my last post about waking up cranky from his nap? He did it again, but his time I captured it with my camera for some serious blackmail someday!!


Rough life for the cranky-pots!!!