Pinklets

Vertical Change

2012-01-25T19:36:00.002-06:00

Look who's sitting up all by himself!!

He's not quite stable to stay forever like that, but today was the best we've done!! He even got into a sitting position from laying down today! It cracks me up how excited the tiny things make me.

Our sweet little boy is 6.5 months old.

Making Memories

2012-01-22T20:14:00.005-06:00

I wanted to share with you one of my favorite things I've found since having N. Shutterfly photo books! I have always been a fan of photo books, but used to make them on my iPhoto software on my mac. They were pretty pricey and have few customizations to make. When N was born I received several coupons for free books from Shutterfly. It took me a few tries to realize all the fun things I can do with these books. You can literally scrapbook digitally and then they send it to you all put together! I'm in love!

You can start with just a basic style, but then combine any type of embelishments, words, ribbons, shapes, anything! Seriously, if you have pictures on your computer you love that you have not done anything with in awhile, go to shutterfly asap. (No they did not pay me to write this... I wish they would. They could pay me in photobooks. :)

A few things we are praying over lately:
We have been extremely blessed with the lady who keeps N during the day. I can't remember how much I shared about that situation, but day care was a not-so-good situation turned AMAZING situation. When we found her, she was just going to be temporary while we tried to get into a day care, but things went so well that we asked if she wanted to keep him through the end of the school year and she said yes. Well, we were thinking at that point we would put him in a program (he'll be one), but we LOVE her so much that I've asked if she'd want to keep watching him. We aren't sure if she'll be able to because financially she may need to go get a full-time job that pays more, so we are all just praying over it to see what God's plan is.

Second is our home. We've been here almost 6 years and had the plan of it being our two-year house. Hah! Well, we do feel like we've outgrown it and I feel like I'm done driving 35 minutes to and from work. Thankfully N does wonderful in the car, but that could be a whole hour we could have at home if we moved closer to work. Not to mention B and I both drive the same direction to work and we live 35-45 minutes away from our jobs! It just makes sense to move closer. So this is a heavy one we are praying over. It means moving further away from family and our church that we LOVE, and into a city we don't necessarily love, but being close to our jobs and being able to build a community for N as he grows. Right now our church, home and jobs are spread out between about an hour in different towns. I'd love to combine the three to be close.

Our fun photo for the day: N moved into the big-boy bath ring tonight!

Check In and Up

2012-01-16T19:09:00.004-06:00

Do you know my husband? ^ He is tall and used to be very skinny, now he's pretty average or could lose 15lbs or so (which is probably skinnier than average in the real world). Well, N had his 6 month check up today and and is in the 75th percentile in height (length? does it count as height when is still quite horizontal?) and 25th in weight and head circumference (which is shocking since most of my side of the family have bucket heads). Which also means 27 inches long, 15.5lbs. I was surprised he was on the skinny side.... he's full of rolls and eats like a pig!

(Here are his leg rolls and a hat that makes his head look huge! Apparently it was for a new-born :)

I also went and priced out formula since my last post and I was SHOCKED at how expensive it is!!!! I thought it would be around $10-15 for a tub that would last a week or two.... instead it is about $25 for 5 days. OMG! I was having a hard time officially letting go anyway and this may have sealed the deal for a little longer. I know I cannot keep up with 6 times a day anymore and be attached to this dang machine ALL day, but I have dropped down to 4 times a day, which makes more sense since N only eats 4 times a day. I've done this two days and so far so good, but if I start to drop ounces again I don't mind supplementing some. It will probably be an on-going transition away from pumping, but I feel better letting go of the stress I put on myself. If it works on 3 or 4 times a day and I can keep up, great! If I have to supplement, that's okay too. 6 times a day though is definitely over, but I'm not quite as ready as I thought I was to give up my shelf in the fridge.

Lastly, where has Oxi-Clean been all my life?! We were recently blessed with a ton of hand-me-downs. Some had some pretty serious stains set in. I washed and pre-treated several times and it made zero difference. I googled what to do and found lots of people loved Oxi-Clean. After just an hour of soaking the clothes the stains were almost gone!!! I can't believe I hadn't found this stuff sooner! If you have not tried this go out and buy this right now!

6 Months & a few days late

2012-01-09T19:22:00.008-06:00

Happy 6 month birthday to my little monkey!

We had a rough 6 month birthday week, with lots of low fevers, plenty of drool and a sleepy boy. He's really been pretty happy considering all the above, but finally today I can feel his two little teeth on the bottom trying to poke up. Hopefully they'll push on through quickly.

What are you doing here teddy?!

The past 6 months have been wonderful! Tiring and yet wonderful. We have fallen into a very good routine. We are home-bodies to begin with, but don't really try to go out to eat or anything with N lately because he goes to sleep at 6:30 and its just not worth trying to console him when he thinks he should be asleep. Thankfully N's wonderful grandmothers are eager to keep him so Ben and I can get out once in awhile.

Here are some stats for our little boy:

We think he is around 17 pounds (I got on the scale with him the other day). We have our official 6 month appointment on Monday, so I'll update then.

He still sleeps at least 12 hours at night and takes a 2 hour nap in the morning and a 1 hour nap in the afternoon. Baby LOVES some sleep.

He loves his jumper! And I love watching babies in those things... hilarious!

We got in the habit of rocking him over Christmas break since we were all over the place, but had to do some boot camp last week to get him back into putting himself to sleep. One night of crying and he remembered. I think some times he prefers to just be laid down so he can get to sleep already. (If I haven't pushed The Sleep Solution book enough and you want to do some sleep training, go get it! We've read and re-read it many times to remind us what to do.)

He eats and LOVES food. Peas and sweet potatoes are probably his favorite, but he still acts like a bird no matter what you feed him with his mouth wide open after each bite. Its hysterical! He's had a ton of different foods, and I tried rice cereal with him one day last week and it was awful. He ate it but was so gassy and cried the whole day. We will not be trying that again. The doctor told us not to mess with it since he is sleeping through the night and wasn't spitting up much, but I got a wild hair after he started spitting up more than usual. We decided we'd rather have a laundry problem than a miserable baby.

There's his bird face:

Warning: breastfeeding info ahead:::

On a similar note I'm still pumping and can hardly believe it that we made it to 6 months. Prior to Christmas I really thought I would keep doing it until 12 months as long as it lasted, but over Christmas break my milk took a nose dive. It was like one side just wouldn't let it out and in turn I started making less. I had to add another pumping time to catch back up and have stressed over it for the past 3 weeks. Today, I think I've made up my mind to ween N towards formula (glug....). I finally got to the point where I am starting to dread pumping. I even tried to nurse him again over the break in hopes he'd learned to nurse again and help fix the milk not coming out issue, but after bottles for 4 months, there was no such luck. I'm beating myself up over it, but I don't want to dread pumping and spending 3 hours a day hooked to this machine is getting old. I want to just spend it with N. I want to enjoy him and be with him rather than having to put him in the pack n' play and watch him from across the room.

Anyways,

A few other news:

We are still army crawling around. He can't quite get that belly off the ground. Also we are working on sitting up. He does the funniest thing when he gets his legs under him, but then doesn't know what to do next. Look at all those rolls!

Happy 6 months precious! We are so thankful to have you in our lives!

366

2012-01-02T21:55:00.001-06:00

I like the new blogger app, even though when you load pictures they automatically go to the bottom of your post (or I haven't figured out a better solution). Anyone else know how to change that? At least I'll blog more often!

I love Melissa's idea of a picture a day for the year. (I'd link to you if I knew how on my phone :) so today I'm going to show you my new favorite hobby for day #2's photo (I really said hobby, but I'm not sure it fully counts as one yet). This all started from a horribly botched wreath my mom bought for $60....yes $60!!! I got it and thought I could do that better and cheaper! Anyways... Here are some finished products. I've made 4, gave one as a present and this Alabama one is a birthday present for a friend. Easy peasy!

Blogger has an app!

2012-01-01T21:13:00.001-06:00

Thanks Melissa for telling me blogger now has an iPhone app out. I've been waiting and waiting (and really gaveup hope!).

So this is a test blog. From the phone.

I wonder if you can order your pictures or put text under them?

First Christmas

2011-12-30T06:42:00.006-06:00

This was a wonderful first Christmas with N. I tried to resist saying I'm shocked its already over, but seriously, I want to go back and do it all over again and slow it down. Pay no attention to the orange nose we've developed.... baby loves some sweet potatoes!

Christmas Eve - So dang cute!

He LOVED the bows, but was very unimpressed with how they tasted.

On his lamb pillow pet :)

This is how we unwrap presents!

B's mom came over to our house Christmas Eve and went to our church service with us. Then we woke up and did Christmas at our house.

Taking a break for some food.

Our Christmas outfit. (That hand is only out of his mouth if the paci makes it in, everyone says its because he's teething, but he's really been like that since day 1, he loves his hand.)

After breakfast we packed up and headed to my parents for Christmas round 2 and dinner. We left Monday morning at 5am for North Carolina so B's extended family could meet the baby.

B and his grandmother. I was very impressed with how N handled himself in the car! He was his typical self, took naps, played and hung out. He probably handled the 8.5 hour drive better than me!

Everyone loved meeting N! We are enjoying a 4 day weekend at home now, recovering from a week of non-stop. N is working on his crawl. I'm sure in a few days I'll have to share a video. :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Baptism

2011-12-30T06:34:00.004-06:00

N was baptized a couple of weeks ago on Dec. 18. He held it together great and we were very thankful so we could actually listen to our pastors and consent to the questions they were asking us. :) We have such a wonderful church family and know that they will love N as long as we are there. They will help us raise him in the Lord and teach him to be a strong christian man. My parents and Ben's mom came also. (We scheduled it this day in hopes that my little brother would be in from Texas, but his flight came in the day after the baptism.)

Praise the Lord for this precious child he has blessed us with!

He did pass out just minutes after his part was over, B was not thrilled I wanted to still take pictures with a sleeping baby in his arms. :) Ha! Pictures are important!

5 Months Old!

2011-12-14T20:34:00.003-06:00

My sweet little boy is 5 months old (I'm a few days late).

In the past month he has started eating baby food (mostly orange/yellow veggies), holding his own bottle, finding and putting his pacifier in his mouth and semi-scooting (as in actually tucking his legs under him and trying to push his head along the ground...).

He is still doing great with sleeping (6:30-6:30), waking up every few nights to find his paci, but I don't have to go in there often, if I can stand to wait it out he usually finds it and gets it back in his own mouth.

(Looks so sweet here, like he's consoling his little bear :)

He is very happy! Takes one 2-hour nap a day and a few power naps. He loves the johnny jump-up finally! Well, I should say, likes... not loves. But his feet at least touch the ground and he can actually bounce a bit.

The funniest story from the past month was when B was helping me make some squash baby food (that stuff is expensive!). I had N in the kitchen feeding him while B got out the frozen squash and the magic bullet. I'm telling him that he just use the bullet to puree the food and add water until he gets the consistency of the jar stuff. I hear the bullet starting and then B has a confused look on his face and says to me, "I think we are supposed to let this thaw out before blending it..."

HA! THAW?! I said, I'm pretty sure you are supposed to COOK it, we aren't starting him on a raw food diet yet! Glad I was around or poor baby's tummy would be very upset the next time we fed him... hah!

:)

Silly boys...

Look at that fat belly!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-03T06:35:00.004-06:00

N's nanny asked if I was going to take him to see Santa this year and my answer was, ....probably not. I just couldn't see standing in line for hours to give my child to a strange man, have N scream and pay $25 for the picture...

So she asked if she could. Of course! She could take him during the day so the line wouldn't be as long too.

She came back and this was the shot they got. SO CUTE! I am so thankful for her and how much she loves him.

(If I look at Santa too much I get a little creeped out about it!)

As several people on facebook noticed, this picture is MUCH better than our last holiday picture...

Things I've learned

2011-11-29T19:32:00.009-06:00

I've learned that just when I thought I was procrastinating, God's timing is perfect and his plan is impeccable. We have been blessed with exactly what we need, when we need it during this entire journey. Praise the Lord.

I've learned Thanksgiving day is a fun day for baby to try his first food: sweet potatoes. He couldn't eat them fast enough!

I've learned to ignore that we have a baby boy and a purple Bumbo. (Look at those little toes all curled up!)

I've learned that when you think you are talented and changing a horrible diaper in the backseat as fast as you can, the baby will pee all over his own face and your car leading to horrible screams. Even if you haven't been peed on in months.

I've learned that schedules do wonders for sleeping through the night.
Bath, bottle, bed = happy baby and happy mama.

Baby loves Christmas tree lights.

I've learned leaving the house with a 4 month old takes up my entire car. How does something so tiny take so much stuff?!

The baby sense movement monitor has given me back my sleep. I've learned I cannot convince a 4 month old they need to sleep on their back.

I've learned that as long as a craft takes less than 15 minutes and has only 2 steps, I can still consider myself 'crafty'.

I LOVE sips n' strokes!

Lastly, I've learned the days go by so much faster as each one passes and I want them to slow down! I look at my mom and think about how not too long ago she was in my shoes, raising her her children, 28 years old, and then all of the sudden, her kids are grown, she has 4 grandchildren and 30 years have gone by. It feels like a blink of an eye.

4 Months Old!

2011-11-11T12:02:00.004-06:00

Noah is 4 months old!

He weighs 13lbs 9 ounces (30th percentile), is 25.75 inches long (75th percentile) and his head is 16 inches (50th percentile).
He sleeps from 6:30pm-6:30am.
He eats 4 bottles of breastmilk a day, 28 ounces currently.
He can pick toys up and put them in his mouth, but we are still working on getting the paci in there. He LOVES his paci still.
He loves his bath. Sometimes we spend a long long time in there at night because its the only thing that can hold him together until his last bottle and bedtime.
He smiles all the time and laughs several times a day, but isn't cackling yet.
He sleeps on his tummy (no other way around that one).
He loves his feet and hands. The feet haven't made it in his mouth yet, but if there isn't a paci in there, his fingers are. I've tried to notice which fingers he is sucking on the most and it seems to be his index, middle and ring fingers on his right hand... all at the same time. :)
His hair is finally coming back! WOO!

Hello bear!

His little feet are always in this position, turned towards each other and pressed against one another. Its too funny.

We are loving life and enjoying every minute of it. We have two great friends who are coming to visit us this weekend and meet N. Before we know it Thanksgiving will be here and N will get to meet his two great-grandmothers!

Sleep is not just for the weak

2011-11-02T18:58:00.004-05:00

16 weeks

We have a new and wonderful schedule in our household! (This post is mostly for documentation so when baby # 2 may come around and I am sleep deprived and wondering when I will ever get sleep again I can look back and remember how things went with N.)

We dropped another feeding on Saturday and are down to just 4 feedings a day - 7 ounces each. Which put him right on track to start trying the actual 12 hours by 12 weeks schedule (The Sleep Solution book). So Saturday night I laid N down at 6:30 and sure enough he slept until 6:30 the next morning! I had to go in there once and put his paci in around 4am. Well, I was wary the next night because this was giving me a whole new morning routine IF it worked. I would pump first, get ready and then wake him up and feed him before we left for work. Well he did it again! 12 hours!

So today we are officially on our fifth night of our new schedule and things are looking promising (knock on wood!). I was worried about getting into the 12 hour schedule because I had been waking him up at 5 and I did not want him going to sleep at 5 in the afternoon. I would never see him! 6:30 is as late as I can push it and still get to work on time. He just started acting so tired in the evenings waiting on that last feeding, so I thought maybe he was ready for this new schedule (even though apparently some babies are ready at 12 weeks). Our book would read 12 hours by 16 weeks :) (The book did help us get to 8 or so hours by 9 weeks too - very helpful.)

Our amazing sitter (nanny?) who watches N during the day drops him off to me at 3:15, so I feel like I have a good chunk of time with him in the evenings and then in the mornings he talks the WHOLE way to work, where he used to just sleep. It cracks me up!

I would definitely recommend the Baby Sleep Solution book, one of the very few I read because it was so small.

This picture reminds me of how much he likes to hear himself yell. :)

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-29T16:21:00.004-05:00

War Eagle from the little Auburn tiger cub :)

N is 16 weeks!

Unorganized Living

2011-10-22T20:22:00.006-05:00

I'm hanging on by a thread lately. Work is CRAZY... I know I've said that before, but I feel like I need to create a new word that is bigger and more hectic than crazy. I have actually gotten to the point of tears this past week, on a regular basis. It could be that I ran out of my zoloft my doctor put me on after I had N, but it also could be that things are just super overwhelming! (I did refill my prescription today just in case, but my doctor told me it was a pediatric dose and probably wasn't going to make a drastic difference... I'm starting to think it is doing a good bit!)

Anyways... part of the overwhelmingness is how unorganized everything has gotten. Work AND home. Everyone has told me to just let housework and other things go and enjoy the baby, but when things look like this:

Its hard to continue to let things go, things are feeling too out of control. Yes, 3 FULL laundry baskets and one more in my room that looks just like this!

Things are so unorganized that I drove all the way to target today (20 minutes one way) and realized my purse was at home... and the tears started again and wouldn't stop.

SO - I've made some decisions. The first one is that I am going to work on Sunday morning to catch back up and hopefully start back on a good foot Monday morning instead of trying to continuously dig myself out. I hope this will be the one and only time I have to work on a weekend, but N sleeps until about 8 or 9am, so I'd rather go while he is sleeping than miss the time when he's awake. And second, I'm going to get organized! I've been inspired by my messy MESSY life and this blog (she is doing a 31 days to organized living series right now).

One of the things the blogger (Kelly) says many times is have less stuff than you have room for. Well, we don't have a lot of room, but we sure do have A LOT of STUFF... and I think its time to do some major throwing away. I have months of magazines stacked up I haven't read yet... time to go.

In one post she talks about how she only has 3 types of each item of clothing for her 5 kids, so 3 t-shirts, 3 pants, 3 skirts.... can you imagine? THREE?! I read that part to Ben and he said she was crazy. I have to admit, I don't do laundry enough to only have 3 items, but I could trim down the onesies from 60 to maybe 12... seriously... we have A LOT of onesies.

I decided that I am going to organize ONE thing a day. Just one. Whether its one drawer or one basket of clothes... one shelf... I need to organize ONE thing until things get back in order again. That doesn't sound too crazy right?

Here are some of my unorganized areas:

This is a super cute trunk in our foyer that you can't even see.

Shelves and shelves of books I haven't read.... and its not looking likely that will happen any time soon. Time to get rid of them?

