A good reminder...

Lately in our FLOCK (AKA Sunday School) we have been doing a study called How People Change. It is a good study, but I will be honest, I haven't done the homework that goes along with it. It is good to know that God can still speak to you even when you haven't gone the extra mile!

Today I was reminded that I need to find my joy in the LORD. This is something that is so easily said, but so hard to put into practice. It seems that there is always something that will make me happier.

It was a good reminder today when we talked about the Israelites in the wilderness. How they wanted more then just manna to eat, they wanted meat. So the LORD sent them quail, so much so that they ended up getting sick of it. I think the term "out the wazzo" may have come into play at this time.

I can't say for sure weather God would have sent the quail if they had just found there joy in him or not. But I can say that sure would have appreciated the quail and perhaps even received more than just quail if they would have just rested in knowing that God knows their needs.

Again, this is so much easier to type then to apply to my life today. So often I think "if only we had a bigger house" or "if only I were thinner" ...then I would always be happy. I wouldn't ever go into a depression. But the truth of the matter is that is just Satan telling me lies. God has blessed me with a house that is bigger than I need and while it would be nice to be thin it is not what is going to make me happy forever.

So this week I am going to try to apply what I learned and accept where and what God has given me. Because to some I must seem blessed beyond belief! That is how I need to look at my life, that I am blessed beyond belief!

Now for those who need to laugh, if you haven't looked up Tim Hawkins on YouTube then you must do it...right now, seriously, go, now. Ok, if you don't have time to do that here is a tid bit of what you can expect.

364 days left...

Yesterday was my birthday. Yep, I am officially in the last year of my 20's. Please note I am not saying late 20's, because after all I am still in my 20's, who needs to label it with late, mid or early?

Today, totally unrelated to my birthday, Nana (my mom) came over and went to the store with me and Ian. While I was shopping for groceries she took Ian around the store so I didn't have to worry about him. It was really nice to have her there. Ian seemed to do real well until the end. I think he was getting tired. Then we had lunch at City Bites! MMM, their potatoes are the best. Ian had a granola bar, some apples and some of Nana's potato. He loved it too!

I guess that is all to write about. Have a happy weekend!

(secret code...11 more weeks) ;)

We are having a...

Boy! We found out (bright and early) this morning that our baby dos is a boy.

I will admit that my first thought was to have the ultra sound lady double check, but the more I sit here and think about it the more excited I get.

I was nervous too. Not to find out what we were having, but that something would be wrong. I recently had a friend from high school loose her baby and she was was about 5 or 6 weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy. So of course I was nervous that the same thing would happen. I know God knew that I felt this way because the whole time the ultra sound lady kept saying "this looks great" and "he is doing good". So that really helped me feel better about how things are going.

Well I won't make you keep reading, here are some shots of our new addition, Owen Zane (we hold the right to change that name, but I am pretty sure we are going to stick with it):

I needed this...

This morning I was going through my blog list and reading all the new posts. I often times don't read them all. If it is someone I know personally then I will read it regardless of the title of the blog post. However, if it isn't someone I know personally I let the title decide for me if I am going to read it. If it intrigues me then I read it.

Well I am so glad I read today's post on Pioneer Woman's blog! If you are a women you will for sure want to read this. If you are a husband then read it for your wife and know that sometimes it is good to just pick up a pizza (or anything for that matter).

So with that said, check it out...PW blog.

Let me know what your favorite part is. I will tell you that mine was this

"You know those women who always look impeccable, whose houses and cars are always clean, whose nail polish is never chipped—who always seem to have it together?

They’ve probably got bodies buried in their basements."

We made it through, we made it through...

Yesterday. Yes let's talk about yesterday. If I could put a label on yesterday it would be "by far the hardest day as a mom yet".

It all started out ok, but then by lunch time I wanted to run outside screaming pulling my hair out! Just one thing after another. Ian was disobedient and didn't even want to eat or drink his milk. I gave verbal warnings, hand spankings and finally just had to take him to his crib and close the door. After 30 minutes (yes I left my kid crying in his crib for 30 minutes) I finally decided we just needed to get out of the house. I was just emotionally and physically drained, but anything would be better than listening to Ian cry the rest of the day. So we set out to the park and then just drove around for a while until Ian was sleepy.

Once we got home we took a really good nap. I thought that was going to be the end of it. That a great nap would make everything better. I was SO wrong. Ian was a toot the rest of the evening and I was in pain the rest of the evening. Poor Justin just got thrown in to it when he got home. I just kept saying "all day, this is what it has been like all day".

Bed time for Ian couldn't have come soon enough. Thankfully Ian has always been a good sleeper and so even though it was a rough day he still went to bed at his regular time and all I could think at that point was "we made it through, we made it through".

I love being a mom and even after days like yesterday I wouldn't have my life any other way. I do freak out about having a second one and how I will be able to handle two kids. But I look at my friends who have more than one and know that they survive.

