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 ;)