happy birthday to my man...

I am a very lucky girl to still have this man look at me like THIS even after almost 15 years together. We have literally grown up together. Looking back, I can hardly believe we made it, through all of life's ups and downs. Teenage years, and our twenties,turning 30 something, babies, and houses, jobs, building a business, and everything else in between. When we got married people said it would never last. Heck, when we went on our first date people snickered and said it would never last. But, here we are. A decade and a half later... chapters and chapters later in our story, and he still looks at me with those eyes! God had a plan all along...



Sending happy birthday wishes, to the man who has made my dreams come true...!
I hope that I am able to make you half as happy as you make me.
I can't wait to write more chapters in our book!

XOXO,
Manda
(i don't think my husband has ever (or very rarely) ever called me Mandy... it's always Manda, and that I am, his Manda!)

better together...

Everything is better when we're together.... even after all these years! You're still my favorite. I love you more and more every year. Happy nine years honey! Love You. XOXOXOXOXOXO

belated...

Your Birthday got a bit out shadowed by Easter yesterday. I know you didn't mind. I also know it wasn't your best Birthday... I'm sorry for that. But, in keeping with my theme lately on writing Birthday notes here on my little blog, I didn't want you to think you were forgotten. Because you are never forgotten. You are my best friend. And I am so thankful each day that you are mine. You and the girls are my reason in life to strive to be better than I was the day before. I don't want to get too mushy, too sentimental, because you know I could sit here and write pages and pages of mushy, sentimental things (especially when you are involved.) But, I won't because there really are not enough words in the English language to express what it is that you mean to me, and how much I care. All I can adequately say, is I love you, I am grateful for you. On this Birthday, I wish your heart every happiness in life. I know your Birthday didn't quite turn out the way you wished, but someday, I know that when your not expecting it, you will get that BIG break, that lucky find that you've been waiting for.... and it will be even sweeter because you were patient!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart, I love you!!!

My Christmas Love Letter...

About a week before Christmas Matt was helping me do some technical tweaking to my Emma Downtown blog when somehow we came upon the conversation of how he never reads my blog. I was giving him a very hard time, because unless I prod him he never looks at it. It usually really doesn't bother me, but I guess I felt the need to make a point... which is if it's important to me shouldn't you be interested?! So I told him if he ever had a blog I would look at it all the time.

Christmas morning came, and Matt asked me if I wanted to check my email... not really it's Christmas. He said one of your presents is waiting for you on your email, I couldn't get it here in time.... Oh, well when you put it that way, I'll be right on that! I wasn't expecting what I found. The email simply said "and you said it couldn't be done". Click Here

I'll I know is the best things in life can never be bought, and to me gifts and words of the heart will last much longer than anything that can be wrapped in paper and ribbon. Amongst all of the things I will remember from this Christmas with the special times with family, the girls, friends, and laughter, the one I will remember the most is being given the gift of knowing how much my husband cares and appreciates me, still after all these years.

So now, you can keep up on what Matt has to say on his very own blog.... and I said it couldn't be done! I should know better than to ever make a challenge like that, to a guy who can't say no to a challenge!

Quick Update...

Just wanted to quickly update. Matt is doing well. Feeling quite a bit better this evening, he even got out of bed to eat dinner and visit with his friend for a quick visit. If you are reading this right now wondering what in the heck I'm talking about you must have missed my last post... scroll down, or click here to read what happened that was... scary.

I apologize if this post isn't well written or doesn't make much sense, but to tell you the truth I've only had about 2 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours, and I am pretty exhausted. I knew I would feel better if I wrote this before I tried to fall asleep. We just want to thank those of you who have prayed for us, who have called to check on things, and for your friendship. So nice. These things do have a way of putting things into perspective. My perspective at this moment is that of thankfulness. I am just so thankful that he is OK, and doing well. It is so easy for these simple accidents to turn out so tragically. We hear about it every day. We just never think anything bad like that will ever happen to us, or to those we love. Or at least we hope not. And we don't think about these things until.... well, when something happens.

So, for tonight, I will try and turn my brain off, go to sleep, and thank God that things didn't turn out much worse than they could have. It's weird, everything happened about 24 hours ago. Yet I am still having a hard time not thinking about every event that happened last night, and every picture from the whole thing over and over in my head. I must sleep now, things will be fresh tomorrow. Good night.

scary...

About 7:30 yesterday evening the phone rang. I was just getting the girls to bed, and Matt was out playing basketball in his city league team he plays for. On the other line was Lindsay, Matt's buddies wife. The caller ID was Matt's cell phone. I was confused. She said Mandy, it's Lindsay, there's been an accident, it's Matt, we've called 911 you need to get here quick. My heart leaped out of my chest. I called my mom... Bella was standing right there... I didn't mean to panic her, but I was panicked. I told her daddy got hurt, and I had to go. She started to cry. I said, he's going to be fine, I was hoping, because inside, I didn't know if it was a lie. My mom got to the house, I flew out of the house, I'm not even sure how I got to the school, but I did. When I got there I saw lots of flashing lights, two firetrucks, and a ambulance. Luckily Lindsay was waiting outside for me. I would have been there quicker but I had to wait for a train to pass... She took me to the back of the gym where the ambulance was. The door was locked. Could this get any worse? I wanted in. I wanted to see him, and to know what was going on. I felt so many emotions rolling up in me. I was trying to tell myself not to panic, panic doesn't do any good in these situations... We finally got in. There he was laying on a stretcher, strapped down, blood everywhere, neck brace on, and his eyes were glazed over. Oh, lord... please be with him.

The paramedics told me to go to the hospital, and get him checked in. I could do that. I called my mom, she said dad was waiting at the hospital in case I needed someone. I was glad. I was shaking, I still didn't know what was going on. I was just tying to be calm. Lindsay and Justin asked if I needed a ride. I said no, I would be fine. I was just hoping that was the truth. I drove to the hospital behind the ambulance. I still hadn't touched him, told him I was there, I wondered if he was scared. When we got to the hospital I went right to the ambulance, they said you can't be back here, go get him checked in..... WHAT, I want to see my husband. OK, I'll get him checked in... calm I told myself, calm. As I walked up I saw my dad sitting waiting for me. I gave the clerk our information, how ironic that two hours earlier we were just having a discussion on health insurance. I had told him, you just never know when an accident can happen. I'm not sure he was listening. He thinks he's super man, you know.

I got him checked in and finally they let me, and dad back to see him. He was acting really goofy, but he was awake. They said he split his head open pretty good, and that he had a concussion, but that he seemed OK. Thank God! They asked us to step out so they could make sure there wasn't anything wrong with his neck. They also did a cat scan to check his brain activity. All seemed OK they said. They let us back to be with him. There was a lot of blood, and the gash was bad. They put 12 titanium staples into his head, and sent us on our way... with strict instructions to not let him sleep more than four hours, and a whole list of things to watch out for.

As we were walking out he began to shake, I think he was in shock. I was glad dad was there to help me hold him, I'm not sure I could have on my own. We got him into the car... he was shaking bad. I took my sweater off, I put it around him, I put a baby blanket on him, and turned up the heat, everything I could think of. In truth I was scared. I remember doing the same thing when I was in labor both times, I know it's your bodies way of dealing with intense pain... shock. Dad and I got him home, and in bed. We spent a restless night, but he's OK, and he's here, and he's going to be fine, and I'm so thankful!

He's sleeping now, and I think rest will be what he needs most. Please pray that he recovers quickly, and that he continues to do well... I will keep you posted on how he's doing!