purge!!

So, I have no idea where this energy is coming from (since ry has been on the couch all week with brochitis and a fever), but I have this sudden need to re-arrange and to purge! We got our two bedrooms repainted this week which has inspired me to literally tear our house and storage open and re-arrange. The kids room is done, the hall is almost done, our bedroom is next, the living room will stay the same (not much i can do here in terms of re-arrangement) but will have some new stuff on the walls to brighten it up a bit...i can't wait to attack our bedroom tonight!! i'll show photos soon. it will be a great idea to post photos too because I don't know that many of you or the family out of town who reads this really know what our home looks like since we live in a dormitory. We have a two bedroom with an office apartment and a little back yard. I love our home. it's quick to get cluttered, but warm, mostly peaceful and comfortable.

Many friends will be the happy recipients of my purging, which could not make me happier to bless them with our stuff (and to get rid of it too!!!!!) To those friends, i'll see you Saturday!! If I have anything left, i'll be having a garage sale soon at my in-laws house (since we technically do not have a garage). Do you even just get to a point that you look around and you realize just how much stuff you really have? This is what happened to me and now that most all things that will be kept is now contained in new baskets and boxes, it is now time to get it all out!! : ) sigh...yeah!

Much love to you all!
aly

photos

finally! here are some new photos

prayer and snowglobes

do you ever feel like a snowglobe? you feel calm...peaceful, just sitting boyant in your little world, then someone shakes it all up and everything around you feels disorienting? this is my life the past year...but really january on. not to go into too much detail because again i'm tired from being up with emily at 4am...i just want to ask for your prayer:

1) my dear friend dana had surgery today to remove potentially a cancerous mass from her thyroid. she has two kiddos (3 and 6) and are dear friends of ours. please pray that her tumor is not cancerous and if it is, that it was totally removed.

2) other dear friends of ours, andy collins-his 6 year old daughter, presli is having brain surgery tomorrow to remove or scrape (i' m not sure the exact terms) a spot on her brain that is causing numbness to spread over her body.

3) for our home to be well again-free from fever, bronchitis, ear infections...

and lastly that as we move into this busy season of school, juggling jobs, ministry, parenthood and marriage, we don't loose sight of our true identity-our true home-daughters and sons of God. if i am ever convinced of His presence, it's now-that in the midst of my snowglobe calm, or storm, he is the calm-consistent-never changing (praise Him for that!) presence in my life that is my rock, fortress-i will not be shaken.

thanks for reading. do you ever feel like your life is a snowglobe? find comfort-you are not alone.

an adventure indeed...

so...at 4pm yesterday, emily woke up with a 102 fever...went to bed...we checked in on her several times and she seems cooler. at 4am she woke up with a 105.2 temp!!! through it all, she was a champ! not lethargic (it takes quite a bit to couch this little diva) actually playing tea in the lukewarm tub the nurse told us to put her in and joined in with ryan and sang god of wonders! amazing. so, she was on the couch stripped down to her little undies while we waited for her temp to drop under her night night drinking water and singing to leapfrog's letter factory at 5am while ryan and i were semi asleep semi adrenalene rush trying to monitor her temp and watch the clock till our next phone call to the nurse. in a hour it went from 105 to 99. praise the lord. the rest of the day she slept, woke up...played...colored...laid...played...and now still at 99 degrees, she is asleep. sigh...

what an adventure. i hope to not repeat this one!

i said i'd post new photos, of which i have...but i'm too tired! i'll do it tomorrow.

please pray for our family that will doesn't get this crazy 8hr fever thing. we've been in the thick of getting brochitis and ear infections out of our systems.

off to the in-laws tomorrow..because facilities is painting our bedroom and the kids bedroom!!! yeah!!!

off to bed : )

HOB

so...our valentines day was planned a week late intentionally to avoid crowds and inflated costs. it was my year to plan (we switch off every year, next year, ry plans our 10th wedding anniversary and valentines day) and i had this plan in my mind since december! i can't believe i didn't spill the beans!!!

i bought tickets for the third day show at the house of blues (hob) (one of ry's favorite bands). we had a blast and he was totally suprised. i am super cool!

we had an awesome dear friend courtney who spent the night with the babes so we could get away for the night and we stayed at a local hotel with a 2pm check out, so we slept the morning/afternoon away!! ah...sweet sleep!!!

i am so blessed to have ryan and i love that i got to suprise him with things he loves! (me and third day!)

we are now home enjoying the peace of naptime on the couch with a cup of tea and books (ry is reading a man book-i'm reading evagrius of pontus-i've no idea anything of this desert monk yet, but i'm about to find out-it's for my history and traditions of spirituality class)

how did you celebrate valentines (if you did at all?)?

that's it so far. picking up photos tonight, so i'll post some new photos tonight or tomorrow.
off to read : )

bunk beds...

awe.....my babes are big kids now : (

i very impulsively (but for $375...can't pass that deal up!!) bought bunk beds for the kids. we have dear friends who will be having twins soon (yeah jess and chad!!!!!) and we are giving them will's crib. on top of which he was growing out of and em was growing out of her toddler bed...or rather her little friends in bed with her were pushing her out of bed due to the vast quantity of them sleeping with her at any given moment!!

it arrived today so i've been rearranging furniture to make them fit in their little bedroom. it works! (i'll post a photo soon-em is napping on it right now!) so now i'm waiting for the mattresses to show up. em was so excited to sleep on the top bunk we put her toddler mattress on the top bunk so she could sleep on it!! awe...soooo cute!!!

so here it is, by monday our two little lows will be sleeping on twin beds. no more cribs...no more toddler beds...a new stage in our life. exciting, yet full of memories of our past four years.

my heart swells with love for them and am so thankful they love each other and can sleep in the same room together!!!

have a great weekend friends! we are still getting over this darn cold and now i'm a bit under the weather. hope to kick this soon!

loved...

after almost 10 years of marriage...i just feel so loved. i felt loved before today, but ry sat me down on the couch and seranaded (sp?) me to a song he wrote for me...a gift money could never buy!!

worship with you

days go by
and sometimes it seems
the questions bring more comfort
than the answers
the darkness falls,
and we can lose sight
that this is the place
where our love is forged...into something transcendent
our love it speaks...about someone beautiful

chorus:
if our love is daily lived as a song
each stanza lifting praise
to the one who made our hearts to be one
and through the night and the rise of the day
i will stand here hold your hand
and i will worship with you

pressures mount, and sometimes it seems
that we can barely reach the surface
to breathe the air
yet through it all,
i'm finding my heart
becomes more knit to yours
and love is forged...into something transcendent
and it speaks...about a god who's beautiful!

chorus

bridge:
oh and if all the world could see how thankful i am to love you
cuz you stir up the worship in me do you see
that we were meant to live this way

chorus

i love you ryan.