The Story of "Us"

Since today is Valentine's Day, I thought I would share the story of how Damon and I came to be a couple!



It all started wayyyyy back in the years 1999/2000..I had done a lot of praying that I would find the 'right guy'.  I had done this for a very long time before, but it was more serious now.  I felt more of an 'urgency' if you will.  I was in college, had never dated (EVER!), attending church regularly, and felt like I was out there enough that I should meet someone.  Should being the key word.  It just didn't seem like anything was happening.  I was feeling discouraged and then one day a college friend and I went out shopping and to the movies and grabbed a quick bite to eat at Applebee's.  It was when we were eating, we started talking about relationships.  Granted, she was a couple years younger than me, but she had been in a serious relationship for several years with her boyfriend (whom she later married I'm happy to say!).  She, like myself, was also a Christian and knew the values I was looking for in a guy and what I was not going to compromise on.  We talked about prayer and she said something that really stuck to me.  She said....

"When you pray about it (finding a mate) you have to really believe it will happen".

Thats what I was lacking.  I wasn't putting the true, real faith behind my prayers.  I said the same dried out old prayer, night after night, half-heartidly believing that it would come to pass.

Her words changed me.

After that, I prayed like never before.  I cried out to God in the middle of the night.  I got in my closet (literally) and reached out to God.  I was reading the Bible like never before.  This is what I wanted.  More than anything.  It was on my mind 24/7.  I knew God would hear me and answer my prayer.  Because, finally, I had the faith.

And my prayers were answered.  I was at church around Christmas-time and this new 'guy' caught my eye.  I'd never seen him before (and granted, the church I attended at the time was a small one..think 30-50 people on a good day).  He intriged me...and he was pretty handsome to boot.  Slowly, we started making a lot of eye-contact (I know..so 9th grade!).  We even shook hands (gasp!) a couple times when fellowship time came around.  A few months passed.  Soon it was the summer of 2000.  I was about to go on our annual summer vacation w/my parents and they needed someone to house-sit while we were away.  Out of the blue (God's hand here!), my mom suggests "Damon".  I say, "Who is that?"..and she replies, "The guy you've been looking at in church!". 

Guess we weren't too subtle!!

So..he came down to our house a couple times before we left and we talked a little.  Then we went on vacation and I'm telling you..it was the longest vacation in my lifetime!  I couldn't wait to get back home!  I just knew something was going to happen when we returned.  Well, we got home, and after he was paid for staying at our house, he left.  I was a little downhearted.  I was looking for a, "do you want to go out sometime?" the minute we walked through the door, I guess. 

A few weeks (I think) later, my aunt needed some yard work done, and called on Damon's help (he was doing odd jobs during this time, in case you didn't see the trend!).  She called me (knowing the story) letting me know he was 'at her house' in case I wanted to come by for a visit.  I went as fast as I could to her house that day, let me tell you!  And he was quite suprised when I showed up in the back yard, carrying a glass of lemonade to quench his thirst!  We had a much longer conversation this time, and I felt better about things. 

Fast forward a bit (Couple days?  I can't remember, hello, this was 13 years ago..lol!) and a delivery guy showed up at our house while I was on the phone w/my BFF.  With flowers.  FOR ME!!!!  I'll never forget it.  And I'll never forget my friend telling me "Yes they are from HIM!" when I had my doubts who they were really from!!  I was beside myself to say the least.  I went to church that night (a wednesday night) but he wasn't there. 

Chicken.   Thats the word your looking for here.

Yeah, he was too chicken to show up.  He told me later on that he saw me going in from the window (he lived next door to our church).  Bawk bawk!!!!!!!

Sunday night, he was there.  With God's hand upon my back, I walked over to where he was sitting, and plopped myself right down beside of him. We sat together at church that night.  It was bliss.  And afterwards, we exchanged phone numbers.

The rest is kinda history (although we had quite the dating-life, but thats another post in itself!). 

I found out a lot of things about myself during this time in my life. 

• Always trust God
• You can never have enough faith
• If you want something bad enough, don't stop praying until you get it
• And when you do get it, don't stop rejoicing

 I'm still rejoicing to this day that God brought Damon into my life!

Firmoo and a ~giveaway~!

