19 Years

This evening, we attended a funeral visitation for a friend we had gone to church with when we first moved here.  We hadn't even known she was ill, and are so sad for her family.  It was also a harsh reminder of how quickly time passes and how much we take life for granted.

 Since today is our anniversary, we decided to go out for dinner while we were in town, and let the kids fend for themselves for supper!  We had dinner at Chili's, then went next-door to Oberweiss for ice cream.  It was the first time we've been in since it opened over a year ago.

We foolishly ordered 2 scoops each, and were so full we could barely walk out!

But maaaaaaaaannnnnn, was it goooood!!!!!!

When we got home, all 3 kids were singing together, practicing for Sylvia's and Caeden's auditions for the vocal jazz ensemble tomorrow!  Music to our ears--and hearts!

It is amazing how quickly 19 years have passed.  I'm sure I probably said the same thing last year about 18 years, but it is true.  I don't know how we got here already, but I wouldn't want to walk through all the craziness of life with anyone else but Jeremy Lopshire!  How blessed we are.

Husband Appreciation

Wearing my favorite t-shirt today in appreciation of my husband!

We had a big talk last night about a variety of things.  I tend to forget to use words to express my appreciation for people I love, because I feel like it always comes out wrong or not as big as I intend. I really don't know how to express my gratitude for my husband as well as I would like.  

The company he has worked for, for over 20 years now, is going through a lot of huge changes, and his department is experiencing a lot of job cuts--especially in the management area, and especially at his level of management.  He recently made the decision to interview for an analyst position, which he was almost instantly hired into.  He will start that job in about a month.  

I am proud of him for his humility in stepping out of management after many years of doing a fantastic job in it.  He is sacrificing a couple of "rungs on the ladder" he has worked so hard to climb in order to keep providing for our family, and I don't know what words are even appropriate to convey my gratitude.    

I did make a little post on Facebook today, which I hope didn't embarrass him rather than celebrate him as I intended.

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Husband appreciation post!!!

I’m not good at letting people know how much I appreciate them, and I want to get better at that. So today, I would like to ”shout from the rooftops” my appreciation for my favorite person in the world—Jeremy!

My dear husband, I adore you, and I want you and the rest of the world to know it! You are amazing! You are handsome! You are smart! You are funny! You are caring! You are fun!

You work so hard at everything you do. Thank you!

You take such good care of me and our kids. Thank you!

You spend quality time with us and encourage us. Thank you!

You constantly sacrifice your needs and wants to give us our needs and wants. Thank you!

You are strong and make us feel secure and safe. Thank you!

You point us to Jesus and remind us to always keep Him first in our hearts and minds. Thank you!

You discount our insecurities and remind us that fear is a liar. Thank you!

You speak Truth to us and over us. Thank you!

You keep us laughing even in the roughest times. Thank you! 

You are grateful for every blessing, big or small, that you’ve been given in this life, and you remind us to be grateful too. Thank you!

I’m eternally grateful that God created you for me and blessed me with you as my friend and husband! I’m thankful you still want to come home to me and take care of me and love me after 27 years. I’m thankful that you look past all my imperfections to do that every day! I’m thankful you want to keep making our adventure together better and better. I really could not ask for more. You are my favorite. I love you always. 

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Beautiful Day

Jeremy and I celebrated 18 years of marriage today!  I don't know how we here so quickly, but I am so thankful we get to grow old together.  Life is so overwhelming--both with good and bitter, and I thank God for the man He gave me to go through all of it together with. 

It was also Mother's Day!  I am so thankful to have a wonderful mom! She is my favorite person to call on the phone just to chat. She has taught me and given me so much throughout my life, and I love her bunches!

We had a beautiful day today!  The weather was sunny and clear.  Jeremy cleaned the grill and made some amazing ribeyes for lunch.  I took Annah to her violin lesson, and just enjoyed the view while I waited in the car for her.  

I love being a mom.  The kids each gave me beautiful cards today, and made me cry, of course.  I think parenting teenagers is the hardest thing I've done so far in my life.  And I have super wonderful, respectful, hard working, smart, kind teenagers!  I recognize that they make it pretty easy for me! It's still hard!  Helping them learn to deal with others and navigate relationships and make wise decisions is not easy.  We are all learning together.  

And the most important thing that I've learned is that we can't do anything at all without the love of Jesus.  I hope if I've done one thing at least partially right in my job as a mom it's teach them that.

After we finished worship band rehearsal this morning, some peppy hispanic worship music was playing, and Caeden just couldn't keep from dancing!

