Thank God I Got Her by Jonny Diaz

This song is so me, every word. I shared it will Mr. Cook and I'm so glad he feels the same way.
True love, y'all.

A New Name & A Yummy Breakfast

Productive and fun morning with hubby, who I roped into driving me downtown to do my name addition - that's been on my to-do list for years! Yay! After business was taken care of, breakfast stops included Porter Road Butcher, where Dave got a meaty breakfast sandwich and I got a scone. They gave us a free scone because it was a little overcooked. Super yum! Good thing I ran this morning! Then to Headquarters Nashville for Chai! #yum #supportlocal #itsbetter

                            

Day Trip with Daddy!

These two are off on a canoeing, fishing and picnic adventure today! Yay for iPhones and sending Mom (stuck at the office) pictures!! Good job, Hubby! Hope you both are having lots of fun!

Morning Mercies

I do it every morning. After shutting off my alarm and getting out of bed, I head immediately downstairs. I reach in the same cabinet every morning and grab the exact same travel mug. I have to have my coffee and like to enjoy it the greater part of the morning as I head to work. But I've only got one travel mug with a lid. Every night my sweet husband makes sure he washes my one mug so it's ready to go in the morning.

Made me think about God's mercy. Fresh and new and clean every morning. Ready for us upon waking up to each new day. It's amazing. I can't fathom that there's enough for everyone after my daily allowance, but that's how great my God is!

Lamentations 3:22-24 (NKJV)
22. Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.

23. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

24. “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “ Therefore I hope in Him!”

Itchy, itchy!

Poor Dave. Somewhere, somehow he picked up some itchy, poisonous stuff. Maybe ivy, maybe oak. We're not sure. So he phone me on the way home from work and I picked him up a tube of relief. Hopefully he'll be on his way to itch-free recovery.

A Day for Dads!

Charity's happy to love on her favorite daddy today! He the world's best!


And my dad isn't too bad either! LOL :o)

Love you Dads! Hope you both enjoy your day!

xo xo xo xo xo

A Ruby Tuesday

I love my husband!! Jokingly I asked him if he would give me ride to work today, his day off, and he sweetly agreed without hesitation. So not only did I get a ride to work today, but when he and Charity picked me up at 5pm, we all went to Ruby Tuesday for dinner. There's one right across the street from my office and we've had a gift card for some time. So it worked out to be the perfect evening. We even headed to TJ Maxx for shopping. The perfect Tuesday evening at Ruby Tuesday. Yum! Had me some very yummy Bistro Barbecue Chicken. I think we should make it a Tuesday tradition. Well, I guess that probably won't work. But tonight was sure fun!!

My First Day

I made it through my first day. I think the greatest challenge was the drive home in the beating rain in the dark after staring at a computer screen for 8 hours.

It's going to take me a little getting used to my training hours of 11 am - 8 pm. But after these first two weeks, I should be able to switch to some more "normal" daytime hours.

It's been a ride of mixed emotions, but I know it's what's best. I was crying this morning when Dave and I told Charity, I wouldn't be home until after she was asleep. :'( And even though though they released me early today, Dave was so good and she was already asleep when I got home at 8 pm.

For today it was fairly easy, almost boring. But I'll be learning more over the next few days, overall I really like it and am looking forward tomorrow. But I need lots of rest, so it's off to bed now!

Good night!!

. . . . and see working is not all bad. Here's the salad Dave had made me for dinner when I got home! He's so sweet when I'm working! Love him! (If you can't tell, the tomatoes are in a heart-shape!! . . . .

Destructive Dave

This isn't all he broke today. Also my beloved "Bellevue Care Group" coffee mug from my friend, Lynne, but that was already in the trash before I shot my picture.

By the way, Dave, this is not going to get you out of unloading the dishwasher! :P

Black Friday

I don't know what has gotten into Dave but he wanted to go out and check out the deals today. Whoa! I mean he does the grocery shopping and all, but we went to Toys 'R Us, Sears, Marshalls, Ross, etc . . . that is so unlike him. He doesn't even like to go to those establishments on a "good" day, let alone on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year!! Guess with all his recent coupon clipping, he's getting addicted to the savings?!

I think it's the first time I've gone shopping on Black Friday, ever, or as far as I can remember! (confession: I, who loves shopping, cannot stand the crowds or getting up on the crack of dawn on my day off!)

Though we didn't buy any Christmas presents, it was fun to get out as a family and check it all out. And having that change was the greatest deal I found today!! Who knows, maybe by next year we'll be among those early, early risers waiting in lines before the stores open . . . I highly doubt it though!!

Home Improvements

The Dining Room Revolution:

2005 (when we bought our house)

2006

2007And finally 2008!! I'm so proud of Dave. He did all this picture frame molding himself with his little miter saw! He's becoming such a handy man! . . . Dad, doesn't it look pretty good for his first time? . . .