Hey everyone!!  I recently was contacted by the online optical store, Firmoo, asking if I'd like to try out a pair of their prescription glasses or sunglasses for free!  I immediately said "YES!" and discovered the online world of ordering glasses.

Let me say, this was all very new to me.  I had heard of a few online companies who offered eyeglasses but didn't really know the in's and out's of the whole process.  Let me tell you, its very simple and even more affordable!!  I had no idea you could get good quality eye wear at such incredible prices!!  Makes going to your local 'glasses shop' seem like madness! 

But anyways, back to Firmoo.  They have an incredible selection of men's and women's eyeglasses.  They offer all different shapes, sizes, and colors of frames as well as the option to make any pair of glasses into sunglasses! Cool, huh?  You can have your tint customized (20%, 50%, 80%, etc) as well as the coloring of the tint (think browns, blues, purples, etc).  Since I was given a special offer of trying out a pair for free in exchange for a review, I had a more limited selection of frames to choose from.  Even though I didn't find anything in the selection I would personally wear day-to-day, I did find several options for sunglasses!  So after making my choice, I put in my order and within a week I received my glasses in the mail!  They came in a nice hard shell case as well as a soft suede case with additional screws and an eyeglass screwdriver (nice little addition!).  I have to say, I love them!!

They are super comfortable, a bit different from the sunglasses I had been using for the past few years, but a nice change for sure!  I love that they are tortoise..its very 'me'!  Be sure if you see a frame you like, but perhaps not the color that is shown, that you check for the little 'circles' when you are searching through the frame selections.  If a frame is offered in more than one color, there will be little 'circles' right below the image and you can click the others to view the frames in the different colors they come in!

Firmoo also offers an amazing deal for first-time customers.  You can get a pair of glasses for free and just pay the shipping! All just if you are a first time customer!  You can read all the bits and pieces here about their "First Pair Free for first-time customers" offer.  Just think, if you find two pairs of glasses you like, its like getting a buy-one-get-one free kinda deal!   I think that's pretty great, don't you?  And check back on their site often, as they have promotional deals they run all the time from what I've seen!  Plus they are always getting in new arrivals of frames too, yet another reason to check their site often!

So now your wondering about the giveaway, right?!  I thought so!!  I love a great giveaway and this definitely won't disappoint.  Firmoo has allowed me to write this review, receive a pair of glasses for myself, and give away a pair free for my viewers here on Country Roads!  Sweet! All you have to do is enter below for your chance to win!  Winners will be announced on Feb. 22nd.

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Crafting "Bug"!

Lately, it seems like the 'crafting bug' has hit me super hard. 

I blame pinterest.

But its a good thing!!!  I've been so super inspired with ideas and the like I feel like things around here are slowly transforming!  That is, that my hoard of craft supplies (anyone else belong to this 'club'?) is finally getting put to good use. 

I bought some charcoal gray stretch fabric at Walmart a few weeks back for a buck a yard.  I bought 3 yards, having no idea what I'd use it for. Hey..it was a good buy AND it was stretch fabric.  The thoughts of maxi dresses, swaying skirts, and toddler yoga pants danced through my head.

But not a shirt.

I don't think I've ever fashioned a shirt before.  But after a night on pinterest and seeing 'supposidly' oh-so-simple diy dresses, I had out my favorite shirt and got inspired.  My mom (well..I picked it out) bought it for me at Target for Christmas and I love, love, love the way it fits me.  It hids my scar on my chest and is a flattering cut all around.  I got it out..and saw how easy it would seem to be to make a shirt just like this one.

So out the charcoal gray fabric came..I layed it flat (doubled over so I wouldn't have to cut twice), laid my favorite shirt on top..and cut..leaving about an inch all around for hemming purposes.  After about 30 minutes on the machine, I had a new top..that fits perfect!!!!!  When I wore it yesterday, my mom asked me where I bought it..and when I told her I'd made it she implyed that I should start a line at Target called the "Melanie Green Collection"..HA! 

I'm going to make another one too..I found some super cute stretch fabric at Hobby Lobby the other night that would make a really pretty top (think hot pink/black/and white print).

