Questions Answered Part 6.. the final one!

Sorry for the delay.. got super busy here! Darin's had lotsa speaking things here lately and as you can see from below posts, busy season is starting with my photography! So here are the last questions you guys asked me. Again, please see my heart and know that I answered them honestly and am not trying to be super righteous and know that I dont' have a perfect marriage and that my life is a fairy tale. With that said.. here we go!
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Nichole said...
If you could plan your dream vacation where would you go and why? Who would you take with?
I would LOVE to go back to Acapulco with my Darin Jay. Relive our honeymoon again. =) Hubba, hubba! We stayed in a condo given to us from a distributor at work. It was like 4 bedrooms, 4-baths and we had the pool and the beach front to ourselves. It was amazing! We also have had a cruise on our list of things to do and this summer we are going! We cannot wait! It’ll just be a 5-dayer down to Mexico and back. I’m not sure I could be away from the little ladies anymore than that. =/ And of course I’d love to take Adie and Joya to Disney World some day. Um, I just gave you three dream vacations. Oops!

Gregory Replogle said...
Question: Who is your favorite brother?
Let’s see... my one and only GREGGY-POO!!!

Andrew and Denise said...
Where are my apples? and Think about me for a minute? That is not really a question but can I be in the drawing twice?
To all that don’t know, this is my sister. And she and my brother are SO funny, aren’t they? You may NOT be put in the drawing twice because I’m taking your pictures for free when you come home in May. Amen.

shiloh said...
okay darce, I know you'll be honest...what was the hardest thing when you first brought Joya home with Adie? Or what do you think is most difficult about having 2 little ones?
Hmmm… definitely the whole sleeping aspect! I just wanted to nap when Joya napped during the day (like I had with Adie) but I couldn’t because I had to take care of Adie! BUT Darin was on summer break so the transition wasn’t too horribly bad since I had a lot of his help. Darin and I made a rule right at first that if Adie woke up in the middle of the night he was responsible for her and if Joya woke up then I would tend to her. It really helped me get a little bit of sleep in those first months! Adie was getting her molars so she was up quite a bit right when Joya came. So hopefully you have a hubby or grandma or someone that can help you those first few weeks so you can get some sleep!

Jamie Lyn said...
Hi, Darcy. :) I've been lurking for years and have only commented a couple of times, but I still enjoy reading your blog! A couple of questions I have after seeing your schedule: do you try to have a "quiet time" every day, and if so, when? And during the time in the morning when you are cleaning like a mad woman, do your girls play on their own (actually giving you time to get stuff done around the house), or do you have to stop a lot and direct them? Now that my older child is in school, I end up letting my two-year-old watch more tv than she should because I can't seem to get her to play on her own when I need to clean, cook, etc. After six years of this stay-at-home mama thing, those are two areas where I still haven't found something that works consistently for our family. I'm definitely interested in hearing how other people "do" it.
Hey, Jamie Lyn! Yes... I try to have a daily quiet time. *Try* being the key word. If I do my elliptical, I read my bible on my elliptical. If I do circuit training or a DVD workout then I try to fit it in when the little ladies nap. Some days it’s so hard to get it in! Throughout the day I also try to throw up some prayers to JC whenever someone comes to mind. This is still a struggle of mine to make sure I get my quiet time in daily. My girls wake up SUPER early and so I haven’t gotten in a habit of waking up before them. If anyone has a great time that they’ve figured out to have their devo time then we’d gladly like to hear it!
Adie usually watches her toons when I’m cleaning. Or she’ll go to her room and play while I do my mad woman clean thing. She also colors or paints while I get things done. We have an open layout with our kitchen and living room so I can “be” with her while I’m getting my tasks done. Sometimes she tries to help me clean too. As all us mama’s know, that usually takes more time than if we’d just do it ourselves. =) But lately I’ve felt like Adie’s been watching too much TV. I am SO ready for the weather to get nicer so that we can move some of our activities outside!!

Beth Said…
Here's something I'd love to know...how do you organize all of your family photos (that
aren't scrapped)? I'm really looking for a way to get them off my computer and into some sort of logical system for the kids (and for us). For some reason, typical albums don't really appeal to me?
Love your blog. Bless you.
Awe, thank you Beth! I have a pretty systematic way of getting pictures organized. As I’ve said before, I’m not a super anal kind a person and in NO WAY a neat freak! But when it comes to my pictures I’m pretty particular! Probably because I have to be somewhat organized since I do the business of taking pictures. For personal pictures, once I’ve taken pictures I upload them into a file by month. Anything taken in March 2010 will go into the March 2010’s file. Captain obvious, here. I edit them, put them into collages if I know I want to scrap them, etc. That month’s pictures will stay on my computer until I have ordered prints. Once I’ve ordered prints I put the entire month’s pictures onto a disk. I then delete them off my computer for good. My picture files are super huge so getting them off our computer as fast as I can really helps the quickness of our computer. When my prints arrive from the printer (ALWAYS mpix.com) I either scrap them or put them into a photo box by month. The girls each have their own photo boxes and we have family one’s as well. The girls’ photo boxes will go with them once they have a home of their own. Along with their 50 million bulging scrapbooks. I have family scrapbooks that will stay with Darin and I.

