Happy Birthday Baby!!!

I am such a lucky woman....and I know I am blessed to have a husband who looks like this at 49, and who loves me the way he does...truly, madly,deeply, and completely. Through all these years together, we have had our share and then some, of rough times and trials and stress. But our love, which we believe has always been between our two souls, endures and grows stronger each day.

I love you, David. Happy Birthday baby, I wish for you all the things that bring you the sweetness in life.

~ Jennifer

PSA: Do Not Try This At Home

OK, here is one very good reason not to make your own fireworks or smoke bombs in the kitchen. My dear hubby, in trying to make smoke bombs for our teenagers to shoot off on the fourth, cooks up a homemade recipe for smoke bombs on the kitchen stove. (Note: he has done this before with no mishap)

While said recipe is cooking at high heat, a chunk of molten brown sugar leaps from the pot and causes a flash explosion on my kitchen stove! It immediately went out, however, my hubby is very good at making smoke bombs so my entire two story house is filled with smoke!

(this photo shows what the smoke bombs do outside the house)

In the midst of running around, with a deafening smoke detector going off, getting fans, opening windows, removing pets from the house, and assuring the frantic neighbor that we are all ok, hubby says, "oh, by the way, it blew up in my face and I am burned."

Hubby has singed off eyebrow, eye lashes, one side of his head the hair is shorter, he has five small blisters already forming on his forearm, and also stepped on a molten piece of sugar that hit the floor and has this monster of a blister on the bottom of his foot! Ouch!!

Not only was my stove covered with black, charred blobs of brown sugar, but the ceiling has black spots on it, and the floor in front of my stove looks like this....

From the outside, this looks hysterically funny. And it was to us after the initial scare. He really could have been seriously injured. As it is he has had to construct a special shoe to be able to walk, that alone is funny to see. He has nearly no eyelash on the one eye, again funny to see. lol And it was Very painful the first day. He was very lucky and we are so glad that the pets or Sophie were not in the room. Thank Goddess for that.

Thinking about my Love

I am thinking about my love, my soul mate, my husband and best friend. He has been going through a rough patch and we haven't spent very much time together for a few days. I miss him. So I was listening to some of our favorite songs and looking at photos of him and us, and thought I would share a few of my favs.

~So sexy~

~xmas parade~

~Bedtime stories with dad~

~Fun in the sun~

~Halloween while pregnant~

~one of our roadstrips~

~photo album browsing with Sophie~

~after shower yumminess~

(Thanks for humoring me......I am so in love with this man!)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the Love of My Life!!!! I love you David!!!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the man of my dreams.

I love you, David.

My Love

I wanted to share this photo of my love, David. It was taken by Sophie of her daddy. This picture means a lot to me, because, after nearly a year of dealing with depression and anxiety, David is finally feeling and being himself again. The smile says it all. It is more than wonderful to have him back again. I love you David.

Happy Birthday to the love of my life

Happy Birthday , baby. You make me happy beyond compare, and I am so thankful every day that the fates brought us together. I hope I am blessed to share many more birthdays with you. I love you, David.

Happy Anniversary

David,

Four years ago today, we shared our love with our friends and family and became husband and wife. I want you to know that it has been a wonderful adventure with you. You have opened my mind to so many things and so many places that I fear I would have never known without you. Thank you. Through all the hard times and struggles we have endured to keep our lives growing together, I have never regretted the day we committed to one another. I have always considered you a blessing from the Goddess and I do to this day. I love you, I have always loved you, and I will always love you.

Yours,

J

Back to Yoga

Finally, I got up early this morning, though not willingly, and got my yoga practice in. It has been dropped to the back of my priority list these past couple of weeks. I have been so stressed and exhausted with dealing with David's illness, that I have only gotten in yoga a few times. Which is a shame really because I knew it would probably have made the stress a little easier to deal with. But I just couldn't make myself do it along with all the other extra stuff I had to take on. Now that David is getting better, I am ready to begin anew, and it felt so good to get back into those asanas this morning! I felt refreshed and invigorated, though I was very stiff and I know that will take a few more days of steady practice to overcome. I love yoga!

Tomorrow's Plans

Tomorrow, March 3RD is the Japanese Doll's Festival (Hinamatsuri). Sine David was born in Tokyo, and has always had a love of Japanese culture and design, I thought it would be fun to hold an Americanized version of Doll's Festival with Sophie tomorrow. I'm thinking of gathering all of the dolls in the house, that's a lot, and having a lovely tea party. Reading a couple of Japanese stories, and playing some music by Ki taro. David's mom has several Japanese pieces that he and then Sophie will someday inherit, including several dolls. I am looking for the pictures that we have of those and then I will post them, they are magnificently detailed. I will post pictures and details of what we do tomorrow. I am looking forward to it and think it will be great fun and a way to learn a little more about Japanese culture. More info here: http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa022501a.htm Photo is the traditional doll set up.

