no sleep and a home

I think that it has come down to this.....I have put off doing laundry and cleaning up around the apartment for so long, I am pulling an all nighter. I am going to stay up as late as it takes me to finish the laundry and bake the cake that I have to bake for the party I am going to tomorrow after the baby shower I am attending. Phew! We have been entirely too busy lately and its time to slow down. I will slow down tomorrow whenever my body just gives out! Wish me luck!

In other FANTASTIC news......we are moving into our very own HOUSE!!!



A beautiful 3 bedroom 2 bath 2 car garage 1872 square foot HOUSE!! The kitchen is completely open to the living room and there is a breakfast bar overlooking the sink. I can not tell you how absolutely thrilled, blessed, amazed, shocked, in disbelief I am at this wonderful HOME!! The previous owners have painted and put new fixtures in as if they were doing them to suit Chris and I's tastes. That is a hard feat to do for the designer/architect that is my husband. It is a complete blessing from God Almighty. I give Him all the glory in finding this house for us and arranging so that we can move in in a monthand pay less than we do now for this 900 square foot apartment. It is a complete miracle. It is in the city (Mansfield) that we wanted to be in also. We get the keys the first part of August and I have never looked forward to August more than I do now. YEA! I'm so excited. Katelyn will now have the freedom to run around and play at her leisure; have a yard to play in; a backyard to put a kiddy pool in; a neighborhood to go for walks in; and a living room to have friends over and watch Madagascar with! She is going to have such a wonderful little childhood growing up in this house! Thank you Lord for your faithfullness and grace!

Now maybe she won't (literally) hold on to my leg everywhere I go. She will want to play and explore in her very own house. Prasie God!

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Okay. It is now 2am. Poor Chris has lost the fight to stay awake.



And he will kill me for posting this picture!! That's what you get for falling asleep in a hilarious position in the middle of the living room floor with a wife who loves to take pictures! Ahhahaha!

I on the other hand am going strong. 4 loads down; cake cooling getting ready for the frosting; kitchen clean. I'm just taking a break to wait on the next load to finish drying.

I do think however awake I might be, I'm afraid the goofyness is starting to set in.....watch out folks. It's scarey

phew

What a week. I don't think I have been that busy since I was in school and working 2 jobs. Crazy! If it wasn't a doctor's appointment (I pulled my neck tuesday and have been going to the Chiropractor just about every day) it was a sporting event or dinner dates etc etc. Katelyn and I lived in the car last week. It was a productive busy but still very busy. I have enjoyed our down days a lot...and we had none last week. But I am in no way complaining. I enjoy a change of pace every once in a while. It's just nice to be back on slow pace this week!

Random thoughts:

~ Are two piece bathing suits out of the question for a mom?
~ How long is TOO long to let a 16 month old watch movies?
~ Is there such thing as "too much information" amoungst friends? (i.e. does my friend REALLY want to know that I had diahrea last night ....or should I leave that info out?)
~ What spices are ok for a 16 month old to have?
~What's too early in potty training? Does your child have to be able to talk?
~ What exactly is digi-scrap?

I think that's it for now.

a little insight and ramblings

There are always a gazillion thing going on in my head but I never seem to have the time to think about all of them at once....therfore I stay up way past a reasonable bed time and stay sleepy for the next few days. Then I thought that maybe if I write them down then I can clear some clutter goin on up there. This will in turn allow me to proceed with my day. so here they are

1. Where will our next move be? Chris has a love for flying. He left pilot training in the Air Force to be there for his family. A choice not many men would have made. But he still misses it. So, he is exploring the possibility of flying helicopters in the Texas National Guard. If he gets a slot we will then move to Alabama for a year. This move would be so incrediably helpful for us in so many ways. Now that Chris is a Captain, he would get Captain's pay for the year he would be in heli training. Wow would this help! It is twice what we make now. We could pay off some debt and save for our next child. Which brings me to number two.....