On top of the fridge/cabinets.

And just because this makes it all better:Sweet little pumpkin pie! He LOVES his bath. :)

Here's to becoming more organized! First thing to cleanup: the DVR... I didn't want to start off too big. :)

Hectic!!!

2011-10-17T20:18:00.002-05:00

I was going to vent and tell you how overwhelmed I am at work, but after I read my big complaining paragraph I decided this video is much better:

Noah is ....scooting? ha! I'm not sure what he's doing, BUT he's been doing it for a few days and it CRACKS me up! So instead of complaining about how crazy, hectic, insane work is... I'm going to love the moments when I'm at home with this cute little bug.
He's 14 weeks old!

Pinterest Fail

2011-10-09T15:28:00.005-05:00

I love Pinterest, as I'm sure almost all of you do too. Here's the thing about Pinterest. It makes me feel pretty incompetant. I mean seriously... how are people so crafty?! I read 'the easiest homemade skirt tutorial' the other day and had to give up after the first two instructions. I literally didn't understand at all what it was saying to do.

Well, one of our pastors sent me this picture (below) on there and said she thought of Noah when she saw this. Its pretty dang cute! I thought, I can do this, I mean how hard is it to cut a few holes and stick your baby in?! right??

Wrong....

Very wrong...

N thought I was making the pumpkin eat him or something... Screaming bloody murder. I'm surprised DHR wasn't called.

Lesson learned - there are very few things I can do on pinterest. Actually, I have only found one: 3 ingredient Nutella cookies... well no, nevermind....Ben made those, not me... so maybe I'm back to none.)

3 months!

2011-10-08T09:07:00.005-05:00

Happy 3 month birthday to my sweet boy!

What we've been up to in the past lately:

N has been rolling over both directions for 2 weeks now!

He has been mostly sleeping through the night since 9 weeks. We had a momentary hiccup for a few days where he was waking up and wanting his paci or I would need to rock him, but we are back to sleeping from approximately 8pm to 5am (I usually wake him up to feed him at 5am, because I have to pump and it makes my morning routine before work go much smoother when we do it at the same time.)

He sleeps in his crib at night no problem, but we are still trying to figure out the napping thing. He naps in his nap-nanny in the morning while I get ready, but he does NOT like to nap in his crib.

Several times this week when I've gone to get him up in the mornings he is on his tummy! The doctor told us we have to flip him back over on his back when we find him asleep on his stomach, this wouldn't be so terrible except we have a video monitor so I see him on his tummy all the time! Which means I have to get up and flip him a couple times a night. My mom said to quit and just lay him on his back and let him be, and really if I didn't have the video monitor, I'd have no clue he was on his tummy. BUT.... I do know and I'm still too nervous to leave him there since the doctor told us to flip him over.

N can hold his paci and had one attempt to actually put it in his mouth, but flailing ensued and he ended up frustrated. It was still rather cute.

He found his feet! He lifts his little legs up in the air all the time and this week reached out and grabbed them. Its so funny how the tiniest accomplishments make my day.

He is eating 6 times a day still, 30 ounces of breast milk (Hooray! This was one of my main goals to make it to!). (The hiccup in our night sleeping was when I tried to push him to 5 feedings a day because he was acting so tired at night, but that didn't work for us just yet.)

We started at a new 'day care' 2 weeks ago. He was at an in-home daycare with 5 other babies, but we've moved him to a one-on-one nanny-type situation with a lady who picks him up from my school and drops him off in the afternoons. She LOVES him and it could not be any better for us right now! I am very thankful to have found this wonderful woman to watch him.

He smiles ALL the time! He has laughed out loud a few times. I can't wait for him to laugh all the time :)
He loves his baths - this is an understatement.
Loves to suck on his hands.
Prefers to never have his clothes changed. :)
Loves to lay on a blanket or the floor play mat and kick and talk.
Has discovered his voice and loves to yell!
Weighs almost 13 pounds.

We are so thankful for this sweet blessing. Ben is doing great. It is so sweet to see him as a dad. He is a wonderful father. I on the other hand am struggling. I am UNBELIEVABLY tired, even with N sleeping through the night. I am thinking maybe my iron levels are off or something because it feels like mono-tired. (I'd say pregnancy tired, but then everyone would ask if I was pregnant again, which I am not. :) Other than that, things are great, work is crazy busy, but it is falling into place with everything else.

Family Time

2011-09-24T13:00:00.000-05:00

My very talented friend Haley came and took family pictures this past weekend since my little brother was home from Iraq. She put a sneak peek on facebook and here are two of my favorites!!

It has been a very long time since we've had any type of professional photos taken and since Chris was in town I really wanted to get pictures of all of us. This one turned out great even though my poor brothers struggle terribly with smiling... they are so awkward when they take photos! Ha! This one turned out better than usual though.

Here were two I took while we were getting ready:

Nana and Caroline

Ava Grace telling me she found dog poo.... good job!

Little brother update: coming home from Iraq

2011-09-11T14:26:00.001-05:00

My little brother has been in Iraq since May and before that was in Texas, so he has yet to meet his new niece and nephew.

We are SO thrilled he will be coming home this coming week if all goes as expected!!

Unfortunately though, we found out last week he had been in the hospital with an appendicitis. His wife hadn't heard from him for several days and was getting very worried. Finally someone called after he'd been in the hospital for 3 days and told her where he was and what he was in for, but it turns out they can't do appendectomies in Iraq.... so my poor little brother has a rotten appendix in Iraq where it is 120+ degrees and is still working (going on missions and keeping things safe). How miserable does that sound?

Please pray for his strength to get through this and that he will be able to come home this weekend. He will only have 10 days off before he has to report back to Iraq and in that time has to have his appendix removed. Y-U-C-K. We are excited to see him though and for him to meet his new family members!

Hi ho hi ho, its off to work we go

2011-09-10T13:46:00.005-05:00

I've been back at work now for 6 days. I started on September 1st, so I only worked two days last week and had a 3 day weekend, then a 4 day week this week. This coming week will be my first full 5-day week back.

It has gone better than I expected. I let myself be very anxious about how I would get everything done during the day and find time to pump and function when I may not get a great night's sleep. Actively listening to people all day long takes a lot of energy... you'd be surprised... One thing I learned last year is that I cannot be the best counselor if I am so tired I can't stay focused on what a student is talking about and truly listen while also paying attention to things that they are not saying, like body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, etc.

I only had one day this week that I didn't get to pump in the afternoon. I am trying to do so twice a day and also on my way to work so that there is only 3-4 hours in between. After missing the afternoon time this week I decided I will just have to schedule myself appointments to do so because otherwise, there is always something that comes up, middle schoolers have a lot of 'crises'!

Ready for school! It was 50-something degrees outside.

N has done well at day care. He is staying at a lady in our neighborhood's home. She keeps 6 kids and she has 3 new babies, whereas she used to have 3 four-year-olds who went off to kindergarten. So she has an 18-month old, 14 month-old, 10 month-old, two 7 month-old twins and a 2 month old. I know that is a big difference and will be a big adjustment for her, hopefully things will go okay for N even though he is the smallest and not always the squeakiest wheel.

We also had his 2 month doctor appointment 2 weeks ago. He was 50th percentile for everything, doctor said he is the 'average white boy', ha! He was 10lbs 2 ounces and 23.5 inches long.

We haven't had too many more milestones this past month except he smiles all the time. Mostly sleeps from 7 or 8 until 1 and then wakes up with me at 5. The funniest part is on the nights when its Ben's duty, N always sleeps through the night!! I don't get it! Last night since it was Friday and I REALLY needed to catch up on sleep, Ben was going to bottle-feed him so I could only wake up to pump when I needed to. Well sweet little baby slept from 9 until 6 this morning! Which is amazing, but I'm going to need him to do this on MY nights!

Here is the best 2 month picture we took:

Taking pictures after day care and work and when a baby is very sleepy does NOT work.

Out to eat at Chuy's on Labor Day

War Eagle!!!

We are having a wonderful Saturday: getting to sleep in and pulling for our tigers to beat Mississippi State! Love it!

Hoo Are You?

2011-08-30T05:15:00.003-05:00

1. What are some of your pet peeves?
Oh gosh, I think of a lot of these throughout the day. My number one pet peeve is clicking, as in clicking pens or popping the back of your phone on and off repeatedly, or taking your watch on and off... drives me NUTS! A few others - when someone asks 'How are you?' and the person says 'Good.' and doesn't return the question. Orrrr...... not waving when someone lets you out in traffic.

2. Do you have a favorite or lucky number?
I really like the number 27. It is the date of my birthday along with my husband's, brother's, nephew's, niece's and uncle's.

3. What is one of your family traditions?
Going to church on Christmas Eve is the only one I can think of right now, but I hope there are a lot of new ones this year and to come since we have the baby! Kids make traditions so much fun!

4. Is there anything you are OC about?
This is a funny answer - as I was thinking about it, the strangeness of my answer came to me. I am OCD about my closet (a little) as in, I want the tank tops to be together, the short sleeve, then long sleeve, etc. Then they are mostly color coded and by the rainbow... yep, seriously. But the funniest part is how much I HATE to put clothes away. I put it off for WEEKS if I can. When I do actually put clothes away, its such an accomplishment I usually call Ben to tell him! Maybe its because of how orderly my closet is?! HA! Its just so hard to find anything if its not in order! And it already takes me long enough to decide what to wear we don't need to add any time to that ordeal.

5. What is your favorite kind of food?
Cereal :) I love all kinds of cereal (but I especially love the horrible, no-good-for-you kids cereal... I won't buy it, but I sure do LOVE it!)

I did it!

2011-08-29T20:59:00.004-05:00

Remember how hard it was to get baby hand prints?!

Well, today I got it! And it turned out better than the first one. (The top left corner was done today.)

I also added my hand print to this canvas because I really had been racking my brain about what else to do with these canvases. At first I was just going to have the baby's hands and feet, but they were too tiny to fill up each canvas. Then I decided that it would be a fun memory to have our whole family on there! :)

Dogs included! (For the record, I don't like Ben's hand and my hand that close together so I'll have to figure out a way to display these that add some distance between the two.)

I think I want to write cute info on these with a paint pen, maybe names, or dates or nicknames (like baby, momma, etc.). But I'm not sure yet. Any suggestions? I just know I want something else on them to liven them up. But, I'm pleased that I have two hands and feet from an infant and two paws of each our dogs! None of which were happy about the project.

Things NOT to do while on maternity leave

2011-08-26T21:32:00.003-05:00

forget how to walk....

This happened Wednesday attempting to walk from my car to my doctors appointment. It was the first time I had worn shoes with a heal bigger than an inch in months. Two steps out of my car and I went down... Thankfully I had not gotten the baby out of the car yet and only me and my iPhone landed on the pavement. I was up pretty quick to avoid any on-lookers coming to help. The worst part - I was on my way to the doctor for a yearly dermatology check where they look at your whole body... yeah, I had to tell several nurses and the doctor that no, I wasn't in a car accident or something dramatic that quite possibly wasn't my fault.
I just fell... outside... in your parking lot....

7 weeks

2011-08-26T21:05:00.003-05:00

Noah,
Today you are 7 whole weeks old! You are precious and we think you are pretty much the best thing in the world. I pray for you every day, sometimes many many times a day and a lot of times the same prayers. I pray that God will protect you (A LOT), keep you healthy and help me to teach you his ways. I pray you will know and love the Lord and your life will be of service to him. He blessed us with you 7 weeks ago and we are so very thankful!

The past 7 weeks
- have flown by!
- you learned to smile. (you laughed a few times in your sleep, but it doesn't count yet.)
- I think you can now see me across the room.
- you can follow me with your eyes as I move away from you.
- you are eating 4 - 6 ounces of breastmilk every 3 to 4 hours! I think you are a piglet :)
- you are typically sleeping 5 - 6 hours in a row at night and surprised us with 8.5 last night!
- you LOVE your baths. Unfortunately the whole process only takes about 5 minutes and I try to stretch it to 10, but there just isn't that much to do in there yet.
- you hate being swaddled and want to be FREEE! :)
- you don't mind tummy time because you think that I'm actually letting you go to sleep on your tummy...
- you are sleeping in a swing because you don't like being swaddled and you can't stop wiggling around when we put you in your crib.
- you love your paci, and I mean LOVE!
- you have no idea that Logan and Sierra try to sneak licks to your feet every hour or so.
- you can hold on to things like your paci or a toy and wave it around, but I don't think you know you are doing it yet, lol.

We are definitely still figuring things out, but hopefully we'll all get better and better about that as you start to fall into a routine (which I think we are in the slow process of!).

I am going to miss you terribly when I go back to work next week, but I know that you have gotten bigger and stronger than you were a few weeks ago. I have loved every second of being home with you and learning who you are.

Favorite Baby Items & Great Tips

2011-08-25T18:36:00.007-05:00

I've been thinking of helpful things to tell some of my friends who are expecting lately and I decided to post them in a blog in case it helps anyone else out there. I was VERY thankful when my friend Johnna would send me emails about what she had learned along the way with her almost two-year-old (and many of these things may be from her, my friend Jessica or other friends who thankfully lent us lots of baby items or advice!).

Some of my most favorite must-have baby items & advice:

Baby Jogger City Mini - My #1 favorite item! I stressed about the stroller for a long time. This was my original choice after reading tons of reviews and websites. I wanted something light weight and easy to fold (you HAVE to watch the thing fold!) that turned and could be pushed with one hand easily. City mini does all those things. I went back to Buy Buy Baby at least 10 times and played with all their strollers just to be sure. The one aspect I didn't love about the City Mini was the storage basket underneath, its not huge. I was worried about it. After stressing over getting a larger stroller or one that doesn't fold as easy, I ended up going with the City Mini and am so glad I did. We of course got the infant car seat adapter, which works perfectly with our Peg Perego and a few other add-ons like a drink holder, a mommy-hook and the cooler (you know for all those picnics I go on).

- Dr. Brown's (or probably any kind) Microwave Sterilizer - this is so easy to throw everything in and stick it in the microwave. I don't know about you, but I don't run my dishwasher everyday and the thought of hand-washing pump, bottle, pacifiers, etc everyday makes me want to step on a nail. I just rinse things as we use them and when I have enough to fill up the basket throw them in. Its done in 6 minutes! (Which is just enough time for me to not forget that I need to get them out and pack things up for the next day, will come in handy when getting ready for work in the morning... if I had to get them out of the dishwasher I'd never remember all my items!)

Two tiered drying racks - definitely cleared up some counter space!

Aden & Anais Burpy Bibs (and pretty much everything they make)- these things are so fabulous, they actually snap so you can use them as a bib, but are big and super absorbent for burp cloths too!

- Mabel's Labels - LOVE these. My friend Jessica had these on the Dr. Brown's bottles she gave us and I ordered my own set for Noah. They are dishwasher AND microwave safe! We just received ours today and I'm very happy with them and the peace of mind that Noah won't be given any other baby's bottles at the sitters :). (Shipping takes a little while, so don't expect them to be in quickly.) I would love other items they have to see how they hold up too - like their clothing labels!

- Cooshee Diaper Changer - Again, thank you Jessica! No more changing sheets! And if you have changed a boy's diaper once or twice, you know their tendency to hose you down. I can't imagine changing a sheet at 3 am... no fun. When we have an accident I just wipe it down with a clorox wipe. Easy peasy. :)

- Baby Elephant Ears - these are great for all those things that baby doesn't quite fit in yet.

- Get a no-touch thermometer BEFORE the baby arrives. Lots of people may want to know his temp those first few days/weeks and its hard to get a wiggly baby's temp in his armpit and I'm not tough enough to stick it anywhere else. (That is the one we have and our doctor uses.)

- Breastfeeding - if pumping hurts, get a different size flange! I am still struggling with this a bit, but just ordered Pumpin' Pals Comfort Pack, so we'll see if these help. I've tried to research a good bit of how things are supposed to fit, but amazingly there aren't many pictures of what things are supposed to look like while pumping (don't worry I won't be doing that sort of review!)

- I have the Medela Pump & Style Advanced that my sister-in-law lent me, it works great. I don't have anything to compare it to, but it does the job and is very easy to cart around. It comes in the little black bag with plenty of room to toss in all your items, including a little cooler it comes with.

- Medela Hands-Free Pumping Bustier - I knew I wanted this straight from the hospital, one time of holding those things while trying to turn the machine on, off or to a different setting and I was done, I don't know how people pump without it!

- How to label breast milk in the fridge? Painter's tape and a sharpie! The tape doesn't leave behind any residue and stays on very well in the fridge. For the freezer I love the Lanisoh storage bags. Easy to label and zip up.

- Johnna told me a very helpful tip - if you are buying a convertible crib, go ahead and buy the converter kit. She found out that her crib was discontinued and couldn't find the kit when it was time to actually convert it.

- Something I wish I had gotten earlier - The Woombie - Noah hates to be swaddled, but didn't mind it when he was tiny. I think had we had this several weeks ago we could have transitioned to this from being swaddled, but still given him some room to wiggle. Currently he doesn't sleep well in his crib because he wakes himself up by smacking himself in the head or knocking his paci out, but he gets VERY angry if he's swaddled. We are using a swing that has a tilt to it because it keeps him snug but he can still move his hands/arms freely. (I think he really wants to be a stomach sleeper because anytime we do 'tummy time' he tucks his arms in and falls asleep! ha!) Another option - Peke Moe. (The Woombie didn't work for us because he still was very mad he couldn't flail his arms around :)

- Join Shutterfly if you haven't already. They have GREAT promotions. I just received a free photobook in the mail from them and got our birth announcements for a very good price and the quality was great! (Also, most of the baby marketing I've received in the mail has had promotion codes on them to use at Shutterfly, $20 off here, 15 free cards here... they all add up! That reminds me, sign up for all the free baby stuff you are offered including all the formula wesbites, they will send LOTS of coupons!)

Another good one - Pampers Gifts to Grow codes - you are using all those diapers and wipes, why not make them worth something?

Okay... is that enough information for one post? What is your can't-live-without baby item or advice? We'd all love to hear!

Baby Handprints... seriously?!

2011-08-22T23:14:00.012-05:00

Everyone has seen those precious baby hand prints stamped on canvases, mugs, t-shirts... right? They look like that above.

Well, my question is, who is able to capture this and more importantly HOW?!

Ben so lovingly bought me a baby book for our anniversary (4 year was fabric and the book has a fabric cover, pretty creative!). In this book are two pages that have been haunting me for over 6 weeks now: Handprints and Footprints.

