2010 in Review!

2010 was a good year for The Kitts!

We decided to take a Crown Financial class where we discovered the joy of becoming debt free. We really enjoyed the group we were with and the guy that lead it! We are excited to see how Crown continues to affect our lives over the years. We had been praying hard for a new job for myself so that we could really start to dive into debt relief.

In March, I accepted a part-time position as an administrative assistant at Christian Life Ministries. A week later the girl I was working for quit and I took over full-time as the Orphan Coordinator. What a blessing for us! It's hard to believe I've been working there for 9 months now. I love my job and am so grateful for it. I have been blessed with a great co-worker who has become a really close friend of mine. (It was just the two of us for a good portion of the last 9 months) Grateful that we recently hired some new people!

On April 21st, Nicole gave birth to Ashland Kate, who we absolutely love and adore. It was hard for me not to be there since I was there when both Ellie & Tristan were born, but I just couldn't ask for the time off so quickly after being hired. We were able to see her shortly when we came in town for Ellie's 1st dance recital. What a joy it was to see her dance and to welcome sweet little Ashland into the world! I love my role as an Aunt! It has also been neat to see Cody take on his role as an Uncle since we got married. I just wish Tristan loved me nearly as much as he loves his Cody! Cody loves his Tristan too!

Not to mention, just a few short weeks after Ashland's birth we celebrated Adam's graduation from Seminary in Fort Worth!

In May, we went to San Antonio to celebrate our 6 month Anniversary! It was a really nice weekend away and time for us to spend together. I could have dealt without the extended car ride but it was worth it for the time away!

The funny thing about summer when you are an adult is it isn't much different than any other time of the year because you don't have the entire summer off. These are the months that I am always jealous of my teacher friends. I was especially jealous this summer when we fired our bookkeeper at work the week before my co-worker lefter for Uganda for a near 2 1/2 weeks. I had to learn how to do bookkeeping in a crash 2 hour course before she left. Other than that our summer was great and just spent hanging out with friends as much as possible.

And as you may know, Cody is a BIG fan of the Rangers so we went to several games as we always do. The hotter it got the less I had any desire to go. Might I add, our summer was scorching hot this go round.

In August I decided to start a business endeavor of sorts, something I hope to make us money someday when I am a stay-at-home mom. I started making tutu's and hairbands. It quickly started into crafting blog adventure. I now blog 3-5x's a week and make tutus as often as I can. I am trying to learn to sew and recently got a sewing machine from my mother-n-law! It has been a fun journey and really looking forward to what 2011 holds from my craftiness!

This new desire to craft came at the perfect time as Cody went back to get his Master's degree in late August. I needed something to do since Cody is in class two nights a week and spends a lot of his free time studying. This is the perfect way to entertain my time!

The fall brings some of my favorite things with the circus and the state fair. These have become annual traditions for the two of us. I love going and spending that time with Cody. I hope that we get to continue these for many more years to come!

In November, we celebrated being married for one year! We spent the weekend of our Anniversary in a bed & breakfast in Willspoint, TX. We enjoyed our time there and woke up to drive in to see Ashland dedicated at church. We took off the week and just enjoyed spending time together. We ended the week staying at a hotel in Dallas and eating at restaurants where we normally wouldn't spend that much money on a meal. It was so great so spend that special time together in the midst of our crazy schedules!

Holidays are always good for us as we spend them between our two families! It had been a great year and I hope you have been very blessed by 2010. I am excited to see what 2011 holds for us! We love you all very much!

Loved & Missed, Brie Gomez

*I am warning you now this is going to be a very long post*

Sunday night I logged onto facebook at about 11:30 pm to find a status from a friend that stated, "Please pray fervently for Brie Gomez. My amazing godly friend was in an accident and is not doing well. They delivered her baby boy & he needs your prayers, too!"

I immediately began to pray for Brie and her baby boy! I knew nothing about the car accident beyond this status. I decided to go to Brie's blog that night and she had post the lyrics to the song Forever Reign that morning. As I read a portion of the lyrics my heart sunk thinking that those lyrics might be a reality in the hours to follow, of course, hoping they would not be.

