The Story Of The Dogwood

I saw this on a friend's blog and had to share! =)

The story goes that when Jesus was awaiting crucifixion and when the crosses were being made the trees begged God to spare them, but the Dogwood begged not for it's life but for the life of Jesus. 

The Roman soldiers picked the Dogwood.

The Dogwood pleaded with God to use another wood but God did not intervene.  The Dogwood would now carry the body of Christ to his death and the Dogwood knew that for all eternity Dogwoods would be known for this horror.

God in his wisdom spoke to the Dogwood and understood the tree; in that time Dogwoods were tall straight trees that provided sturdy timber for homes and vessels, safety for the animals. bowls for food, utensils to cook with; and God spoke.

God told the Dogwood that the burden that was carried would be carried only one time, and from that time on Dogwoods would be knarly small trees with poor timber size so no Dogwood could be used in this manner again. God told the Dogwood that the Dogwoods would now be responsible for eternity to help people remember.

The Dogwood would only bloom for a very short time before and after the date of the crucifixion, the flower would have just 4 petals representing the hands and feet of Christ, they would be marked with a hole and the blood of Christ and the center of the flower would be circular raised and represent the head of Christ wearing the crown of thorns.

And so it is today, the Dogwood is a small twisted tree, it blooms at Easter and the flower....well look for yourself.

Happy Resurrection day! =)

Happy Birthday....

To the man who is my best friend.

To the man who loves me no matter what.

To the man I'm blessed to spend the rest of my life with.

To the man I love with all of my heart.

And secondly!


Happy Birthday to the best Mom in the world.

The one who showed me what it is to be a godly wife and mother.

The one who I know loves me unconditionally.

The one who I can always call and talk to when I need to.

Mom, you're an amazing woman and I thank God for you. Thank you for setting such a wonderful example for me and my sisters to follow! I love you.

Photography Contest ~ Through My Lenz Photography

Hi everyone! My talented friend Olivia recently started a blog for her photography business, and she is having a photography contest! I know she would love it if any of you entered! You can check out the contest post here.

The photo challenge is "Best Self Portrait."

Here is my entry!

Yikes blogger really pixilated it.....  Anyway, I took this picture driving home from work with my husband. The sunset light was really pretty and I was just playing with my camera in the mirror. I edited it slightly to enhance the lighting and give it a more vintage feel. =)

I look forward to seeing the other entries!

A Very Late Going To The ZOO Post!

This is several weeks late, but I figured it's better late than never, right? :-) A while ago we went to the Columbus Zoo! I had never been there before, and Josh hadn't been since he was little. If you ever get the chance, I recommend it. It was really nice! I'm sure it's even better in the summer time though. =) 

This will be mostly a picture post, because I had a TON of pictures! Don't worry though, I won't share ALL of them. =) 

Flamingos are SO interesting! Their skinny little legs look like they might break at any moment! These particular birds looked a little cold. After all, it was in the middle of February in Ohio!

The Aquarium is really cool! 

They even had a huge tank with manatees in it! It's neat to see them underwater like that. I'd only seen them from the surface.

This Cheetah (?) Was really beautiful! There was a man with us that was carrying a plastic grocery bag, and kitty was VERY interested in it! He walked right up to the fence and started pawing at the bag like a kitten! =) 

The Gorillas were the most fun! They actually seemed to like having their picture taken, and kept posing for the camera. Every once in a while one would run up to the glass wall and pound on it with his fists and scare everyone. =)

He looks like he's thinking about something. =) 

Look at that arm! Those guys are strong!

This was a lady Gorilla. Once she walked over and sat against the wall right in front of me. It was cool to only be separated from them by the glass!

This was one of the best pictures I got during the entire day. =) Isn't he cool looking?

The tiger! This was exciting. He walked over when he saw us and paced back and forth in front of the glass. Probably because he was hungry and wanted to get through the glass to eat us! =) 

It was really thrilling being this close to him! They are really beautiful animals!

He looks hungry!

He was a pretty good looking cat! Lions are one of my favorite animals. I think they're beautiful!

The lady lion just lay there and watched us. She seemed pretty board. She's pretty though isn't she!

And here's our very own little tigress. ;-) She's a mighty hunter too, of small bits of paper, my hair scrunchies, and her little toy mouse.

Well that's all for now. =) I hope you enjoyed the pictures! 

Prayer Request For My Niece

Hello everyone! I am very happy to tell you (a little late) that my sister-in-law had her baby Thursday a week ago! My adorable niece weighed 6 lbs 9 oz and was 21 inches long. Her name is Ashlynn Liberty.

My prayer request is: Ashlynn has Down Syndrome, and today we learned that she has a hole in her heart which will require surgery. She is a precious, beautiful baby and has already stolen our hearts. Please remember her in your prayers! ♥

Adventures in Laundry

Last week, my dryer broke. Now, if it had been during the Spring, Summer, or Fall, that would have been ok, because I have a (somewhat small) clothesline. BUT, it's in the middle of winter. I decided to try the clothesline anyway.....

.... and by the time I had these few things hung up, they were already frozen stiff! And so were my fingers! :-) I WILL say that even when your laundry hangs on a line in single digit weather for roughly 24 hours, and gets frozen solid, and THEN you bring it in and hang it from your ceiling fan (which is turned on), EVEN after ALL that, it still smells good, like laundry hung out on a sunny summer day to be dried in the fresh air. :-)  

 I WISH I'd taken pictures of our laundry spinning slowly around on our bedroom ceiling fan, but I didn't. It was pretty funny, and more than once it scared me when I glanced down the hallway and saw movement where there usually isn't any. ;-) 

 The point of this post, however, is just to say that God is good, and blesses us with even the unimportant things at times. Our landlord found a brand new dryer for a great price and got it for us, and now I can do all of our laundry without overloading our ceiling fan. :-) 

And before I go, Cleo says hi!!! :-)

About: Going to the Gym!

Josh and I just started going to the gym. We are going to try and do it everyday for the foreseeable future. I'm happy and excited about it! I really am. I am SO out of shape compared to how I was when I was working on my family's farm every day.


HOWEVER. 


After two days of going to the gym, I feel like this:

And I want to do this:

I know things will get easier as we go along, I just hope it gets easier fast!