Perryman Ponderings

Please, please, pretty please???

2011-05-16T17:52:00.000-07:00

Make sure to follow me on my new blog if you were following me on here. I promise I will make it worth your time and post lots of fun stuff! I've already got several posts to read through.

Thanks! You guys are great!

Steph

My blog is moving! Please read for the change!

2011-05-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

The time of Perryman Ponderings has come to an end! I'm moving my blog over to: www.domesticdelirium.com .

Please head over there and add me to your list of blogs you follow! I don't want to leave any of you behind.

Thanks!

Stephanie

End of pregnancy thoughts

2011-04-14T17:02:00.000-07:00

This post is going to be pretty rambling, long and random so you will just have to bear with me here.

Today is Thursday, April 14, exactly one week from my scheduled c-section to bring little Layla Paige into the world. I've also been on maternity leave for 5 full weeks as of tomorrow. I can't believe I haven't worked in over a month. That seems crazy to me. What's even crazier is that I won't be going back. It hasn't sunk in yet. The school year is still going on and I'm still doing things for work and checking in (mostly via computer) to make sure all is moving smoothly in my classes. Until this school year is over I won't feel like I'm completely "done" working. Until then, I am enjoying my time off greatly and things seem to be going as good as can be expected with my classes.

I'll admit that I've gotten a little bored here over the past couple of weeks since I don't do a whole lot and it's gotten harder and harder for me to get out and about and do things. I end up being either at my house or my parent's house most of every day. If I'm home alone all day with Brooklyn, I have major mommy guilt for not being able to do more than sit and watch TV with her. I know so many women who were very active at the end of their pregnancies but I'm not one of those! I started having difficulty breathing well long before I went on maternity leave and things haven't improved in that department. I still feel short of breath almost all day and that keeps me from being able to do anything, mainly because I get light headed and feel like I'm going to pass out if I put out too much physical effort. I feel like such a wimp! So our days consist mainly of watching a lot of Dora, laying on the couch together (well, I lay and Brooklyn lays, crawls and climbs all over me) or sitting in the recliner or napping. I have taken to napping whenever Brooklyn is napping because I'm back to having the very lethargic, sleepy feeling several times a day. This could be just pregnancy related OR it could be that Brooklyn is going through a horrible sleeping phase and I my huge stomach prevents me from being able to get very comfortable each night. Or it could be a combination of all of those! Either way, taking a nap is a MUST every day if I'm going to keep a shred of sanity.

Let me just list some of the lovely pregnancy side effects I've been dealing with lately:
- severe heart burn
- round ligament pain in my abdomen (causing a trip to L&D when I thought something must be wrong)
- sciatic nerve pain
- shortness of breath/difficulty breathing
- the beginning of swelling in my hands and feet
- insomnia
- tennis elbow in my right arm
- sharp, shooting pain in the back of my right calf (yes, the right side of my body hates me right now)
- random contractions, usually while I am doing any kind of walking or physically exerting activity
- leaking breast milk (yay for this lovely symptom)
- itchy skin (mainly on my stomach)

I think that's a pretty comprehensive list at this point. Nothing out of the ordinary but quite tiresome nonetheless. All the discomfort of my pregnancy with Brooklyn has been flooding back into my memory. It's true what they say about forgetting how miserable pregnancy was right after you have the baby and you're all "goo-goo" over the baby. What they don't mention is that it all comes back during your next pregnancy when you start going through it all again!

I remember now why I kept saying I didn't want to get pregnant again for a very long time at the end last time. I'm singing that same tune right now. This time I mean it though. Unless God intervenes, I won't be having the next baby close together like I did the first two. I would like to wait a full two years before even contemplating pregnancy. Then, if it happens, Layla will already be older than Brooklyn is right now and almost 3 years old by the time #3 came along. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here...ahem...

Things I'm looking forward to:
- Finally laying my eyes on this little girl I've been carrying around for 9 months! (And who has been kicking the living day lights out of me for several months now)
- Being able to breathe again!
- Getting rid of the ugly, puffy scar from my first c-section. My OB used dissolvable staples last time and my skin keloided (puffed up and made a really ugly scar) really bad. She is going to cut that scar out and this time suture me up with a synthetic string that they will take out a week after my surgery. She thinks this might heal without all the puffy redness. I sure hope so!
- Not bumping into things with my stomach!
- Being able to get up and around the house and do stuff without it feeling like I just ran a marathon!
- Sleeping on my stomach and back again!
- Not having the sciatic nerve pain I've been dealing with (hopefully it really goes away - my sister's actually got worse after she had Jocelyn)
- Getting into our new "normal" with two kids. I haven't felt like I could get into a routine around here because I know it's not going to stay that way for very long. Once Layla is here, I can actually start working on getting a good routine going for us.

In other news, my sister had her beautiful baby girl on March 23rd. Jocelyn Abigail arrived by c-section around 8:53am weighing in at 8 lbs 13 ozs. My sister doesn't make small babies! She is beautiful and I'm totally bummed I was unable to be there for the birth of her third girl. I haven't been able to be there for any of my sister's births which is a big disappointment. I hope that if she has a 4th baby that I can be there for that one. Jocelyn is now 3 weeks old already and is very loved by her parents and her two big sisters, Katelyn and Madelyn. I just hope Brooklyn loves her little sister Layla as much as Katelyn and Madelyn love theirs. I'm still not sure what to think about how Brooklyn will react to having another baby around here. She doesn't like to share her attention but she does love babies in general so maybe she will be excited to have a baby around all the time. That's what I'm praying for at least!

I still do not have Layla's sleeping area set up in our room. It's something we just haven't gotten around to doing and it's really starting to bother me. Part of the problem is Waylon and I not getting our room cleaned up enough to move the 3 pieces of furniture that we need to make up her little living arrangement. She will stay with us in our room (in her own crib) for a few months or however long I end up breast feeding. I don't expect her to stay in there longer than about 3-4 months though. Hopefully by then she will be sleeping through the night regardless of whether she is still breast feeding or not. By then we will have to have a toddler bed for Brooklyn or just put the small crib in the nursery for Layla until she is too big for it. Either way, we are getting Brooklyn a toddler bed for her 2nd birthday and will start training her to sleep in it over the summer. I have a feeling she is going to like it. I hope I'm not wrong!

I have not magically turned into a good house keeper just by not working and being a SAHM. Part of that I know is because I'm pregnant and tired. The other side of it is that Waylon and I have some really poor habits of leaving things out and not putting them back after we're done with them. Neither of us are very organized, tidy people and it shows! I hope to rectify at least the first part of that once I'm recovered from my surgery and adjusted to having another baby around. That may be wishful thinking though!

I do have some anxiety and fear when I think about how much more work it's going to be taking care of two kids instead of one and keeping the house clean on top of that. I'm seeing just how hard it is to be a SAHM and hoping that it will become more natural to me the more I do it. Right now, it doesn't feel very natural to me at all and I just look around and see all the areas I'm failing in. But then I have to remind myself that I've never been a SAHM and have always worked so it's not going to just come naturally to me right away and might never be 100% natural to me. I know that if I ask God to help me with this He will and that I will be a better mother and house keeper and wife only through His strength and guidance.

I think this post has rambled on long enough. If you've read all of this then you are a true friend! I do plan on making a post before next Thursday with some pictures of me here at the end of the pregnancy and more info and pictures of Brooklyn and what she has been up to (I realize I didn't say much about her in this post!).

Top 10 Things Going On in My Life Right NOW!

2011-03-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

I've done the Top 10 Tuesday post once I think and I like reading them but always forget to post one myself. My sister posted one today here about the top 10 things on her mind right now. She's having a baby in 8 days so you can only imagine that there are probably more than 10 things going through her mind right now! lol. So, in true form of mine lately, I'm going to copy my sister and do my own Top 10 Tuesday for things going on in my life right now. You may want to make sure you are sitting down because this is very exciting stuff! haha

Ok, here goes:

1. I'm on maternity leave for the rest of the school year!! I cannot tell you how exciting that is to me. I've had a difficult year in many ways, not just work-related, and adding a pregnancy to it all has just made it more difficult. So to be done going to work everyday is a huge relief to me! The last couple of weeks were stressful though, due to the fact that I had to get all my lesson plans for my substitute. That was a lot of work and I still have not finished it. I will be going up this week to finish things up while we're on spring break. No one will be around and I will be able to focus and get done what I need to without the distractions of grading papers and having students coming in with questions.

2. I resigned from my job and am now officially a SAHM!!! This one really is the #1 most exciting thing going on for me right now BUT, the maternity leave is what is making it possible for me to be home NOW instead of April so I put that as #1. It was so difficult going back to work these last two years and leaving Brooklyn behind for someone else to take care of. I had this huge amount of mommy guilt even though I know that not every mom gets to be a SAHM and that it is completely OK to work and support your family. If I had not worked these past two years, things would have been very difficult for us. My job had been the stable one between mine and Waylon's and we haven't felt at peace about me quitting my job until this year. Had it been up to me, I wouldn't have gone back for the 10-11 school year but Waylon's wisdom overpowered my desire and I stuck with it another year and it ended up being the better choice for us. Of course this means a lot of pinching pennies and really sticking with a budget and cutting back on our lifestyle but that is something I am TOTALLY committed to doing! There was just no way we could have asked my parents to be the full-time day care to both our children and paying for day care for two was out of the question. We will be losing my medical insurance and Waylon doesn't get any through is work currently so we will have to find an alternate option for this but there are several affordable ones I'm looking into right now. I may post about it once I've decided on it and show some comparisons of others I've looked at if I think it might benefit some of you out there. (You know, all my 34 readers who subscribe to me. lol)

3. I'm having a baby in 5 1/2 weeks! Oh my goodness! IS this really happening??? It hasn't sunk in yet that there will be another new born in the house. I'm excited, overwhelmed and nervous all at the same time. I keep hearing that the transition from 1 to 2 kids is the toughest so I'm preparing myself for the struggles I know I will be facing.

4. I'm trying to get a routine going here at our house (now that I'm going to be here many, many hours a day) by using a home management binder. I got the idea from Money Saving Mom and I downloaded her forms and created my own version of it. Once I get it all in order and work out the kinks, I'll post some pictures of it and show it off. Right now, it's still a little messy and I'm not sure I'm going to keep everything the way it is.

