why yes, i do still exist.

I feel like a horrible blogger.  I always have these great intentions when it comes to blogging, but then the week gets busy and before I know it I have blinked and yet here we are at another Monday! Is it just me or has summer being going way too fast? I mean how can it be AUGUST? Wasn't it just JUNE?!  Here in Minnesota we really don't get much of a summer as it, and it is super depressing knowing that this is pretty much our last month of the hot heat and sunshine.  Can we puh-lease slow time down?! I am not ready to start thinking about fall and winter.

There has been so much going on in our life lately, I just feel like time is flying by! This past weekend the husband and I had to travel out of town for his cousin's wedding, and it was nice to spend some time road tripping with him, but it made the weekend FLY by.   Now this weekend we are celebrating our nephew's 2nd birthday and then next weekend it Scott's 25th birthday.  See what I mean about being too busy and time flying by?!!

Hopefully you are all enjoying your summertime and soaking up every sunshine filled minute that you can!!! I will leave you will a couple pictures from a few weeks ago when I went to see fireworks with my parents, my sister, and her two sweet little boys.  It was a humid sticky night, but there is nothing quite like enjoying fireworks with a 2 year old!

I hope you all have an AMAZING week!!! :)

random thoughts thursday

I hope you have all had an amazing week!

random thoughts thursday

Is it just me, or does it seem like weeks fly by faster during the summer months!?! I feel like when I look at my calendar of events for June that I am gonna blink and it's gonna be July already.  Can things slow down just a smidge, please???  I really want to savor every summer moment that I can.

Speaking of being way too busy, this weekend is super jammed packed with things for the hubby and I.  We have TWO weddings this weekend, as well as celebrating our THREE year anniversary on Monday.  Talk about a busy weekend.  As I am sitting here just thinking about it all, I am super overwhelmed! LOL! At least the things we have to do are fun, that always helps.  And a little added bonus is that I only have a half day of work tomorrow, and I am off on Monday. HOLLA!! :)

So, I figured before I head off into my busy, busy weekend I would recap some of the random loves/thoughts/events from this past week!!

.:NUMBER ONE:.

My in-laws got a smaller above ground pool last week and on Saturday the hubby and I went to check it out and swim with my sweet little nephew, Rowan.  I am thinking that this will be the first of many swimming adventures this summer! I am so excited that they finally got a pool, my mother-in-law has been talking about it forever and I know that someday in the near future my kiddos will love that their grandparents invested in this!

.:TWO:.

I am loving the hot summer heat we have been having this past week!! Winter was especially cruel, long, and cold this year so you will not hear this girl complain about the heat.  I was one of the few who was loving that it hit 102 (yes ONE HUNDRED TWO degrees in MINNESOTA) the other day!!  I am loving busting out all my summer clothes! I just struck gold at H & M a few weeks ago and I found SO much good stuff, but this one dress is definitely a fav!

So cute right? And what is even better about it is the price, only $9.95! You just cannot beat that! Great style and it doesn't break the bank, its like something straight outta my dreams! 

.:THREE:.

One of the weddings we are attending this weekend is for one of my best friends, Rachel.  I am SOOOO excited that she is marrying her high school sweetheart, they have been waiting for so long and I could not be happier for them!  This past weekend we celebrated her bachelorette party and it was such a fun girls night out!!! There is nothing I love more than a fun night on the town with some of my favorite girls.  It's the best to just unwind and get silly!!

.:FOUR:.

I have a new addictions in the food/drink category.  I think I might need an intervention!!! :)   It's the  iced pomegrante vanilla oolong tea latte from Caribou Coffee, honestly it's amazeballs!  If you haven't tried it you MUST! Seriously, just looking at this picture makes me want to hop in my car to go get one right now! It's  the PERFECT summertime drink!

.:FIVE:.

I cannot believe that Monday will be our THREE year anniversary, seriously where has the time gone?!  I feel like it was just yesterday that we tied the knot, and now here we are an old married couple! Okay, not OLD but you know what I mean! Wow, what a God blessed adventure it has been so far! I cannot believe how far we have come in three years! I will post something on Monday with more about my thoughts on this, but for now, I'll leave ya with a few wedding pics that I love.  