I had also been in the process of redoing our lamps.  We got them as a wedding gift (so they've been around for a while!) and while very functional, just not my 'taste'.  They were glass with gold trim on the base with standard white shades.  Can we say 'boring'? 

After looking for some funky 'old' lamps at the ReStore and Goodwill and coming up empty, I decided to repurpose the ones I already had with some spray paint and fabric.  Again, something I had never done was re-do a lamp shade.  But let me tell you, if I can do this, so can you! It was sooo easy!

First I made a template using Christmas wrapping paper (because its nice and wide and we usually have tons to spare) and traced the lamp shades using a process I'd seen on pinterest (if you'd like the link, I'd be happy to give it to you!)..its super easy but basically what you do is lay the shade on its side, mark your starting point, and trace the edges of the shade while rolling it along the paper.  Then I just cut the fabric out using the template. 



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For the bases of the lamps, I painted them a base coat of chocolate brown and after that dried, I used this new paint I found called "Stone" by Rust-oleum in a brown color as well.  I found its definately better to paint whatever your redoing a base color because this stone paint in itself will not cover very well.  I topped it off with a clear coat to set everything. 

The shades were covered with the fabric using elmer's spray adhesive.  And this is the final result..man are they stunning!!

And while this is totally letting the cat out of the bag, I must share this final project with you guys as well since I was going to anyways sooner or later (this is just sooner)..but I made some really cute headbands for my blog friend Callie's sweet baby girl Gwen with some felt flowers I made (I learned how to do these a little while back and just can't stop making them!!).  If your reading this Callie, I hope you like them!  I have yet to send out the little care package I whipped up for her but its to go out in a day or two since I just got it wrapped up and addressed this afternoon!

So thats what I've been up to around here lately..what projects have you been working on lately?

10 Things You "might" Not Know About Me!

Thought this might be a fun post for a Friday!  So here goes....

1. I'm an only child (and never wanted a sibling)!
2. I didn't get my ears pierced until I was 23.
3. I hate coconut (the crunch)..but love the taste (think, extracts/flavorings) of it!
4. I secretly wish I could play the banjo.
5. I despise people giving me advice when I don't ask for it.
6. I hated Mexican food until sometime after I got married.  Now I can't get enough of it!
7. Damon was my first and only boyfriend...
8. ...and we were 'secretly' engaged only 2 months after we started dating!  *shhhhhh*!
9. I love wearing glasses!
10. Even though I take alot of pictures, I still feel like I don't take nearly enough!

Whats something I may not know about you?!?

Random ~ Silly Girl

Some randoms of my 'silly girl'.

Da's hat

Piggytails and playin' kitchen

Sweetness

Relaxing and NOT drinking the Diet Dr. Pepper (thats mine!)

SHOES..oh pretty shoes!!!

Update on the fish

We have some new additions to 'the tank'! 

I 'think' since my last post, we have bought more fish on two separate occasions.  Makayla and I headed to Beckley last week for a leisurely trip to get out of the house (you know how the cabin fever creeps up on ya!).  I tried and tried to catch the Gourami that was giving us some problems before we left the house that morning.  And I 'almost' had him once!  But 'almost' doesn't count.  After struggling for about 20-30 minutes I gave up and said it must not be meant to be today.  So he didn't go back to the pet store that day. 

It was a blessing in disguise.

When we got to Petsmart, they had A LOT of dead fish.  I was shocked.  I had a really bad feeling about buying any there, even in the tanks where all the fish were living and healthy looking, because the water circulates throughout all the tanks in places like those.  So if there was a disease killing the fish, it could infect even the healthy ones.  And I wasn't going to bring anything like that home to my 'healthy' fish. 

So we left.  We went to another pet store.  Thankfully Makayla stayed awake (it was VERY close to nap time by this point in our trip) and we found an awesome selection of fish, healthy fish!  And a very knowledgeable employee who taught me a thing or two about fish.  We purchased 2 neon yellow tetras and 3 platys (1 mickey mouse, 1 sunburst, and 1 tuxedo).  I wanted more but had to stop myself at that!  The guy showed me why the mickey mouse platy earned its name.  I thought it was the coloring (the one I had at home was orange, black, and yellow..classic mickey colors)..but they come in a variety of colors it seems. 