5. I've begun couponing in earnest. I've been reading about it all over the internet on all sorts of mommy blogs and now that we will be losing an income, I'm going to need to find every way to save money for us. I've started by focusing on CVS and using their ECB (extra care bucks). This week I'm moving on to grocery stores as I'm in need of a trip to get groceries. I'll admit that it's been a bit overwhelming but I'm not putting any stressful expectations on myself here at the beginning. I'm simply looking to save money on things I need and actually buy. The big savings will come the more I do it. Today I bought a binder and began organizing it. I've got a long ways to go on that one but again, not something I'm rushing into so I'm going to take my time!

6. I'm truly trying to declutter our home. We have this horrible habit of keeping things around that we don't use or need and they end up junking up our house. We live in a meager 1200 square foot home so there isn't a lot of space for junk. We plan on staying in this home for a while so we need to create more space as we add new members to the family. I know I'm not the only one who has this problem but it's such a frustrating issue to have! I have several friends who's houses always seem so neat and clean and uncluttered and I wonder how do I manage to look like I live in a house with pigs?? I don't have an official plan on how I'm going to go about this but I'm trying to just do it slowly and surely.

7. I'm trying to get a blog up and going for the women at our church. I've already posted a couple of posts to the blog but then life got too hectic and I took a break. I'm hoping that now I will have extra time to dedicate to keeping that updated and interesting. You can check it out @ www.gracepointegals.wordpress.com.

8. I'm really enjoying the study through James that I'm doing with the Good Morning Girls group. It's an online study and I'm in a group with two other great women who have been a huge encouragement to me. We email each other daily about the daily verse we have read. We use the S.O.A.P method to study the book and it's been an eye-opening experience. I've really enjoyed it!

9. I'm reading through the New Testament in a year. I wish I remembered where I got the reading plan from because I really like it, but I don't! I found it after I wrote an entire post about three plans I was looking into. I read a chapter a day and they have 2 non-assigned days for any catching up or re-reading you need/want to do. It's been something that was realistic for me to be able to do and I wanted to go with a plan that I could stick with. I'm still a little behind but I'm catching up.

10. I am finally reading a book for fun again! I've really been missing my reading for the past year or so. It's been quite some time since I read a book that really pulled me in and I couldn't put down. I think I've found one that's gonna keep me glued to the pages. I'm reading Stephen King's "Under the Dome" and so far it has been very interesting. I also like that it is over 1000 pages! I love a good book that is long so you can savor reading it for a long time! I won't have hours to read it at a time but I think I will have it done by the time I go in to have Layla. The nice part is that it's from my mom's library which is closing for remodeling so nothing you check out now is due until May 11th! Plenty of time!

So there you have it. 10 things going on in my life right now. I'll leave you with a picture of me currently at 33 weeks and 3 days:

I think there's a baby in there!! :)

Who I WANT to be and what this year might bring. A rambling post.

2011-02-12T19:15:00.000-08:00

The internet has really changed a lot of things in our lives these days. One of those is the ability for us to take peeks into other people's lives via social networking and blogs. I'll admit that I'm addicted to both, although you might not think so if you read my blog and see how sporadically I post as of late. But yes, I'm addicted to blogs, or I should say, reading OTHER people's blogs. Namely, mommy bloggers who have it all "together" - or so it seems compared to my life.

I read their blogs and see all the things they accomplish and how clean their houses are and all the great things they do with their kids and the fact that they still have time to blog and look great! It's really something that I get jealous of...which I hate to admit! I don't like admitting to being envious of other mom's lives. I feel like if I do, it means I'm not happy with my life and that I'm ungrateful for all the great things God has blessed me with. And yet, I struggle with the green-eyed monster. I struggle with negative feelings towards those who are doing what I wish I could be doing - not working full-time and getting to be home more with my daughter (soon to be daughters). I'm happy here. I have no desire to move anywhere else. I can see us building a life for ourselves here and that gives me the warm fuzzies.

But.

I find myself at a cross roads. What AM I meant to do? I struggle with the desire to be a stay-at-home-mom and worry if that's really what is best for me and our family. Sure, there is the financial side to worry about but I have complete faith in God that if He does have planned for me to be a SAHM, He will provide a job for Waylon that will meet our needs (along with us being willing to sacrifice and be better stewards of our money). But I also wonder if staying at home with my kids will be something that I am able to do. I see the moms on the blogs I read who seem to run a household so easily and make it look fun. Yet, when I try to run my household (during long breaks or, during our 4 day snow-pocalypse break from work) I find it hard and frustrating and that it does not come naturally to me. I'm not a naturally organized person. I have a cluttered, messy home. I don't keep to schedules or routines well (unless it's a work routine). If I know I'm going to be home all day, I have no desire to put presentable clothes on, comb my hair, brush my teeth or wear an ounce of makeup. So does this mean I will be a failure if/when I get to be a stay at home mom?

I also struggle with the desire to find a new and interesting job/career and go back to school to take more classes. If you looked at my college record, you would see that I have had 6 majors and I graduated with 208 college credits - needing only 128 for my degree. I'm easily swayed into new fields of study and new career opportunities. My job history will also show you an array of different interests in jobs. Most of which I really enjoyed and was really good at! I always strived to become the best at whatever I was doing and could usually reach that goal and be amongst the top workers wherever I was working at the time. I took pride in that. Teaching is a whole different type of job though. There is no "ladder of success" to climb. All teachers are equal and there is no seniority or moving up - unless you're talking about going from teaching to counseling or being a principal, which involves more school and a master's degree. That aspect about my current job takes away one of my biggest drives when I have a job - pushing to see how good I can get at something and achieving the next goal. For someone like myself who is very task-oriented, teaching can be very frustrating. This is not to say that teaching has not been extremely rewarding to me and that I have gained no personal growth from it. That would be a huge lie! I've learned SO MUCH from my four years teaching. But I don't think I'm cut out to be a teacher long term. I see that now. I will miss the summer breaks and a week off for Thanksgiving and two weeks off for Christmas and another week off for Spring break and all the little days of sprinkled throughout the school year...but I don't think I will miss the job itself. It's just not me. I feel a void right now that is very disconcerting.

The good news is that I have 4 weeks of work left until I go on maternity leave for the rest of this school year. I look forward to it for many reasons. I was supposed to meet with my principal two weeks ago on one of the days we were out due to bad weather to tell him my intentions of resigning after this school year. I've already told my department head as well as our supervisor (one of the assistant principals). It felt really great to get that off my chest and out in the open! The possibilities seem endless right now. I know that for now I won't be able to be a full-time SAHM so I will have to find at least a part-time job until we are financially stable enough for me to quit working completely. But then there's that little question nagging me in the back of my head, asking me: "Do you really think you can handle being a full-time SAHM?" The answer to that is: I truly don't know. If I had to give a definitive answer right this second, based on my feelings, I would have to say No. I could not handle being home all day everyday with my kids. But I serve a much more powerful God than my little feelings. If God truly has plans for me to be home with my kids and become a full-time housewife, then He can change my feelings and my heart and my focus and make me into a housewife extraordinaire...or just a regular housewife who isn't perfect at everything and still struggles with day to day chores. That sounds more like it.

I feel like I'm rambling at this point so I want to stop writing before this gets really out of hand. I guess I just needed to get some thoughts out there into cyberspace for all of you who read my blog to know and pray about for me. This year is going to be a year full of new things for our family. To be honest, the reality of having a second baby simply has not sunk in yet. It hasn't become real to me yet. I have 2 months to mentally prepare and then it's game time. Waylon just started a new job and we don't know if this is THE job for him or if it's another transitional stepping stone job like his last one. Either way, we are so grateful he has one now and that his last job was a preparation for this new one as they are very similar. He also works for a very nice Christian man, which is always a plus!

So if you feel led to, please pray for us as we are coming into a new phase of our lives. I will no longer be the "bread winner" of our family - working full-time and failing at house-wiving. I will take my proper role in our marriage and Waylon will step up to take the reigns on the working front. He has been extremely supportive of me these last two years and has done his part in going to school to finish his degree (although he still has 4 classes left to graduate). I am excited, anxious and just a little petrified of what this year will bring for us. But I know God is in control and He's not going to throw anything at us that we can't handle with His help.

Living in a bipolar state (NOT state of mind!).

2011-02-08T18:56:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not talking about myself. I'm not bipolar. But the state I live in is. Texas is well known for having bipolar weather. Hot for a few days, then freezing temps for a day or two and then back in the 70's. That's just the way things go around here.

You would never guess that this picture was taken two days before we had below freezing temps and 4 days of roads covered in ice and snow, would you? (By the way, isn't she just the cutest little spring chick you've ever seen??)

Yes, I live in Texas, and it's bipolar. The weather changes drastically on a regular basis, especially during the winter/spring months. Unfortunately, we never have drastic changes in our weather over the summer. It's very consistent then with temps over a 100 for several days, sometimes weeks!

But I wouldn't live anywhere else to be quite honest. I love my bipolar state.

After spending 4 days out of work last week due to the weather, it looks like we just might get another snow day or two this week as well. Tonight we are expected to have freezing rain and snow through the afternoon tomorrow. The temps won't get up past freezing until Friday so that means anything that falls tonight and tomorrow will still be around Thursday, making all roads very dangerous for driving on. I'm not counting on the day off tomorrow so I will still go to bed at a decent hour, just in case. But I sure am hoping!

Counting this week I only have 5 weeks till I go on maternity leave. 5 WEEKS!!! I can't believe it's this close already. Wow. I will still have a month of maternity leave before Layla arrives (assuming she waits till my scheduled c-section) but I'm very much looking forward to my maternity leave. Yes, I am.

This week, assuming the weather doesn't screw it up again, I will have my 1 hour glucose test. That appointment was cancelled last week because it was on one of the days that we had bad weather. I also had Brooklyn's 18 month appointment scheduled for the same day and yes, that one was cancelled as well. Now I have them both back on Friday and am hoping we won't have to reschedule anything! I'm ready to get this glucose test out of the way!

Here's hoping I get a call at 6am tomorrow telling me my school is closed due to inclement weather!

