Soon to arrive...

Well, it looks like Robert and Faith's sweet baby boy will likely be here on Wednesday. She's not due until the 28th, but she's dealing with some of the same things I did with Jack, like low blood flow to the placenta and a tiny little guy as a result. They think he's perfectly healthy, praise God, just small. They're estimating somewhere around 4 pounds right now, which is about what they thought Jack would be, although he turned out to be 3lb 11oz. And to tell you the truth, I can't wait to get that itty bitty baby in my arms! I really never thought I'd get my hands on another one that small, so it will be a treat to snuggle him up.

To give you an idea, this was Jack snuggled up in Morgan's American Girl sized bed when he was about 3 weeks old:

I did their maternity pictures on Monday, and I really think they turned out great! This Saturday I'll be doing Brandon and Melanie's, and I've had a couple of other people interested in shoots as well, so that's definitely something to be grateful for!

Catching up

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day! We didn't really do anything on the day of because Nick had to work (boo!), but on Saturday we joined a good friend of his for a family cookout/camp out by the river. The kids had a blast, and we all really enjoyed ourselves. 

Daisy rocked her new hot pink tankini from Aunt Kate, Morgan made a few new friends, and this guy ran and ran and ran and picked up and threw every ball he came across. We usually get his hair cut every couple of weeks but Nana (Nick's stepmom, who cuts our hair) was on vacation last week, so he missed a cut. I think I'm going to have her start leaving it a little longer on top, because this fuzzy baby head charmed people for miles around, his mama included!

My parents unexpectedly took the girls overnight tonight, so after Nick got off work we went and had dinner using a gift card he got as a tenure gift from work. Money is crazy tight right now, so this was a really neat blessing, and I loved the time with just my guys.

Nick's hands are still not healed, but I got that spanking tonight. It turns out that his left (dominant) hand is not nearly as bad, and his problem is more with his pinch grip than his ability to hold onto something (like a paddle) with his whole hand. Either way, he was plenty able to get his point across.

When he was ready for bed he asked me if I was ready for the spanking, and after minimal hemming and hawing I obeyed and followed him upstairs. He pulled out one of the paddles he made - this one:

He had me bend over the bed, and he gave me 51 over my jeans (because he seems to think "one to grow on" is not just for birthday spankings). He spanked hard, as always, but I managed to stay in place through the whole thing. Then as he was putting the paddle back in the chest he spotted a riding crop and gave me one quick hard lick with it, just because he "hadn't used it in a while."

Afterwards, he apologized for making me wait so long, and I apologized for making him need to do it at all, and we snuggled up till he fell asleep, which is where I'm headed now, because it's bedtime!

She's crafty...

The house is a mess, the kitchen table looks like a bomb went off on it, the children have eaten way too many Uncrustables in the last few days, and I've been threatened with a spanking more than once (which frankly would probably do me and Nick both good). It's officially craft show week around here. I've got tons of stuff left to make, and to top it off the head of the organization running the event decided just a few days ago that she won't allow me to sell my wire wrapped rings there because "there are already enough jewelry vendors". Nevermind that none of them are selling anything like these, or that I've got a pretty decent investment in time, materials, and displays for the several dozen I already had made before she made this sudden decision, or that they are a part of my shop, which is what I paid to have a booth for.

Anyway, at this point I'm working hard to fill out my inventory with other items, but I wanted to take a moment to post and share a few pictures of some of the things I am taking.

In other news, Jack is doing just fabulously well in his own bed! The first night he cried for about 15-20 minutes before he went to sleep, the next night it was about 10, then the next night 5. The next couple of nights he cried when I laid him down, but he was quiet by the time I got back to the living room. Now when I put him in his bed he turns right over on his side and snuggles down without a peep!

He's also pushing through his first molar (upper left), and he's started trying to walk. We've seen him toddle between the couch and the love seat at home (about 3 1/2 feet). My mom watched him in the nursery at church tonight, and when I went to get him after the service, she said "Why didn't you tell me he could walk?!"