After church, the kids had Beacon lunch and rehearsal, then youth group.  Jeremy and I had lunch at the Thai House, then spent the afternoon shopping.  He bought me some new jeans and a couple pairs of shoes, and we also stopped at a few car lots and looked at cars.  It was wonderful to spend time together.  

This evening when we got home after youth group, Annah and I went up to the school for a little bit to finish priming the flats on stage.  

17th Anniversary

I'm not sure how it happened this quickly, but today we are blessed to be celebrating 17 years of marriage!  I am the most fortunate wife!

While I was teaching this morning, Jeremy took all the kids to town.  As I was finishing my last lesson, they all came into the living room and presented me with this beautiful bouquet of roses that are as close to the ones we had in our wedding as they could find.  How awesome is that?!

Then the kids demanded that we go out for lunch. So, we decided to go to Gibson City and had a fantastic lunch at Burgers and Beer.  Jeremy had a burger with a ring of fresh pineapple on it, and mine had caramelized onions, bleu cheese, and portobello mushrooms.  They were some good gourmet burgers!!  (We skipped the beer and just had water.)

There's not a lot to do in GC, but we stopped in at Big R to walk around.  We laughed at ourselves and took a selfie with the sign as we went in.  When we went through the checkout and bought only about 8 pounds of candies, the checkout lady said, "Sweet tooth?" and we just kept giggling.  I guess there wasn't much we needed at Big R.

We drove through and got mini Blizzards at Dairy Queen on our way home, then relaxed and put our feet up for a while.  Jeremy even got an actual nap in!

This evening, Sylvia went to babysit Nola and Gracie, and Miles came to our house to hang out with Caeden.  He brought a full arsenal of Nerf guns and ammo.

They had a Nerf gun Lightsaber combo battle out behind the garage.

It was one of those perfectly gorgeous weather days, and I noticed our pink and purple irises are blooming and beautiful.

Most lilacs bloomed about a month ago, but ours are just now trying.  They had a really good trim down last year, so I'm not sure they're going to bloom fully at all.  They smell good though!

While the kids played, Jeremy and I watched The Theory of Everything tonight.  It was much better than I expected, though a very sad story.

It was so nice to spend the day with my favorite man in the world.  I'm so grateful that even after all these years he is still my favorite, and I know I am loved by him too.

Family Portrait Time

On Saturday, we decided to do family portraits this morning.  Jeremy and I were standing around as Dad prepared the camera and tested the light in the portrait place, so we were his "models." Uh, yeah.  I believe he asked, "Do you want feet in the picture?" and I said, "No, no feet in the picture."  This is our life, folks.  Real life.

Me and my favorite man in the world, right here.  

He still makes my heart go pitter-pat, and I am so infinitely blessed and honored to be his wife.

My favorite parents in the whole world, right here.  

They have taught me so much, constantly supported and encouraged me in so many ways, and have always shown me love regardless of what I was giving back to them.  

 For now, I'm not going to post any of our "good" family photos, as I doubt we'll get around to taking another before Christmastime, and I may get around to sending cards this year.  If so, I'll include a family portrait then.  For now, here is more of our really real life...

 We thought this would look cool, but it turned out that Caeden looks like a floating head...oops.

 I should've stepped down one step...

 Getting ready for the big family pic...Not sure what Caeden and Sylvia were so disgusted about.  There were wasps flying out of the deck, which were sprayed with about an entire can of RAID, so maybe they were gagging at the smell of that.  Or just being dramatic about something else.

 I'm guessing my parents will choose a different one for their Christmas card , but it is my favorite of the group shots.  

 I feel so blessed to be part of this family, to have been raised by such wonderful parents, to be joined at the heart to each of these precious people.  I love them all so very much.

The Girls

The Boys

Oh, cousins are so much fun!!!

Krampa/Pampaw and Gram/Mamaw with all 6 of their treasures = True Love

"But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, 

and his righteousness with their children's children." 

- Psalm 103:17 NIV

13 years and counting blessings

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary!  I went through an envelope of "throw away" photos from our wedding (the ones that we didn't put in the fancy album because the others were better) and scanned some of them to create this post. 

I never have the words I want, but I can honestly say I am beyond blessed to be married to Jeremy.  Not once have I regretted or wished I'd chosen otherwise.  I am deeply grateful every day that God designed us for each other and put us together.  I think marriage just keeps getting better and better, and I pray we have 13 more decades together!  ;)

“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” - Ruth 1:16-17

Constant Reminder

In April 2011, I lost one of the two medium diamonds out of my wedding band.  I had been lax in taking my ring to be inspected every 6 months, so I knew replacing the stone wouldn't be covered.  I didn't want to use our personal articles insurance to pay for my own stupidity and have a claim to raise our rates, and I didn't want to find out how much it would cost out-of-pocket to replace the stone.  So, I haven't worn my wedding ring for about a year and a half.