27 Week update on my pregnancy

2011-01-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I'm already 27 weeks! This pregnancy is flying by unlike anything I've ever seen! Each Saturday when I hit my next week of pregnancy I'm amazed that yet another week has come and gone and I'm that much closer to meeting this little soccer-playing princess in my belly!

I'm happy to report that this time around, I'm not experiencing a lot of the negative symptoms I was experiencing by or before this time of my first pregnancy. For one, I have yet to get the tingling hands/fingers and wrist problems. My hands are starting to swell but it's barely noticeable and I'm still able to wear my wedding ring. I haven't noticed any considerable swelling in my ankles or feet but they are starting to take on a puffier look.

The things I AM experiencing are trouble talking for long periods of time (which makes for a really hard time as a teacher!), sciatic nerve pain, discomfort sleeping, increasingly frequent need to pee, occasional heartburn and itchy skin. I also have noticed an increase in my headaches but I don't know if that's just the stress from my job lately or the pregnancy. Either way, Tylenol has actually been working for me lately. Miracle of miracles!

This coming Tesday, February 1st, I have my 1 hour glucose test and monthly check-up. I'm not nervous because I highly doubt I will fail the test. I passed it with flying colors the last time and I don't see it being any different this time around. Of course, I'm also preparing myself for if I do have to go back for the 3 hour test, just in case. My sister was recently diagnosed with GD and is having to test her blood 4 times a day and is on a new diet. It seems to be working very well for her and hasn't been a huge inconvenience for her at all so I'm not going to freak out if I end up with it as well. I just don't think I will. I definitely think that if I wasn't working through this pregnancy, I probably would have a higher chance at getting it simply because I would be at home and probably eat a lot more throughout the day and it wouldn't be healthy food! Right now, I can only eat what I take with me to work and I try to choose healthy snacks that keep me full. One of my favorites right now is low fat mozzarella string cheese sticks. Keeping my fingers crossed and praying everything goes well!

As of right now, I have 12 weeks till I have Layla. I'm scheduled for a c-section on either April 20th or 21st (depending on their schedule). That's 10 days before my due date which seems early considering I was only 1 day early with Brooklyn. I'm not complaining though! As long as Layla is healthy and the doctor says everything looks good, I'm comfortable with this decision. I wouldn't want to schedule anything earlier then that unless there were some sort of complications, which I'm praying there won't be.

I've been approved for my maternity leave to start April 4th and will "officially" return June 3rd, just in time to check my room out and get signed off for the end of the school year. I'm very excited about this. :) I could possibly be taking off two weeks before April 4th too, depending on some things. I will be speaking with my OB about this on Tuesday. I can't say that I would be disappointed AT ALL if this happened. This means that my last week of work would be the second week of March! The 3rd week is spring break so that wouldn't count against me either, so I would be getting a bonus week in there. If this were the case, I will only have 6 weeks of work left until I'm on leave. If it doesn't work out that way, I'll have 9 full weeks of work (not counting that week of spring break). Either way, that doesn't leave me much time to prepare for the sub and get everything ready for the rest of the school year! Yikes!

Here's a picture of me that I just took from our iMac webcam (my hair looks horrible today so I cut my head out of the picture!)

Please ignore the slight messiness of our office. It's actually considerably better than it used to be when Waylon worked out of it! This is one of my new maternity tops I bought from Old Navy. It's very comfy. As you can see, I'm filling out quite nicely! I will be officially 27 weeks tomorrow.

There are still lots of things I need to get done, some I'm probably not even aware of at the moment, but I'm probably going to end up leaving those for when I'm on maternity leave. That's just the way it will go, I know it. It's hard to get things done during the week because Brooklyn goes to bed at 7 and most of the work needs to be done in her room. That leaves the weekends, which we have been using to get other parts of the house worked on. (like the garage we cleaned this past week - it looks so much better!)

I do still need to buy a double stroller and we need to figure out how we're going to keep Brooklyn and Layla's clothes all in the same room. It's overflowing at the moment and we already have a hard time with clothing control in our own room.

If you read my sister's blog, you'll notice that she just posted a 31 week update of her pregnancy and it may seem like I'm copying her. Well, I am! I realized I hadn't posted an official update of my pregnancy until I read her blog and had a 'duh' moment. So, Melissa, I hope you don't mind me copying your idea! I did give you credit though and post a link to your blog, so you can't be too mad, OK?

My 18 month baby.

2011-01-25T20:09:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn is now 18 months old. I can't believe my baby girl is a year and a half. She has grown so fast and she's doing/saying new things every day.

Here's a list of things she's up to these days:

- She loves the word "No" and goes around saying it CONSTANTLY. She says it in answer to our questions but also when there is nothing to say no to. She also will say it to her baby and then spank her. That's pretty funny when she does that. I wonder where she got that from...

- She says "hi" and "bye" to almost everyone. This includes people in stores or if she sees people getting in their cars and driving away. She yells it! It's cute. She also says it to us first thing in the morning when we bring her to our bed after she wakes up. I'll try to close my eyes and rest a little more in bed and she will be right in my face saying "Hi! Hi! Hi!" It's hard to be irritated with her at that point because it's so darned cute!

- She has 15 teeth and is cutting her 16th!

- She still takes a bottle in the mornings and at bed time but we are working on weaning her off that.

- She can tell us when she has a poopy diaper, but sometimes will confuse a poopy diaper with just having gas.

- She says "peas" for please any time she wants something or we ask her a question and her answer would be "yes". She hasn't figured out "yes" yet so she says "peas" instead.

- We occasionally spank her (usually a not-very-hard pat on the diapered bottom) and she has now taken to spanking herself! I'll ask her (when she's being naughty) "Do you want a spank?" and sometimes she'll nod her head yes and start patting herself on the butt. It's really funny and completely undermines the authority of the spanking!

- She has started doing this thing with her pointer finger when she wants something. She will point at whatever it is and wag her finger up and down like that makes it more emphatic that she wants what she's pointing at.

- She can name several body parts, including: nose, eye, and ear (eow) and can point out those three plus her mouth, hands, feet, hair and belly button. She's a smart girl!

She's growing up so fast and becoming a little girl instead of my baby. Once Layla comes in April she will be the big sister and that part makes me a little sad. I didn't think it would be so hard to watch her grow up and not be a baby anymore. But she is a barrel of laughs and cute as a button!

I'll leave you with a picture I posted on Facebook of her a few days after turning 18 months.

There's my princess!

We love you Brooklyn Alivia! I can't believe I lived 28 years of my life without you and I look forward to watching you grow into a beautiful young girl!

Good Morning Girls - An exciting journey

2011-01-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

I recently (like 2 days ago) discovered and joined a wonderful online ministry and Bible study group called the Good Morning Girls. It's exactly what I need at this point in my life. I have longed to be in a study with other women, sharing and learning, but haven't had a schedule which allows for it. I have considered BSF as well and when my time allows me to, I will probably join one of their groups in my area. For now though, while I can't physically meet with other women for a Bible study, I'm thrilled to share about the Good Morning Girls. You can click on the link above and it will take you to the site which explains how they operate. In short, it's an online community of hundreds of women, from all over the country and the world, split into small groups, going through the same study (this 12 weeks we are going through the book of James) and keeping in contact with each other via email, twitter or facebook and holding each other accountable in our daily devotional time. It's a wonderful idea!! I encourage you to go check it out right now. They give you every resource you need to get started, including print outs for the each day with the passage you are to read and the break down of their S.O.A.P. study method. It's simple, easy and can be done quickly if you're busy like me, but can also be something you spend a little more time on. I can't say enough how excited I am to be a part of this.

The official start date of it was January 17th, but it's not too late for you to get started and catch up. You can also do it at your own pace. I've connected and become a group with two other young ladies that have a lot in common with me through the message boards on the GMG website. If you're interested in joining a group, I would be more than happy to have you in my group and add you to our email list. If you aren't ready for the pressure of being in a group and being in contact on a daily basis, then please don't let it stop you from going through the study on your own. The book of James is a wonderful book to study and I'm really looking forward to everything I will be learning from it and from the insights of the other ladies in my small group.

I will try to post once a week about what I'm learning in my study. This post won't include anything about my lessons so far, I just wanted to get the info out there for my small group of followers. :) I hope you will consider joining in on this! If you have any questions, Angela, the leader on the GMG website has shown to be very quick and attentive to the questions posted on the message boards. Or you can ask me and I can give you an answer if I know it!

A blog post about posting on my blog.

2011-01-14T17:40:00.000-08:00

I have been struggling a lot with my blog lately. I have had the strong desire to write, and even think of several things I want to write throughout the day, BUT, when it comes down to actually sitting down and typing the words in, I draw a blank. Maybe it’s because I only have times in the late evening to do this and by then my brain has turned to mush and I’ve forgotten half of what happened that day, let alone what quickly entered and left my mind. *sigh* This brings me to the fact that if I truly want to keep my blog up, which I do, then I must come up with a plan to keep up with my thoughts and ideas for posts and things I simply want to share from my heart and mind.

I know that one way to do that is to just keep a small notepad on hand and jot down the ideas as I think of them. I know several people who do this for different areas of there life, such as to-do lists and work related things. I’ll have to try this. My problem will be remembering to get out the notepad and actually putting pen to paper with the thought I had at that moment. Forget the fact that, most of the time, when I have these ideas or thoughts, I’m not really in a place where I can stop and write it down. Often, thoughts come to me while I’m in the middle of teaching a lesson. Something funny/frustrating/”insert description here” will happen in my classroom which leads to me thinking of something else or some profound (yes, I have those sometimes!) concept in life and I’ll think “That would be a great anecdote to blog about!” or “I should do a post about this concept”. But then, my 20-something students that period will distract me from thinking about my blog by needing my mental capacity for their learning (gasp! How DARE they!) and I’ll forget all about it and go on with my day. Some days something like that will happen almost every class period. That’s 6 times in a day that I had good blog fodder and completely let it pass me by…oy!

Not that this means I want to constantly be thinking about my blog and coming up with ideas to write on it, BUT, I do want to have an interesting one that people want/look forward to reading (besides my immediate family who I know sit around wondering when I will post next! Haha).

