Marriage Advice

While I was reading blogs today I stumbled across this great post from  Jenna at "That's What She Said". No matter what stage you are at in your relationship or marriage everyone could use this advice. Thanks Jenna!

"20 things i want to tell engaged and newlywed women {really all married women}"

by gracefull mama

1. marriage is made up of two good forgivers. because every marriage is made up of two sinners. (Romans 3:23)

2. at some point, you will have to learn that life isn’t all about you. (Philippians 2:3)

3. don’t listen to women that tell you that passion fades…it doesn’t have to! (um…all of song of Solomon)

4. don’t give up. love never fails. (1 cor. 13)

5. he wants a kind wife, not a maid or another mother. be nice. (Galatians 5:22-23)

6. give your husband the gift of your respect. he needs it more than you know. (Ephesians 5:33)

7. be mindful of your expectations.

8. honor the Lord above all things. (Colossians 3: 17)

9. find your worth and security in the Lord, and don’t look to your husband to meet all of your needs.

10. be very careful about reading romance novels, they set you up for an unrealistic view of romance.

11. real romance is finding that one spot in the crook of his arm to snuggle into, that shared look over the dinner table when the kids are acting crazy, and the way he fixes the leaky sink when he is dog-tired after work.

12. love is about relationship. the more i love my husband, and seek a relationship with him, the less critical and duty-bound i become. it is similar to my relationship with God.

13. be thankful for the husband you have. accept him as he is, not for what you want him to be.

14. don’t compare!! don’t buy into the game of comparing him with anyone else’s husband.

15. the biblically “normal” marriage is filled with joy, connection, laughter, and peace. it’s not free of hurt feelings and conflict, but they know how to process their pain with one another so that they live more often in a meadow than at the scene of a train wreck. this is not the average marriage, but it normal – -because it is a visible display of Jesus’ relationship with His bride (Ephesians 5:22-33).

16. your marriage is a testimony! “the #1 evangelistic tool in america (the world) today is a successful marriage, because it’s a living miracle!” – dr. joe aldrich, former president of multnomah bible college.

17. pray for your marriage. pray hard.

18. i’ve heard that is gets better with age. i have to say in my short {13 year} experience, that is so true.

19. where there is God, there is always hope. even for the most broken marriages. “with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

20. marriage is commitment and sacrifice. but it’s also the best, most wild ride you will ever have with your best friend

Friday Five

1. My MIL is coming to pick up Mable to spend the weekend at their house. What to do with a whole weekend without "kids"??? HaHaHa I know we are very spoiled. I can only imagine how amazing she will be when we actually have kiddos.
2. The Half Marathon is a month away and I don't feel prepared at all. I've been sick all week so I haven't ran but I did run 6 miles last Saturday and felt great and super fast so we shall see.
3. We checked out the new Osaka that just opened by our house last night and it is AMAZING! Yes, I really I overuse exclamation points and the word "amazing"!!!! I highly suggest everyone to try it out. It totally wasn't what I was expecting. It's really nice and the decor is really cool.
4. I'm working in the office today. I know this may not seem weird to most but I'm usually remote on Fridays and I have to say I'm not that happy about it.
5. Jared and I celebrated our third anniversary last week. The traditional third gift is Leather. So this week we order new leather shoes. I got my first pair of "real" cowboy boots and Jared got a new pair of chukkas. We're so trendy......yeah right!

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

3 Years

Happy Anniversary Honey! I love you so much and can't wait to annoy you for the rest of my life!

We've made it through 3 years here's to fifty more!!!

Love you to infinity and beyond!

October Goals

I'm definitely a list person. I'm also old school. I don't get the same gratification from typing as I do writing it down and crossing it off when it's complete. If you were to come into my house today you would see a bazillion notepads with lists of stuff that needs to be done.

This is my list of October Goals:

1. Complete all of my training runs. Last month I really slacked on my half marathon training. I can't keep doing this or I will end up with another stress fracture. Nobody enjoys wearing a boot for 6-8 weeks!

2. Cross Train/Yoga 1-2 times a week. This is going to be key to running a sub 2 hour half marathon....yep I just said my goal for the race out loud. EEEKKKK!!!!

3. Spend more time with God each day. When I spend time doing my devotional and reading the bible daily I feel like a BRAND NEW WOMAN!

4. Daily Cleaning. I'm notorious for putting this off until it all piles up and I freak out! I guess that's the procrastinator in me coming out. I'm trying to come up with a daily/every other day cleaning schedule. Nothing crazy...maybe 15-30 minutes a day.

