Day O' Love

The day o' love was wonderful as usual, even though I spent the majority of it with my kiddies at school it was still good. I decided I like immensely getting those corny little valentine cards from my students. You know, the ones that come 50 to a box. Maybe it reminds me of those cool little boxes we stayed up ALL night gluing and glittering so that they would be perfect for the v-day party at school the next day. Where everyone in your class would put a cute little card in your box. (and I do mean EVERYONE, due to the fact that the teacher made you bring enough for each kid, even the ones who smelled) Although some may have been forced gifts, I always LOVED going through my box at the end of the day searching each one to see if some special friend took the time to tape a piece of candy, or scribble the word "Hi". My love language is definitely gifts.....which sounds so materialistic but really really isn't. I just love that someone took one ioda of a second out of their day for little 'ol me =)

But, I would have to say that the best gift this valentine was not meant to be a gift at all. Well, not a valentine gift anyway... I randomly found the card that Justin gave me on Christmas morning and, if you're like me, you have to read it again, just to remember what it said one more time. Okay, so I opened it to re-read it's contents and it started like most the cards I get from him, a bit mushy and then abrubtly ending with some comment about my butt. This one was no different except for one thing. Justin had glued a picture of he and I to the inside of the card, which I remember being strange. I asked him why he did this on christmas and he said he tried to write something and he messed up so he didn't want me to see it....so he hot-glued a picture of us on top. I must have been too distracted Christmas morn to dive any further into that comment (who knows) So of course, now that I re-discovered this card my first reaction was to rip the picture from the card, thinking I would find ugly scribbles. But instead I found a sweet little poem. Not an elaborate breath-taking poem like Ruco writes to Kristi, or a poem that said anything new. He's just my cute little country boy whose even cuter for trying.....as I read it, I could tell he was having trouble finding words to rhyme and it wasn't going in the direction he wanted, plus it looked like he was running out of room. So instead, he covered it with a picture and wrote "Merry Christmas to my Princess Angel (this being my nickname of choice)". But little do these silly boys know, the poem was the sweetest thing I've ever read (and most of you know my husband's mad poetry skills from our initial dating emails =). He never reads this thing so I think I am safe if I post his writings. You may not like it, and probably won't think it as wonderful as I but regardless it was my best gift for some reason. Maybe because I like that he still tries, or maybe for the sheer fact that it wasn't meant to be a gift at all:

"You're the best wife
a guy could ask for,
You're the best friend
there's ever been,
I really need to know
why me above other men,
my life with you so far
has been nothing but the best,
I can't wait for years to come
till the Lord lay us down to rest,
Every day with you
I fall in love again,
Cause my bad days turn to good ones
with you I can only win.
I can only wonder..."

That is where the scribbles started and apparently the glue gun came out.
Anyway, that is my valentine story. Hope you all had a GREAT one!

