My friend

Years ago, when I was in 5th grade, a "new" girl came to our school. She was in 4th grade and had long dark hair, and the most beautiful green eyes you'd ever see. She was quiet. I was loud. She was shy, I was outgoing. She wanted to be my friend, I did not. After school one day, I went home and told my mom how this girl from "4th grade" wanted to by my friend and how we were NOT the same age. HOW could we be friends! My mom took my aside and told me a simple truth. "Rachel, if you will be this girl's friend, she will be your friend for life. She will stand by you when life is hard, in good times and bad. Be her friend."

And so, the next day, I took my mom's advice. And little did I know, that day at school, a beautiful friendship was born. An instant friendship was made with the strongest glue possible. We were eternal friends. We went through middle school together...and I hardly have ANY high school memories with her.

The whole time, she claimed she was going to get married at 20. Young. Fall in love, start a family and enjoy being a mom. I, too, wanted that, but wanted to finish college 1st. So plans were made. She'd marry at 20, and I'd marry at 22. Perfect. Done. Deal.

Only Jesus had different plans. He had His ideas too. And slowly, life went on and we both reached 25 without a man in sight. Over the course of our 20's life happens. We both moved to different places and new friends were made...we didn't talk as much but our friendship ran deep. And, even at our worst times...we remained friends.

Two years ago, when I married, I KNEW without a doubt that I couldn't get married unless this girl was by my side. We'd been through so much and I wouldn't of had it any other way.

And, this past Saturday, with tears in my eyes, I stood by her side, and watched as she married the love of her life.

Life changed. Our childhood dreams of being 20 and married had vanished. But, God has plans and His ways are higher than ours. And so, I'd like to introduce you to my eternal friend:

Meet Brook. She's in the black, and I in the red. She's one of the sweetest girls you will ever meet and I love that she allowed me to be apart of her big day. This was the Bridal Luncheon the day before the wedding. What a lovely event.

Brook's grandma praying a blessing over Brook. I had to grab my camera to snap some pictures so we would always remember the moment.

My sweet friend, honestly, I've never seen her happier than on this day! Her face was lit with a look that only love can bring. I know she has prayed for her future husband for years and I know God will bless them as they wait on Him.



My sweet little boy before the wedding!



For years, Brook and I have waited for this moment. We talked about it, dreamed about it, and cried when we thought it would never happen. But, I'm proud to say, that Saturday night it happened. For the 1st time, Brook and I were able to take a picture TOGETHER---with our husbands! No, it wasn't at 20. And not even 25. Yes, we were older than what we dreamed. But, walking in God's Will is the sweetest thing.

So, for the 1st time in our friendship...I'd like to present to you my dearest friend and myself...WITH our husbands:

Brook, we've waited a LONG time for this. I was so honored to be a big part of your day. God bless your marriage as your start your new journey. You will be missed as you move away and start your new life together. But, know that I'm always here. A phone call away. I'll be your biggest fan, cheering you on as a wife and when the time comes, a mom. You have always been such a blessing and I'm honored to call you friend. My mom was right. So glad I listened to her! I love you forever and always....



31 Days of Summer DAY 2

Today was a beautiful morning full of storm clouds and slight rain. Easton and I woke at the same time of 7:30am and braved ourselves for the day. Right away, I noticed that Easton seemed to be upset. And, I would find out SOON that cutting teeth...HURTS. But, that's a later story...and here's DAY 2 of our SUMMER FUN....

Last summer I DREAMED about freezing corn. The WHOLE summer that's all I wanted to do. Save the juicy mouth-watering goodness of Iowa's claim to fame and freeze it. THEN, in the winter months, when snow is higher than your car, leaving the house would be the worst idea ever, and above freezing is just a dream--you could take out your frozen sweet corn YOU GREW in YOUR garden and make some soup and eat some delicious Iowa sweet corn and melt all your worries away. (and maybe some snow)

But, surprise, I got pregnant, and the thing I COULD NOT handle ever...was the TASTE of sweet corn. Ugh. Such a terrible, horrible, cruel twist of fate. And so, corn season ended with me eating 1 cob...and NO corn in my freezer. I was sad the WHOLE winter.