One thing I enjoy about blogging is simply the catharsis it brings me to get things “out there” for someone to read, even if it’s just one person, or two – my mom and my sister. *smile*

I also am constantly inspired by some of the other blogs I read of women who are amazing writers with beautiful pictures and words that just flow together like music. I’ve never been one to write eloquently. I can write a good research paper and score an A, but inspirational writing just isn’t my gift. I’ve often considered taking another writing class just to improve that area. In fact, I won’t be surprised when community colleges begin offering a “writing for bloggers” class or something. Now THAT would be something I would definitely be interested in and that I believe would be a big hit with the up and coming blogging generation.

So, en lieu of this post about my blogging hopes and desires, here is a list of concrete goals I’m setting for myself in terms of blogging:

1. Write one post a week and maybe work up to 3 per week by the summer.
2. Keep my notepad handy for when ideas pop in my head for my blog.
3. Write meaningful posts that will inspire, help or encourage others out there who might be facing the same struggles/obstacles.
4. Be and honest blogger.
5. Blog in a way that is pleasing to God and, if that ever changes or it begins to take away from my serving Him, stop and re-evaluate whether I should keep one or not.
6. Have one day of the week where I have a theme or specific topic I blog about. I already have some ideas in the works.
7. Work ahead on future posts and get the ideas going so that I don’t have posts with too many different things going on in them.
8. Begin posting over at my other blog “What’s In My Coffee” again. Yes, I still have it up and yes, I still want to keep it up.
9. Take more pictures of my beautiful daughter and second daughter (coming in April!) and post them so you all can ooh and ahh over them with me.
10. Find a free layout I love or pay to have one designed for me. I'm so sick of not having a blog design that I like. It discourages me from blogging. I know that sounds silly, but it's true!

I'm working this evening on a couple of different posts with specific topics and one of them will be solely dedicated to Brooklyn as she will be turning 18 months on Sunday. I'll also probably do a post solely dedicated to my pregnancy as tomorrow I will be 25 weeks and am approaching my 3rd trimester with a vengeance!

All this and more coming up very soon! Stay tuned!

It's coming...

2010-12-28T21:56:00.000-08:00

And there is nothing we can do to stop it.

Are you nervous about this new year?

Are you unsure if things will continue as they have been, or take a new path?

Do you have a long list of goals you plan to accomplish this year, only to find the list daunting and impossible now that it's down on paper?

Do you long for change but don't know how to make the change or you're afraid you won't stick with it?

Do you know things are about to change in a big, big way and are fearful of how it will all turn out?

You may have guessed, but these are all things going through my mind about the upcoming new year. 2010 was a very tough year for many Americans, myself included. Along with a bad economy making life financially more difficult, our family found itself in the midst of many trials. 3 car accidents, several trips to the ER, the loss of a beloved family member (my uncle Mike Rodgers lost his fight against cancer early Christmas morning), personal struggles, marital struggles, parental struggles, disorganization, chaos and just overall frustration. Yes, these are all things that happen in life, but for some reason it felt like everything came crashing down on us in 2010. I'm thankful to see this year leave and to welcome the new year and all the newness it brings to the table.

Our family does have a lot of changes headed our way. For one, I will be bringing another beautiful daughter into the world. Layla Paige, Lord willing, will be joining us sometime around the 3rd-4th week of April. Since I will be having a planned c-section this time around, it will be before my due date of the 30th but I don't know exactly when yet (I'm hoping we will discuss this and possibly set a tentative date at my next appointment this coming Tuesday). We are obviously overcome with excitement to welcome our 2nd child into this world. Brooklyn doesn't know what's going to happen but I believe she will be thrilled to have a "beebee" around the house (her word for baby). She loves all her baby dolls and I know she will love her little sister.

But with a new baby coming there are a lot of preparations to be made which I began over this Christmas break. I haven't made any huge progress by any means, but, I got a start. The logistics of fitting a crib and a toddler bed along with a dresser, organizer and changing table have yet to be ironed out!

I do plan on breast feeding Layla as I am mentally prepared for how difficult and painful it will be. I was nowhere near prepared for the frustrations and difficulty of starting the breast feeding process. I gave up all too soon and if I had a chance to do it over again, I probably would stick it out more. I truly believe it is completely the parent's choice of whether to breast feed or formula feed and I'm fine with either (obviously!), however, I would like to give my child the benefit the breast milk does provide along with the financial savings it brings along. I will also try to cloth diaper again since I quit a while back with Brooklyn. It was hard to keep up the cloth when I was the only one wanting to use them and the one who took care of her the least (once I went back to work). This time around, I will be with my girls more and working less and it will be worth the effort and time to do it (as well as the money saved and getting the use out of the diapers I bought!)

Which brings me to my next big change for 2011...we are working towards me not having to work full-time and being able to work part-time only (and hopefully VERY part-time!). I haven't turned my resignation in or anything of that sort yet. All the details aren't worked out yet and we will need to be very sure that this is what God is leading us to do. Right now we feel like it is, but we know things can change so we are keeping it in prayer and our hearts open. It's hard for me though, I'm not going to lie. I get completely giddy at the thought of only working part-time and getting to be with my kiddos more and actually feel like a real housewife!

With the new year always come goals and resolutions to make changes in our personal lives. I have for a long time had the desire (admittedly the desire comes and goes in waves) to make daily Bible reading and devotional time a habit that I can't live without. Sadly, I have failed miserably after many attempts. I always start the new year off strong and then, quickly, life's daily grind distracts me and I allow myself to be pulled in different directions and never end up following through. I think the longest I've managed was getting through February...how sad for a pastor's child! I believe that part of the reason I've always failed at this is because I go from not reading daily to trying a reading plan that is too ambitious and unrealistic for me. So this year I'm taking this challenge in a new light. I'm looking at two different reading plans which both pull at me. One is reading through the NT in a year along with Psalms and Proverbs (you read through those all the way through every month). The other is a topical reading plan that focuses on different aspects of doctrine. For example, the first quarter of the year focuses on theology, the study of God. All the reading passages focus on just that. I'm not sure what the second quarter is about because it has not been posted to print off. The passages of the second reading plan are shorter, so I wouldn't be reading as much, however, they are focused on a topic and I could easily make my devotions more focused and write in my journal with a purpose more-so than if I'm reading straight through a book, which lends itself to reading quickly and not focusing on what I am reading (at least that's MY personal experience). You can get both reading plans here at Kathy Howard's website (she's awesome by the way!). Make sure to look at her recent post titled "What's Your Plan" to get the links for the free downloads for each plan. I'm hoping that with either plan, and a lot of leading from God, I will stick with this and begin a habit that will enrich my life for years to come. Waylon is also joining me in a Bible plan and he will be using one of our yearly Bibles we have. It's a great habit we can do together and hold each other accountable to. I'm looking forward to it.

It feels good to write about my goals and hopes for the new year. It brings me some excitement, after all, it's only days away! How are you feeling about your upcoming new year? Please share!

This girl...

2010-12-27T16:05:00.001-08:00

Makes me happy.
Loves M&M's.
Loves her rocking chair.
Makes messes constantly.
Is going to be an amazing big sister.
Loves to dance when any type if music is on.
Is a mommy's girl AND a daddy's girl.
Gives the best kisses in the world.

Will always be my baby girl no matter how many more beautiful children I have.

I love you Brooklyn Alivia Perryman!

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My post-Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas post!

2010-12-05T20:06:00.000-08:00

Once again, it's been quite a while since my last blog post. I keep telling myself I need to keep up with this better because I need to record all that goes on in our lives and Brooklyn's growing, but I just find myself so busy and worn out that I don't ever get around to it. So here I am, getting around to it. And what better time to blog than when you are laid up in the lazy boy chair, sick as can be!

I'm not even going to try to put a full update in this post because all that will do is ensure that I never finish it and never actually post it! So...I'll just put a few things and feel a huge weight lifted that I actually did something on here. :)

We went to New England for Thanksgiving break and spent the week with my sister Melissa and her family. My parents and my brother went as well so our entire family was there for the celebration. It was a lot of fun. It was Brooklyn's first big trip and first time to fly and I have to say that she handled it quite well. I expected a lot of crying and squirming on the plane but she really only did a little of that. She slept a good amount and played the rest. She got restless on both trips but never to the point where she was unbearable. Now I won't dread trips with her so much anymore.

We did a lot of fun things while up at my sister's. We went to the Boston Museum of Science, the Festival of Trees and went into NH to show Waylon where I lived for 4 years. We spent Thanksgiving day at my sister's in-laws and ate a ton of wonderful food. It was overall a great experience. Did I mention that it was the first, and possibly only, time my sister and I have been together while we were both pregnant? That was definitely memorable. The fact that we're only a month apart makes it even more fun because we're very close in our symptoms and stages. There was lots of baby talk! Too bad I didn't get to find out the gender of our baby before going up there. My sister found out she will be having another girl. The name will be Jocelyn Abigail, which is beautiful! Can't wait to see pictures of her!

Speaking of baby genders....I have another ultra sound coming up this Tuesday. I go in at 8am and have the ultra sound first thing. Hopefully baby #2 will cooperate this time and not stay curled up in a ball! I'm so anxious to finally find out what we are having this time around and I will be very disappointed if we still don't know after Tuesday! I'm 19 weeks now and I feel like I'm well passed the point where I should know the gender! My patience is wearing out! lol

Brooklyn continues to do and say new things on a daily basis. At his point she says several words: mama, mommy, dada, daddy, nanny (her name for the day care ladies AND my mom), wow-wow (name for the dogs), baby, baba, shoe, No (she is really good at saying this one!) What's that? (says this very rarely) and "here you go" (we've only heard her say this once to my brother when she was giving him a pen at church). Her strong will is becoming very evident and it scares me sometimes! I think I'm going to have a very head strong daughter! She knows what she wants and does not like to be told that she can't have or do something. She has started throwing temper tantrums and is more curious than ever about all things around her. She sleeps very well at night and rarely wakes up before 6:30 anymore. She has a thing about shoes. She loves to wear them and if she sees your shoes on the floor, she will try to put them on you! So beware, if you're wanting to go barefoot, don't leave your shoes laying around or she will try to make you wear them!