I hope you all have a wonderful, fun weekend in the sun!! :)

**P.S. I did upload videos of the top two things on my list if you are really that interested (which I know you are cause let's face it, I am that awesome! LOL! JK)  Just click the link on the sidebar for our YouTube channel!***

I'm linking this post to Summer Luvin over at Pouty Pink Princess! Check out this super fun link party!!!

a little bit of this, a little bit of that

So, I have all my pictures of my finished loft taken, they are just waiting to be blogged! I have been somewhat busy, and just haven't had the time to collect all my thoughts into a post, however I am planning on doing it this week (fingers crossed) because I can't wait to reveal it to you all!!! I am in love with it! It's become our favorite place in the house!

In other random thoughts, I am SOOOO ready for Spring to come, you have no idea!! Maybe that's what's playing into my apathy about not getting around to doing stuff.  I look outside at the cold winter snow and it makes me want to crawl in a ball and sleep until April! LOL!!! :) I know I just need to bare through a few more weeks and it will be here, but it's been a LONG winter and a few more weeks feels like years to me!

To keep you entertained until my next post, you really should check out this video of my sweet little nephews Kaden and Ethan! I got to babysit them last week since Momma had to work and I just adore my sweet little buggy boos.  They are such loves!

random thoughts thursday

1. I could watch Boy Meets World over & over again.  Seriously one of my favorite shows ever.  (This probably makes me a big geek.)

2.  I'm honestly thinking about putting up my Christmas tree.  Yes, I'm aware its still October, but I just cannot wait.  I told my husband as of November 1, that baby will be gracing my living room....I just don't think I can hold out any longer than that. 

3. I'm already working on my Christmas list and I'm thinking that these babies are gonna make the list.

4.  I have been fasting Facebook this month, and I honestly don't miss it as much as I thought I would.  It's actually been a really nice break.

5. I miss these people....like a lot. Really, really a lot.

6. I'm soooo over this week & ready for the WEEKEND!

is it okay to be just me???

I’m gonna have an honesty moment here.  Ok, maybe not an honesty moment since this will be a whole post, but I’m pretty sure you catch my drift.  Sometimes I’m afraid of my blog.  Yes, I said it, I’m afraid of my blog.  Why you ask? Because sometimes, I just don’t know what to say.  Correction: I know what to say but I don’t know how it will be received.  Any of this making sense? Yah I didn’t think so.  Let me back track a bit.

I first started blogging back on Xanga  (anyone remember back that far?) my senior year of high school.  It was the Facebook of that day, and I would blog about all the high school things that were going on in my life at that time.  I have always thoroughly enjoying writing, I journaled religiously throughout high school and blogging quickly became something I enjoyed.  I continued blogging on Xanga sporadically throughout my college years, and it was hard to keep up on once Myspace and Facebook came along.  I actually just went back and dusted off my Xanga account the other day, and I am honestly thankful that I used it as much as I did during those late teenage years of my life.  I really enjoyed gong back through all my posts and reading my thoughts at those times in my life.  I don't always remember the details, and even if I do, its good to read through how I felt at those times.  Life changes so fast, that it can be hard to really capture all those details, and blogging has been a great tool for me to re-live all those moments.

Fast forward to 2008 when I started blogging here on Blogger.  I was a newlywed and missed blogging all my thoughts and experiences in life.  I figured what better time to get back into then right as we were starting our new life together.  I had hoped to be able to share a lot of what our new life as husband and wife, the good things that happened, the bad things we faced, the amazing God things that we experienced, and all the days in between.  I started off pretty good as I browse through my earlier posts, but slowly began neglecting by blog.  About a year ago I started finding all these amazing home decorating, DIY blogs and my blogging purpose had been renewed!! I was so inspired and wanted to try my hand at some of the great projects that I had seen all over the place.  Since that time, so many wonderful people have stopped by my blog, commented on my projects, and some have even been kind enough to follow along with me.  I find that SO cool that you would think that my blog is worthy of your time.  I have loved being inspired by others ideas, and getting to know so many wonderful people through blogging.  I hope that some of you following feel the same way about me.

All this has brought me to today…. sometimes I struggle with the thought of how to combine my initial hopes for blogging and my renewed thrifty DIY purpose of blogging into this one blog.  I sometimes feel like if I do blog about my marriage or my day to day life, that I am somehow letting down those of you how found my blogs through the projects I have shared, and expect me to share more of those ideas, but if all I ever do is just blog projects, I feel like I am letting myself down for not really capturing all the memories I had hoped to.  See where it gets hard?  I really want to find that balance of both, but still make it enjoyable for others to read along with me on my daily life journeys.  

