1.31.2009

I wrote this in the hospital and it still applies.



It's amazing how the birth of your child changes your life in so many ways, instantaneously. I am ever amazed at how someone can fall so tremendously in love with someone so quickly, so fully. Carl and I are so in love with Benjamin. This is more than I deserve.

I'm thanking God constantly these days it seems. For my health, for my son and his health, for my recovery. And most of the time, for my husband. He has been so great this whole pregnancy. The past few months he has taken care of me better than I could ever ask for. When I blacked out, he was beside my bed begging me to keep my eyes open, even if I couldn't see. I'll never forget the way he looked when I finally could see. Going through this has really shown me how much Carl loves me, and also how much I so love him. I could not have asked for a more loving and caring husband. I know he is going to take care of me while I recover, and help me to do my best to care for Benjamin as well. He is such a good father. Benjamin and I really hit the jackpot. Carl has been so encouraging to me. He has helped me as much as he could, and more.

introducing Carl Benjamin Jenkins




Our beautiful baby boy was born January 19th at 9:50 PM after 17 hours of labor. Labor wasn't too bad with the epidural, and pushing wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Benjamin's heartrate had dropped and they were very close to giving me a c-section when our doctor checked and said it was time to push. I pushed for about an hour and twenty minutes. I am so thankful for modern medicine because I didn't feel it when Benjamin's apparently big head split me BAD. I lost a lot of blood, so shortly after giving birth my body went into shock and I blacked out for quite a long time. I didn't pass out but I could not see for a while and wanted to close my eyes but Carl sat by me and told me to keep my eyes open. I will never forget the moment I was finally able to see again and how excited I was to be able to see Carl beside me. The next morning I received 2 units of blood transfusion, and they kept me an extra day. We went home the following Thursday.

I've recovered quite nicely and although we have hit a few bumps here and there, everything is coming together as best as it can! We are very happy with our Baby Boy!

I'm sorry it took so very long to post something like this. I'm sure you can imagine why. The tear I received was a complete 4th degree tear, which is the worst you can get. So I've been concentrating my energy on feedings and recovering.

Oh and we have internet at the house now!

Love,
Kristen

1.14.2009

About My Layout

Yes, it's true. I designed my blog myself. I didn't do it alone, though.

The font for my blog post headers, sidebar headers, and blog post dates I got from http://kevinandamanda.com/fonts/fontsforpeas/ - Currently I am using Pea Carrie Script

I used digital scrapbooking kits from http://www.shabbyprincess.com

I used the program free Gimp (www.gimp.org) for my header.

This is a sort of hobby of mine. I don't do any of this to gain money for myself as I use free elements to put it together. I am still learning the ropes, but if you'd like me to try to create one for you, e-mail me @ bringingupbenjamin@yahoo.com and we'll talk about it. I will probably only be able to do one at a time, as I am super busy with Benjamin and my house, if there are any who are interested.

I would be more than happy to give pointers or tips or advice. Just e-mail me!

Other blogs I have designed:

- {My Blessed} Life in Three-Six-Five - My Photoblog
- Hey Good Lookin' - My Recipe Blog
- The Adventures of Benjamin and Mariah - Ben and Mariah's blog
- Held - Gina's Blog
- A Preacher's Life - Hubby's Blog

post signature

11.26.2008

our new digs.

We are excited about our new house. I was a little disappointed that the previous tenants didn't take care of the place like they should have. There are quite a few touch-ups that have been done, and still need to be done. What I'm excited about, though, is the paint job. So, in this post I will give you first the before pictures of the house, and then what pictures I have of the "during stages" of the process of making this house our home. Yay for paint on the walls!

This would be in the living room, me and Mrs. Jacks talking about what we thought would be nice. The Jacks' came along to check out the house and give insight on what needed to be done. Oh, and the kitchen is behind us.
Master bathroom, which is actually the smallest room in the house besides like... a closet or something. Don't worry, the border was ripped down.

The toilet seat will be replaced. I don't do puffy toilet seats. They freak me out.



In the master bedroom. Yeah unfortunately those aren't shadows on the carpet. Those are stains. Previous tenants were nasty tar-lungs. Aka. Smokers.


Closet in the master bedroom.



Oh, we're back to the living room in this one.


Living room, with the fire place. And the blue lightswitch cover will be replaced...



Laundry room, aka Davey's winter home. For those of you who do not know, Davey is my rabbit.



Laundry room looking into the kitchen, the kitchen being where you see me and Mrs. Jacks standing.


Guest bedroom, which was pretty spacious!



Guest bedroom again. And yeah, I don't know why the carpet changes colors throughout.



Guest bathroom, which is decent sized. And not our shower curtain. :/

Guest bathroom toilet. I hope that blue isn't stained. :/



Gues bathroom again. This will be our UGA bathroom.

The dining room, and yet another shade of carpet.