My yoga practice is going very well. I have only missed one day this month and that was due to a few sore muscles and a late night. However, even that day I did get in a Sun Salutation. Felt very good and helped clear my head. I have been reading Rodney Yee's book "Yoga, the poetry of the body" and it is a great book. The way he writes makes you go deeper into the poses and learn to really feel them, for instance he says about Downward Facing Dog, "Bring a lightness to this pose, a feeling of suspension, the way a sudden cool breeze brings you relief as you're working in the garden on a hot sweaty day." And of Supported Child's Pose, "Like an afternoon nap so deep that you drool on your pillow....And deep sighs." I just love reading the instructions and the "One Thing" notes at the end. This book has made me think and look at my yoga practice in a whole new way, and I have been able to get closer to the spiritual and mental side of yoga, even to being able to practice with others in the room and distractions and keep my focus on my practice. That is saying something. Go out and read this book.

David and I had our Valentine's date on Saturday night. It was wonderful to get out alone together. We so needed it and we have felt much closer since. ~~love~~sighs~~~lol

I woke this morning to this, a lovely heart shaped pancake from my sweetie. We don't have any plans until the weekend, but he is always so thoughtful about holidays. Oh I do love that man.

Sophie and I are planning to make more valentines today, and we are having guests this afternoon. She is so excited that more of her friends are visiting.

Yesterday she went outside in the snowy mix we had. She was bundled up quite well, and enjoyed a few minutes out in the cold. Brrr! She's a nature, Goddess child through and through, no matter the weather she wants to be outside.

For the love of a guitar

About a year ago, when David was ill and out of work, I had to sell my acoustic guitar that he had given me for a previous Christmas gift. I was devastated to say the least, because he had gone to much effort to find one for me, and because I had only begun to be successful at playing it. Fast forward to yesterday, I mentioned that I missed having my guitar, because then I could put music to the little songs that I sing with Sophie, and he got up and left the room only to return with a guitar. Granted, it was nothing as nice as the Washburn that I had before, this one is a small folk guitar, but I was beside myself with glee! I could finally resume my lessons and share my love of guitar with Sophie. I have one of the most wonderful guys in the world, as far as I am concerned. He found it secondhand, and thought of me. I am so happy to have a guitar again and can hardly wait to play it.

A wonderful, exhilarating yoga practice this morning! I tried a new asana called Moon Salutation. A set of 13 poses, that you move smoothly in and out of. The book describes it as, "Women and the moon are practically synonymous. We women resonate with the moon energy through our monthly menstrual cycle, our waxing and waning of thoughts and feelings, and most importantly, through our inborn capacity to reflect the light of the sun and shine it through every dark night. For this reason, many women find the practice of Moon Salutation holds special meaning." It was not an easy set of poses to do, and I have a way to go before I will be able to do them smoothly ad completely. But the feeling that I got from working through them was incredible! Whee! (If you click on the picture it will animate and show the basic pose.)

Two days ago, David gave me a beautiful new athame. It is detailed engravings and has a blue stone in the end of the handle. It has a beautiful sheath to hold it in. I will post a picture soon. After cleansing and purifying it, I will use it in my rituals. Woo hoo! I will post a photo of it as soon as I can get one made. I love it! My husband is so thoughtful.....aaahhh.

Sunday morning yoga

David had the chance to see my yoga practice this morning. He thought that I was doing really well, and that the postures were pretty much on target, and was duly impressed with my flexibility and thought that I looked beautiful doing the poses. :) That's always nice to hear. Of course, I know that I have a ways to go and may never get them just right. But perfection is not my goal. I have realized that in sharing my yoga time with Sophie, I am missing out on the mental calmness, to an extent I do get some, because afterwards I feel great physically and emotionally/mentally. But as for the meditational qualities that I have read about, I cannot get those without having solitude. So in that vein, I am attempting to get up extra early tomorrow morning. Wish me luck.

Yoga and Children

Has anyone ever tried to get through a yoga routine with a three year old in the room? Its not easily done, let me tell you. Although she wants to be a part of it, this morning after only two poses she decided it would be a great time to ride the skate board past the television where my yoga video was playing while also pushing the button on today's "noisemaker of choice"- a musical saxophone that is very loud. I am sure that this would have proved very comedic to anyone witnessing it, but trying to be centered and peaceful and calm amid my daughter's antics, lets just say I was pretty much the opposite. So the next time she feels like doing yoga I am ready. Yoga Journal's website is awesome. Check it out, for parent/child yoga poses to practice together. http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/2561 Looks like a lot of fun and a great way to share time together.

Well, it is cold!! Brrr!! I mean like 13 degrees when we got up this morning. Not our typical Tennessee weather, but it does reflect the Earth Mother's deep sleep of winter. I really feel like hibernating, so does my husband, David. It is very hard to get up and get moving to go to a partly outdoor job in this kind of cold. But he does it every morning and I am extremely grateful to him. Because it allows me to be home with our daughter while she needs me to be.

Last night I rented the DVD "Chocolat". Oh it was as much fun as I remembered. Of course, I craved chocolate all night, but hey, it was worth it. And Johnny Depp is just so hot!! We also got some of the sheet rock up in our down stairs bath. The laundry room is next and then I can finally get them organized and decorated. Oh it is so great to finally have it done.

Resolutions are going well so far. I am eating much better and working on some of the things that I wanted to get done. Kudos to me.