Wordle...

Most used words in our texts...aww!

Have you heard of wordle? It's the coolest website where you can put in any documents or url's and it will give you an image of the words that were used the most. Troy and I were playing with it tonight and put in all of our texts from May until now. (Kind of a lame date I know, but come on...it is a Sunday night.:) This is what it came up with. Pretty neat!! Check it out at http://www.wordle.net/

LIFE IS GOOD

Life is SO good but it hasn’t always been that way. The other day I was thinking about what it is that makes life good.  Is it a big house? Having a garage? A yard for my kids to play in? Designer clothes? Is it fancy cars, toys or cash?

How interesting that I don’t have any of those things right now…but I’m HAPPY!!! We’ve all heard how happiness has to come from the inside. I used to have a saying in my kitchen that said, “Joy is not found in THINGS, it is in US.”  How ironic that I finally have learned that….after I got rid of that sign in my kitchen. LOL.

So grateful that...LIFE IS GOOD!

You may wonder why life is good for me then without any of the things I mentioned above. Let me tell you! I have a little apartment that is all mine. Each of my children have a bed and their own space!

Kassidy won’t go to bed without ME tucking her in. She hugs me and tells me she loves me DAILY!

Dillan loves to tell me what he’s learning at school. Did you know bats use echolocation to know where they are in caves?

Kyle asks for me to snuggle him while he’s watching TV. Did you know that the more Spongebob you watch the dumber you actually get?

Grayson toddles around the house yelling MOM….MOM…MOM. It gets annoying but still…LIFE IS GOOD!

Food has also become yummy again…that definitely makes life good! Makes the jeans a little tighter also but hey, we can’t have it all. On the top of that list is mint oreos, Italian ice and pizza. Yummmm. J

Life is good because I’ve almost finished three semesters of school. I still have most of my sanity and my kids are all still alive and even like me.

Life is good because after YEARS of retarded phones that have been dropped on the ground and in toilets I FINALLY have a smartphone. It’s pink and tells me where to go so I don’t get lost. Now THAT’S good!

Life is good because it’s full of LOVE! I have found the male version of myself and THAT ladies and gentlemen is AMAZING!

I have a great supportive family and more friends than I can count. Don’t get me wrong, struggles are at every turn but now the happiness is INSIDE of me. It’s here to stay and I’m so excited for my future!

What makes YOUR life good?

Cows & Diamonds

Today I went with Troy to his fourth laser removal appointment for a ring on his left hand. It has faded a lot over the time that I’ve known him and it will continue to do so.


Troy's tatoo after 3 laser removals

 

Fourth removal...burn baby, burn!



It kind of reminds me of the past. The more we move on the easier it is for the past to fade away. We will always remember the lessons and things we’ve learned along the way….the scars are just less visible as we heal.

How fast have you gotten at noticing if someone is single or not? A quick glance down at the left hand usually tells us what we need to know. It's almost so automatic we don't think of it. Someone is instantly out of reach, or within our realm of dating. One second, one glance and we walk towards them or walk away.

Most of us have heard the story of the eight cow wife. What is the significance of this? How does that relate to the rings we place on our fingers as a symbol of marriage? How much relevance does a ring have to the actual marriage itself?

I've had some interesting ring issues myself in my past marriage as has Troy and we have our own theory about this token of love and commitment. First and foremost it is an outward display of commitment.

How many cows are you worth being traded for....? Thank goodness we aren't bartered for with cows anymore but being able to say that you were an eight cow wife was a status. It showed how much your partner was willing to give for you.

The modern day equivalent to this is a diamond ring.

Now before you all freak out and think I'm saying you all need a gigantic rock on your finger to be committed....that is not what I'm implying at all! Whatever ring is purchased, no matter the size, should be a sacrifice. If a ring was purchased for me without sacrifice or commitment how well do you think I would be committed to taking care of that ring? Hmmmm....probably not as much as one that was diligently worked for.

Whatever token of love is manifested on your left hand should be equally proportional to the love and commitment you plan on displaying throughout your marriage. If a $300 ring from Costco is a huge sacrifice and you have to save and work hard for it then that counts! If a $15,000 ring from Trice is your goal then that counts too! Size and amount don't matter...commitment and sacrifices do!

Sometimes rings just don't seem that important in the big scheme of life....perhaps to some they aren't. In my life rings have come to symbolize more than just if I'm married or not.

I had a rough track record with my wedding ring when I was married. I misplaced it at least a few times a month. It would end up missing but would eventually always turn up. One time I even lost it in a Wal-Mart because it slid of my finger and I didn't know it. It eventually turned up also. It was a bit dented and deformed but safe and sound in the WM lost and found.

Shortly after that mishap my ring again went missing, this time in Idaho over Thanksgiving. My ring never surfaced again. (I am sure it was flushed by a toddler who was always into trouble!) At that point I bought a fake ring...you've all seen the type. The big fake bling they sell at places like Claire's and basically everywhere.

Occasionally that one would be misplaced also and I'd purchase a new one. Eventually I just wore whatever ring happened to be around at the time, and whichever one I deemed to look the most "real" that day.

Once my marriage ended I found myself a few times having conversations with people about rings. Thinking I was funny I would explain how my rings related to my marriage. It was lost all the time and once it was officially lost it was just fake.

This comparison would make people laugh and then one day I realized how true it was. The way I treated my ring directly correlated to the way I was feeling in my marriage.

In no way am I implying that if you have a fake ring that your marriage is therefore "fake". However in my experience my rings reflected my relationship. I pose this more as food for thought. What do you consider commitment to look like? How does the commitment you show on the outside reflect the commitment you feel on the inside?

(If you have no idea what an eight cow wife is then I suggest you check this out! :)