Bullies with a Mission

Sanders!

My family and I have tried our best to be supporters of our local pit bull rescue, Fresno Bully Rescue, for years. In fact, we were in the midst of adopting a puppy from them but with all my health problems during July and August we had to put it on hold, and he was adopted into another loving home in the mean time.

We were so happy for him, but we were all very sad. Losing the baby then losing Sanders broke our hearts, but that’s where Spots came into the picture. 

Spots!

We bought spots from a family here in town whose pit-bull had 8 puppies. The sign posted said pit-bull puppies for $40.00. It sent shivers up my spine. Only two kinds of people, in my mind, buy pit bulls for $40.00. That’s people like us that love the breed and then there are people who buy and did buy 4 puppies at time for other purposes. We feel like even though we didn't adopt him through Fresno Bully Rescue we still saved his life.

Regardless, we are still huge fans of Fresno Bully Rescue. 

They have done amazing things towards the education, awareness of the breed as well as the rescue, rehabilitation, and re-homing of these amazing animals. Most of who were rescued once already from high kill shelters. Most pit-bull breeds in city and kill shelters are euthanized for no other reason other than that they are pit-bulls or pit-bull mixes. Fresno Bully Rescue does everything they can to swoop in and become super heroes, pulling these beautiful dogs from life threatening situations and taking them to their very well maintained facility or put them up in foster homes until forever homes can be found.

Like most non-profit dog rescue groups, this one is not immune to the lack of funding, food, toys, bed, and even people.

Today, Ben, Tristan, and I headed up in the morning to the rescue facility. The current location is about 30 minutes or so away from us, but it was nice morning and beautiful drive. We attended our first volunteer orientation. I had been trying to do this for years, things just came up and or I never made it a real priority. Today, however, was the day and I had been looking forward to it for weeks.

We, along with about 40-60 new volunteers were taught about the rules of the rescue and the facility. They educated us on the reality of the volunteer situation and the needs of the program. We were then taken on tour of the facility and were introduced to and educated about every dog there. I have to tell you, that was the hardest part. I was ready to take home at least 4 of those beautiful loving dogs!!!!

Pete @ Fresno Bully Rescue

We didn't walk anyone today because it was long morning and my guys were hot, but we are going back next weekend, or I am…. And we are so excited about making this a regular part of our lives.

Before we attended today’s orientation, we knew that in about a year when spots had been through his training we would go back to Fresno Bully Rescue and adopt and older dog…. Man, I am looking forward to that.  All in all, we love dogs. Do we love pit-bulls? Yes…. Are we pit-bull people? Yes, only because of our experience with Kenya. Because of her and our research about the breed when she was a puppy, we have since become advocates for the breed and when people see a scary pit-bull beast in a dog, we oooooh and aww and coo at their cute bully faces. That’s how we got to where we are with this breed.

Fonzey @ FBR

We wonder if we really are “pit-bull” people as we are now training new pit-bull puppy that is ALL pit-bull…. No matter what we discover what I know be to true is, these animals deserve loving homes- and your life will never be the same after you have fallen in love with a precious pity. Take a minute or two and check out Fresno Bully’s Web Page. Go visit and or go volunteer! Meet some handsome and lovely pities! You will be forever glad that you did!

Cuz I love em!

I have every intention on posting about our love of the pitt bull breed. I have a desire to educate and inform people about the truth about this misunderstood breed. But in the mean time, here are some cutie pics of my crazy dogs!
More to come!

This is Spots... Our Currently 3 Month old new addition!

Look at that sweet face! Don't let him fool you- he is a terror!

This is River. River is a 9 year old Lab Mix that we adopted three years ago! He is Big, Hairy, and 100% Kenya's Dog!

Here they are together! Kenya and River pre Spots! Love this pic

And this... this is Kenya. We adopted Kenya 10 years ago when I was pregnant with Tristan. She is the best dog ever and she is who started our love of the pitt bull breed.

Family! The Best Medicine

So it’s a widely known truth that family can be the best part of who you are and also the driving force to your journey into insanity. That being said, I am so thankful to have the family that I have. Of course there is “my” family. My parents and my sister, her kids and her husband and his family and then there is my husband’s family, which is also now my family. There is also family that is not family genetically but is family because we love them so much there is no other place for them in the categories of our lives other than, family.