Kelly said...
I missed the window for asking .. but have been reading for about a year... it seems as though your marriage is a fairy tale. You talk about how hot your husband is and that he treats you like a princess. we know that God promises that marriage is hard, yet you seem to portray that you have some special anomaly. I am sure I'm not the only one that wonders... really? so what works.. are you the submissive wife? do you stand up for your opinions? do you ever yell? does he? what do you disagree on. what have you had to give on. what is your number one , reoccurring fight? and for sure after having kids, marriage changes. how has yours?
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also.. with your photography... what education do you have? what kind of business plan do you have? I just started doing research, am curious how you went about it... k, thanks for answering these questions. sorry I am late!
Kelly.. I am going to answer your photog questions first... I have no photography education. At all. =) No classes taken, no liberal arts degree.. actually have a degree in Hospitality from Purdue so I try to be very hospitable to my clients! HA! I don’t know if you read my post on the photography question you all had for me but my business seriously just happened. I have not had to advertise at all. So far my advertising has been 100% word of mouth & through my blog. I have had an amazing mentor & friend (plug for Tim Stiffler) that taught me how to shoot on manual and taught me EVERYTHING I know about photoshop. I also have no business plan. I came from the corporate world before I became a stay-at-home mama so I’m aware that I probably need one. =) BUT right now my photography is a hobby that turned into a little side business. When I became a tad bit too busy last fall I realized that my prices needed to go up a little for supply and demand to meet. I know the way I run my business (giving out the CD of the images I took for the customer to make their own copies) is not recommended in this business but Darin and I have talked over and over again how me charging for copies goes against the blessing we want to give to others. And it would make me even more busy that I already am! I know I could make a crap ton of money if I sold the prints. But it’s not my intention to make a crap ton of money. It’s my intention to make a little extra income for my family and enjoy doing it on the way. So far that’s seemed to work. =)

Okay... now for all those other questions! I read your question to Darin and he had a few comments as well. We actually don’t think that God promised us that marriage would be hard. He actually created a woman specifically designed for a man (Adam and Eve). He promises that trials, tribulations and persecutions will come in our lives even tho we are Christians and sometimes those things can come up in marriage. So far, we haven’t had a ton of trials and tribulations in our marriage! We also both went through quite a bit of relationship crap before we met each other so when we finally did meet & fall in love, we were a breath of fresh air for each other! I couldn’t believe a man existed like him! And his family says over and over that I was MADE for that boy! I know I would be A LOT different if I wouldn’t have had my first marriage. I know I’d be more bratty and take him for granted. But I know the life I COULD have been living and man am I thankful for him!
Darin and I have also talked about different relationship that we have had that we’ve had to put SO MUCH effort into even getting along. That has never been the case for us. We LONG to be together. We are best friends. That man was created for me as I was for him. I think this has to do with our personalities a little bit. We aren’t really nit-picky people. And I let you in in my “crying it out” post that I flee from drama!! We choose our battles. The things we usually fight about are maintenance on our vehicles (he doesn’t believe in it and I think the oil should be changed by a professional every 3 months), the organization of our home (his keys don’t always hit the intended key spot and he’s not super tidy, but hey, I’m not either!) and when we remodel our houses the mess that it makes drives me batty. We definitely have things we have argued about but our fights are few and far between. We’ve never raised our voices at each other. It’s just not either of our personalities. AND I also don’t believe that my blog is a place where I would talk badly about my hubby. I try never to talk badly about him in front of others but I know I fail once and awhile and vent to a friend.

Ephesians 5:33 it says that “each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” I always find it crazy that the scripture commands husbands to LOVE their wives and wives need to RESPECT their husbands. Two totally different things. Darin does an amazing job at loving me which makes it easier to respect him. My respecting him means that I need to submit to him as the leader of our home. Does he go around flaunting his leadership? Nope. Does he ask my opinion with just about every decision we make as a family? Yes. But his decision goes when all is said and done. There have been some decisions he’s made that I’ve not agreed with but I feel that if I’ve told him how I feel and he makes the decision of something I’m not super fond of, then I need to back off. I am not a natural women’s lib personality but I’m also not a door mat either. If I feel strongly enough about something I will make sure he knows how I feel and then I have to back off... God has appointed him as the leader of our house and I know that Darin’s asking for God’s guidance in our decisions. And submitting isn’t an option.. the bible commands that we submit to our hubby’s so yeah, it’s a sin if we don’t!

(Darin's comment) With that, since I know that Darcy will be submissive to me I know that she isn’t “giving up or changing her opinion” when she drops something. I will always consider what we both want and try to discern what God wants. In the end if we listen to Darcy’s desires it still makes me feel empowered as a man. When Darcy truly allows me to choose what she wants, it feels completely different than if she would tell me what we had to do. It feels great to make decisions that please her. I also know that I must treat Darcy delicately and “handle with care.”

I don't and will NEVER wear the pants in our family and I"m super okay with that!!