the newest addition to ttpd!

Yesterday was an awesome milestone for our family.

Nick was sworn into Temple Terrace Police Department! YAYYYYY!!!!

Ever since he was a little boy...Nick has wanted to be a police officer. His mom has shown me countless pictures of a little 4 year old with plastic handcuffs clipped into his belt loop, and a plastic gun stuck in his pocket.

This has been his childhood dream that has now become our ever present reality.

Most of you know that Nick has served as a Reserve 2 Sergeant for Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office for 4 years. And now, the next page in our future book is turned.

The Chief of Police spoke to Nick and I directly, and thanked me for giving my husband over to this agency. This now meant that Nick wouldn't always be home for every holiday, family gathering, or special occasion. His main priority will always be family, but when duty calls...you go. That's why this is not a career...it's a calling. He reminded Nick that along with his integrity, he must never bring disgrace to his uniform, and always bring pride to the badge that he wears. There is something so amazing about the unity and brotherhood that bonds law enforcement and fire fighters. It gives me chills to know, and experience that kind of self sacrifice. I have never been more honored, proud, or felt such love and respect for my husband than in that moment. This is me getting all mushy.

Then I got to pretend to pin on Nick's badge...and then proceeded to go back to my seat with it. Leave it to me to start a chuckle, and mess up a moment. Oops!

Before closing, the Chief offered family and friends to come and pray protection, and prosperity over the two new officers. LOVED this!

Thanks to the amazing multitude of friends, family, and our extended family from HCSO in supporting us in this new and exciting change in our life.

Blessed. So blessed.

Let's do this!

Much love,
K

marriage: what i'm still learning...

In a few short months, Nick and I will be celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary.

I feel like that's a lot...seriously...but in the grand scheme of things...it's not a super long time. That being said, this by no means makes me an expert on marriage, but I do feel like I have grown a great deal from the ups and downs of these past 7 er ish years, and am still learning. Is that weird?


I'm learning that you can be married, with the preacher, and pretty shiny rings, and even have the most ideal honeymoon imaginable...but still fail to be "one flesh." So important. Such a process. Your dead in the water without it.

Nick likes soda for breakfast, and no amount of nagging or lecturing will change that. So, here's to lattes and icy cold coke's. You win some, you loose some. Meh!

Love takes sacrifice. Get married and realize in a hot second how selfish you actually are.

I'm learning that God designed marriage to make us more holy than happy. The longer I'm married...the more this simple truth makes sense. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying marriage doesn't make you happy. Quite the opposite! But it's a constant reminder of the refining process of holiness. Thank you, Jesus.

Be a team. Think like a team, and don't leave your team.

I'm learning that you must trust each other with everything. Always.

Talk. Communicate, but know when to table a convo that just won't end. Revisit it later.

I'll never understand "Gold Rush" or why Nick likes it, but I do know that he loves having couch company.

Forgive. Forgive. Forgive.

Make dinner. Yes...cook, and while your at it, bake a little something sweet too! You can do it!

I'm learning that there's power in all words. They build up, and tear down in seconds. In my quiet time yesterday I read in Proverbs 12:18 "The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." How many times have I been that reckless fool?

I'm learning that even though I moved the laundry hamper a whole 4 more steps from the bathroom to the closet...the clothes still. just. won't. actually. make. it. inside...ever.

My spouse is NOT my enemy. We make sure to remind each other of this mid-argument, and it always puts things back into perspective.

I'm learning that little "happy's" make any day a whole lot brighter. The other night Nick came home with something behind his back, and with a sweet smile he pulled out a pack of mini colored sharpie's, and sour patch kids. I love that he knows and loves the little things about this girl.

That's what I'm still learning, peeps. What is/has marriage taught y'all?

XO!
K

grandma stanley

Sweet readers...

The other night I was needing to vacate from life for a smidgen. I was emotional, and possibly even a little lot moody. Why I totally support a healthy glass of vino in times like this...I was needing something else. Something familiar.

I soon found myself in the guest bedroom, starring up at a pink box on the top shelf of the closet. My memory box. Now while I'm not a big "let me keep every little card/trinket/whatever I've ever been given in my lifetime" kind of person...there are a few things that hold extreme value to me, and go into that very box. This was exactly what I needed.

I curled up on my bed with my dog, and lifted the lid...I was immediately overcome with emotion. You see, most of the items in my box are reminders of my Grandma Stanley. She passed away at 62 right after I graduated from high school. She and I had a special and very unique relationship that I will always treasure.