I definitely want to capture these precious hands and feet and remember how tiny they are, but I haven't exactly known how. I also knew I wanted them on the wall in some way too.

So, this week I made a trip to Michael's and bought my supplies: 4 canvases, blue, green, brown, orange and non-toxic white crayola paint for his hands and feet.

I carefully painted each canvas and gave them ample time to dry...

Then I waited and waited until Noah fell asleep and was moveable, which I thought would be the best time. You agree right?

Wrong...

This was the best of one of our attempts... Seriously, most of them looked like a smashed blob of paint. And then poor Noah looked like this:

Look carefully and yes, there is paint (non-toxic!) on his face, clothes, arms, hands, bouncer....ugh!

Well, two days, three tries, several repainted canvases, a few tears and one freakout at Ben when he tried to leave me alone with a painted baby later:

We have one, albeit, sloppy hand print.

The thing that worked out pretty well though, was the footprint:

This also took a few attempts, which is why one is lighter than the other and I had to repaint this canvas several times, BUT... we have two feet! And a left and a right one at that!

We still have another attempt to capture that right hand... let's hope its soon enough that its not significantly larger than the left one already on the canvas. I may be a professional when this is all said and done.

And a few pictures from this week:

I love him :)

Milkin' Cookies Review

2011-08-18T15:18:00.004-05:00

This is a breastfeeding post so if you don't want to know anything else about breastfeeding, you may want to stop here. If you would like to know more about breastfeeding and cookies, keep reading!

A friend recommended Milkin' Cookies to me after I was telling her that I had started to pump in preparation for going back to work, but because Noah was the slowest eater alive, I wasn't producing as much as I thought I needed to get ready to leave him at day care. I was even pumping after we finished nursing in hopes to get more, but it was very little. So I started to panic (keep in mind, I'm sure he would have gotten plenty and I was probably panicking too soon), and wanted to see what I could do to pump more milk and get ready for leaving him all day.

When looking up what to eat to increase milk production there is a lot of talk of herbs and even prescriptions, but I didn't want to go to that extent, I just wanted to eat things that I may already be eating or should be, but didn't know. That's where Milkin' Cookies comes in. I thought it was worth a try since a 14 day supply (14 cookies) was only $20. I tried to search for reviews of them, but couldn't really find a lot of people who were talking about if they were successful or not so I gave it a shot.

I ordered the cookies and they were at my door 3 days later. Very fast!

I ordered the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. They came individually wrapped which was good, I have been able to throw them in my lunch bag on days I am trying to pack everything I need to take a 6-week-old out of the house (a surprisingly large amount of stuff!).

After buying Voortman Oatmeal Flax Seed Omega-3 cookies (why would anyone ever buy those?! I actually do like these cookies, but an Oatmeal Flax Seed Omega-3 cookie just sounds terrible!), I wasn't expecting these Milkin' Cookies to be much different. BUT, they are delicious! They taste homemade (which the website says they are made upon order) and taste amazing considering the healthier ingredients.

One downfall is that there are almost 200 calories per cookie... that is A LOT! The Voortman cookies only have around 100, which still is high, but has similar ingredients and is A LOT cheaper. $3 for 20 or so. They just don't taste quite as good.

So the real question is, do they help boost milk production? I think this is sort of a what came first the chicken or the egg question. Am I producing more milk today than I was before I started eating these cookies? Yes! About 5 or 6 ounces more per day. But, I've also been working at that by pumping an extra feeding per day and pumping longer than normal. So its very hard to tell if the reason is the cookies or the other factors.

I will most likely not order more of these cookies due to the high cost and calories and will instead stick to the Voortman brand along with other diet choices like oatmeal and higher protein meals. If once I run out of cookies my milk suddenly drops, I will be shocked, but will update the review and give all the credit to Milkin' Cookies... I have about 5 cookies left so we will see! :)

Hoo are you?

2011-08-16T03:04:00.001-05:00

http://nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com/

I cant get the picture to paste here, so the web address will have to do. Link up and follow a long!

Here are this week's questions!

1. If you could choose one of your personality traits to pass on to your children, what would it be? Patience - I think with patience, a lot of other things are easier to do: love, forgiveness, laugh at yourself, etc. All of those require patience.

2. What's your favorite candy bar? The one with chocolate :)....seriously though it's probably a Caramelo, but I'll take anything chocolate.

3. If you could vacation any where in the world, where would it be? I would love to go to Australia! Or Italy! Carribbean! Lol, way too many choices.

4. What 3 adjectives would you use to describe your self? Tired, hungry and happy :)

5. In one word, how would your best friend describe you? Determined.

1 month old!

2011-08-10T10:16:00.006-05:00

Happy 1 month birthday Noah! :)

This is mostly for documentation purposes because I don't want to forget everything as the days FLY by.

Weight: 8lbs 7oz

Noah is doing great. He is sleeping in 4 hour stretches typically and even has 5 hour stretches the past few nights! Last night I actually woke him up after it had been 5 hours because I had pumped and I thought if I don't feed him now, then he'll wake up as soon as I fall back asleep. He is wearing mostly 0-3 month clothes, the newborn sizes are getting a little tight on him.

He is still strictly breastfeeding or being fed breast milk. Here is our situation - he eats SO slow.

Like 45-60 minutes to eat 2 ounces!! When we introduced a bottle last week in preparation for working and I had to go to school for a day, he ate 3 ounces in 15 minutes! I had a hard time letting him have a bottle the first few days, but as it freed me up to sleep or get some things done instead of feeding for a whole hour, I was more in favor of the idea. It also was very frustrating when we'd feed for an hour and sometimes he'd only eat a little over an ounce! (And this was me trying to keep him awake the whole time.) Then one night I fed him and he was still fussing and acting hungry after only getting an ounce from me. I was so tired I went and got a bottle of breast milk and fed it to him, gone in a few minutes and he was satisfied. Since then we have been

alternating feedings between me and a bottle of pumped milk, but I have to say, I can pump and feed him in WAY less time than him eating alone AND he's getting more ounces during the day, which will make him sleep better at night.

I don't know if him being slow is because I had a reduction a few years ago or just because he is SLOW, but I do know he is getting enough food and growing very well, so however we have to do this, I'm happy that he is still getting breast milk.

He held his pacifier last week! I thought that was a huge accomplishment, lol! He grabbed it and waved it around. Now only if he could put it back in his mouth when it falls out. :)

He started smiling AT us two days ago! LOVE this! It isn't very often, just a few times a day and I have to really work for it, but when he does, it melts my heart. He has smiled in his sleep when he is falling asleep since he was born and even laughs in his sleep, but this is the first time he has smiled at us while making eye contact awake. So fun! (I caught him in a huge smile!)

We have traveled out into the world a few times just he and I, he even went with me to the dentist on Monday. We don't go out a ton because it is still easier to stay at home (and sleep), but we've gone to publix and walmart a few times and out to lunch once! (I also think pumping will be easier when we go places because when we went to walmart, I had to sit in the car and feed him for an hour before we could go in... he also only eats when in the football position - very uncomfortable - so its difficult in the car. I can pump in the car in 15 minutes and feed him at the same time!)

He loves his baths! I wish we had more to do in there so he could stay longer, but bathing a 1 month old only really takes a few minutes :) He hates getting out because its so cold.

The dogs also are doing great with him. They really weren't even phased by it, but lately Logan has been sitting by him and when he is squirming and fussing she'll go get close to him like she's trying to fix it. Its cute. Sierra just wants to be anywhere he and I are.

Logan

Sierra

Hoo are you?

2011-08-09T06:46:00.001-05:00

http://nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com/

Here are this week's questions!

1. Do you exercise regularly and what do you do?

Currently, nope, but hopefully one day I will get enough sleep in a 24 hour period that I'll want to exercise again. When I do exercise, I'm a walker and I love being outside. My favorite exercise though is group fitness classes, but I am not currently a member anywhere to go and zumba is expensive! I did buy a wii fit the last month of pregnancy. I can't wait together on there and it think I lost a ton of weight, just for the fact that I'm not pregnant anymore :) my mii was very pudgy the last time i got on there.

2. Do you have any weird sleeping habits?

Waking up every 2-4 hours to a baby :) but no, I dont think anything other than that.

3. How often do you vacuum?

Realistically right now, every 2 weeks, but my goal is at least once a week, that dog hair is terrible and I can't stand dust. (I hate dusting, the only way I've found to get rid of dust is to vacuum it away!)

4.Do you accessorize and if so what is your favorite thing to accessorize with?

On a good day, but I'm a minimalist. Usually just a fun necklace or bracelet is all I do.

5. What is your favorite drink during the summertime?

Mimosas! Or a mexican beer on a beach with the sunset. But it's been a long time since I've had either of those, a good sonic slushy would be a great summer drink right now!

Ok, go to night owl crafting's site above and play along!

Rip Mac

2011-08-04T22:03:00.001-05:00

I think I have an issue with computers in the fact that I cannot keep them alive!

Three years ago my not-so-old dell crashed because it was built wrong and continuously overheated. It crashed 2 weeks after the warranty expired.

We then bought a used computer from some friends of ours for $50 I think and it got the blue screen of death after a few weeks.

We moved on to a Mac since I was having terrible luck with pcs at that point and i thought i needed to branch out.

Enter my MacBook.

I loved (yes, past tense) it! I bought the extra AppleCare knowing my luck and on we went having a wonderful relationship.

Fast forward 3 years and 4 months.... I go to turn my Mac on this week and it beeps at me as though there is a bomb in it. Literally, BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEP!...... And it doesn't stop. Who knew a little computer could make that awful noise?!

I managed to turn it on one more time and save all my pictures (Praise God) because I would have been devastated if I had lost the past 4 weeks of Noah's pictures.... And I took it to the genius bar at the apple store... The diagnosis: a failed motherboard.

Gag... What?!

4 months after my AppleCare ran out! What on earth?!

Here is the dilemma (and I'm too indecisive to pick an option) I can send it off and hope to get it fixed for $300, or buy a new one for $900-ish. Now it sort of sounds like an easy decision, the cheaper one, but again, do I want to spend $300 to fix an already 3.5 year old computer? Or do I want to save up and get a new one???

Hmmm... What do you think? And I am not willing to go to a pc, I definitely want to stick with my Mac. I just love them!

Newborn pictures?

2011-08-04T02:46:00.000-05:00

Does this work?? If not, give up on email blogging, why doesn't blogger have an app?!

Newborn Portraits

2011-08-03T13:37:00.001-05:00

My friend Haley took noah's pictures, she is AMAZING!

.

Catchup - glow worm

2011-08-03T07:30:00.000-05:00

I tried to write a long blog by email, but half my text went missing and my pictures got out of order, so I'm going to try it in segments...

When we first came home, Noah was very jaundice, so they made him have photo-light therapy (at home) until his levels came down. We ate and ate and ate to help those levels, so much so that he was gaining 2 ounces a day! (when we went for his 2-week check up, he had gained 12 ounces! Doctor said it was awesome and he would have been happy with anything over 6 ounces!)

Poor little glow worm:

He was cleared of jaundice in just 48 LONG hours and things went well for a whole week!

Then, we had one night that he cried ALL night long, from 9 pm - 9 am... Only stopping to eat. We called the doctor that morning and went in since he was due for his check up the next day anyway, I was convinced his belly button was infected and was to blame for our awful night. But he was very healthy (praise God) and the doctor mentioned it may just be colic.... To which I cried (and thought about never sleeping again) and prayed and prayed it wasn't, and truly believe the lord has answered our prayer so far because we have had much better nights since then (it's not hard to beat 12 hours of crying!).

2 week appointment: 7lbs 2 oz and 21.5 inches! 75th percentile in length, 25th for weight

Noah's Arrival - the whole story

2011-07-12T21:28:00.013-05:00

Noah is here!

I am actually awake while he is asleep (and hopefully will stay that way for 1 more hour) for the first time since Friday, and I really wanted to document everything I could so I wouldn't forget. I'm definitely having the feeling that time is already going by too quickly (and as though I'm a zombie floating through it).

Last Thursday we had our 39 week appointment. I went in at 4pm and asked if she could strip my membranes since it was something we had talked about the week before. She said she would and told me I was still only around 1.75 dilated, but I was 50% effaced, so we were making progress. She asked about inducing the following week and I did and did not want to do that. I did because I was SO anxious to meet him, but also I wanted to give myself the chance to go into labor without drugs if I could. I had had a ton of contractions all week (even days where I was convinced this was it and then they would just stop). So we tentatively set to induce on July 14, his due date, but she said I can call and cancel or move it sooner if I wanted after I had the time to think about it.

Well, we went home I was disapointed and stuck about the induction. I came home sat on the exercise ball awhile and I think I may have even done some step on the Wii Fit. (I'm still mad I can't get a decent score on beginner step on the wii.) Around 8pm contractions started again, but they were similar to the day before so I just walked and walked (paced the length of my house) and decided to lay down since the contractions were still 10 minutes apart. At 12:30am the contractions became stronger. I put each one into my app I downloaded (VERY useful by the way) and they were still 10 minutes apart, but I got up and kept walking letting Ben stay asleep. By 1:30 they started getting 2-3 minutes apart and getting much worse... and I walked. At 2:30, 1 hour of 2-3 minute contractions I woke Ben up and told him he may want to let the dogs out in case this was really it. He was convinced it wasn't really it. I walked... 3:15 - contractions STILL 2-3 minutes apart. Doctors orders were to call when they were at least 5 minutes apart for 2 hours and 60 seconds long. At 3:30 I decided to call since it had been 2 hours and I really needed someone to tell me something. I could not talk through them anymore and couldn't walk through them, but just stand and breath.

We paged the doctor and she called back telling Ben it sounded like it was really labor and I could either stay at home longer or come in, our choice. I knew I wanted to go in because again, I just needed someone who knew what was going on to tell me.

We got there at 4:30 (The car ride was the worst.) and they asked if I was going natural or not. (We attended the medicated AND natural labor classes in case and I wanted to be able to attempt naturally if I could, but had discussed my reservations about the epidural with my doctor at length so I felt like we were in good hands either way.

So they put us in a natural room (bigger) and told me to keep walking. The nurse checked me at 5:30 and said I was still only 2 cm (HUGE let down... I thought, all this and nothing?!) but I was now 80% effaced. She said keep walking. (I think the worst of this was how close the contractions were, I didn't have any recovery time between them.) My doctor would be in at 7 so we had awhile to go. My biggest concern was if they were going to send me home? I knew I could not handle going home at this point, it was way too painful. She said absolutely not since the contractions were still around 2.5 minutes apart, she was just hoping they would get a little longer to be more effective.

7 am finally rolls around and my doctor gets there. I am still pacing back and forth while Ben attempts his best at calming me through each contraction, we tried all the natural labor techniques and none of them were helping. Doctor checked me and I'm STILL 2 freaking cm dilated! Shoot me... I was 100% effaced at this point, but she said she was going to have to give me pitocin to help things along. I said that was fine because at this rate I felt like I may be in labor until Monday. She gave me pitocin and broke my water shortly after 7am. Still going 'naturally', except now I couldn't walk, I was confined to the bed.

The contractions got stronger and longer just as they were supposed to. 8am rolled around and it was unbearable. Ben's telling me to breath and I feel like I'm going to jump out of my skin, I just can't move in any position to cope with the contractions that were coming in couplets as they called them (one really strong one, then immediately a slightly less strong one, over and over). I didn't have any relief in between them still. Ben did the best job though. He stayed next to the bed, let me grab and squeeze any arm/hand I could get a hold of and calmly kept reminding me they would be better if I could breath and relax. At 9:30 they came to check me and I was 3cm.... only 3! I had had enough. 2 hours of pitocin and contractions, with such little progress and I said I do not care what on earth they give me, but I can't handle it any longer. Ben asked if I was positive and I called the nurse desperate.

My doctor came in and had gone over the nurse all of my concerns (low blood pressure - I have very low blood pressure as it is), sick (I do not handle any type of anesthesia/meds well) and panicking (again, just the fact that I don't handle things well I tend to get myself into a panic over being numb, etc.). So my nurse was very helpful about everything and I had previously told the doctor IF we got an epidural I would still like to feel as much as I could.

The anesthesiologist came in and did the epidural while I had 2 contractions to try to sit still through... very tough. But immediately I could tolerate them again, they weren't gone, but I no longer felt like I was dying.

The epidural was done very well. I didn't sleep though because I was afraid that if I fell asleep I would quit breathing (I'm telling you, way panicky about drugs), but the nurse kept telling me I need to rest as much as I could, I was only sick for a short time and they quickly put some zofram in my IV to calm that down. I turned on my praise music on my iphone and speakers we brought and just tried to stay with God as much as I could that I would be fine. I never lost feeling in my right leg at all and could still move both of them, one more so than other, and could still feel each contraction, just less.

Around 11am Noah's heart rate started dipping though so they had to put me on oxygen... no fun. It was more just awkward and made me worry about him, but they said it did the trick and it was likely the position I had been laying in, but I had to stay on it anyways.

12:30pm - My doctor's shift is over and she comes to check me, I am barely 4cm. She tells us to brace that it will be a long day, but that baby and me were handling it well so she had no concerns about an c-section. We called our family and said don't bother coming up anytime soon, we would likely be here another 6-8 hours waiting (..5-1cm per hour is what the doc said is normal). She said she'll pop back in to say goodbye, but was sending in the on-call doctor also.

Dr. H (on-call doctor) came in and we had already heard wonderful things about him from other patients of his, so I was very relieved that he was the one on-call. He was very nice, professional and reassuring about everything.

About 30 minutes later when the nurse came in I told her I was feeling like I had to go to the restroom and she said it was normal it was just the baby making his way down, but that I didn't likely actually have to go. I agreed, but could not shake the feeling. 30 minutes go by and I buzzed her and said I really really felt like I needed to and I couldn't stop thinking about it. She said she would go ahead and check me to be sure. When she did she said, "Oh! you are 10 cm!! are you ready to push??" I was shocked! The doctor had just left telling us it would be hours and here we were less than an hour later.

I could feel every single contraction still and knew when I felt like I had to push so I told her I was very ready. She let the doctor know and we started pushing. What Ben estimated about 10 contractions later (it seemed VERY fast to me), Noah graced us with his presence on 7/8 at 2:20pm. He weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 20.5 inches long. He was PRECIOUS!

