New year, New me!!

Hi all,
Elijah is 7 months old, and it is time to work off that "baby fat". A great friend of mine, Kay Simms, is actually a personal trainer for "Serious Results" (972-207-9800) and has agreed to be my trainer! I plan on keeping track of my progress here on a regular basis! Here are a couple of (horrible) pictures, but stay tuned for more! And just as a bonus, I included a picture of the boys;-).

Been a while!

Boy..it sure has been a long time!! I have something that has been on my heart for a long time, and have been battleing with if I should blog about it or not. so...consequentially, I have not blogged at all. Still have not fully decided, but was not going to see anything until MOPS was over at least...we shall see. But regardless- small update...We are due in 6 days. If Elijah does not decide to show up on his own, then he will be escorted from the premisis on Thurday. More news to come tomorrow I am sure. Just wanted to let everyone know I have NOT fallen off the ac of the earth, despite all appreances;-)

Today is amazing

Regardless of whether you voted for Obama or not, today really is an amazing day! Today proves once and for all that (as my wonderful MIL so quainty put it) "it is about the ability of ALL regardless of background etc. to rise to greatness through hard work and lofty goals". Indeed;-)

WOW

My goodness! The devil sure does know how to kick you while you are down! We have a family saying that that is his business and business is good. Indeed;-(

I'm still here...really

I have been very quiet lately. You know the old adage "If you can't say anything nice..."? Well, I have not been saying anything at all;-). Obviously I am struggling with frustration and discouragement. If you could pray for me, I would really appreciate it!

On a different note, JJ had tubes put in his ears on Friday and his adenoids out. Everything went really well except for waking from anesthesia. He cried and cried for about an hour. Kept saying "I don't like this place. I want to go home now". Poor kid. But after we went home, he slept for a while and woke up fine. It is really great having his hearing back. I was so tired of yelling and not knowing is he was just being a 4 year old boy, or if he really couldn't hear me!;-)

The funniest part was when they gave him the "silly juice" before he went back. It was to calm him down so he wouldn't care that we weren't going back with him for the actual anesthesia. About 10 min after they gave it to him he was watching the little portable DVD player they have there for the kids, snuggling his favorite blanket and bear and turned to me (with VERY glazed eyes) and asked what would happen if we stuck a blanket in the TV. I was laughing so hard, it took me a couple of minutes to actually answer him. Then he was wobbling his head like a bobble head doll and said " My head feels wobbly. It won't stop wiggling". Again laughing so hard it was hard to respond in a responsible manner. I was laughing so hard that while I noticed he was slowly getting closer and closer to the DVD screen, I didn't realize what was about to happen until it did. He leaned closer and closer and then got so close he bonked his head on the screen. He wasn't hurt, but seemed really surprised that the screen jumped up and hit him. It really was funny. Poor Kid.

OK.. a few pics to leave you with. JJ wanted to talk to a neighbor boy, and couldn't see over the fence, so here was the ensuing action. that boy has some serious perseverance!

BTW...we're expecting!!

Well...you can tell how effective THAT epiphany was!! :-)

I am not sure if anyone (besides another Stay-at-home mom with small kids) would believe that I REALLY do have something I would like to blog about every day! Just never seem to get enough done to get around to it! ;-)

Well- this week I am a work widow. Jchon is in PA installing computers (hopefully- if Fed-Ex can ever figure out WHO they delivered them to since it wasn't them!) from yesterday to next Friday. Why is it that these kinds of things always seem to pop up when BOTH of the kids are going through a tough stage? Spiritual warfare I am sure.

Recently in my bible reading, I came upon Acts 16 when Paul and Silas are in prison. Now most people I think focus on the fact that they were singing praise songs in the prison yard. One of my favorite songs even reminds us of that (Sara Groves- "When the Saints"). (now here is my sad recap) But the part that really stuck me was after the earthquake that shook the foundations and opened the doors and made EVERYONE's chains break loose, the jailer woke from sleeping (umm..yeah..it was an earthquake for Pete's sake:-). He saw the doors open and drew his sword to kill himself knowing everyone has escaped, but Paul shouted "Don't kill yourself. We are ALL here" (my emphasis). when the jailer realized this, he fell at Paul and Silas's feet trembling and asked what he needed to do to be saved. Paul and Silas then told him the good news etc. What caught my attention most: Paul and Silas stayed (and I assume convinced everyone else to stay). How many of us when faced with a truly hard spot in life, would see the way out that God had opened for us and choose to stay in that difficult place for the greater good. I think it is amazing that they did not praise God for their gift of escape and ditch knowing that the jailer would be killed (or kill himself) because he lost the prisoners. I realize that most of us do this often. When faced with a tough day, week, year- we stay with our spouses, kids, and jobs. This really is a choice to not "escape" but to serve those around you and hopefully reflect on the greater good. Life itself really is our prison. We are stuck in our sinful world, but we know that as christian some day we will be set free. Until then, our cry is "Wait- don't cause any harm. We are still here and this is the Good News of Jesus!"


More conversations from the backseat: aka this is the difference between males and females;-)...background info- we told JJ that he could not go to a major league baseball game until he was 4. (and of course we took him in Sept)

Avery- JJ- guess what? I am 4 now!
JJ- Cool- we can take you to a baseball game now! Mom- can we take Avery to a baseball game now?
Me: well- it isn't baseball season anymore honey, but when it is we can talk about it then;-).
JJ- Won't it be fun to go with us to a baseball game Avery?
Avery - but JJ! I don't have a special baseball outfit to wear!

How cute is that... there is the difference.. men want the sport...women want to look cute while there:-D



BTW..for anyone that didn't know.... I am NOT just getting fat.. it's a baby;-) we are due June 22.

Really?? It's been 6 weeks???

Wow! I can't believe it has been six weeks since I posted.

So here is the funny and ironic thing. I had an Epiphany a couple of weeks ago. We have been in Financial Peace University classes at church. One of the talking points is paying yourself first. Now I have always heard that and have always known it in my head, but it finally occur ed to me that if you don't, SOMETHING always takes it's place. You think that with the leftovers you are going to add $$ to savings, pay off debt etc, but amazingly, there is never any leftovers. There is always some "emergency" or sudden expense. So that was kind of an "ah Ha" moment. I realized I have always felt like putting money into savings was kind of like playing. It is fun and you don't get to play until all the work(bills) are done. Thing is...like I said above, the bills NEVER seem to get done, and therefor the savings etc also never seem to get done.

Coupled with this Epiphany, was the realization that this mindset has stretched across many boundaries in my life. Namely, exercise and blogging. I LOVE to "exercise" with my wii fit (it is in quotes because, while I really do much much more than i would otherwise (hula hooping if no one is around;-) my favorites are yoga and the balance games.- Doesn't really seem like "Exercise" to me) and blog. Almost every day I think of something I would love to blog about. and yet, that mindset is, until all the "work" is done, no playing. Thing is, just like with money, the "work" never all gets done. I just have to start taking those few minutes for me or it is never going to happen.

Of course, you can see how well the epiphany worked, as it STILL took me a couple of weeks to get back to blogging;-). Oh well.. I am a work in progress! In so many ways;-)

So Hopefully I will improve my attendance here. It is my almost new years resolution. Let's see how it goes;-)