I don't know why it suddenly became urgent, but last weekend I decided I wanted to find out about getting it fixed.  We went to the jeweler and were encouraged to trade in the band and have the stones put in a new setting.  We asked about cost, but were told we could get an estimate after we chose a new setting.  So, I spent about 45 minutes (while the kids stood patiently waiting, watching Jungle Book on a mall kiosk) trying on various pretty rings.  After I narrowed it down to 3, the saleslady finally said she would give us a quote on what my band would trade in for towards a new setting.  It was something like $150 towards a $1400 ring.  We wanted to laugh in her face, but were honestly a bit annoyed that she wasted our time when we told her we wouldn't be spending money on a new ring.

Anyway, we decided just to replace the missing diamond in my original wedding band, and it came in today.  I'm glad to have it back as a constant reminder of my marriage to such a wonderful man.

 “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 

 - Ruth 1:16-17

Elevate Church

We traveled to Morton, Illinois, today to worship with the Elevate Church.  It's really fun to be a visitor at a church that is completely new to us, because we don't get to do it often.  We were there to get ideas and evaluate what we liked and didn't like--for the potential of doing or not doing at our new church.

the church front, as seen while we were pulling in one of the driveways

We were directed by signs at the entrance to park in the VIP spots since we were first-time visitors.  Parking is at the back of the church, and the main entrance at the front, so it was a bit confusing.  We entered through the children's entrance at the back though, and were greeted warmly and assigned a member of the VIP staff to see us through checking the kids in and making our way through the welcome center and to the sanctuary.

The children's area has been decorated with lots of very industrial, modern-looking items.

5- and 6-year-olds classroom

We actually traded Caeden to the Kellers for Jillian for our visits today.  The girls all went to the main children's worship service.  They said it was, "VERY ENERGETIC!!!" but they had fun.  They were also treated as VIP's and brought up front to be interviewed and encouraged.  They liked that there was a lot to play with before and after service--a fingernail painting station, a Wii with a huge screen, air hockey, and lots of other fun.  They liked the peppy worship songs, and knew a couple of them.  It looked like a lot of fun in there, and I was tempted to stay with them!

We did make our way to the main sanctuary for adult worship though.  We found it very dark, and the music portion of worship felt more like a concert, as we didn't feel the congregation was encouraged by the worship leaders to participate.  Although, it was apparent that the regular attenders knew the songs and were singing along, so maybe it was just us being visitors.  We all agreed later that we didn't feel drawn into worship through the music though, which was unsettling.  

However, the sermon was totally different for us.  We loved it and the format!  As you see from this picture below, parents were strongly encouraged to make sure their children under 7th grade were not in the sanctuary for the service (which was always carefully called the "experience"--never worship or sermon or service) because today's discussion was the end of a "Marriage Madness" series and was a very open discussion about sex.  While some of our group felt it was something that maybe "shouldn't be discussed from the pulpit," Jeremy and I appreciated the candidness of it very much...

Pastor Brian and his wife sat on an orange couch in the middle of the stage and discussed God's plan and expectations for sex inside marriage very candidly.  It was funny, serious, biblical, and inspirational.  We felt like it was more interactive than the music/worship portion of the service, and loved that it felt like a small group setting (with about 300 people, instead).  

After the main portion of the "sermon," there was another worship song and people could text in questions pertaining to the sermon topic.  Then the pastor and his wife came back out to answer some of the questions.  They also called on a couple from the congregation  (without asking them prior) who came up and spoke honestly about living out God's design for marriage.  They had been married 32 years, and were also very relevant.  

One thing that Pastor Brian said that really hit home with us was, in regards to doing everything it takes to save your marriage, "If I didn't feel it, I'd faith it!"  Yep, love is a choice!  I, for one, am so grateful my husband continues to choose to be faithful to me over every other woman in the world!  I know that has to take the power of God to do it!  ;)

After the service, one of the staff members, Heidi, came to Jeremy and me to ask if we had questions.  Somehow our big group of people had been noticed as a visiting group, so we were able to talk with her about church planting and such.  It was a helpful visit and experience.

After the service, our team of 18 had lunch at Crackerbarrel. With a party that large, we had a little waiting time to explore the country store, of course...

 Our girls were so excited to order the fried okra!  Yum!!  

We so enjoyed having Jillian along with us for the day!