kissing, walking and lessons

hey y'all. bet you thought i forgot about this little blog. 

i didn't! here is what we've been up to. 

+ mother's day [night] date to barnes & noble and cheesecake factory. due to bad lighting and a certain little one playing with my phone enough, these pictures are super blurry!

  yes, there is a lot of kissing going on these days. gemma wants to kiss all day long.

  husbands and wives hardly ever take kissing pictures but [gasp!] we still kiss! :)

+ lots of to-do lists and bill paying, trying to get ready for scott's upcoming deployment. no fun but it's gotta be done.

+ lots of cleaning and organizing for a garage sale this saturday. i have been planning the garage sale for 3 saturdays now, but every saturday morning i wake up and choose to take it slow. not this saturday!

+ walking, walking, walking. and then some fast crawling when walking is too hard

is that second picture not hilarious? she is getting much better at catching herself and maintaining balance. and that tree in out front = perfect. i only wish it wasn't on the sidewalk but in our front yard so we could lay underneath it. our street dead ends into a high school so that might be awkward to lay under it reading books while 15 year old boys skateboard by and groups of teenage girls pretend not to notice us.

+ and the other thing going on? lots of thoughts in my head. thoughts about trust. thoughts about how life goes on after mistakes. thoughts about how to be trustworthy. no big things going on, don't let your imaginations wander :) just thinking about how if there is anything i would like to say on a blogging platform it would be this:

1. i love my family - that's what this blog is about

but also,

2. your mistakes do not define you

we live in a world that is ready to throw away marriage [or relationships in general] at the first sign of "you're not who i thought you were" or "you changed" or "i don't feel in love anymore" or "i deserve better". those are really dangerous thoughts. some marriages experience a fraction of this and some get to live it every day. 

things people tell you before marriage but you don't really believe or understand until you experience it: people change. we heard that and said "oh that's the beauty of it, we're young so we'll change and grow up together!" oh boy have we have changed and grown up together, ha. 

you can hold on to the things that have changed or you can choose to show grace and love the person for who they are now. for who they are becoming. 

i don't know exactly which words to say to make it make sense. but i do know that God blesses commitment. i know he blesses faithfulness. i know he blesses staying when everyone says run. and i know he is near to the brokenhearted. so if you are caught between a rock and a hard place, if you are in the middle of that change, know that he will bless your commitment. your faithfulness. your grace.

and sometimes, you might just get a little miracle out of it :)

a giveaway from emily

Emily over at Our Nest in the City is doing a giveaway today - of a book that I really would love to have! She's giving away Loving the Little Years by Rachel Jankovic. If I blog about it, then I get 3 more entries, so here I am blogging about it :) If you also want it then  feel free to hop over there and enter as well! 

gemma walks

this is not the "first steps" video from scott's phone but a collection of what she has done since then! enjoy! 

i like words

blogging is really shaping me as a person.

it's this platform where you have to decide - how do i want to present myself? what do i want to share?

deep stuff or fluff?
shallow or spiritual?
girl or wife and mom?
hoarder or decorator extraordinaire?

the cool thing is that the answer can be - all of it. but writing on a blog really is an introspective process. which is probably why a lot of people start and quit! i often thought, "i don't have anything to say". i'm realizing, i do have things to say, i just have to decide which things i want to say. i'm finding my voice. for me writing is a work in progress, just like anything else.

i
like
words
and i will figure out how to make words come together
so they show who i am
and who i am becoming

so that my baby will remember her mother
was once a girl
with ideas
and freckles instead of wrinkles
and hair the color of straw

so my husband will know i loved him
and that i did more than
type
type
type
all day

so God will be glorified
so maybe he can be known through me
so i can be a mirror
that reflects his great and beautiful light

photography dream

hey friends! [and mom]

i have always liked taking pictures. if you know me, you know this. if you are around me, you probably get embarrassed for me at just how many pictures i take. i've tried to tone it down! i think i'm getting better at not taking a billion. i try to take a few really good ones instead.

last year i started dreaming this dream...that one day i could take photography to the next level and become a professional photographer. you know who is my biggest fan in all this? my husband. he is so encouraging and challenged me again this morning to stop dreaming and start living it, to use my talent and do what i've been talking about.

i can always find an excuse for everything...

"i don't have the right camera." to that he said "baby, sell the one you have. buy your new one." so i am putting my current camera up on craigslist today.

