Broken Heart

Life is so very very fragile. This morning i got a harsh reminder of just how fast it can slip away. I woke this morning to a phone call from my mom that my papa was dying. He had already coded once and the DNR order was given. Less than half an hour later, he passed away peacefully.

My heart is broken. in a million pieces. There was no time for goodbyes. He was fighting cancer for the second time, but he was doing well. Until last night when he suddenly started having trouble breathing and less than 14 hrs later he was gone. My tough as nails, hardcore retired military, stubborn, stern, funny, Cowboys football and cashew lovin' papa is gone. It still doesn't feel completely real. Accept it does...and it is...very real.

So many memories have flooded my mind all day long and i smile...even thru the tears, i smile. What a blessing to have been so close to him. To share so many memories. Despite our military lifestyle and the distance that has separated us, we were blessed to share christmas with him last year. And blessed to spend time with him again in June for the boys' birthdays. He was an amazing man. So very loved and will be so very missed.

We will be leaving in the morning to head back home and be with family. Please pray for my Grandma Lil and for all of the family and friends that will be traveling thru the week to be at the funeral. I pray you all had a wonderful thanksgiving holiday full of family, friends and lots of love! Hug the ones you love today and cherish every moment you are blessed with!

Gifts and so much more....

Need some great gift ideas this holiday season?? Would you love to give gifts this year that are not only blessing the person receiving the gift, but would help bring an orphan home to their forever family?!?

You see - my cousin Lovelyn and her gorgeous family just recently brought home their adorable, precious son, Clay, from Uganda. And her heart for the orphan crisis around the world is nothing short of beautiful. And while we may not all be called to adopt, i believe we are called to be aware. To do what we can to help give these precious children of God a forever home. And we can all do that this holiday season as we purchase gifts for our family and friends!

Loveyln has posted a great gift guide on her blog. A listing of various items that adoptive families are selling to help raise funds to bring their babies home! So go here! Check out the wonderful opportunities there are to do your part to help these families bring their little ones home! And while you're at it....take a few minutes to read about Love and her family's journey cause it is amazing. And beautiful. And you will be so blessed by it.

Happy shopping. And reading!

Romans 12:21

This morning as we were leaving for church, i noticed that Colby was having a particularly difficult time and was being quite snappy and short tempered. We spoke briefly with him as we were pulling into the parking lot about how he could possibly try praying, and asking for help to control those urges and for God to change his heart.

After church Colby excitedly told us about the sermon in children's church and how it fit right in with his struggle that morning. He told us that the sermon was based on Romans 12:21 which says, "when evil attacks, attack it with good". (Colby's translation) And we were able to point out this wonderful example of what an awesome God we serve. That God knew his struggle and spoke to him thru the message. What an amazing blessing!! It just makes my heart sing to see the heart Colby has for our Lord and Savior and His word. To watch Colby's understanding of true relationship with the lord grow.

Later this afternoon Colby came to me and asked me if in the future, when i see that he is struggling, would i just simply say to him "Romans 12:21". My eyes filled with tears as i assured him that i most definitely would. And as i have thought about it more today i have decided that i will ask the same of Colby. That on the days when my patience is short and i am struggling, would he simply remind me "Romans 12:21". I am so incredibly grateful for Colby. For his tender heart. His love for our God and his true desire to grow and learn and come to know Him. For the ways he challenges me and inspires me. I am so.incredibly.blessed. SO.BLESSED.

Romans 12:21

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Air Show @ Night!

Last weekend, the base here hosted the Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show, which we found out is a HUGE deal! They estimated that there were over 147,000 people there on saturday! (think parking nightmare!) We are blessed to see the blue angels flying all the time so we opted to go to the night show even though the blue's wouldn't be performing at it. It was pretty impressive and ended with one of the longest fireworks displays i've ever seen! We met up some friends of ours there and had a great time! We weren't able to get alot of good pictures between the tricky lighting and the speed the planes were flying at, but we did manage to snap a few!

they had "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood playing as this skydiver descended w/ the flag...so neat!

this flying team put on a really great show but we had a hard time getting any really good shots of them!

all the kiddos...Levi, Alexis, Colby, JT, & Brayden

a semi truck powered by jet engines.....pretty impressive

the wall of fire...you could seriously feel the heat in your face when this went off!

smiley fireworks!

remember the parking nightmare i mentioned earlier?!? well...we were able to find border line rock star parking that was only about 3/4 of a mile from the flight line. our friends didn't fare so well! So we all walked to our little honda crv after the show, piled in and drove the 2.3 miles (yes we measured!) to their car. So..the big guys were in the front seat, the 3 girls in the back seat (i was in a booster seat! ha!), and the 4 lil guys in the far back. The lil guys thought this was the greatest thing ever...they laughed and giggled the whole way!

our little stow away's! =)


We finished the evening off with dinner at one of our favorite restaurants! Great friends, great fun, and great food....what more can you ask for on a saturday night?!?

I've got nothin' so i'll title it October!

I couldn't come up with anything creative to title this post! ha! It has been a long day and i guess my brain decided to check out! =) October brought the start of Hope for the Homefront, Brayden's first field trip, and of course Halloween!

Hope for the Homefront is a fabulous bible study for military wives and has been such an incredible blessing to me over the last couple of years! I participated in the study for the first time in January of 2008 and posted about it here. Little did i know what God had up his sleeve all those months ago and now here i am, facilitating the study for the 2nd time! I've got a great group of girls this time around and it is so very apparent to me that God placed each and every one of them in the group for very special reasons! I'm always so in awe when i am blessed to actually see God working in me and in others....such an amazing God we serve!

