A look at the past: July 16, 2005

4 Years ago today I almost put a rock through my downstairs neighbor's car window. I was 37 wks and 5 days pregnant with a my first baby. At the time we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. It was a Saturday and my mom had flown in from Kentucky two days earlier because I had been having some contractions. We though our baby might come earlier than our Aug. 1st due date. Anyways, Mom was here, Mike was working, It was HOT (well...for Massachusetts), and we decided we would walk the baby out. We got up that morning and went to the mall, and Babies R Us, and BJ's (similar to Sams or Costco-but better). We were out for several hours. I think we had lunch out as well. Anyways, we pulled up to the house around 4 in the afternoon with a car full of groceries and shopping bags. As I pulled up I realized that I couldn't get my car in my half of the driveway. The half that was reserved for my car, paid for by our rent. The reason I couldn't get my car in the driveway was because our downstairs neighbor had some friends over and let them park in her side of the driveway. Well, the one next to my spot decided to park diagonal across both spots. I SAW RED!!! I knocked on her door but no answer. I am not normally this easily enraged, but I was done being pregnant and I was hot and tired and I was mad! I quickly called the landlord and informed him that he needed to have his first floor tennant move her friend's car. During this time, Mike came downstairs to help unload the groceries. When he got downstairs, I was moving the rocks that outlined the edge of the gravel driveway and separated it from the yard. These were not little rocks folks. These were 10 lb. watermelon sized rocks. And remember, I am hugely pregnant! I was so mad that I was picking them up to put a line down the middle of the driveway. I decided to throw a few. Now, I remember this slightly more innocently than Mike does, but according to him he had to restrain me from throwing it through her car window. I don't think I was ever that close to doing it. I remember the thought crossing my mind and I was holding a rock at the time, but I also remember that I wasn't actually going to do it. In the end, her friend moved their car and all was well. I didn't go into labor that night. I stayed pregnant a bit longer.

Summer Pictures

Summertime Fun!

So, It has been forever. Summer has been absolutely insane. I think I have to stop treating life as if it is weird for it to be insanely busy. That just is our life now. I should be surprised if it isn't insanely busy. Anyways, its the good kind of insane right now though, where we get to spend tons of time together as a family. Mike is back on a somewhat normal work schedule for the summer and so has had his weekends off. That has been quite nice. We got to go out on our first date night since last October back in June. It had been a while. However, with coupons for free burgers at Tom's diner in Arlington and a gift card to AMC Cinema and going on a Monday night when ticket prices are half price, we had a very cheap and enjoyable date night. The end of June, my youngest sister, Kim, had her first baby. It was a baby girl named Haylie Anne. She is precious! Mike took some time off of work and we took a long weekend over the 4th to go see her, Shonda and her fam, and my parents who were down to see the baby. It was such a relaxing vacation. We stayed with Shonda's inlaws at their house in Friendswood. They live on like 70 acres of land and it is gorgeous. No TV, No internet, Family, friends and a pool! It was great! On Friday, Mike helped my brother in-law Mark rob bees of honey. He helped with this last year and had a blast, so it is kindof becoming a 4th of July tradition. It is the best honey EVER!!!! While helping, Mike got "attacked" by a be in the eyebrow and as a result, his eye was swollen shut for most of the 4th. I am sure he would agree, though, that it was worth it! The girls are doing good. Mary Kate is almost 4. Less than a week until her birthday. I am in the process of planning her party right now and as usual, she keeps changing her mind!!! She is actually on the verge of losing her party right now actually. It seems 4 has brought back a lot of the behaviors of 2 just with a bigger vocabulary to actually express how she feels or how bad she wants me to feel. It is quite an adventure each day just making it through. Aside from that she is her sweet, bossy, helpful self. Brianna is growing and happy as always. She still hasn't broken that tooth through, but I am hoping it will come soon. It is raised up and ready to pop through at any moment. It just won't. She is still rather lackadaisical about eating solid food. She will take it if you give it, but she won't eat all of it usually, and she would just as soon prefer to nurse. I don't know about her. :) She is a sweetheart though. It has been fun to watch her recently as her and Mary Kate have started to interact a lot more. Two other big things in our life and I will end. First, I have started watching a little girl named Kenzie. She is a sweetie pie and has really just fit right in with our family from day one. She is 22 months old and very smart. She reminds me a lot of how Mary Kate was at that age. This arrangement has really been a blessing for both our family and hers. There is no doubt it was divinely arranged. Also, Mike and I have decided to reapply to apartment life. We still feel called to this ministry and are hoping that this time will be God's timing. Pray for us as we complete the application process and head into our interviews. I am going to post a seperate post full of recent pics.

One of those days...

