Camping with Cousins

  This weekend Mouse was able to spend some quality time with her Great Aunt and Uncle and her cousins from Arizona. This past winter they were up and these three hit it off. So when she heard they were coming up to visit for a few weeks, she invited herself along on their camping trip.

It amazes me how close these three are. They rarely see each other and yet they act like siblings. The oldest being 16 and the youngest 11, with Mouse in the middle at 12. They never fought all weekend.

It was also great that the three of them were up for anything. We went shopping at the Amish farms in southern Minnesota. I thought they would get bored very quickly with this, but it was the adults that said we were done.

We also went tubing down the Root River. That is always an amusing time of dodge fallen trees. The kids went tubing twice and kayaking once. Then our last day we went for a long hike through the woods along Camper Creek.

We took these Arizona boys geocaching too. They loved it, though they didn't love the mosquitoes or wood ticks. We love camping but it was made even better with family. 

~ Cassi

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For them

These past few weeks are big ones for my family. It marks the birth of three amazing people, that have been so impact-full in my life.

 My parents both celebrated birthdays this month. My Mom's is today. I wish them both another wonderful year. I have to laugh when I look at this picture my hair is almost the same as Mom's in this picture and if I let Steve grow his beard the way he talks he would have the same hair as my Dad. Thank you both for always making me smile as much as I am in this picture.

 

The other important birthday this month is my Grandma's. I love how I have been able to grow up knowing you. Your love and support has been amazing. So much so we named our daughter after this wonderful woman. And now she is able to grow up knowing her Great Grandmother. Thank you for being a part of our lives.
Happy Birthday to all of you we love each so much

~ Cassi

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13 years

Today is the day Steve and I got married 13 years ago. It's been a crazy adventure. We haven't always taken the course God planned for our marriage. But I am glad we are getting back on track.

It was beautiful to spend this last week in Jamaica together celebrating with family.
Here is to 13 years and to 13 more.

Love you

~ Cassi





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Mother / Daughter Letters

Thank you Pinterest for the great idea. The Pinterest pin talked about writing letters back and forth with your daughter. I just loved the idea to start a dialog with Mouse that we could continue through high school (or at least that is my hope). 

This weekend Mouse and I headed to Achiever's to pick out a journal. We wanted it to be a mix of letters and Smash Journal. This SNAP journal fit our needs perfectly. The journal comes as a three ring binder with journal pages, dividers and photo holders (kind of a Project Life/ Scrapbooking / Smash mix).

We couldn't just leave the cover blank now could we. Mouse picked out a packet of quotes for the book. I chose this one for the cover. Then we mod podged a vintage photo, lace and tag to the cover.  

I started off the book with a letter to Mouse. I started the journal as more of scrapbook page with a letter written on the white parts.  

I loved that I got to use this old picture of Mouse. She has always loved writing. We have notebooks, journals and scrap paper all over the house with her stories in it. So far we've written a few letters back and forth (she is a little excited right now). I hope as time goes on the length of time between letters will increase, while the thought involved in the letters increase. 

I also hope that this gives her a space to voice hopes, dreams and fears that she may not be able to say in person to me but feels more comfortable writing. 

~ Cassi

* Check out my link up page to see where this project has been linked *

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The "Right After"

Friday means Five Minute Fridays. So I write for Five minute, no edits, no re dos and at the end I will see if there are pictures from this week that match the words of this week.

Topic: After

It's spring here, yes it finally is hitting spring in this frigid tundra. The snow is melting and the air is musty in its wake. It's the after winter thaw that we look forward to.
But it's still not quite right yet to really be outside enjoying the day.
That seems common in the "right after" of any change in season. What do we do in the after?
We are no longer in the "right after" of the fires. There were plenty of times during that "right after" where it didn't feel right yet. Like spring that we could see the sun shining on the other side but the windows were still cold.

I feel like Steve and I are hitting a new season.
We have now passed into the two year mark, the real after.
We have to make sure it is not a time to slide into complacency, which is so easy to do in a marriage. Instead we have to keep growing and working towards the goals we set. We have to push open the windows and feel that it warm now.


~ Cassi


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Remembering Mouse

Friday means Five Minute Fridays. So I write for Five minute, no edits, no re dos and at the end I will see if there are pictures from this week that match the words of this week.

Topic: Remember

I was going to write this on Monday but with the topic of remember it fits today.

I can't believe it's been ten years since you decided to join our family. You tried to join our family many months earlier than this, thankfully the doctors had other ideas. My little preemie, my surprisingly healthy preemie  You came to us so quickly. It was just a few hours from water breaking to baby. There was no time for meds, or contemplation, or fears. You were just there ready for the world.

It was afterwards that the fears hit. Would we be good enough for you? This perfect girl to gifted to broken parents. But it has been through this brokenness that we have become the family we dreamed for you all those years ago.