This summer, I'm NOT pregnant and I am eating it as fast as we can get it. (Making up for last summer!) AND TODAY, with my friend, Ruth Ann and her super cute kids, we "did" some sweet corn. We started around 9am (Ruth Ann was up WAAAAY earlier doing all the work I just showed up...to take pictures!) But, the corn got done!

YUM. Ready to eat.
Letting it get cold. Oh the fun we had.

We worked on corn outside til the rain ran us back inside. BUT, by lunch we had LOTS of corn DONE and in the freezer. Just waiting for winter to come. (Riiiight. Not yet!)

Easton and I headed home around noon and it became apparent to me that he was NOT having a good day. So, the afternoon consisted of hugs, cuddles, and singing with mommy. Poor little boy--teeth can be a real pain. Or lack of teeth can be a real pain too. He slept poorly, ate poorly, cried very well, and just wanted his mommy. We took it easy and I even let him watch 15 mins of Clifford the Big Red Dog. He loved it.

Then, after supper we had a bridal shower to attend. My dearest friend, Brook is marrying the love of her life, Joel. Brook and I go way back to grade school and Joel and I go way back to last summer when Brook told me she met a guy. They are getting married in NEXT month and I'm honored to be a Bridesmaid. So...an evening with the girls is ALWAYS in order!

The CUTE (but blurry) centerpieces. I must stop and tell you that Joel works at a coffee shop and Brook LOVES her coffee. (AND HER MAN, but has always loved her coffee) So, it just seems fitting that Brook marry a man that knows how to make some good coffee. And the theme for the bridal shower became THE PERFECT BLEND. With coffee and coffee-y foods served to the guests. (Joel wasn't there to make the drinks...BUT wouldn't of THAT been cute!?

Our head table...With "scrabble" pieces saying BROOK AND JOEL. (Brook's family is a BIG scrabble family...they even have TRAVEL SCRABBLE and go to coffee shops and play.) Joel also taught them SPEED SCRABBLE and so, just another reason it's a match made in Heaven. Be looking for them at coffee shops near you!

Sad, but true fact: Brook is moving 5 hours away from me to MN. WAAAY up north. I think back in high school when she'd go on vacation there for a week--I'd go nuts. AND NOW, she's moving there. Yes, Brook and her family have vacationed in Joel's hometown for YEARS. AND just last summer---they met for the 1st time. Sweet story. Falling in love on vacation. Another reason to love summer. Ahhh.

Close up of the wall...I mean, talent. Pure, talent.

AND, for all you foodie's out there...we have some wonderful delish scones. Straight from Joel's coffee shop. Took some leftovers home with me and WILL be having one for breakfast in the morning. Yum!

Cute little table decs. Coffee pot with flowers. Really. They DO think of everything.

AND for your viewing pleasure...my iced coffee. I blame this little guy right here for me sitting up after 11pm with my whole living room SPOTLESSLY clean and me just dying to start doing something else. WIDEAWAKE. Me. But, let me tell you...that drink was totally worth it. Yum. And this is coming from a NON COFFEE drinker. I try so hard. SO hard to like coffee. But, I can't. BUT, this iced stuff...gets.me.every.time. It's my 1 coffee drink. One day I will be grown up enough to like coffee. Til then, iced tea with extra ice, please.

My poor little boy with his very 1st terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Had I owned the book we would have read it together. They should have added a part in there about cutting teeth so E and I could relate. Can you see in his eyes he doesn't feel good? Yet, as my son can only do, at the shower, he smiled and laughed and cooed at all the girls and everyone couldn't believe he had a bad day.
Trust me. I wanted to take his pain for him. Sad.

My sister and her little boy Tristan. She was introducing herself and T and the WHOLE time T thought it was his turn to talk. I was laughing so hard. He really does have some great ideas...if only we could understand them. I laughed and laughed at him...he melts my heart! I have to say that I'm SO proud of this picture because it captures him perfectly!

Finally with the Bride herself..Poor E was just kind of thrown in with his belly hanging out. But, this is Brook and we had a lovely time at her shower. She is the dearest friend a girl could ask for and I LOVE being apart of her life.

And so, it's waaay past this girl's bedtime and tomorrow is another fun-filled SUMMER day. My coffee is slowly leaving me and I'm off to get some sleep!