"Well, he hasn't really been, just a couple of steps," I told her. "Well he walked all the way across the room a few minutes ago!" she said.

Last week Kate and Will randomly sent us a card in the mail. It said that they were at the mall and wondered if we needed anything for the kids, so they just got us a gift card so we could get whatever we needed. Inside was a $150 gift card to The Children's Place! Morgan and Daisy spent the night with my parents that night, so Nick and I took Jack and had dinner then hit the mall!

This is what I got:

It got us Easter outfits for both Jack and Daisy (and Daisy's goes perfect with lace Easter dress my mom already got for Morgan), as well as some much needed church clothes, shoes, and pajamas for Jack. Plus, because we spent $150, we got two free stuffed bunnies, which will go in their Easter baskets. Jack wore the straw fedora to church Sunday and some of the older ladies actually screamed when they saw him lol. 

Oh yeah, and it's my 8 year blogaversary today (er, yesterday technically)! It's also still Ask Me Anything March, so keep those questions coming!

Birthdays and babies...

Well here's a novelty - 4 posts in one month! So, not a whole lot going on here this week, which is actually a nice change. :)

Daisy's 3rd birthday is next Friday, so I've been sewing and crafting for that. Money is short right now, but fortunately she's too young to not still be impressed with handmade things. :) We did buy her a baby doll, this one to be exact:

I've been busy making her accessories to go with it, including a diaper bag, changing pad, bib, burp cloth, wipes case (complete with wipes cut from an old pillow case), extra diaper (just one so far, but I want to make more), and baby ring sling. None of it's really professional grade, but I think she'll like it all.

We also have her another doll. I almost hate to tell the story behind this one, but here goes. Several weeks ago there was this random dog that had the run of the neighborhood. Nobody knows where he came from, but he was pretty much a nuisance (and I'm not a person who minds dogs running loose just so long as they're well behaved). One day I happened to go outside and there was this dog in our yard with a naked Our Generation doll in his mouth. It's hard to be sure without the clothes, but I think it was this one. Anyway, I grabbed the doll and shooed him away, thinking I was rescuing it for some poor little neighbor girl.

The thing is, I've not been able to find who it belongs to. Morgan is friends with about all the girls in our subdivision, and none of them have claimed it. So it seems to be looking for a home. It was pretty much undamaged, just a barely split seam under the right arm, and no teeth marks at all, so I think he must have not had it for long when I found him. I ran it through the washing machine, then managed to get the hair straightened out using some of the girls' detangler (although pulling her in and out of the hall closet to show everybody but Daisy what I've done with her has been hell on the hair). Then I went to work on some clothes.

I had some sweet pink paisley corduroy that I'd been hoarding saving for something special, so I made Daisy and the doll matching skirts. I added some decorative stitching in black around the hem on each. Then I found black t-shirts on clearance for $2.50 at Wal-Mart. I grabbed 3 - one for Daisy, one for the doll, and an extra (because you can never have too many plain t-shirts for a little girl). I was quite proud of myself, because I managed to follow this pattern, and make a little black shirt for the doll to match Daisy's, even managing to reuse the trim on the neckline and sleeves (I promise the sleeves are even, but one was bunched up in the picture).

Then I followed this tutorial using one of a pair of Dollar Tree knee socks and made her an adorable pair of argyle tights. Now if only I could find some matching ones for Daisy! Wal-Mart has just come out with a new line of 18" dolls, and the accessories are really inexpensive, so for $1.99 I was able to finish the outfit off with a pair of black mary janes.

                                  (Please ignore my messy craft area)
I also made them both matching headbands in two different styles. One is a big ruffled flower on an elastic band, and the other is a pink and black woven headband. A few months ago I found blank plastic headbands to fit 18" dolls for $4.49/dozen here, and I'm really tickled with how they came out.

Anyway, that's the totally redneck story of what I'm affectionately calling "The Yard Doll", but I really do think she'll love it. Morgan has about 7 of these dolls, including two real live American Girl dolls (one from her Aunt Kate and one that she saved up for), and Daisy is always wanting to play with them. She has a cheap one of her own that I got on clearance at Wal-Mart a while back, but when one falls in my lap for free I can hardly turn it down.

