Food!

Ok, so this first picture has nothing to do with food but I had to add it for your viewing pleasure. =) Abigail's first pig tails.


Now we can get to the food part. Let's just be honest. I dislike food. I dislike cooking. I have always said I wish we didn't have to eat to live. Or I wish bad food were good for you and good food was bad for you. Abigail, on the other hand, she loves food and she loves eating. She (usually) doesn't care what I put in front of her. She will eat it all. Hannah is the same way. Ryan hates meat but otherwise isn't too picky. I am very thankful and blessed to have good eaters. But I am getting off subject....


Sometimes I run out of ideas of things to feed Abigail. She stopped liking baby food long ago. I introduced "human" food too early probably. I used my trusty pinterest to find some mini dishes to make and freeze. That way when we are eating something Abigail can't have or doesn't like, I can whip something out of the freezer. Or if I just don't have anything to feed her for lunch, I just pull something out of the freezer. I made tiny chicken pot pies and blueberry and banana puffins (pancake muffins). I have mini lasagnas to make eventually.

Yay me!! =)

....

For some reason my mind is racing with things to say tonight! I don't even know where to begin, and that is never a good sign.

I've still been spending a lot of time going through drawers, totes, shelves and any other surface that has too much stuff on or in it. Thankfully, we went through all the totes we already had out in the building and threw a ton of stuff away or consolidated so I have been able to reuse totes instead of buy more. Oddly, I haven't found many items in the house to throw away, just things that we don't use much that can be stored out there for now. Just to give you an idea of what items we have laying around that aren't exactly junk but don't get used often, I'll name a few: Purses and wallets, hunting gear, christmas ornaments, all our bank statements since the. very. first. one, huge containers of crayons, markers and pencils, a lot of CDs full of all my pictues and movies since 2004, games and more games and I don't even remember the rest.

While going thru the totes in the building, I ran across my scrubs. Remember, I gave up my day job as vet assistant 4 years ago now. I have decided it is time to pass them along. That is a big step for me. I never thought there would come a day when I didn't know if I would ever go back to work at a vet. But that day is here.

The bank statements....that very first one from Jan 2003 (we were married Dec 2002). It was a whole two pages long! The first one about half full of atm/debit card transactions and the other half full of pictures of the checks we wrote that month. I don't think there has been a two page statement since then!

In other news, Hannah and Ryan are learning how to vacuum this week. The rug in the livingroom is the only thing that gets vacuumed regularly. Even tho the kids clean their rooms weekly, it is usually trashed again before I can get a vacuum back there to sweep. So they have it pretty easy. I can still remember the time I swept up the cord to mom's brand new vacuum cleaner. I must have been traumatized by that because I kept saying, "watch the cord!"

I think Abigail is getting another tooth. She has been crankier than normal and just different all the way around. Normally the girl will eat anything I put in front of her. This week, she has been spitting out everything! She has been fighting naps big time. Today she didn't even take one. I think that is the very first time she hasn't taken a nap. She was in bed around 6:30, tho.

We finally bought a swing set today. Brad's gma bought Abigail a baby swing for her birthday bc we had been talking about getting a swing set and we finally did it. The trampoline is coming down for awhile.

We have one more month of school left. Normally the business of summer doesn't start until after school but I have several trips planned for this month. The girls and I are meeting my sister in law and neice, Kara, in Morgantown (that's half way between our house and theirs in MD) for a weekend together. We haven't seen each other since Christmas! Then we will be making a trip down to NC to see my parents. Fun, fun!

Well, I guess I have typed everything my mind wanted me to bc I can't think of anything else!

Slowly but surely

I am writing this post mainly bc I read a post from a blog friend about their month of moving woes. They are further along in the moving process than we are but I totally get what she is going through and what I don't get yet, I will soon enough!

We have been talking about moving for a long time now. We have always "wanted" to have acres of land. It is a dream of Brad and mine. Also we "want" our next house to be our last house. We have been here since the beginning and the next place we are hoping we will stay until the end. Of course, those are our wants, not our needs. This house has been an amazing first home and I am continually reminded of the Lord's gracious blessings here. Hence, a lot of talk, not a lot of action in the past. We know this has to be something the Lord works out for us.

Last summer/fall two of the three families who lived in front of us moved. The familes who replaced them have lots of kids and grandkids and family and are always around. They are not respectful or considerate of other people (us and Brad's gma) and are ALWAYS in our yard. We tried to "love your neighbors as yourself" and so on. But we can't let our dogs out and are constantly moving their bikes and other toys out of our driveway so we can get to our house. It is just getting too much to handle. We can't go outside and be alone. They are not exactly the best influence on our kids. We want to influence them but their is only so much we can do. And that is why we decided we need to get serious about moving and praying it is what God wants for us.

