Project "365 days of Thanksgiving"!

My project comes in the thoughts of the holiday we over the years seem to keep forgetting more and more!!! This projects idea was started when I saw many of my friends blogging the "Project 365". It's where you take a picture each day of something that you did that day for 365 days in the year.

What happens to the pictures after? Why spend the time taking a picture and talking about it if you don't do anything with it after, if it has some meaning to it?

Well, so I decided instead of jumping on the bandwagon of just being Thankful for the days starting in November leading up to Thanksgiving then not thinking about being thankful again until next November when it comes back around.

I would start a different kind of "Project 365" or Thankful for the days/month kind of project. I would start one that makes you see the good/positive in EVERY day for a whole year!! That can be tough because not everyday does something good happen or not everyday do I feel thankful for something. This project forces me to think positively and find something good that happens so I can be reminded that God does work in my life, does want the best for me, and I did have something good that might come out of a "bad" day even when I don't want to see it or try and think of one. I think we should be Thankful all the time and not just for one month of the year or one day (devoted to a holiday).

So, Why Not?

My goal is to find something good/positive for 365 days... starting on Thanksgiving day, take a picture of the thing I'm thankful for (if I can get a picture) and/or write a note/verse/thought about why it was something to be thankful about.

At the end of the project, I will take one/ok maybe two pictures or the notes from each month from that whole year and put it in a scrapbook to then set out for the month of November; to remind myself and family that there is ALWAYS something to be thankful for throughout the year and not just in one month or for one day!!

The First of Three is OVER!!

So the first trimester of this growing baby has come to an end, Finally!! Only two left and we will get to meet our lil' trout!! :)  Here are my thoughts and records of the first trimester (from my point of view, like a journal)

You, lil' trout (First Trimester)...
~ have NOT made me throw up, so Thank You!!
~ do not like when I eat spicy foods
~ do not like when I eat marinara sauce (like spaghetti or lasagna)
~ have made me daily crave: ice cream, baby dill pickles (a lot),
    mandarin oranges, green apples, Big Red, boiled
    eggs (by themselves or chopped in things), pizza,
    macaroni-n-cheese
~ like Root Beer! Good Choice!! :)
~ are still too small for me to feel you move

I...
~ have heartburn a lot, so Tums is my friend
~ am always tired
~ hate getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom
~ love sleeping and having funny dreams about you
~ am starting to show a bump
~ started taking pictures of the growing belly at 8 weeks
~ keep a stethoscope on the nightstand and your Dad and I try to
   listen for you or a heartbeat. Still nothing yet but the day we get
   to hear you outside the Dr. office will be such a joy!

And so the Name Lives On...

Well, it comes time to finally get to SHOUT IT OUT, be excited, and not keep a secret any longer... God truly has blessed us and now the Murphy name lives on!!!

"For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and i will listen to you." Jeremiah 29:11 & 12

Today I had the most exciting, nervous, yet amazing day in my married life with Chase by my side. We finally saw the most wonderful thing living inside and saw a heart beating from within me. Words can not express how joyful the little pictures of knowing there is a human being growing in the midst and I get to be the part of keeping the life growing and nourishing it for the next so many months of the little persons life. I get to be an incubator of life that God allows women to be. Oh the joys! No, we were not trying actively but we wanted a child in our family at sometime and had the thought "if God allows it to happen, then it will happen." Well, it happened and we are excited.

"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear... As soon as the sound of your greeting  reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy." Luke 1:42 & 44

I feel fine so far. The only strange craving so far has been wanting baby dill pickles to dip in some ice cream...mmm... and it still sounds good, even though I haven't tried it yet. I'll keep yall updated on cravings and growth!! Of course, I'm not that far along to know what the sex of the baby is... 

so for now we are saying "lil trout" :)

Pictures I found...

I found these pictures on my camera from our Anniversary (I forgot I took pictures from the actual camera and not just my phone!) oops... I put them in a video slide show so it wouldn't take up a huge page of millions of pictures. Enjoy!!

Happy One Year Anniversary!!

I know I'm late getting this out, but it's never too late to tell the story. 


July 23, 2011... To start the day off we received a package from his parents. Inside the box were these glasses... A little "blast from our past"... Smurfs!! She gave me Smurfette and him Brainy.

 After taking our time to get ready for the day and to figure out what we wanted to do before dinner at 7. We decided to take a little drive. I didn't know where exactly we were going I just knew we were going to see "some falls". He stopped on the side of the road to let me pick up Fredricksburg peaches! Mmmmm.... they were so ripe and delicious! They said they were organic. I didn't care, They Were GOOD!!! :)

We ended up at a winery for a good ole "wine tasting"... Texas Hill Country Winery. It was fun and they had some good wines. This was my souvenier for the day... It's a magnet.

After the winery we ended up at the Perdinales Falls. No falls since we are in a drought!! But we had fun seeing the birds (at a bird viewing spot they had), the camp sites, and the falls where the water would be. We climbed around and looked at the sites. We drove home and I took a nap to get rested for the next adventure of the day... Dinner! I wanted to be surprised (not common for me to want that) so he took the liberty to make the plans and arrangements. All I knew was... Wear Business Attire! He wouldn't tell me anything else. He rented a cab to take us there so he wouldn't have to drive in traffic and told the man the address not the place to keep it a secret. The man got us to downtown and near the place when he took the wrong street, so Chase told him the name and looked at me and said, "sorry". I still had no clue where it was or what it was so even if he had told me, I would have still been surprised. We ended up eating on the Riverwalk at a place called...