Usually we tackle these painting projects together, but because I had such a crazy week/weekend he did it all himself. (Well, I did a little, little bit of sanding!)

It's not complete, we haven't got anything on the walls. We have drapes, but we need to get fixtures to hang them. So not finished . . . but getting there!

But I guess those finishing touches will be my job. And for now, Dave has moved onto his next molding project . . . doing something with the boring pillars.

When he's done, they'll look more like these:

Dave, I love you! You're the best! Thank you for making my wishes your next assignment! :D

Back to Real Life

Oh! Seems like forever since I've been on this computer! The weekend was crazy or maybe it was me that was crazy. I've had some sort of sinus/cold mess and spent lots of the past few days in bed with a major headache. No fun! I woke up this morning feeling much better, which was good because I'm worked for MS Concierge today. I guess I still sound pretty bad, at least that what everyone says. Can't wait to have this behind me!

Charity settled back into the school routine pretty well. She wore her "new" jumper and when we got to school, her little friend had hers on too. That made her Monday. She was exhausted from the day and took a little nap in between Wal*Mart and Kroger, but still went to sleep pretty quickly. Yay for that!

Dave had a slow day in "the office". It's Columbus Day, so the USPS is closed and everyone assumes they are. The down time allowed him to get the budget all in place, coupons clipped and lists written for our frugal grocery shopping this evening. And we did it! Saved a good $20 something on sales and coupons!

Looks like I'll be working a bit more for MS Concierge. The client we've been doing a lot for is stepping it up, so we'll be doing a lot more, giving me probably 3 to 4 days a week. So that's great for me. Just means less blog time, since I'm pretty worn after my day, and will spend my spare computer time looking for a full-time job, oh well, all good things must come to an end . . .

Assignment

My cheap hubby says I have to watch "Oprah" today. She's featuring some of America's Thriftiest families. We'll see if we can learn anything. My guess is he could teach them a few tricks!

Cha-ching! Go the Savings!

UPDATE: So we go to Kroger after Charity's cheering Friday evening. He's right. Who! The total was around $40, we gave the cashier our Kroger card and coupons, and cha-ching, $27! Wow! He's right! I can get used to this!

I have to admit, I have the best husband in the world. Not only is He loving, sweet and always watching out for my best, he's funny, too!!

So he heard on TV about this lady who got $50 in groceries for $18 bucks or something like that. Well, it sparked a whole new hobby for him. He already loves to save money, but this is even more profitable. What the lady does is she clips coupons and goes through all the weekly sale flyers. She only buys the items that are on sale that she has coupons for. So Dave started this week. Went through all the sale flyers, clipped all the coupons and just returned from his first shopping trip. I hear him, on the phone with, who else but the second cheapest person in the world, his Dad! They're comparing "cheap" stories. Unbelievable! Dave is ravings of all he got at Publix for only $14! Not sure if it's anything we'll eat, but would you believe the savings!?!

But he says he not done, he's got a few more store to visit which he'll do over the next few days. He's say we'll have everything that we need, for a fraction of the regular price. Sounds good to me! How could a wife complain!?!

Date Night?

I think it's been too long since we've done this, since we obviously don't know what to do. Here's our romantic evening out:

Left house shortly after Dave is out of work. Headed to Frist Center. It takes us nearly an hour to get from our house to the Frist Center, which should take about 20 minutes, except Nashville is in the middle of a gas shortage and the stations are so crammed with patrons waiting in line to get gas they're back up on the roads. We kept asking ourselves, "Why are doing this?"

Finally arrive at Frist, where we stroll through about 30 minutes, as neither of us are super art appreciator, but had a coupon for two free visitors from a friend, that loves art.

And the highlight of the evening, we opted to go to Wal*Mart and pick up groceries for the weekend, rather than head out to eat as we had originally planned.

Aren't we exciting? I think we need some help.

I guess after being together nearly 12 years, we are just as happy getting something done that needs to be done in peace and quiet, than sitting down eating a meal. (At least that's how we felt tonight.) Nevertheless, we came home happy even after the shortest, boringest date night we've ever had!!

Real Life

If only . . .
Honestly today I'm wallowing in depression since I'm not even able to go to the half-off sale at Goodwill. That is a bad day! When we got our $o.82 in change back last night from the cashier at Wal*Mart, Dave says, "That's it. That's all we've got until Tuesday."

Mom's right (always!): Life's rough, you've got to be tough!

Well, the last few months have been pretty rough. I pray no one has to go through what we're going through. We've never ever lived this way in our 11 years of marriage. Never really had deny ourselves or Charity anything. Didn't have to say, "No, we can't afford that." Never had to eat at home so much . . . the worst part! Oh the days, when I went "shopping", like real shopping, for me almost every week! Can't say this is so fun.

