Fabulous Finds & etc.

I did it.

I bought the 2011 Swimmy. And I heart it. I don't mess around anymore. If I see the "one", I know to just buy the darn thing because if you wait, you will come back to a rack of 2XL bottoms and XS tops, although sometimes I feel like those are my proportions, they are not. Plus now it can stare me in the face while I do the shred or maybe I'll hang it on my fridge...anyway, here she is (please excuse my not so artistic pics):


Yesterday was Valentine's Day and Josh and I went and had lunch at CPK at the Shoppes at Chino Hills. Then he took me over to Forever 21 and bought me a couple goodies. A cute top and a cardigan. I'm obsessed with the coral color. I want to wear it like every day.




On Friday when I came home from Bible study there was a rose, a card and a $50 GC to Nordstrom. Wow. Totally unexpected! I felt totally spoiled and loved. Thanks, Boo.

Life updates:

Still doing the Shred. Honestly haven't lost that much weight. Only about 4-5 lbs. I'm okay with the fact that it's coming off slowly. I do the Shred usually every other day. Sometimes there are some consecutive days, but never less than every other except when I was sick, then I missed 3 days. Lame. Still watching my calories.

So I decided to part with some of the cash and pay down a major chunk on the car. Only $900 and that beast is PAID. OFF. Holy smokes! I'm excited! First time in my driving life of not having a car payment.

Although rain is not ideal for our line of work, I'm really looking forward to it. This weather has been whack. I really shouldn't complain when the majority of the country is digging themselves out of snow, but it's winter for Pete's sake! Where is the cold and rainy and winteriness??

Business is going good even though January and February are typically our slowest months. It's crazy to think that as of March we have been a legit business for 2 years. Today at lunch (at chick-fil-a, of course) I was reflecting on how far we've come. I feel incredibly blessed to get as much family time as we get together. Josh and I practically do everything together. 3 years of crazy ridiculous hardwork has paid off for us. Quick recap for those that don't know. In January of 2008 we began the journey of paying off our debts. Josh worked his 7-4 and an hour of overtime every day for awhile until they didnt let him. On top of that, him and I would find odd jobs to do on the weekends. I ran an ebay store from home and then in the spring he got a job working at Grazianos EVERY FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHTS all the while doing his full-time job and his side jobs on the weekends during the day. I took care of our 2 kids, soon to be 3 kids. For a short period he also worked at a tire distribution center on the weekends. And at Christmas he worked the tree lot. At the very end of 2008, we started cleaning windows. So we had our business + full-time job+tree lot+grazianos. Obviously the tree lot was done by January, but he kept all 3 others until September of 2009 and then he quit Grazianos! The feeling of having Josh home on the weekend nights was AMAZING. Keep in mind we only had one car this entire time. So if he was gone, I was home. Finally in November of 2010, Josh quit his job and we've gone full throttle with our business and haven't looked back. We missed fome family time and some events, but it's alllll worth it now. We are so blessed to have amazing people in our life that have helped make this possible and also that God has continued to provide and bless us. I'm so excited for what's in store for our business and our family.

If you got this far, thanks for reading!

Yay! We're finally all starting to feel better from knocking on deaths door. haha. not really, but some people seemed to think so. So excited that this weekend is so beautiful. Gives us a chance to go do some fun stuff before the rain rolls in this week and we'll all be couped up inside again.

So what's new? Well, the pressure washing went off without a hitch. Minus Josh running over and killing a dog that ran in front of the truck after he picked up the equipment. It was pretty unavoidable. Josh felt terrible. Sorry, Fido. Other than that, it went great and was very successful for us. It's so amazing that an idea seems so daunting and then it finally comes together and you're like, "oh, that was easy." So we're pressure washing and we are also venturing into blind/shutter cleaning. We have our first one on the books for 2 weeks from. Also, God Bless YELP! They have sent us 3 new clients in the last week, not to mention a few others we have from YELP who are some awesome clients, as well. This just goes to show it's super important to leave positive feedback as it is negative feedback. Thank you YELP and thank you to those who have left us 5 Star ratings!

Our marriage study started up again this week and I'm stoked for all God is going to do to strengthen marriages and prepare singles for a godly marriage. I'm incredibly grateful for our church family and that they are so encouraging to us. Love the huge emphasis they put on marriage and family when the world is constantly trying to tear those institutions to shreds.

So we have the $$ in our bank account to pay off our car, but I just dont want to part with it. LOL...It's moments like this that remind why we will NEVER go into debt again. Never. did I mention Never? We were SO close to financing a Toyota Sequoia a month ago and I'm SOOO glad we didn't. Once I can part with our money LOL, we only have Josh's students loans and I plan to try and knock those out like nobodies business.

