Karwoski Life

As we approach the start of a new year, it only seems natural to spend a little bit of time reflecting back on the year about to close. While 2013 didn’t bring with it all that we hoped and dreamed it would, there were certainly many, many good times to be thankful for. Just last week, I was looking through my photos from the year and smiling at all the fun we had. It comes as no surprise to anyone, I suspect, that I like to take a lot of pictures. I love to look at them and share them and reminisce about good times with friends and family. I apologize if this comes off as braggy... But for me, it is healing, and humbling, and simply good to look back and realize that despite the tough times, disappointments, heart ache, and uncertainty – Matt and I have had a great year. We have a great marriage. We have wonderful family. We have the best friends. We love our home, our animals, our adventures, and above all else – each other. So bear with me, as I post a little recap of some of...

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about trust. Trusting in my future. Trusting in the bigger plan.  Trusting that come what may, I will have what I need to get through, just as I have time and time again. It’s so hard, when you’re in the middle of a trial or a struggle of some sort – to trust that better days are ahead. It’s hard when things seem to be falling out of place to see how the pieces are supposed to fit together.  When what you thought was the plan, turns out not to be, it’s hard. In my own life, I’ve struggled with trusting through trials. Sometimes trust came easier than others.  When Matt had his stroke I had no choice. Trusting was all I had; it was all I could do . It was very clear right from the start that nothing I did, or didn’t do, was going to have much impact on the outcome. Of course we would commit to following the doctor’s protocols, enduring months of rehabilitation and hard work and the end result would be progress and a life worth living. B...

  So Matt and I had a Halloween party. Many of you have seen the pictures and wondered what the heck we were supposed to be. Yes, Matt’s mustache was impressive and sure the wedding dress I had on was maybe a little funny…but not a lot of people ‘got’ our costume. This did not matter to me…not one bit. You see – Matt wanted to dress up. Matt wanted to have a Halloween party.  You may not know, but Frog and Bandit are the clever (if a bit dirty) CB handles from Matt’s beloved movie, ‘Smokey & the Bandit’. Matt has loved the movie longer than I’ve loved Matt. He knows all the silly details, all the editing faux pas, all the songs, and a lot of the dialogue. The move is purely Matt – through and through. And once we decided to be Frog and Bandit…the wheels in his mind started spinning. Talking about how the costumes would come together was so much fun.  We shopped online, we shopped thrift stores, and we bought pieces on eBay. Matt cared so much about all the deta...

Many of you know – we welcomed a new member to our little family in July. A 7 month old female yellow lab named Cotton. We’ve spent the past few months acclimating to life with a doggie again…or should I say life with a YOUNG doggie again. Oy. It’s really by chance that we happened up Miss Cotton… While we enjoyed several dog-free months (the first of our entire marriage) my heart still yearned for the love of a dog. While the cats are nice and all – I am a dog person through and through. And while Matt would claim he didn’t really care if we got another dog – he is too. So earlier this summer we started doing some research on dogs, looking mostly at ARL websites and rescue dogs. We both thought we’d like to have another female yellow lab and we’d found a few dogs that looked promising, when I stumbled upon the website of a Labrador breeder close to Des Moines. I was poking through their website, just reading about them and looking at their lovely dogs, when I saw a section about ...