Potty training is going abominably. Morgan was almost three when she potty trained, but she wasn't this close! The sad part is, I think she was ready last winter, but we wanted to wait till after Jack was born and she was used to having a new baby in the house before we tried. Then we knew we were going to Georgia at the end of July, and we didn't want to put a newly trained toddler through a nine hour car trip, so we waited again. At least I can take comfort in knowing that her cousin Maddox is 4 months older than her and still not 100% on it himself.

We keep expecting to get a call from Nick's sister Kelly any time now. Her due date is next Thursday. Her birthday is actually Saturday, so we're kind of thinking it might happen then, if only because it seems to run in the family. Her dad was born the day after his mom's birthday, and Morgan was born on Nick's birthday. For that matter, Daisy was due the day after my birthday, but she came a couple of weeks early.

Anyway, that's the randomness that's happening here. Hope you guys are having a great Autumn!

Catching up

Holy crap! How did almost a month go by? Life here has been trundling along as usual. Jack is still doing great. He's somewhere around 11 pounds now, probably a bit over. I take him for his next checkup next Tuesday, so they'll weigh him then. I'm still able to squeeze him in most of his newborn clothes, but I won't be able to for much longer.

Our dishwasher finally came. I got my dad to come over and install it while Nick was at work, and it works just great. It's wonderful to not have to do them by hand anymore!

There have been a couple of spankings promised, although none delivered since the one I posted about last month.

Memorial Day Kelly and Grant hosted the whole family for a cookout and pool party. This is the first year Daisy has really been old enough to enjoy a swimming pool, and she's absolutely enthralled. I think I mentioned that Kelly is expecting a baby in October (the day before Daisy's birthday actually), and they found out it's a boy, so Jack will have a little boy cousin his age to pal around with growing up! :)

Morgan went on her Safety Patrol trip to Washington DC this past weekend and had a good time for the most part. Unfortunately the other 5th grade girls in her room were all apparently obsessed with sex, and she was really uncomfortable with a lot of their conversation, as well as some of the games the other girls played (mostly things like french kissing inanimate objects, etc, harmless stuff really, but still inappropriate). This has Nick and I both disturbed, although I do feel like it's a good thing that she feels comfortable coming to us and telling us it upset her. I've tried to keep the lines of communication open to her for any questions she has about puberty, sex, etc. I know that realistically, if she has questions, she'll get the answers somewhere, and I would rather it be from me than from classmates with questionable morals, or heaven forbid certain sites online. I just don't remember being nearly so obsessed with things like that as a fifth grader, but times have apparently changed.

My dad wants me to contact the school board, but honestly, all that will accomplish is making her a target. The school year is over, so the school board can't really address the issue anyway, especially since all of these girls have now left elementary and will be going to the middle school next year. I talked with Morgan about it, and gave her some ideas of responses she can use if she's ever in that situation again, and told her how proud of her I am for knowing what kinds of conversations/games are not appropriate for her age, and for standing her ground even though the other girls gave her a hard time about it.

This week she's at church camp, and this year Nick went along as a counselor. It really surprised me when he volunteered, because he's just not the type of guy to feel comfortable in that kind of job, but he's been having a blast. Morgan didn't get back from DC until yesterday evening, so I had to take her up to camp myself, and then I took Daisy and Jack back tonight to join them for the evening meal and service.

Money has been incredibly tight the last few weeks (sadly I'm going to miss girl's night out for the first time this Thursday), but God has been providing the things we need, even if we haven't had room for extras.

I did get to do something really neat a few weeks ago. A while back I was at my friend Denise's house and noticed a painting in her kitchen. I asked if she had done it; it turned out that she had, at one of those group painting classes where a teacher walks you through each step. I mentioned that I had always wished I could paint and would love to try a class like that some time myself. A couple of weeks later she surprised me with tickets, and we had a great girls night out, just the two of us! Usually everybody in the class paints the same thing, but she took me on a painter's choice night where you could choose from any scene offered that month. She let me pick for both of us, and I chose these adorable owls to hang in the girls' room. Not exactly sophisticated subject matter, but I know my limits, and it was perfect for its intended home. I really, really want to go back and do it with Nick. He's the artist in the family, and he'd totally kick my butt at it, but I know we'd both have a blast.

