What's Going On?!

In your world? This seems to be a common question about Luke and our life, so I thought I would catch everyone up! Most of my posts are about how cute my kids are, but we do have a little more going on than staring at their preciousness all day everyday.
In January and February, I cooked once a month! It was a big pain the two days I had to cook, but it was so nice every night to have food to eat that was yummy. We used Once a Month Mom, and followed the Jan 2012 recipes for Jan, and the Sept 2011 for February. It was also very convenient when I took people meals because they were already prepared! The only reason I haven't done it since February is we love to grill now that it is warmer outside. I will definitely do this again in the fall/winter. I would definitely recommend this website.

I won a blog giveaway from the Artsy Fartsy Shopoholic and Shabby Apple! How cute am I going to be in this:

on our cruise in July? I love winning things (I mean, who doesn't?!) and especially really cute dress things! Check out Shabby Apple for other really cute clothes. Being married to a student has really put a damper on my clothes buying, so I was doubly excited to get a new, beautiful dress! Now that I am looking at their website again, I might have to use the rest of my Birthday Money on a new swimsuit. So cute!

Luke's semester is wrapping up...12 DAYS UNTIL GRADUATION!!! And the Hallelujah choir sang! He has one paper left...and that's it for law school! These three years have been crazy, and I am thankful to see them coming to a close. This semester, he had night class three nights a week paired with me working two-three nights a week  was not exactly awesome. I am so ready to not have to plan around things at night. (for me anyway :) We have not been able to go to our small group this school year at all, and we both really miss that. Last Wednesday he got to argue a case in front of the MS Court of Appeals. Like, a real case. Like, I was extremely nervous sitting in the court room because the judges were intimidating. Like, I am so glad I am not in law school. He loved every minute of it, but he has had to be in Oxford even more than normal, and the kids are missing him like crazy. I am looking forward to this weekend and being able to look at each other for more than 5 minutes when he is running in the door and I am running out.
After he graduates, he will start a bar review class on that Wednesday. It will last 8 weeks, and is usually mon-fri and sometimes mon-sat until the week of the 4th of July. After that, he will have two weeks off, and then take the bar on July 24-25! Ah! We are going on a cruise (0 kids+3 really fun couples=paradise!) after that, and he will start work at Baker Donelson on August 27. This firm is where he interned for four weeks last summer before his wreck. He had two awesome internships lined up that were 6 weeks each, and after the wreck, well, he was a little crazy and we were trying to get him rehabbed up so that he could get back to school on time. We feel extremely blessed that they offered him a job. He couldn't be happier, and I am so excited for him to start his dream job! Now that we can look back on those weeks after the wreck and laugh a little...such as when he emailed one of the managing partners and said, "Attached you will find a thank you note for the firm being so helpful after my wreck." When you opened the attachment, it read, " thank you for being so helpful after my wreck." Haha! Glad he attached that! I am glad they could look through his crazy and see what a smart, amazing lawyer he is going to be. He also was adamant that they had offered him a job while he was still in rehab last June. He kept demanding a computer so he could send his acceptance. I had to be really creative with my stories on why his computer wasn't working so that he didn't accept a job they hadn't offered yet. It was such a relief to get the offer!
On that same train of thought, I am also so thankful that Luke is back to himself. We had a really hard time last semester (yes, I realize I still live my lives in semesters), getting back in our groove of husband and wife. Because I basically did everything for six months, when he was ready to take back over as head of the household, I had a little trouble, ok, a lot of trouble, relinquishing my power. I know now that it was just another lesson from God. 1. being that only He will never disappoint us and is the ONLY constant in our life, and 2. I have to submit to my husband whether I want to or not. I like being in control, and I like bossing people around (are yall surprised?!) I also had to love Luke even when he was unloveable (which was most of the time.) Now that he is back, I feel comfortable sharing this, but he was frustrated with me and the kids alot. Once he was off all medications, I could see him coming back to his normal, patient self. I am the unpatient one, and I need him to balance me out!! When I didnt have that, I had to be patient with everyone in the house, and I felt a little crazy! I am only sharing this because I hope if anyone else ever has to deal with anything similar, they will realize that it will get better with prayer...lots and lots of talking to God, and patience. All I could do some days was love him, and some days that meant staying out of his way. Some days it meant cooking a meal he loves. Some days it meant making sure I put away his clothes. Some days it was an encouraging word. And some days it was a text telling him I loved him. I am so glad to be on the other side of that test/mountain/terribletimeineverwanttoseeagain. I am also so thankful for friends and family who have listened to me complain and given encouragement when needed. Our 5 year anniversary was December 9, and being the end of the semester, our money was gone. (like we had $5.49 in our account to last us until Januray 5!) We had several of our dearest friends pitch in on a Macaroni Grille gift card and then they babysat too! How blessed are we to have friends to walk with us through this tough time in our life, see that we needed a night without kids, and help us celebrate 5 years of marriage with such an awesome gift?! I had a new friend who texted encouraging words daily...sometimes Bible verses, and sometimes notes about moomoos to make me laugh!I am so thankful for the people God placed in my life and how it drew me closer to these people. This also reminded me how important it is to let people know you are thinking about them. In the seconds it takes to send an email or a text, it could completely change my tone for the day. God has used all kinds of people in our lives the last three years, and He has always provided. When Luke did our taxes this year and I saw how much we made last year, it was awesome to know that we HAD to rely on God every single day. The numbers never added up, but putting a wreck in there & me only working part time, we had to have faith that He would provide. And He did. The amazing part is that I feel like we live in abundance, not just scraping by. We have good food, a beautiful house, and two perfect kids.
We would love to move closer to Luke's work, but we are going to hold off putting our home on the market until after Luke takes the bar. If you know anyone looking for a lovely home in Byhalia, send them our way!!

Just to make sure Our Life doesnt get boring, we have decided to adopt! We have met with Life Choices and have started working on our paper work with them. We will  not turn in our family scrapbook until Luke starts working, but we have started the initial steps to grow our family!

And now to balance out all the words, here are some cute pics of our cute kids:

I'm King of the World!

Sleepy head

Playing in the dirt

Loving being together

Cant believe he is 18 months old!

Happy Boy!

Ah, I love him!

In his adorable new boots that Daddy got him

Is Prisspot 3 or 15?

A little smile

Sweet girl

She loves the self timer on my camera! Haha!

I will leave you with this encouraging word from a friend's sisters blog (it's funny how we go blog to blog to blog, isnt it?!)

“That’s how God works. He gets at our most fundamental idolatry and He ruthlessly crushes it in His unfathomable love and fatherly kindness and inscrutable wisdom and He goes after our greatest treasures and He leaves us with nothing but himself so that we go limping on our way for the rest of our lives having learned: ‘My grace is sufficient for you for my power is perfected in weakness.’ Don’t underestimate God. Don’t underestimate His ruthless compassionate gracious commitment to His glory or His commitment to your everlasting joy and good. He will pursue you graciously and ruthlessly and rip out the idols of your soul that would otherwise consume you. He is working for your joy and your good even when you cannot perceive it and have ceased to be able to feel anything anymore.” ~Ligon Duncan, The Underestimated God, T4G 2012