2 Whole Years! Who'd a Thunk?

I can't believe I survived this weekend! It was Disciple-Now at our church and we had the 10th grade girls in our house. They are absolutely crazy and I love them with every inch of my being. Our weekend was not only filled with some amazing sermons, fabulous music and great food. But we can't fail to mention the most important part.....the PRANKS! The very first night my girls were chompin' at the bit. So we made our midnight wal-mart run where we stocked up on TP, plastic forks (to stick in people's yards), post-its (to cover thier cars with fun notes), shaving cream(it makes fun letters in the grass), and shoe polish (we just wanted this to wear on our faces, but even though it did up our coolness and danger factor a couple notches it soon made our dork factor grow also as it began to burn through our skin and the only thing available to get it off was the shaving cream we were using on people's houses, whew!)
This is Rory (Caroline's new yorkie) she brought her to spend the weekend with Prissy. You can't really tell in the picture but we gave her a mo-hawk with some serious hair gel.
D-Now is supposed to be a weekend for the kids but I find myself learning a lot in these situations. I learned I can't do everything myself. I try so hard to train up my precious girls in the way that they should go. I want so badly to give them hindsight and save them from mistakes that they will later regret. But God slapped me in the face this weekend. I had to give up all control. Nothing I could say would help them with the certain issues they were going through, I tried and tried but I seemed to be driving a wedge even further between. When I finally took my hands off the wheel and let the college leader in my house have full control, I mean, I got the heck out of dodge, it was then that God worked. Sometimes I guess you just need to talk to someone who doesn't know you. Our leader had a great testimony on how she used to party and drink and do everything against God's wishes purposely. She also talked about after she got saved, how she still struggled with those things, even up until last year! Yet, this girl was as close to God as anyone I knew. I began to feel down hearted. That my "goody-two-shoes" testimony would never be GOOD enough to convert or inspire anyone. Really, who wants to hear about a girl saved at 9 years old, a rule follower who would rather die than break them. It was all so boring in that moment and for the first time ever I hated my testimony. I wanted to be able to claim that God saved me from a drug addiction, or something so extreme. For the entire day on Saturday I struggled with this feeling of worthlessness to the very ones that have my heart. I was broken. It wasn't until late Saturday night, well maybe not even until Sunday morning that God reassured me. How much heartache and guilt did he save me from? Shouldn't I be thankful? In fact, It wasn't MY testimony at all! Lord knows I wasn't the one who was resisting ANYTHING. It was God doing it for me and through me. And he reassured me that it was for a reason. Someone out there needs hope, and somehow my story will give it to them. I'm sure of this, and I'm proud of my testimony. More so, proud of my God who rescued me from all this world swallows us with. So in a nutshell, that was my battle. It was quite an emotional weekend.
So, follow that with Jus and I's two year anniversay. We left town right after D-Now and headed to Point Clear Grand Hotel Resort and Spa. I must say I did a bang up job of picking this place (with the suggestion from Angie). It was A-m-a-z-i-n-g! Here is the view from our balcony (which we did NOT sit on because it was friggin' cold). But what I was most impressed with was the bed.......oh Lord. I'm not usually one for laying around in bed on exciting vacations, but that is all I wanted to do at this hotel. I found myself checking the mattress, pillows and comforters for name brands so that I could scavenge around and buy my very own! Okay so we did eventually leave the bed to dine. We got reservations at the Grand dining room which is one of those places with 18 different wine glasses on the table when you walk in. Pretty fancy. But the funny thing was that we were the only ones there! We had the whole resturant to ourselves. I would like to say that my husband arranged to have the whole resturant for our anniversary...but that wouldn't be true, there just really wasn't anyone there (and after we got the menu/bill I think I found out why :) Regardless, we had our very own piano player who kept referring to us as "ladies and gentlemen".
The next morning we ordered the best breakfast for room service and then hit the spa for our couple's massage. Justin assures me that massages are not sexual in nature whatsoever so I suggested that he have a male masseus. He was thoroughly grossed out by this and insisted that he have a woman. Now this makes me think, "hmm, in that case,it should be okay for me to have a male if he gets a female, right?" WRONG! He objected to that idea too. (double standard much?) So I gave in and we both got woman. But I was overjoyed when they walked in and he got the Helga type old lady and I got the sweet middle aged woman. hahahah! karma! Anyway, our vacation was soon over and we headed back to our destroyed house. We spent the rest of the day cleaning the massive amount of TP and valentine decorations that the 11th grade boys loving left there for us. Joy Joy! So, now a new week has started and it is the last couple days of hunting season, PTL! I finally get my husband back. Tootles!

Santa Done Came to Town

Well, now Christmas is gone and I find myself taking down all those decorations I worked so hard to put up. I'm kind of sad because I didn't even remember to take a picture of any of our Christmas spirit while it was there. I really did get to decorate so much more this year too! dangit! Oh well, there is always next year huh? It was a great Christmas this year. We got to celebrate it a million different times. First was the trip a couple weeks prior to alabama to enjoy the Noel with my mom's side of the family. I'm glad we all still get together and see each other, even if it is just once or twice a year. I love my family and I think living away really makes me appreciate them =)
This is where all Hades broke loose. The Thursday before Christmas I woke up, ready to enjoy my day off and finish up Christmas presents when suddenly I went from absolutely normal, to balled up on the living room floor crying. For half an hour I convinced myself that the knife stabbing in my abdomin/whole body was really bad gas (which I assumed I had never felt before). Man, gas seriously hurts.......or so I thought. Haha. I finally gave in and called Justin who rushed home and wisked me away to the hospital. And after spending the entire day in a hospital bed with, not one, but TWO IVs and doctors poking and proding they realized it was a bit more than bad gas =) I had an ovarian cyst that ruptured (who knew I even had an ovarian cyst in the first place?) Apparently I have a lot of them but the doc says they won't cause me any harm, just pain if they rupture. So I was relieved, not of the pain of course, but of the fact that the world will not be deprived of the future Tyner kiddies! So for the next few days/week I still had some pain here and there but now I can thankfully say, I feel normal again.....YAY!