And you have surpassed all the dreams we thought of in those first precious moments. And you still are as you move towards this role of woman child.

I feel so blessed to be able to watch the rest of these precious moments.


~ Cassi

Sharing our Testimony

Steve and I shared our testimony at church this Sunday. Here is what we shared.

 Cassi: The spark hit the dry tinder so early. It was left alone no one cared enough to put it out, so it lay there gathering fuel. The winds of change igniting it further. Until it became a fire so swift and fierce that it devastated everything in its path. It ate away at the large trees that rooted the forest until all that was left was hallowed out husks of the past.

I wrote that two years ago the day after Steve and I realized our marriage had become a lie. As we each confessed to each other our wrongs, as we poured out our pain. I was left standing in the smoldering wilderness, choking on the smoky aftermath of what we have become. I want to blame him but I know I had done no better. We both left the fire smoldering under the dry leaves. As if ignoring it would make the fire go away, instead it spread its tentacles out to all areas of our lives, slowly destroying what it found.

Steve: We, as husband and wife, are weak. We have tried to live our lives the way we see fit and look where it got us. But now we are looking at strength from for a new source.

It is through the weakness that God will bring great things. We bow humbly before him boasting in the weakness of ourselves. It is not easy. Our society says it’s ok to walk away, but we decided to follow God’s plan for marriage.  Cassi and I talk that someday we hope God has a plan to use what we are learning together for his purpose. So he can make something beautiful from the pain.

Cassi: To make a marriage it takes work. Why do we feel that we should just know how to do it? We go to school a huge portion of our lives to prepare us for a career. We are mandated to take drivers ed. to become drivers. We attend birthing and parenting classes when we become pregnant. Certain areas of our lives we realize we need help in so why is it that with relationships we think we should be able to do it all on our own?

Steve: We realized we needed help. Professional help to teach us what to do. We went to back to school in away. We sought out a Christian counselor who worked with us to achieve some building blocks. We had no foundation any longer; we need those cornerstones again. Christ has been our personal cornerstones but not in our marriage. That is something we had to change.

Cassi: It has been amazing watching Steve open up to God and his calling for him as a husband and a Dad. I know we have a long way to go still but every day Steve reminds me to pray our future together. And for that I am grateful. I am reminded of the Sanctus Real song “Lead Me”. Thank you for hearing my cries. To see you fight for our marriage is amazing. And I know with God's help, I will not feel alone anymore. And that our house will finally be a home.

Steve: It has been a joy being a part of the change in Cassi and our family.  The changes include putting down or away distractions and spending more quality time together.  Making the effort to "get away" with family camping or weekend getaways, and spending more time just talking.

It's been almost two years to the day since we called on God make changes in our lives and marriage. This past September I got down on one knee again recommitting to Cassi and God that our marriage is worth fighting for. So with a new ring symbolizing that promise, we start 2013 with a passion to share how important marriage grounded in faith is.

Cassi: As in any real forest fires the regrowth has taken time and as the forest floor heals new vegetation starts to sprout up. We are focused on getting the roots to grow deep, strong, to not let the dry tinder pile around us, so we are not as susceptible to the sparks.

~ Steve & Cassi
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Sesame Street Live and First Dates

February is the month of love and Blogher is asking us what our stories of love. Starting off with our first time we fell in love. So I may not have truly been in love in what I know it to be now but it's the story I tell when people ask.

I don't even know if my memories of that time are real or not but here is what I do remember. It starts when I was about four. Down the street lived the neighbor boy he was about 6, yep even back then I liked them older. His name was Alex. My Mom watched him during the day, so we were together  a lot. But just for the summer, his Mom lived in New York and his Dad here so he only came for the summers. I look back on him as my first love. He was a good boyfriend and let me ride the two wheeler and he rode the tricycle.

In my memories the date happened like this; I remember him and his step-mom coming to our house one night to ask if I would like to go with them to see Sesame Street Live. My first date!

Then like in the movie Grease "Summer Love" was over. His family moved to Arizona not long after our date. But I will always remember that time, you never forget your first crush.


~ Cassi


Written as part of the NaBloPoMo February blogging prompts. I didn't want to do every day's prompts but it is fun for a few. 

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What We Wore Wednesday

Do you ever have one of those outfit that you actually feel trendy in? I had one of those days in this outfit.

Unfortunately, I was wearing it at the hospital while we waited for news on my Dad heart. He was in for an angiogram and possible stint. It was the first time my Dad was in for something really serious. You see he has a lot of anxiety issues so normally that is all that is wrong. But this time it was real and scary.

Then God stepped in and gave him and us some good news. The style of blockage was one that a stint was not needed. A big wait was lifted. It was a day of much thanksgiving.