My favorite part about our hospital is how much they stress kangaroo care and a peaceful recovery. (The labor/delivery rooms are not the same as postpartum rooms for this reason.) As soon as he was born they placed him on me and he screamed and screamed, so loud I had to nearly cover my ears, but it was a good cry they said. Briefly, they took him off did a quick check of him, cleaned him off really well and wrapped him under my gown. He laid there so contently as Ben and I stared in awe at him. I was so thankful for that time just being there with him quiet and peaceful without anyone rushing in to see him or whisking him off to a nursery. Ben called our moms, who were not so thrilled that we had a baby without their knowing, but we went from 4cm to 10cm so fast that there wasn't exactly time to make phone calls. It was rather sudden. (And since they could not come into recovery, they had plenty of time to get to the hospital before we would move rooms.)

I think we were in there with him for at least an hour or hour & a half before they asked if we were ready to move to our postpartum room. By that time both our moms had arrived and were biting at the bit to see him. They wheeled us upstairs and got us settled. I think at that point I was the most tired I had been in my life. I had not slept in 2 days and the pushing, which I thought went very well, made me feel like I had just worked out harder than I had my whole life. I felt everything, just not too painfully and never felt like I didn't know how to push (I've heard people can't push b/c they are too numb) so it went quickly and very smoothly. Ben doesn't remember much of that time, he was so in shock.

We spent a little less than 48 hours in the hospital after he was born. We had amazing nurses, doctors and staff who were so helpful. The lactation department came every day to help, but the nurses were so good at breastfeeding that they were just as helpful. They brought me a pump as soon as I got into the room since I had a reduction a few years ago, but I felt like Noah and I are doing pretty well at it so far. We kept him in the room with us the whole time and felt like we weren't too zombie like from no sleep, but we didn't have any visitors besides family so that helped with not becoming too exhausted or overwhelmed.

I am just in awe of this past week. I cannot believe I have a child. I cannot believe how much I love him and how precious I think he is. I cannot believe I am no longer pregnant and a little bit of me misses it, but I love where we are too.

Ben has been tremendous. We just are so blessed. I want every single second to just slow down. (I may need to re-read this in about 7 hours when he's been up all night.... currently we still have a sleeping baby.) Praise the Lord from whom all blessings flow. I am so thankful to God for getting me through labor, for giving us this child of His to raise and love and every moment of each day.

Birth Announcement

2011-07-08T18:16:00.000-05:00

Triple Play Blue Birth Announcement

Shutterfly has custom baby invitations and birth announcements.

View the entire collection of cards.

We have a winner!

2011-07-05T21:37:00.004-05:00

I know most of you have been just as stressed as I have about my car seat situation. I have researched online as much as I could and went to Buy Buy Baby twice to try out different car seats. The first time was a failure as every car seat the guy working told me to try out were the same size as the one I already had! So, the second time Ben and I went together to actually look at larger car seats that stay in the car as a last resort instead of buying a new car. While there he found one he thought was smaller so we put it in the car and viola! It fit!! It was about 3 or 4 inches shorter than the car seat we were going to use so I can comfortably fit it behind the driver's seat and still drive! (Everyone has told me to put it on the passenger side, but the driver's side was the big test in case Ben was riding in the passenger side.)

Anyways, so our new car seat is a:

Peg Perego SIP 30/30! Its cute, all black and mostly I love it. I don't love the canopy a ton because it doesn't quite pop into place easily, but it DOES fit onto our Stroller - City Mini Car Seat adapter and most importantly is MUCH cheaper than buying a new car! Now we are officially ready to have a baby and drive home :)

As an update - I am 39 weeks pregnant today! I have been having contractions since Sunday, but they have not amounted to anything yet since I'm still here. Today I was actually convinced that early labor had started and maybe we'd have a baby within the next day or two, but by the time I was getting ready for bed, all contractions had stopped. Boo. We have our appointment this afternoon (yes, it is 4:30am right now) so we'll see. I can't sleep any more though, its as if I'm getting ready to not be able to sleep and survive off of just a few hours of sleep at night and a short nap during the day... I'm not exhausted either, probably just anxious.

5QF

2011-07-01T16:22:00.002-05:00

I'm really catching up on blogging this week! I thought I'd participate in this week's 5 Question Friday from My Little Life.

1. If you had the opportunity to bungee jump, would you?

Never, ever, ever, ever! I used to want to skydive, back when I was having a quarter-life crisis, but that faded quickly when I became scared of dying again. In fact, I'm so panicked about dying sometimes that if Ben drives too fast on a scary bridge I've been known to lose it a time or two.

2. Would you rather go to the movie theater or to the drive-in?

Well, I think a movie theater, but I've never been to a drive-in. There are a few in our area (which means within 45 minutes or so), but I've never had a desire to go. The movies has really good popcorn too, yum!

3. Do you have your groceries delivered?

Uh... no. Does anyone?? That would probably help out with the budget if I didn't have to walk down the isles being tempted by cookies and ice cream!

4. Eyebrows: Do you wax, thread, pluck, or stay au naturel?

Pluck. I turn into a tomato if I get them waxed and it usually takes a day or two to subside.

5. Would the people you went to high school with be surprised by your life today?

Probably not since we are all stalkers on facebook. I mean really, would anyone be surprised by anyone if you are on facebook? Pretty much takes the mystery out of it. We actually have our 10 year reunion coming up and I can't help but think that I already know what everyone is up to b/c of facebook. Granted, I'd still like to actually TALK to those people, so I may still go.

Link up and play along. Happy 4th of July weekend!

38 weeks

2011-07-01T12:25:00.005-05:00

Its funny, how quickly I can go from the bliss of pregnancy to, okay... I'm done!

I still have 2 weeks to go, but I am REALLY ready to meet him!! Its not that I assume I'll go into labor early, but the part that is killing me is I'm off work and this time could be WITH him getting to know each other! I don't want him to come early if he is not ready of course, but I am ready for him to be ready!!

Yesterday's appointment was not too exciting. I really was hoping to keep progressing even if it was just 1 more cm, but she said there wasn't much progress. I think she wanted to make me feel better so she said I could be 1.5cm! At least I didn't go backwards right? I also forgot to ask how big I was measuring, but I'm sure I'll be back there next Thursday at 39 weeks so I'll find out then. I've even been walking every day for weeks now and sit on the exercise ball when I'm watching tv and all of the other crazy myths out there to hope for progress, but apparently they don't work and I'm tired of eating jalapenos. (I will NOT try castor oil.... YUCK!) I have not even had very many braxton hicks contractions in over a week and a half. Probably the reason for no progress, but I don't know how to make them come back.

I did LOSE 3lbs though!! That is definitely something to celebrate :) I'm not nearly as swollen as I had been since I'm not sitting at my desk during the day, so I'm sure that is the reason.

Anyways, I pouted for a ~~few hours~~ minute, but I'm back to trying to stay active today - I know it will make me feel much better whenever he is ready to make his grand entrance! :)

38 weeks and no makeup:

The Vibe

2011-06-29T15:46:00.007-05:00

(This is not my actual car, but looks identical, picture from Earthy Cars Blog)

Yesterday I decided was a good day to put the carseat in the car and get it out of the house. I went to put it in and it didn't fit... I thought, well that is impossible. I'm pretty sure car seats should fit in cars, especially my Pontiac Vibe. So I fought with it for a few minutes until I just got mad and decided I was going to go the firestation to have someone show me how to install it. (Ben installed the base, I was just attempting to get the seat attached to the base... not supposed to be difficult.)

Well, turns out, you cannot have the base in the middle of the backseat b/c there is no latch system there (where we had it installed). I had to choose either the driver or passenger side for the nice fire fighters to install it. I opted for the driver's side thinking that would be easiest to get him in and out.

When they finished they said okay, you can move your seat back now so I squeezed myself behind the steering wheel and.... not so much. My seat could not go back with the car seat behind my seat! The 3 fire fighters couldn't help but laugh as my belly was squished up on the steering wheel! So, one said we would have to put it on the passenger side and asked me if anyone rode over there often, I said, my 6'4" husband.... He just laughed and said, well he may not like to ride over there anymore.

The car seat (facing backwards) does not let me put my front seats back to a normal riding position and I am SO sad! (All I kept thinking yesterday was, what if I was having twins still... I would have probably realized at the hospital that I would need to borrow a car to get them home!)

I love my car... LOVE IT!. I get around 32 mpg and its small, but not tiny... and a hatch back so the dogs can just hop in the back if I ever go anywhere. But now, I'm thinking how are we going to make my car work when we can't drive/ride comfortably with the car seat? Just not leave the house?

The other problem is my car is 5 years old. It has 150K miles on it, BUT nearly 95% of those are interstate miles and we have never had a problem with any of it. It should last us until 300K miles! (And prior to yesterday, I was prepared to drive it that far!) So we couldn't trade it in for what it should be worth.

I'm now a little stressed about the car situation and Ben being the free-spirit (Dave Ramsey's term for spender) of the family, would be happy for us to go get a bigger car. I'm torn though. I didn't plan for a new car and according to Dave, I should save up, pay cash for what I can afford and buy used.... well that involves planning and saving for it, which I have not done.

Ben even stopped at car max yesterday on his way home... another problem - we have a tiny, two-car garage. Currently in the garage is my vibe and Ben's rock-crawling buggy. Outside in our small driveway are his work truck and his big truck. Where on earth would another car go?! (because he says we would never get what the Vibe is worth so we should just keep it and it could be his around town car... I think he really just wants to start a collection of vehicles, lol!)

Well, since I haven't talked myself into buying a new car while typing this blog, I'm off to our 38 week doctor appointment! Wish us luck for some progress :)

Things people don't tell you

2011-06-29T06:26:00.002-05:00

I think this is a good follow up from my last post since people like to tell you too much, what happened to the stuff they forget to tell you?

Well for one: no one told me that my hands/arms would fall asleep or get carpal tunnel so bad. This was a new and random one for me. It actually does make it very difficult to sleep if don't end up in the right position and both arms and hands go numb (making me feel like I could be close to losing them if I don't reposition quickly!). I have a friend that gets it during the day really bad too though, so it apparently can happen day or night - something about the swelling pressing on nerves...

So I want to know, what are some of the things people have NOT told you that you wish you had known?

Irritated

2011-06-27T10:18:00.004-05:00

Today is my first day officially off work and I'm thrilled. Except I've been trying fight the irritation that comes from people's stupid comments all weekend... I think it has just built up and now I'm tired and done with hearing it.

What irritates me the most are the people who tell you what you ARE going to do. For instance, that 'you're feet WILL grow a size because you are pregnant and none of your shoes will ever fit again... EVER... because it happens to everyone'. Well, no, it doesn't happen to everyone. NOTHING happens to everyone. Every single person and pregnancy is different. There are probably more people who have told me that their swelling went down after they delivered and all was well in the shoe-world again than those who said their feet were never the same.

The worst? The 'just wait' or 'you have no idea' comments. Those are my favorite. The 'you have no idea how much sleep you will never get again for the rest of your ENTIRE life' or 'just wait until he kicks you all night long that you are in so much pain and can't sleep'. Seriously... don't tell me to just wait on something terrible, or I have no idea how horrible something will be! That goes along with your horrible delivery, horrible breastfeeding, or horrible you knew someone who knew someone whose baby died at some point in their life story! WHY WOULD YOU TELL ANYONE THAT!??! (Unless you are telling me so I can make precautions - like don't leave cords near crib slats that a baby could get tangled in - that is helpful)

I even had someone tell me that I will love the baby more than my husband and that Ben will just have to take a backseat once he arrives. As though the only reason I even married Ben was to get this child and now that I will have him, Ben is useless. Seriously?! God intended me to have a God-centered marriage, not a child-centered one.

I've caught Ben saying, 'just wait' to some of our friends who are a few months behind us pregnancy-wise and I've told him everytime because he said he couldn't stand it either, but now he's saying it! I told him he can only say it in a positive, just wait, this is so wonderful way. Then you are giving them something to look forward to.

What I do appreciate though are people who tell me THEIR stories and don't make it something that is inevitably going to happen to me. I can tell you already there are probably 25 terrible things that people have said 'just wait' about that truly have not happened at all! And if trying to google an answer to anything pregnancy-related is any indicator, you can find 4,623,982 different things that have happened to any given person regarding the exact same question. So pretty much the only thing that all people share during pregnancy is they all grow a baby. Some gain zero weight, some gain 100lbs, some never feel the baby, some wish the baby would settle down for 3 seconds, sometimes people are heavier for the rest of their life after pregnancy, some are skinnier than they've ever been!

I can say that this pregnancy has been truly a blessing and something I will miss terribly. It has been the sweetest, most surreal experience of my life thus far, and I am so thankful. I really will miss feeling his kicks and twists during the days/nights. I will miss him being able to go everywhere with me. I have had zero complications and am so thankful to still be able to go on long walks with the dogs and sleep pretty well (I've never been a great sleeper, so I don't have much to compare to). I AM ready to have the baby because I am so anxious to meet him, but it is very bitter-sweet because I know I will miss this time so much too. Someone told me yesterday they could see how Mrs. Duggar has had 19 (20?) kids, that being pregnant and having a little baby is so sweet, its somewhat addicting. Those thoughts and stories, I welcome and am so thankful to hear. (But no worries, I'm pretty sure Ben would go get surgery if I pushed him beyond 2 or 3 kids!)

*Another VERY helpful thing - mom's who have passed on advice about items they couldn't live without, things that are very useless or something they had to figure out trial/error. This I've appreciated so much!

What to do.... A belly pic and the little brother.

2011-06-23T20:08:00.006-05:00

37 weeks today!

And it was my last day at work until the baby arrives! I have NO idea what I am going to do with myself if he really doesn't come for 3 more weeks. I don't think I've had this much time off since the summer after high school? Geez. I'm crossing my fingers and walking my butt off in hopes he will not be late otherwise I may have to resort to actually cleaning the baseboards in the house. (Does anyone seriously do that? I always look at people's baseboards when I go to their house because I want to know, who does that and how often?! I'm a great house-guest.)

Today at the doctor: 135 heartrate which is where he has been for months now, a gain of 3lbs.... in my ankles. Seriously, I gained 3lbs in 1 week and officially have the fattest ankles/feet in the history of the world. The doctor compared them to that of a Flintstones character. I laughed while small tears welled up in my eyes.... No, not really, I only cry when Ben eats the last of the ice cream. There really is just no stopping me. As of this morning on my scale I've gained 40lbs (I used to think that was an impossible figure), but according to the doctor I've only gained 38, woo! 3 weeks to go, you think I can not gain 9 more pounds?!

Anyways, here we go:

This took 9 tries for Ben on my iPhone so we have to be grateful for what we get. :)

In other news: my little brother has been in Iraq for almost a month now. We FINALLY talked to him on Sunday. He said it is 120 degrees there and he has to walk to use the phones, which is probably why we haven't heard from him. I don't think I'd walk anywhere if it were 120 degrees... I don't even like moving when its above 80! Please keep him and his platoon in your prayers. He is a combat medic, but it does not sound like that is what he is doing while he is there. He said he goes on missions to find bombs and bad guys (except he had much more sophisticated words for both) each day and then they return, eat, shower and sleep and start the whole thing over again. His words were: "I'm living in groundhog day."

He makes the best out of it though, he said nothing is too terrible, but we are worried that since they are shutting everything down gradually, he said he will be losing internet and phones shortly. I have no idea what that would mean for him though, if he would have to continue to stay there or be transferred somewhere else.

Happy Friday to you!

36 weeks

2011-06-18T09:42:00.004-05:00

We had our 36th week appointment and last baby class this past week! We are definitely getting close now.

I wasn't going to post about this, but I thought I should for my own sake so I could remember everything.

The appointment went good. Heartbeat was at 140 as usual. My feet are swollen as can be... so my 5lb weight gain in 2 weeks didn't surprise my doctor, although I was HORRIFIED! I'm going to try to eat very healthy this week and see if I can maybe not gain 3-5lbs in a week. I don't know if this is too much info, but I am dilated 1/2 cm! yay! At least its not zero :) We are still walking at least 1 mile a day. (We - me, Ben and the pups) and my blood pressure was low (my normal) for everyone who thinks that my terribly swollen feet mean I have preeclampsia.... including the lady at chick-fil-a.... Little baby is still moving around a good bit, although his moving is getting more and more cramped.

Our last class was a breastfeeding class where she talked WAAAY too much about support groups and not enough about pumping when you go back to work which is what everyone wanted to know. Ben was bored out of his mind... and I can't blame him. The first 15 minutes were interesting and helpful then the last 2 hours and 15 minutes were not so great. So if you have any info about pumping such as when you should start, how often, etc. I'd appreciate it. I have already read a book on breast feeding, but it wasn't super detailed on pumping either.

37 weeks is just a few days away! Hooray! I am so anxious to meet this little guy!

Baby Wreath

2011-06-13T20:02:00.001-05:00

I told you a few days ago I was feeling crafty with all this extra time on my hands!

I decided to make the wreath for our hospital door. If you google 'ribbon wreath' you will get hundreds of tutorials and pictures. Even some that are for sale for hundreds of dollars (?!). I decided I could probably do it myself, although I was aware my level of perfection would be much less than those for sale.

The supplies: 1 plasti-foam wreath, 4 spools of various ribbon, quilting pins and the letters. Total I spent about $23. (Would have been less if I would have called my friend Charelette who told me to look for fake flowers at the dollar store, I bet I could have found cheaper ribbon there too! - lesson learned).

Step 1:
Step 2: Keep going...
Step 3: Ta-da!
I don't know that I have officially put out there what our sweet little child's name will be, but there ya go! No secrets now :) The letters are a light brown, iPhone wanted them to look more purple... I think it turned out pretty good and can't wait to put it up when he is born!

4 weeks and 2 days until the due date! I am feeling great, no complaints at all. We are hoping he will be ready and come early though because my last day of work is June 23rd and I would LOVE to spend more time with him than without him, but I am fully aware that 1st babies are usually pretty content cooking in the belly. If he goes past his due date I will have to take longer maternity leave and possibly unpaid because school starts back beginning of August. Plus he'll be much younger going to the sitters :( C'mon June 24th! ha!

We have our CPR and breastfeeding class left to go and the nursery still looks like a hoarder owns it. I'm hoping to get my shelves back this week or weekend (my dad is painting them) and then we'll have to figure out where to put everything.

A few more shots

2011-06-12T19:45:00.003-05:00

Haley Graydon Photography gave me my maternity shots this week and I wanted to post two more that I really love! No belly shots, but I just love them:

Color Change

2011-06-09T15:42:00.002-05:00

Okay, the P turned light green. MUCH better to have color (especially on my white door... having color in my life is very much a work in progress. I LOVE color, I just have no idea how to use it!

