Shattered Dreams

I really think everyone should read this book. I just love how it puts things into perspective and really wraps words around things that EVERYONE feels.  It also gives permission to not always be ok and not always feel good and peppy about what God is doing in our lives.  It also helps remind us that sometimes the prayer isn’t that things get better, it’s that we stay in the process to become who God wants us to be. Umm, so much easier said than done.  Just really helpful to read it.  I also put this together based on what I read in here, but sometimes God has to break our dreams to put them back together in a more beautiful, radiant way than we would have ever seen them had they not been broken in the first place. Really powerful for me.

 This is the book that helped me so much after my dad died and so many dreams of mine were shattered. This is the book that helped put a diagnosis in perspective.  Turns out the diagnosis was wrong, but the 2 weeks of waiting were spent writhing at the feet of my Jesus.  Thankfully, I’m more who God created me to be because of it. My mind was taught that it is not my master or creator, those spots are reserved for Jesus thankfully.  As a self professed worry wart with a vivid imagination to create worst case scenarios that create DEEP fears, this was a turning point for me in my relationship with Christ and myself.

All this to say, I love this book. I’m sure I’ll have more brilliance to write about from it soon.

Still here

I’m still here, just haven’t had much to say recently.  I know for any of you who know me, you find that hard to believe.  We’ve been doing fun things.  Getting the baby’s room ready, getting Luke into a big boy bed, dealing with 2 and 3 hour crying fits in the middle of the night, really enjoying time with Michael and Luke, trying to maintain my dog hair covered house and growing in my relationship with Christ. See-all kinds of fun stuff, just I forget to get online and tell you 3 about it. Pictures of Luke at Easter to come later this weekend.  Maybe you’ll get lucky enough to see my GROWING belly too.

Firetruck!!!!!!

Have you ever seen such joy?  Oh, he is the best!!  Michael & I took him on his first “etched memory” on Friday to our friend Andrew’s (Tatum’s bro-in-law) fire station.  Luke got to sit in the engine, look at the lights, honk the Haz-Mat truck’s horn-all the fun stuff. It was early in the morning in a neighborhood area so there were no sirens, but Luke made his own. “REEEEEER” Here some more fun pics from our time!  Thanks Andrew and Tatum-You’re the best!!!

Josephine

So today at work was a lot different than every day for the last 4 years. My fabulous friend, JoAnn aka Josephine, Miss JoAnn, Granma Jo wasn’t there.
She is embarking on a new fun life of traveling while consulting with her hubby and other fun trouble I am sure she will get herself into. Now my words here will not do justice to how incredibly special Josephine is to me. She was an answer to prayer in so many ways. She put up with my spastic, whirling dirvish ways on a daily basis. She had the ability to make every single person on our staff feel special and thought about. She always was ready with a listening ear, would boldly tell it like it was, and then laugh at herself and me for something silly one of us did. She would remind me that moms do not always mean to do or say the things they do, they just forget sometimes. She was ready to help me learn to do things around the yard when my precious mom-in-law passed away. She prayed for me when Luke became a forethought and then listened to my freakish fears and worries when he became a reality.  She made sure Luke always had a good lollipop to end his day along with a good push of phone buttons and playing with her keys.  She put up with my obnoxious birthday obsession and even helped encourage it.  She showed me grace under pressure and how to be considerate and thoughtful in so many ways.  She always went above and beyond in EVERYTHING she did and did it with joy and love, even if it was unloading 500 pounds of creamer, candy, and other office junk from her car.  I’m quite excited for JoAnn’s new job and freedom to be a mom, grandmom, and wife, but I sure do miss her whole bunch already.  She taught me so much in our 4 years together and I so look forward to introducing Lil’ Frankie #2 to Granma Jo.  She is a true angel walking on this earth and I am so grateful that she is my Atlanta mom.  Here’s a real picture of her that she may not get mad at me for posting.