Ok, I know most of you came here today for fashion. But I wanted to share the day too. Back to the trendy, it is something I don't feel I pull o ff well. Steve was also going trendy that day.

Doesn't he look good!?! I love that jacket on him.
How about you do you have an outfit that just makes you feel trendy?

What are you wearing? Find out what the rest of blogland is wearing by linking up with the Pleated Poppy (What I Wore Wednesday)

~ Cassi





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Start of a gallery wall

I do love the look of gallery walls, whether they be mixed media walls or all pictures both are great. When we finished off the basement there was a section of wall in my craft room that I knew I wanted filled with favorite pictures of us. But I also wanted something there that would be inspirational for a craft room.

 "Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air." ~ Emerson

Katie Daisy's had a print  that was exactly what I was looking for. Bright and colorful and tugging at your heartstrings. Reminding us to live life to it's fullest. That though while reading it I may be inside working on art I wasn't to forget to go out and live beyond those walls. 

I added other pictures around the center print, I am liking how it is starting. But I still need to get a few more to fill out the space.

Until then this is how it will look. But following the poem's direction I am sure it won't take long for us to capture more pictures. 

~ Cassi

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The call to stay

Fridays I fluctuate between Five Minute Fridays and InstaFriday. But we are all community here, right? They can be combined into one post.

So I write for Five minute, no edits, no re dos and at the end I will see if there are pictures from this week that match the words of this week.

Topic: Stay

Dad & Me

Stay... My parents house, the house I grew up in, calls to me. I seek it's refuge in times of struggle and sadness. I seek it's embrace in times of joy too.

I am thankful for my parents to have offered that sanctuary when I was young and still offer it now as I have young of my own. 

Mouse and Me this week

I want to offer up the same security to her. I want her to feel the call of Stay.

Stay, lay down your burdens, lift up your joys, let go in these walls.

It's ok to be yourself here, you are loved.

Join up on either or both groups. Or just go check out what the others are sharing.

~ Cassi

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Fall Fun

Fall is an amazing time in Minnesota. I can't think a Minnesotan that won't tell you they love fall. The air is crisp with out being to cold, the colors come alive in the trees and we take full advantage of it. Mouse spent the weekend at my parents while Steve and I were at the North Shore. She is a true Minnesotan and Granddaughter she wanted to rack the leaves.

And then she wanted to play in them.

 I hope you are enjoying Autumn as much as Mouse is.

~ Cassi

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Recommitment

This weekend Steve and I took a trip to the North Shore (for those non-Minnesotans this means Lake Superior). We stayed at a small little B&B right on the shoreline. It was a cold weekend, but we still got in some hikes, shopping and dining. And of course some Geocaching.

But more importantly Steve got down on one knee and asked if I would still marry him. We talked about the last two years and the changes we've made. We talked about how we are committed to make a new start to our marriage and to our family.

Over twelve years ago we got engaged along these shores, it was nice to stand there again and know that we are in a better spot.

~ Cassi


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For him

Today we celebrate a very special person

Steve

Happy Birthday

to a wonderful husband and father.

I have enjoyed watching the changes you have made these past two years and look forward to the changes that are still to come.

Love

Cassi & Mouse

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Final Trip

In Minnesota Labor Day announces the end of summer. The kids are back in school the next week and fall starts to set in. It means last Friday was one of the busiest travel dates in Minnesota. We joined the band wagon and headed out for the weekend too.
We had a little bit of a rough start. I had written down the park we were going to on the calendar so off we drove to the State Park. Two hours in traffic we finally arrived and waited in line to find out that I had written down the wrong state park. The one we were suppose to be at was 20 minutes from our house. So back we drove.
But without that detour we would have never seen this sunset over the freeway.

The next day we didn't waste time and headed out to the trails for some hiking and Geocaching.

We also did some classes at the nature center in butterfly tagging and edible mushrooms. After stopping for a quick lunch we headed back out to hike some more. This time we went off to the prairie instead of the river.

And ended the day with another beautiful sunset.

This last picture was taken and edited on my phone by Mouse.

I hope you had a relaxing weekend.

~ Cassi




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Insta Friday

This past weekend we went camping with my whole family. Mouse always has such a good time with Grandpa. They won an hour on these banana bikes. They were so funny flying around the campground together.

I like the quieter aspects of camping, like game time.

Then the weekend was over and it was time to head home, but not without picking up a few geocaches along the way. This picture is what I love about geocaching, it takes us place we'd never have seen otherwise.

But we couldn't stop with just the weekend so Steve and I did a bit of geocaching while out to lunch.

This week we also took Mouse to the State Fair. We tried some new food and returned to some old favorites. Steve and Mouse went on the Giant Slide together.

Now it's off for another weekend of camping.

See what picture did you take this week? Link up with Life Rearranged.

~ Cassi