Long time no post....

I am having trouble uploading photos with my blog post. I am writting this as a test blog to see if I can still post.

Christmas 2013

Here is our Christmas 2013 in pictures. Can you tell from the pictures who does NOT like to have their picture taken?!?



 

We enjoyed going to Breakfast with Santa at Crosspoint. Andrew does NOT like Santa!

Luke LOVES him though!

BUT Andrew liked getting a sucker from Santa!

We made reindeer food 

Tays first Christmas

What used to be just me and Charlie is now a growing family!

Did I mention Andrew doesn't like pictures...

 

Still doesn't like them...

Got so mad he just threw the ball we gave him to keep him still.

This picture just cracks me up! Tays is looking good though.

Andrew loves to read books.

Opening presents at Juju's

 

Captain Luke! This was by FAR Luke's favorite present from Mimi and Grandaddy! Check out those new boots he got also!

Visiting GV on Christmas

Santa came!!

Andrew's pile

Luke's pile...plus a beta fish you can't see in the picture

Just thought this picture was cute! The 2 bosses of the family! LOL!! Don't worry Mom would have said the same thing if it was a picture of me and Andrew.

Luke loves to hold Tays. Tays actually likes for Luke to as well.

Headed to Shoney's for breakfast with Juju on Christmas Eve. Don't be fooled by these two sweet faces...this was the breakfast from you know where! Both kids were bad!

Rocking horse from mamaw and papaw

 

Papaw with the grandkids

Luke and Andrew's gift from us

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

 

Good Stuff

I ran across this in an e-mail I received (Daily Hope with Rick Warren). It was too good not to share.


Some of you have been hurt badly, whether it happened this week or years ago, and you’re still holding on to it. I want to tell you that you’ve got to let it go. Not for their sake, but for your sake. The resentment is killing you! Resentment is a self-inflicted wound that allows people from your past to continue to hurt you today. You need to let it go, not because they deserve forgiveness but because you need to get on with your life. You need to get rid of the bitterness, fear, and pride that keep you from hearing God’s voice and living out his purpose for your life.

Happy Birthday to Mom!

My moms birthday was a couple of days ago, so just pretend I posted this on her birthday! I just wanted to do a little shout out birthday post for her. I would like to do a little list of things you may or may not know about my mom:

1. Mom LOVES alabama football!
2. She LOVES mars hill bible school.
3. She knows more Alabama football history than any person/man I know!
4. Grandmother says when mom was a child she was a pill. I think her exact words were "a little devil child!" Lol! (No comment)
5. My mom once drove all the way to the beach with me starting at about 8 PM one night when I made all stars in softball when I was younger bc I was upset that I wasn't getting to go on the family beach trip. We left at night and spent the day at the beach and then drove back the next night.
6. My mom also once left Charlie (my brother) at the ball field after I had played a game. Our friend brought him to us at the big star in killen. Lol!
7.  My mom has always taught Sunday school at church for as long as I can remember.
8. Mom has a cleaning lady at work that she made friends with. The lady would be considered a special needs woman (but was able to work) and mom knew she liked soap operas so she bought the soap digest and had it delivered to her house for years.
9. When I was younger my mom would always have a Xmas party for the older women at the church. She would take off from work and fix a meal and serve it on her fine china for these women. They loved it! ( I always got to be "sick" from school that day)
10. Mom once got so mad at me trying to teach me spelling words that she scribbled so hard on my paper that it tore. As a parent now I totally see how this could happen.
11. Mom LOVES to shop. For example: I think I was about 48 HRS old when I had my first shopping trip. You get the idea...
12. We moved to Athens when I was 16. Mom worked/works in Huntsville. In HS when I would be playing ball she would get up drive from Athens to hunts and get to work at 7:00AM. Then leave work in time to get to my ball game wherever we might be playing that day and then we all had to drive back to Athens at about 10PM every night. She never missed a game.
13. Mom LOVES "diet dark" drinks. That's what she calls them. In other words, diet coke, diet Pepsi, diet rite, etc...
14. Mom loves sweets...I am always on her about being sure to take her vitamins...apparently one day she decides she will start taking calcium...SO she comes home with a calcium "chew" that taste like a tootsie roll!!!! I aways thought that was funny!
15. Mom always told me that being the "smartest" kid in your class wasn't as important as having "common sense." I agree with this. In the real world it doesn't usually matter how much book smart you have if you can't carry on a conversation with others.

In closing, when my mom does something she does it 100%. She puts others before herself. She is proof that life is not fair, but it's how we come out on the other side that matters. She has raised 2 good kids (if I do say so myself) and to me that is considered a success.

And remember, It's not what you leave to your children, it's what you leave in your children.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

Happy 1st Birthday to Andrew!!

Wow!! I cannot believe it has been a year since Andrew was born. And what a year it has been! This is our first year to celebrate a birthday together (last year doesn't count). It is sort of weird. But it is also fun having a little birthday buddy. Andrew is really starting to show his personality these days. He is trying to talk, but not sure what he is saying. He is so different from Luke. Luke never got into anything and Andrew never goes a minute without getting into something. He thinks Luke is so funny. Whatever Luke does Andrew will laugh. It is precious to watch.

I use to think to myself, when I would be at church functions listening to a speaker tell their "story" or watching a documentary on someone telling their "story", 'that it is so neat to have a story like that. I don't have a story like that. Etc...' You know what I mean, like a life changing story. Well that all changed when Andrew was born. The day he was born, I remember laying in bed that night in the hospital and I actually thought to myself, 'Well I am about to starting living that "story" that I always said I didn't have.' I know that is a random thought to have, but I that is what I thought.

