Never Alone

So life has been different. For one...I haven't blogged in forever. For those hanging on my every word...I'm truly sorry and not just for my over use of the elipses!

So December brought a move to Nashville. We are now closer to family, and I am truly enjoying being with them. I am also getting to spend time with my husband on regular basis for the first time in our 2 year marriage. Turns out we still are rather sappily in love and are enjoying getting to date eachother all over again. It also seems that God knew exactly when we needed to make the move. In the last two weeks my mom and my brother have both had surgery. They are both doing well and I am truly grateful that they seem to be making a good recovery.

Chad is enjoying his new job and I am enjoying being able to help out. This week while busy with taking mom to physical therapy and driving my brother where he needs to go till his doctor says he can drive again has been good.

I am still amazed at how God works in imperfect people like me. I am enjoying our new church and the ministry we have been able to do there. Our seder a couple of weeks ago for 80 people was well recieved. Though I am glad to be through with Passover cooking for this year, but I am very happy to say, that I now know how to cook a mean Apple Spice brisket and make awesome charoset ( though next year someone else can peel 15 pounds of apples for me!!!).

I guess at the end of it. Life is good. There are still trials and tribulations. I still don't have it all figured out. But most importantly I know that I am a child of God, madly in love with my husband, I have the cutest dog in the world, and the best family a girl could ever dream of. At the end of the day I'm never alone and I never will be, and that is a beautiful thought.

Rumors of my demise are seriously not true!

So a good friend of mine said it seemed I never updated my blog anymore. She was right. Though I must confess it wasn't all my fault. Blogger did that whole "create a google user account thingy" and i was lost for quite a while.

There have been many changes since my last post. Chad and I are now living in South Florida ( and loving it!) I'm well on the road to recovery, still have a way to go. And I am now a proud mama to a 4 legged furry creature we've named Bagel. He is truly the best dog we could have asked for and brings a lot of joy into our home.

I'm now working at the office alongside my husband. It has been a bit of a challenge because neither of us were used to it. But we are starting to get a handle on being a two worker family and figuring out how to make dinner quicker after we both get home from work. Maybe I'll take a cue from my dear friend who has an amazing food blog We'll have to see what the future holds.

But for now,enjoy the picture of the two fabulous guys in my life=)

A long time coming!

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It feels like home

I've been thinking a lot about home lately. Mostly I think I've been thinking about it because of family birthdays. My nephew and my dad just had birthdays, and my brother and sister-in-law just had their anniversary. I suppose I've been thinking about it, because my family is all so close together now, and I'm well I'm on the other side of the country. Chad and I have been married for almost 9 months and there are still boxes to be unpacked, items that need a place to live in a cabinet or drawer that still haven't found there way yet. But yet, this is our home small and unfinished as it may be. I made a loaf of bread for the first time last week it seems there is always something lovely about bread baking in the oven. For a few minutes it made this tiny apartment feel more like a home. The smell of fresh baked bread had an easy time reaching every corner of our place and it was truly lovely. It made me remember the good smells of my mom baking all kinds of goodies when I was a kid. That and the ongoing fight between my brothers and I when I wanted M&M cookies and they wanted anything that was all chocolate. But it makes me ponder home. What makes a place home? For for 21 years home was the same smallish town in Clermont, where my parents had grown up and both of my brothers and I grew up. But now, I'm far away from that, learning to make a new home. A home far from the home I've known and different in nearly every way. Yet, I'm realizing it isn't just me. There are a lot of people I know and love doing the same thing. I have friends who are preparing to add to their homes with a baby for the first time ( a few actually, guess there is something in the water in dear old Clermont). I have good friends who have recently moved, and the new place I'm sure doesn't quite feel like home yet. I have former youth who are moving into dorms some for the first time, others for the last time. So what makes a place feel like home. For me, home is where my husband is and that is the simple answer. But I can remember things that made it feel more like our home, like this past weekend we finally finished getting one room put together with the purchase of a lovely shower curtain for the bathroom ( I know this sounds small, but to have one room finished really feels good) Comfy sheets are very homey, fresh baked bread ( or really anything baking), my bed makes me feel at home ( when you have spent nearly 4 of the last nine months sleeping in some other bed because you are traveling it makes you appreciate yours).
So what makes you feel at home? And if its a person...have you told them lately?

Do you hear what I hear?