The saturday before christmas we spent the day with Charlie and Rachel. They are seriously TOO generous. We got too many presents to count, one of which Justin is really excited to try, our new smoker. I loved Charlie's reaction to the gift I made for him, he is such a cry-baby and so is his son.....I just LOVE it! Jon, Ang, Jack, Jo and James were all there and we had tons of fun.
The next day we all went to church and then headed to Mom Wow's house for yet another celebration. We ate dinner and headed to the candle light service at church. This is my favorite service of the whole year, not because of the music or sermon, but because you just get a chill when thousands of people in one room pass a flame around and then all hold them up while singing Silent Night. Here is a picture of it from last year (I decided to refrain from taking another picture in the middle of church this year). It truly was so beautiful, pictures can't do it justice. So we headed back to the house and opened presents and Ms. Joy read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" as she does every year. Last year we started a new twist to the tradition though. Instead of her just reading it as we all listen, we would have her read every line and we would finish the last word............we were all crying before we could finish. I mean really, who knew "the stockings were hung by the chimney with DUCKTAPE" or "away to the window I flew like a BAT OUT OF HELL"?? It was quite the christmas story indeed. So anyway, Justin and I came back to our very own love nest so that we could wake up Christmas morning and clebrate together. Aunt Polly stayed with us that night too, in our guest bedroom. Well, since our tradition thus far is to wake up extremely early on christmas morning open our presents and then head on up to bama for the rest of the day. We did just that. I got Justin a new GPS system so he will always know where he is in those woods he always hangs out in. And I got an awesome new photo printer(I love it). It is fantastic....scrapbooks beware! And also, my new entertainment center! Prissy got some rawhide candy canes in her stocking, she proceeded to run all over the house carrying her prize! She so cute.As we are digging in our presents and stockings Aunt Polly comes out of her room and just laughs. We soon realize it is probably due to our very own Christmas tradition, the "underwear hats". Whenever we get new underwear in our stockings, we have to wear them on our heads while we open presents. The only hitch was that I forgot to put undies in Justin's stocking this year, so he had to wear some of my new ones on his head. I gave him the ones with the frilly legs and all. I cannot believe I didn't take any pictures of us as fasionistas, but I forgot =( Well, soon after we packed up and headed to spend some time with my family. Every year my mom cooks the biggest breakfast and all 20 of my brothers and sisters come over and we all eat together. We spent the rest of the day playing with new toys and later that night went to the movies. We Are Marshall is a great movie, I love football inspiration movies. Not to mention that it is a true story and Bobby Bowden's character was in the movie being the amazing man that he is. Justin had to come home the next day, cause some sad people have to work these days. But I got to stay until Thursday! yay. My mom took off work on Wednesday and we spent the whole day with Sharry galavanting around and shopping! it was so much fun and I realized that the magnet my mom gave me was seriously true....."Mirror, Mirror on the wall, I am my mother after all!" I'm not sad about it.
Well, that was the end of Christmas but just the beginning of New Year! Saturday night we had some boys over for the monthly UFC pay per view. They all spent the night and we loaded up to church the next morning..........I don't know how they do it since they stay up until 4:30! But the next night was the best. We had even more people over for New Years! It was couples' Trivial Pursuit (the DVD edition, which I highly recommend and dominate by the way) and then watching the ball drop and getting our ever so anticipated kisses. As for New Year's resolutions, we have already gotten a head start on the usual, "I'm going to start exercising" one. We started a while ago meeting a few couples from Sunday school at the church gym on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Justin is hard core and I think the body building mentality is back! As for other resolutions self-betterment, and spiritual growth is the core of them all. Now I am going back to school tomorrow, the break is officially over =(

Merry Christmas! Okay, a bit late......