I bought a new Christmas tree this year and I absolutely love it! It's a small tree, which is all we need at this time. It's 4ft tall and fat. I also bought all new ornaments for it this year and have to say that I like them the best of all the ornaments I've bought in the past. This year, instead of trying to be trendy and make my tree a theme (which I've never been good at and has never worked well for me), I tried to just stick to the tradition green, red and white with gold and silver and it really worked well! Instead of buying a tree topper, I bought some ribbon and made a big bow (with the help of my mom) and let the ribbon flow down the tree on the sides and it looks really cute! Maybe later I will get motivated enough to take a picture of it and post it. I've been really slacking in the picture department lately, I know. The problem is that I don't like my camera and it's a pain in the rear to charge and I can never find the charger because we don't have an official "spot" for it. I have major camera envy of my sister's camera but want to hold out until I have enough saved to buy a DSLR camera. That's my goal. Until then, I probably won't be posting a ton of pictures.

I'm currently recovering from a severe sinus infection. I'm not going to get into a ton of detail but let's just say it got bad enough for me to go to the ER on a saturday. The whole left side of my face was throbbing in pain and was like that for over 12 hours. I had finally had enough of it and broke down and had my grandmother drive me to the hospital. (My grandpa Woolbright is a retired military PA and he came over Saturday morning to check me over to see if he could help any. They stayed with me while I moaned and groaned in pain and cleaned my living room and kitchen!) I'm thrilled to say that, thanks to the 4 prescription medications I'm on and many neti pot cleansings, that I'm pain free this evening and feeling much better! I can honestly say that I have never felt pain like that in my face, not even when we had our wreck in July and my face was deformed from swelling and bruising. It was horrific and I hope to not ever have to experience that again!

On that note, I'm going to sign off. I promise to post a picture or two on my next post...I know, they sound like empty promises right now. But I will deliver. I still haven't uploaded the few pictures I took with my camera from my Thanksgiving trip. Nothing like a good case of procrastination!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season!

It's been a long time a-comin'!

2010-11-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna be honest, I haven't had the desire to blog lately. Quite frankly, between my job, taking care of my active toddler and barely attempting to keep our small house clean, blogging has seemed like one more thing I had to do versus something I wanted to do. To write about my life lately would end up making me more tired than I already am...who wants THAT?? Not me, for sure.

So I'm not going to write about everything that has been going on lately. I'll just try to focus on the exciting stuff...err, well, the semi-exciting stuff that constitutes my life at this point.

I had my 13 week appointment last week and got to hear the baby's heart beat. It was a huge relief! Since moving into the 2nd trimester and not having the nausea to constantly remind me of the pregnancy, it had started to feel like I wasn't pregnant anymore. Hearing the heart beat is always a calming affirmation that there really is a baby growing inside there! It did take her about a full minute to find the heart beat which worried me a little bit but she found it finally and it was loud and strong at 150 bpm. I confirmed with her that I will be scheduled for a c-section about a week before my due date. That puts me somewhere around April 23rd! That's the 3rd week of April so I will be going on maternity leave the week before that, which means I'll only work 1 week in April! Woo hoo!!

A week from tomorrow (Tuesday, November 9th) I'm scheduled for an ultra sound to make sure the baby is healthy enough for my flight to Boston on Thanksgiving AND to try to find out the gender. I am so excited about possibly finding out so soon! I wasn't expecting to find out till probably after Thanksgiving. We are hoping for a boy but I will be perfectly happy with a girl too! We have names chosen (I think). Boy will be Julian Bryce - the name we chose for a boy when I was pregnant with Brooklyn - and Layla Paige. I love both of those names and can't wait to get to use them!

I mapped out the rest of my school year last night to see just how many weeks of school I have left in the school year and what my longest stretches of work would be. At this point, things are looking great! I have three weeks till Thanksgiving break. After coming back from that, I will have 3 weeks until we go on our 2 week Christmas break. Then I come back for 10 weeks (with a couple of 3 & 4 day weekends sprinkled in there) until Spring break during the 3 week of March. After that, I come back for 2 weeks and then I'm off on maternity leave! It doesn't sound so bad when I map it out like that! Now I just have to get my long-term sub situation set up and make sure my disability is all good to go and I'll be all set. Phew!

I'm very much looking forward to my Thanksgiving break in Massachusetts with my sister and her family! We are so excited to see her two girls and Brooklyn playing together. It will be the first time for them to get together and play since she was 3 months old and only sat and slobbered everywhere. We are planning a trip into Boston with one of Mike's friends who is a tour guide of Boston and has offered to take us through the city. Waylon will love that since he loves history and has never been to Boston. We will probably take the T-train in, which will be a fun time as well. Other then that, we plan on spending lots of time hanging out at home and enjoying Thanksgiving meal at Melissa's in-laws, eating yummy food and hopefully playing their annual poker game. I do intend on taking Waylon up to Nashua where I lived for almost 4 years and showing him our old house and my old stomping grounds. I hope it isn't too boring for him!

Waylon has been approved to have Tuesdays off from now on. He is really getting burnt out working the 80 hours a week he's been working. He doesn't get to hardly see Brooklyn or me or his dad who is very sick and dying. He has no time for himself and it's really starting to get to him. He told all this to his boss today and was given Tuesdays off. I'm so looking forward to getting to see him more and knowing that he's getting some rest and being able to see his daughter more. Neither of us want this work situation to be permanent but we do want to get out of debt as quickly as possible so that we have financial freedom as well as job freedom. This job allows us to achieve all of this and we are making some major headway. This has been a great motivator for us and it has felt so good to pay of several debts.

I think this is enough information for one post. I hope it's as positive as I wanted it to be. My goal is to focus on as much of the positive as possible because focusing on the negative is not mentally or physically healthy and I don't think God is pleased by it either.

Have a happy Thanksgiving celebration month! I for one, am thrilled to be pasted Halloween and onto the important holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. My favorite time of the year!

I've got to get better at this!

2010-09-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

I realize I have totally dropped the ball in the blogging department. I want to do better! I promise I will try! Ever since starting back to work, it's been hard for me to remember things. My brain is on strike and it's very frustrating.

I'm just going to type this post as things come to mind because that's how my mind works these days...here goes....

I had my first prenatal appointment on Friday. I was 6w6d. Today I'm 7 weeks. The appointment was disappointing just like my first appointment with Brooklyn was. They didn't check for a heartbeat or do an u/s like I was hoping. They asked me lots of questions and took a urine and blood sample. I was told that if I don't hear back in about a week, then I can assume that all the results came back appearing normal. They scheduled me for my follow-up appointment on the 28th which is a little over two weeks away. At that appointment they will check for the heartbeat for sure and I'm hoping they will do an ultra sound to verify how far along I am. I'll be just past the 9 week mark. I made sure the schedule it for the morning so that the u/s tech will be there (he usually leaves by noon). There wasn't anything too interesting about the visit except for one thing. When she was looking on the little chart to determine my due date based on my cycle, I asked her what the doctor's policy was about scheduling a second c-section. I had assumed that since I already had one, that I would be an automatic candidate for a second one and that they would automatically schedule me for one. The nurse got a strange look on her face and told me that this would be decided by the doctor as my pregnancy progressed. She said that if everything went fine and I had no complications throughout the pregnancy that my OB would probably just let me go natural. I was a bit shocked, to say the least. I had already set in my mind that I would be having another c-section. I had already started getting excited at the prospect of being able to set the date of that c-section pretty early on in my pregnancy and know the exact date I would go in to have this next one. I was perfectly fine with that. I was planning on asking her what her stance on VBACs was, but I did not intend on pushing it. After my experience with natural labor with Brooklyn, it just did not seem appealing this time around, especially if we see that I'm going to have another big baby. So...that will definitely be something I discuss in length about with my doctor. I'm definitely not one of the women who has their heart set on an all-natural birth. I feel that the ultimate goal is to have a healthy baby and wether it be by c-section or vaginally, I am still just as much a mom as anyone else and my kids aren't going to give a darn how I delivered them. And that's my 2 cents on that! lol

Brooklyn has been entertaining us daily with new things she does. She has started using her index finger a lot to point at things and to shake her finger "no" back and forth. It's extremely cute and funny when she does that. She will also stick her finger up her nose if you ask her "Where's you're nose?" I don't know how she learned that, but she did and it's hilarious! In fact, she did it just this past week in front of one of my classes at work. I ended up having to bring her in to work with me on Wednesday due to flooding in the neighborhood my day care is in. We had some major torrential down pours that day and there was major flooding throughout the city my school is in. Buses were unable to drive through many streets and it was just crazy. Anyways, long story short, I tried to get her to day care and couldn't so I went on to work because at that point it was the safest, closest place for me to get until I figured out what I was going to do. I ended up staying for my first 2 classes while they found coverage for my afternoon classes. My students were totally entertained by her and in on of the classes, I was holding her up front explaining an assignment when she stuck her finger right up her nose and started laughing and looking around to see how many people were looking at her. It was the funniest thing and my students laughed quite a bit! Needless to say, we didn't get much done 1st and 2nd periods that day.

I've been feeling decent this pregnancy. The nausea is definitely kicking up a notch, which isn't fun. I was given some nausea medication from my "cousin-in-law" (my husband's cousin's wife) who is due here in November with #3. She took them for her morning sickness at the beginning of her pregnancy so I'm going to give them a try! I really need something for when I'm at work. It's so hard to be in front of a class, dealing with teenagers while you feel like hurling. (nice mental image, I know). Of course I will call my OB and make sure it's ok to take these, but they are commonly prescribed to pregnant women for nausea so I don't think it will be a problem. I've also been feeling quite a bit of fatigue and had some mild cramping. I called the OB about the cramping because it was sharp and very localized and it scared me a bit. They told me it was normal cramping and that as long as I'm not spotting or bleeding, there is nothing to worry about. That definitely put my mind at ease! I can definitely see that this pregnancy will be more difficult to get through than the first because now I have a toddler to keep up with all whilst feeling sick and tired and sore (more towards the end on that one). I'm not looking forward to that part, but I figure, she's going to keep me so busy that these next 9 months are probably going to fly by!

I'm going to buy some new maternity clothes online from Old Navy because they're having a really good sale. I also need to dig out my maternity clothes from last year. I bought a Be Band today from Target so I can wear some of my normal pants for longer.

I also bought some new fall clothes for Brooklyn at Target today because they were having a great deal. It was $4 a piece for jeans, khakis, and colored pants as well as cute little t-shirts to go with them. I bought several of each! She should be all set for the fall as far as everyday clothes go. Now I still need to get her a good winter coat.