I guess I said all this to say,  that you will probably see more posts about my life in the upcoming days. I hope you won't find me too boring, or choose to not follow along anymore.  I usually don't get many comments on my personal posts, and that's ok because it's truly a post for me if nothing else.  I hope that there will be things that you find relate-able, after all we all face the same types of challenges, and joys in life.  I guess i just really I don't want everything I post to fall into just one category, I truly want this blog to change as I change, and follow me through all the things that life brings my way.  Someday I know that I will blogging about my kids, and my life as a parent...I hope you'll stick around with me for that!!  I definitely will continue to post my revamps and creative attempts, its very much a part of who I am!! 

Thanks for reading and following along in life with me,  it means more to me than you could ever know!  Most of all, I hope that its ok with you that I want to be just me.  After all, I think I'm a pretty cool person. :)

makes me happy

This little cutie pie....

...makes me happy! I'm blessed to be his auntie.

(& yes I did give him that chocolate chip cookie when his Mom wasn't looking...that's what Aunties are for!)

Have a great weekend!

let's go Vikings!!!!!!!!!

Just wanted to say I am PUMPED for today's NFC championship game! I am ready to see the Vikes take down the Saints and go on to the SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!! It's gonna be a great game, and sorry Kim Kardashian but Reggie Bush ain't gonna make it to the big game this year! Brett Favre is in town to take you down!! Haha :)  It's been an amazing season here in Minnesota and everyone around here is ready for a big WIN today!

Hope you all have a GREAT Sunday!!

what i'm thankful for...part one

With this week being Thanksgiving I decided that I want to post each day on something that I am thankful for. Too often in life we get swept up in ourselves, and we forget to take time to have a heart of thankfulness for all the wonderful things that are in our live. God has blessed me SO much and I am so truly overwhelmed with all He has done for me and I know that I don't spend enough time every day just being thankful. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am going to post on the things that I am MOST thankful for.

My first and foremost is my family. I have an amazing family and I am beyond blessed to have them in my life. So many people in this world grew up in broken, unhappy homes, and I truly have never had to experience any of that in my life. My family is supportive, loving, Godly, hilarious, and just truly God's perfect blessing in my life. I could go on and on about each person individually but that would take a LONG time since I have a very BIG family! LOL :) All in all each family member is a huge blessing to my life and I don't think there are enough words to express my love and appreciation for them all.

So to my family, I don't say it enough but THANK YOU for being YOU! Thank you for loving me, listening to me, supporting me, and most of all being an avenue of God's blessing and wisdom in my life! I love you all more than words can say! So here are some pictures of my amazing family!!


My Family: (top left to bottom) Paul, Dad, Mom, Kimmy, Scott, Karen, Deane, Kern, Christina, Pamela, & Jan


My Husband's Family/The In-Laws: (top left to bottom) Andy, Steve, Scott, Jeff, Brinley, Shaynah, Rowan, Debbie, & Kimmy.


My Nieces & Nephews: (top left to bottom) Alexyss, Brennen, Bailey, Xavier, Kaden, Avery, & Dakota


My Dodge nephews: Rowan & Brinley



and last but not least my sweet puppy LILLY!!!

Lots of love from me to you!!
Kimmy

so the other day...

So, the other day I came home from work to this...

Yes, my sweet loving husband surprised me with these!!!! It was such a delightful thing to come home to and really unexpected. I really do have the best husband!! :)

stirring things up

God is really stirring things up in my life these days!! I feel like I am growing more and more every single day, but in a different way then I ever have before. I feel like I am being challenged more in my commitment to His word and to sticking true to the lifestyle that He has called His children to. It's a good thing to be able to prove that His word works! Scott & I have really been focusing in more on what the Lord wants us to do in every area of our lives, and our flesh is definitely being pushed out of it's comfort zone, but that is the great thing to be going through. Just follow the leading of the Holy Spirit is

Anyways, I guess this post is to say that God has some great big things coming my way and it is more important now than ever to really press in to what He wants to you to doing and just seeking Him more and more everyday!!

tweet tweet

I decided to sign up for Twitter. Not quite sure how it all works or if I am doing it right, but nonetheless if you want to follow me here is my profile!!

http://twitter.com/kimmydodge

my new favorite thing

So, after months of saving all my "fun money" I FINALLY have a new addition to my purse collection, and this one is a beauty!! I have been saving since December for a gorgeous Coach purse and I finally got to buy it at the store this weekend. To say I was ecstatic would be an understatement!!


