Monday, January 31, 2011

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Computer still not fixed...

My laptop still isn't fixed.  It's no one's fault.  Darryl was going to try and get the computer guy at work to help us with it but apparantly Darryl is still waiting for his work laptop to be repaired...(ahheemm...for 6 months now)...so, while I'd be grateful for the free help, I can not wait 6+ months to get my laptop fixed.  So, Darryl is going to try and bring it somewhere this week to get repaired.  Hopefully, it won't be too much because we had an unexpected car repair yesterday to the tune of $300+ dollars. 

On the plus side, we are still chugging away at paying off that last student loan and I'm still hopeful that we will do it by the end of February.  Darryl cashed in some points on the his credit card and we got a $500 check, so off that went to debt.  And he also recieved another bonus this month, so off that went to debt.  We are SOOOO close now...I am still in shock of how the Lord has provided for us financially to be able to knock this out so quickly.  I know I sometimes take for granted how blessed we are in that area and how I hope/pray that we will never be in debt again.  We have had some wonderful conversations with the boys on debt and they are both adament about paying cash for college.  We've already explored ways to do that and how we plan to give them a head start.  Fortunately, their 529 plans are bouncing back from the huge  drop they took, so we hope to give them a good start.

Darryl and I went out on a date last Friday night.  We had a friend watch the boys and they had a wonderful time playing with their kids.  I'm so thankful for these new friends we have made and hope to deepen our friendship and watch it grow!  We had a wonderful time together and so enjoy laughing and having fun together!

Baby boy is still movin' and shakin' a ton..he's going to be active!  I'm really starting to embrace this gift, because it truely is a gift and even though it's taken me this long to see it, I do and I'm grateful.  Darryl has been writing me wonderful notes in the morning about me and the baby and how he is so happy.  He is such a great husband and father...I'm so blessed...

That's it for now, hopefully the computer will be fixed this weekend and I can finally upload some pictures!!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Special days...

    Today is a very special day....today is my 15th wedding anniversary.  I still can't believe we have been married for 15 years(together for 17!)  I honestly still feel like I'm 20..how is this possible?
    The other day we sat down and counted how many times we've moved since we've been together...18 times!  We have gone through so much-mostly good, but some bad.  I'd take the bad with him anyday...  We have done this completely on our own(except for of course, God who has seen us through and blessed us tremendously)  and for that I'm thankful(not that I won't help my children when they get older because it has been really hard at times)...He still treats me like a princess EVERY DAY..I mean it..he really does.  He always tells me how much he loves me and how beautiful I am(he has been especially doting on me lately-he seems to think I'm especially pretty pregnant).  He sacrifices so much for me and for us...I truely am grateful for him and I love him so much.  He is my rock.  He makes me laugh and he is my best friend...
I love you Darryl..Happy 15th Anniversary!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Baby...

It seems I will remain the princess in a house of knights!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Snowed in...

We've already gotten several inches in just 3 hours and they are saying it's going to continue...looks like we'll have to reschedule the ultrasound appointment )-:

Saturday, January 8, 2011

I pray the snow doesn't cause the doctor's office to not open on Monday )-:

Please snow, stay away until Monday evening, please.....

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Update...still no photos...

We haven't gotten our computer fixed yet so I still can't upload photos but wanted to get my blog updated!

We've had a nice week together...it was a bit rough getting back into the swing of things with school but by now it's flowing nicely and we are having fun together.

I think...that the boys were a bit worried about the baby.  They have really been clingy lately, especially with Darryl, and last night Nicholas expressed that he was worried he wouldn't get any attention after the baby came.  Well, I had to excuse myself from the conversation because I knew it would upset me and I didn't want the boys to see my reaction.  This morning after breakfast, I sat them down and we talked about their concerns.  He was concerned he would never be able to go to Monkey Joes again..which of course, is not true!  I'm so glad I got to talk with them and ease their fears because I know how irrational my fears can be.  I told them that this was all a new experience for us and that we were a team.  That yes, the first month or so may be an adjustment  but that was such a short amount of time and we would still have our movie nights(another fear of his) and our game nights.  I told them that even though they may not love the baby now, that they will because this baby will forever be a part of their lives(it helps to say it so I can convince myself as well)...  I read on Dr. Sears website to not downplay their fears like saying, "oh, you don't mean that" or things of that nature.  So, we addressed the fears head on and it seemed to comfort them.  They are excited to find out the sex of the baby and they loved when I told them that the baby can hear them now and knows who they are(meaning it's familiar with their voice) they both thought that was so cool.  They love the idea of the baby coming to their baseball games and chearing them on... We also talked alot about when they were babies so that was so sweet....