The shred is going well, but I did miss 3 days since I was sick. I did half of level 1 this morning, but still felt really weak, so we'll try again tomorrow, but I am sticking with it and the lbs are coming off slowly, but surely and things fit so much better. I bought the cutest pair of size 7 skinny cargo pants the other and I was 100% sure they'd be snug. WRONG. They fit like a glove! With room to spare! I was stoked!!

In other news:

Egypt. The world is about to change. Did you know that 27% of the prophecy in the Bible has already been fulfilled? Did you know that Isaiah 19 talks about what is happening in Egypt RIGHT NOW?? Jesus is coming back, people, and that means people will get left. If your bff is Jack Daniels and your extra-curriculars include fornication I would seriously get it together because the Lord is coming back and he will leave you to those things if you've made that clear conscious decision not to live for him. If you aren't for Him, you are against Him. I urge you to evaluate how you're living not bc the end of the world is near, but because being in the Lord's will is the best place you can be, He loves you so much and has so many amazing things in store for you. Ultimately, it's up to you and I'll love ya'll regardless, but God has a plan and purpose for your life, let Him fulfill it.

On the front page of the PE today was a story about three 13 yr old boys raping a 13 yr old girl who was a classmate. One boy participated bc he was promised use of an ipod. WHAT?!? Who are these kids' parents?? I'd like to know what kind of people these are. What tv shows do they let their kids watch or video games do they play?? What on earth is happening to our society?? I don't know, but I wish my generation would RISE up and say enough is enough and let's turn this around. Let's go back to having modesty on television and when marriage is between a man and a woman and divorce wasn't at 60%. When Mom's could stay at home with their kids because it was valued as the most important job ever (and no vacation/private school/material things are not good enough reasons to work when you dont have to, whoops did I say that out loud?) Dad's were real men who didn't runoff and not support their wife and kids. For every single mom I know working her tail off, there is a shell of a man who wont step it up and support their kids. Not cool. Where is the sense of responsibility? Where is the outrage for the trash on ABC Family? Why do so many people support gay marriage? Look at the statistics - It's NOT what is in the best interest of our kids. Why are we not more broken over divorce. I see more people on my facebook that are divorced (some definitely legit, unfortunately) than I've seen married and are living happily and FIGHTING for their marriage & we're not even 30. I know a 20-something on their 3rd marriage. It's time we stop acting like all this acceptable. Let's offer support and love to those married couples on the rocks. Let's vote according to 1950's morals. Let's be BROKEN over what breaks are heavenly Father's heart. Stop being so blind to the lie that advancing in a liberal direction is what is best for our society and our kids. IT. IS. NOT. No, let's put prayer back in school. Let's stop boycotting companies like Chick-fil-a that support marriage and enriching people's lives and let's boycott companies like Chili's that support groups that fight for the right to film pornography next door to your son's pre-school. True Story.

Well, that was a mouthful and totally took a left turn from what I thought I was gonna blog about, but everyone is walking around with their head in the sand while America is falling apart at our Christian Seams. It's heartbreaking.

Rina

I can't stop dreaming of my dream house. It's beautiful and perfect. I knew the second I walked in, it had my name all over it. I've been praying for my dream house. I pray 2012 is the year we move into 'Rina'. That's what we'll call her. We went to visit her 2 weeks ago. I sat on the couch and I envisioned how I would decorate, how it would scream "WELCOME! COME IN! ARE YOU HUNGRY, THIRSTY, TIRED? GREAT! YOU'RE IN THE RIGHT PLACE!" I envisioned our church family coming over for small groups or home studies. Having our kids birthdays there and growing up. The kitchen is to DIE for. I could almost smell the turkey and fixings I'd make on Thanksgiving and Christmas! Did I mention the kitchen??? Amazing.

I know we are right where God wants us and when I think about all the things we are doing right now, it makes sense why it has panned out this way, but I do still get down sometimes that we are not in our home, but we will be soon enough and I can be patient because God's plans are so much more awesome than our own and I'm trusting Him.

This is a rather short blog, but I just wanted to get that out there because I think and pray about it often. And one day I can look back on it and smile. I love keeping note of all the times God has come through for us, blessed us, heard our cries and reponded. Just this morning in Bible study, the Lord spoke so clearly to me about something I had been praying for wisdom and discernment for. It almost brought me to tears because it was such a great reminder that He hears me and He is responding and He loves me.

We serve such an Awesome God.