I know that there will be hard days again in the future. But today I rest in knowing that I made it through yesterday, so I will be able to make it through any future difficult days as well.

cheese ball anyone?

Here is my cheese ball...

Let's teach them early...

Words. Do words have any effect on you? Words like beautiful, wonderful, stupid, ugly. All of these words have a big effect on me.

I am realizing that Satan loves to use words against me. You see he knows that I will allow them to make me sad, mad, and frustrated. Of course they also can make me happy and joyful, but Satan doesn't use those words against me.

I can remember being single (ok it was only 4 years ago). I remember that if a guy would pay any sort of attention to me I would begin to dream of how our wedding would be like and how many kids we would have. Just because he said something like "you look nice today". Perhaps I am the only one who lets words effect me so much. Satan would again use these words and I would soon become depressed because of course that guy didn't mean that he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me, he simply meant that I looked nice that day.

I think that Satan will use these same tactics to ruin a persons marriage. If you find a women who has had a bad day or a fight with her husband it could be very easy to get into her mind with just a few simple words.

I am thankful that I have a husband who I can talk to about things like this. Like when an old friend told me I looked nice. I felt SO guilty because I really felt good after he said that. I was able to go home and tell my husband what happened and how I now feel uncomfortable around this person.

It is not my goal to stop people from complimenting other people. I just think we should teach our boys early how much there words can effect a women. I was thinking about it and I think words can have the same effect on a women as a picture of a naked women would for a man. In a slightly different way I suppose.

I want to remember to teach my son that what comes out of his mouth can change a persons life. I want to teach my girl (if I have one some day) to guard against Satan's word attacks.

I hope that we will all begin to teach our kids early.

Give me my french fries......

I so have felt this way before!!!!!!!

Fruit or a brownie, that was the question...

So last night (after watching Biggest Looser) I was hungry and decided to get a snack. I thought I would go ahead and choose the healthy option, fruit. Evidently baby dos wanted me to pick the brownie, because lets just say I did not keep the fruit down. About an hour later I started to feel sick and then BAM it hit me.

This leads me to what I really wanted to say. I don't know how single moms (or fathers) do this whole parenting thing. I mean I don't know what I would do with out Justin being here to help out with so much. Like last night he took the above mentioned "trash" out to the outside trash can even though it was past midnight! And that is just one of the smaller things, there are so many things from pregnancy to parenting that are would be difficult for me to handle on my own. Anyways, since having Ian I have realized a whole new respect that I have for single parents.

If I could...

I was thinking the other day of what kind of ability I would chose if I could chose one super ability to have. First I thought flying was the obvious choice. Then I began to think about how hard it would be to fly when you are tired, I mean it is hard enough to drive when you are tired. So what if I flew myself to New York City but was too tired to fly home when I needed to?

Flying is obviously out!

Then I thought about having the ability to know all. Well the more I thought about that I decided, who really wants to know everything. There would be no excitement in your day because you wouldn't ever learn anything new.

Knowing all is out!

Then it hit me...I would chose the ability to be (drum roll please)...SUPER WIFE! Yes my friends that is what I would chose. If you think about it it would really be great for my family and me. If I were SUPER WIFE I would enjoy cleaning the house, doing laundry and maybe even keeping a garden! Being SUPER WIFE would mean I would be a wonderful mom, teaching my kids at every moment, but also being a fun mom at the same time. I could fulfill the "needs" of my husband with out even thinking twice!

The sad news is that the super ability of being SUPER WIFE is not available. You see while I might do the dishes and try to keep up with the laundry, I just don't ever see myself enjoying these things. And while I like the idea of having a garden I really hate the idea of pulling weeds and being outside in the Oklahoma heat. I do strive to teach Ian (and any future kids we will have), but will be honest it is often times easier to let PBS teach him right now. Don't worry (Justin) I won't go in to detail about fulfilling my husbands "needs". :)

So what super ability would you chose if you had the chance?

more random thoughts from yours truly...

I didn't sleep very well last night and so of course my mind goes to what I can blog about. That is just the way I am I suppose.

Do you ever make a "note to self"? Well here are a few of my Notes to self. Enjoy!

Note to self:

1. Don't add fiber to your hot chocolate at night. I think this is pretty self explanatory but just in case let me just add that you will spend the evening getting up from bed and going to the bathroom. I'm just saying.

2. Don't go to the store by yourself just hours before a big storm is about to hit. It may sound like it will be easier but in reality it is not. Especially when you are pregnant.

3. Don't eat yellow snow ;) (just kidding I just wanted to throw that in there for laughs).

4. Don't turn on the t.v. and sit on the couch with a blanket if you have stuff to do. It won't get done!

Ok, that is all for now. I am going to go take a nap so I can feel better. My mom is coming over today! Yay!