So, its day two of me having barely any voice to speak of ( more of a croaking sound...Improvement from no sound at all yesterday I suppose) and this no talking is a strange thing. Living in Los Angeles, there is always noise. But, when you can't talk you hear more of it. Like, the apartment building next door is getting a new roof ( I hope their roofers work faster than ours did), and I-10 is always full of cars. Then there are the occasional squeals of children running around the building ( and me hoping one of them doesn't step on a nail the roofers next store are sure to have flung into our buildings driveway). But, these are all new noises in some ways. Growing up in a fairly small town, you hear things like birds, and school bells, things I don't hear out here. In fact, I can't remember the last time I heard birds in LA. But in Los Angeles, I get to hear my husband laugh and the sound of instant messages coming in from good friends who are now far away. Not being able to talk is making me appreciate those sounds so much more, and it makes me wonder what else I'm not hearing when I can talk.

A small victory

I washed the dishes today. I even unloaded the dishwasher. Some would be like…well that’s great Kat but…umm what’s the big deal?! The big deal is that this was a small victory that warrants celebration. The big deal is that for almost a week I’ve been in bed. Not really able to amble about to take care of the little things we always take for granted. The antibiotics seem to finally be kicking in, but I worry that this may mean my body is building a resistance to the antibiotic I’ve now been on at least 4 times in the last 6 months. But I washed the dishes today. I even put a roast in the crock pot to make sure that this evening after a week of my husband sacrificing his rest time to take care of me ( and doing it with no complaint) on this day my husband will come home to a dinner he does not have to cook and a kitchen he does not have to clean.

I think we sometimes take for granted those little things. The way clean laundry smells, the way your favorite dish soap smells as you’re washing dishes. I know its been a while since the scent of yummy pot roast has wafted through our abode. But today all that is different. It’s a new day and a day where things that have fallen by the wayside are being done.

It leaves me to wonder how many things we pay little attention to until they go undone. There are some things which are far bigger than a few dirty dishes in the sink. Like when is the last time I looked at my husband and said “I love you” and not just in response to him saying it first…I mean when is the last time any of us looked at one of the incredible people in our lives that bless us so much and said “I love you?” Moreover, when is the last time we earnestly said a prayer of thanksgiving for those who have blessed us. Yesterday was Father’s Day and I got to tell my dad that I loved him and as I went to sleep I thanked God that I had such a wonderful mom and dad, who did their best to raise me right.

Every Monday morning Chad gets up early to head in for staff meeting and every Monday morning he wakes me just enough to kiss me goodbye and tell me he loves me before heading off. Every Monday morning just before falling back to sleep I thank God for my husband and ask Him to be with Chad that day and be with us. I did the same thing today. Then I got out of bed, got my bowl of honey nut cheerios, enjoyed the cool breeze coming through the window and embraced a new day. A day in which the process of being sick, is now giving way to healing. I went to the kitchen and washed the dishes thanking God for good smelling dish soap and thought that I should sit and write. If only to take a few moments to be thankful for this day and the new beginning it brings. Here’s to hoping I’ll stay well this time. If not, here’s to finding peace in knowing that even as Chad and I go to doctors again and again, God will not ever leave us and He indeed will give us the strength to get through to another good dishwashing day!! So celebrate your small victory today, afterall small victories are victories, sometimes we just take them for granted but today they need to be celebrated!

Where's the Beef?

I was remembering the old Wendy's commercial yesterday as we walked out of church. While the music was great and the people were wonderful the sermon well, I felt like the old lady's in the Wendy's commercial asking about the aforementioned food.

I'm guessing a lot of people have had experiences like this. Be it the movie you've been dying to see for months, only to be sorely disappointed when you realize the plot is lacking completely ( much like the way I felt about Oceans 12). Or the way you feel when you've looked at some piece of furniture online only to get to the store to find out its the most uncomfortable thing you've ever sat on in your life.

I went to church yesterday hungry to hear the Word. After a rough week...very rough week. ( Allergy testing apparently involves 37 injections in my back then two in my arm to keep me breathing, but I'm recovering well thanks for those of you who were praying.) However, what I found was a sermon that lacked in anything really. It was a guest speaker not the norm for the service we've been attending and I guess the guy was just having what felt like an off day. But both Chad and I left hungry. We'd come to a place of comfort a place of a good spiritual meal yet it seemed while we were expecting a feast what we got was in fact, coffee and donuts. The good news though, was it sparked my husband and I to talk about what we were missing. And in some way, our conversation became the food we were longing for. Of course it probably helped that we had this conversation over barbecue in one of the only places we've found out here that's actually serving it! But, it was a beautiful thing. Apparently my husband and I can actually talk ( always good) and if we get out of the way there is plenty of the proverbial spiritual food we were longing for.

So here is to being hungry when leaving church and finding out that you've got what you need to make a good meal on you own...I'm gonna go find that old Amy Grant song "Fat little baby" and finish cleaning up spilled flour in the kitchen (why is flour so difficult to get clean).

Hope you're all well fed and talking amongst yourselves...we've all got so much to learn from each other....
Blessings to you all