Do you ever have those days? Today was one of those days. Not the ones that you just want to blow your brains out or sell your kids or whatnot, just the ones where you get to the end of the day and think "If I don't get two seconds to myself to realize that I exist too, Mommy's going to go INSANE!" That was me today. Maybe its because its Friday and the entire week is getting to me (not that it will be better tomorrow as Mike took a Saturday shift-yay overtime, boo not seeing him). Maybe it is just one of those days. It started off bad when I went to bed too late, then MK woke up about an hour after I got to sleep screaming for me. Her knee hurt and she was cold and wanted to change into pajamas with pants and long sleeves-AT 3 IN THE MORNING!!! I don't think I can adequately explain how frustrating that was. But it got better: as soon as MK laid down and went to sleep Brianna woke up and saw me standing there and proceeded to scream until 5:30 when Mike decided to go get her and have me nurse her. She nursed on and off for about two hours before waking up to play. Mike graciously took her to the living room to jump in the jumperoo. Not an hour later when he left for work, she started screaming. Its her new thing. If she wants you to get her or hold her or pay attention to her , she screams. No tears, just screaming. It is never very good day when it starts off with a mommy with a headache working on less than 3 hours of sleep with a broken coffee maker!!! So, out the door to run errands and get coffee. Get home and I had the crazy idea NOT to put MK down for a nap. I think the lack of sleep was influencing me. I decided to work on preschool with her and do laundry while Bria was down. It was actually a productive afternoon. However, It was long and I feel like every time I finish one thing for one person, I have to turn around and do something for another. That is why it was SOOO nice to go swim with my great friend Leah tonight. We both really love swimming and so we have been going together and swimming laps when the kids are in bed and the hubbys are home for about a month now. I love it. After a day like today it felt so good to think about nothing but getting myself from one end of the pool to the other over and over again. We swam for almost an hour. I think I could have swum like 2 or 3, but the pool was closing and that is a little optimistic to think I could go do something by myself for that long. Anyways, it was really nice and now I feel great! The kids are doing good. Bria has come a long way in a week and is sitting up on her own pretty well. She still wobbles over from time to time, but she can sit there for quite a while. She has also decided that she loves food this week. She hadn't been showing much interest in most foods so far. I took a couple days off of solid foods and on tuesday night she was ready for them. She is opening her mouth wider and eating most of the food that I prepare for her. This is ENORMOUS improvement. MK is doing well. She is a bit sad as several of her friends are moving soon. Our upstairs neighbors are moving tomorrow and she just found out today. They have two older boys (5 and 9) who she LOVES to play with. She pretends to be the cheerleader while they play football. Also, our good friends, the Lathams, are moving in a week and a half as well. Mary Kate adores Miss Angel and her family! It has been a sad couple of weeks as her best friend from church just moved as well. It is hard growing up. Anyways, here are some pics of the girls:

Top Ten...

I saw this top ten list in the back of June's Parenting magazine and thought it was worthy of sharing...

Top Ten Things That are OK not to Share with your Kids:
1. Your Cheesecake (or substitute any dessert, in my opinion)
2. Your private potty time
3. Your rationale for deciding who gets to sit by the window
4. Your wild, semi-legal pastimes during your teen years- and during that weekend they stayed at Grandma's
5. That, believe it or not, you want to yell WAY more than you do
6. That Elmo is just a woolly puppet with a 48 year old's hand up his butt
7. That, come Monday, You're often incredibly psyched to go to work
8. That you sometimes go for weeks without eating vegetables
9.That, No, you really don't want to hear her sing the Barney song again, right this very second.
10. But that she should go ahead because you'll be so sad when she's too old and cool to offer!

Not ALL applicable or true for everyone of us, but funny just the same! Happy Memorial Day!

Growing up!

Tonight I had one of those "My baby's growing up moments"! Mary Kate finished her first year of cubbies and had her award ceremony tonight! She was so precious. This year she finished her book. She memorized 26 bible verses joyfully! She also had perfect attendance! Her leaders at cubbies were amazing...they really made this a great experience for the kids. I am so proud of her! She is definitely looking forward to starting up again next year! She doesn't quite understand why she has to take the summer off, but I am sure that will come.

Brianna has also jumped into the world of solid food. After spending several weeks playing around with food and acting indifferent, she finally realized that she could eat solid food and be full. She is actually starting to enjoy it and eat more than two bites.

I think it may actually happen!

So a little update on summer classes and financial stuff for school in the fall:

It wasn't looking like we were going to be able to get all of the application stuff in for Mike to take classes at SMU, however, God in his wonderful glory somehow made the impossible possible. I talked to the theology school admissions person last thursday and she said that they would be flexible with us and that as long as most of the application was in then we had a little leeway on the deadline. So as of today, May 7th, his entire application is in and we are waiting to hear from the school as to whether or not he is "accepted" in order to take Greek. This is a huge answer to prayer in that we will not have to pay for his class this summer, but it will keep him on track to graduation. Also, where we would like to avoid taking out a loan for classes, we found out that we have someone to cosign for us in order to get us a better interest rate and such. It is nice to know that we have that option if we need it. We are still praying that God will provide another alternative, but are not ruling this out as a God provided alternative. Thanks for all the prayers and please continue to pray for us and the stress that taking summer classes AND working 40 hours a week will put on our family. Mike will be driving to Dallas at 7:20 every morning and will be in class every day from 830-1230 and then will go straight over to work and will work until 7 or 8 probably. He won't be getting home until late each night. I am nervous how Mary Kate will respond to this as she is a daddy's girl, however, we will have him all to ourselves ALL weekend so that will be a nice change from the school year. Also, please pray for me as I try to figure out a way to make a little extra money. There was a possibility for a promotion at church, however there are some things that have come up with that and it is now looking less likely. I COULD still end up with the job, but it is going to be a much longer hiring process as they have decided not to promote from within, but to open up the position for other applications. Also, I have been told they are changing the position as well, although I do not yet know what that will entail. Regardless, since the semester is over and I am not watching the little boy that I was watching anymore, we need to figure out a way to replace that income and it will probably need to be sooner than they are going to be hiring. Pray for me to receive guidance from the Lord as to how to proceed.

In other news, the kids are doing well. We are still trying to get Brianna to eat some solid foods. She is very particular and I am convinced that she doesn't want to do anything but nurse for the next ...oh..18 years or so..lol! We have discovered that she really likes yogurt, so i can mix stuff into yogurt and she will eat some solid food. Mary Kate is doing great and is about to finish up her first year of cubbies! She just finished her last bible verse last night and has now finished her first book! For those of you not familiar, that means she has memorized 24 verses! I am continually impressed by her brilliance!! Will post pictures later!