ISN'T IT PRETTY???!!! :)


So besides this lovely new addition, I have a lot of good things to look forward to this week.
-Today it is going to be 60 degrees outside! Spring has SPRUNG!!
-Wednesday night I get to work with the kidlets in Kinderchurch, that is always a fun time. They sure are adorable and say the quirkiest things, but most of all I am blessed when I see their tender open heart towards to the Lord
-Friday is the first OFFICIAL day of Spring!! YAY!!
-AND Friday I get to find out if I get a new little niece or nephew added to the Dodge family....I am thinking GIRL thoughts!!

So, overall it should be a good week....what good things do you have going on in your life??

THE BLESSING

This past weekend at church Pastor Mac gave an awesome message on the tithe and our “bill of rights” as tithers using Malachi 10 as his sermon. It was a powerful message and it really spoke to my heart. One part that he didn’t really bring up but it was something that the Holy Spirit set off inside of me was verse 12 of Malachi 10 and here is what it says:

“Everyone of every nation will talk about how I have blessed you and about your wonderful land.” (Contemporary English Version)

This verse came alive inside of me when I read it! I was thinking to myself what it would be like to have every nation call me blessed, to have them talk about how blessed my life is! What an awesome thing! This just became so strong inside of me. I want my life to be so saturated with the blessing of God that people cannot help but stop and wonder what it is that is different about me. I want to be so overflowed with the blessing that it seeps into every area of my life, that each place that I go that it attracts unbelievers to Christ because it is so undeniably strong in my life. Your life would have to be so seeped in the blessing in order for all the nations to call you blessed. It would have to be shining so bright and I believe in the times that we live in now where the dark is SO dark, that this is a time where the blessing will shine like never before!! Thank God for the blessing that I have as a tither and a giver, it enables me to live this every day! I am supernaturally anointed to live a life filled with the blessing, where I lack for nothing, I fear for nothing, but I know that my covenant with Christ supersedes debt, lack, poverty, fear, and anything else that the devil can try to throw my way! Praise God for His goodness! It’s so great to be His child!

2008...what a year!

2008 has been one incredible year for me!! I knew that it would be big year for me, but it was better than I ever could have thought it would be. God has been so extremely good to Scott & I and blessed us beyond what we could have asked for. I can definitely say that it has been a year of drastic change, but it's been one fun adventure. I feel like recapping the good things that happened this year because so often it's easy to push those memories aside, but they are something that I want to keep, even if I end up being the only one to ever read this!!!

January kicked off my new year with quite a bang, Scott & I closed on our home January 30th and that was such an overwhelming day! Of course on the morning we closed we got to the office like an hour before our appointment time and as we sat in Scott's car it was a mixture of excitement, nervousness, and the feeling of "is this REALLY happening?" As we sat and signed through endless amounts of paperwork that would make any one's head spin finally after what seemed like forever they handed us the key to our home and said "Congratulations!" Again, the feeling of "is this REALLY happening?" hit us as we shook her hand and said "Thanks!" I will never forget the first time that Scott opened up the front door to our empty house, and even though we had been in the house just days before we closed, it was like the strangest new feeling I had ever had. As Scott & I stood quietly in our living room, I slid across the floor in our dining room and was like "WOO HOO!!" and it broke in our home. The best part of that day came shortly after that WOO HOO moment when Scott & I prayed together and dedicated our house to the Lord because it was HIS greatness and provision that brought us to that place!

Fast forward 5 months down the road, June 13th, 2008. THE BIG DAY!! The days leading up to it were hectic and I felt the most exhausted that I think I have ever felt in my life thus far. I remember the night of our rehearsal that I was definitely tense and crabby because I literally had been going non-stop since that Monday. Shaynah came up to me in the Bride's room and was like "Are you OK? You don't seem like yourself" (or something of that nature) and I started to cry and let out an "I AM SOOOO TIRED!!" I was trying to be brave and not let everyone see me cry but in that moment the emotions overwhelmed my "braveness". Thankfully when I got back from the dinner I pretty much konked out and was refreshed for the next day. I woke up really early in the morning (as is expected) and I was the only one awake. I remember it was a beautiful cool summer morning and the sun was bright and shining. I sat outside with my dog Lilly and spent time in prayer with the Father. I remember just specifically asking him for peace and that everyone who came to the wedding and was in the wedding would be overwhelmed with peace. It was an awesome moment and He totally fulfilled my request. The one thing that I heard from all the guests was how relaxing and calming everything was and how I was the most relaxed glowing Bride most of them had seen. (Who knows if they were just saying that, but either way it made me happy!) Even those around me where like what is going on? because I was more quiet than my usual self. Everything about that day was perfect, not everything went as according to plan, but it was perfect. I had such amazing friends and family make the day more than I ever could have imagined! The most memorable moments I have were obviously with Scott although to pinpoint just one would be silly because they were all so wonderful. What I really love is looking back at his face in the pictures because if you know Scott he usually only gives one expression in photos, but in all our wedding photos his expressions are the most genuine ones that I usually only get to see when we are together. That will forever make my day.