Anyway, that's what's been happening around here. How are things with you guys?

Back in Line

I screwed up last week. Thursday was my monthly girls' night out dinner. Nick had told me that day that he wanted me to work on the dishes (ugh! More about the dishwasher later) and the laundry. I did work on both, but I didn't finish either before I had to leave for dinner, and I didn't get home until late. My friend A and I had made previous plans for me to go over to her house the next day for some sewing and crafting.

So early Friday morning I headed over to her house, with plans to be home before Nick and have dinner ready. I was making her a set of cute fabric envelopes to use with Dave Ramsey's Envelope System. Like most of my sewing projects, it took longer than expected, and when 2:30 rolled around and it was time to get Morgan from school, I was still working on them. I left Jack and Daisy with A and went to pick Morgan up, swung by the house to take the pork chops out of the freezer to thaw, and then headed back to A's.

Once there I called Nick to let him know where I was and what I was doing, telling him that I planned to hang out there till he got off work. He said that was fine, and I told him the pork chops were thawing and that if he didn't mind starting them if he made it home before me that would be great.

Now Nick gets off work at 5:00, so he was expecting me home by about 5:30. Unfortunately it was 8:30 by the time I left A's house. Plus Morgan was supposed to spend the night with my mom and dad, so she needed to get her overnight things and be taken to their house. I didn't want to stop and get her things and just take off again without starting dinner if Nick hadn't already done it, so my plan was to get it in the oven and run her out there while it was baking.

When I got home Nick seemed pretty irritated with me, but it took me a few minutes to realize I was in serious trouble. I got started on the pork chops (which were still in the fridge) right away and told Morgan to get her things together. After a few minutes Nick hollered and asked her if she was ready. She was still gathering her things, and I told him I was going to take her as soon as I had dinner in the oven. He more or less ignored me, so I went back to cooking.

When Morgan came back to the living room with her things, he told her to go get in the car.

"Honey, I'll take her - " I started.

"No, you'll get your butt in the kitchen and do the dishes like I told you to do yesterday!"

Um, okay. All of a sudden it became clear that he was more upset than I had realized. He left with Morgan, and I started doing dishes in between making the pasta salad, garlic bread, and tea. At one point I realized we were out of ice, and since we are currently without an ice maker, I called and asked him if he would pick up a bag on the way home. He agreed, but I could tell by his voice that he was seriously pissed at me.

By the time he got home I had his dinner waiting on the table. I paused in doing the dishes and pointed it out to him as he emptied the ice into the freezer. He acknowledged me, but he didn't really say anything, and then I guess he went upstairs, although I didn't notice at the time. I went back to washing dishes and in just a minute I heard him say, "Let's go. Come on."

 I turned around and he was at the foot of the stairs headed up. The end cap and porcelain knob had come off the cold water handle and were in my hand, and I remember very deliberately screwing them back on taking a deep breath. I followed him up the stairs, and when I got to the bedroom he was standing at the foot of the bed and the Cane-IAC Jr paddle was laid out on the bed.

I climbed onto the bed and sat quietly while he lectured me. He told me that he was pretty upset with me. He told me that he didn't mind me spending time at A's house, but that he expected me to take care of my responsibilities first. He pointed out that I'd come home over 3 hours late, and that I'd not finished my chores from the day before and had instead spent all day playing. As it turned out he had started to fix dinner, but the pan he needed for the pork chops was still dirty from the last time we'd used it. He told me that I had asked for this job and that I wasn't showing it any respect. He also said that there was the matter of a $24 key chain to deal with as well.