My house is a mess and I have not had the energy or desire to clean it. I did a little today because I felt too guilty sitting and doing nothing while Brooklyn was napping and my husband was out working hard. So I got up and did some dishes and cleaned our room up a bit. I felt better after that. I need to get motivated to do more around the house. I know I can't just sit around wishing the nausea and lethargy away. I'll have to work through it and get things done.

I think that's all I can type about right now. My mind is starting to wonder away from me which is usually a sign to stop.

I really hope to post some pictures very soon.

A Gift

2010-08-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

This was me on Friday, July 23rd after our wreck that God miraculously brought us through.

This is me, exactly 4 weeks later, on Friday, August 20th, in a much better place. :)

Can you see it?

Just in case you can't, here's a little closer view....

YES! I'm pregnant with my second child! I'm so thrilled for many reasons! #1, we really wanted another one. #2, I get to go through a pregnancy with my sister and we're only a month apart so we will be going through virtually the same symptoms throughout. #3, the baby will be coming at the end of April, which is perfect timing for school. I'll be done with school in April and have a sub for the rest of the school year!

I'm due April 30th, but since I will most likely have a repeat c-section, it will probably be more like April 25. My sister is due March 31st and will also have a c-section so she will be more around the 26th of March. We will be one month apart almost to the day. My cousin's wife, Heather, is also due in March, on the 15th. So we will be having 3 new little ones in our family in the span of one month. We are all very excited and I'm sure you can imagine how excited my mom is to be getting two new grand babies in one month!

God knew this was going to happen and was in control the whole time. He is so good to us! I had no idea that almost a month, to the day, later, I would be receiving the news I had hoped to hear the night we were in our wreck after the ER doctor gave me a pregnancy test and it came up negative. It's humbling to think about. God loves us so much and does answer our prayers in his own timing.

I'm looking forward to my pregnancy and hoping for a healthy 9 months with no complications. I will obviously keep this updated and post lots of pictures like I did last time. We can't wait to find out what gender our baby is. I'm hoping for a boy but will be thrilled with a girl too! I can't believe I'm embarking on another pregnancy and hope to be more relaxed and enjoy this one a little more and be more healthy and gain less weight!

I do realize that it's very early to be announcing, as I am just barely 4 weeks along (4 wks 5 days) but I feel that God has given me this gift and if He allows me to lose it, then I will have more family and friends to pray for me and support me through the tough times. I also realize that if I don't tell because I'm afraid of m/c, then my faith in the Lord really isn't that strong, is it? I'll admit to being a little more timid this time since my sister did miscarry back in April of this year. That was a blow to her and to our family. We were all so sad for her but now we are celebrating in her new pregnancy! And in mine too! So here's to God giving me a healthy 9 months and a beautiful baby in April!

Maternity clothes, here I come!

A Day Care Update, and other stuff.

2010-08-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn had her first full week at Lil' Lambs Day Care today. She has now spent 2 half days and 7 full days there. I have to say that I am truly amazed at how well she is doing! My little girl is taking great strides in the sleeping and eating department. Before day care, she slept with us (well, "slept" isn't really the right word, it was more like she took naps throughout the night), took sporadic naps and barely ate solids. NOW, she goes to bed promptly at 7pm, without crying when I put her in her crib, she takes a solid, long nap from 12:30 - 3:00pm, and she eats everything in sight! She has become a voracious eater! I can't believe it!

I no longer dread bedtime like I used to and I have a couple hours at night to myself to do things I want and need to do...like write this blog! She has become attached to her sock monkey and will fall asleep hugging him. It's so cute. I had wanted her to find a bear or doll that she could cuddle with and sleep with and she finally does! She will let me lay her down in her crib, without a peep and hold her monkey in one arm and her bottle with the other hand. Now I just have to figure out how to keep a blanket on her. She tosses and turns so much that she won't keep a blanket on and she always feels clod in the morning. I do put socks on her feet and she sleeps in pants and a shirt but I should probably get her some footed PJs soon. We like to keep the A/C pretty low at nights. Lately I have been super hot in my sleep and I wake up feeling like it's burning up in our room and when I go check the temp it's 73! But, I digress...

I'm very content with our wonderful little day care and am so happy that Brooklyn is doing so well with it. She will go full-time this week and next and after that, she will cut back to two days a week and my parents will keep her on Mondays and Thursdays. I wanted to get her in for two good weeks to get used to it so that when she cuts to part-time, it won't feel like something new all over again.

On the work front for me, it has been quite a frustrating week. Our school built a new science building an is in a 3 year remodeling process that started last school year. They got quite a bit done over the summer but there is still a ton of construction going on at our campus and it limits where you can get into the building. They also took away a pretty big chunk of our parking spaces at the front of the school, so unless I get there really early and get one of those spaces, I'll be parking in the way back of the school and walking 10 minutes to get to my classroom. I guess the brisk walk in the mornings won't be bad for me as I'm trying to put exercise back into my life and daily routine. (my goal is to work out 4 times a week!) It took me a while to get my room put together. In fact, I was up there today, on a Saturday, finishing it up. I moved rooms this year so I had to bring all my stuff (which was very disorganized in my old room) into my new room. If you know me, I'm just not an organizer/decorator so it took me a while to figure out what to do with my room. I've got it "acceptable" for the first week of school but will be adding things to it as the first few weeks go along. I'm also going to involve my students because they are so creative and have great ideas that I would never think of. I just can't believe that my summer is over and I'm going back to work next week...WITH THE KIDS!! Everything is new and I'm starting everything all over again! At least this year I get to teach a new level of Spanish. I'll be teaching 4 periods of Spanish 1 and 2 periods of Spanish 2. That will break things up a bit and give me some variety, which I need.

I'm still a little disappointed at the things I didn't get done this summer that I wanted to. My house is still pretty cluttered which I planned to fix this summer. I still plan on having a garage sale sometime in the fall when things cool down. I have a bunch of stuff I just need to get rid of so I'm going to have to break down and have one, as dreadful as it sounds to me at this point.

Waylon is doing an amazing job as a GM. He is kicking butt with sales and his team has grown considerably. He still works crazy hours (70-80 hrs a week) but when we pay off our last debt, hopefully in the spring, it's going to have been SO worth it! At that point, I've told him he is free to quit that job, if he wants, and find something a little less taxing. I would also like to look into either working part-time at that point, or, finding a day care to work at where I can take Brooklyn and still get to see her everyday. It's really killing me to go back to work right now and not get to spend these long days with her so I really want to find something where I can remedy that situation. If we still need a full-time income from me, then I'll look into a day care, if not, I'll try to find something more "fun" for myself that I will enjoy rather than what pays the most for the least amount of hours. I really think I would still want to work part-time just to have my "me" time and feel like I'm still bringing in some "bacon" for our family. We are praying about these plans of ours and seeking what God wants for our family though, so next year may be unlike anything I can imagine! I'm very excited and hopeful for the possibilities! Until then, I'm praying to have a great year at school and that it will be a year for trying new things with my students and a very positive year. Having a bad attitude about it will do me no good, so I'm going to try and keep a positive attitude!

I'm working on my next post already. I think you all will get a kick out of it!

Toodles!

Ramblings on my mind

2010-08-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

It's been three weeks since our scary car accident. It still haunts me to think about it when I have flashes of it, but we are all doing well. I no longer sport a purple, swollen eye and the bruises on the rest of my body are pretty much gone. My mom ended up having to have surgery, which she did not want and didn't take well, but she is recovering very well and the pain is very minimal that she hasn't had to take her pain pills as much. I'm still a little jumpy when I'm driving but not near as much bad as I thought I would be.

I've recently joined LA Fitness and have worked out 4 consecutive days and am very proud of myself. One of the days was kind of a bust because it was spent with a trainer trying to sell me paid training sessions, which I didn't want. I just wanted him to give me an idea of a good workout plan for my wants and needs but I didn't get that. I still got in 30 minutes on the treadmill and a few laps in the pool though. I'll probably not workout tomorrow since I've gone 4 days in a row without a break. I'm really feeling a lot more serious about my working out this time. I hope it sticks when I go back to work. I would like to eventually switch to working out in the early mornings. I'm first going to try to get into the habit of working out 4 days a week then I'm going to gradually, one day at a time, switch to morning workouts.

I'm still failing miserably at sleep training Brooklyn and getting her to sleep through the night in her own bed. This is the one thing that I absolutely have come to dread everyday: bedtime. I am completely to blame for this problem and I know it. Every time I start sleep training her, it lasts for about 3 days and then I start giving in to her multiple wakings and finally get tired enough to bring her to bed with me. I never thought it would be so hard for me to just let her cry herself to sleep in her room. It has been nearly impossible for me to bear and now I'm at the end of my rope on it. But alas, I have a new plan and new encouragement from a new person that will be in our lives now for a while: Janna (pronounced yahnnah).

Who is Janna? Janna is Brooklyn's new day care provider. Yes, Brooklyn will be going to day care this year. There have been many factors that have led to this decision and we all feel that it is the right thing to do with her. 1) Waylon is no longer in school and working part-time like he was last year so he won't be able to take care of her at all during the week. This means my parents, who both work part-time, would be responsible for her every single day, all day. This just was not going to be feasable for them, plus it was going to be exhausting for them! She is a very active child now and requires more structure and activities and I can't put that on my parents while they still work. 2) I want Brooklyn to have a more set schedule in her daily life and in turn, I truly believe that this will help with our night time woes. Having the same schedule during the day will mean that she will be ready to go to bed earlier and have an internal clock guiding her. Right now, everyday is a different schedule. She goes to bed late and sleeps in late with us. She has no structure in the day and we seem to always be on the go. (Mainly because it is the summer and that's my only long stretch of time off so we have to take advantage of it!) 3) My mom ended up having surgery from the accident so she has a cast on her left arm and can't do things like change Brooklyn's diapers and get around like she could. If my dad were to have to work and leave her alone with Brooklyn for more than a couple hours, it would be hard for my mom to do what she needed to do. This is only a temporary problem but it still played a part in our choosing to send her to day care. As for where we are sending her, she will be going to an in-home, Christian day care called "Lil' Lambs Christian Day Care and Preschool." I'm going to do another post just about her day care so I'm not going to go into any detail about it right now other than to say that God answered all our prayers for what we needed for day care.