2. With Katelyn getting older (and more spoiled) by the day, when is a good time for number two? Are we supposed to "plan" for our next child or am I being silly and not trusting in His infinite wisdom for our lives? ......I may have just answered my own question.

3. How can I get over my fear of leaving Katelyn with a babysitter so Chris and I can go out and be a couple? Like a real date....one that doesn't involve kids and/or other people. We haven't had a date in oh.....about 5 months and even then it was a disaster. We sat in a loud crowded restaurant for 2.5 hours while not being able to talk to each other and then went home. I think we need some queit non-kid time away from the apartment to refresh our memories as to what it's like to be real people! Pray.

That's basically what's on my mind here lately. Nothing big....ha!



Ahhh to be a little girl playing in a laundry basket with absolutely no worries whatsoever. Would that be nice yet again?

I have newfound respect and understanding for my parents these days. I am raising one child and dealing with all the pressures that comes from that. Financial, emotional, developmental, etc. My parents did all that with 6 kids and are(relatively I must say) still sane. Bless those crazy folks! It is amazing to me that all 6 of us have made it through childhood with no real issues at hand. We were loved, clothed, taken care of and fed on a daily basis. I can't really remember any time that we weren't comletely taken care of physically, emotionally and spiritually. Sure there were times when we didn't get what we wanted at the time (ie. the most popular toy or the cooles clothes) but I would have traded those materialistic things in a heart beat for the warmth that our home brought. My parents weren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. They made mistakes and sometimes didn't always perform to their uptmost as parents, but I am who I am today because of the job they. They did that through all of the trials and tribulations that marriage, family, jobs etc bring. They are going on 34 years of marriage. Praise God. For all that did and continue to do to this day, I will be eternally grateful and thankful.

Father's Day

Well, here he is; the father of my daughter. my husband. a son. a brother. a man. a boy at heart. crazy. silly. loveable. simple yet complex. wonderful. huggable. kissable. fantastic. loving. giving. caring. devoted. amazingly supportive.

my best friend. my lover. my other half. my one and only. my soul mate.

Without him I would not be whole. He is the love of my life. Thank you for being the best father to our daughter. I couldn't have dreamed of a better man for the job!

However, he is a bit nutty sometimes.....prolly a good reason why I married him!


Happy Father's Day to the world's best dad! And to all those other dads out there! I'm glad there is a day to celebrate all you guys do for your little ones. We love and cherish you all!

I'm a big girl now!

Katelyn had a blast tonight playing with my friend Darcy's sandals! She was so proud of herself for keeping the shoes on and walking around in them...hence the arms thrown up and the incredble smile on her mouth! You know, only when you are little will a big gap in your two front teeth be adorable. She's gonna hate me when she's older....too bad she has no say in what kind of pictures I take now!

Gallery time!

For any interested parties...these are the four photographs I have hanging in an art gallery. It's kinda cool! My very first art show! It feels really good to get back behind the camera for a "project". I haven't done that since I was in school...and that was 3 and half years ago.

Hope you enjoy!


Here they are!! Hangin in an Art Gallery!! How cool is that?!

Cookies anyone?

For the art show that I had my photography in, I had to bake some cookies to take for the opening reception. Well, Katelyn decided she wanted to help her mamma out. My Aunt said that I was starting her out early in teaching her the tricks to cooking/baking. Well, that's what my mom did and Chris says I make a mean lasagna!! Who knows, she may become the next Julia Childs. FYI...Did you know that she was a spy? Yup....Chris said that she was one of the British's top spies back in her day. Little tid bit of trivia for ya.

Now I think I really want some cookies....anyone know where I can get some cookie dough?! Too bad my bowl full of cookie dough is gone....but wait! It's still in the fridge! More than half full and I made 9 dozen cookies with it yesterday. I wonder how many it will end up making?!

