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Two hour naps are a gift.from.Jesus, as is coffee. I have always been a, ‘coffee when I like it’ kind of person. I enjoyed it, but didn't depend on it. At this stage in my life, I have started to depend on it. My morning goes like this…wake up, wipe sleep from eyes, kiss husband (who has wonderfully been up with the children for the last hour), he goes to bed, I check my fertility via an awesome monitor, kiss my children and make coffee. From the 'wipe the sleep' to the 'kiss children', I am fantasizing about the ‘make coffee’ portion of my morning routine. And, I truly believe my eyes don’t actually open until the first cup.

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What?!? NBD I eat whole apples :)

OM lowercase g. Lil’ Aaron eats whole apples. Like, he loves doing it. I give him an apple and he goes at it for the next half hour. All the way down to the core of the core. It is awesome. Healthy snack/keeps him distracted/totally adorable. He has also taken to dragging his teddy bear behind him when he goes from room to room. The cuteness is hard to handle and pretty much makes my heart break with love for him.

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my sleeping angel

Joseph Michael ‘the rockstar’ Wilkerson slept from 9:00 pm- 5:30 am on Wednesday night. You, Joseph Michael Wilkerson ROCK! And I am so very thankful for sleep. However, part of me is sad, because if you sleep through the night, that means daddy will probably stop getting up early with you boys (because he gets up early to make up for all the sleep that I miss feeding you at nighttime). And, I really appreciate that extra hour in the morning, better start thinking of ways to negotiate the continuation of our current system of mommy sleeping in!

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Example of the w-w-wild and crazy
things I get us into!!!

Marriage is sometimes hard and my husband sometimes drives me crazy (and he would say the same for me). But today, when I went downstairs to do laundry, I realized that he had bought laundry detergent (we were almost out) and I had this moment of clarity. I keep telling the husband that he ‘tricked me’ into marriage. He ‘used’ to be romantic, he ‘used’ to buy me flowers, he ‘used’ to like to do w-w-wild and crazy things (to the tune of ‘w-w-wild and crazy kids’…you’re welcome). After the marriage, the house, the debt, the two kids in two years, etc…some of those things have gone by the wayside and when I am feeling sorry for myself, I accuse him of tricking me into marriage. See, what I forget is that he is the guy that buys the laundry detergent and replaces it without asking. He does stuff like that all the time. Household maintenance, that I NEVER thank him for. He budgets for us, pays our bills, buys toilet paper/papertowel/soap/detergent/etc…when we run low. He just takes care of that stuff. I’ll get in my car to find he has filled up my gas tank, in between doing some other errand. He washes the dishes (occasionally), changes dirty diapers, wakes up early with the boys, works hard at his profession every day for our family and still finds energy to rub my back almost every night (though that is getting more rare now that I can’t use pregnancy to manipulate him into it). So, don’t tell him I told you, but I am pretty sure I married the best guy ever. And, I’m pretty sure I hard-core take him for granted. I’m gonna work on that.

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Speaking of my awesome husband...people often make fun of us because we fight so much, but what they don't understand is how fabulous we are.  Here is an example of a conversation we had last night.  On Saturday, we are going to the Tiger's Game.  I would like lil' Aaron to come with us, the husband would like him to stay home (he finds him high maintenance at sporting events,  I find him super fun).  Anyway, here is how the conversation went...
"Dear will you scratch my back?"- me
"No"- Aaron
"If you do, I will move six inches closer to letting Aaron stay home"- me
"Out of how many inches?"-  Aaron
"20"- me
"okay"- Aaron
...backscratching was less than stellar...
"If you don't do it better, I am going to take away two inches"- Mary
"No, you can't do that unless there is serious cause"- Aaron

PERFECTION!!!

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Speaking of, we had a ‘pat your back’ moment this week. We are really working hard, as a family, to try to take care of our children, our marriage, our spirituality, our health, our finances, our communication, etc…MAN- it is hard work, but it feels so darn good to be striving to be ‘better’ (though never near perfect). Sometimes I forget the progress we are making. I mean, we haven’t had a fight where I jump out of the car and try to walk home in like, four months! I call that success.
Sidenote: Yes, that is a fact, when I get mad at Aaron I have been known to refuse to go places, threaten to ‘walk places’ (see point two), or just open the car door- get out and start walking. My poor husband has married a psychopath…thank God he chooses to love me.

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Youth Ministry kicked off this week with our first meeting of the year. The meeting went great, the teens were phenomenal. Don’t believe me, check this out! I mean, have you ever seen such cool kids. That was my youth leadership’s team intro video. We have a youth led youth ministry program which is something 100% believe in. The teens I get to work with are AMAZING. I don’t blog about them that much, because this is a personal blog and I try to be really clear about such lines, but man- they are something else (besides, it is on youtube, so I figure it is fair game). They rock and this year is going to be very special to me! I can already tell. Someone remind me of that halfway through October when I haven’t tucked in my babies for a straight week… I am excited to see what God has in store for the ministry this year. If you are the praying type, please keep us in your prayers!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!