Because it's a Re-Run of "The Office" this Week...

...& also because it's funny...

Say Hi to Your Mother for me...

Here's a mid-week laugh for you...

LOVE it!

In case you haven't seen it in your mailbox...here's the first ever Fohner Family Christmas Card!

It only took us until our 5th Married Christmas to actually send one out :)

Even though we have about 10 months until we start seeing Christmas advertisements/decorations again, I thought I'd give you a little something to hold you over...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

10 Things to do in '10

I saw a to-do list like this on a friend's blog & got motivated to make one myself...

Here are 10 things I would like to accomplish this year (in no particular order)...

10. Go on a nice vacation together that requires flying somewhere

9. Start our family

8. Take Aslan on more walks

7. Organize our house so that our junk room can actually be used for something besides storing things I haven't found a place for yet

6. Keep our house organized

5. Be more consistent with writing in my journals

4. Memorize more scripture

3. Bribe family or friends into running another race with me

2. Spend more time with family & find more ways to let them know how much I love them

1. Read my Bible everyday

Week 1 of 2010 down...51 more to go. I better hop to it :)

A New Year is in Store...

Don't know about you all, but the Fohner Fam had an awesome Christmas & we are ready to ring in this new decade.

We're absolutely thrilled for all that it brings :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Blizzard '09

Check out my Facebook Page for videos & more pics of the snow here in Fred-neck...it's craziness!

Yeah right, global warming...God's got it in control :)

Go Elf Yourself

A Christmas card from us...try not to laugh, I don't think it's possible though :)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Song of Songs 2:10 & Ecclesiastes 4:12

when your husband comes home with a huge smile...

a sweet hug...

holding a dozen of these...

you're reminded that it's okay...

that you have each other...

& even better than that...

you both have Someone to lean on...

Someone you both can turn to...

together...

& by turning to Him together it all makes sense in due time...

& you both learn that His timing makes more sense than your own timing ever will...

& you take extreme comfort & rest in that :)

SURPRISE!

after months of planning...the SURPRISE party went off without a hitch (well, almost...I accidentally deleted over 200 pics of Matthew that I had spent hours scanning into my computer for a slideshow less than 48 hours before, but other than that...the day was AMAZING)!

We had a blast celebrating Matthew's 30th B-Day with family & our Fred-neckian friends :)

Seriously, we are two super blessed peeps!

Check out Facebook for the rest of the pics :)

Somebody's 30 Today ;)

this guy :)

Ok, I'm done embarrassing him...

maybe not...sorry, babe :)

okay, here he is...celebrating his big 3-0 with the coolest dog ever

which I tried (unsuccessfully to have us symbolize with our hands)...

....somebody wouldn't cooperate & kept changing his fingers from a "0" to other numbers...I won't mention any names or anything. I'm just saying...

Happy 30th Birthday, you big goof...love you :)

7 years ago today...

I met this dude...

& life has never, ever been the same...

in a VERY good way :)

Last Saturday...

...Team Bateman ran the Under Armour Baltimore Marathon Team Relay :)

the little bro's, myself, & Thew had a blast (surprisingly) running 26.2 miles in 3 hours & 50 minutes. It was such a cool experience & one that we're all definitely on board for doing again next year.

Date Night: Carving Pumpkins Style

In the busyness that can be life, prioritizing time for each other can be challenging, but sooo needed. There are few things I can think of that I love more than just hanging out & enjoying our time together, especially on a school night when fun memories from those date nights help get me through the rest of the school week :)

So tonight, Thew decided that it's time he break out the pumpkin carving kit that he's estimated he's had for about 10 years & put it to good use (we always have such good intensions, don't we?).

Halloween is always a fun time for us since this October 31st we'll celebrate the first time we met, 7 years to the day.

In memory of college, we threw "Signs" into the DVD Player & got to work carving :)

beginning my masterpiece...

we carved out all the seeds so that I can bake them tomorrow for my fav girls in my Bible Study. Love the fun memories of baking buttery, salty pumpkin seeds with my parents & little bro's growing up :)

Thew showing off before he starts carving...while giving the camera "mountain eye" (don't ask)...

right before I start carving...this cool kit had you dot the outline before you actually started carving...

finished products :)

now let's hope these things last till Halloween...we'll see. If not, we can always have another competition ;)

Just Because...

...she's cute :)

I Think...

...that 27 is going to be a great year :)

What a nice weekend celebrating with family & friends...I am truly blessed!

Video of the Day...

Thew found this video a few weeks back...very effective if you need a good laugh :)

My abs felt like I had done a million crunches after watching this...I giggle like a little kid every time I think about it, actually...

Some background info...these guys installed train horns on their trucks & film themselves driving around & blowing the horn at random people. The video series is aptly titled, "Terror on the Streets"...haha

Our 4th Anniversary...

was spent on an awesome 11 day vacation down in VA & SC enjoying family, friends, & each other...

...hopefully, you'll see some more pics up here soon from the past week & a half...

...feeling very blessed in the meantime :)

My Little Bro is Dapper!

So I have a very talented friend from high school that is a wedding photographer, & a very gifted one at that. In fact, the link to her fantastic blog is located on the right side of this blog. Check it out often to see some awesome photography :)

Definitely check out this post...

in it you will see my very dapper little bro (the oldest of my two little bro's) in the following pictures...

