A day of ups and downs {but mostly ups}

I was so excited today when Carl found the double stroller I have been eyeballing for a while on Craigslist. Seriously, I was super thrilled, and Carl went ahead and sent the guy a message to ask about the stroller. Well, the guy said at first that it wasn’t available anymore… but then came back and said that if we really wanted it, it would be available after the weekend. Well, THEN I was really pumped… Carl and the guy fixed a day and a place and time to pick it up and pay, and then he was confirming the amount and said “$450”.

Wait, what?

Sorry, and no offense to anyone reading who has paid or is willing to pay that much for a stroller, but there is no way I would ever pay that much on one item for a baby. Ever. Not only do we not have that much extra money laying around for a double stroller, but I’m not going to pay that much, period. That’s ridiculous.

Turns out we weren’t talking about the same stroller. The one we had been thinking of had been sold already. Good thing we got that cleared up before we drove an hour to Tuscaloosa for a super expensive stroller that we would never, in our right minds, buy.

In case you’re wondering, this is the stroller I am eyeballing, and if anyone {reasonably close} happens to know of someone selling {reasonably cheap} one of these… or if you find one at a yard sale and it’s in good condition… seriously, tell me.

Anyway, so that’s the down part of the day.

We had more ups than downs today though. I had been feeling really down lately because I feel like I haven’t been doing as well as I could as a mommy and a wife {seriously… my house is a wreck and I just want to sleep all day}. I was thinking I could do something special with Ben today but the weather was gloomy & rainy. So instead, we played a video game together, which was actually pretty fun, and did other things like play-do and all that. Benjamin said I’m a cool mommy.

Last night we also decided on baby names, but we’re keeping those hush-hush until the baby is born. But it’s a huge relief to not have that on our plate anymore.

And then another huge UP is that we spent some time tonight with some really good friends at dinner! We had a good time.

All in all, even though we didn’t get that stroller on the cheap, today was a really good day. Only a couple more days till our next doctor appointment, and then we’ll schedule our anatomy scan, which will probably be in four weeks… which just so happens to fall on my birthday weekend… which is also the next time I am going to see my parents because my dad wanted to come down for my birthday! I’m so excited!

just a few things.

Today was really, really exciting and fun.

We took Benjamin to the Circus. Actually, Carl won two free tickets. And we only had to pay for the cheapest seat for Ben since we would hold him in our laps.

I was probably the most excited person in our section. And loudest. And I was totally okay with this. {It remains unknown as to whether the people around me were okay with this}

Benjamin enjoyed his day as well. It was a lot of driving {4hrs round trip}, but he did really well!

After spending a fantastic day with my two favorite boys, I’m feeling pretty blessed right now.

God is so good to me… I am so undeserving!

But thankful all the same!

HE answers prayers!!

It is hard for me to truly express how utterly thankful and excited I have been the past few days. I know that many of you know the outcome of our tryout in Alabama this past weekend, but in case you didn’t hear the news, Carl has a job now! You know the old saying, “Good things come to those who wait”? Well we have waited four months and finally – FINALLY we have somewhere to go! I would go on, I would love to tell you all the details and the ins and outs, but right now, I just don’t have words!

God is SO good, He’s SO good to me!

Thank you to all of you who have been keeping us in your prayers. Please continue to do so as we prepare to move (early January we are thinking) and start our new work in Alabama.

The future is BRIGHT! I can’t wait!

Seriously Overjoyed!!

I have been looking forward to this weekend all week! ha! How about you? I know that so many exciting things have been happening this weekend, such as Julia's wedding, which of course would be exciting for her, but also her mother and sister and everyone else involved! Who doesn't love weddings? Speaking of weddings, the 30 Days of Music for today is: day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding

Umm, well, that has already happened! In fact, on August 11th, we will be celebrating our 3 Year Anniversary! I really can't believe it's almost been 3 years already! wow!

Anyway, I decided I would show you a few songs that were in our wedding. Of course, we didn't play the ACTUAL songs. I actually found this very beautiful solo pianist online and downloaded a few of my favorites. So imagine all these being played by a solo pianist, and there you have it. I chose my favorite 3. {And stick around afterward because I have more to say!!}

Phantom of the Opera, Think Of Me: This was played as the wedding party walked down the aisle. It was beautiful!


Mandy Moore, Only Hope: You might recognize this from the A Walk to Remember movie, but when I hear it, I think of our Sand Ceremony.


Stevie Wonder, Overjoyed: This was played as we exited the auditorium as Husband and Wife! I was overjoyed! It was very fitting!!


I have been looking forward to this one! hehe.
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OK. Now that that is out of the way!! This weekend has been so busy already! I have been struggling to stay awake during the days to be able to pack clothes for Benjamin and myself as we are going on vacation next week! I haven't been sleeping very well lately {Thursday night I wasn't able to sleep till FIVEINTHEMORNING!} so it has really been a struggle. But I am so excited to be going to visit friends next week for a couple reasons:

1. I LOVE MY KINDRED SPIRIT! Autumn & I are not "friends", we are SISTERS, and I love her to death! We were at MSOP for 6 months together and within that amount of time we grew very close and since Hubby and I left, we have only seen each other twice! And that was in 2008! She is 20 weeks pregnant with her 2nd child and I am just so excited to be visiting!! I can't wait to see Matt & Alethia {their 23 month old} either!

2. WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY! Yes, I thought it would NEVER happen but we are actually going to Disney on Tuesday and I have never been before! I am so excited! But the reason we are going is because we have amazing friends here who insisted to help us financially to go to Disney World, and I cannot say how touched I am that they helped us out. I am so thankful. I am so thankful for our Family in Christ! We are so blessed!