"well i've been wanting to go to this workshop but we don't have the money." to that he said, "go to the workshop, we can raise the money." so i emailed the bluelilies and reserved my spot for late august. CRAZY!! i have always wanted to go to one of their goPro workshops but never thought we could afford it. instead of just dreaming about it, i am going to make it happen.

but how?

i've decided to raise money for the workshop by doing photo shoots for family + friends + anyone at a really affordable price. $100 for everything - 2 hour session and photo DVD of edited images.

it is a win/win for both of us. i get the practice, you get the pictures.

the good news? i'm not half bad!

but i would like to learn more and improve my skillz skills.

i can take pictures of babies, children, families, couples, even pets. before gemma i would have considered doing this for grover! [you have to be a dog person to understand]

i can even come to your child's birthday party. 

 

i will be in san diego until the end of may, in texas the first two weeks of june, and mississippi from mid june - the end of july. i would love to take your picture! 

i've never fundraised for anything [except maybe girlscout cookies?]. i have never been on an expensive missions trip just because i did not want to ask for money. this isn't an easy blog post for me! but this could be a really good thing. so i'm going out on a [humble] limb and offering this fun opportunity for both of us! 

if you are interested you can send me an email at lindsaylaroe@gmail.com

:) 

photo dump

here is what we've been up to in photos

[I.] picnic with pig  [2.] what gemma was looking at  [3.] reading while standing

[4.] climbing the stairs  [5.] self-portrait  [6.] washing her hands

[7.] how daddy babysits with a barricade  [8.] snuggled up  [9.] help please?

[1.] browsing like a big girl at b&n  [2.] fast crawling with rorie  [3.] surprise fountain

[4.] plants at zoo  [5.] bundled up at sunset cliffs  [6.] evening tide

[7.] pretty girl zebra  [8.] loved these  [9.] flamingo pair

[1.] daddy and gemma  [2.] bath time  [3.] park trip in rorie's new stroller

[4.] spaghetti for dinner  [5.] overcoming a barricade  [6.] spaghetti is good

[7.] enjoying the chase  [8.] peek a boo with the door  [9.] talking to herself

i never thought i would be the one to post a billion pictures of my baby. oh wait, yes i did. i am totally that person! 

scott has been busy with work and school but tonight is his last night of class! i am really looking forward to our trip home at the end of may when it will be the three of us together all the time + lots of friends and family. 

i think we're going to go on a cheap date tomorrow night. we need it! someone called it an "emergency date" this week. when your schedules are busy, you might be stressed out (him) or not feeling good (me - just a headache) and what you really need is time together to laugh and connect. i can't wait! i'm thinking cici's pizza [his favorite - frugal i tell ya. my favorite is cheesecake factory. that sums up a lot about us right there :) ] and a movie. any movies we should see? 

here's the verse i'm living in right now:

"through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the gentiles to obedience that comes from faith for his name's sake." romans 1:5

any verses you are reading right now? 

thanks for reading! :) 

adventure

Recently I have spent time reading through Chelsea's adventures living in Dominica and Stephanie's adventure of their family renovating a French cottage in a breathtaking part of the French countryside.

I was hooked with Chelsea's stories of living in a beautiful, third world country where you get to spend days on a Carribean beach by yourself but you might also have to go to three different stores to find a stick of butter! It reminded me of living in Bahrain and trying to navigate grocery shopping there. She wrote these funny and charming posts to update their family and readers while she, her husband and three year old daughter lived there while her husband went to school.

And I could not tear myself away from Stephanie's pictures of the sunsets over the Dordogne river. Their cottage is located [literally] next to the castle where Ever After was filmed. They put so much love and hard work into the renovation and now rent it out weekly for other people like me who need a vacation.

image via stephmodo

I must need an adventure.

Scott is leaving for his [six month] deployment to Spain in 6 weeks and one day. I am hoping to go see him in August. He has asked me to leave Gemma with doting grandparents so we can have an adventure of our own. I said yes! Wouldn't you? There are free flights available to dependents. f-r-e-e flight to Spain, I can't get over it. Of course I know that free isn't always free. What you don't pay in money you might pay in stress and time. Because one time I took a "free" mac flight to Bahrain and it took 5 days to get there! If only I had been blogging then and had recorded that story. Dang it is a good one. Now I know to register for the flight well in advance and avoid all that hullabaloo.

Anyhow, I will miss my baby but I am itching to see new things and most importantly, spend time with him seeing new things.