Are we still here?

I'm so terrible at updating our blog, and I apologize. I know what you're thinking..."who starts a blog post with an apology?". I know, I know...forgive me...that's just who I am. I apologize for EVERYTHING (well...most things...Aaron might disagree with me here). Anyway...lately, I've been asked by a couple different people if I'm still doing the blog, and the answer is yes. We have so many friends and family all over the country that this is their way of "keeping up to speed" with us, so I'll do my best to be better at updates.

Here's an update of what's going on in the Kaney household:

For myself (Amanda), it was my birthday yesterday, and it was a much better birthday than last year. Last year, I spent my birthday saying goodbye to all my friends in Virginia Beach and cried A LOT, and who wants to spend their birthday crying? Ummm...no one. This year was WAY better. I was showered with flowers at work which was a pleasant surprise. I love flowers! They just brighten up my day, especially when they're unexpected, and I didn't just receive one bouquet of flowers at work, but three. I thought I could hide the fact that it was my birthday at work, but then I saw the deliver person come in with my flowers. After contemplating whether or not to lie stretch the truth a little bit and say that my husband is just awesome and decided to send me flowers out of the blue, I decided to fess up that it was my birthday, which is a pretty good thing because within the next couple hours I had two other deliveries of flowers. I would have had a pretty hard time "stretching the truth" after the third delivery. All in all, it was a pretty awesome birthday...we went out for sushi with my in-laws and out for ice cream afterwards, and then I went home and changed right into my sweats and curled up on the couch to watch Breaking Dawn Part 1...of course. (That's a whole blog post in and of itself...my love for everything Twilight and Aaron's mocking of my love for everything Twilight...lol.) I had a great birthday, but other than that life's been the same, and I can't complain. I know it sounds cliche, but life is good.

All my wonderful flowers...THANK YOU everyone!!

For Aaron, life has been going well too...or so he tells me. He spent the past several weeks rubbing in the fact that I would be turning 28 and he would still be 27, but this happens EVERY year. For six months of the year (since he's six months younger than I am), he insists upon rubbing it in that I'm older than him. He loves it. I put up with it. And it is what it is. He's also been working out with his buddies twice a week, and he's been really enjoying the guy time and getting back into shape, and of course...I'm jealous...not of the guy time, but of the working out with friends part (one of my favorite things) and the getting into better shape part. He's really enjoying his job a lot more too, and it's becoming less stressful for him, which is great. He hates the part where he has to wear a suit everyday to work, but I love it because he's so handsome in it. I'm sure I'll be in trouble for the "Aaron" section of this post later, but I can't help it. He's just a pretty amazing guy, and I feel very blessed. To sum it all up, he's still younger than I am, (for the moment), in better shape than I am, and looks a whole lot better in a suit than I do. Oh...and I'm sure that the younger, in better physical shape, and better looking part will either be rubbed in my face later or he'll plead with me to remove it.

As far as life together goes, we're still blessed beyond measure. We were able to be a part of the planning committee for The Art of Marriage Conference in Freeport in February, which had a great turnout (110 couples). We had a lot of great feedback about the event. We set out to do the event with the intention of just encouraging married couples whether they were struggling or doing well, but God had a bigger plan. We had ten people accept Christ as their Savior at the event. Yay! On that note, Aaron and I are done with that ministry for now, and we're seeking out where God wants us to be serving next, so please pray for us in that.

As far as our everyday lives go, here's a few of the things we're enjoying in our everyday lives:

• The church bells that play in the morning and around dinner time each day. They're only a block away, but it's such a sweet sound as you're getting ready in the morning or sitting down to eat dinner. They play full hymns, which is awesome! We can't wait for warmer weather so that we can finally open up the windows and hear them more clearly.
• We often times make dinner and just sit on the floor in the kitchen to eat. It may sound silly, but we actually enjoy it. It's a really weird thing (I know), and we do have a dining room table, but we just love it.
• Leaving and coming home from work at the same time. Again, it's a such a simple thing, but such a wonderful thing. We both leave for work at 7:00 and get home at 5:00.

It's the little things that make life so sweet. God has so richly blessed our lives, and we're so thankful.

The Bench

Well...four months later...I'm finally done with my bench. It really didn't take me very long at all to do it. I was just procrastinating a little too much. I stole this idea from my wonderful friend Heather last summer, and I'm just now accomplishing it myself.

It all started in September. I was driving home one Friday afternoon when I remembered that Shannon (my home town) was having their garage sales that day. I decided I'd take a quick drive through town. (Remember...population 801...it literally takes me 10 minutes to drive up and down EVERY street in our town.) I didn't see any garage sales that looked appealing, and I was ready to go home, but then...

I saw them. 

Three grungy, beat-up, antique chairs were sitting in someone's yard. I immediately knew what I could do with them. I got out of my car, went straight to the gentleman selling them, and asked "how much do you want for the chairs?". He said "$5". I said "sold". It was love at first sight.

Of course, my husband thought I was crazy when he first saw them, but I knew they had potential. I immediately sent a text message to Heather showing her my garage sale find.

Now...four months later...I started working on them. And it was a very quick and easy project. I lightly sanded down the chairs, put a coat of primer spray paint on them, spray painted them, and then added the seat for the bench. Aaron helped me put the chairs together. (Thanks, Sweetie!!) We used an old piece of plywood we had in the garage to make a long seat, and I happen to have an old memory foam mattress pad in a closet upstairs. I cut up the mattress pad, stapled the fabric around it onto the plywood seat, and Voilà!!