5. Cook dinner at home 1-2 nights a week. I cooked chili and corn bread last night and have TONS leftover..WINNER! I know what I'm eating for lunch.

Hopefully when I revisit this at the end of the month I will be able to cross all of these of "My List".

No post is complete with pics of Mable Anne....

Big Lazy Baby!

Stare Down 

A little Instagram fun.

One of her favorite spots...Our Bed!  

Angel baby

Her pitiful face.

This is my all time favorite picture of her. She still thinks she is this small.

Happy Hump Day!

WILW

Today I'm linking up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday. Please excuse my lack of creativeness!

{one}

First things first. Half Marathon training starts in 2 weeks so a new shoes were definitely needed! I went with the Asics Gel Cumulus 13. They are exactly like the picture above and I LOVE THEM! I went running at Shelby Farms last night and helped my little feet get in 3.5 miles (with lots of walk breaks).

{two} 

I'm also loving that Tiger Football season is a mere 10 days away! We may not have the best football team in the country but we sure do love to Tailgate! Our Huntsville friends are coming in town for lots of the games which make the Franks Family happy, happy, happy!

 I don't know about y'all but my favorite games are the night games. It gives you all day to tailgate a.k.a PARTY and you don't have get up at the crack of dawn either!

{three}

Y'all I can not say enough AMAZING things about this book. I have seen it floating around the blog world for awhile now. I had also read her blog a couple of times. I don't know what took so long for me to download the book but I am so glad I did. I'm a very emotional person so I pretty much cried the whole book. The tears were happy tears but it got to me. I can't imagine being in her situation but she definitely is making the most of it and I can only hope that one day I am half the mother she is to my kids!

RUN don't walk and get this book ASAP. You won't be disappointed! Is she beautiful!?! Her little girls are precious too and she's got another baby on the way!

{four}

Essie Top Coat is my new love! I have always used Seche Vite but have been hearing lots of good reviews about the Essie Rapid Dry Top Coat. Well let me just say that it lives up to all of the great reviews and it's not that pricey either. I got mine at Walgreen's for around $7.

{five}

I jumped on the Erin Condren Life Planner bandwagon last year and wasn't really impressed. Yes, it was cute. Yes, it had the weekly and monthly pages like I love. However, it was HUGE and heavy. I know they made updates to it this year I just wasn't wanted to ride the bandwagon again and I didn't have 50 buckaroos to shell out either.

This is where Lilly Pulitzer comes in. She saved the day! Not only did she have the monthly and weekly pages with room for notes she also made the planner cute and lightweight. Not to mention it was only 18 dollars! I love have a sister that works at a Lilly store. Now if I could only get Lifeguard Press to send me some free Lilly Items to "review" my life would be complete! hahaha!

What are you loving this Wednesday?????

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Today I'm linking up with This Kind of Love for "What I'm Loving Wednesday!"

First is Cetaphil Face Wash. I've tried everything imaginable. This is the only thing that keeps my little acne flareups away and also makes my skin look marvelous.

I've been using the facewash with this brush from Sephora. My budget isn't allowing me to purchase the Clarisonic that I have been coveting forever so this will have to do until Christmas! I will say that this has made my skin so smooth and my makeup go on so much easier.

The next thing I'm loving is Crystal Light Pure. I try not to drink my calories but sometimes I need to change it up. I love this because it doesn't contain aspartame like all of the other Crystal Light Mixes do.

I'm also loving my mountain bike. It's not anything fancy but I have definitely gotten my money's worth. The Hubs and I have been biking alot lately and I love it. It's the only exercise that we both enjoy doing together! He's not a runner and I don't really care to play basketball so biking works for us!

I've also started this devotional/bible study. The one I'm currently working on is Prayer. I struggle alot with this. I'm always worried that I'm not praying the right way or saying the right things and this has really opened my eyes!

Lastly, I'm LOVING my Husband. He is my rock and he's pretty cute too!

What are you lovin this Wednesday???

It's Okay Thursday

Today I'm linking up with Amber & Neely for It's Okay Thursday #50.

It's totally okay that I just got back from a long weekend vacation and I'm already ready to go out of town again!

It's totally okay that I still haven't unpacked my bag from said vacation. My room looks like a tornado ripped through it.

It's also okay that I completely didn't follow my no dairy rule this past weekend. I was in the Cheesehead state.

It's completely okay that I worked out for the first time in a week last night.

Make sure and check out all the other blogs linked up for It's okay Thursday!