He was absolutely right about everything, and I wasn't going to insult him by feeding him a bunch of excuses, so I just apologized. He picked up the paddle and motioned for me to bend over. I turned over onto my stomach and braced myself, but the first swat took my breath away. It had been over 9 month since I'd been paddled, and despite my best intentions I couldn't stay put. I flipped over after the first 15 or so, and that didn't win me any brownie points. He made me turn over again and began spanking me even harder. By the time he was finished my bottom was on fire and I was a very contrite girl indeed. He stopped somewhere shy of 50 licks, but every one of them was a scorcher, and it didn't help matters that when I bent over I ended up facing the mirror and could see them coming.

When the spanking was over he put away the paddle and told me I could join him downstairs when I felt ready. I just lay there for a few minutes thinking about what had just happened and taking in the fact that he's really and truly back on board with this and I'm not going to be able to get away with things like I have been. I've had a sore bottom for two days, although it's been better today than yesterday.

About the dishwasher - it was supposed to be here May 1. On April 30 Best Buy called to tell me they would deliver it between 8 and 10 the next morning. Jack had a doctor's appointment at 10:15 (he weighs 10lb and 6oz now!), so I asked my parents if they would come and be here for the delivery if they didn't bring it before I had to leave.

I got back home at 11:30 and the dishwasher still had not arrived. I got on the phone with Best Buy, and the girl said, "Um, it says they need to reschedule for some reason, but let me...hmmm. Let me call the driver and call you back."

Okay.

After about an hour she called back and sheepishly explained that due to some sort of glitch in the system the dishwasher had not actually been shipped to them and would have to be reordered. She offered to either cancel the order entirely for us if we wanted, or to refund $100 of the price if we still wanted to order. Well, we need the dishwasher, so I told her to reorder, but now it won't be here till May 17th. Grrr!

The irony is that when we bought our current dishwasher 6 years ago from Best Buy, the same thing happened. We went to pick it up and waited 45 minutes in the store while they tried to locate it. Finally they came out and told us that due to a system glitch the order hadn't gone through and it would have to be reordered. That time they only knocked $50 off though, so at least we got a bigger discount this time.

Anyway, maybe it will get here eventually.

When putting this post together I went looking for a picture of our Cane-IAC paddle and realized that all of my implement pictures as well as just about any other spanking related images are gone from my computer. I honestly don't have anything pornographic on here anyway, but any kinky stuff I had I kept in hidden folders just in case Morgan uses the computer, and I guess they didn't get saved when the computer repair place transferred all my data. Oh well. I guess it's time I took an updated inventory anyway, so it's a good excuse to get out my camera.

Have a good night everybody!

Life these days…

Hi, guys! Jack got to come home with us on the 13th, and he’s doing fabulous! At 3lb 13.27oz, he was actually the smallest baby our hospital’s NICU had ever sent home! Since then he’s gained steadily, and as of this past Friday he weighs 4lb 7oz. I don’t generally (or really ever) post pictures of my kids on here, but these are all pretty anonymous, so I had to share:

My baby shower was yesterday, and it was terrific! I got tons of diapers and clothes, and so many people that I love came to help us celebrate. My sister-in-law Faith made us the BEST diaper cake alternative:

My mom actually stayed home and kept Jack for us. We didn’t feel comfortable having him out in a crowd yet (we’re still almost 3 weeks from his due date), but we played a slideshow of pictures on Morgan’s iPad, and everyone understood.

We’ve had so many wonderful blessings lately. The check Kate and Will sent us for Christmas allowed us to pay off a few bills as well as buy Nick and I each something we’d wanted for a long time. Nick has long wanted a hand gun (every guy in my family loves to shoot), so that was his gift. I got to go get myself both a serger and an inexpensive embroidery machine.
But the best thing the money did for us was allow us to get through my 16 days of hospitalization plus Jack’s 9 days beyond my release. Obviously I was unable to cook during this time, which meant extra money spent on eating out every day, plus quite a bit of gas spent with Nick and I driving to the hospital every day (sometimes several times a day for me as I was pumping milk as well as nursing).
Another blessing was how we got our car seat. We had hoped to get a car seat in the baby shower, but that of course was before he decided to show up 5 1/2 weeks early! Because he’s so small, we knew we would have to have one rated 4lb and up. Daisy’s old one wouldn’t work, because not only was it not rated for preemies, but it was also past it’s expiration date.