This awkward space by my staircase is now filled, and I'm extremely excited about it!

I just added a little accent pillow last night to complete the look, and this is one craft project I'm very excited to cross off my list!!

Random Thoughts from Christmas and New Years

1. I always forget how sweet it is to be in a room filled with other believers singing "Silent Night" and shining candles in the dark. It's just too bad this only happens once a year.
2. Five Christmases (plus a baby shower) in three days makes for some very exhausted and cranky people...need I say more.
3. We are so blessed by family and friends, and not just because we received Christmas gifts from many of them. I don't know how anyone could ask for a bigger blessing in their lives than our family and friends. They simply are amazing. 
4. It was a joint effort at giving Christmas gifts this year. Aaron & I both stayed up late...painting, sanding, cutting, etc....as we prepared homemade gifts for a majority of our family this year. We decided it would be more meaningful if we gave homemade gifts. Great idea...except we figured out that even though we may work better under pressure, we still bicker at each other in the pressure. Needless to say...if we do homemade gifts again next year, we will be starting them 6 months in advance. 
5. Despite our bickering under the pressure of the holidays...we still love each other. He thinks I'm pretty cool (at least that's what he says), and I still think he's amazing. Well...maybe if there were a real Edward Cullen in the world, I might change my mind on that, but for now I'll stick to humans. (Just kidding, Aaron...you know I love you.)
6. I determined that I love new years resolutions. They're just awesome! Who wouldn't love being able to come up with ways to better themselves in any area of their lives and set goals to achieve them? Seriously...I love whoever came up with this idea! Sadly...I set several new years resolutions, and I'm already having a hard time sticking to them. But I'm sure there's supposed to be at least a week grace period in there, so I'm still okay, right? I WILL succeed in my resolutions. I promise.
7. We have the best small group ever! Our small group is going through a study of Crazy Love by Francis Chan, and God is doing some amazing things in each of our lives through the study. We recommend everyone to go through the book. The book is amazing. Our small group is amazing. And our God is pretty amazing too.
8. I've felt like I haven't had that much to blog about lately because it's pretty much the same old routine around here every week. For a while I thought that was pretty boring, but I came to the realization that as much as I hate to admit it...we are boring...and that's absolutely fine with me. I like boring. We're pretty simple people. What you see is what you get. 
9. The Lord has taught me A LOT over the past year, and I know I want Him teach me even more about how to be a better wife, daughter, sister, friend, co-worker, and woman in this next year.
10. I've determined 2012 is going to be a great year.

Old Friends

This past weekend we were able to catch up with some old friends from Indiana. It felt really good to reconnect with our dear friends. It's been over 4 years since I've seen some of them (Aaron saw some of them last year while recruiting), so it was very refreshing. I'll keep this post short and sweet. We miss you all dearly, and we wish we could spend more time with you all. Now that we're back in the Midwest, we'll have to make more frequent visits.

Congratulations Adam & Jessica!

Our old small group. Love you all!

Now...back to my Christmas prep...sigh.

Blessed

This past week wasn't exactly my best Thanksgiving week ever...I was sick Monday through Friday (very sick on Tuesday and Wednesday), my grandmother passed away on Monday night, and I didn't get to go shopping on Black Friday either. But for the first time in I don't know how many years (honestly...maybe 15 years or more), we got a family picture with my mom's side of the family. We haven't all been together for a while, but it was so great to see them even if it was under sad circumstances. Although, I don't think everyone was too excited about how cold it was without our jackets, but it was worth it...I think.

But I do have to say...we are truly blessed. We got to spend time with my aunt that I haven't seen in over six years and my uncle that I haven't seen for almost ten years. Not to mention...the time we were able to spend with the rest of our family (not just my mom's side).  All of you are such a blessing.

The LONG overdue Halloween Post

 I'm not going to beat around the bush...last weekend was just crazy busy. That seems to be the story of my life, but here's a few clips from our crazy busy Halloween weekend.

My friend Heidie's munchkins came over and carved pumpkins with Aaron, Christi, Justin, and myself.

These three are just the cutest.

After the world series, the boys joined us and the kids and Heidie left. Yes, that is a power tool in my husband's hand. He doesn't take carving pumpkins lightly.

After a fun evening, the four of us carved some pretty cool pumpkins. This was taken at 2am. I can't remember the last time I was up that late.

Saturday was Rachel's 3rd birthday party, and Cory did an AMAZING job doing a Disney princess themed party. Great job, Cory!! The food was delicious!

And here's Little Miss Rachel Jasmine showing off some of her birthday presents.

And that's pretty much it. Hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend!! I can't believe it's November already...yikes! Where has the time gone?

Happy 35th Anniversary Ma & Pa Kaney!

Tonight we picked up Ma & Pa Kaney from the bus terminal in Rockford after they returned from their two week trip to Ireland and Scotland. I know you're so jealous...and so are we. We're so happy they were able to take this amazing trip to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary though. Thirty five years is a major accomplishment for a marriage in today's society that is filled with divorce. These two are a wonderful example to their children of what a Christ-centered marriage looks like. 

We surprised them by having Ryan & Cory and their two daughters (Rachel & Rebekah) join us as we picked them up and taking them out for a nice dinner at JMK Nippons in Rockford. Sadly, Christi & Justin couldn't join us, but it was a great evening celebrating Ma & Pa Kaney's anniversary.

Congratulations on 35 wonderful years! We know you have many more ahead of you. We love you!!