Up next - hospital wreath!

5 years later - crafts!

2011-06-07T22:03:00.006-05:00

I think it has literally been 5 years since I have done any sort of 'do it yourself' project - although there have been many on the list. 5 years ago I graduated college, looked for work, planned a wedding, got married, went to grad school and then started my first counseling job.... leading us to the present!

Now, school is out. I work 10 hour days/4 days a week for 2.5 more weeks, and things are pretty calm and quiet. I decided it was time to break out the mini glue gun and make some fun things (some of you may call this nesting.... but I refuse the term).

Plus, this is for my front door, so does it count as nesting if its not for baby?

Anyways, I follow several crafty blogs and am ALWAYS fascinated by what they can put together with some elbow grease and a glue gun. Shocked and amazed are also appropriate words when I see what people can do with a few dollars and an item from the thrift store.

I saw a picture over at Liz Marie Blog, and thought, I could maybe... possibly... do that.

Off to Michael's I went, because I do still have a few baby things on the agenda also, like the baby wreath for the hospital door/nursery and I really want some scripture over his bed. I've decided with 5 weeks to go, its not going to paint itself and I better get moving if I want anything to be done.

Here is her picture:
So cute right?!

Well, you know I have no creativity with color, so I had every intention of copying her exactly, turning to G into P.... but Michael's was out of all of the above items.

My materials: One wreath that I didn't notice was lopsided until I took this picture, the letter 'P', one strand of white random flowers and one set of purple puffy flower balls (its no wonder I'm not a florist as well).

Total cost, maybe $17.... because they were out of a lot of flowers, the ones I chose ended up costing $11.

And my finished product:
I had to pick the purple fuzzy flower balls because they had no green and they only had one strand of the white flowers like hers, and I needed at least 2. Also... I'm pretty sure I should invest in some paint other than white :) Purple?! Maybe that P will get redone in the next few days.

But its cute! And ready for summer on my front door.

The Never-Ending Nursery

2011-06-01T19:52:00.005-05:00

We are still ticking away at the weeks/days before our sweet child arrives and yet the nursery seems to be far from finished.

Phase 1: We painted - success!

Phase 2: Order furniture - Not so successful. We ordered furniture from Legacy because it was the same company we ordered our bedroom furniture from and we knew it was good quality. Well, the kids dresser came in and it was awful. For nearly the same price as an adult dresser we got a dresser that was flimsy and appeared to be made of plywood and much smaller than I imagined (no I didn't see it in person before we ordered...). Thankfully, the wonderful Alabama Furniture Market, where we buy our furniture from, allowed us to exchange it.

Bring on Phase 3.... the search for another dresser that matched the crib. Again, unsuccessful. We knew that the crib matched our bedroom dresser (unintentionally), but I was very against having two of the same dressers in the house. Well, three weeks later of looking, phone calls and color samples, we ordered the same dresser.

Today the dresser came in! Hooray!!! (it looks small in this picture, but it is definitely not).

Now we are at Phase 4.... how does this all fit into this room?!?!

I plotted it out on Pottery Barn Kids for about an hour without getting too excited about any of the layouts I could come up with.

Here is how it was set up when the dresser came out of the box:
What I do not like about this is the bottom left corner - those are two bookshelves next to a window. Leaving that awkward empty corner. The crib is against the top wall and the dresser against the right side wall.

We pushed it around for about an hour after that and again ended up unsatisfied and giving up with it all sitting randomly in the center of the room...

Which brings me to my next problem.... I do not like the color of the shelves compared to the crib... AT ALL. So I'm back to having to paint. I'm thinking of painting them a sage/green color. What do you think? And when will you be coming to my house to arrange my furniture?

Before

2011-05-25T16:00:00.000-05:00

I just uploaded months of pictures from my iphone and I can't help but wonder.... will I ever look like that again?!

One more from the recent maternity shoot:

Here I am!

2011-05-24T20:48:00.002-05:00

Due to pure laziness I have no pictures to post, but I do have bedroom furniture and a crib with no mattress!! Yay!! In a quick update, we picked up the crib and dresser we ordered, but I hated the dresser... I was so dissappointed, so we took it back. Now we are waiting on the new one to come in and THEN I'll post pictures :) Hopefully it will arrive before we have a baby. Nothing like cutting things close.

Ben asked when I was going to get the nursery ready. I told him, the bassinet is washed and ready, so I'm good. :) I mean what else do you need to have a baby?! I have a basket of clothes that people have given me, a bassinet and some bottles... I'm good! (I guess I should get some diapers too, they may come in handy...)

I had my 32nd week appointment last week, and everything was great. 140ish heartbeat, which is where he's been sitting for a while now. Head is down and ready! I will be 33 weeks this Thursday and we are already into our 2 week appointments.

Lots of baby movement, stretches and jumps that I can see on the outside of my belly now. And no stretch marks still!!! Woop! Now I'm just trying to ward off any unnecessary pounds by attempting to not eat 43 desserts a day. (Do you know how I remember to spell desserts compared to desert? Because desserts has two 's's.... similarly, I'd like two or more desserts, thanks!)

In school news - tomorrow is our LAST day with students! How is it possible that I survived my first year of counseling?! I hope and pray that I have made a difference in these kids lives. I'll update more later, but will be working most of June since I am a 10-month employee. After I get things wrapped up, maybe I'll have time to reflect on the year behind me and give you some insight.

Happy last week of school!

Maternity Shoot

2011-05-14T14:23:00.004-05:00

My friend Haley Graydon took pictures of Ben and I today and I just cannot wait to share. She did such an amazing job!!!

To see more, search facebook for Haley Graydon Photography... click 'like' and you should be able to view what she has uploaded so far. We took these THIS morning and she already uploaded 8 and she's out at another photo shoot this afternoon. I don't know how she finds the time.

28 & 29 Weeks Pregnant

2011-05-02T20:17:00.004-05:00

Here I was 28 weeks (and 6 days) pregnant on my 28th birthday.

How far along? Today I am 29 weeks 5 days

Total weight gain/loss: Bleh... 25ish pounds. I was sitting pretty around 20lbs until this past weekend, from Wednesday through Sunday I gained 5lbs (no power = lots of eating out). Here's hoping some water and healthy eating over the next few days will help me level back out.

Maternity clothes? Even those are starting to not fit well!!

Stretch marks? Not yet!

Sleep: is precious :) and very hard to find.

Best moment this week: Hmm... best pregnancy moment? Making it to nearly 30 weeks??

Movement: All day long! I had to emotionally talk to faculty today with baby hiccups constantly in my belly.

Food cravings: Nothing! Heartburn is so terrible I don't want any food!

Gender: We assume he's still a boy!

Labor Signs: None yet, hallelujah!

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? I actually took it off today. I think the sudden 5lb gain made my fingers fatter too.

What I miss: Being heartburn free and sleeping on my stomach.

What I am looking forward to: Having a baby on the outside instead of the inside.

Weekly Wisdom: Everyone tells me to keep eating and not worry about weight gain, but I really don't think I need to continuously eat.... lol!

Milestones:
That I am still pregnant! Now that I'm nearing the last 10 weeks, I'm just thankful that he is doing great in there without any complications. I don't expect any either, so hopefully he'll be a healthy little chunk come July.

And this was 29 weeks pregnant 3 days:

A birthday I will never forget

2011-05-01T11:43:00.005-05:00

I'm sure you have seen all of the footage from the tornados that ravaged the south. I've heard there were over 100 that touched down that day, but the one that hundreds of thousands will never forget was on the ground for an estimated 180 miles... ON THE GROUND!!

Here is a video if you have been hiding out (or maybe they haven't showed the 24/7 coverage in your area like here).

This guy is crazy....

Anyways, it was a very scary day and yes, also happened to be my birthday. My 28th birthday.

The plan was that we were going to have school and host my first Career Day at the middle school and then we knew bad weather was expected and thought we'd possibly get out half a day like we had twice in the past two weeks. Well, at 5:30am Ben and I woke up to horrible rain, wind and limbs falling on the house and went and got in the bathroom. Our power was already out at this point, so we just waited for it to pass.

Once it did, school was canceled because this brief storm caused quite a bit of damage already through Tuscaloosa. We managed to slip out during lunch, while it was sunny as could be, and grab a few cupcakes and get lunch before we hurried back home. On our way out though, what we saw was that about 1/2 mile from our house our neighbors houses were destroyed from that mornings storm. Power lines were down everywhere and trees through their houses and yet, this was minuscule for what was to come.

We made it home and I had my iPhone trying to listen to continuous coverage at that point because there had already been several monster tornados destroy towns like Cullman (hour north of us). The tornado in Tuscaloosa formed shortly after and I lost it, I could see bits and pieces of it on my iphone and they kept saying it was atleast 1/2 a mile wide. I was horrified for my friends, school and my students in Tuscaloosa (thankfully, I had heard from my nephew who lives just north of the path that he was okay) and yet the tornado was still on the ground moving towards us. As our FAVORITE meteorologist James Spann was calling out towns, Ben kept saying, if we hear Brookwood, we'll go to the neighbor's basement. Well, sure enough he said, if you are near Brookwood take cover immediately. So we went with the dogs to their basement and huddled up in the corner of their garage praying it would miss us, and thank the Lord it did.

Here is a picture of the path from NOAA. We live about 10 miles northwest of that 11 symbol.

My cousin John, from Tallahassee, was texting me letting me know where it was because we were still relying on spotty cell phone streaming or the radio station (who was also streaming the coverage from the djs iphone and playing it over the air... not kidding).

Once we were sure it had passed, we just waited and listened to see where it was going next. Onto Birmingham, it demolished (I don't even think that word does justice to the devastation it caused) five or six towns in the way and continued on past Birmingham up towards Gadsden where my brother's family lives, sparing them also, thank the Lord.

Here is a preliminary track picture from the National Weather Service showing the tornadoes from Wednesday. The huge one is in pink, still unconfirmed if it was an EF-4 or EF-5.

We remained without power until late last night, but are so thankful to be alive. The main tornado in Tuscaloosa missed my school, but hit several others in my system and the city's school system. Ben's boss's home was completely destroyed while they were in it, the only thing left standing was the hallway walls, the place they were huddled as it went over them. If you have not seen pictures of what these tornadoes did, just google it, there are millions out there. NOAA has before and after pictures as well. Its just heartbreaking. Yet, there are so many blessings in spite of this terrible disaster that went through our state. I know God is here and everywhere helping to give people hope and healing in this devastating time.

As of this morning there are still 420 people missing and somewhere around 250 confirmed deaths. Please pray for each of these people missing that they will be found alive or were able to find shelter and just cannot get in touch with loved ones due to power outages.

This morning in church as we discussed the process and need for rescue and recovery, we were told that this will take at least 1000 days for people to recover from. Almost 3 years. If you would like to donate, there are dozens of places accepting. Our church is also accepting donations through North Alabama UMC. Just really think how it is God can use you during this time of need.

Fly Fly Away

2011-04-25T18:03:00.000-05:00

May 2010

I have been looking forward to going back to the Hot Air Balloon festival all year since we went last year. I have been checking their website frequently to find out what weekend it would be exactly, when all of the sudden I looked today and it says 2012!!!! What happened to 2011?!? I am so sad!!!!!

I need a hot air balloon festival to go to now.... any suggestions?

Easter & spiders....

2011-04-24T18:43:00.004-05:00

Today has been a great day! Amazing God, great service, great weather.

We went to our typical 9 am service and Ben's mom joined us, then went out to lunch for mexican. I tried to clean the house some (I'm working on doing a few things a day instead of tackling the whole house lately) and went for a walk to enjoy this gorgeous day we've been given.

Grossest moments of my day: Finding the biggest spiders I've EVER seen in real life in/around my house. Seriously. Ben has been working on our yard and sprayed a new bug spray in the yard to keep fleas and ticks out for our doggies and apparently spiders hate it. I came back from my walk and saw one that was 3 inches wide with a body that was all different colors and looked like it would have babies if you stepped on it.... gag. I would have taken a picture for you except I was more worried about it eating Logan.

Anyways, still trying to get over that.

Now that Easter is here, I've been reflecting on how we did these past 40 days for lent in our goal to be less like ourselves and more like Jesus. We did manage to keep our lives iPhone game free, which was great, but we totally slacked on adding daily scripture like we had planned. Today though when I was sitting on the couch, I picked up my iPhone and thought, "Oh yeah, I can download my junk again, " and really had no desire to at all, I thought about what a waste it is/was. So I'm going to continue to work on avoiding wasting time and still work on adding daily scripture with Ben and soon to be child. We also have a new Sunday School coming up at church about having a sacred marriage and I am thinking that we will try that. We have never been active members of a Sunday School because we have been teaching it instead, but I'd really like to be part of one too. (And we will be taking time off from teaching once the baby comes).

I am so thankful for our Lord and Savior on this day and every day. I pray that the Lord will bless you and your family today and each day. Happy Easter!!

The Nursery - Before

2011-04-23T17:50:00.000-05:00

Now that we are in the middle stages of the nursery, I thought I'd share some before and mid- pictures so you know what we've had to work with and the new wonderful paint color! (Thanks to my dad for coming and painting in just a few hours).

This was actually after we had cleared A LOT of stuff!
Before:

Yes, that was the first crib we bought. Ben decided he needed something MUCH sturdier so we sold it. For a $10 profit :)

Mid - we had moved out a lot of junk!! (into my mom's attic)

Original color: Bunny Gray

Current - An empty room! Looking much better!

New Color: Ashley Gray!!

More pictures to come, hopefully we will get furniture soon and be able to put pictures back up. I've moved the two shelves back in, but it won't look complete without a crib and dresser. I can't wait!!

New Orleans

2011-04-21T16:42:00.000-05:00

We made it safely to New Orleans and back!!

It was a great time (it would be fantastic if it didn't smell so bad the whole time!!). We arrived Thursday night where we tried to eat dinner at Acme Oyster House and found the longest line out the door that discouraged us.

So we went to Deanie's Seafood and it was WONDERFUL! I had stuffed crab shells (of which I'd never had before, yes... branching out!) and they were delicious. Ben of course ate enough crawfish this weekend for an army, but he loved it.

Friday we made it to Mother's Restaurant for breakfast (thanks to Melissa)

and then walked down to the Riverwalk and to Southern Candy Makers, where I only had one piece of candy! Even though I wanted 12 pounds of fudge, pralines and these little chocolate, caramel things they made. Yum!

Friday night was drinks and deserts with the family and bride and groom, and then up to the balcony to people watch (and throw beads to those who looked deserving and kept their clothes on! - yes, there were a lot of people who wanted beads and wanted to keep their clothes on as well.... and they got beads! From me :)

Saturday we walked down to Jackson's square. We ate at The Corner Bar and Grill and had the worst service and food EVER. Apparently I should have read Urban Spoon before we entered... don't ever eat there.

But it was made up for by stopping by Cafe DuMonde and enjoying a few beignets :) Look at the line for take-out beignets!!!

We were able to walk right in and sit down... which made me think those people above were just insane.

While in Jackson's square we swore we saw a dead person on a street bench, but the fact that the police officer next to him wasn't in much of a panic, we assumed he must just be 'sleeping'.

Then we discovered Royal Street which was just as much fun as Bourbon Street, only it smelled MUCH better and wasn't as trashy! I wish we had known and we would have spent much more time there.

The wedding was great!! We were picked up at the hotel and dropped back off afterwards which was wonderful. The weather could not have been more perfect for the night. It was in the bride's family's home, outside in their backyard.

Grandma and cousin Annie had way too much fun on the dance floor!

This little Lilly was in the wedding too! She was carried by the maid of honor... too cute!

Overall, it was a great trip. New Orleans wasn't as great as Chattanooga, but it was a lot of fun to be down there with family.

The Little Logan

2011-04-20T19:17:00.003-05:00

This is the site I found when I went to bed last night... Logan occasionally tries to steal pillows in the middle of the night by rooting around your head (usually to get quickly thrown to the floor) so the last thing I need is her staking claim to my maternity pillow! But you can't help but love her.

27 weeks

2011-04-19T17:16:00.005-05:00

This update is a little late, but it was delayed due to my trip to New Orleans this weekend so bare with me.

Last Tuesday I had my 27 week appointment. I passed my sugar test with flying colors (even though I ate a piece of toast with peanut butter on it that morning.... apparently I was supposed to fast unless I thought I'd be sick...then I could have had plain toast....oops!) and passed my iron test this time (failed last time). Little baby's heartbeat was in the 140s and I've gained 20lbs so far (according to my doctor). According to my scale I've gained 24.... my doctor said that was good (20lbs), but now that I am in the 3rd trimester, my weight can slow down. 0-1lb a week.

Well, I'm in with that, because I'm super paranoid about gaining bookoos of weight. I just know how hard it has been in the past to lose weight so I don't want to gain unnecessary weight, although that desire and my ability to say no to sweets have not been in sync very well. Come back willpower!!!

I feel the baby ALL. THE. TIME. and love it. He wiggles and kicks/hits constantly and has had hiccups many times. Ben has felt him a good bit now, even felt his hiccups, which is cute. He isn't as frustrated now that he can feel him pretty easily.

My belly button is nearly nothing. I don't know if all belly buttons pop out first or just become flat, but mine looks like a tiny line right now, so we'll see what comes next.

And, no stretch marks so far!! I've got a bit to go, but I'm glad to be stretch mark free currently.

So, as of last Thursday we had 3 months left. It sounds like forever to me and way too short for Ben :) I'm pretty sure that is typical. I'm just ready to meet the little guy. I of course want him to stay in as long as possible, but I am excited.

Here is a picture from New Orleans: 27 weeks and 2 days.

Pregnancy Update

2011-03-29T18:44:00.002-05:00

I really want to update about the pregnancy, mostly so I can remember all of these things one day so I'm going to give you a fabulous pregnancy survey!!

How far along? Today I am 24 weeks and 5 days.

Total weight gain/loss: Have gained 19lbs so far (hoping that will stay on a halt until April 12.... likelihood of that? Probably slim....

Maternity clothes? Um yes please, not a chance for my regular clothes, not even my regular sized t-shirts.

Stretch marks? Not yet, but they are inevitable so I check every day.

Sleep: Not so fun. I am a stomach sleeper and I miss that. I just don't quite understand what side-sleepers do with their arms/hands. They always go to sleep! Saturdays are my favorite days because sleeping after 5am seems to work much better than sleeping between 10pm-5am.