Now I don’t know if you’ve ever priced infant car seats, but they aren’t cheap, and those rated for 4lb babies are definitely on the pricey side. When Jack was 5 days old, my cousin sent me a text telling me she had some baby stuff for me. Included was a car seat/stroller travel system that was exactly what we needed! It had belonged to her best friend, and my cousin had used an identical system for her son who’s 8 weeks older than Daisy. Nick and I had decided against getting one on Craigslist just because you can’t know the history of the seat that way (once a car seat goes through a car wreck, it’s considered compromised and no longer safe). But my cousin is a nurse, and certainly one of the most conscientious moms I know, and she could vouch for the car seat having never been in any sort of accident.

She and her mom (my aunt) also brought 2 bouncy seats, a Boppy pillow, a baby swing, and the BEST little outfit! A few months ago Kate had sent us this precious little sleeper set from Gymboree, and I had decided it would be his coming-home outfit. Then when we found out he was going to be really small, I realized that it would be way too big on him, so I resigned myself to finding something else. The outfit my aunt and cousin brought that night was from the same line, but preemie sized!

They also brought him a layette set in the hospital, and then FOUR more sets tonight! Plus, they brought me a Moby Wrap, something I registered for but didn’t get (probably because they’re so stinkin’ expensive!).

And speaking of blessings, a longtime prayer request of ours has been for my mom and my aunt to be able to sell their dad’s farm. My papaw passed away almost 4 years ago, and the economy being what it is, the property has sat on the market since then. Tomorrow they are due to finally close the sale on it.

An unexpected side effect of that for us was that my aunt bought a new refrigerator and gave us her old one. Now we’ve needed a better refrigerator for AGES. Ours was used when we got it, and we’ve had it for over 10 years. Besides being on the small side, it just had a lot of wear and tear. Several of the shelves in the doors were broken, the ice maker would sporadically decide to stop working, and the dairy drawer was broken. All of that said though, it still kept the food cold, so it was just something that kept getting put on the Someday List.

The model my aunt gave us is far from new, but it’s in great shape – a side by side with lots more room than ours, water and ice in the door, and no broken shelves! The ice maker does need to be repaired, but we’ve been told it can be fixed for about $40. And it fit in the space we have without a centimeter to spare! It’s just so neat how God gives us good things even if we sometimes don’t “need” them yet!

Anyway, I know this is a terribly long post, so I’ll wrap it up. Have a great night!

Happy (okay very late) Easter!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter! Ours was lovely. It was also both Nick’s and Morgan’s birthday, and while I’m quite alright with being married to a 32 year old, I’m having a bit of trouble with being mother to a 10 year old! How on earth did my little baby get to be such a big girl? I swear it seems like 6 months since she was Daisy’s size! Of course Daisy’s pulling this growing up trick on me too – she’s still supposed to be brand new, and she’s almost 19 months old already!

Anyway, we went to church that morning, then went to Nick’s grandmother’s house for Easter/Birthday brunch and hunting eggs. Right now I’ve got the only two children in the family except for Kate's two, and they live in Texas. Speaking of them, they’ll be coming in next weekend. Kate and Will will be going to see the Kentucky Derby, and they’re leaving the kids with Nick’s dad and stepmom for the weekend. It will be great to see them all, even if it’s only briefly.
Backing up just a bit, Nick made Morgan the most awesome birthday gift. (Well, I helped with reading off the plans, and my dad provided the scrap wood and the saw, and my mom made the linens and bedding. Oh, and I painted it.) I think I’ve mentioned how much she loves her American Girl doll Kate bought her for Christmas. Shortly after she got it, I found her an Our Generation doll at Tuesday Morning for a great price. Anyway, great big ten year old that she may be, she still has enough little girl in her to really, really love them and want tons of accessories for them. Well I found a plan for an American Girl farmhouse doll bed on Ana White’s website, and Nick and I spent a couple of hours at my parent’s house building it. We modified it just a bit to make it wide enough to accommodate both dolls, and Morgan was THRILLED with it! Nick doesn’t do a lot of wood working, but he did such a great job on this, and I couldn’t be happier with how it came out!
What’s really neat is that she has the plans for this bed all the way up to a California King size – I’d love to have one for us!

