27 Reasons why I love you

This has become a yearly tradition of mine :)

Today is my husband's 27th birthday and he means the world to me.

What better way to show him my love then by shouting it from the mountain tops... or all over the internet in this case.

So, here we go...

27 reasons why I love you

1. You love me for who I am.
2. You support me in everything I do.
3. You always encourage me to do what ever I put my mind to.
4. You give me a hard time about my love for crochet .
5. You pick on me about little things, if you didn't something would be wrong!
6. You help me find yarn on sale any where we are.
7. You enjoy going to flea markets with me. I love that we can spend hours just looking around.
8. You are my shoulder to cry on.
9. You are my rock in hard times.
10. You always have an open ear for me to vent to. 
11. You always know how to lift my spirits. 
12. You will always want to make me happy.
13. You can always can tell when I had a bad day.
14. You surprise me with chocolate when you know I have had a bad day.
15. You make me laugh when I watch you try to get a cork out of a wine bottle when you are determined to drink my wine. :)
16. You haven't killed my character off in our DnD game (yet....).
17. You make me do things on my own, so I learn for the next time.
18. You always notice when I get frustrated in a situation and always try to help.
19. You tell me no when I ask you to do something, but you do it anyway.
20. You can be very spontaneous. 
21. You agreed to get a pool this summer, even though it has been to cold or raining to much to enjoy it.
22. You always encourage me to stand up for myself and not let people walk all over me.
23. You know me better than I do most of the time.
24. You are the most amazing man ever and always full of surprises 
25.  You are extremely hard working.
26.  You are always looking for way to better yourself in order to support us.
27.  You married me!

I look forward to doing this for many years to come!

Happy Birthday babe. I love you more than words can describe the last 9 years we have know each other has been the best! 

Bucket List: One Check Mark!

Better late the never! I have finally marked the very first thing off of my bucket list!

It has come around a lot slower then I had planned, but drum roll please........

The online store for Stitched Together is now open!

You can now easily get your hands on these cute little critters and many other things!

We are hoping that the online store will allow us to spread our love for crochet to more people around the country.

We also have 2 booths already planned for the fall/winter season. With the possibility of more depending on my busy life schedule. 

Upcoming Booth Locations:
September 13 - Ward, AR
December 6 - Bridgeport, IL

The first five people who order from our new online shop will receive a free gift with purchase! All you need to do is put BucketList1 in the notes section as you are checking out!

Hubby and I vs. The Pool

A story about first time pool owners... 

I have always wanted a pool, but we never seemed to get around to buying one. The time just never seemed right. I told myself that this year it was going to happen. It took a little convincing of the hubs, but we finally decided that having a pool would be amazing for the summer. We do live in Arkansas after all. Summers here have a tendency to be incredibly hot, like 3 digit hot!

I don't like being hot and medically I can't let my body get overheated. What better to spend the summer the enjoying a glass of wine relaxing in a pool.

We took the leap purchased a nice 14 X 4 pool. We meticulously searched for the flattest area in our backyard. We had thought we had a pretty level backyard. That was until we had to the pool up!

It was late on a Saturday afternoon, by the time we made it home from running errands. I wanted to go ahead and get the pool put together, so we could begin filing it. My plan was to lounge the entire day of Sunday in the pool.

HA! The pool said easier said then done.

The the time we found the most level area of the backyard, we laid down the tarp and began taking everything out of the box. We wanted to be able to see what all we had to work with and easily be able to grab something when the time came for it.

It wasn't until we had everything laid out that we heard the first clap of thunder followed by more clouds moving in.

I figured at this point, we may as well get everything put together, since it was strewn across the backyard already.

I started laying out the legs and pieces across the top to form the circle and I started to feel a sprinkle on my back.

This made me want to move quicker to get everything done. This made my wonderful husband retreat to the garage.

Then the down pour came....

Then the lightning came....

Then we had a standing pool!

I wasn't going to let a little rain get in my way of being able to enjoy the pool the next day!

That was until we found a leak :( Luckily it was a small one. The repair kit that came with the pool was able to hold up until I got one of those really nice repair kits with the underwater glue. Two months later and still holding up like a champ!

We also learned out not to leave the hose in the pool and unhook if from the faucet.... it will siphon water out of the pool and flood the yard!

This summer hasn't been very nice to us either! We finally decided to buy a pool and we have had the coolest summer in history.

I am sure we will have more funny stories when we get ready to take it down for the winter!

Daddys' Semi-Visit!

Ok, ok, I know that I am a few days late with this, but you will have to forgive me. Friday turned into a train wreck for me and I did all I could to get my mind off of things that were happening.

So, on to Daddy's semi-visit. I call it this because he only stayed at my house 8 days out of the 13 days Marmy was there.

Daddy had one of the most exciting trips of his life planned.

It was back in May that my uncle received a very special phone call. When my uncle picked up the phone it was long lost aunt.

My dad and uncles had seen or heard from their sister is 63 years! I can't even fathom the idea of having a sibling out there somewhere in the world, but have no idea where they are. This is what my dad and uncles went through for 63 years.

They searched high and low for her. Come to find out they were searching under the wrong name the whole time! Who at the age of 2, 4 and 6 could tell Phyllis from Tryllis. 

It wasn't until my uncle came across some information that sounded familiar about the family on ancestry.com. This is how my uncle found his niece and in turn was contacted by his sister.

The family planned a reunion for the end of July. My dad counted down the days and got super antsy the closer the time came to finally meet his sister again. 

The entire weekend of the family reunion the family had a newspaper reporter following them to capture the amazing feat of siblings finding each other at 63 years!

 

 

 

The family graced the front page of the Galveston County Daily News. This was the first moment they all saw each other in the lobby of the hotel after 63 years!.