Flashback Friday

This one goes out to all my Montana peeps. I only lived there for a year and a half but it will forever be "home" to chris and I. We love it there and eventually, Lord willing, want to move back there. The peacefullness of it all is beyond appealing....it's mezmorsing (is that how you spell that word? they need a spell check on here!)...it's captivating....I just love it. Life in the big city has its perks but just once I would like to look up and NOT see power lines everywhere and smog. Just once I would like to open my windows on a july evening and not have the wind knocked out of me by the sheer heat of the wind. Literally. I's completely miserable here in summer time. But that's beside the point. I miss being late going somewhere because I took the back way and got stuck behind the geese. I miss the crisp mornings and mild summers. I miss the BIG SKY and the open fields. I heart Montana.

Sassy shoe thursday

So. its late. And I am just now posting. Thank my lovely computer for that. But, here they are...my SASSY shoes for today. These lovlies were given to me for christmas. I was the one to find them and buy them but Chris wrapped them and put them under the tree for me! I'm not one for surprises apparently! It's funny but I have yet to wear them. I think I haven't been brave enough to attempt to pull them off. Maybe one day when I am feeling REALLY sassy! I love them and they are super cute and sassy plus they were cheap...like 25$ or so. Not bad for a nice pair of high heels.


There they are. My sassy shoes for today. Maybe Chris will take me out on a date sometime soon so I can wear these....but then I would have to find the perfect outfit! the cycle continues.

15 months going on 4 years

Okay. Does she really look like a 15 month old? She looks soooo much like a little 4 year old in this picture. I'm missing her smallness. Maybe it has something to do with our weekend and losing another baby. I think that now would be an alright time to have another little one.....but apparently that's not supposed to be. I know it will happen in His timing and I am patient and faithful in that. For He has shown so much grace, mercy and faithfullness in this past week. I could not have asked for a more speedy recovery from the surgery. I will no longer have these problems again. Chris's boss was a saint in working with his time off to stay at home 2 extra days to take care of me even though he didn't have the leave. Katelyn was an angel throughout those days. (She seems to be finding her "mouth" these past 2 days though...Sass Pot!) We have no insurance yet won't have to pay a cent for the surgery.

....the reason:

Chris had insurance through his job. They paid 75 percent of Chris's coverage. Fine. We had us all covered at a reasonable, by no means cheap, but reasonable rate. THEN the company they were using was going to raise their rates by 35 percent. They got fired. So, his company looked into other insurance companies and found one that best fit everyone's needs. The catch, it was still a 27% increase in rates. YIKES! So, were before we were paying around $220 a month ,we would now be paying almost $800 a month!! There is no way we can afford $800 a month just for insurance. It didn't make sense. My one docotr's visit a year AND Katelyn's visits over the course of the year didn't even add up to ONE monthly premium. That is why we decided to cancel the insurance. All the while knowing full well that something COULD happen but were confident that if He wanted something to happen ie pergnancy, injury etc, He would see us through it. And He wasn't kidding! 2 minutes before I was wheeled into surgery, a social worker came into the ER room and told us that we may qualify for Medicaid. We were thinking....Chris makes too much. Well, the next day we get a call informing us that because Medicaid considers my pregnancy a human life we DO qualify for it. See, 3 people under his income don't qualify, but 4 does. Praise the Lord! I can't express how incrediably blessed and in awe we are and feel. We received JUST the hospital bill the other day and it was $15,000 dollars. We are still to receive the 5 other doctors, pathologists, etc that were involved in that one day at the hospital. So, it looks as though the entire bill to go to the ER for 4 hours, have my ruptured tube removed in 2 hours, and a 1 hour stay in recovery will end up being about $25,000. Our car was only just slightly more than that. That is way we are so very thankful that we are poor right now! How bad is that? I'm not proud....just thankful that our tax dollars are going to something and someone that I can honestly say needs it. Thank you God.


"God sends His love and His faithfulness" Ps57:10