Things I've come to realize...

My natural tendency when my spirit is broken is to close myself up and avoid people, but I've realized that is the breeding grounds for depression, selfishness, and bitterness. So how do you fight your natural tendencies? I mean I've done it for so long now that I'm not even sure how to go about changing it. And then theres the fear of, what if everyone is to busy with their own lives that they wouldn't spare time for us. Which then leads me to the realization that I've become self-absorbed. My problems have become so big in my mind that its all I think about and pretty much talk about. Our financial problems determine how we feel about life in general and that shouldn't be. I have an amazing husband and family that is supportive, which is more than some people have...That should determine how we feel about life! I have an amazing God that has blessed me immensely. That should determine how I feel about life! Not money or debt. Not the hurts or stings that we have gotten from other family members. Why can't I just focus on the good things in my life, why can't those be bigger and more important than the bad things. How do you change your focus? I'm realizing more and more that its like a rack focus in video. Instead of putting my focus on the things in the background, I need to change my focus to the things in my foreground...the things closer to me.

I have always heard that you can't save/help family, but I'm realizing thats wrong...you can't save/help the proud! And I think I've been too proud at times to allow God to work in me. I'm slowly learning that in order to mend a broken spirit, I need people around.

Why we've been m.i.a.

The beginning of September came with news that we needed to be in Vermont in a week. We had to let go of our jobs, with only one telling us that it would be here when we got back. We packed all of our things away since we didn't know when we'd be back and put the important things in the Uhaul. The drive to Vermont was long, foggy and basically horrible. It took us 4 days to get there on maybe 10 hours of sleep in a very uncomfortable car. We unpacked, set up our bed and passed out. A few hours later we were awoken by Steve's grandmother yelling at us from downstairs. "STEPHEN! STEPHEN! YOU KIDS BETTER BE GETTING UP ALREADY!" And thus begins our month of hell.

Since I respect my husband's grandmother, I'm going to skip ahead to us leaving.

Its been a month, a whole month in Vermont and a whole month since we've been paid, which made paying bills pretty difficult. Which brings me to the personal things that made this month harder than he's family will ever understand. We got a letter in the mail from Sallie Mae, my parents had to mail it to us, and it informed me that they were sending me to collections for my private student loans. On top of that, my wallet was stolen. The stress of our finances on top of the stress of trying to help family that is treating us like enemies and not getting help from other family members that said they would be there to help was too much. Steve and I started to fight because we had no ones else to yell at. So we made a decision. That our marriage was more important than all this. So we left. Hurt. Sad. Resentful.

It took us 3 days to drive home. We've been back for a month and basically we've been hiding out. Trying to get our hearts right, forgive the hurtful things that have been said to us, and to have faith that God is going to provide.

Christmas is near...

Its that time of the year again... and I love Christmas movies! My favorite Christmas movies to awaken the holiday spirit are:

* How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Jim Carrey!)
* Scrooged
* Frosty the Snowman
* Family Stone
* Fred Claus
* Nightmare Before Christmas (also on my Halloween list)
* It's Christmas Charlie Brown
* Elf
* Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
* Family Man
* Home Alone 1 & 2 (I love the turtle doves)

My husband would like to mention:

* A Christmas Story
* It's a Wonderful Life
* The Muppet Christmas Carol
* Veggie Tales - St. Nick
* Santa Claus is Coming to Town
* Santa Slay
* Black Christmas (not for the kids)
* Miracle on 34th Street (original)

Christmas movies we can't wait to see:

* Four Christmases
* Christmas Carol (Jim Carrey)

Its almost Halloween!!

Movies that are a must to get into the Halloween spirit:

1. Hocus Pocus
2. Practical Magic
3. Trick 'r Treat
4. It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
5. Garfield's Halloween Special
6. Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas (great for Halloween and Christmas!)
7. Casper
8. Halloween (original)
9. Sleepy Hollow
10. Halloweentown 1 and 2

Why the name change?

A new start... as much as steve and I move, and constantly feel like we're always starting over from stratch...as long as we have our student loans hounding us we will never officially have a new start, so I changed my name to the two things that we love! And that I can spend hours talking about.

Not enough words

There is so much to say about this past month, but there just isn't enough time or words to describe how frustrating and basically horrible it was. I figured that since its been quite a while since I've posted something that I should post at least a prologue to whats to come...later. It maybe easier to do it in a list form, like the top 10 worst things that can happen in one month or something. I don't know I'll have to think about it. I do know one thing, I need to work on my attitude towards the situtation and the people involved.

Until I'm able to get to the drawing board...have a great October! Hopefully I'll find time to make a post before Halloween...hopefully.

You have to see this! A blog from the husband.

So as a one year wedding anniversary gift to Jason and Alisha we wanted to give them their wedding DVD. Well we kept running into style problems. How could we do the cover and DVD label. Well Jenn thought why not make it look like Moulin Rouge, her favorite movie. So she did it.So after all of this looked amazing. I thought we should do something for Jason since this was geared towards Alisha. And we knew Jason loved the show Supernatural. So we wanted to make a picture for him that looked like a poster for the show. Compare the two and see the amazingness of my wife. We took from a couple different pictures, but mostly this one.
The original. The remake.
I helped get the car in there and made the lights look like they are on, came up witht the slogan whichwas nothing the shows slogan is Sometimes life seems... Supernatural. And I found the font. Yes, I love this picture so much that I want my name in there too, but all the really great things about the picture is from my lovely wife. So enjoy. And if you want something like this done for you let us know.