(Do you see Mickey's head and ears on the fishes tail?!!)

On another trip later in the week, it was a spur-of-the-moment-rush-out-the-door type trip.  Snow was in the forecast.  We had had snow already.  Wasn't sure what the weekend was bringing.  It was a last minute deal.  But we made it out (with no incidents I'm happy to report!).  Since it was such a 'sudden' trip, I wasn't even thinking of trying to catch old Mr. Gourami to take him back, remembering how it ended the last time.  I didn't have the time this go-around.

Again, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

I knew going over, it was 'fish day'.  They get their fish in on Fridays at Charleston's Petsmart.  So I knew to expect my beloved Angelfish to be there, in plentiful supply.  So I prepared myself.

We got there and browsed the nice selection of fish they had.  And then there they were.  The angelfish.  So beautiful.  And then I saw one at the bottom of the tank, in the process of dying.

My heart BROKE.

I don't know what it was about seeing that fish about to die (it could have been in shock from just being put into a new tank, etc), but as crazy as it sounds it made me not want them anymore.  I was so attached to our angelfish we had when we were first married, I cried when both of them died. And we didn't 'flush' them.  No, I didn't have the heart to flush Moe or Joe (yes, thats what I named them!).  I made Damon bury them in our front yard.

No joke.

I even constructed a cross out of popsicle sticks.

I know..I know..your laughing uncontrollably over there.  But I loved them fish.  They were my babies before I had a baby (Ravey included).  Sure, I could laugh about it later on, but I grieved over poor Moe and Joe. 

Its why I got rid of my tank back then.  I couldn't bear to do it again.

(Danio, Fabio, and Cheerio..yes..I named them!)

But anyways!!  On this trip, we came back with 3 Giant Danios and 2 Creamsicle Mollies.  The mollies are soooo purdy!  I love em'!  And the Danios..get this..they have put Mr. Gourami in his place!  YES!  When they got into the tank..they went after him.  He looks at them like, "who are you and what are you doin?!" and you know..he's been better.  He's not perfect, but he's not the way he was.

So now I'm happy having the Mr. Gourami in our tank full of fish.  And since he made it past 2 rounds of heading to the fish store and not getting returned..I figured he must have meant to be with us.  He's a nice addition, even if he is a little  hard nosed and stubborn. 

Hey, I can be the same way sometimes.

"Standing Up"

Such a simple phrase..but have you ever really thought about how many meanings there can be to it?

Let me explain.

I was doing some thinking the other night about "standing up".  For a child, "standing up" is an important step in their developmental milestones (as us mothers all know).  For them to learn how to "stand up" (or pull up), they can then begin to learn to take their first steps.

Very important part of their lives, indeed!  Wouldn't you say?

Then I thought about myself, as a Christian, how important it is for myself to "stand up" in what I believe in.  In a world that is filled with so much sin nowadays, it can be hard sometimes to "stand up" for Christ.  The Bible does state (1 Corinthians 2:5) that "your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God". 

God shows us time and time again in His word what is right and what is wrong. The world today tries to make 'bad' things look good, and vise versa.  It is so important to stand firmly in God's truth.  Sometimes "standing up" for what is right can be painful.  It might mean friendships have to end, relationships die, feelings are hurt, and so on and so forth.  But, the pain and the hurt only last for a while. 

I'd rather live with a little hurt here on earth for a short time than to be "standing" before my Creator, having to give an account as to why I chose not to stand up for what is right and just and let it 'slide by' and pretend that everything was ok.  That something was right, even though I knew in my heart it was wrong.

I'm not willing to risk my eternity for that.

"Standing up" can be hard.  It can be hard to learn to do for us as adults, just as it is for a small child.  But once we learn and have it mastered, just like a child, we have to keep going forward.  There is no looking back once we "stand up" for God.  Like He was quoted as saying in John 5:8, "...Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.".  You see, after the man here was told to rise, he was instructed to keep moving forward. 



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For us to keep moving forward in our walk with Christ, means that we are growing.  Its good to grow!!  And I guess this blog post might be about 'growing pains' too if you think about it that way.  So if your out there, and having a hard time dealing with an issue thats facing you right now, just remember to "stand up" for whats right.

Your heart will let you know.