Then came Brayden's first field trip! Oh.My.Goodness. So stinkin' cute!! They went to the pumpkin patch and the park and i was blessed to be able to go along! The kids in his class were all so sweet and we had so much fun! I love that they all called me "Brayden's Mom"....so cute!

getting on the bus!

Brayden's Class (they made the little shirts they are wearing!) =)

And we wrapped up the month with Halloween! I had such a hard time getting into the "fall spirit" because i was too busy still sweating in the heat! CRAZY! Apparently fall is just something on the calendar in florida - not an actual season!! ha! But it managed to get just cool enough that we could wear long sleeves and the kids weren't too sweaty after trick or treating!! We went out to dinner and then trick or treating w/ some good friends and had a great time!

Darth Vader & Commander Fox

my cute lil family!

the boys with their buddy JM


Although October failed to usher in fall like i had hoped, it did turn out to be a fun month of memories and time spent together as a family! We are doing our absolute best to truly cherish the time we have here in pensacola with John home and not deploying!


**October 28th marked one month into my weight loss journey! I lost 9lbs in my first month!**

I'm Back!

I am back from what feels like the longest blogging break EVER! There are several reasons for the break that i'm not even gonna bother getting into.....i'm just glad to be back! One of the original purposes of this blog for me, was a way to document the small and not so small happenings in day to day life, and while it has become so much more, i don't want to completely miss out on documenting some of what has been going on in the Miculka household the last few months! So i am going to break it down month by month in several posts! Bear with me.....i will get to the current happenings soon!! =)

The boys BOTH started school on August 24th. Colby started 3rd grade and Brayden started pre-k. I'm not going to lie...having them both in school was a rough adjustment. Brayden is going to school 5 days a week and the house felt so completely empty every morning. =( But I have come around and learned to enjoy the time i have each morning and the boys are both really enjoying school!

September brought our first MOPS meeting of the year, the surprise party of the year, a visit from John's mom and brother, our 5th wedding anniversary, and the beginning of my No More Excuses weight loss journey that i am stoked to share with y'all!!

I am a table leader for MOPS this year and i am LOVING it! The ladies at my table ROCK and it has been such a blessing to get to know each of them. I was a little apprehensive coming into the first meeting as i have not been a part of the MOPS organization for long and wasn't sure exactly what my place as a table leader would look like, but i quickly realized that i was right where God wanted me to be! Our Nov. meeting is next week and i can't wait!!!

Mid September we hosted the surprise party of the year at our house and it was SO FUN! It was our friend Eric's 30th birthday and his wife, Lisl, wanted to plan something special for him! So as far as he knew they were going out for a nice dinner after dropping the kiddos at our house! ;) We totally got him! He had no idea! He walked up to the door and was greeted by 50+ friends yelling "SURPRISE"!! This was the first time i have been in on a surprise party and i can't even begin to tell you how stinkin' exciting it was!!

some of the guests awaiting the arrival of the birthday boy!

The guest of honor!! He was so shocked!

blowing out the candles! (notice all the tea lights??!! we totally forgot to get candles and had to improvise last minute.....it just so happens we had exactly 30 tealights! ha!)


The day after the party, John's mom and brother got into town! We were excited to see them and the boys had a blast with them! The main reason for their visit was to watch the boys so that John and i could get away for a couple of days for our anniversary!! Doesn't seem possible that we have been married for 5 years but i can honestly say they have been 5 of the best years of my life!! We headed to Biloxi, MS for a little mini vegas honeymoon remake! We stayed at the Beau Rivage and had a great time!! I'm ashamed to admit that i didn't get many pictures at all.....=( But i did manage to atleast get one of John and I!

let me fill you in on a little secret....i NEVER wear my glasses anywhere but around the house. Until the morning we were leaving and i woke up with pink eye. OMG. So excuse the glare from my glasses! lol

And then on Monday, September 28th i began my life change. I faced up to, once and for all, the fact that my being overweight, out of shape and just plain unhealthy was my fault. And i made the choice to change. When i last posted i weighed about 192lbs. Shortly after my last post i got really really sick and lost about 12lbs, 5 of which i gained back when i was able to keep food down again. So i began my journey at 185lbs. I am counting calories. As in....measuring servings and keeping a journal of every single thing i eat and drink every single day. I am working out....i am working at becoming a runner. I've never been a runner but i am slowly becoming one! And i love it! Today is day 47 of my journey and i am EXCITED to share with you that as of Wednesday (my weekly "weigh" day) i have lost 14.4 lbs! It is HARD. I've had many UPS and many DOWNS. But i feel soooo much better. I haven't been this weight since i hit it while pregnant with Brayden almost 5 years ago. I can't change the fact that i let myself get to the point i was at 47 days ago. But i can change what i will be tomorrow, next week, next year. And that change is happening a little at a time....every day! I am excited to share with you the emotions, the highs, the lows, the journey. MY journey of NO MORE EXCUSES!

time for new pants much?!? i can seriously pull more than one pair of jeans on and off without buttoning or zipping and i am constantly having to pull my pants up and i LOVE IT! I'm trying to hold off as long as possible before buying new pants but the time (as you can see!) is drawing near!


So there it is.......the end of August brought a huge milestone for us with Brayden starting pre k meaning both boys are in school! And September was a great month full of love, friendship, blessings and fun!

*and just in case you are wondering....NO. I do not go out in public w/ my undies hanging out!! If i wasn't constantly pulling my pants up though, then i would be looking all gangsta like that! =)