I'm running to your arms
I'm running to your arms
The riches of your love
Will always be enough
Nothing compares to your embrace
Light of the world forever reign

The Gomez family was headed home to Amarillo when they were hit in a head on collision. Brie was care flighted to the hospital where they did an emergency c-section. Her little boy was born weighing 3 lbs 1 oz and was named Curran Blaec Gomez. They were both in critical condition. I began to pray for the family especially for Brie & Curran.

The next morning I discovered that Brie had passed away early int he morning and that Curran was still in critical condition but improving. My heart ached for the Gomez family. Eric, Mali & Eleri had been released from the hospital. Eleri (22 mos) had a fractured leg and Eric has a neck brace.

I began to reflect on Brie's life and what I knew of her. I began to read comment after comment that friends and family were leaving on Brie's facebook page. I read blog posts that I had read many times before. There was one common theme. Brie was an incredible wife, mother and a Godly woman. She had impacted many lives and love God with all of her heart.

Life can be so much shorter than we ever imagined. Brie probably had hopes to raising her children, watching them get married, aging with Eric, welcoming grandkids and on and on I could go. But for some reason, God had a much different plan. Sometimes I forget that my days are numbered and I don't know how many days there are. Do I live my life as if I might die tomorrow? Could people say about me what they have said about Brie? I aspire to be an amazing wife, mother and Godly woman, but often times I don't really give it my best. Brie has left a lasting impression on my life and many other lives. She will not be forgottten!

Please continue to pray for the Gomez/White families! Her husbands name is Eric and they have three children, Mali, Eleri & Curran. Mali is 6 years old, Eleri is 22 months and Curran was just born! Pray that they would each be comforted and encouraged during this difficult time.

Here is her obituary.
A special tribute.

Gee Family Reunion

I just wanted to share a few photos from our weekend with the Gee family. We didn't get very of the entire family. Actually, I didn't get any of the rest of my family which isn't very cool.

We had a blast though and I can't wait to spend time with everyone again!

Snoopy

Snoopy & I had a rough start at a relationship with one another. I always thought he was super cute but his puppy phase was surely annoying as he chewed up important things like my brand new honeymoon swimsuit. Despite the fact that sometimes I wanted to give him a good swift kick I have far more happy memories with that pooch!

Cody would work all day and then come to my place at night while we were dating. I didn't really have much of a job so I would often times go to Plano to run Snoopy or spend the day on the couch with him. We had many days of bonding as I felt guilty that he spent too much time in his crate. However, as I stated before he was a chewer so the crate was his only option.

Over the past year Snoopy has lived with me in this house. Even before we got married Snoopy moved in for the most part because we got a new dog for him to play with. Abby & Snoopy have loved each other very much and spend all their time together. They share a crate during the day and sleep curled up with one another on their dog bed next to our bed. She will surely miss her brother!

Snoopy was always so playful! If you spoke to him he would then run to find one of his rope toys because that meant you wanted to play. He was constantly pulling rope toys out of his toy box trying to get us or Abby to play tug of war. He loved running with his dad or his slow mom if that was his only choice. He loved his daddy giving him a treat every morning before he left for work. And his most recent love was the dog park. Snoopy loved going and running the fence line sniffing out whatever he could possibly sniff and playing with all the other dogs. It's going to be very different just taking Abby.

Snoopy was such a cute puppy with his big ol' basset ears and his random basset paw. His right paw would pop out to the right unlike any of his other paws. His ears were so soft and I loved to pet them. It's going to be very hard to not have him around our house anymore. There is most definitely a void this morning.

Snoopy, you will be greatly missed by your parents and sister, Abby. Not to mention our extended families and close friends. Snoopy was loved by everyone that met him.

Gee Family Reunion

Since my GeeMa died in 2003 our family has continually said that we needed to have a family reunion. This past year Uncle Roy passed away and we enjoyed seeing the other have of the Gee family and again we said let's have a reunion soon. My wedding was a mini-reunion for everyone but me since I was off on my honeymoon when they all had brunch together.