I honestly felt like I was VIP. We walked in the back entrance down a hall into the restaurant. We were greeted by the waitstaff who took us to our seats. They literally pulled out the table for us to get in the booth. Then they placed our menus in front of us and it wasn't the menu they gave everyone else... it was special. It was their menu but printed on paper and at the top was... 
"Happy 1 Year Anniversary Mr. & Mrs. Murphy". Oh My Gosh I loved it (and Yes, I kept it to scrapbook)!! I looked at him and said "did you do this or how did they know?" He told me that they asked if it was a special occasion and he told them "Yes, it was our 1st Anniversary" when he set the reservation. He pointed out that on the appetizer they had "smoked salmon". He then told me that he wanted to take me back to a year ago on our honeymoon... have the same types of food and do similar things that we did from then. We went to wineries, hiked, ate organic foods, smoked salmon and cheesecake. So "that is why I picked this place to eat and why went to those specific places today and did what we did" he said. After dinner we walked the along the Riverwalk and later got a cab back home. It was special and I will say he Did an Amazing job on surprising me!!

I'll end this with the words to the song that played while we danced to our friends watching and singing this song as it played... One Year ago... It still makes me cry thinking of the moment and thinking of the friends singing it to us as we danced... 


"You may think that I'm talkin' foolish, You've heard that I'm wild and I'm free. You may wonder how, I can promise you now, This love that I feel for you always will be. But you're not just time that I'm killing, I'm no longer one of those guys. As sure as I live, This love that I give, Is gonna be yours until the day that I die. Oh baby, I'm gonna love you forever. Forever and ever, amen. As long as old men sit and talk about the weather, As long as old women sit and talk about old men. If you wonder how long I'll be faithfull, I'll be happy to tell you again. I'm gonna love you forever and ever, Forever and ever, amen. They say time takes its toll on a body, Makes the young girls' brown hair turn grey. But honey, I don't care, I ain't in love with your hair, And if it all fell out, well I'd love you anyway. They say that time can play tricks on a memory. Make people forget things they knew, But it's easy to see, It's happening to me. I've already forgotten every woman but you. Oh darlin', I'm gonna love you forever. Forever and ever, amen. As long as old men sit and talk about the weather, As long as old women sit and talk about old men. If you wonder how long I'll be faithful, Just listen to how this song ends. I'm gonna love you forever and ever, Forever and ever, amen. I'm gonna love you forever and ever, Forever and ever, forever and ever, Forever and ever, amen"
by Randy Travis. Thank you for making such a beautiful song be our Favorite song Forever (ok, and Ever Amen)! :)

The Recreation of Perfection

Some people think when they go to a restaurant what they are eating can NOT be recreated. At least that's what I think. If you know me well enough, you know that I am NOT the cook in the house!! Chase is an amazing husband who can cook and he does it very well... not gonna lie sometimes I feel like my house is a restaurant! There is a little "home town" mexican place that I have now decided is my "Mi Cocina away from home". I thought I was calling this place the wrong name for the longest time but I figured it out... I'm not! Anyways, I fell in love with these nachos called "Cancun Nachos" a delightful and yet Perfect dish. I had been raving about this place since we last were there to some of my friends and family and this past weekend we took two of them there. Here is the picture of the nachos at the place!

So Cara said "We can make this" and so we had a bright idea to try and see if we could accomplish that goal. Today we recreated the nachos and here is our creation...

 

I think we have accomplished the recreation of the perfection! We call ours "Cha Cha Nachos" since it's from the restaurant Cha Cha's who came up with the idea in the first place!! Thank You Mr. Cha Cha! It's truly a Delicious dish.

San Antonio here we come!!

So... Chase got a job in San Antonio and has been living down there for 2 weeks now. He has been living out of a bag with a few clothes. Graciously, Megan and Tim allowed him to crash in their second bedroom for a week then M'Rhea allowed him to stay at her place while she was out of town. Both houses and people will be Greatly appreciated for a long time!!

I have been living with my mom since he left good ole' College Station and have been packing our house we were living in so I could move it down to our new place.

Friday I left with a good friend of Chase's to move our things down to San Antonio! :) He knew how to drive a truck (Uhaul) and has been a HUGE help in moving heavy furniture along with some other guys! Thank to ALL who have helped us in the process (either... cleaning, packing, praying, or moral support)!!!!
Saturday was Moving Day!! We started at 10:00 (signed papers, got keys, and swipe card for the gym) Little did we remember that our Apt is on the 3RD FLOOR!!!! Cara came down with a small load in her car that morning to help as well. The guys took heavy items minus the lazy boy recliner chair which stayed out with the other boxes to be used as the "rest" spot. They unloaded the Uhaul out on the curb in the shade while Cara and I moved boxes. We took the truck back in time (had to be back by 12:15 on Saturday) and went back to move the rest of our things. The furniture consisted of a bed, dresser, entertainment center, lazy boy chair, deep freezer, mini fridge, and coffee table. The rest were boxes. We finished by 1:30. Not too bad considering we counted 40 stairs total to our place! (That's just going up, so do the math and we probably each went up and down about 15 times. So that's about 600 steps for just one person!!!) That's more steps than I do in my daily routine. We were EXHAUSTED!!! We changed into swimming suits and went to the pool!! Our complex has two to choose from and the one that's closest to us we can see part of it from our patio. Once we got to the pool it was Rest and Relaxation Time! :)  We must have moved in on a good day because the complex was doing a "Free Snow Cone" that day and they came and served us at the pool. Man I like this place already!!! Too bad I had to leave on Sunday to go back to College Station!

Thank You Dan and Cara for making the move so much easier for us, for going up 600 steps each to move our things, all the FUN times we had while being there, driving, and for being GREAT FRIENDS!!!! You are loved :)

Sunday Morning

Chase is cooking everyone breakfast! Mmmm... bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, etc. He's such a good cook!!