What's new

Man, I need to get a new hobby.....oh wait nevermind, I stink at this one. Sorry to all my avid readers out there (all one of you). Okay, what's new?? Justin is the most awesome husband ever sheerly due to the fact that he is letting me get a new Entertainment Center (finally!) AND a new dining table and chair set for Christmas!! I've already ordered the entertainment center, it should be here shortly. But I came across a bit of a problem when it came to picking my new table set. It seems that deep down I am extremely phsyco about certain things and I dream up these weird pictures in my head of what I want, only to find that it does not exist.........anywhere! So because of my weirdness, I am getting my fairytale table made somewhere in Montgomery. Hope it turns out good =).

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We got to spend the day with Charlie and Rachel and shoved ourselves full of every good food imaginable. (I literally mean SHOVED, I almost died!........Long story, I'll tell ya later). Since Justin's mom was going to Jacksonville to hang out with Jo and james on Turkey day, we had thanksgiving dinner with her earlier that week, which just stretched out our stomach real good for the big day. As if that was enough, we then headed to Bama for my family's celebration. Since all but one of the 8 siblings in my family are married, my mom decided to move our thanksgiving celebration to the Saturday after....so everyone could spend the real day with the in-laws and none of us would miss out on seeing each other. I really really love that! My mom's the best!

Let's see, what else? Oh, after Thanksgiving my high school girl's bible study met for the last time of our 12 week session. It was sad, but I truly love those girls with my whole heart. I would do absolutely anything to see to it that they make good decisions in their lives, I want to save them from any pain, or mistakes. But, I know you have to let them be their own person and hope they eventually come back to the truth that you planted in them. Listen to me, I sound like their mother! Well, a mother couldn't love them more than I do! They are the apples of my eye. As a Christmas/end of the study gift I made them all headband thingys. It's this new obsession I have, making these headbands. Here are a few pictures modeling my crafts, and a few more from our first few sessions.

Okay, so not to change the subject but Justin and I are seriously considering buying some land in Stonebrook (you know, while prices are low). Then we figure when the market goes back up, we can sell our house and build on the land. Pray for that decision, we aren't sure what we want to do yet.

On to more important topics. My new love Megan Whitaker has officially opened her interior design store. It's call "Inside the Home" here in Pace. If any of you are ever in the area you should totally stop by, it's the cutest place! You're welcome Megan for the free PR.

Alright, I'm a little everywhere with my thoughts right now so I will leave you with two phrases that made me think this week:
One's from Mom Wow (Jus's mom) - "Sin makes you stupid, you can hide the sin, but the stupidity eventually shows itself."
And the other I just heard randomly on TV - "Nowhere in the bible does it tell us to fight against the sin of this world....no, it tells us to run from it" So in essence, run from sin cause it makes you stupid.........

Halloween and Marriage!

Alrighty, Halloween was a blast. Other than the fact that our pumpkins that we slaved and sweated over crinkled, withered, smushed, and grew hairy mold after 2 days!!! Oh well, it's the thought that counts right?

I'm so glad we live in a cool neighborhood with tons of kids. Toby came over as her hillbilly, bucked teeth, big butted self and we set up our station on my front porch. I bought more candy than an army of crazy little ghosts and goblins could ever want. Purely for the sheer joy of being able to say, "take as much as you want" to the kiddies and seeing their faces light up with sugar high dreams! Oh and they did! I was a knockout for halloween this year, no really a KNOCKOUT......

Scary I know! Well I'm sure most of you enjoyed Prissy's first Halloween costume we modeled in our previous post. But due to the fact that she stands completely still when she is dressed as wonder woman (i think it has something to do with the insane stuffed arms that are not usually present in day to day life), we decided to wear her backup outfit on the actual halloween night. (what, you know your dog has more than one costume..........right?) haha, a girl can't wear just one dress to the party huh? so I now present to you Paris Hilton in all her glory.......