I keep saying it's going to happen we are going to do something. I have looked at beach house rentals a few times to see if I could find us a good deal. I talk to my cousin, Angie about planning something. We were going to plan something soon, but had probably both put it on the back burner a little.

This week my cousin, Donna, wrote on my moms wall that she would be moving to Germany in October and that she wanted to see us before she left. So I decided it was the perfect time to plan that family reunion we've all been talking about for 7 years. Everything has fallen into place so quickly and we will now be having the Gee Family Reunion October 15th017th. I'm very excited about being together with my family! It's going to be a weekend full of laughter and fun!

This is my family plus my mom's two sisters Nancy & Peggy!

This is a picture of a good portion of the Gee family from my wedding. On the left you will see Uncle Roy's family and on the right my Granddads side.

Socially Awkward

Yesterday we went out to lunch with some friends and the first thing I did was run to the restroom. When I returned I found all 3 people sitting playing with their phones and not engaging in one another. One checking emails, another checking facebook and one checking ESPN.

I told everyone that I wished to be engaged instead of grabbing my own phone out of my purse. By no means do I not fall into the trap of grabbing my phone to look at something or playing a game during "dead" time. But I have been thinking about this a lot lately and it drives me nuts that people can't spend time together anymore because of the distractions their cell phones are.

My favorite is when you are with a bunch of people and they are playing words with friends with one another or texting each other. Again, I have done it but more so because I wanted to be engaged with the people in the room and knew that the only way I could was to hop on my cell to play them in a game. What has happened to our social skills? Have we truly lost the ability to engage in conversation or keep one another entertained?

I believe that I used to have really great social skills, but I think they have dwindled because of social media. It's so much easier to text or message someone on facebook than to have a real conversation with them. I find that when I am stuck talking to someone I just met I have nothing to say but if you put a screen between us I could probably talk for hours. Just last week I was eating lunch with a girl and she told me how she doesn't like talking on the phone and I thought me too. Which my parents probably wished was the case when I was in high school. I could have talked for hours on the phone, but about what? I can barely talk to someone for 20 minutes now without running out of things to talk about even though five minutes after we hang up I might text them or message them to talk more.

To top it all off Geoff Ashley was talking about distractions we have in our lives that keep us from our pursuit of a relationship with Christ. Which makes me really consider the social media thing as something I should get rid of not only to keep me from being distracted from God but also from allowing me to be so disengaged in my friendships.

But...facebook for example while it creates an avenue for me to be engaged with my friends and keep up with people I may not have otherwise also becomes a huge distraction from my life and my relationship with God. I often find myself checking facebook statuses endlessly and even glancing at it on my phone to see if someone has written something on my wall or sent me something. Why do I feel the need?

My goal is to leave my phone in my purse more and engage my friends and the people I am with more. And also to check my facebook less often.

The Great Date Experiment

I absolutely love my church and wouldn't go anywhere else unless God drug me there. With that being said, the only thing that I don't like is that there is really no marriage enrichment. Being that we are young marrieds we'd love to enrich our marriage now and start developing a healthy marital relationship. Our church provided excellent premarital counseling, but now what? Besides the occasional sermon of course.

I have a mentor relationship with a woman I admire and desire to be more like and that has been such an encouragement for me in my pursuit to be a good wife. Cody doesn't have something like this as of yet. And we don't have anything we can do together either aside from reading the bible together and praying together. We need to get involved in some sort of home group but they are out for summer so we will have to wait for a little bit longer.

I want to be challenged. I want to attend a seminar or a retreat. I want something that really will help enrich our marriage and maybe something that isn't even spiritual. By all means, I do want spiritual enrichment but there are some things in marriage that are simply just a reminder that people are different and we need to learn how to live together. I have been seeking a challenge whether it be just as a wife or as a couple and today I found just that so I encourage you my married friends to be challenged as well.

This is a challenge that lasts six months. The fact that it lasts six months will be extremely beneficial for those of you who have kids and really do have to schedule a date night on the calendar if you want to make it happen. We are still lucky enough to squeeze in at least one a week. This challenge has you set aside for a date a month for six months. We will start our first date in July and work our way through it. Hoping some of you will take this challenge as well and we can share with one another our experiences.