We have several things working against us: the above mentioned neighbors and the railroad tracks being 20 ft out our back door. So we need "beef up" the inside of the house to make it attractive. That is the hard part for us. Brad works long, laborous hours every day at work and doesn't really want to come home and spend hours sanding down the wall so I can paint or fixing the shelves in the closet that he broke sanding said wall. Obviously, I don't know how to do these things and can't do much with a 12 month old around my feet all day.

So far we have bought all the wood to finish the porch and actually finished it. Brad has been working on patching a spot on the ceiling in the laundry room that had a water spot on it. He had to buy a big tub of the patching product bc he has not been able to get the texture to match the rest of the ceiling so he has sanded it down and started over a handful of times. He has been working on the wall in our bedroom that needs sanded down for a very long time. Just about every room in the house needs painted. He wants to tile our bathroom (we have had the supplies to do this for well over a year). I am going to do major cleaning that I have never done (clean down the air vents). I have been packing up a lot of the "stuff" we don't need or use every day (a diaper box full of pictures on CD that go back to 2004 among other things)and tons of toys and taking it out to the building so our house doesn't look so cluttered. Painting will be my job and the deep cleaning and rearranging. I'm sure their is more that I can't think of. I will be surprised it we get the house up for sale by the fall at the rate we are going.

So there ya have it.

good times

Here are just a few of the highlights from a great weekend:

Getting to have my mom and sister and her two youngest boys here for a couple days
taking lots of pictures of the boys
Celebrating the first birthday of an amazing little girl
Celebrating my 13 year dating anniversary (we didn't really celebrate but it happened!)
Celebrating my hubby's 29th birthday today
finishing off spring break without a fight to get the kids in bed on time!
Awesome weather!


And some not so "high"lights:

my house being trashed
my sister and nephew turning up sick with colds on party day
my first sunburn from cutting grass
forgetting to do Brad's work laundry until 7pm on Sunday

Seuss-tastic Celebration

There are so many things I am going to miss about the first year of Abigail's life: her toothless grin and all the "firsts." BUT I am so excited for this next year of firsts that is awaiting my sweet Abigail. There are more pictures on facebook if you are interested. =)

overflowing

My family and I, along with a few other church members, went to see an awesome play put on by a big baptist church not far from us portraying the life of Jesus and His death, burial, ressurection and ascension. I wish I had been able to get better pictures (some are on FB) to put on here.

Do you ever have those moments when you are just so overjoyed that you don't know what to do? When I am like that I cry. That is how I am feeling tonight after that play. I just can't wrap my head around everything He did and how great my life is because of Him. Even on my darkest days, my life is amazing. I can't imagine not having to face this world without Him. With the joy that I am feeling for myself also comes the heartbreak for my lost family members and friends. They don't see it and I can't believe they are missing out on this feeling.

At one point when they were going from scene of Mary holding Jesus' bloody clothes after being brutaly beaten to the scene of young Mary holding her baby boy, they were playing the song Mary Did You Know. I only hear it around Christmas time. Since having kids that has become one of my favorite songs.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.

The blind will see, the deaf will hear and the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb.

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you are holding is the great I AM.

We all know we think our kids are the best and we love them more than anything but imagine...."When you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God." Imagine...."This child that you delivered will soon deliever you." What if your child really was the Best, The One, the Creator, God, Redeemer, Savior, Friend. I could go on.

Right now I am feeling blessed and thankful!

WOW!


Read more: http://artists.letssingit.com/mark-lowry-lyrics-mary-did-you-know-hc1xwsv#ixzz1rPTpxROx
LetsSingIt - Your favorite Music Community

me

I am not sure how this post is going to turn out. I'm just thinking out loud here. I was just reading my dear sister in law's blog and she always has a way of getting me thinkin'. She seems to know herself inside out. You can ask her any question about anything and she has an answer. I, on the other hand, have never been a deep thinker and don't spend much time thinking about who I am inside and what I believe about any subject or anything.

~Let me stop right here and say this has nothing to do with her being a deep thinking or anything.~

For example: Am I an all or nothing type of gal or all about moderation? Until today I had never really thought about that. I just do (or don't do) things a certain way and that's that. No need to think about it, right? Well, maybe, but I suppose sometimes it is good to think about the things that don't normally pop into your head. I would never come up with that question on my own. I actually like when I learn or realize something about myself that I never thought of before. I think it can be a way God talks to us.

So today, Jess D, thanks for teaching me that there is a reason nothing ever gets finished on the first attempt around here. Is it something I should work on? I don't know yet. It certainly doesn't upset me that every time I start laundry, I am moving it the chair at the end of the day and adding it to my list for tomorrow. Which is another thing I don't do: lists!