Yeah her glasses are called Doggles, made for dogs, them suckers won't come off if she shakes to the tenth power! Her boyfriend Louie has his studded Leather jacket too, I figured we could call him Colin Farrel, or any of the Hollywood bad boys. Paris needs a date ya know. Anyway, I loved sitting out there for hours talking to all the kids, even if we couldn't understand what they were saying. A lot of the teachers that I work with also live in our subdivision so I got to see them and all their kids. Justin decided he fervently enjoyed his Freddie Kruger mask last year and though we tried to find another scary mask that would be just as fun, we did not succeed. He went with what worked I guess. It was the funniest when Toby and I finally came back inside and just left the huge bucket of candy on the porch, hoping the last little trick or treaters would just grab what was left..........we would hear little voices at the door, then squeals of joy when they realized no one was there to supervise which granted permission to dump the whole thing into their respective baggies. Right at that moment, when they thought they were getting away with all the goodies......justin would open the door (in his business suit and a Freddie Kruger mask) and scare the daylights out of them. hahahhaa

Well, while Halloween was tons of fun, I have other big news to share. Sharry is married!! yay! Yes, this weekend we traveled to Bama and participated in all the wedding festivities. The wedding went off without a hitch. It was beautiful and lots of fun. We got my mom to do the Macarena (sp?), and Josh (the groom) to do the cha cha slide..........Note to self: Josh needs Cha cha lessons after the honeymoon. I'm an idiot and didn't take any pictures with my own camera, so I will have to depend on others and the photographer to give me some........I'll be sure to post them then!

Pictures finally!

So I basically dropped off the face of the blogger planet for a while there. But I am proud to announce that my spaceship has officially landed safely in the backyard of our wonderful love nest. Oh the many things I have deprived my readers of let me count them one by one:

1. Jeff and Laura finally gave the world a beautiful baby boy, whom I am now obessesed with......Lane Micheal. Seriously too cute.

2. We had fall break at the beginning of October. Justin's family rented an out of this world beach house down at Grayton Beach. We had the most amazing room with a balcony that opened right up to the water every morning. And for once Justin and I actually watched the sunrise together (usually we don't even roll over for the first time that early in the morning)

3. then I came home to go to Ashley's bridesmaid's luncheon at Norma's, yum, yum.

4. Then it was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner at Hemingways which was tons of fun. I learned that Hambone has the most family of anyone on the planet....including me!

5. And we can't forget about the awesome wedding that followed. So much fun! Ash was gorgeous and I'm glad I got to stay for the whole reception!

6. I went to Bama to throw Sharry (my sis) the most slammin' lingerie shower of all times! She was thoroughly embarrassed by the sexy firegirl outfit Brandy and I got for her.......but I made sure to show that one to Josh so she can't hide it come honeymoon time. I'm evil, I know it. Anyway, this is my 2 year old husband wrestling with my neices and nephews.....they love him.

7. I celebrated my 24th birthday! I had to go to school and teach the kiddies but I had an awesome surprise when a child with a huge arrangement of flowers for a head burst into my 3rd block class. So sweet, yet, I was consumed with the thought that that kid was so friggin cool for not falling as he walked blindly from the front office all the way to the math building. I got roses and lillies, my favorite. Funny, how he knew. I mean, I guess not so funny being that he IS my husband. But we take for granted how much we know about each other. No other man probably really knows what kind of flowers I like........I'm glad.

8. The next day Audge and I hit up Portofino where I fell in love with a woman named Susan, my massage therapist. Wow, how did I go my whole life without visiting this place. The pure relaxation, the elixars (sp?), the pedicures, the massages, the sauna, the cool little robes and slippers you walk around in...........man, if it were a country club, I would join! After our 5 hour excursion I came home and got ready for a night with my love. We started by particiapating in our annual pumpkin carving. I tried to be all ellaborate and carve "Trick or Treat" on my pumpki while Justin took a whopin' 5 minutes to carve your traditional pumpkin face. Then we went to Jackson's. I had never been and was kind of scared because hoity toity places never have food that I like. But man was I wrong?? It was fabulous! Justin introduced me to two very expensive habits this weekend.........he'll regret that!

9. And yes, Megan and I participated in Pet Smarts "Howl-O-Ween" pictures. But I will be glad to say that there are many other obsessive dog owners out there, hundreds of them who are willing to humilate their pups for a laugh and a picture. Even wierd old guys.

So anyway, that is all I can think of for now. I go back and edit this thing tomorrow with all the pictures!