-he's the one 2nd from the left when they're toasting

-3rd from the left when they're relaxed against the wall

-3rd from the right when they're sitting down

-& 2nd from the bride when they're all standing up

Scotty was in this beautiful wedding on the 4th of July as a groomsman. One of his two roommates (who are each getting married within 2 months of each other) just tied the knot. Scotty has a very special group of guy friends that have known each other for 11 years now. They went to high school together & most of them even lived together when they went to Maryland together. Heck, one of them even married one of my best friends. Anyway, they're a really fun group of guys who always crack me up. When I teach the Drug Unit to my students I always share stories about them as examples of ways to have fun without drinking & using drugs because their stories from high school & college are hilarious. I mean rolling on the floor, clutching your sides, screaming & cackling laughing hilarious. Some of them are pictured here in a blog post from back in March...that's the groom in the center of the 1st pic.

Have fun browsing the beautiful pics from the day :)

4th of July Festivities

Our 4th of July was stellar & I'm hoping yours (all 3 of you that read this dear blog of mine) was awesome as well...

here's what Azzie did...

while I got to hang out with my cool California cousin & most of my Dad's side of the Bateman Clan :)

then we enjoyed a dip in my dad's hot tub...

where my Dad threw a hot dog at me...weirdo...

then it was off to dinner in downtown Fred-neck & fireworks in Baker Park with friends from our Young Marrieds Bible Study...

all in all...we had a blast with family & friends on a very fine holiday :)

U.S. = us

“Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author”

-Thomas Jefferson

As I shirked the cover off of the bed this morning and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, I had to stop & think for a second...there is a quiet peace. Oh, there are some sounds...the morning dove in the sparse trees of the field next to our house that always coos throughout each early morning hour; our excited & hungry dog licking me like endlessly until I feed her her breakfast; the soothing tick of our clock in our family room; the faint wave of fabric tickling the windows as the morning breeze wafts through the house.

But, generally, there is a peaceful quiet...no shrill blast of bombs in the distance or worse off, close by; no pop of gun fire, or sharp screams that follow; no cries of despair as a family happens on their lifeless husband, father, son, nephew, or cousin that had been left in the streets to die during battle because it was to unsafe to pull them to safety while they were wounded.

As Thew & I visited DC in the Fall on a random day of the week that we happened to have off, we wandered over to the Korean War Memorial where Lincoln peripherally overseas the Mall when Thew snapped this picture at the top of this post. I paused for a long while looking at those words. I even traced over the cuts in the granite that formed those letters with my fingertips as if to really take in all that those three words meant. Those words have been soaked in blood for generations of the only few hundreds years that this country has existed.

All so that a simple girl like me could grow up in a land without threat of violence; so I could go to school & learn as much & for as long as I wanted, not limited by the fact that I am a woman, while in other countries schools may be too far away to walk to or worse off, I may not be allowed to attend because of my "lowly" gender; I can walk into a store where aisles & aisles of food are at my disposal to take home with me to feed my family...I can even walk into a building where I can order food & only seconds later it is on a tray, hot & ready for me to devour...where in other countries, children die every second from hunger & lack of the proper nutrients; I can worship & pray in public, without hiding behind locked doors & covered windows...even carry my Bible around & read it with my best friends in coffee shops & parks, while across the world Christians send secret letters & e-mails in code & meet in dark basements for church services, the penalty of death at stake if their faith is discovered.

I am free...but I am free at a price. That price has cost countless men & women their lives, especially one who thousands of years before this country was a even a glimmer in man's eye, hung on a tree & died for the vapor in the wind that is me (but that's another blog post entirely ;) For that, I am indebted to those men & women

...to the generations that never received the chance of life because their soldier would-be father was killed on the battlefield as a baby-faced teenager, leaving behind his stricken parents & bride-to-be who had been waiting for her fiance to come home after his tour so they could be married & start their own family

...I am indebted to the husband or wife who kissed their spouse goodbye longing for their next embrace, only to greet their return in black & stroking a wooden box that now holds their beloved's body, another casualty of war

...I am indebted to the soldier who spends the rest of their life without a precious limb, bound to prosthetic or power chair due to the blast that killed their company & had them clinging to life throughout the months of excruciating rehab so they could function in what used to be simple tasks like taking a shower or feeding themselves

...I am indebted to the man or woman who left their innocence in the country they fought in, bringing back with them the haunting images of what they have seen war do to people or what war has made them do...it greets them each time they close their eyes, despite the endless hours in counseling where they battle those old demons to not swallow them up

...I am indebted to my family members & friends who have proudly enlisted because "it's the right thing to do" letting their stark bravery mask any fear of the cost of what serving our country may mean for their life...like my cousin, a Navy SEAL, who due to honoring his oath of maintaining national security to our country, can't even share with us how much of a hero he is

Despite the fact that we are a nation that has slipped in sin countless times & teeters on the brink of the planned democracy our founding fathers originally designed, I AM PROUD OF MY COUNTRY. I will always fly an American Flag on my front porch so that that the rays of the "dawns early light" may shine through it's fabric and the beams of the "twilights last gleaming" may kiss it's colors before the moon rises in the sky. I love our country & love this day :)