Best moment this week: Baby Hiccups!!

Movement: All day long!

Food cravings: Fruit, fruit, fruit. I went grocery shopping Sunday and came home with Watermelon, pineapple, strawberries, bananas and apples. I had to remind myself to buy spinach to get in something green too! I hope I don't end up with gestational diabetes because I would have nothing to eat! (I do have a sinking hunch that I will though, is that a normal feeling??)

Gender: Boy!

Labor Signs: None that I know of, thank the Lord.

Belly Button in or out? Still in, but getting smaller. Does everyone's belly button actually pop out or just flatten?? I saw a pregnant lady this weekend whose belly button looked as big as her belly showing through her shirt.

Wedding rings on or off? On, no issues there, but I don't sleep in them either.

What I miss: I'm not a big drinker, but I really do miss a cold mexican beer after a very long day of work :) But bubbled water seems to do the trick.

What I am looking forward to: Meeting this little guy and pushing around a stroller with a baby in it.

Weekly Wisdom: My cousin told me yesterday to buy pampers diapers and huggies wipes. I thought that was good wisdom :) I don't think I have any wisdom yet, other than trusting God with my fears.

Milestones:
Today I felt the baby have hiccups for the first time!! I couldn't even get up I was so excited about it. Ben was rushing around trying to get things ready to go out of town and he kept saying, "okay, c'mon do this, or do that" and all I could do was lay there and feel him hiccup. Too cute!!! (He probably was not enjoying them as much as I was and I imagine much later in the pregnancy I may also find it not as wonderful :) But today was wonderful!

New Orleans??

2011-03-27T11:55:00.002-05:00

We will be heading to New Orleans in a few weeks for a wedding and I NEED your help! What on earth should we do while we're there??

We'll be staying at the Wyndham on Bourbon Street and other than the actual wedding we have plenty of time to find lots of fun things to do. So I need to know, what should we do in New Orleans? Restaurants that are a must or any touristy places to stop by???

Help!

A decision has been made!

2011-03-26T19:12:00.004-05:00

Ben and I FINALLY picked out furniture! We have been looking for quite sometime and after looking at a ton of stores, websites and prices (!!!) we made a decision. Yes, this includes our bedroom furniture AND nursery furniture.

Here is our nursery purchase, although we decided on just the crib and a dresser (not shown). Not the under crib storage either... all I thought was how much that would attract dust and doghair!

It was hard to make the purchase, but Ben used his negotiating skills he learned from Pawn Stars (along with shopping at a warehouse/market store) and we really feel like we got a great deal (and that is why we've been saving). I feel so much better now that our baby won't arrive before the crib :). The 'what-will-be-a-nursery' still looks like a disaster area, but we are one step closer. My dad is going to help me paint next weekend and our furniture will be here in 4 weeks. Then we'll worry about the little things like curtains and accessories (hamper, storage, pictures, bedding, etc.).

I can't wait for our furniture to be in either and my clothes to be in a working dresser; don't worry there will be before and after pictures!

Spring Breaking

2011-03-20T20:37:00.010-05:00

What a blessing it has been to be at the beach for 6 days WITH an extra hour of daylight!! It was beautiful and we even found several starfish:

and saw a manatee

(although there is still a debate over whether he was sick or not since he was floating above water for quite awhile. My very worried grandmother did call Marine Land who told her he was probably resting and to call back if he seemed to be in 'distress'. Ben and I voted he was just cold and trying to warm up).

Ben even felt the baby kick for the first time!! I think I was more excited about it than him though. It feels like a HUGE kick to me, but to him it is a slight thump. My mom and friend Aaron felt it too though, so precious! I absolutely love every time I feel him move, it just makes me curious what he's doing in there.

This was supposed to be a sweet picture, but Ben couldn't figure out anything to do with his hand other than grab my belly like a soccer ball....

Here is my first semi-good maternity shot! At almost 24 weeks!!
And my nephew looking much more innocent than he really is ;)
And we also made sure to take note of the largest moon in 18 years. It was very pretty, but I really think beach moons you can catch sometimes that are very pink look much bigger. I couldn't tell much of a difference, but it was definitely a beautiful night to be at the beach!

We could not have asked for more beautiful weather and thank the Lord we had a very safe and mostly relaxing trip. Now back to reality. Standardized testing for the next 3 weeks at school. Praying I do everything like I'm supposed to!

22 weeks!

2011-03-10T18:52:00.004-06:00

I've made it to 22 weeks :)

Little baby's heartbeat was great today and he actually even measured 24 weeks instead of 22. My weight gain is also fine according to my doctor. 15lbs so far, but if feels like 30. She did tell me I needed to not have ice cream every other day, ha! if you insist.... She said once or twice a week is more appropriate. But really she is SO laid back about everything.

Sleep is hit or miss, but I'm a bad sleeper anyway. Some nights are better than others and usually the bad nights are more because of stress than baby. (Like dreaming about standardized testing or baby kidnappers.) I did buy a boppy body pillow that has helped a good bit. It's not a miracle worker, but it's pretty good.

I'm also feeling the baby SO much now. It is such a wonderful feeling, and just brightens any moment when I feel it. Ben has yet to feel him, but we've only tried a couple times because I can imagine its frustrating. I know in a week or two he will definitely be able to. (He probably could now if he had A LOT of patience.)

I did manage to take a picture for you this week, from my phone again, and I have the most wonderful face... ha! This was my 3rd or 4th attempt to keep it from being fuzzy so in my defense, my smile is quite fake :)

Maybe I'll get some great ones while we are at the beach!! Anyways, no progress on the nursery yet, so I can't tell you which paint color, you'll have to wait for pictures!

Now, you should all turn on Wipeout - Blind Date Edition for the funniest mess you've ever seen, this show CRACKS me up!!!

Ash Wednesday

2011-03-09T12:00:00.002-06:00

Today is a day of turning our lives back to God and I can tell you that I am ready! These past several weeks I have felt further away from him than I would like. I've felt more discouraged and fearful than I have in the past too, and I know this is because my relationship is lacking. It's not just one thing that is keeping me from being as close as I need to be to God, but more of just everything. I've let my daily distractions become an excuse to be lazy with my relationship and I'm paying for it. I hadn't taken the time to plug in my ipod and listen to worship music in over a month, although the past few days I finally have because I've really needed it. I just feel down and know that Jesus is the only thing that can pull me out of this funk.

Lent begins today and Ben and I participate in Ash Wednesday at our church (United Methodist). I am really looking forward to the Ash Wednesday service tonight to rededicate our lives to Jesus Christ and work on really listening to Him, becoming closer and remembering who it is we are: His children.

I've thought a lot this week about what I (and Ben) should give up that is keeping us from being close to our Lord and it is pretty easy, and silly. Its our iphones. Well, more so the junk on them. I can't believe I'm saying this, but we both play solitaire on our iphone or words with friends all the time! Its out of sheer boredom (laziness!) and it is precious time that we could be devoting to worshiping and listening to God. So, we are giving up 'junk' on our iphones and going to read a passage in the bible each night as a couple. (Something that we always talk about wanting to do, but rarely make the time to do it.)

I'm not one for keeping or doing New Year's Resolutions, but when Jesus is involved in a resolution, I'm MUCH more motivated and am looking forward to growing closer to Christ during the next 40 days.

I want to encourage you to participate in Lent, even if your church may not.

Here is a list of ideas of things you could do or how to get started:

"Top Ten List: THINGS YOU CAN TRY FOR THE LENTEN SEASON

10. Try an electronic fast. Give up TV, Guitar Hero, texting, tweeeting, e-mail and all things electronic for one day every week. (or everyday of Lent!) Use the time to read & pray.

9. Start a prayer rhythm. Say a prayer every time you brush your teeth, hear an ambulance, or check your e-mail. Before you text someone, pray for them.

8. Read one chapter in the Bible each day. (Matthew's a good book to start with. Psalms, too.)

7. Forgive someone who doesn't deserve it (maybe even yourself.)

6. Give up soft drinks, fast food, tea or coffee. Give the money you save to help folks in Haiti or others in crisis.

5. Create a daily quiet time. Spend 30 minutes a day in silence and prayer.

4. Cultivate a life of gratitude. Write someone a thank you letter each week and be aware of how many people have helped you along the way.

3. Be kind to someone each day.

2. Pray for others you see as you walk to and from classes or drive to and from work.

1. Volunteer one hour or more each week with a local shelter, tutoring program, nursing home, prison ministry or a Habitat for Humanity project."

I would like a money tree please

2011-03-08T19:24:00.006-06:00

from google images

Why is gas $3.39 per gallon?!
And diesel is $3.80 per gallon!!!

Why did my power bill go up $21 per month??? (Budget Billing)

Dog food has gone up $1.50. My entire grocery bill has gone up about $50 (I don't know if that is because of more expensive groceries or pickier eating, but Ben says its more expensive groceries because of more expensive diesel.)

This morning I really did have a pity party about the rising prices. I am so thankful to have a job, SO THANKFUL. I cannot express that enough. But, with prices going up and up and jobs still being few and far between or people being very scared of losing their jobs, I am feeling discouraged. I probably should have paid more attention one of the few of times I took economics. Because right now supply and demand just aren't making complete sense to me.

You should all know by now that I am the budget-er of the family. I make a yearly spreadsheet sometime in November for the next year and usually have it a month ahead of schedule of where we'll be. I plan ahead for hair cuts, license plate renewals, etc. and surprisingly most the time, enjoy keeping track of everything, or at least enjoy being able to put a little bit in savings. So it frustrates me to no end, that now I have to change my whole budget to incorporate rising prices... boo!!!

Are things just going to get tougher? How are people surviving who are on a VERY tight budget to begin with?! It just doesn't seem fair.

I have adjusted my driving again though. Since I drive 40 miles to work one way, I'm back to 65mph, getting 32mpg. Thank goodness for Pontiac Vibes! I hope it lasts another 100,000 miles! :)

Also, I'm hoping our child will become a 'saver' and not a 'free-spirit' with money.
The first item I bought for him:

Yes, if you are thinking I bought the doggie-bank, instead of the piggy-bank you are correct! Its just so dang cute. I LOVE piggy banks, LOVE them! I've been in search of the perfect one for a few years and never bring myself to buy them, but I decided when I saw this little guy that the baby needed it! (Plus, it looks a little bit like our Logan).

How are you reacting to the rising prices?

PRECIOUSNESS

2011-03-03T20:20:00.000-06:00

I can't get enough of this sweet face.

Ava is 18 months old!! Trying to figure out this car. She has the getting in and out part down, but the Flintstone-type driving still baffles her. The funniest thing was if I'd push her car up the driveway she would fearlessly get it in and fly back down, but then couldn't figure out how to get it back up again.

Here is little Caroline, all of 10-days old.I promise she looks JUST like my little brother instead of my older brother, her daddy! I can't wait for him to meet her. Granted, they both look a lot a like, but Chris (little brother) looked just like this when he was a baby.

Chris will be home for a break from the Army in just a week!! We didn't know he'd be coming home this soon, but I get to spend a whole week with him at the beach :) He is still in Texas and currently the plan is for him to be deployed end of May. Prayers, prayers prayers!

Nursery blessings

2011-03-02T19:34:00.001-06:00

I know I've mentioned all the amazing maternity clothes that I got from a couple of friends, but I cannot even tell you guys how much we have been blessed in the past few weeks.

First of all, the scripture this weekend at church was Matthew 6:25-34 with verse 26 saying: "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" I've mentioned this before when we first found out that we had been pregnant with twins and Ben panicked, but, even now that we have a singleton, getting ready is not easy. That entire scripture is great to me because it is SUCH a reminder that there is nothing to be anxious of, to fear. God WILL take care of us. I know we've gotten this far because of him, but trying to get ready for a baby is overwhelming too! There is A LOT you need (and want)! But, God never fails. He will always provide!

Last weekend I went to a very good/long time friend of mine's house and she basically gave me a baby shower from her attic! Dr. Brown's bottles, pack'n'play, a car seat, bases, play centers, changing pad, diaper genie, etc! She's letting us borrow so much stuff long term too and she's not one of those people that you are scared to borrow stuff from :) This could not be a bigger blessing to us!

This is a terrible picture below, but its a few of the items we have waiting to go into the nursery. Do you see those Dr. Brown's bottles in the corner?? 18 of them!

Now we just need to paint and get junk OUT of the nursery to put these fun items IN :) (Don't worry, I took before pictures to hopefully pair with some much better 'after' pictures sooner or later.)

I did pick out a paint color. Can you believe it? ME, yes, I picked out a paint color. It helped that I asked my dad to pick one out too and out of the thousands of benjamin moore paint colors we picked the EXACT same one!!! I think that was God keeping me from stressing too much over a paint color. Because he knows I would!

Here were my final choices: Kingsport Gray, Ashley Gray and Gull Wing Gray. I wanted a color that would blend with our other 'gray' rooms well.

Which one do you think I chose? :)

Spring, Testing, Vacations & Babies!

2011-03-01T16:20:00.003-06:00

Ready for random?

I am so thrilled and relieved with the weather we have had for 2 straight weeks! I bought a cute pair of crocs strappy sandals (my first pair, but they are very cute!) and have not looked back since... I'm done with winter! I am hoping to not have to go back to closed-toed winter shoes. I do not love winter, winter shoes, winter clothes, sweaters, etc. I LOVE spring, dresses, skirts, hammocks and swimming!! Thank goodness I live in Alabama!

Anyways, I have really enjoyed the weather and my achy-back has calmed down a bit since I've bought these crocs that I have been able to walk in the afternoons with Ben and the dogs! I almost went out to the hammock today when I got home, but exhaustion caught me on the couch. :)

We have 1.5 weeks until Spring Break and I'm so excited. This will be our first spring break to actually go on vacation in about 5 years. I have had spring break every year since I was in school getting my master's, but I also had to work so I never fully enjoyed this fabulous vacation time until this year. We will be going down to visit my grandmother who lives 3 blocks from the beach!!! Yay! I even have 2 maternity swim suits (because I am not one of those ladies who wants to flaunt my preggy stomach in a bikini... haha!).

Spring break will be the calm before the storm. The week after spring break is TESTING, the dreaded week of all school personnel and mostly those in charge of coordinating it all - counselors. I'm a little nervous because it is A LOT to organize and make sure it goes very smoothly without anyone getting written up, doing any thing illegal and possibly being investigated to lose a certificate, yikes! The first time to do anything is always a tricky process, but this one is a little more stressful. I'll be so glad when its checked off my list!

Also, yesterday our new governor announced that he was putting 3% cuts on all education budgets (that does NOT have 3% to lose) so I'm anxious to see what that means for everything. Right now we already have 30 students per classroom and only 1 counselor to every 750 students and I pray that it does not get worse. I do pray about my job daily, but I know that God gave me this position this year and I could not be more thankful. He also gave us this baby and has a wonderful plan. I would worry about paying bills if I lost my job, but I'm just trusting in Him right now. I would love the opportunity to keep working with these students though!

In pregnancy news, I am almost 21 weeks pregnant!! I also have felt the baby move this week! I felt it once or twice in the past few weeks, but as of Friday night & Saturday it has gotten stronger and more frequent throughout the day. It is just such a sweet feeling and relief. I have been eating WAY too many sweets still, and wish I had more self-control. I haven't had any strong cravings except fruit. I cannot get enough fruit. We go back in a week to hear the heartbeat.

The Bump

2011-02-18T18:27:00.000-06:00

Alright, I guess it is time to share my growing belly with you all. I am always fascinated with other people's stomachs when pregnant, but not nearly as fascinated with my own. In fact, I'm having a hard time with already being big (Yes, I'm fully aware it just gets bigger). I didn't really take any 'before' pictures, but have tried to get Ben to capture a few lately because I know I will want to look back and remember every bit of this. Unfortunately he is not a patient photographer, he gets frustrated when I don't like them (maybe its the photographed that is frustrating??) and says he doesn't know how to take it like I want, so I only have iphone pictures for you :)

This one was about at 7 weeks, the closest I have to 'before'.

This one was between 12 & 13 weeks.

And here we are yesterday at 19 weeks! Just one more week until I'm half way there!!!
Also, I have found my favorite thing to add to the nursery:How cute is this guy?!
There is a matching blanket AND a brown bear too!!! So I'm going to decorate around him :)

Sweet Caroline

2011-02-17T19:24:00.006-06:00

I have a new niece!!!

Caroline was born into the world yesterday around 12pm. She weighed 8lbs 11ounces and was 21 inches long. MUCH bigger than her big sister who weighed only 5lbs when she was born 6 weeks early.

Here I am with my brother and Caroline.

She was wide awake the entire time we were there, looking around, sucking her fingers, definitely not acting like a sleepy little newborn. I think she's older than they thought :)

Ben even got in a little practice!

Mama and baby are great, Jessica had a c-section yesterday, but today she is up moving around, feeling much better than she was yesterday. Caroline is a hungry little chunker too, she is just precious!

18 weeks, its a.....

2011-02-10T20:55:00.003-06:00

all curled up, toes touching his forehead, little BOY!!!!

We suspected it was a boy since we went last at 12.5 weeks, but she said she couldn't confirm at 99.9% until today (18 weeks) and today he was still a sweet little boy! He was VERY difficult to get pictures of, every time she'd move him he'd put his hands or feet in front of his face so we didn't get any good profile pictures like we did last time, but I thought this one was funny. Its hard to make it all out, but as he was moving you could see his little toes on his forehead and a hand was holding his legs up like that! We were also so blessed to see his heart, spine, brain, organs and everything looked great!! Praise the Lord and thank you for everyone who has prayed for us/him.

On another note, I've gained 6 pounds this past month!! Only 7 total so far, and 6 of them in one month... I have to say that it is 100% due to my sugar-aholic days I've had the past two weeks. Girl Scout cookies are my downfall. I think I have come to a point where I may need to throw them away... how sad! But I have gotten very out of hand!

Things are going great though, I'm looking more pregnant and less like I've eaten a house I think and yeah, I need to get some pictures. Ben is about as good at taking pictures as he is at being in them, so the only ones I have are self-portraits so far. I even had a few 6th grade boys actually ask me if I was pregnant today, which I thought was funny.

I also was given a wonderful wardrobe of maternity clothes today thanks to Jessica!!! She just had a sweet little baby girl a couple of week ago and was already ready to part with her clothes. I hope I feel that way in July! :)

Coupon-less

2011-02-03T20:41:00.001-06:00

For the past several years I have taken on the endeavor of clipping coupons every Sunday, driving to Publix and CVS and attempting to save lots of money. I felt like I had gotten pretty good at CVS because I just bought the same things over and over, Tide, Dawn, shampoo... the usual and saved a good bit every time!