Probably the first 6 weeks after Andrew was born I think I cried every single day. I had all kinds of thoughts/emotions. I would get angry, then sad, then happy, then angry, etc... I will not tell you all the thoughts I had b/c some of you might think a little less of me.  :) I have never been one to ever say "why me" but this was the exception case. I was asking why me all the time, but it was more of a I really want to know why I was chosen to have a child who is 1/500,000. I think there is a reason for everything that happens, but I wanted to know what that reason was.

I come back to work after 6 weeks off. Things start going back to normal as far as everyday life. Except for a few things I start to notice. As weeks begin to pass I realize that I have changed. I know this sounds crazy, but I start noticing it in everyday life. I don't care about certain things like I use to. It is almost like a peace came over me and I quit worrying about upcoming doctors apts, surgeries coming up, what others thought of me, anger towards others, just different things that don't matter. And honestly, I started to feel sorry for my friends/family who didn't "get it." I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean I really felt sorry for people when I would hear them say "we are so stressed because we just can't decide when our next beach trip is going to be" or "I am so stressed b/c we are having people over this weekend and I haven't cleaned my house" or "I am so stressed b/c we have all these trips planned and I don't have matching outfits for my kids." Like I said, I don't mean that ugly, I thought like that for 30 years. Folks let me just tell you, that stuff DOES.NOT.MATTER.PERIOD!

As the weeks keep passing by I continue to study and read and continue to try and figure out how to be at peace with the whole situation. And one day it hit me, that instead of having this pity party for myself and wondering why it couldn't have been so and so that had to deal with this, God chose me and Jud to be Andrew's parents and that was an honor. It is an honor that He trust us with this responsibility. Not everyone gets to have a child who is 1/500,000 and we should consider it an honor that God chose us. Now, He watches to see what we do with this responsibility.

Always remember, when life doesn't turn out the way we planned, God's just replacing who WE thought we'd be with who HE thought we'd be.

Happy Birthday to my little Andrew!! You have changed my life, and for that I am forever grateful.

Lauren is getting married (FINALLY)!!

Jud's sister, Lauren, is getting married tomorrow. Her and Jordan have dated for about 8 years and been engaged about 18 months. I tell them all the time that we could celebrate our anniversary together b/c they have been dating longer than Jud and I have been married!

I just wanted to do a little shout out about Lauren for those who may not know her very well. Lauren is one of the most selfless people I know. She is 98% of the time in a good mood. She loves my kids like they are her own. Speaking of my kids...after Andrew was born and we were hit with the shock of what our future was about to hold, I was on maternity leave and the plan all along (before he was born) was he was going to daycare just like Luke did. I was going to take off 6-8 weeks and then put him in daycare at 10 weeks old. OK...so after I started figuring out what all was involved with Andrew doing the tissue expanders(TE) and all I decided it was probably best for him to not go to daycare. It is REALLY important that they not get sick during the TE process. However, I work full time and finding an in home baby sitter is not as easy as one might think. So...there is the background story.

Lauren is a teacher but doesn't have a job at this point. However, she subs almost everyday at a school which is what you have to do in order to eventually get a teaching job. Lauren is at the house one day and she knew we were trying to find someone to keep Andrew. She said, "Why don't you let me keep Andrew until January and then that will give you more time to find someone else. I would love to keep him." So what she is saying here is, "I am going to put my career on hold so to speak and keep your child so he doesn't have to go to daycare." I tried to talk her out of it and told her she would make more money subbing, etc... She said she didn't mind and would just start subbing again in January. This is the kind of person Lauren is. I can never repay her for doing that for us and I will be forever grateful to her for that.

Starting in January she started subbing again. She also got another job that she was working at from 4-8. So she was working 7:30AM-8/9PM each day. She finally had a day off one day and she texts me and said, "Hey! I have a day off tomorrow and wanted to see if I could keep the kids?" REALLY! Who the heck works that much and then wants to keep kids on her off day.

I could name you a lot more examples, but I think you get the point. So here's to you Lauren! Hope you have a happy wedding day and I am looking forward to all the fun festivities!!

Sayings

After Andrew was born, my view on life and a lot of things has changed. To keep from going crazy/getting depressed/stressing out/asking why is this happening to me and my family/etc...I have been doing a lot of reading and trying to be at peace with what is ahead for us in the next few years. I feel like I am a fairly laid back person, but to think about what lies ahead and trying to figure out how we are going to do it all can really get to a person! I say all that to say, I wanted to share a few sayings with you all that I have written down at my desk that I read each week....

~The magnitude of a problem like this is directly related to parents perception of the magnitude of the problem.

~The journey is the reward

~Things turn out for the best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out

~No-one knows what he can do until he tries

~Whether you think you can, or think you can't , you're right

~Some people come into our lives and leave footprints on our hearts and we are never ever the same

~There are no shortcuts to any place worth going...

~Life is not always what one wants it to be, but to make the best of it as it is, is the only way of being happy

~The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or heard...but must be felt with the heart

~Whoever is happy will make others happy too

~Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful

~Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a greater benefit

~Your children need your presence more than your presents

~Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven

~It's not what you leave to your children, it's what you leave in your children

~We are given children to test us and make us more spiritual

~The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you