Today Ben, Tristan, and I headed over to Ben’s aunt Kristy’s house for his Cousin Jonah’s 15^th birthday party. We walked in and in a split second, our little family of three grows by 20. It’s awesome. With all the stuff we've been dealing with this summer, the love and embracing of our “families” has been the best medicine.

My relationship with Ben’s family has not always been wonderful. There were always lots of different personalities and immature ways of dealing with relational situations. But we've all grown up and have our own babies and now our time together is pretty much exclusively fun and cathartic.

I just felt compelled to share what I was feeling. I feel really blessed that not only I have this wonderful group of people in my life but that my son has them as well. He has an amazing relationship with my sisters kids and he absolutely loves hanging out with his 2^nd cousins (or something like that) on Ben’s side. It’s wonderful to grow up with family. 

Project House: Living Room Plans

As you know, one of things I love and hate so much about this house are the entire list of projects that it needs to feel more like us. Things we have decided not to change are the stained concrete floors.

 That’s mostly it. We will do a deep cleaning and re-sealing on them when the weather is a bit better. But that’s it until we buy the house.

So, first project! The Living Room. 

We already have two of the pieces we need to work on. The two side tables.

In addition we need to paint. Ben and I have not officially decided on a color but we are leaning towards a light grey blue for the three regular walls.  

On the dark brown panel wall we want to do a pop of color, some accent color- which we are not 100% on yet.

 What we are sure about that wall is closing up the weird shelving thing. This will give us more room in the entry hall closet and allow us to build floor to ceiling book shelves along most of this wall. 

These are some of my inspiration builds. 

Pregnant with Power Tools

Thrifty Decor Chick

Just a Girl DIY Built In Book Case

 However, with the new financial set up in this house, I will have to be incredibly budget minded. Meaning, the most expensive thing in this room will be my new couches. These are not them.

On the TV wall, we will be redoing the photos in white frames and new pics. 

My 8 year old son is demanding more updated pictures of him. LOL ok!

I agree. In addition we were planning on building this massive media center to house our antique water jug lamps. They are huge. However, this plan is going to cost too much so I had to do a re-think. So here is what we are going to do!!!!

We will take the table that is currently acting as our media center and refinish it. It will go behind the love seat and will be the new home of the giant glass water jug lamps.

 For the media center we will find…. Somehow and some where a dresser that is big enough to take up some massive wall space but is cheap enough that I can take and do what I want to it. I did see a cute dresser at a shop here in town but funds are not in our favor right this second, so this is going to be a slow moving process.

As you can see this room is wrapped in windows.

Three floor to ceiling on one wall and a weird long short window on the other.  This is the hottest room in the house and those blinds; they do little to stop the sun and even less to stop prying eyes as at night when the lamps are on you can see straight into our living room from the street. I have a good feeling that diy grommet drapes will be a first project in this room for those two reasons.

We need to make two more lamps for the side tables….

Or take the ones that are there that I won on e-bay 12 years ago and re-wire them and paint them. That seems to make more sense.

I also plan on making a couple floor pillows, adding a cool re-finished or upholstered side chair, figuring out a rug and adding throw pillows.

All in all there is a lot to do but I am anxious to get started. I am hoping to at least get the windows dealt with before the end of August!

Wish me luck! Thanks for following

Understanding Loss

I have sat down to write this post about a dozen times since three weeks ago when we found out we were going to miscarry. It’s been harder for me to write about than I thought it would as I have had countless miscarriages in the past. I couldn't figure out why this was so hard to talk about or to be honest about how I was feeling. Today, after church and visiting with some friends- I felt a revealing spirit come over me and I was ready to put it to paper or to the wide world of internet as would be.

To go back to fully understand the history of our journey with pregnancies we need to go all the way back to 2002. Ben and I were married in October and began trying for a family almost immediately. Three years later when there had been nothing happening we went to see a fertility specialist. We discovered then that I had poly cystic Ovaries. Meaning I had cysts on my ovaries that could be preventing ovulation. 

 After some oral medication to help move the process along, and still nothing- our Doctor told us this very phrase; “I am afraid that without extraordinary measures, you will not be able to conceive and carry a child.”

That was devastating to hear as we didn't have “extraordinary” funds to pay for such measures. And to be quite honest, we had watched some very close family members go through all of those measures and the struggle it put them through.

After a couple months Ben and I decided, well if we aren't going to have children- we will continue to work in children’s ministries and get a dog. A week after Christmas in 2004- one week after picking up Kenya, our now 10 year old pit mix, we found out that we were 6 weeks pregnant.