A Day in July

Saturday morning...7am Easton wakes up after sleeping through the night. (Such a good little boy!) I feed him his bottle and he falls RIGHT back to sleep. He and I both sleep in until 9. And THEN, we begin our day! (Sorry there are NO pics of us at the 7am hour...the camera was downstairs and us up. Was NOT going to get out of bed for that!)

9am we head downstairs. Easton and I read some books while we are still waking up. His FAVORITE book to "read" is Animal Hide and Seek which is what we are reading in the picture above. He leans forward as far as I will let him and tries to grab the book. Then he gets alllllll wild and can't wait for me to turn the page. And the process starts alllllll over again til the end of the book!
For some reason I've lost 3 of my other pictures so I'll explain here...Easton plays on the floor while I eat breakfast. My breakfast: Raisin Bran. Boring. Yes. But, when you are forced to eat a low fat diet Raisin Bran is a treat I tell ya. A really good treat! Moving on...So, after I finish breakfast I realize I need to upload my pictures on my computer so I have room for all the pictures I take today. Easton is sitting on my lap while I'm doing uploading and he is annoyed that I won't let him play with my camera. That, and he's tired.

Fussy baby. No fun for mom! I kept telling him, "Just a minute and you can go take a nap!!" After what seemed like an HOUR, my pictures were ON my computer. Also had some videos of Easton on my camera too. SO just for fun I thought I'd watch them...Yes, Easton was still crying. Not hard crying...just fussy crying. There is a difference! ;)

AND BOY...did Easton LOVE IT! So, sitting in our pj's Easton and I watched a video on my computer of himself. (Yes, bad mom=me letting my child LOOK at a computer screen.) BUT, it was amazing how he went from fussy baby to HAPPY baby in a matter of 1 second.

He made me laugh because he LOVED watching himself on video! He talked and cooed and started to fuss when the 45 second video was over.
Finally, around 9am I realized that Easton was super tired (movies will do that to ya!) and went to make him a bottle.

Some of my favorite moments in my day is feeding my baby! When I was hospitalized I couldn't breastfeed my baby due to meds. And after a 9 day stay, and many other reasons, breastfeeding was no longer an option. Yes, I was sad, and cried for two days. BUT, I when I got better, I realized HOW SICK I was, and how MUCH worse it could have been. My mom kept saying, "Rachel, just be glad we live in a day where formula is an option!" So, I rejoice that someone came up with the idea of formula...so my baby can eat. Not my ideal, but it works and he's growing! AND, I love watching him eat...which is a goooood thing because he is a very slow eater!

After feeding Easton I put him down for his 1st nap of the day. Then, I go into the kitchen and start washing dishes. Bottles mostly. (downside to formula....) I feel like I'm ALWAYS washing bottles. They never go away.
Now that Easton is sleeping I head to do some fun things...just for me!

For the past several weeks I've started to hate my diaper bag. So, I decided to make my own. Using my leftover material from another project I started in...I knew I wouldn't finish it today, but at least I got a chance to work on it while Easton naps!

This is my 1st one I made. I LOVE IT. Just perfect. The bag is a bit smaller than I like, but for everyday running around...it's a good bag! The one I'm working on is going to be bigger. :)

11am I start getting lunch ready. My husband who got up at 4:30 (nope. Didn't even THINK to get a picture at that hour of him leaving) went fishing and came home hungry. Plus, we have things to do right after lunch...so early lunch it is!!
Once again...my lunch is boring. Ham/turkey sandwich. No mayo or anything with fat in it. Grapes...and baked chips with fat free sour cream (gross) mixed with salsa. Next month, when I do this again...my diet WILL be over and I WILL be eating GOOD foods again!

My dear husband at the lunch table with his coffee mug. His food wasn't at all fat free. He had little smokies and scrapple. Yes. Scrapple. What is scrapple you may ask? Well, I'll try to explain. It's more of a Mennonite breakfast food. From what I've learned it's the leftover meat on the bones from beef and you boil it off and put it all together in a bread pan. Then, you slice it REALLY thin and fry it. FULL.OF.FAT. So, I stay away from the stuff...and did BEFORE I was forced on this low fat diet.

