Thoughts on the Colorado shooting

Man. My heart has been heavy. So sad. So many reasons. Death has been on my thoughts so much this week. I recently read another blog about a girl that was killed on her lunch break in the middle of the day about a year ago. So much fear has filled my heart.

As our pastor read a blogpost from a woman who was in the Colorado shooting, survived, and believed in Jesus, I finally broke. I wept.

I wept because, quite often I get sad that this is the world my baby girl has been born into. I wept because life is only the present, and because it was a horrible crime.

I also wept because I can't imagine life without hope in Christ.

I wept because for me, it was God's sweet grace to get to read a Christ followers hope after surviving such a horrific thing.

I wept praying that I would feel closest to God in the midst of fear like that and I wept because I often think about these situations.

I am married to an officer. This you know.

What does this mean?

1. We go over any and all situations like this. So I have though scary scenarios before.
2. Officer has high protective instincts. He would make a really good secret service agent. We have always discussed this.
3. Officer is the hero type. Not in an obnoxious way. In an amazing selfless way. He would always try to help people who can't help themselves.

So I often think about these things, these scenarios. It may seem super morbid, but if you have an officer you know, its wise.

I know that if this ever happened to us, Officer would make sure I am as safe as I could be and then go after the bad guy and helping other people. I know it. No doubt. It is a responsibility he takes very serious from the day he became an Officer.


I am comforted as I read through Psalm 23 this morning. Because the Lord is my shepherd through this scary, broken world.

I hope you too find comfort in this...

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³ he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

School of Rox - 11 months

Um hello my little grown up fox!!

This month was HUGE. I feel like you are a person and not a "pre-toddler".

Words:
Momma
Dadda
Baby
Cheese
Yes
No
Moo
Bauck
Aww


Phrases:
I see! (from your fav book- brown bear brown bear)
Where he?

You hum along to songs, constantly read to yourself, talk to the books, or hug and kiss your animals. Your tent is your favorite place and you think I can't see you in there. It's precious!

Fox, dolly, piggy and lamby are your favorite but you give them all kisses.

You LOVE with all your heart to swim. Dive in, head under, dare devil style. You do not have a fear in the world when it comes to the water. Mommy and daddy love to swim so this has been fun!

You LOVE oranges, drinking out of mommy's water, peas, turkey meat and staying on the MOVE. You are a HARD baby to feed because you want to do it yourself and can't yet and you are so busy I often have to use tricks to get you to eat the bare minimum. We will get there I know it.

You have no desire to walk yet, crawling is faster and more efficient and I get that so I really do not protest. You will do it when you are ready. I think you might swim on your own before you walk. You are finally enjoying independent play and blanket time...this took some time but now you love it.

You are starting to keep shoes on your feet and you like them. Your feet are tiny. 3-6 month size tiny. I am just happy we found some shoes that fit. So happy I splurged on a few...please stay at this size for a few  months k?

Fox- we celebrate your one year birthday in a MONTH and I can't handle it. You are growing so fast. We are planning a Rox Star theme. More on your party to come.

What a ride its been little one. We love you soo much!

Mom and Dad

~an Officer and a Mrs.

11 months looks like this...

At the end of the day...I clean up the toilet paper rox unrolled and tore up, find all the alphabet magnets, pick up all the lost spoons and thank the Lord for this bundle of joy. Man she blesses us.

Friday FAVS

Whoosh. What a whirl wind this week has been. I feel like it was Friday 3 days ago and Sunday 2 days ago and Monday yesterday. I guess that is what a holiday on hump day will do to your mind.

Being the big picture thinker that I am, it made me see when Christmas falls this year...a Tuesday. Then I started planning what that would look like. Then I saw the heaping pile of dishes and laundry and thought, "oh yea" ....but Christmas planning is way more important. #iknowimcrazy.

With that being said. Here is what we have been loving this week!!!

These backpacks are on sale at Pottery Barn so we may have purchased one for Fox for her upcoming birthday and the fact that she starts "school" in August.