Once my uncles and my dad made it safely back to my house they had tons of stories to share. They couldn't wait to show off the banner that hung at the hotel.

I don't know about you, but I find this pretty amazing! I had heard stories like this about other families, but never thought it would happen to my family!

Marmy and Daddy visits!

I am a tried and true momma's girl. I will always be the first to admit it. There is nothing better then getting to spend quality time with my momma!

We live 5.5 hours away from each other, but we talk on the phone every day. It makes my drive home from work far more enjoyable.

This visit was an amazing one, for many reasons! I didn't get to spend as much time with my dad this time, but he had another trip planned while my marmy was staying with me. More on daddy's trip in a bit. Stay tuned you don't want to miss that story! (This post got lengthy, check back tomorrow for Daddy's post!)

Marmy stayed with me for almost two weeks. Even though I had to work during the week, with an extra day off, we had a blast. Woot for hitting 90 days and having a personal day to take!

Our evenings consisted of Sonic runs to get half priced shakes, running to Wal-Mart, (I lost count of how many times we went!) swimming until the sun started to go down, and you can't forget the most fun we had curled up on the furniture watching tv and crocheting the night away.

Marmy took a break from crocheting to knit and Pixie is never far away :)

My hubby's birthday is in two weeks, so Marmy make Randy a stuffie Cthulhu!

This is not my pattern. Pattern for this stuffie can be found here.

I continued to work on stuffies for order! My house is turning into a zoo and I love every minute of it.

These are not my patterns. Patterns found for free on Pinterest.

I am grateful that my marmy taught me how to crochet when I was younger. It has really grown into a passion of mine. I love the connectedness that I have with my marmy and that we both share passion for some of the same things.

What skills have been passed down to you from your parents? I would love to hear about them! 

It's all in the little things...

I know that I have written on this subject before, but it is always something that comes back to me.

When days are long and times are tough always celebrate the little things in life.

Whether it is waking up on time to get on the road to beat traffic.

Whether is is having just enough creamer left for your morning coffee.

Whether is is being able to spend a little extra time with a loved one.

Even thought these things are seem pretty miniscule they all play an important factor in life.

Today, I had just made it into work when I started to see reports that all 6 lanes (northbound and southbound) of the highway I take to work were shut down. All because a dump truck was driving with their bed in the up position and ripped all the power lines down.

Today, I am thankful that I work an earlier shift.

I don't like coffee. I LOVE coffee. I need it on a daily basis in order to function. I can't drink it black I need to have some flavoring in it. Last week, I was low on creamer and had just enough to fix my second cup for the day. I had my coffee it was a good day.

The next morning I arrived at work and realized I had forgotten to bring creamer to work.

I am thankful for loving co-workers who also share my addition and offered to share their creamer.

I live away in a different state from all of my family. My in-laws live more then 45 minutes from me.

I am a tried and true Marmy's girl. I talk to her almost every day of the week and some days we talk a few times on the phone, in addition to text messages throughout the day. Every moment that I get to spend with my Marmy makes my life better.

Don't take the little things in your life for-granted.

There are people that would do anything to have a job.

There are people that can't afford to buy coffee and creamer.

There are people that would give anything to spend more time with a loved on who is no longer with us.

Life is a wonderful thing.

Even when the day is looking pretty grey and nothing is going right. Find that one little shimmer of hope in the day. 

Marmy and Me the first day she got to my house. 

I get to keep her until the end of the month! I may not let her go home :)

My break from blogging... Part 2 of 2

So, much has gone on during my time away from my blog. I have really missed it. I know that I don't have many followers, but thank you for being here!

Blogging for me and never been about the numbers, it isn't about trying to reach a level of fame, it has solely been about the fact that I like to write. My hope is that at least one reader is able to connect with something that I am writing about and make their day better. Even if small smile comes across their face I have done something important.

There are a few blogs that I read on a daily basis. One is for daily inspiration and one is to make me laugh.

I am really looking forward to getting back into blogging and getting on a better posting schedule. That is my hope at least. Life needs to stop throwing fast balls at me from every direction.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about my life and where I am at and where I would like to be at. All of this lead to me making a bucket list. Some of these may take my entire life time, but here is to having goals! I am 25 years old and I feel like I haven't really done much with my life. I want more for myself and for my family.

Amanda's Bucket List

Travel outside of the United States
I would love to visit Aom in Thailand. It was a lot of fun learning about Thailand and the culture there while Aom was living in Kansas with us. I would love to learn more about the culture being in the middle of it. I would love to see the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Travel through Europe visiting historic areas. Drink wine and eat pasta in Italy. Even visiting one of these places would  be beyond amazing!

I miss this girl!

 

Write a book and get it published (even for a Kindle only version)
I have started this! Be on the look out for another post about my novel I am working on. I am quite excited!

Become a better blogger
I would like to get better at keeping up with my blog and getting on a better blogging schedule.

Make more money selling my crocheted items then I spend on yarn 
HAHA! This makes me giggle even when I type it!

Photo from Google search

Set up an online store for my families crochet business  
P.S. for now follow Stitched Together on Facebook! We take custom orders.

Become a yoga instructor 
I have been taking yoga classes for the last year at my local gym. This is something that I have become very passionate about. Now to save the money to get certified! Taking donations to make my dream come true :)

Get another tattoo 
I have two more in mind :)

Love and Equality for All! 
So, I might not have much control over this, but people should be able to love who they want whether that is one person, two people or more!

Here is the start of my bucket list for life. I am sure that I will come up with a few more things down the road. I will be sure to keep you all informed as I make things off this list and as I add things.

What is on your bucket list?