I am so beyond excited you guys... seriously! And do I even have to say that of course I will be taking pictures?? Ahhh this week is going to be SO amazing!

Oh hey I almost forgot! I got my hurr cut today and I am definitely sure you want to see it:



Yayuhh!

Well I hope you all have a wonderful Lord's Day tomorrow!

Potty Talk

About a month ago I wrote that we had bought Benjamin a potty. Well that didn't go so well last month. In fact I am pretty sure he hated it. So we stopped making him sit on it after a while and just let it sit in the bathroom.

Apparently a lot changes within a month because today we tried again and we had a lot more success! Benjamin went successfully 4 times! It was so funny because the last 3 times he clapped for himself, and the last 2 times, he clapped before he even went.

The really good thing is that his diaper has been less wet in between changes too! So it looks like we are really doing it. We are really getting into this potty training!

It is so exciting and I am very proud of my boy! But I'm also sad that he's getting so big. I can't say I'll miss changing all the diapers, though!

Anyway, I just wanted to give a quick update because I'm just so excited about it!

Goodbye Dora, Hello Bit!

It's been a long time coming... but we finally broke down and said goodbye to Dora our 1999 Ford Explorer Sport. It's an old car, with a slew of problems. Of course, it's a working car and we have been very blessed with all this old thing has been through. I won't go through and list every single detail, but just know that I have refused for a while to drive this thing because I just have not felt comfortable, and not only because the seat leans back waaay too far and doesn't come back up all the way.

Goodbye, Dora the Explorer...



Hello Bit the Pontiac Torrent {and perhaps any nerds out there will understand why Hubby wanted to name it Bit... or if you have a nerdy husband}



Of course, neither of those cars are either of the actual cars that we owned, or own now. And neither of those cars are in our driveway at the moment. But I'll get to that in a bit. I know you're dying to hear about our adventurous day!

The day started out with going to the DDS to get my name changed on my license finally, after nearly 3 years of being married. Shame on me, I know! Anyway, that went by surprisingly pain-free! We had an appointment to meet with an auto financer at 3:30 - and we got bumped down to 2:15 so we headed over there after the DDS and it was at a Chevy dealer, which was surprising to us. Anyway the guy was so nice and talked about our cap for monthly payments and what sort of car we were looking for.

And then we went out to the lot and looked at a few different cars. We looked at a Honda Pilot, a Chevy Trailblazer, and of course a Pontiac Torrent. I liked the Honda because it seated 7, but neither of us liked the Chevy because it was too much "truck".

We ultimately decided on Pontiac because of the price being lower. We sat a while in the dealership listening to Hubby reason with himself outloud... ha... haha.... {Love you babe! Thank you for thinking thoroughly about our family!}, until he finally decided that we would seal the deal. I think our salesman was wanting a quicker answer because he had someone else he needed to see, and so he was relieved when he finally was able to shake our hands and congratulate us.

We waited a long time after that. Benjamin, who had done SO well thus far with no nap {we were out of there sometime past 5PM so you know he had to be tired}, got restless so I took him outside and he ran around a while... until he found a puddle and decided to splash in it. I was on the phone with my mom all the while and looked down just as he started to sit down in the puddle. Oh dear.

Anyway, blah blah blah, papers were signed, etc, etc, etc....

They told us we wouldn't be driving our car home that day because someone had left the window down a crack during a HUGE downpour - y'all in the area, how about all this rain we've been getting?? - so they were making sure the dampness inside the car {which was minor} was because someone left the window cracked, not because there was something wrong with the window.

We cleaned out Dora and said goodbye... and then we drove off in this:



Chevy HHR. Do not like. So glad it's not ours! And so glad that we can go exchange it for our sweet Torrent!

The only bad thing about today... is that we have picked up a car payment to add to our list of things we have to spend money on. But we can do this. With God's help! God is so good. We are so blessed.

Excited on a Blah Day!

I don't know if it is just the weather or the fact that I just feel super groggy, but so far today has been a sort of blah day. Hubby just got home from being away all morning. And Benjamin had a sort of grumpy morning as well. It's just one of those days, I guess. He's napping now. I'm taking a breather.

Yesterday we received the Goat Milk Soap we had ordered late last week. Benjamin has eczema really bad {especially in the winter} and I have tried so many different things. Lotion, cortizone cream, steroid cream, Aveeno bath, hypoallergenic bath... I finally gave up on all of that and researched Goat milk soap. I saw some testimonials on the website that said it got rid of their infants' bad eczema within a week of using. Last night we bathed Benjamin with it and this morning it doesn't look nearly as bad as it usually does! Hooray!


That's the sweet bag it came in.


And there's the soap itself. It will hopefully last us a while.

They also sent a few samples so I used one of the little samples on some of my dry spots as well. We got Benjamin the Purity bar because it didn't have any fragrance in it. I used the Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey sample. Fantastic!

Tonight we are going to IHOP to celebrate National Pancake Day with a free stack of pancakes! I am so excited. We have been planning on this for some time now and it is finally here! Is it sad I'm getting so excited over this? IHOP is one of my favorite places to eat. We celebrated NPD with IHOP last year, too, and I think it was the first restaurant we took Benjamin out too. He would have been just over a month old! Is anyone else going out for some free pancakes?

After that, we are going to Chris and Kayla's for LOST night. Excited! Very!

Oh, and my last bit of excitement for the moment... can you guess? Here's a hint!



This happens tomorrow! Can you guess what I'm totally pumped about?!