Saturday, July 24, 2010

...a little mini-vacation...finally...

we just got back from our camping trip to the coast...it was so relaxing! i don't think either of us have been that brain dead in at least a year...

we drove out after D got off work monday, and then we came back thursday. visited two restaurants that have been featured on "diners, drive-ins, and dives" (we were impressed with both!), rode a couple rides at the boardwalk, and enjoyed some much cooler weather than we've been experiencing here at home! two of the mornings we even woke up to such heavy dew and fog that we thought it was raining...

life has been so crazy over the last...well, i keep saying year-and-a-half, but really a little over two-years now...between an extremely tight financial situation, then preparations for D to attend the chp academy, then the stretching six months during the academy...then, a move back to so cal a trying year with the chp, the end of that phase of our lives, and our trudging on since...which, it's incredible to think that it has been six months since all of that ended...  we do well for the most part, seeing how evidently it was God's time to separate us from that and how we try to stay positive and look forward to what He pulled us away for...but, it's been rough lately- near impossible to completely shut out the "what if's" or "we would have been..."

and also with our struggles with attempting to start our family...(excuse me, we are a family...grow our family from two, to three or more...) i think i can safely say that i have been truely depressed for the last two months. i was doing really well for a while...knowing God had better things, and ready to move on, and thinking solely on those trials and not the family growing. but as time wears on, and we continue to sit and wait in the bazaar "hang" period...the desires of our heart continue to feel further and further out of reach.

i am still looking for a job...D has a few applications out with multiple agencies (and has for some months now)...otherwise we would probably be able to cross stability and finances off of our stress list...but we can't...

SO! needless to say, we needed this break. we stretched a little for it, but it was worth it. time together, alone. just the two of us, enjoying being the two of us. i didn't think much about infertility, neither of us thought about the months we have been waiting for "something to happen"...we both felt so purged of thoughts, it was almost weird. i asked D how he was doing one day and he said, "great, actually". no kidding...i don't think i've heard that come out of him in ages.



we were enjoying our alone-ness, and disconnect from reality...so we really didn't take very many pictures...a few of our surroundings but that is about it.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

america the beautiful

today is a wonderful day in America...a day to celebrate the great nation we live in and belong to...a day to be thankful for the freedoms we have and the people who defend them...a day to reflect on our "one nation, under God", and where she's at today. as much as i am greatly disturbed by what America has become, how unacceptable patriotism has become and how non-American most "American's" are...i am truly greatful for this country and the blessings God has poured out on her. i am extremely patriotic, for those of you who don't know me...a gratitude that was instilled in me by my mother......i will likely cry during the fireworks this evening, i cry during the national anthem, america the beautiful,  and even proud to be an american. i know, people think i'm crazy, but i listen to the words and reflect on ALL that it means to be an American, and it moves me...i know i am truly blessed...

so, be safe today...have fun...eat lots of BBQ...but remember America, what the USA is, and what it means to be an American...thank you Lord for Your blessings, and continue to show mercy on our country.


America, The Beautiful (the FULL song)
by Katherine Lee Bates, 1913

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!

America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!

America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine!

O Beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!

America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!