So go...be challenged.

http://www.marriedlifeonline.com/greatdate_np.jsp

Tristan's Two!

Tristan Michael turned 2 on the 17th and we got to celebrate on Saturday!!

Tristan's new fire engine. He loved this so much that when we left for lunch he tried to take it with us. And when we went swimming he wanted to get out of the pool and into the fire truck. Gramma got a great gift!

Lunch at Genghis Grill with a special dessert for the Birthday Boy!

Tristan had fun wearing my sunglasses!

Mmm, Happy 2nd Birthday to Tristan!! He was far more interested in the cars on the cake and not the cake itself.

It took awhile, but he finally started playing in the cake. A DQ ice cream cake!

The first present Tristan opened was his cars and he wasn't all that interested in the other gifts until they were opened and ready to play with.


Tristan playing with his cars and pushing his new lawn mower at the same time. But at least he played with the mower or vacuum as he says. Cody & I gave him the mower!

Grad School

I would just like to announce that Cody has been accepted into grad school at UNT. He will hopefully start school in August if all goes as planned. I am very excited for him in his endeavor to get his Masters degree.

Please be praying for us for the funds to pay for his education as we wish not to take out any loans for this part of his education.

Six Months

This month we celebrated six months of marriage together. Over this past weekend we went to San Antonio for a mini-vacation to celebrate! Cody surprised me with the trip a couple weeks ago and I was excited to get away to spend time together. Our lives have been so hectic, especially lately that this weekend was perfect for us.

Baby B's Arrival

I am excited to report that my newest niece has entered the world. Baby B was born at 12:43 pm weighing 6 lbs 15 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. She is a very beautiful little girl! I have been told that she doesn't have as much hair as her siblings did but still a lot and it's lighter.

I can't wait to get to Tyler to hold Baby B and hopefully by the time I get there I can call her by her name and not by Baby B! Continue to pray for her health especially since there was a minor scare in the beginning! Cody & I are very excited to go visit her on Friday!

Shrub 3's Arrival

This week my sister will be giving birth to her third child and I am beyond sad that I won't be there for the first time. It makes me sad that I won't be there to greet the little one upon their arrival here. I enjoyed getting to be there for both Ellie & Tristan's birth. However, I am very excited that this week I will have a new niece or nephew!! I can't wait to meet them and love on them. When I get there Friday I probably won't want to let go of them.

Ellie's Birth
01/20/2006



Tristan's Birth
06/17/2008


Pray that Baby Bush "Shrub" arrives safely and that mommy & baby are healthy! Cody & I will be traveling to Tyler for the weekend to see Ellie's dance recital and to meet the newest member of the family. Also, pray for me that I won't be too sad about not being there because right now it is really hard for me to imagine not being apart of this.

Weight Loss Frustrations

This is exactly how I feel about it...we both make the changes and he sees immediate results and I see nothing. Not fair.

I'll Be Sore Tomorrow

We started our day off today by doing the Epilepsy Stroll at the Dallas Zoo in honor of Kiersten!


She decided to sleep through a good portion of it and I don't blame her. I would have been asleep too had someone been pushing me around in a stroller. We most definitely enjoyed our time at the zoo and supporting the Epilepsy Foundation of Texas through this event. Next years event will be on April 9th so consider joining us next time for a fun morning at the zoo supporting a great organization and in Kiersten's honor. Praise the Lord for 3 months seizure free!

This afternoon we spent the day raking leaves and pulling weeds. My body is already sore as can be and I am pretty sure getting out of bed tomorrow will be close to impossible. The yard looks significantly better now but will still need a lot of work. Trying to figure out what we want to plant in our flower beds, how to get the tree pruned back so the grass can begin to grow. Lots and lots of work to do still, but a little bit went a long way today.

Abby has something against the weed eater...

New Job

Most of you probably already know this, but for those who don't...I started a new job over Spring Break. It was a very sudden change for me, but one I am very grateful to have made. I was nannying for my best friend so that she could go to school but had started looking for a job to replace that in May. I had applied at a number of places and had not so much as heard anything back.