This is where I have camped out on the computer getting amazing ideas for Fox's 1st birthday party!!

Stop by here and see new items in our shop!! We have been working through the holiday and new items will be coming up all weekend! We just upgraded to an awesome new dye brand. We love it!

Getting ready to start train for this with my bestie...going for a personal best means must start training early.

Going here tomorrow for some major wedding planning. Gu is getting married in less than a month!!!!

I'm not always a big pinner but this week...lots of it happened.

Thats are week! Hope y'all had a great 4th. So grateful to live in America.

~an Officer and a Mrs.

Whole30 and some updates

Hi friends,

An update has been near the top of my list for a while...but somehow its June 23rd and I CANNOT remember how we got here. Officer and I are experiencing our only free Saturday in 2 months and last free Saturday until my sister's wedding in August. We enjoyed this. Let me tell you.

But anyway, Officer and I have been doing crossfit for almost 3 months now and our gym launched a Whole30 challenge for both June and July. Officer and I adopted paleo eating at the beginning of April with a cheat day every Saturday so we thought this would be easy. We. Were. WRONG.

Whole30 details and rules can be found here. All our best recipes were found here. And motivation found here. 

Crossfit has transformed life for Officer and I. We love it. We cant get enough of the self competition and the results. It has been difficult, however doing Whole30 has been one of the hardest things I have ever done mentally.

First week: I was a wreck. Did a little traveling and couldn't eat anything. Anywhere. Diet coke has been my biggest withdraw. I mean it has hardly gotten easier for me. I miss it every day. It has taught me SO much though about how we get addicted to things and how AWFUL I ate before.

I have learned how to cook so many wonderful things. I crave eating at home more than I do out now. I never EVER thought I would say that either! I have learned healthy substitutes that taste wonderful to me. And life without dairy has made me feel so much better all the way around. Life without dairy has launched Officer to almost 20 pounds of weight loss...hello results.

Here are some of our favorites:

Favorite mains:
Pulled pork
Cowboy breakfast skillet

Favorite breakfast:
Breakfast fritata (we make this at the beginning of each week and then cook throughout the week)
      -12 whisked eggs
      -browned turkey sausage
      -broccoli
      -spinach
cook for 15 min on 375...done. Too easy.


Favorite sweets:
Banana Icecream
Raw brownies (I make these weekly and use raw almonds instead of walnuts)
Banana muffins

We are entering our 4th week of Whole30! I took a break last week to try out my first ever cleanse with Isagenix. Here is were you can read more and I will be doing a whole post about the cleanse. I recommend a yearly cleanse to everyone and I think this will be the one I do every year. Isagenix is the protein I now use and I love it. It is perfect for paleo life style because the sugar content in Isalean is low enough that it doesn't taste too sweet as many proteins now do.

Updates coming this week!

School of Rox- 10 months

Dearest Fox,

Stop it. Stop growing at warp speed and tackling new growth hurdles every day. It doesn't even seem right that another month has passed.

This month was/is defined by quite a bit of chaos in that its been busy. We attended Aunt Gu's graduation from nursing school, had your first lake experience, another night of just you and your dad, SWAM in the pool, went to the lake, went to the zoo, and had your dedication. What special days.

You my sweet love are a riot. You LOVE attention and feed off of people's energy. You are a lot like your parents in that way and we get the biggest kick out of it. I have learned you know how to play games and are such a woo-er. However, you like your alone time too.

You have turned out to be a big stuffed animal/doll girl. This (apparently) is very un-like your mom and very much like your Aunt Gu. You are currently attached/can't sleep without a doll, a pink piggy and a lamb. You put all three of them up to your face, squeeze them tight and bite their noses. All of your stuffed animals when playing get a bite on those and a hug. I also got a bite on the nose this month and that is when I realized it was probably a kiss. You melt our heart fox. Some might say its a bit much that a 10 month old sleeps with 3 "toys" but you didn't pick up on a passy or sucking your thumb so I say go for it. You are definitely grizzly, which growing up for me what a high compliment. You are go big or go home.