But I try to remain on the positive: Charity is in Christian school which is all paid for. At least I get to spend my boring Saturday in my beautiful home, for a minimal mortgage payment. Our credit card debt is nearly nonexistent, expect for those new tires we had to have last month. We are truly blessed!

Dave comments to my misery, "You could shop at Goodwill everyday of your life if our daughter was in public school."

Ouch!

I'm definitely getting tougher!

He vs. Me

Okay, so here's a big difference between Dave and I: He can't stand being bored for even one minute. Me on the other hand, I love being bored, as it doesn't happen very often.

So this morning when we dropped our car off and it was going to take 2 hours, instead of 45 minutes as we thought, Dave immediately knew he couldn't tolerate sitting there in that little waiting area for that amount of time.

What he said, "Let's take a little walk." (Next time, I'll ask him exactly what he means by "little". Because the journey we took yesterday, was far from little!)

We headed out from Firestone, walked completely around the perimeter of the Bellevue Center. Crossed the busy street, thought we'd get some breakfast at Jack In The Box, then remembered there was a Shoney's "just down the street a little more". Ha!! But what was a little more after the hike we'd already endured. So on we continued.

After our Shoney's breakfast as we headed back, the Firestone people called us and said our car was finished. Perfect timing, in Dave's view! Not one bored second! Tired and exhausted I arrived at our new-tired car. Sorry, Dave, but don't look to me for anymore exciting adventures today. I think I'll be spending the rest of your day off doing nothing . . . being bored!!

Our Journey

Waitressin' @ Waffle House

There's only 4 jobs in the Administrative/Support Services section of the Sunday paper, previously a list that used to be columns and columns long. I told Dave I'll be waiting tables at Waffles House soon. He said I would stay home before that happened. I love Him to pieces!! xo xo xo

39 Things About My Husband

1) Today's the day the world was blessed with him, May 27th, only the year was 1969.

2) He is the best dad I ever met.

3) He is the only people person with Social Anxiety Disorder (amazing what the Holy Ghost does!!).

4) He is a Cook, as in his name is: Dave Cook and he is an awesome cook, as in he makes every meal that comes out of our kitchen and pretty much always has.

5) He's not a big dessert fan.

6) He's not a huge sports fan, doesn't hunt, does a little fishing, but that's about it.

7) He's a huge JESUS fan . . . a true Christian.

8) He's doesn't have any real brothers and sisters. But two stepsisters; one in Massachusetts and one in Texas.

9) He doesn't let the car get too messy or too dirty before it "has to be cleaned".

10) He has a real job, with a real company, but very rarely leaves home to do it.

11) He's also a General Licensed UPC minister, but that occupation isn't being utilized so much since moving to Tennessee.

12) He was voted Sectional Youth Leader of the year for the Maine District in 2005, because he knows how to rock out and have fun with young people . . . believe it or not!

13) Speaking of which . . . He listens to God and for no other apparent reason relocated our family here to Tennessee in May of 2005, which has changed our lives in so many ways.

14) He has a burden for Asian souls and someday would like to be a missionary to Thailand.

15) At his current weight, he's smaller than he's been in a looooonnngg time. I think he's the only husband that has gotten smaller since getting married . . . to the tune of 40 pounds less!! Yay, Dave!!

16) Right now his favorite meal is salad and zero point soup.

17) He has beautiful teeth.

18) He married me almost 11 years ago on Saturday, June 21st, 1997 at noon.

19) He took me on an unforgettable honeymoon to Prince Edwards Island in Canada. He was sick for three days from Chinese food we ate first night. In sickness and in health . . . all in the first week!

20) He got some pretty crazy music tastes, like funky 80's tunes to the oldest of hymns.

21) He's managed McDonald's, K*Mart, Rite Aid, Hertz and Sears . . . to name a few.

22) He's been delivered from some crazy boy club called MEX.

23) He got a great sense of humor and at times can still get us in trouble.

24) He the kind of person that says things perfectly.

25) He loves me and puts up with me day after day.

26) He loves to travel and has taken me on some of the most wonderful trips. His favorite vacations being Arizona and Quebec.

27) He's super organized and anally punctual.

28) I hate to admit, but I think he has more design sense than I when it comes to our home.

29) However, he lacks big time in the the fashion sense department . . . his wardrobe is . . . yikes . . . that's why God gave him me!

30) He grew up not really wanting anything, so money and gaining more doesn't impress him.

31) He takes good care of his mom, who lives below us.

32) He sounds like his dad and is starting to look like him.

33) He keeps one nice looking yard.

34) He's not a country boy, nor has never owned a truck.

35) But he does own a pair of rubber boots.

36) He's secretly the King of our subdivision, "Westchase Hills".

37) The word of God excites him and he loves deriving deeper truths from it.

38) He's my "Cookie Dough"!

39) He is the mostest incredible, amazing man in my universe and I'm so happy to call him my husband!

Happy 39th Birthday, Dave!