NOON
Lunch is over and Baby Boy gets up from his nap. We have a wedding so it's off to get ALL of us cleaned and looking good for our afternoon away! Easton's favorite time is bathtime. He would stay in there all day kicking and splashing around. Sometimes I do wonder who is getting the bath...Easton or myself. Hard to tell sometimes!

2:45pm Due to the whirlwind of events...and getting EVERYTHING ready and OUT THE DOOR on time...the camera was put away for the time being. BUT, here is a picture of our family at the wedding....A rare but fun event that EVERYONE was showered, dressed, and smelling good. Easton is wearing the outfit my sister, Libby and her husband Isaac gave him. I LOVE IT!

3:05pm During the wedding...just trying to keep him from talking or crying. :) We only had ONE issue and that was RIGHT during the prayer. BUT, we made it OUT before he got too loud!

3:15pm My daddy did the 1st part of the wedding. I LOVE this picture of him! What a man of God. He did an amazing job and I'm so proud of him!

3:45pm My sister sang a duet with the Father of the Groom. The Groom was a classmate and really good friend of Beka's so it was extra special. The duet was amazing and I HOPE someone got it on tape...so I can hear it again. Both people have amazing voices and I might have a reinactment of my wedding and just throw that song in as an extra bonus just to hear it. You are all invited and you may bring gifts! ;)

6:00pm The happy couple! Tyson and Christie Roberts. Such a sweet couple and I'm sooooo happy for them! Tyson went to our Christian School. He never was a "direct" student of mine, but the high school classes and middle school classes do SO many things together he might of as well been in my class! I'm just beginning to know Christie (Carr) Roberts. She is as sweet as they come!

The wedding was flawlessly beautiful and honestly, I've been to my fair share of weddings...I don't think ONE THING went wrong. AND if it did....we never knew! Such a wonderful couple and I'm so excited to see them grow as a couple!

7:30pm On our way home from the wedding! Easton didn't want to sit in the backseat alone so I sat back there with him. This is his travel book....and let me tell ya...we DO NOT leave home without it. He doesn't read it...but eats it. If he drops it...he will let you know!

Once we got home from the wedding, Easton went to bed for the night and Wil and I just sat and relaxed. We were sooo tired from the day's events that the camera was put away and we lost ourselves in books and computer time.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good day!

Two years ago today...

Two years ago today was our wedding. In another post I'll share our love story and tell you how we met, fell in love, and got married in 3 months. BUT, until then, enjoy these pictures of where we were two years ago.

Wil--You are the BEST gift I've ever been given. God knew I needed someone strong, yet kind, loving and gentle and one that could make me laugh. I'm SO glad you and I are together and look forward to MANY MORE years as husband and wife. (just less E.R. trips!) Love you so much and am so thankful for you!
--your wife--

Me with the Love of my life!

The Bride

Some of my favorite girls in the world!

The wedding party!

The Groomsmen. Yep. I had more bridesmaids than he had groomsmen. Yep. It drove me nuts too...that the bridesmaid/groomsmen ratio wasn't even. BUT, I have SO MANY friends and EACH one played SUCH a huge role in my life that I could overlook the lopsidedness for the sake of friendship.

The Nolt Family
Wil has 8 younger brothers and sisters. To save time...I won't tell you their names! :)

The Phillips Family
Isaac and Libby Wendland, Paul and Dixie Phillips, Rachel and Wil Nolt, John Phillips, and Beka and Zach Fox.
Note: None of my siblings were married at the time. I just added their married names to help with the who's who in the picture!

The Groom's cake. The hunter with his bride!

My mom and Wil's mom lighting the candles.

My sister, Beka, as she came in. Her wedding would be less than a month after mine.

Two of Wil's nieces doing a great job of being flower girls!

SO HONORED my father could BE there at the wedding! He had a kidney transplant ONE month before, and we didn't know if he would be able to MAKE it...let alone perform the wedding! BUT, God is EVER faithful and DAD was there--giving me away and taking part in the wedding! To God be the Glory!

Mr. and Mrs. Nolt---FINALLY!

EVERYONE commented on the Mennonite hats! I received MORE pictures of the hats than ANY other picture that day!