This is my Grandma Stanley.

Isn't she stunning? This was her high school graduation. She use to be a school bus driver, but soon quit to help my Papa manage his painting company. My Papa was illiterate, so my Grandma kept up the books for him.
I was her very first grandchild, and from the day my Mom found out she was pregnant, she began to journal letters to me. She always said she would love me regardless if I was a boy or a girl, but was secretly over the moon when she heard I was a girl!

She was an amazing story teller...voice inflections and all! Some of my sweetest memories of her is when she would read my two favorite books for the millionth time "Babar's Travels" and "Are You My Mother" which she use to say I memorized, because I "read" right along with her, and always knew when she skipped a page. Chance and I use to snuggle up with her on the couch as she gently swept the hair off our foreheads, and would take us on exciting and thrilling adventure's with her incredible story telling mind...but always made sure it ended with "happily ever after." Mom's bedtime stories just never could compare...sorry, Mama.

I thought Grandma Stanley was magical because she somehow made a red stop light turn green after saying, "Ab bra Ca dabra 1, 2, 3...change!" and it did. Every dang time.

One day she took me to buy a doll, and out of all the amazing and pretty dolls available...I picked Maggie.

Trust me...she use to be a lot cuter...and not so children of the corn looking.
Maggie was simple and obviously handmade, but I was instantly connected to her. After years of love, and suffocation, Maggie was sent to Grandma Stanley's for a full body makeover. She would re-sow her fingers, toes, head, and butt back on, and send her back in a box to FL with a prescription bottle filled with Hershey kisses, and smelling like Bounce dryer sheets.

I use to go pick tomato's, cucumber's, and onion's out of her garden, and she would make tomato salad with salt, pepper, and Italian dressing.

This is the last picture I have of her.

 She fought hard...but wasn't at all afraid of death. I've never seen her look more peaceful. She knew. She was welcomed into eternity.

As I went through the box piece by piece I felt the hot tears stream down my cheeks. How much I missed her. I don't typically dwell on the fact that she's no longer here, because I know she's dancing barefoot on streets of gold, and pain free in her new perfect body with the King of Kings. I picked up her bottle of old perfume, closed my eyes, and breathed in her. Y'all, I sware it felt like she was right there. She always wore Boucheron. That was one of the things I asked my Papa if I could have when she passed away. Isn't it amazing how you can remember someone so clearly by their scent?

I allowed myself to be sad for a bit longer, wiped my mascarra stained cheeks, and quietly thanked my faithful God for giving me such a priceless gift. Because of Grandma, I have my beautiful Mom, and because of my Mom, I am fortunate to have the amazing family that I have.

My cup runneth over. Truly.

I love you, Grandma, and can't wait for the day that I will see you again!

All my love,
Kristin Renee'

moody monday

Not gonna lie y'all...I'm in one sour mood today, and honestly it's just a bunch of life.

1.) I woke up to a mouthful of painful blisters things this morning...thanks to an extra whitening mouth wash that's from satan himself. These are terrible! All inside my bottom lip, and under my tongue...what? It's enough to make you want to cry because they hurt so b a d l yyyyyy. Skip the mouth wash peeps, cause this is crap!

2.) The big truck started acting up, so I had to drive it into work this morning...which makes total sense because, hello?...I work at a car dealership. But I was running late because I was messing with my new bangs (annoyance #3) and lost track of time. So I threw it into high gear, jumped in the beast truck to be greeted by the dinging diesel light, mumble a lot of useless mumbo gumbo, drive to the gas station, put just enough in to turn the light off, mumble more because I forgot my jacket and I'm shivering...it's a a chilly 54 degrees, and finally make my way into work...with mud on my black pants from the dirty truuuuuuuck!

3.) The bangs. Do we like them? Do we hate them? It just depends on the day...meh!
4.) Today is GORGEOUS!!!! I just want to be home, open all the window's, light my pumpkin spice candles and clean! Fabulous fall weather like this energizes me to clean, clean, clean! But instead, I'm at work, work, work.

5.) Some relationships in my life have taken a hard hit as of late, and today was no exception. What is going on? I know I just gotta keep things in perspective, and truly believe that no matter what, God has it under control, and under His feet, but y'all...this sucks. I'm just feeling defeated and frustrated.