We are a few steps closer to being debt free as we paid a large amount of debt off last week. Things are going to be put on hold for a bit though until we figure out our new budget with my gym membership, Brooklyn's day care and the fact that more will be taken out of my paychecks for my medical insurance. Apparently, for the past year they have been taking out less than half of what they were supposed to be taken out and now they want me to start paying it back! So no only will they be taking over twice as much as before, but also will be taking out an extra $109 for the next 24 months! ugh!! This is so frustrating. It's the second time they have screwed something up with my check. It should just take a couple weeks to get everything figured out and then we can get back on the roll of paying things off.

I will be going back to work next week for in-service and then the week after that, the kids come. This year, I'll be in a new room and will be teaching two class periods of Spanish 2. I usually only teach Spanish 1, but this year, I'm getting a little variety and I'm excited about it but also a little nervous. I hope all the changes of this year will make the year go by quickly and will keep my mind from thinking about not being at home with Brooklyn.

I think I'm going to stop here since this is getting really long. After Brooklyn's first three days of day care this week, I will write a post about it and hopefully have some pictures. :)

Count it all joy...

2010-07-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

Last week was quite a scary week for my family. I'm not going to recount the events in detail just yet because I'm just not ready to. In short, we took two visits to the ER: one for Brooklyn when she had a fever of 104 and the very next night after my parents, Brooklyn and I were all involved in a very scary wreck. It was terrifying and I hope to never have to experience anything like it again. Like most people, I was in my little bubble, going about my life the way I have always been, focusing on our finances and Brooklyn and trying to keep a house clean. You don't wake up and think "Today I'm going to get in a wreck and end up in an ambulance on my way to the emergency room." But that's what happened. One small mistake of another driver, and our world was turned upside down. My mother ended up with a broken wrist and I with a huge bump on my head that has now spread through the right side of my face where my right eye is turning purple and swelling shut. It's not one of my favorite looks, but I'll take it over being pale, with makeup on in a casket. (sorry for that gruesome image!)

In times like these, when you face the realness of how fragile life is and how quickly it can take a turn for the worse, it's so important to have your faith rooted in Jesus Christ. I know that it was only by His love and grace and power that we were spared worse injuries and even death. Look at the pictures and try to tell me that it isn't a miracle from the Lord that we came out as well as we did from this.

This is the side that was hit first that sent us into a spin, into on-coming traffic. Looks pretty harmless, right? But that tiny little dent in the side of the car caused a chain reaction that led to massive destruction of not only my dad's car but the cars of 2 other people involved in this accident.

Lately it has felt like Satan is out to attack our family. This is the 4th wreck our family has been in this year. I am the person who has been in all of them. Two in my own car while I was driving, once as a passenger in my brother's car and now this one in my dad's car. Not to mention the hospital visits we have gone through with Brooklyn and financial difficulties. Satan is really trying to shake our faith, but we are not going to let him! I still believe God is working in our family in great ways. I still believe He loves us and that He is our protector and provider. I do not believe that He has abandoned us. He is still in control and Has a wonderful plan for our family. If anything, this is reassurance that we are doing something right or Satan wouldn't be so bent on destroying us and breaking our faith. Our church has seen some major growth lately, Waylon and I have gotten into a good financial place where we have been able to pay of some debt and give more to our church. These are good things that Satan does not want to see going well in our lives and he will do things to try to break our faith and question God. We will persevere and keep our faith in God and continue to worship Him, even when things aren't going peachy in our lives.

This reminds me of a verse I studied a while back:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. - James 1:2-4

Is God testing our faith? Maybe. If we keep our faith though, the Bible says we will learn to be steadfast and this will lead us to being complete and perfect in our relationships with the Lord. This applies to any trial you are facing in your life, not just big ones.

I don't say this to elevate the status of my family and make us seem better than other families. I know there are others doing wonderful works for the Lord and not going through any major trials. God deals differently with all of us. I feel that God may be testing my family to help us with our faith. To make sure that we do not waver from Him, even when things seem like they are never going to be "normal" again. I will admit to asking God why He is letting my family go through so much lately and whining and complaining to Him. But then He reminds me of families who have gone through so much worse and I am humbled once more.

All in all I have to count it all joy because we are alive and well today and it could have been much worse! Remember this verse when you think you are going through a hard time in your life because it can always be worse and according to the Word, it is these trials that lead us to steadfastness and to a point where our faith in God leaves us lacking nothing.

A short update! With pictures!

2010-07-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

I realize that in my previous post about the Saturday Spanish Sessions, I implied that there should be one last Saturday and then there wasn't. Sorry! I meant to say *next* Saturday, as in, the 17th of July, which now might be pushed back even some more because we are having Brooklyn's 1st birthday party on Sunday.

I also have my last FPU (you can read more about this on my FPU page up top) class on Saturday. We will be receiving diplomas and everything! I'm very excited about it. We also will announce how much debt we've each paid off since starting the class. We haven't been able to pay off as much as we would have liked to since April, BUT, we're about to start kickin' some debt tail!

I also wanted to post some cute pictures I've taken recently from our new iMac that we got dirt cheap from my brother. Enjoy!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Coming on a Saturday near you: Stephanita's Saturday Spanish Sessions

2010-07-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

Are casa and mexican food names the only words you know in Spanish? Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to communicate with someone in Spanish but you didn't know the right words? Ever traveled to a Spanish-speaking country but couldn't ask where the bathroom was? Have you ever wanted to whisper something sexy to your husband in another language? Would you like your kids to grow up knowing some basics about Spanish to help them when they take it at school?

If you said yes to any of those questions, fear no more! Starting this Saturday, I will be posting short Spanish lessons to help you, my wonderful, fabulous readers, learn some important, fun, hip and sexy things to say in Spanish. I'll pick a theme and I'll focus on that for a month or so until I feel that you have gotten the basics. I'll cover things like household items, greetings and farewells, street slang, animals, adjectives and even whole phrases. I will do this via video clips or audio clips, depending on the subject matter. I may post funny songs to help you learn a specific verb or phrase. Whatever it is, I want it to be fun for you guys. If there is something specific you would like to learn about, please let me know! I'll try to make a video session on it. My sessions will be short, 2-3 minutes tops. I don't want to bore you or make it too long with too much information but I want it to have enough so that you actually learn what I'm teaching.

If you have kids, I'll be doing some segments on phrases and words you can teach your kids. I'll also cover some learning methods that can be used across the board for most languages (in case your kids are taking French or German).

I'm very excited about getting this going and you can thank my sister, Melissa, for helping me come up with this idea! She's a blogging expert!

While were on the subject of Spanish sessions, you may have noticed that the title of my blog has changed, but my URL has not. I'm in the process of changing my blog name to "Mamacita Stephanita: Livin' la vida Gringa". I haven't decided my exact method for this yet so I'm leaving my blog under the Perryman Ponderings URL for now. When I do change it, I will give plenty of notice and do my best to streamline the change so that you don't have to do a lot to continue following me. I'll keep you all posted on this as it comes along. My brother, Bryan, is a graphic designer and is learning how to create layouts for Blogger (currently he only works with Wordpress blogs) and will be creating a nice design for me. I will probably wait till the design is made before I switch the name of my blog and then have one big transition. I'm very excited about that change as well and I feel that the name fits me more. What do you think? I'd love your input on this as well!

Hasta Sabado! (That means, until Saturday!)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

Look at those bottom teeth of hers.

And that adorable smile.

I could just eat her up!

So serious!

Getting a little greedy there aren't we??

Blue eyes.

These cheeks just kill me!

Ok, ok...I realize it was supposed to be WORDLESS. But I couldn't help it!!! I can't just post pictures of my cutie and NOT say something! ♥

Top Ten Things I HAVEN'T Gotten done this summer!

2010-07-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

I'm joining in the Top Ten Tuesday fun over at Oh Amanda's blog. I had many plans for this summer. I was going to do SO much and get all sorts of things taken care of! I was revved up and ready to go!

Then life happened. Waylon got a new job working extremely long hours, 6 days a week. I underestimated how challenging a newly walking almost-one-year-old is. I forgot how hot and muggy summers in Texas are and how much they DE-motivate me from doing anything. I forgot how incredibly messy my husband and I can be.

Soooooo...here are the top ten things I THOUGHT I was going to do this summer, but haven't...yet...

1. De-clutter my house. I had huge plans to start the week after we got out of school to get rid of tons and tons of "stuff" in my house. We have a bunch of it and we don't use most of it! I'm sick of all this "stuff" that takes up space and clutters my house and collects dust! I haven't gotten rid of hardly anything, at least not enough to really see a difference. This frustrates me. I have full intentions of still getting this done though! I'm not raising my white flag just yet!

2. Work out. I was going to get up every morning and take a walk with my daughter before it got hot. That hasn't happened ONCE! I figured that since she wakes me up early every morning that I would just get up, put her in her stroller and head on out and take a 20-30 minute walk every morning to get back into the exercise routine. Nope, hasn't happened. Most mornings I just lie in bed after she wakes and let her crawl trample all over me. She seems content with that and I get a few more minutes of sleep. She's even slept till after 9am a few times and that makes it REALLY hard to get out of bed and take a walk because by then, it's already up to 90 degrees outside!

3. Read my Bible everyday. This one I've done the best on of all. I have put in much more effort into this than anything else, but I'm still not reading it everyday. I've come up with a method/plan that I think I will like a lot and that will motivate me to do it everyday. One of my problems with reading my Bible and having my quiet time has been that I didn't have a plan laid out as to how I was going to do it. That leaves me all in a dither. I would read a passage and then didn't know whether to read more or meditate on what I read or write what I learned from it. I have very limited time and I need to use it the best I can! I would spend more time trying to decide what to do then actually DOING it. So I took some tips from a wonderful website I've discovered (Scripture Dig) and I'm on my way to a better quiet time. (BTW, I will be doing a post all about the information I've gleaned from this website soon!)

