Happy Birthday to me!

So I guess turning 30 is not so bad considering Matthew got me this fancy new camera and planned a party at our own house without me knowing. He did everything, invited family from out of town, bought groceries and hid them at his parents house, cooked the food for everyone, and researched buying a camera. This all happened Sunday and we even went to church that morning. It was a fun day and thank you to everyone for coming! It is now going to be pretty difficult to make Matthew's birthday just as special. His birthday is this Sunday.

Bible Study: Before and After

Well last Thursday was the first day of MOMS which is the Bible study I went to last year and have started again this year. I love going and I think I am going to love it more this year because Abigail is getting better about me leaving her in the nursery. We have never done any kind of preschool or mothers day out and so church was the only time anyone else kept her(besides family that she knows and had rather be with than me anyway). She has been doing fine at our church for a while now but this study is at Bellevue and so it was a new environment. Well, to make along story short she repeated all the way in last Thurs, "I don't want to go to this church" but when we got in and looked into her class she started squirming to get down and walked right in and never looked back. Who knows I might be able to start staying for the lunch they have afterwards and get to eat with just adults for a change. Oh yea, the first picture in the pink was last year and the red overalls was last Thursday. I can't believe how much her hair has grown. I didn't think she would ever have hair. I love her curls and it was definitely worth the wait.

Back to the Bible study if there is anyone out there who is trying to "raise up their child in the way they should go" and need a little encouragement to "Run well and finish strong" (that is Jeans study last year) there is a live video feed of her study this semester called "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" a study of James that plays on www.bellevue.org at 10:30am every Thursday. It is the best thing I have ever been a part of and she really understands the trials of bringing up your children to love God and how to incorporate it into your everyday life. She is so easy to listen to the time just flies. She will have you laughing out loud one minute and crying the next. I love it! If you like to read blogs the teacher has one and it is www.jeanstockdale.com and there is a link right on the front page to read her blog and a list of other blogs of christian mommas that she reads and so do I now.

Labor Day Weekend

Abigail and I went to Paris Labor Day weekend because one of my best friends from high school Staci was coming home for a visit. She and her husband Travis and little girl Sierra live in Jacksonville, FL so they only get to come once a year. Sierra has gotton so big and Staci is expecting another little girl at the end of February. While we were at home we went to the fair in Camden where my grandparents and brother live. Scott met us at the fair, so that is him holding Abigail in the picture with my mom. You have to understand that for some reason up until now Abigail has been very distant and pretty much rude to my brother and other male family members that she only sees every few weeks. She won't even look at them and then she will cut her eyes over and give them a dirty look, and she wouldn't touch them or even take a toy from their hand. She would start whining to be picked up and turn her back to them. It is really embarassing but I really didn't know how to fix it. I had tried everything like keeping pictures of them on the fridge and talking about them. Well, little did I know that riding the merry-go-round would do the trick. I knew she loved it because we have one here at the mall that we ride often. Abigail wanted to ride the rides so bad that she didn't care who was taking her and I guess she realized Scott wasn't going to hurt her and she has been acting better ever since. Scott carried her all night and rode the rides with her and he took her to get cotton candy and she sat in his lap to eat it and that has never happened. Maybe she is coming around and just getting older might have helped. I hope so!

My New Curtains!

Well I finally made a decision on the fabric and Matthew's mom made us some curtains for the kitchen. They are roman shades and I love them! These are my first curtains ever. We never bought any for our other house and there is not a single curtain on another window in this house. It is a good thing we have blinds. It was pretty painless and now I might even attempt to find some for Abigail's big girl room that is not even started, that way I will have plenty of time to make the decisions that I am terrible at doing.

I do love the curtains and they are just what I had pictured, just like the pottery barn catalog. Did you notice in the first picture that I don't have a single sippy cup sitting on my sink? I want you to know that never happens here. I wash them at least three times a day and there is still one lingering it seems.

Naptime and Potty Training

Things are not going well here on the potty training homefront. I have resorted to filling her full of undiluted apple juice, which she never gets, so that she will drink it all quickly and hopefully help her to use the potty. Here is the problem, we have spent a lot of time on the potty however she has not used it even once. I put her on it in the morning when her diaper is still dry and when she get up from her nap, still no luck. I finally give up and put her diaper back on and guess what she goes immediately. I guess this is normal, I don't know. We have decided to take a break for a while. I hadn't thought of this until Matthew's mom suggested that I wait until my Bible study starts and maybe there will be someone potty trained in her room and she might see them and get the hang of it. However I am potty trained and I have tried to model the behavior many times and still no luck! Ha!

On to cuter things...

Here is what I see everyday at about 3:30 pm. Yes, I know she is 2 1/2 years old and she still has to have her "paci and lovey" to go to sleep. I really don't know how or when we are going to take it away from her. Frankly, she sleeps so great I am scared to try. She does know she has to leave it in her bed when she gets up. Check out her hair. The longer and curlier it gets, the wilder it looks when she wakes up. You should see it when she goes to bed at night with wet hair.

Prayer Request

I have been thinking about my friend Stephanie Vasofsky a lot lately and along with the other blogs I read I always read her journal that she posts everyday. Some background on how I know her. We were hired the same year as new teachers at the same school then proceded to teach together for four years. We both quit teaching around the same time because we had babies. I didn't see her for a while and then I started the MOMS Bible study and she was there. Well, at the end of the study last April I found out that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer and the tumor was already so large that it was pressing on her lung. She is only 28 years old! She has a supportive husband and little Zoe who is now 18 months old. She is taking chemo now but has already completed radiation. She has the best outlook on life that you won't even believe and a sense of humor to go with it. All she wants to do is use this trial in her life to bring people to Jesus. Please think about her and her family and say a special prayer for her.

Here is the link to her website that has her story and journal:

http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/inputSiteName.do?method=search&siteName=stephanievasofsky

6 Years and Counting!

Well, tomorrow is our 6th wedding anniversary so the other day I used my precious naptime(Abigail's that is) to walk down memory lane looking through old pictures from our younger days. I wish I could say that we were doing something exciting tomorrow night but the fact is that we went to dinner on Wednesday night so we could let Matthew's parents keep Abigail. They left yesterday to go visit Amie , Craig, Jimmy, and John. As for Saturday, the real day, we will be doing our usual. Getting up, eating breakfast, "playing toys" abigail says, eating some lunch, taking a nap, getting up "playing toys" some more, hopefully not cooking dinner, going to get something to eat where you don't have to wait because 2 year olds don't like to wait, coming home to give abigail a bath and finally sitting down without a littte person needing something for at least 5 minutes. Sounds like a plan to me!

I found this picture as I was looking through old albums. I actually scanned it in because we got married before the digital age.(sounds like a long time ago doesn't it?) It was taken right before we left to go to our wedding rehearsal dinner. It doesn't seem like it was six years ago. I remember my mom taking this picture just as she has done for every other event in my life. Mom says "I need to take a picture before you leave" which means 15 pictures and I say "no we have to go now, hurry up!" As usual I wasn't appreciative at the time but at this season in my life I am so thankful for all her picture taking aggravation through the years.

Happy Anniversary Matthew, I hope we have at least 56 more!