In the past six months though, I have slowly stopped clipping coupons altogether and officially canceled my newspaper subscription last week. I'm officially out of the coupon cutting business. Food has always been a difficult one for me with coupons because I am so picky and in my attempt to eat healthy and fresh.... apples, salad, strawberries.... those items don't have coupons!

Also a frustration is looking at the southersavers publix ad each week and most coupons I'd want are from various magazines, inserts and separate booklets that I can't even find!! This week, publix has a great ad and a lot on sale, but I just spent $200 at publix. Yes.... $200 for TWO people!!! No coupons. Everything I bought was on sale, and I had a lot to buy, but I was not happy about that bill ONE bit! My plan is for that food to last us at least 3 weeks, but now looking at this week's ad I want to buy all of it too!

With a baby coming soon, I think it would be great to have coupons for the usual baby items, but would I save enough to make a year's Sunday subscription worth it?? I had always been a huge advocate for coupons, but lately, I've lost my passion.

My creative husband

2011-02-02T17:46:00.004-06:00

I mean the title of this post in the most loving way.

See Ben is a little spoiled. Well we all are really, but Ben wants what he wants when he wants it. I took him to Dave Ramsey and he diagnosed him a 'free spirit'. Dave is so nice.

Well Ben has asked and asked for a deep freezer. I have said no, no, no! Because remember this bedroom furniture we are saving so diligently for? Yes, we are so close!! I'm down to 3 drawers on my dresser, so there is no turning back now.

Anyways, so this week Ben has figured a way around the whole thing of getting my approval.... he decided to ask for it for Valentine's Day!!

And on top of that, he said that he thinks he's going to get me a food saver for Valentine's Day!!! Who needs a massage, flowers or chocolate covered strawberries!? This probably has nothing to do with the fact that he killed three deer this weekend and needs some way to store & freeze it all right?

:)

In all reality, I love my very sweet, slightly-spoiled, hard-working husband very much and he is definitely the most wonderful man I know. But if he shows up on Valentine's Day with a food saver, my hormonal hysteria may kick in. My aching back needs a massage!

Confessions

2011-01-23T19:38:00.003-06:00

I really liked Katie's post on confessions and I don't have enough information to fill an entire blog, so this works well for me!

*I am much better at realizing how God reveals himself to other people than I am at seeing how he reveals himself to me. I often hear stories and read blogs where I'm just screaming, "That was God, do you not see it?!?!" But yet, I'm supposed to be keeping a revelation journal and it doesn't have the first entry. (Maybe I'm expecting something way too big and should just say all the little things like the fact that I have food and shelter, grace and mercy, because I know without the Lord I'd be helpless.)

*I just watched the whole episode of Medium from Friday night not realizing it was the SERIES finale until the end when I thought, this sure is a weird episode... how sad! I really liked that show.

*I am so thankful to feel like myself again and be in my 2nd trimester. I can eat and stay awake like a normal person!

*I feel like I look 36 weeks pregnant and I think it only gets bigger.

*I still haven't told facebook I'm pregnant.

*This next week is the first 5-day work week in over a month, I am not sure how we will make it!

*I ask you for your prayers for a family member this week. Prayers for protection, safety and for God's will to take over their life. Thanks! Sorry to be discreet.

*I watched my very first pro football game today and enjoyed it. I'm not a pro-sport fan, but our neighbors are HUGE Green Bay fans so we went over there and I've decided as long as someone else watching the game is really excited, its just as fun as college.

*Remember a LONG time ago, I had a list and one thing on there was to learn to drive our F250? Well, last weekend I drove it home from about 50 miles away! Mostly down the interstate, but I did officially drive it. It is a stick-shift and huge so adding those two (mostly the stick shift part) I had no clue what I was doing. I have not driven a stick since once when I was 15 and that didn't end well. I wouldn't say I officially 'learned' how to drive it, but I did successfully avoid getting in an accident!

Happy last week of January!

Dads in America - vent

2011-01-17T17:17:00.004-06:00

Something has been getting to me lately. It is tv and commercials that dumb down men, make them look like incompetent idiots who can't manage to connect to the internet, cook something in the microwave, wash their clothes, feed/change a baby.... etc.

One example that comes on all the time is a comcast commercial where the dad is looking for the cord to plug his computer into the internet. He is just flabbergasted that he can't find his cord and wants to use his daughter's. When his wife tries to explain how she got wireless internet, he is still perplexed, causing his daughter to say, "Dad, the cord is invisible" like tricking him will take care of this pesky situation and he will just stop asking questions. That is the way I treat my dog!

I cannot stand the sitcoms and commercials that do this! And then we wonder why more of our men aren't in a place to lead our homes and country in the right direction (although there are plenty of men, and women, SERVING our country and I commend every single one of them). I think about what a different place we may live in if we lifted up our men and stopped dumbing them down and rendering them incapable. What does that teach our boys?!

Granted the media portrays the wrong thing in just about every issue.... but still this one has really bugged me lately.

I believe that husbands are called to be our spiritual leaders, leaders in our homes and lives, to be A LOT more than just an idiot that lives in our house who gets in the way and breaks things. I know so many men that are brilliant and wonderful fathers, really great men that live with faith, but I rarely see that portrayed anywhere in the media. Think about it... how many shows do you know that play off a complete idiot for a dad, about how useless he is?

Babies

2011-01-17T13:24:00.008-06:00

I've decided its finally time to give you details. Instead of just one small picture.

We are pregnant! 14.5 weeks to be exact. My due date is July 14. God's timing is just perfect really, a summer baby is what you shoot for if you work in a school system since there is no maternity leave (although any day of the year would have been wonderful to me). I have now finally told my boss that I am going to have a baby and she was thrilled. That was one thing I was very nervous about. As a first year counselor, life at that school isn't guaranteed (and still isn't) but her reaction made me feel like it is more than likely I will be back at the school next year. I pray it is because I love my job so much and feel that I've just barely started to make a difference. I think in a few years I will have things figured out that I will really be able to impact these student's lives.

So the details:

If you've been reading, you know I struggled over when to ask for help with getting our family started. But, I finally did... and God blessed us every bit of the way. We found out we were pregnant in November, probably the first week of November, after I PROMISED myself I wouldn't take a test for 2 weeks or so. Well, that didn't happen and at 10 dpo I tested anyways, and saw a faint, faint line. I ran in to tell Ben and he said, "I see nothing, go back to bed..." It was 5am after all. So I went and took another (different brand) and again a faint, faint line. At this Ben looked at me and said I'll believe it when the doctor confirms it.

That afternoon I went to CVS and got a digital one and sure enough....

I went into Ben's garage while he was working and showed him and he just laughed, he couldn't do anything else.

Fast forward to 6 weeks 5 days pregnant and we had our first doctors appointment.

The ultrasound technician immediately found a little baby and was taking tons of measurements as Ben and I ooh'd and aahh'd over it. Then it occurred to me that I had been praying that God would take care of the 'babies' that may be in there, I just had a hunch. So as I was opening my mouth and asking, 'Is it just one?' the other ultrasound tech stopped the one working and said, "There, right there, do you see that?" and she looked down at me and said, "Nope, not just one." I lost it. Hysterical is a good word to describe it. Ben laughed and cried at the same time I think. All I could do was ask the lady if she was serious?! over and over again.

She moved to the second baby and took measurements, found a perfect heart beat and snapped some pictures.

Both babies were doing well, measuring 4 days apart, which I was told was completely normal and both had strong heartbeats. We met with our doctor while we were still in shock and she said that the next ultrasound I'd get would be at 18 weeks in February. Ben asked about them measuring differently and if we could see them again sooner to make sure they were okay.

She agreed (to appease us), and we left with the next appointment a month away and not knowing what to even say to each other. We literally just looked at each other in the elevator and laughed. Ben's mind immediately went to our tiny house and tiny car, and how we would possibly live?!?! I read to him over and over "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" Matthew 6:26

I knew God would take care of us and I knew he gave us these babies and would, as he ALWAYS has, provide for us.

We still kept it to ourselves though, because I was a twin and my mom had lost the other one, so it was in the back of my mind, I thought I'd rather wait until everything was safe. As the days went by though I got more and more excited and felt like my heart was swollen with love, like I couldn't believe that I was going to have 2 children. I worried about bed-rest and premature labor, but at the same time I was so incredibly sick and tired that I didn't have a ton of time to worry. I went to work, came home and slept... a lot, most of November and December. I had one day at 9 weeks pregnant when I lost it and was convinced that I was not worthy enough of having two children and something was wrong, but Ben and my mom talked me into calming down, that I was just emotional and everything was fine!

Ben rented me a heart doppler for an early Christmas present though (the lady at the maternity store recommended it as a gift) and just a few days after that major panic I had, we were able to hear a sweet heart beat on that monitor. Not knowing what we were doing and finding one was pretty lucky! (I knew it was for entertainment purposes only though and the odds of us finding it that early were low).

Just a couple days later, at 10 weeks, 5 days we had our second appointment, 3 days before Christmas. I had called and changed our appointment from after Christmas to before Christmas because I needed to see them before the holiday. I had called several times trying to change it and was told there was nothing open, until I feel I was finally honest with myself and God that I needed to see them and stopped making excuses for why it would be convenient to see them, but that I really was feeling uneasy and wanted to know before everyone gave me two of things on Christmas day. When I prayed to him and asked please for that appointment, the lady who answered worked magic.

We went in, nervous as I could be, and the ultra sound tech immediately found a Baby B, same as before since Baby B was higher than Baby A. She took measurements, saw a heart beat and we watched its little hands and feet just kick and wiggle around and even saw it stretch. It was amazing!

She moved to Baby A and I immediately could tell that Baby A was not moving like Baby B. She turned and looked at me and didn't say anything. I knew. I asked, "There's no heartbeat is there?" She just said, "I am so sorry...." She got up and tried to make sure my doctor wouldn't leave for the day since we weren't originally expecting to see her right after the appointment. When she came back she still had to take pictures of it and measurements and everything as I just laid there and cried.

It was the strangest feeling in the world. I was so devastated for that little baby that once was moving and had a strong heartbeat, but yet, I was still pregnant. I still had one little baby that was moving and wiggling and stretching in there that was worth celebrating.

I assured everyone there that we were fine and it was okay through my tears and kept telling them (and myself), "I'm still pregnant, I'm still pregnant." But Ben and I were both very upset.

We went home and I stayed in bed and cried. The next morning I woke up and found Ben in what will be the nursery putting together a crib. I think it was his way of assuring himself it would all be okay. We went over and over all the positives. Preterm labor and bed-rest risks dropped, only one day-care bill, our car and house would be fine (although they would have been anyways)..... but at the same time, we would have done all of that if we could have.

After that I didn't want anyone else to know we were pregnant, still even after 11 and 12 weeks came and went. I still had a feeling in my stomach that something would go wrong. Ben's mom kept asking me if she could tell people that she was having a grand-baby (she asked every single week since we told her I was pregnant) and I had one major break down when I told her to STOP asking me and that I would tell her when I was ready for people to know. She said, but its been 11 weeks and I explained, and you aren't the one who just lost a baby!!!

It hurt and honestly, still hurts. I can't pretend that I know what it is like to miscarry a singleton baby, or lose an entire pregnancy, but seeing a baby that was once alive, not alive anymore is very sad. I know that it was God's plan, and that something was likely genetically wrong with the baby, but it is still painful.

Then at 12 w 5 days, I had a scary night that I thought was the end of both babies, even though the doctor told me there could be spotting and other issues, I still panicked. I went the next morning for an ultrasound and praise the Lord, Baby B was still growing and doing great. It's been measuring 1 or 2 days ahead and just wiggles and wiggles. I didn't get any video of this one because of my hysteria and urgency to go in, but after that appointment I felt a wave of peace finally wash over me that everything will be fine (I'm sure God had been trying to provide me peace prior to that but my worldly, worrisome self wouldn't let go). I could finally let myself be pregnant and be excited! (Apparently it's little legs were tucked somewhere here???)

For those of you who are curious, because it seems everyone is, when one of set of twins doesn't make it (often called Vanishing Twin Syndrome), the body is still making the hormones and may not realize that it lost one. Sometimes it may. There is a chance of miscarry and is rarely problematic for the surviving baby, I've been told more often than not, the surviving baby isn't effected AT ALL. The other, most common, scenario is that the baby that didn't make it, just sort of dissolves and is absorbed into the rest of the tissue. From what I've read though, most people didn't have any symptoms at all and continued to have a normal singleton pregnancy.

We had a regular appointment today and heard a sweet, strong heartbeat and everything is wonderful! We go back in 3 & 1/2 weeks for the big ultrasound when they confirm the gender.

Revelation

2011-01-15T19:02:00.004-06:00

I started a new bible study today at church, its Beth Moore's study on Revelation and one point she made very early in the class was it is the revelation (singular) of Christ, not revelationS.... I thought that was funny, because I'm pretty sure all my life, I've called that book revelations.

I've also never thought about the very word revelation, as in a revealing, something coming to be known. The book of revelation just seemed very scary with all the horrible things that the earth will see, but I'm really looking forward to learning the wonderful news and links to all of the other books (that is one thing I've been finding fascinating lately, is how the entire bible just links to itself in so many ways, from beginning to the end) and learning the revelation of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I'm really excited too because there are 61 women in this group. Now from today's meeting (it was a brunch with all the women and then on Thursdays we will split into two different groups one that meets during the day and one in the evening) I was the youngest person in the room by about 15 or 20 years, which I wish there were a few more closer to my age or life stage. But, I do not know but 2 of these women! We have 3 services at our church and although we aren't a mega church by any means, there are only 90 people that go to my service and about 300 that go to the 11 o'clock service and almost all of these 61 women attend that later service. So hopefully I will get to know my church family even more these next 11 weeks.

Something that Beth Moore encouraged us to do throughout this study is to pray for and look for God to reveal himself to us in every way we can imagine and to journal about it. I think that is a great first goal to have, to notice Him more. Hopefully I will have a few wonderful things to share about this later on as well.

I want to encourage you to do the same and really look for God to be revealing himself to you in signs, people, songs, ANYTHING! And I'd love to hear about it.

War Eagle Snow Day!!

2011-01-10T10:01:00.008-06:00

We have yet another day off here from Winter Storm 2011, one that I really needed to be working. I had so much to do before meetings tomorrow, Wednesday's advisory activities and guidance classes, its not even funny. But at the same time, I woke up so sick today that maybe it was God's way of giving me a sick day without having to actually take one. (I will need every single one of my days off come July & August that I can't risk using one now.) It may just be an overload of progesterone, but my throat is killing me and I've eaten my very last cough drop.... unfortunately the entire state of Alabama is shut down, so I can't go out and get anything. I'm not sure how healthy eating 24 popsicles in 24 hours will be, but I think its my only option! :)

I can't do a thing about anything stuck in the house though, so I'll be trying to enjoy my day off, watching more Say Yes to the Dress and hoping not to see too many horrible diaper commercials while Ben is playing out in the 'snow'. He so needs kids to play with.

It is pretty weird to be completely shut down here in Alabama though. Nearly every county has closed all roads, the interstates are closed and most places aren't expected to see above freezing, so I have no idea what tomorrow will hold. Some places have up to 10 inches of snow! But what do we have?

Ice

Ice
and more ice.... literally like snow-cone ice.... maybe I should be eating that?!

None the less, the day is finally here! BCS National Championship game! It makes me so nervous that I wish I could fast forward and just know the ending (the same way I love to know movie endings). But here we go... Good Luck Auburn & WAR EAGLE!!!!

Movie Review and Snow Predictions

2011-01-09T17:15:00.003-06:00

I went to the movies today and saw Country Strong. In the middle of the movie I unknowingly got 5 texts and several missed calls from Ben telling me that the 'heavy snow' we were predicting had arrived earlier than expected as sleet and icy roads. Great! I looked at my phone when the movie was over seeing all of them and nearly freaked out.

I quickly left the theater after the movie was over and walked to my car in a VERY icy parking deck. On the way home, I saw 8 accidents, including one that involved 8 or 9 vehicles right before my exit. Police hadn't arrived yet and the cars were all over the interstate. It was around accident # 3 though that I started to freak out as my windshield and wipers were solid ice. We aren't prepared or used to driving in snow and ice here and there is no salt on the roads. I thankfully made it safely home though and am now praying to not lose power!

The national championship is tomorrow and I feel terrible for anyone who thought they were flying out in the morning for Arizona. Ben has made sure that we have a generator ready to turn the tv on (and hopefully one space heater?) so we will not miss Auburn hopefully winning the national championship!

On to the movie review:

We saw Country Strong today and it was VERY good. Gwyneth Paltrow was excellent as her character, Kelly Canter, a country-music star trying to make a comeback after getting out of rehab. I got a feeling that she should probably win an award (if she hadn't already) for her performance. The movie itself was great, but I don't know if it was award worthy. I loved the music though, and wish I could download the album on iTunes right now! Another great actor was Garrett Hedlund, have you guys ever heard of him? He's super cute, and I really liked him in the movie, but had NO clue who he was. On the album in iTunes he only sings one of his songs, but it really sounded like he sang all of them in the movie. Gwyneth sang a ton of songs that were very good too. She's not typically one of my favorite actresses, but I thought she did a fantastic job in this movie.

She said that for inspiration she modeled her character after Faith Hill and Courtney Love and drank for days on end to really get in the mode of who she was playing. Can you imagine hearing that to play a super drunk actress someone spent a lot of time practicing to be like you (if you were Courtney Love)? Man, I'd feel awful about myself.

Bottom line - if you can tolerate country music for a few hours, definitely go see the movie!

Looking back on 2010

2011-01-08T20:42:00.001-06:00

I'm a little late, but better late than never.

All I saw on facebook New Year's Day were statuses that said "Good riddance 2010" "Never been happier to say goodbye to a year" etc. I had a really great year in 2010 though. I credit it 100% to the Lord and his plan. I had to trust a lot and take several leaps of faith that I think he assured us was definitely his direction.

So, I'm not thrilled to see 2010 gone, but excited to look back on all that He gave us that year and what is to come. 2010 was not without hurt and trials, but looking back there were truly wonderful things that did happen.

It started off fun and scary in January with a new internship and a lot of unknown lying ahead, but the hope of graduation, a new job and maybe even a family.