So enough with my insignificant complaining, I think I just needed to vent a smidge.

Thanks for listening, or laughing, or whatever. I pray the rest of your Monday is delightful, blogsters!

xo!
K

mean girls

Girls are mean. Seriously.

Not to say that boy's aren't, but girls are just down right hateful sometimes...you know? I found this totally fitting for today's post. "The Plastics" make me laugh! Sidenote: so hard to pick just one clip!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re5veV2F7eY

Maybe it's because we're female...so we have PMS, and cray cray hormone levels, and attitudes. We can be overly critical of another woman from her weight, to her social/financial status to how she raises her children, or treats her husband. We can struggle with jealousy, and discontentment.

But who really know. Girls are just mean.

I had my mean girl encounter yesterday. Without getting gossipy or detailed (because y'all know chicks LOOOOVE a juicy gossip session) this was completely unexpected, and totally 100% unjustified. But I let her have her moment, and say whatever nonsense she needed to say, and just had to let it go.

Hmph!

Not to say I wasn't totally seething in anger..."Wait...what? Did she seriously just say that?? No!!! I will......"

We're human. We can get a little pissy sometimes, and might blow a gasket or two...three, or four...but we gotta let it go. Learn from it. Change it. And move on.

Do you know a mean girl?

No. Don't tell me about her. Pray for her. Love her, and for the love, please refrain from slapping her, ok? Even if she might need it :) Behind every mean girl is a scared, lonely, and super insecure child who might just need a little grace.

Here's to all the Karen's, Regina's, and Gretchen's of the world!
Happy Monday, good girls.

xo!

tall one turns 20

This is my Austin.

Today he turns 20.

Gosh, he's cute.

Austin Taylor Williamson came into our family on October 19, 1992. He was sibling number 4. He had jet black hair, the sweetest smile ever created, and a fiery temper like the devil. My Mom use to cry when she tucked him into bed at night because she had spent the past 12 hours disciplining him/time-outing him/yelling/parenting times a thousand him. And the next morning it would start all over again. Austin never cried. I use to think he was half human, and half steel because he was so strong willed.

As he grew, God mellowed him out...and we are thankful :)

He is gentle, soft spoken, and has a heart of gold. When he's home from college for the weekend, he and Trent are typically attached at the hip. I love that about our family. We genuinely like each other.

He's also tall. Really tall. I only come up to his arm pit...which makes me think I got the shaft in the height department. We call him "Biggin' and Tall One."

And he's funny as crap.

I love and truly admire who you are, T. You have grown into such an amazing man of character, and just make me really proud to be your sister. I hope you feel loved, and treasured today. You greatly bless my life, and I'm just thankful to call you my family.

Happy 20th, tall one!
xo,
Kiki

gratitude

I recieved a sweet compliment from a precious lady at work yesterday. Her name is Mrs. Nancy.

She has worked for many years as the office manager here, and she's a trip! It's always fun to see her, and her husband Bill drop in every 3,000 miles, or so for an oil change, and give her round of hugs.

She came over to my desk, reached over and squeezed my hand, and gave me a warm smile, "Krissy, I just wanted to tell you that your by far the best receptionist this dealership has ever had. You have the kindest voice, and I just really wanted to tell you that, dear."

Mrs. Nancy, you are cute!

I'm choosing to share this with y'all for a few reason:

1.) It just made me smile. Compliments tend to do that to people, and we should give them more often.
2.) I was a little convicted.
3.) Well...I just wanted to share :)

As most of you know, I've been working as the front desk receptionist at my local Ford dealership for 3 years now. My Ford family has been loving, and gracious to me, and I'm so very thankful for them, but I've been struggling with my job for a while now. While I truly like my bosses, and co-workers, I can't help but think that I need a change. I need a challenge. I need more...

Have you ever felt like that?

It's easy to get hung up on the down sides of what you do, or maybe even loose your focus, and drive. Maybe your a stay at home Mom that just gets really tired of being poured out all day long for your little people. Maybe your a 40 hour a weeker that really needs better pay, or a vacation. Are you a student that just feels overwhelmed with classes, and deadlines?

People, I feel ya!

Philippians 2:14-16 (NIV)
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the Word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

Ain't that just like God to bring you back to reality, and give you a big ol dose of "get over it"?!

So, will y'all join with me today in learning to be grateful for whatever place God has you?

Cool! Happy Thursday, friends!

xo,
K