I have always been a goal setter. As far back as I can remember, I can remember having goals and then trying to reach them. From learning how to read to making certain soccer teams to when to be able to walk again after breaking my thigh all the way to sales goals when I was in sales. I just have always done it. Michael, however, has not. It’s not his fault, he just didn’t grow up thinking about intentionally going after the thing he wanted. Well, a couple of weeks ago we were able to get on the same page as a couple about where our family is going. We had the opportunity to go to Blackberry Farm for a couples retreat where we learned about how to set our priorities, go about setting goals that are in alignment with those priorities and then focus on the things that we have determined TRULY matter.  This place is AMAZING!!  Here was the view from our room: It was like a dream come true for us.  We have wanted to go to this place since we got married but couldn’t even THINK about it because of the cost.  They have incredible food, an amazing piece of land and just all around incredible amenities.  For example, here was what we came back to in our room after dinner one night: Umm, are you kidding me??  So, all that to say, the environment was one to definitely cultivate our relationship as a couple.  We spent all day Friday and a lot of Saturday learning about setting goals and then going off on our own and determining what we wanted the vision of our marriage to be as well as the qualities our family would be known for. We also spent the majority of Saturday down by the river with Michael fly-fishing and me just hanging out.  Did I mention it was 24 degrees? I got MAJOR wife brownie points.  It was just great to get to hang out together and talk or sleep or do nothing!  I could write forever about what all this retreat did for us as a family, but I won’t bore you with the details.  However, I will tell you that Michael and I determined we want to be a purpose driven, God honoring couple who by love, laughter and generosity leave a Godly legacy.  We want to be a family that stands for God, integrity, and love.  We want to create etched memories with each other and Luke (& kid to be) with romantic dinners, fun trips to the fire station and zoo, weekends away to Ro-Ro’s house, adopting a family at Christmas and taking a day trip to Dahlonega to see the Fall leaves.  All things we were able to make our priorities during this weekend away.  Now if we could just figure out a way to get to Blackberry Farm every year!

Gotta Potty

Our friends, Tague & Lisa just adopted 2 little boys from Uganda, Philip and Zach.  They are absolutely adorable.  You can read more about their incredible journey on their blog, but I wanted to share with you one of my favorite videos yet! 

They have been working on potty training with Philip but were having some difficulty understanding him when he was telling them he had to go.  Tague is incredibly creative when it comes to problem solving and he came up with a solution. So, we get this…

Fridays

One of the perks of my job is that I get Fridays off and I absolutely LOVE it. Being an introvert who needs big amounts of “Kristen” time makes it a perfect schedule for me. I am usually VERY protective of my Fridays and the way I use the time I have at home. Luke & I will play, run errands, organize, watch TV, nap, read, really anything-it’s just my day to do what I want to do. As I get further along in this pregnancy, I am also trying to make sure I am intentional about truly playing with Luke and having great times with just me and him. Treasuring every one of his giggles, his “a-wead its”, his firetruck impersonations, his love songs to his Tay- Tay , his obsessions with helmets & pea’ut butr. So, all that to say, I am looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.

What about you?

The Lazy Ball Player

I is Tewww.

No, I’m not a horrible speller, that is what Luke sounds like as he proudly states his new age.  I can’t believe it has been 2 years since I spent the day watching the monitors in my concrete bunker of a room  at Northside. Luke did not like the pitocin, nor did he want to come out. However, he lost the battle and entered this world quite easily.  I still remember looking at his sweet face for the first time and realizing that he looked NOTHING like me-Michael won that battle HANDS DOWN!!  Anywho, fast forward 2 years and here we are!!  

We started the celebrating with cupcakes in Luke’s class on Thursday.  It was quite cute to watch him sing to himself.  Then on the actual day (12/12), we went to a Christmas party for our Singles/College Ministry & Joel T. & Jenn had gotten cupcakes for all the kids & everyone sang to Luke.  This is Talan digging in.  I could never get a good picture of it, but everytime Talan came up from eating his cupcake, he had an “icing” goatee.  It was so CUTE!!!  After a nice long nap, Stella & Gress brought their parents over to play.  Luke got to show off the ridiculously large firetruck his dad had bought him. After enjoying his mom’s favorite meal, Luke was able to dive into his “Pop-Pop” cake.  Since Friday he has thoroughly enjoyed all the loot that he got-all just for turning 2!!  

 

Tay Tay dresses me fly! All the way down to the shoes!

 

Every kid needs a Mr. Potato Head!!

Thanks to everyone who loved him so well.

Fun News from the Franklin Household

 

I’m still relatively early into it and we haven’t heard the heartbeat yet, but all things look like it’s a go! Thanks Emily for the great shirt!