Now, our Doctor tried to claim some ownership of this miracle, but we told him. “You said that a pregnancy would not be possible without extraordinary measures- We serve the King of Extraordinary and you don’t get any credit!”

My pregnancy with Tristan was without issue. Aside from my stubborn gallbladder and pulling a uterine muscle… it was an event-less pregnancy and he was born healthy and happy and we were beyond blessed.

When Tristan was 2 we started trying for a second baby. This is where our journey became more of a roller coaster. For 1 almost 2 years I had somewhere between 7-9 early miscarriages. This happened so often that I stopped telling anyone about it, sometimes not even my husband. It destroyed us every time even though we never knew we were pregnant until I began to miscarry.

So, that brings us to now…. 5 years later, I take a pregnancy test in late June because I was late… and to our complete and total surprise a second, very faint line appeared.  You have to understand we haven’t had a positive pregnancy test since Tristan. We were shocked and in

complete and total disbelief. I sent pictures of my 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 12^th test to friends and family to get some help on the test results.

Soon thereafter I scheduled a Dr Appointment. My test there was also light so they were just kind of watching to see what would happen. A week later I started cramping. My doctor took me out of work and put me on modified bed rest. We kept watching and waiting. I know they were waiting for me to miscarry but I never did. My HCG numbers kept rising, not doubling but rising. Around what they thought was 9 weeks they did an internal ultra sound and found the gestational sack only measured 5 weeks. So again, watch and wait we did for three more weeks.

This is where things got really difficult. I took my son and my mom with me to see the growing baby for our 2^nd internal ultrasound. However, when the image came up on the screen and I saw the gestational sac, nothing in it and the same size it was three weeks earlier, I knew in my heart something was wrong.

I sent my son with my mom to the lobby. I wanted to be the one to explain this to him, not a doctor.

So, the diagnosis was a blighted-ovum. There never was a baby.  I’m not going to get into the details of this medical term, but the bottom line is…. It’s considered a chemical pregnancy. I suffered morning sickness, a swelling uterus, food craving and aversions as well as supersonic sniffer.

That day, when I arrived home I began to miscarry.

I find that I have been battling myself in mourning the loss of, perhaps not a baby because a baby wasn't there but the hope and the desire … that was real and that truly is what I was mourning.

I haven’t screamed out WHY? It hasn't been that kind of sadness.  I trust my God implicitly and know He has a plan for our lives and our family. I am not going to begin to try to decipher the message in this…. Because I know for sure, I probably wouldn't understand it if I had it.

I will confess, however, that for Ben and I both, what this pregnancy did was open up our hearts to having another baby or bringing into our home another child. We had been pretty closed to the idea. I mean, we aren't getting any younger- we are both in the worst shape of our lives… and our son is turning 9 in less than a month.

So, in all where we are now is simply- faithful. There are three verses that have stood out to me during this time.

Psalms 138:8

 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Romans 8:28

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The title of this blog is “Understanding Loss”. The most I can offer to this is that it’s not about understanding the why to the losses in our lives. It is truly instead saying…. “OK God. I trust you, I believe your purpose for my life is perfect and I love you.” If we all who lose people or dreams in our lives could or were at all able to go to our knees and declare this truth…. I am not saying it will make the hurt in our hearts go away but I have experienced the healing and peaceful settling that comes with giving it to God. After all, it belongs to Him in the first place.

Thank you all for staying connected and I look forward to new and exciting postings as we amp up for Bowl Full of Blessings 2015

Rest and Trust

I have had some of the most stressful and worrisome couple of weeks that I could ever remember. This surprise and blessed gift of a late pregnancy has been wrought with a myriad of emotions and issues. I have spent countless hours in tears- crippled by the fear of losing this precious baby. Yet every single time something happens and another chunk of my hope is challenged the amazing women in my life step up, reach out, and sometimes just plain slap the nonsense right out of me. But they all do it with Love, and Love is what I feel more than anything else.

Just this weekend…. Doctors put the fear of God in me and I just buckled under the pressure. Quite frankly I really feel, generally speaking, that I am a much stronger woman of faith than I have been over these last few weeks. It’s such a blessing to have strong people surround me and stand in the gap for me.

This morning in my Bible readying I came across a verse that just knocked the wind out of me.

Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

I have experienced a God who is present and impossibly current. He is not an old fashioned deity… He is good and consistent and faithful. He has done miracles in our life… amazing moves of God. So why, in this time where clearly I am disconnected, would I not rest in His promises?

A commitment I am making to both myself and my God is to return to that place…. the place of faithful assurance and belief in the absolute provision and care of my Father in Heaven.

Even in this week as I struggle to find insurance to cover me during this pregnancy… I will not go into this hunt without first trusting God has everything under control. Like Isaiah 55:12 Says; “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

The PROJECT House!

Hey there everyone!!! I hope you all had a great 4^th of July. Lots of fireworks and cookouts….. as for me, well I was moving. 

My husband and I decided; Why not move in on the 4^th of July. Do be honest; we had “been” moving since the 1^st so the 4^th was really just the furniture. However, that evening…. I went to bed by 6pm and Ben and Tristan went to do Fourth of July with some family.

 A bonus to moving back to our home town is having family around every corning.

How we got this house is a pretty awesome story, at least it is for us. My husband Ben had been laid off from work and since he was 19, whenever he was out of work his old youth pastor and boss would call him up and offer him a job. The pay was never quite enough to support a family so Ben always declined. This time, however his offer came with better pay, a very hopeful serious promotion, and… believe it or not- a house.

Now Ben is from Sanger, my son was born in Sanger, and our church is in Sanger. We were living 25 minutes away in North Fresno. We moved there because at the time, my husband was working in Madera which was 25 minutes north of Fresno and I was working in north Fresno. So it made sense. 4 years later, we have been trying very hard to move back to Sanger.

It may seem to some of you that perhaps moving back shouldn't be that hard to do. It really was for us. The homes were too expensive or they didn't allow pets and if they did they certainly didn't allow pit bulls…. And we don’t go anywhere without Kenya.

So long story short, this house is in Sanger. And he didn't care what kind of dogs or how many we had. WOW!!!! I said yes before every even seeing this house. I made up my mind that this was a gift from God and no matter what it was; I was going to make that building our home.

After seeing the house for the first time, I knew I had one heck of a project on my hands, and man was I excited. I was planning all the things we could do and when we would do them… spreading out our projects. Then one day something funny happened.  I found out I was pregnant! WHAT??? My only son will be 9 in September… what the heck? Another Blessing!

So as you can imagine my project list- though vast- is now more of a priority! So as I work through these projects, I will post about them, before and after pictures, DIY tips and so on… and hopefully before these 9 months are up, I will be able to offer you a house tour. Below is my list. I know- it’s a lot, but hey there is a little one on the way and I want to be ready!

Thanks for following!

The Project House

The PROJECT List!

Living Room:

1. Paint- PLEASE!!!!  
2. Refinish the two Craigslist Side Tables
3. Rehab two BIG OLD LAMPS
4. Some sort of Coffee Table
5. DIY NO SEW Curtains 
6. DIY Dresser into Entertainment Console
7.  Book Shelf Styling  
8. 3 Coordinating Dog Beds- SEWING " YIKES" 
9. A Couple giant floor pillows
10. Gallery wall or two
11.  Do something to create a welcoming entry way.

Laundry Room/ Pantry:

1.  Paint!!! YEA
2. DIY Batten board Wall
3.  Laundry Cabinet Redo
4. Appliance Cabinet Redo 
5. Stinky Pantry DO OVER!

Kitchen:

1.   DIY Refinish and Seal Concrete Counter Top
2.  Clean out and refresh ALL Kitchen Cabinets & Drawers: total of 28 cabinets and drawers
3. DIY Build a Breakfast Bar off the peninsula  
4. DIY Curtains or Shades????

Dining Room:

1.       FIX Dining Room Closet

2.       PAINT

3.       DIY Rehab Old China Cabinet and Hutch

4.       Figure out what to do with the built in shelves

5.       DIY Old Kitchen Cabinet up do

6.       Styling an old Fireplace

7.       DIY Curtains

8.       DIY Dining Room Table Build

9.       Office Cabinet Refresh

Tristan’s Room:

1.       Fix paint job by adding moldings and doing a little editing.

2.       DIY Curtains or shades

3.       DIY Platform Twin Bed

4.       DIY Gaming Lamp

5.       IKEA HACK Desk

Nursery:

1.       Paint- PLEASE

2.       DIY Window and Closet Curtains

3.       IKEA Hack Rocking Chair

4.       Update Garage Sale Crib

5.       DIY Crib Bedding with Mom

6.       Reno old Dresser for Changing Table

7.       DIY Décor

Master Bedroom:

1.       PAINT

2.       Closet Curtains or doors

3.       DIY Curtains

4.       Redo my DIY Head board

5.       DIY NO SEW Bed Skirt

6.       DIY Up do Craigslist Side Tables

7.       Refinish Grandparents dressers

8.       DIY up cycle Thrift Store Lamps and Mirror

9.       DIY 3 Coordinating Dog Beds for the bedroom

AND THEN THERE IS THE GARAGE: AKA Jens Workshop!

1.       Something nice with the floors

2.       DIY Build Work Bench

3.       DIY Build Wood Storage

4.       DIY Build Tool Storage

And… The back Yard

1.       Fix Fences

2.       Take down tree in the ally

3.       Excavate the yard for new grass

4.       Pull flower beds for fruit or berry producing plants

5.       Clean out and build in my Raised Garden Beds in the Side Yard.

6.       Expand Patio

7.       DIY Build Outdoor Dining Table

8.       DIY Build Out Door Buffet Cabinet

9.       DIY outdoor Dining Area

Hall Bathroom:

1.       New DIY shower curtain

2.       PAINT

3.       DIY Storage Solutions

Master Bathroom:

1. Storage Solutions 
2. Décor and stuff

WHOA! That’s a lot! But I am looking forward to getting it all put together! Thanks for following me on this cool journey.

Pregnancy Announcement!

So yes we are excited about this surprising blessing. We should have waited till we cleared the first trimester before we announced but this is how we feel about it;

After 9 years of trying, 3 years of miscarrying, and just a few months of planning for Ben's vasectomy... God gave us this amazing gift. Everything is kind of dicey right now but we did not want to hide the joy of this miracle for 4 months. So we announced it. How we announced was different than when I was pregnant with my first perfect little boy.

 We trolled pintrest and saw tons of really cute announcement ideas, and we were pretty sure that we wanted Tristan to announce it… as he will be a big brother for the first time after years of bedtime prayers.

I then went to Etsy and found this awesome Lady at Sweet Me Boutique who had the cutest sign. I bought it, printed it and took this picture with it.

 We posted it on face book, sent via text and email- officially we have announced. So we spend the next few months praying for a healthy pregnancy and baby but mostly trusting Gods miracle and plan!

Thanks everyone!

Jen

WHOA!!!!!! GOD IS GOOD!

Hello all, well to whomever has accidentally found this blog. As I said I really hope to get this blog up and running by January… however some interesting things have happened in the mean time. By interesting I mean… we are moving… literally right now. Also even more interesting is that we recently found out that we are expecting! YEA! That is interesting as our 1^st born will be 9 in September…. So, needless to say we are both surprised and extremely excited.

As this move has snuck up on us quickly, a ton of my projects that I have planned are being put on the … to do as we can do list. This frustrates me; as I had these semi unrealistic hopes that this move would be different in that all my projects would be done before we moved. Add being pregnant to that and very overprotective husband… I can’t do some of these projects without “supervision” like I would have before. So… though it will be slower going… it does mean that my project posts will be very current.

Among the house projects I have, now I have a new room to focus on- a baby nursery. That was not something I was expecting to do.

So…. Needless to say, I think this blog will be starting a bit sooner- I hope to be very consistent in my posting about all things, US. Faith, Family, Kids, Budget, Food, Craft, DIY, Design, Pups, and whatever else might creep into my very busy mind.

Thanks for following!

Expect fun new changes with the page as I am constantly updating the design. OH Big thanks to Maria at Style Graphic Design on Etsy for my cute logo. Wait till you see my logo for my homemade dog treat line… SO CUTE!

Happy Fourth of July All!

Jen

Welcome to Bowl full of Blessings

Hello all, thank you so much for stopping by. Please don’t be disappointed in the lack of content. I am currently in my planning stage for my new blog. This blog will be a diary of all the things in my life that I love and have to do. As a mom we are faced with many responsibilities and often have be creative with food, design, kids, husbands, and of course money. That’s what this blog is all about, LIFE! My life, our lives, and your lives. I hope to have it up and running by January 2015… lots of fun stuff, creative stuff, and life stuff!

Check back in- I would love to see you often!

Be blessed-

Jen