I found a job posted on Craigslist that was for an Administrative position at a place called Christian Life Ministries. I was far more excited about the organization then the position itself. They helped find sponsors for orphans in Uganda and I thought that would be such a neat ministry to work for. I started my first week in the administrative role and at the end of the week the girl working the orphan side of the program quit and I was offered the full-time position.

This week is my first week as a full-time employee in about two years. It has been a change for sure, but a true blessing! I absolutely love my job and knowing that I get to make a difference in the lives of nearly 1,000 orphans! It has been fun brainstorming ways to better serve our orphans, ways to help with fund raising and different ways to find sponsors. I am so blessed to be in this position!!

Some Changes

I will be making some changes to my blogger account. This account will now be for Cody & I not just myself. It will mostly be used as a way to update friends & family about our life. I have yet to decide if I will change the domain from crazygal4god or not. And I have yet to decide if I want to make my blog private. Not real sure how many people read this anyway so making it private might be the best idea.

In case I choose to make it private you might wanna let me know to add you! (That is if you care to keep up)

Homeowner Blues

I've got the homeowners blues today! I have now lived in my home for a little over 3 years and have had a little bit of a love/hate relationship with it for a good portion of the time. I will say that it has been a great learning experience and a good home for me as a first time home owner. The following complaints or home makeover needs are in no particular order...

Need/Complaint #1&2: The tree in the front yard needs some serious pruning or could even use a complete extraction. It's nice that it's so big but I can't grow grass because of it and the limbs are hanging close to my roof. Mind you, I bought a new roof during the past 3 years so I would hate to have it ruined because of some tree. And about the grass, I desperately want grass in my front yard but nothing seems to like not having any sunshine.

Need/Complaint #3: Shortly after moving into this home it began to shift...and I mean a lot. Funny thing is that the inspector said it was a-okay regarding the foundation which is absolute crap because you can now see where the former owner covered up the cracks. My doors no longer close properly, the back door doesn't stay shut unless it's locked and other random ghetto things have occurred thanks to the foundation.

Need/Complaint #4&5: I desperately desire to have a privacy fence. This has been something I have wanted all along, but now more than ever. With two very social dogs it would be nice to close them in to where they wouldn't bark at every single thing that walked or drove by and I could purge the nasty bushes creating a hint of privacy at the end of my chain link fence. The nasty bushes are a safe haven for a few zillion birds that Abby loves to chase and bark at. If the bushes were gone then Abby would potentially have no reason to bark.

Need/Complaint #6: The master bedroom closet is for an infant and not two adults. So I managed to survive when I was single but it definitely does not have the space for both mine & Cody's stuff.

Need/Complaint #7: After recently replacing the toilet in the guest bathroom our master bathroom toilet decided to go ka-poot too! So it's time to replace yet another toilet...

Now regarding my own inadequacies which make my house even less appealing...

#1: I can't manage to organize the office no matter how badly I may want to. Any advice in this area would be appreciated.

#2: The dishes seem to never be done. I read recently on Ashley Ingram's blog how she cleans through out the week and I was inspired to never go to bed with the dishes undone.

#3: Dog fur...how do you get rid of it? It's seriously EVERYWHERE! It grosses me out to no end, but I can't manage to vacuum it up or brush the dogs enough.

#4: Tacking weeds and growing plants seems like a daunting task that I don't know that I am up for. I tried planting some stuff last year and it all died. However, I did notice that some of it has come back to visit. Thank you Lord for the rain every 3-5 days!

Wordless Wednesday

My Adorable Niece

I'm a Model.

My friend, Lindsey has been doing photo shoots for her wedding photographer for awhile now. At her last big deal she met a local photographer named Lauren Dennard who works for Fairy Tale Photography. She asked her to do a group photo shoot for a workshop she was holding so her and her husband were an engaged couple. Last week Lauren's two brides both had to back out at the last minute to unforeseen circumstances and she desperately needed a bride. Lindsey asked me if I wanted to do it since I was recently married and although hesitant at first decided to do it since I never got any bridals done. I had an absolute blast and here is one photograph per photographer thus far...can't wait to see the rest!!