I'm still not ready to go shopping or anything yet and what was wierd..and really cool is that yesterday before  this happened I had a glimmer of...happiness..contentment...about the situation.  Well, after this happened and I escaped into my room(thankfully Darryl is always there to pick it up and took the boys into their bedroom to read-they never knew I was upset)...Well, as I'm sitting in my room going to that dark place I can go too, the place that causes me so much anxiety and fear-I was comforted....it was really wierd.
I asked for help and help was there for me.  I was told that everything would be fine, that families I admired had large families and large age gaps and that these families had so much love and togetherness-everything I've wanted for our family...those same people have comforted me when I've asked some pretty tough questions regarding the similarities in our situations and how it affected their families....not one single comment was negative..not one..in fact, they have all shared how it's been such a blessing to their family...so I cling to that..to that hope that this will make our family better(which to me seems impossible-I have such a great family it's hard to imagine it getting better!)...so...I'm halfway there..hopefully, the next 20 weeks will go a bit slower, have a bit more contentment, and that through all this, my relationship with God grows stronger...

On a different note, we are sooooo close to being debt free!!! We have been holding on to these student loans of Darryls for quite some time-usually paying the minimum and it's seems to always have been there...well, I got crazy about it a couple of months ago and we are almost done!!!  I have been diligent about saving any extra cash and paying bonuses to the student loans.  It feels so good at the end of the month to see our hard work paying off and paying a huge chunk of money toward them.  I get so excited I call the student loan office a couple of days later just to hear the new total (-:  I'm projecting, with some hard work and couple more projected bonuses, that we will be debt free(minus mortgage) by the end of February!!  After we are done with that, my goal is to have 1/2 of our 6 month emergency fund funded by the end of the year as well as save for other incidentals...It's going to take some hard work and diligence but I think we can do it!!

We are hoping on starting the chicken coops and garden beds soon.  Darryl has been busy chopping down trees and looking at chicken coop plans.  I'm anxious to get my seed catalogs in the mail and ordering some seeds.  I'd also love to order a couple of fruit trees if the budget is there...with gas and food prices going up, I have this need to feel prepared(my mom thinks I'm crazy) but I feel comforted when there is food here and I know that I will be able to provide food for our family...God willing of course (-:

Just saw on the news we may get a foot of snow here on Tuesday.  That's pretty big!  Our last snow storm we got about 6 inches and that seemed like alot so we'll see!

 I'm going to splurge and get my hair hilighted on Saturday.  I so wish I could do it myself-I am so scared to get a bad color job and I hate spending all that money when I clearly know how to do this but I just can't do them on myself.  I've sadly had a couple of grey hairs that have made an appearance and I'm not ready for full on color yet, so I'll go the hilighted route.  I wish I could find an organic hair color but there really aren't any good options out there.  At least the hilights don't touch my scalp so there won't be any chemicals touching my skin only my hair-which is dead anyway.

I've also been experimenting with making my own body products.  I love using natural products for everything and have always had a love for things that are beautiful and make me feel good!    I've already make a lucious whipped shea butter body cream as well as a Vitamin C serum.  They both have  been a great success.  I have many other recipes I'm going to try and hopefully, I can get a little business started making organic, preservative free products.  It's really quite fun and I'm loving how they feel on my skin!  So, stay tuned for that-I'll start with a giveaway on my blog!

So, that's it for now, we find out what we are having on Monday-so after I call my family and let them know I'll post here!

Blessings!