Our honeymoon in Vegas was probably the slowest time we had after the wedding, it was such a fun experience to get to travel with Scott for the first time! He had NEVER been on a plane before and poor guy gets pretty bad motion sickness. We have 2 flights to Vegas and he was really sick when we finally got the hotel that it ruined our first day there. I felt awful for him because his first experience in flying was anything but pleasant. We fixed that problem on the flight back Dramamine is amazing!! :) Anyways, Vegas was wonderful, just relaxing and ordering room service, it was a short trip but it was the most fun!

The rest of the year went by fast and I don't have much to really do an extensive recap on, but it was great. September brought little Kaden into our lives, and he is such a blessing. November brought Avery Faith, a double blessing in a little bundle. I guess as I look back at what happened in 2008, I am so thankful for the little things, family, friends, work, life, love with all those in my life my year would have been just as extraordinary, but the Lord is such a wonderful Father that He had to add in extra blessings to make my year outstanding. I hope that you were just as blessed as I was!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

a little bit more personal

I feel like being a little bit more “raw” and personal with my post today, I guess mostly it’s because of what has been on my mind the past few days, and writing for me has always been a great vent. I feel like when I am able to write my thoughts out that it is a way of me dealing with whatever is going on in and my life, and even at times it’s my way to let go.

I feel like in a lot of my friendships that I have had that I invested more than I have ever received from it. I feel like in so many of those friendships that I have been the convenient friend, or the dependable friend [in the sense that I will always be there whenever they need something but not vice versa], and quite honestly I am getting a little bit tired of it all. In high school I know that there were a lot of people like this in my life, people that no matter how awful they treated me, or how much they neglected me as a friend that I would always rush to their side when they needed someone. It wasn’t until I met Scott that I was really able to see that. He was so brutally honest with me about some of those people because he saw that I deserved to have so much more than what they offered. Even in that knowledge, I don’t think I really understood until college how really untrue some of those friendships were. I met amazing people while I was at Rhema, people who are the greatest friends that I have ever had the chance to know, and my eyes were open to see a lot of the things that I was missing. I am so blessed to have those people in my life still to this day, and it makes me sad that I don’t get to see them as much as I wish I could, but they are forever the greatest friends I have.

I feel like I am in a place in my life right now where some people around make me feel again like I felt in high school. Feeling like I am not good enough to be someone worthy of their friendship, or that I am “second-string” in the sense that if nothing better comes along then I will consider you. Almost like a closet friend, meaning that you are my friend as long as no one else is around to know that you're my friend. Sometimes it feels to me like with people that it’s this front that gets put up, in the sense that they will be nice to you face to face but when it comes down to it, they don’t really care about you. Really, I know that this shouldn’t be even important to me because my life is fulfilling in its own right, but I guess some times you can’t help but feel.

I feel like with those people that they almost try to make you feel bad for being yourself, and that you should apologize for who you are because you don’t meet their standard, or that you aren't fun enough to be around them. I am sorry, but I am not going to apologize for being me, I happen to like who I am. I am not as weak as I was in the past when I would let people treat me like dirt. I am a much stronger person now and I have grown up a lot. Growing up doesn't mean I am not who I was because I have remained true to who I am. I am still the same old me, nothing has changed about that. I have the same silly fun side to me, I still love to giggle, and have a good time, never taking things too seriously. I still love with all my heart, and if you are my friend you can guarantee that as long as you offer the same to me, that nothing is more to me than keeping you in my life. So if you don’t love it, then leave it because I really think I am past that point of caring. I am not going to feel sorry or feel bad for being ME! I love me, and there are plenty of people in my life who love me for me too!! I am not going to even try to make things work with those types of people because there are too many good things & good people in my life that I don't need all that extra stuff weighing me down.

So, there is my vent. Like I said, helps me get it out, & let it go.