Couples Dinner

Cody & I have yet to find a small group in our church. We still run around with many of our single friends which there is nothing wrong with, but we have needed some of that couples interaction. We have entered a new time in our lives and we need to be doing life with other people that know what we are going through. Last Sunday I was deeply convicted that it was time we start something up in our home with other couples. We will be having a First Fridays dinner night with other young marrieds in our church as a way to really do life together.

Last night we had our kick off dinner even though it wasn't the first Friday...simply because I couldn't wait until February. There were four couples present last night and we had a really great time! I enjoy very much getting to eat dinner and play a game with everyone. I had the chance to really get to know the wife of a good friend of mine which I am so grateful for. I will say that I am glad I plunged into the dinner party thing before February because I was greatly rewarded with the fellowship that occurred.

Pet Peeve of Mine

I will be honest to say that I hate nothing more than to be in the presence of many women to hear one of them start talking negatively about her husband. It makes me very sad for that man as from that moment on I know nothing good about his character but only that he is lazy, useless, worthless, or whatever other words they feel like uttering about him.

I think it is one thing to call up a best friend who knows the wonderful character of your husband and tell her he's driving you crazy. Because she knows his real character and also she knows you are just being ridiculous. But it is another thing completely to ruin his name in the presence of many women who know nothing about his character.

Proverbs 31:23 "Her husband is respected at the city gate" is a reminder to me that the words that come from my mouth regarding my man should be positive and uplifting words that will gain him respect at the city gate. How dare I destroy his character and his reputation over something silly and stupid or because I am overreacting! May we each praise our husbands among others that they may not know a negative thing about him (even though we all know that none of them are perfect). If you and I are besties feel free to tell me what's upsetting you about your man and lets figure out what the deal is but don't you dare trash him in a group of women some of which you hardly know.

Bible in a Year

How many of us commit every year to read the bible in a year and by the time we make it to Leviticus we've already given up? For the past three New Years I've said I was going to read the bible in a year, but have yet to do it. This year Cody & I decided to commit to spiritual growth in general but would like to incorporate reading the bible in a year. John Piper tweeted about his bible reading plan that leaves five days to catch up--get it here. So we are five days late already but I guess it works out since there are five days to catch up--but we started it last night. This year I hope to blog about our journey through the bible as well as some of the wonderful things I learn through the books I have on the shelf to read this year...For Women Only, The Power of a Praying Wife, and Love & Respect. I'd love your opinions and your insight as I take this journey into spiritual growth alone and with my husband.

Reading Plan Day 1: Matthew 1:1-17, Acts 1:1-11, Psalms 1 and Genesis 1-2

Honestly I have probably read all three of these every year based on my glorious attempts to read the bible in a year. But each time I read something I tend to get something out of it that I didn't before or am reminded yet again of how good our God truly is.

Acts 1:7 reads "He said to them, 'It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.' "

What a beautiful reminder to me that my timing and God's timing are not the same. I am aware the context of this verse is regarding the ascension of Christ which in and of itself is beautiful enough for me. But when I read this last night I could help but be reminded that God has set aside specific times for each of us and knows just what is going to happen in our lives. And that those things really aren't for us to know but to be able to trust in Him is everything. This is difficult for me most of the time, but have recently seen God at work in my life by showing me that his time is perfect and mine is far from it.

Although I have read Genesis 1 & 2 before...I am still reminded of some things and even taught new things as I read it last night. One of my favorite things about Genesis 1 is that God creates the Heavens and the Earth and when he is finished he says that is it good. Then when he creates man he says that it is very good. I love that when God created man he was satisfied enough to say that we were very good--knowing we would be the ones to sin against him. How beautiful!

In Genesis 2:17 God commands Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Although I have heard many times someone say that the fall is not on Eve but on Adam I never really remembered this verse. God commands Adam before Eve was ever created. Eve may have fallen into temptation but where was Adam to step up and say "No Eve--God commanded us not to eat of this tree" I mean I've heard it preached a million times especially recently through pre-marital counseling but to read that and realize that Eve wasn't even around yet--made such a difference to me in my understanding of the role of husband and wife.

What's your thoughts?