4. Done more activities with Brooklyn. Due to all my mommy guilt from working and not being able to stay home with Brooklyn, I planned on using the summer to take her all sorts of fun places and do a variety of activities with her. I have not been able to do that. In my own defense, I just recently (as in last week) had my van finally fixed so that I could use it on a daily basis. Until then, I had to either use my husband's car for the few hours in the morning that he's home before heading off to work, OR have my parents come over and get me, OR drive my van that had no A/C and that I had to jump start each time I needed to use it! Talk about frustration! That's enough to keep anyone indoors all day. Well, the van is fixed so I have my freedom back. What I'm encountering now is laziness on my part and the fact that it's a lot of work taking Brooklyn out to do anything. But I have been able to do more and tomorrow I plan on taking her to the aquatic center in Hurst.

5. Record songs for Brooklyn. You may read this and think it's weird. Let me explain. For a while now, I've been wanting to use the nifty Garage Band application on my MacBook to record me singing some songs for Brooklyn for her bedtime. They would just be simple recordings of me singing and playing the guitar to some kid songs and some worship songs and hymns. I haven't yet done that either. Part of it is because it kills my fingers to play guitar now since I haven't played in years and my fingertips don't have their callouses anymore. This is something I DO still want to do this summer.

6. Spend more "quality time" with my husband. No, "quality" isn't code for "intimate". I mean quality as in, time interacting and doing things that bring us closer together, NOT just watching TV. This has taken a back seat as his new job takes a lot of his time and we need him to keep this job and be successful at it. So I'm biding my time and taking the little snippets of time I can from him until the time comes when things aren't so hectic and we are able to have a date night each week or every other week. It's been hard though. I miss having him around. Sniff...

7. Meal plan. I really wanted to get into the habit of meal planning for each week. I thought it would be super easy to do during the summer when I'm not working and I have a bunch of extra time. Psh! I'm so bad at managing my time now! Having no structure to my days has created a scheduling nightmare! This is something I will have to put a lot of effort into and be very purposeful about. Grr...

8. Gardening. I had BIG plans to start my own straw bale garden. I got the nifty idea on MckMomma's blog and I did a lot of online research about it. I even went and bought a bale of straw and cleaned out the garden bed in front of my porch. I put a lot of work into it. Well, the straw bale is still sitting out there. It's been watered a ton but has yet to have anything growing on it. Mainly because I haven't planted anything in it yet! I'm so frustrated about this because I really thought this would be a nice therapeutic hobby for me. But alas, there is not time for the garden.

9. Developing a weekly house cleaning schedule. I'm such a spaz when it comes to cleaning my house. The only rooms that consistently get cleaned are the kitchen, living room and my bedroom. Everything else gets put off over and over again since it's not in plain sight if someone were to come over. I wanted to develop a weekly house cleaning schedule so that every room got at least straightened up every week. I'm still working on this. Meanwhile, the same three rooms have all been cleaned multiple times this summer but I HAVE gotten to some others (my bathroom, Brook's room, the kitchen table).

10. Successfully sleep train Brooklyn. Our plan was to already have her happily sleeping in her crib all night, every night by two weeks ago. I'm embarrassed to admit that she still doesn't go down without me either rocking her or patting her on her back and that she wakes up in the middle of the night and I bring her to my bed to sleep off the rest of the night. I know, consistency is the key. Yet, I continue to NOT be consistent with her. It breaks my heart to hear her desperate cries when I leave her in there to cry it out but I'm starting to realize that unless I do that consistently EVERY NIGHT, she is never going to settle in to a routine. I'm going to have to teach her some tough love. Tough for her, tougher for me.

So there you have it! My Top Ten Things I Haven't gotten done this summer. It's frustrating, it sucks, but I know that these are all things I CAN get done, even if I just go at them one at a time. So I will press on in the quest to get these things done!

Countdown to the party

2010-07-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

It's officially two weeks from tomorrow (Sunday) that we will be celebrating Brooklyn's first birthday. I seriously can't believe she is going to be a year old. That seems impossible! My little girl has experienced her first year of life and I remember her birth like it was yesterday. Wow.

I went to Party City for the first time today to look at decorations. My cousin's wife, Heather, is making Brooklyn's cake and it's a really cute pink and purple cake with balloons on it and a big cupcake (fake one as a decoration) that says First Birthday on it. I was originally going to do the pool party luau theme but we decided that having the party at our house was just going to be too overwhelming. First of all, I would have to do some big time cleaning and that's just not happening these days! I've had my mom watch Brooklyn for me a couple of days last week so that I could get some things done that were desperately needing to get done! So now we are going to have her party at the church instead. It is bigger, there is a play area for the kids, lots of chairs and plenty of tables and room for people. We are also going to have it on a Sunday afternoon instead of Saturday. With Waylon's new work schedule, it's just easier.

Now I need to go buy her a birthday outfit and her birthday gifts. I have no idea what I'm going to get her yet but I did go to Toys R' Us and made a wish list for her. I hope that doesn't come across as being tacky. I just know that sometimes it's hard to buy for little kids because you don't know what they have or don't have and what the parents want for the kid. Having a list will give them ideas on the types of things they can buy. I also included a wide price range so that money isn't an issue. Of course, bringing a gift is NOT a requirement for coming to the party and I hope people will come even if they can't afford a gift.

I just sit and think about the fact that my daughter is turning one already and it just stuns me. I canNOT believe she is already a year old and that I'm planning her birthday party! It's scary and sad. I have shed many a tear over this lately which totally sounds lame and cheesy, but I can't help it! Waylon and I have been discussing when we want to have our next one. I think we will be trying for #2 pretty soon here. I don't even know if it will be as easy for me to get pregnant this time around so I don't want to wait too long. I also want my kids to be pretty close in age. I'll definitely keep everyone updated if I do find out that I'm pregnant in the next few months.

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My summer is going by very quickly. I'm already past the first month of summer break and only have 6 weeks left till I have to go back to work! Yuck! I look forward to summer break for so long and then it flies by! I have to admit though that my summer hasn't been quite how I imagined it would be. I know I've already said it, but being home all day with Brooklyn isn't easy at all! It's not as restful as I thought it would be. lol. I know all the other SAHMs are probably laughing at me and my OSC (one small child) but when you've never done it, it's a challenge! The fact that she is full-fledged walking now makes it even more challenging. We have recently bought an extra-long baby gate to put up between the kitchen and living room but I have yet to actually install it. Right now I have three kitchen chairs spread across that opening which is a pain in the rear. I feel like I'm constantly saying "No!" to her constantly because she is always getting into stuff she isn't supposed to. I think she's starting to think that's her name. lol

I've also not been able to get into working out like I had planned. By the time I get her down for a nap and I CAN work out, I'm exhausted and feel like I should clean something in the house. Meanwhile, I feel flabbier and flabbier everyday and avoid mirrors like the plague. I've got to start doing something about this. Either start eating healthier and count calories or start exercising. Something's got to give!

One thing I HAVE been working hard at is reading my Bible and having my quiet time daily. I haven't done it every single day, but I'm working at it and I at least spend some time, most days. I've also come up with a plan, which helps. I've been reading a blog called Scripture Dig that has really given me some great insight and ideas for how to have quiet time. I love that blog! I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to have a quiet time or even if you already do, they give great tips for studying your Bible.

I think I will do a separate post about the Inductive Study Method Waylon and I are going to be using to study our Bibles. It's very cool and interesting and I think it's going to revolutionize how we study the Bible.

I also realize I need to post some pictures on here. They have been sparse and I realize that. I'm just feeling lazy when it comes to uploading them to my computer and then editing them and putting them on my blog. Anything that requires more than 5 minutes to do has to be planned and fit into my schedule or it won't happen!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend!

Another new endeavor: What's in my coffee?

2010-06-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

For a while I've had a pressing issue on my heart. I've wanted to go deeper in my Christian faith. I hear challenging questions being asked about Christianity and I find myself wishing I had the courage and knowledge to answer them. Unfortunately, my mind comes up short for a good answer. I think of all the "pat" answers I've heard throughout my life in all the churches I've visited on deputation. If' you've ever been a missionary's kid, you know how grueling deputation can be. What was really fun?? Getting to sit through dozens upon dozens of different Sunday school classes, learning the same lessons, old material and more pat answers. I honestly don't remember going to any Sunday school classes that I ever came out thinking "Wow, that was fun and different and I actually LEARNED something new!" Why is that? Why do churches not put more into their Sunday school classes? Why don't they invest in bringing exciting lessons, challenging discussions and really get their students fired up for the Lord?

I'm not saying that ALL churches have boring Sunday school lessons. No. Definitely not. There are churches out there that really put effort and class into their SS programs. I guess it's easier for everyone though when we follow the standard curriculum, teaching the Old Testament stories and doing the crafts.

But what would happen if we really started challenging kids, teenagers, young adults and, um, older adults with some questions that would make their heads spin?! Wouldn't that be a nice change from the typical SS lesson? Well, I know one church where that is already happening. (yes, this is going to be a very small, shameless plug for my church!) In my SS class at GracePointe Baptist Church, we are doing just that. We do a variety of different types of lessons. It changes constantly and we like that. Sometimes we will do a video series and have a 45 min video with discussion time afterwards and sometimes we will discuss a book or a group study series. We've even just gone through a book of the Bible and studied it verse by verse. It's nice to have the variety. We're a small group but we have some pretty big discussions. It's been my SS group that has brought this desire to search deeper. We don't have enough time in an hour, once a week, to get as deep as we could so I'm wanting to take that further.

My new endeavor is a new blog I have created. It is titled: What's In My Coffee? The title sounds kind of silly, I know, but it does have a meaning. You can go over to my new blog and check out my first, introductory post about the purpose for my blog. My hope is that all my followers here on my personal blog, will also follow my new, discussion blog as well. I would love some input on some questions or topics you've always wanted to look into deeper. While my blog has a "coffee" motif and I will use humor and sarcasm quite a bit, I do take it seriously and will be putting a lot of thought and research into my posts. I probably won't have time to do more than one post per week. That's my goal. If I can accomplish that, I will feel pretty good. It will probably take me about a week just to put together a well thought out and informed post. I have no intentions of just putting my thoughts out there without something to back them up. This is a new thing for me so I will probably make some mistakes...hopefully not many though.

You can also follow me on twitter: @JavaWithSteph.

Please head over to my new blog and leave me a nice comment and a topic or question you think would be a good idea for my blog. I'll be willing to discuss anything just about anything!