Morgan and I did some really neat egg dying this year. I found a really cool tutorial for dyeing eggs using silk ties, so I headed to the thrift store, and we ended up with these!

Let’s see, what else has been happening? Nick had to go away for school (for work) the Monday through Thursday prior to his birthday. Morgan’s spring break started that Wednesday, so I was home alone with two kids there for a couple of days. But he brought me back a Godiva cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory so I forgave him.

 I was also supposed to do a photo shoot that Wednesday, but it got rained out, so we postponed it to this past Wednesday. Of course that was the day all the storms hit, so hopefully we’ll actually be able to make it happen this coming Wednesday. Speaking of the storms, we were very fortunate to get only heavy rains at our house. A lot of people in our city got tons of hail and hail damage. One friend on the opposite side of town lost every window in her house, her brand new roof had holes torn through it, and her vinyl siding looked like it had been through a drive-by shooting. And of course Alabama was hit terribly hard. We had several cities in our state take some heavy damage as well, but nothing like Tuscaloosa suffered. Please keep them all in your prayers.

Today my mom kept the girls for me so I could spend some time at a car show with Nick. That’s something I’ve not gotten to do kid-free in a very long time, and I really enjoyed it. I got to take some cool pictures, and I got to spend some time with my favorite guy.

Anyway, I think that’s about everything that’s happened since I last posted. Happy Spring!

Catching up

Hello, everyone! It’s been a busy few weeks for me, but I’m finally getting the chance to pop in for a minute. We got our new furniture last Tuesday! Yay! Well, except for my awesome chair and a half. That’s coming in on another truck. Boo! But seriously, we love, love, love the furniture we do have. We also sold our old couch on Craigslist along with a couple of other items, so that was a nice to have a little money to help out.

We painted our living room, which has made a huge difference, since we went from this:
to this:

Also, I made a pillow for the new couch using my Silhouette SD to cut a stencil for it, and I’m soooo in love with the way it turned out. Pancho, it seems, is too:
Let’s see, what else?

Oh! I can’t believe I forgot to mention this earlier, but on Feb 27, a little girl Morgan’s age at our church asked Morgan if she could help her get saved. Morgan asked me if I would talk to her, so I grabbed my brother Robert (the pastor), and together we led her to the Lord! But the evening got even better – Morgan made a profession of faith and was baptized several years ago, but we’d always had our doubts that she really understood it at the time, and we just weren’t seeing the attitude and actions of a Christian in her. I talked to her about the little girl who’d just gotten saved, and she told me that she didn’t feel like she was really saved herself. So this time I grabbed my brother’s wife Faith and my mom, and we went and talked to Morgan about it some more, and she prayed and asked Jesus into her heart! Then a couple of weeks later the first little girl’s twin sister asked to talk to me, and she also became a Christian! Nick called me the kid whisperer, but I can assure you it was all God and had nothing at all to do with me. Yesterday all three girls were baptized!
Let’s see, in other news, Morgan is playing soccer this year, so that’s an adventure. She’s still learning, but we think she really has the potential to be a great player.

My photography is really picking up with the warmer weather. I had a shoot with a great family a couple of weeks ago, and I have a few more on the books for this month. I’m actually supposed to do the team pictures for Morgan’s soccer team this evening (if we don’t get rained out again grrr!). I’ll be offering several packages, so hopefully that will bring in a little money.

I love that spring is starting to bloom around here. Nick brought me some gorgeous flowers out of the blue a few days ago , and the trees in our yard are starting to blossom. I’ll leave you with a few local shots from the last few weeks.