In January we celebrated in Florida for my cousin Lane's wedding shower (these are my sweet cousins, I'm so thankful to call them family):

In February we got A LOT of snow for Alabama with several snow days out of school :)

In March, my college roommate married a wonderful man and we celebrated at the beach!

We did a lot of rock crawling since Ben's buggy was up and running (a celebration in itself!).

In April, Chris graduated from boot camp in the Army!

Also in April, I went to a women's retreat in Destin with my aunt and cousin, a lot of fun! I also wore this dress A LOT after looking back at my pictures. :)

Then I turned 27! TWENTY - SEVEN!

In May I went to my first hot-air balloon festival. Hot-air balloons are one of my favorite things, so this was FABULOUS!

Also in May, we were lucky to add a member to our wonderfully large family when my cousin Lane got married. (This is our other cousin, Jake)

In June, Ben and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary in Chattanooga, TN. SO Much Fun!

In July, and most of the summer, we spent a lot of time just sitting.... in the river.

I also visited a good friend at the gulf and spent the day at the beach in the middle of the oil spill. (I saw no oil, apparently I caught it on it's 3-day vacation back out into the sea.)In August, I graduated with my Master's degree in Counseling!!!!
(And got my FIRST counseling job!)

Still in August, Chris and Emily got married!

August was so busy....
Ava turned 1!I must have taken a break in September from life after all of August's activities, but in October, my grandmother turned 80 and we had a huge celebration for her.

In November, I spent most of the month on the couch, but I tried really hard to get Christmas card pictures, and all of them failed miserably. This was one of the better ones (in that dress again), but we had to cut out the dogs because they wouldn't behave.

In December, we celebrated a beautiful white Christmas with all of our family together.

And in December, we got a picture of our sweet baby:

Yep :)

There's more to it, but I'll leave you with pictures for now, so if you could try to not announce it on facebook, that'd be great!

Ollie

2011-01-05T16:45:00.004-06:00

Ben came home with a surprise today...

Yes, you see that right... a cat!!

We lost Rabies several months ago, I don't remember if I told you or not, but I was devastated. Rabies was our accidental cat. She was skwaling on the street one day so bad I didn't even know it was a cat making that awful racket. I looked down and it was a teeny kitty, so I fed her and she never left, for 3 years. Then one day she was gone :(. I don't know what happened to her, but I posted signs everywhere and looked and looked and never found her. Here she is (looking a little alarmed):

After that I told Ben I didn't want ANY more cats. I'm very allergic to them, so they have to live outside and/or in the garage. (We had a kitty-door and a big stand, fluffy bed, etc. - so its not like Rabies was in need of anything, but still.) I don't like animals that HAVE to live outside. It just makes me sad... you may disagree.

Well the other day Ben found a cat in our shed, trying to stay warm and when he opened the door, it ran off. He came in and told me he found me a cat!!! I told him again, I don't want another cat Ben.

Today, what does he bring me home? A CAT! A declawed cat at that! One that has always been an inside cat. You can't make an inside, declawed cat an outside, mole hunting cat (like Rabies)... it just won't survive. So we let him loose in the garage to feed him and he immediatley jumped up under my car into the undercarriage (isn't that what you call that area?) and now he won't come out.

What on earth am I going to do with this cat?! He 100% cannot live outside and survive, and if he lives inside, I will not survive.

Can you please take this poor thing off my hands???

His name is Ollie. And that is the extent of knowledge I have about him, aside from the fact that his owner had to suddenly be taken to a nursing home and Ollie couldn't go. So now Ollie is in a strange garage, under a strange car, with no litter box. He's begging you to come get him!

The TV is pushing me back to work

2011-01-03T10:25:00.003-06:00

Today is my last day off work and I've spent this morning getting dressed for the day watching 'Saved by the Bell' & 'Say Yes to the Dress'. Well, here is what else I've seen besides Zack and wedding dresses:

and this one:

Now, I love babies and kids. Hope to have them soon. But these two commercials make me want to scream. First of all, the heavy doody one is just disgusting and potty dance... super annoying and its not like the child who may think that commercial is fun is the one to say, "Oooh mommy, buy THOSE diapers! I only want to wear huggies!!" Uh... no.

Anyways, I think these two commercials have made me VERY thankful that I do not just sit on my couch all day and watch TV. Definitely time to go back to work tomorrow! I'm nervous for what the new semester and year will hold, but if I just watch those two commercials again, I may even go into work today! Ha, just kidding.... but I may go to publix. Or finally put away my Christmas decorations (it's only January 3!).

Movies, movies, movies

2011-01-02T13:14:00.008-06:00

I have watched a ton of movies lately. I used to not be a big movie fan because it was so much time to dedicate to something (that was probably because I was in school and SHOULD be doing a lot of other things), but lately I've LOVED watching movies. I've really thought about doing Netflix, but Ben is against it. He thinks it's waste of money, but just ONE movie on PPV is $6.99!! And Netflix is only $9.99/month. So we haven't come up with a compromise yet. The one thing holding me back is, do I really need to just watch movies all the time? I don't know that I need one more thing keeping my butt on the couch.

Anyways, so I FINALLY watched the other two Twilight movies: New Moon and Eclipse. I absolutely loved Twilight and could barely stand that I hadn't seen the rest of them. But yesterday while we were on our New Year's vacation down to my friend Emily's, we watched New Moon. Even Ben watched it. His response is as usual, 'its not terrible'. Today I had a free PPV movie, so we rented Eclipse and I just love them both, I really loved that it gave back stories to most of the Cullen clan in Eclipse. I had been against getting on the Twilight frenzy, so I never read the books, but each movie is really good. I'm very ready for the next movie(s) to come out even though I've heard what happens to Bella. (I prefer to know what's coming before committing myself to a movie). **Just watched Eclipse for the 2nd time today (procrastinate much?) and I'm pretty sure that Jacob is one of the best actors in the movie. I think he and Dr. Carlisle Cullen are my favorite... acting wise. Also, I had no idea that Jane in the movie is Dakota Fanning. When did she grown up?!

I also saw, How Do You Know this week at the theaters and I really liked this one. I definitely recommend it. It's not a monumental movie by any means, but you'll leave thinking, 'that was cute'. Plus, Paul Rudd is hilarious and awkward as usual and Jack Nicholson is a good addition to the movie. I can't say its my favorite Reese movie at all, her character was a little bland, but she's cute as always and is her typical romantic-comedy-self. The title is very forgetful though... I've had a hard time remembering it since I've seen it. Overall, its one that is worth seeing in the theater on a rainy day.

One more day off work!

Christmas and another year over?!

2010-12-28T15:21:00.011-06:00

How has this year flown by so fast?

Christmas has come and gone and I'm in shock.

We had a wonderful white Christmas, a first in my memory even with living in New Jersey for 7 years.
Needless to say we were all unprepared for the snow, so Ava had to wear some make-shift snow boots made of saran wrap! (Don't worry, she was at least triple-socked and stayed out just long enough to feel the snow.)

Here is sweet Ava pushing her grocery cart around during Christmas. She would put everything she found in it and push it into the next room, super cute.

My tree is ready to come down thanks to Ben tripping over some shelving that was on the floor and crashing into the tree last night. Thus, breaking several ornaments and having to pick up the tree skirt and take down a lot of ornaments. (Don't worry, he came out alive.) So now its just waiting for me to finish it off and pack it all away until next Christmas flies by. I wish I had a slow button, like staples offers the easy button.

I'm just not ready for everything to keep moving so quick (and no need to tell me its only going to get worse.... I've heard it.)

Christmas was wonderful though. Ben and I have/had two weeks off for Christmas (down to one week left) and we've spent A LOT of time together. I thought we'd go stir crazy, but its been great. I've really enjoyed the rest and ability to do anything I want! Work will be up and going before I know it, so I'm trying to enjoy every last second of it. I still have nights of stressing over things I need to do when I get back (and a few things I should be doing while I'm off, like a 4 page paper I have to turn into central office in a month.... blogging is my way of procrastinating) but I'm trying to turn my brain off and just enjoy the free time!

We are heading to Florida soon to visit Ivy and her sweet little girl, and the rest of my family that lives in Tallahassee; then I'm so excited to spend New Year's Eve with my very good friend Emily!

Ben and I's resolution is to stick to our budget! (Yes, I gave him his resolution this year.) December threw me for a huge loop due to my putting off Christmas shopping until the very last minute and therefore buying just what I needed rather than what I needed AND was a good deal.

I'm trying really hard to reach a savings goal and if we do well in January, we may actually get there! You know what that means?? Bedroom Furniture! (PS - Ben vetoed my previous furniture, so we've picked out a new brand: Legacy. What do you think? It seemed much better quality and not too much of a price jump. (Ben's working on his negotiating skills....)

What's your resolution?

Christmas is here!

2010-12-03T19:45:00.002-06:00

Hark! how the bells

Sweet silver bells

All seem to say,
"Throw cares away."

Christmas is here!

And throw cares away is exactly how I'm feeling. Today is the SEC championship, hence our fabulous Auburn ornaments today. Auburn is currently playing South Carolina and just scored the 1st touchdown of the game. We are currently very happy! Now, if we could get a few more ahead of South Carolina I wouldn't have to work on my deep breathing.... I get way too nervous!

Christmas shopping though is a whole other story though. I have zero motivation and creativity this year when it comes to presents. I think this time last year I had everything picked out, bought or figured out and probably loved it. This year, I'm leaning towards giving everyone a $20 bill with some Dove chocolate.... Merry Christmas!! :)

War Eagle from our home to yours and more importantly Merry Christmas, may God bless you and this Christmas season!

Confused

2010-11-25T23:28:00.003-06:00

I am a little confused. Every time I read the bible and Jesus performs a miracle, he says to that person: don't tell anyone of what I've done. I struggle, because I thought, aren't we supposed to tell of all he's done?! Am I doing something wrong by talking about all the wonderful things God does for me??

So I googled it.... because I google everything.... and came across an answer. Jesus did not want these people who were healed to talk of his healings because he did not want to hinder his mission here on earth and divert people from his message, but it ended up that he had to leave the towns and go into less populated areas because no one could keep their mouth shut when he healed them. So, to this day, the message of the healing through salvation is still a stronger message that Jesus wants spread rather than just one single miracle he performs.

My question still is, what is the level that it would be good to talk about a miracle that Jesus performed for us today? Because when he does them (which is a whole lot more often than we even realize) we WANT to shout it from the roof tops, but is that what He would want??

Either way, I of course want all the glory to be for God because he IS miraculous. Sending his son to die for our souls feels even bigger than a miracle, if there was even a word. I cannot fathom this act and often think, REALLY think, about how Jesus died and how brutal it was. A crown of thorns on his head.... nails in his hands.... hung on a cross!! (And that is just parts of it!) I mean its sickening and saddens me to really think about it, but I think it is important to really think about it, because he did it FOR me. FOR you. He knew us before we were born and loved us so much already that he died for us so we may have a chance to be saved.

Praise the Lord!

Words from a middle schooler

2010-11-22T17:34:00.002-06:00

A middle schooler was talking about people being angry today and when I asked her if she thought I had ever been angry, she said there was no way! That I was 'way too rainbows and sunshine' to ever get angry....

HA!

Rainbows and sunshine.....

Which I guess I should be ecstatic about because I have spoken to kids who have told me that their counselors are always mad and never smile, so I'd rather them think I had a pet unicorn than think I didn't like them.

:) :) :) :)

Meet Me on Monday

2010-11-21T21:58:00.003-06:00

I thought I'd join Rhonda in this Meet Me on Monday Q & A today!

1. How many pillows do you sleep with?
I am FOREVER on the quest for the perfect pillow. Ben made me clean out my pillows this weekend and I easily fill a room with pillows. I have two on the bed and usually toss and turn between them. I am still not satisfied though and am still in search of 'The One'.

2. Where will you eat on Thanksgiving?
At my mothers with my dad, brothers, their wives, my niece and nephew, grandmother, mother-in-law and Ben. I'm really not a big Thanksgiving person though since I'm such a picky eater. I usually just stick with mashed potatoes and green beans (I think the only reason my mother still cooks them is so I have something to eat!). So its just another dinner for me that I get to visit with my whole family and play charades.

3. Would you rather go to a party or host a party?
Um.... go. Less expensive, less stress. I love hosting people at our house (although we do it close to never because we live in the boonies), but I don't LOVE throwing showers and things because I always want them to be perfect and feel like they never are. Going to parties is much easier! :)

4. How many purses (for the guys..wallets) do you own?
I think only two right now. On my list is a really NICE purse. That was going to be a treat to myself after I got a job, but I haven't found it yet. I'm about as picky with purses as I am with food and pillows! Uh oh... I'm noticing a trend. I really didn't realize I was this high maintenance.... anyways, when I find a purse, it strikes me as soon as I see it that it is MY purse. It usually takes me a lot of looking to find it, but I'm always very happy with it (if only the quality would hold up a little longer than a couple months.)

5. What is your favorite kind of seafood?
Lobster bisque soup from Brio's. This soup is A-MAZING! If you have never been, click to find out if there is one near you, because the entire restaurant is just wonderful.
Or crab claws. The little tiny claws, not the big crab legs. They are a must-have if I go to the beach.That's about all that is on my seafood list though.

Love is Louder

2010-11-18T19:16:00.000-06:00

A parent shared this campaign with me this week and I have to admit, I love it. Bullying is a very hot topic lately that everyone sees we need to do something about, but no one knows exactly what to do.

I thought this was a very simple but effective campaign that kids may listen to. Anyways, spread the word :)

Mobile

2010-11-18T19:15:00.000-06:00

I've been in Mobile for 3 days. Counseling conference. I was hoping to be rejuvinated and inspired and motivated, but what I have become is overwhelmed. There is so much I want to do and NEED to do, but I don't even know where to start. I'm so thankful tomorrow is Friday and we come home. It will give me all weekend to refresh and absorb all I've learned this week before school starts again. And then before I know it, Thanksgiving! How is November already almost over? This year has F.L.O.W.N by!

Furniture

2010-11-11T19:27:00.006-06:00

I've been consumed by a materialistic goal lately....

But its been 4 years now that I have been saving for bedroom furniture. I have reached my goal a couple times and then something always comes up: computers dying, new tires, life, etc. And I'm cheap. Really cheap. So much so that I cannot stomach spending a couple hundred OR thousand dollars at one time. Literally it just makes me want to throw up.

If we have large purchases I usually have to give Ben the okay to do it so I don't actually have to spend the money myself. Pathetic I know.

Well, I've decided enough is enough. I REALLY want bedroom furniture and Ben asked for new tires for his buggy, which about sent me over the edge into a '2-year-old tantrum, you always get stuff and I never do' frenzy. Good thing I composed myself and realized I'm 27.

Currently our bedroom is composed of a VERY mismatched assortment of furniture and bedding. (The rest of my house has slowly come together, but this room that should be just as important has been pushed aside). We have a faux headboard, Trading Spaces style of plywood covered with fabric.... and trust me I'm not nearly as crafty as Living with Lindsay (check out her homemade headboard) although I aspire to be! We have 2 nightstands that came from the thrift store at around $1.75 each many years ago, and totally don't match.... I have a white dresser that was a hand-me-down from my old roommate after she didn't want it anymore because the drawers constantly fall out and it takes a lot of work to get them back in.... it needs a new coat of paint too. Have I done this? Nope. So you get the idea.... its a mess.

Well, mess, no more!

This is the furniture:

I've loved it for 2 years now and I just looked it up again after not seeing it for at least a year and still love it. I think that is a good sign! I WILL buy this furniture soon!

I can't really tell you my expected date because of Christmas, but soon! I'd love to have it by Christmas, but I'll need to go see the prices again before that's able to happen. The last time I priced it out I priced ALL the pieces because someone told me I'd better get all of them or I'll regret it when they discontinue them. I no longer want all the pieces, just the crucial ones: bed, nightstands, dresser & mirror. And Ben promised me that he would be a bargainer that would make Dave Ramsey proud!

Enter Sandman

2010-11-04T00:23:00.002-05:00

I did it... I went to bed at 7pm only to be woken up at 11pm by my dog telling me it was time for HER to go to bed. I thought instantly that it was 5am or so, until Ben corrected me and said its still night. I have now been up for an hour and a half unable to sleep.

Which gives me PLENTY of time to catch up on all the blogs I follow!!!

Remember that LONG day I'm going to have tomorrow? I think it just got longer.

What I've Learned

2010-11-03T18:18:00.003-05:00

I. Am. So. Tired!

I have slept so terribly for over a week now... I'm either too hot, too cold, have to pee, Ben's tossing and turning or my pillow is uncomfortable. I could not prop my eye lids open right now if I tried, but its only 6:15 and I figure that is WAY too early to try and go to sleep for the night. With my luck I'd wake up at 11 pm ready to go!

Tomorrow is going to be a long day: professional development meeting half the day, filling in the rest of the day with a whole day's worth of work and then we have our annual beauty walk at school that I am on duty to help with. I LOVE pageants, but it does make for a long day tomorrow.

Maybe I should be going to bed. Thank goodness Friday will be here shortly after that!

But today is day 24 of Katie's Blog Challenge - Something You've Learned.

If my brain weren't nearly asleep right now I could probably come up with something great and meaningful.... but instead this is what I've learned in my life so far:

God listens no matter what, and makes sense out of thoughts that even you cannot make sense of.

Google will answer any question you have and even questions you didn't know you had.

Sometimes people just want you to listen.... and not say anything back.

That I am actually an adult. ( I still don't know when exactly it happened though).

To not eat chicken from any fast-food restaurants except Chik-Fil-A.

You can order a meat-less hamburger from any fast-food resaurant.

You can't change what has happened by freaking out or yelling.

Pets can make everything better.

What have you learned???

Oh where oh where can it be?

2010-11-01T17:10:00.005-05:00

My favorite city in all of the world? Yes, that means its day 22 of Katie's 30-day challenge.

I am having a really hard time coming up with my favorite city because really, if it has a beach, or a lazy river, it could be a contender.

I love Islamorada in the Keys. (We usually go there every christmas, but it just became a little expensive.... although you'd be surprised how cheap going during the off season actually is.) This year we won't be attending because I'll be working, but hopefully next year we can pick back up with it. Its about an hour from Key West, still very laid back, cute little seafood places, and beautiful views everywhere. (This picture below is VERY old... from Ben's first year down there I think).
My favorite city I've never been?

Charleston, SC

It just seems so beautiful! Close to the water, has a lot of interesting historical places and I've heard the night life is always fun too. I do hope to go there one day.