New tricks:
-clapping
-shaking your head yes, although you MUCH prefer no
-one time this month you YELLED no to your cousin when she tried to take your puff. HILARious
-pushing buttons
-pulling open drawers
-open and closing doors
-standing with out holding on to anything for quick little burst
-eating baby granola bars
-drinking out of ANY straw!!

Growth wise you are still in the same clothes and weight- maybe this month.

We love you baby girl. We are approaching your first birthday and plans have begun. I cant believe we are 2 MONTHS away from this day. I have been soaking up every moment with you lately. I am thankful the Lord has given me the ability to slow down and enjoy you even more! We dedicated you to the Lord on June 10th in front of close family and friend Fox and it is my absolute prayer you quickly know the Lord. What a special day it was and you got to do it with your bud Darby. Such a big month!

Love,

mom & dad

Aunt Gu's nursing school graduation- 5.20.12

Fox baby dedication- 6.10.12

Passed out after Aunt Gu's honors ceremony. This never happens.

Being silly with dad on Memorial Day at the lake- 5.28.12

The zoo. Not scared at all. 5.25.12

Hanging out at the lake w/Darby (learning to share) 5.27.12

Such a fashionista. always.

SO PROUD of you NAT! 5.20.12

Asleep at graduation

Sippy cup skipped and straw accomplished!!

Wednesday Wife Letters- me

Dear Mrs.

This week has been a beating and its only Wednesday...

Its good though. Good things are happening. It's just craziness.

Officer and I have been planning and dreaming for the future lately. I am the realist so I rarely indulge in dreaming with Officer, but when I do I enjoy it.

I am a big picture person. This I have learned most since being a mom. I used to argue with people and say, "no, seriously I am detail person," when they would look at how I work and the way I organize. Silly me, I don't keep lists, I live in chaos and I function best thinking about the big goals, not the small ones. I really am blessed by this way of processing because it saved me from a lot of trouble. I am always thankful to the Lord for that. But I am not a detail person...not even a little bit.

As I look at a living room with books and toys scattered about, a completely empty toy shelf (because they are all on the floor), a kitchen table covered with beach towels with art projects sitting on top, a baby gate in front of the tv and entertainment piece that makes the tv slightly harder to see, and a stack of papers to file, sort and figure out...I feel a bit overwhelmed, but also right at home. 

Motherhood has brought all of these things out. I have written about this before because it has shocked me. I am much more of a free spirit than I ever thought, I spend 99% of the time not being put together and with out make up. This is not at all how I used to be. My style has shifted to more of a bohemian urban style, I am still very into fashion but I find myself drooling over things I would have thought were weird before. Fox is on a pretty specific sleep schedule but everything else is pretty free. We are teaching her baby signs and are enforcing rules and discipline along the way but I am not falling on that side of the street as naturally as I thought I would. It is definitely my desire, but I thought it would come easy to me. It doesn't.

I don't always wipe a toy off after someone else uses it, and I make baby food but I also give her bought baby food. Ha, again things I didn't see myself naturally doing. She is around kids all the time, we use public bathrooms and she has been sick more than her fair share of times. I am not judging if you do differently. Since being a mom, I have learned we all have to do what we think is best and everyone has different experiences that shape the way they do things. I am simply saying the way I do things.

Fox is social. She gets giddy when she sees other babies and kids, and loves interacting with them. She is also independent and keeps herself entertained a lot of the time. She is a charmer, adventurous, has the smallest pain tolerance, and she is so funny. I adore her. She is my heart and brings me so much joy. She is all the good of my officer and me. Officer is such a good completer and partner to me. Times are not always easy, we work hard at our life, but God is refining us and making us more like him one shift at a time.

This probably seems random, but that is what happens when you haven't posted in a month. Life is crazy right now and I often want to control it all. The Lord is teaching me the sweetness of being utterly out of control. Because he's got it.

~an Officer and a Mrs.