Benjy's bedroom



the Bonus room, which used to be a garage. REALLY spacious.



The other side of the bonus room.

In the dining room, looking into the room that we're going to turn into Carl's office.



In the office, looking into the dining room.

And we're back to Benjamin's room. Through the door you can see the door to the master bedroom.


And NOW for the touch-ups!!



The master bedroom. I love the green. It's going to look amazing with our comforter.


The hallway/entrance way. Obviously this is not finished yet. Carl said it is like an adobe color. I like it!


The dining room. Carl chose the blue. It turned out brighter than we both expected (I guess - I haven't seen it in person yet), but we both really like it, especially with the dark wood accents.


The office is the same color as the dining room. Blue is supposed to be a calming color and all that. Again, it turned out brighter than expected, but I really do like the way it looks with the dark accents. Besides, if you know me, you know I am more of a bright-color person than a muted color person. I mean... my room growing up was lime green. Seriously!

And that's all for now, folks! I assume I will get more pictures before the day is over, and then as soon as we get internet down there, I will give you the rest of the photos, plus photos of the finished rooms with the stuff in it. Hopefully it won't take too terribly long to unbox our stuff. We shall see!
Hope you all have a safe thanksgiving tomorrow! If you're traveling, buckle up, it's the law! ;D
Love,
Kristen

11.24.2008

feeling a bit bummed...

I don't have my computer, nor do I have Carl's. So I'll give you this link so you can check out the pictures if you feel like doing so. :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002123&l=07b23&id=1124190010

Got Carl's Christmas shopping done today. I'm excited about everything, but I can't give any details because Carl has a link to this. HA!

I miss him. He's in Fort Valley now, hopefully soon he will begin to paint after he gets all the utilities things figured out.

Sigh.

What will I do for three days?! Who will entertain me?!

Love,
Kristen

11.23.2008

there goes the rug...

Last night was rough. Right now I am sitting in my parents' bonus room, listening to Carl playing guitar, and wrapping my head around the past night, and the nights that lie ahead. Have you ever been in a sort of place in your life where you're so content, and you feel like everything is just happening so well, and wow you can't believe all the great things that are waiting ahead for you? And then the next moment you find yourself sobbing for hours? Perhaps not, but let me explain.

I had a craving for cheese pizza last night. Ohkay we'll stop there and let me say this: this is not a pregnancy sob story, though pregnancy may also contribute to the hours of sobbing. Carl went out to get me a personal pan cheese pizza, because he's super sweet and is so wonderful to me. Well, I played games on my iPod for a while, and then just laid back to get a small nap... and when Carl came back, he put the pizza on the bed and said, "We need to start packing our stuff. We have to be out by Saturday."

If you recall in my last post I said we were hoping to get into the house the first weekend of December. Well, that was the plan. Saturday we had seen the inside of the house and then went to find paint for the walls so we could get it painted and aired out before I have to sleep in the house. But that's not this coming Saturday. That's 2 Saturdays away. We had till this Saturday, the one after Thanksgiving, to get out of the house we were staying in.

I won't give the details. I don't think it's necessary. But, try to put yourself in our shoes... with everything except a few essentials in storage 2 hours away, and a house that might not be ready to move into, at least to our standards (as clean as it can be and painted up, at least so I don't have to sleep in a cloud of paint fumes).

I sobbed, like I said, for hours it seemed. It could have been less, I don't know. I was mad, confused, stressed, worried... what would we do? Where would we go?

I prayed about it and calmed down. And then I called my parents. So we figured I'd stay up here in Winder for a few days. We were planning on going to Rome to spend Thanksgiving with the Kidwells/McBrayers anyway, so Carl's going to go back down to Fort Valley to paint our house (while living off an air mattress, the poor thing), and then he'll be back Wednesday night after services. We'll leave Thursday to go to Rome, come back Friday and rent a U-Haul, and start packing that up. Saturday we'll drive back to Fort Valley.

I guess the reason I asked if he'd take me to Winder to spend time with my family is because I felt a little betrayed. I guess I might still feel that way. But knowing we've been "evicted" for less than a good reason (in our mind) without much notice, I just couldn't stay. Does that sound bad? I guess I also just needed to see my parents, have back a little bit of that stability, that dependableness. The feeling that I'm not going to have the rug yanked out from underneath me. I mean, we have signed the lease, that house is ours now. It ain't going nowhere. It just needs paint and I can't sleep in a freshly painted bedroom. It's safer if Carl does that and I stay away for a bit. I suppose a lot of things factor into my reasoning.

I'm happy. I'm a bit burned, and it's still something that's been hard to swallow and digest, but I'm happy. Strange to say, huh? But I am taken care of.

I'm going to cry my eyes out again tonight when Carl reads the story to Benjamin. We might have to do that over the phone. I just don't like being separated from Carl for very long. I'm going to have to brag a bit and tell you that Carl has been so good to me. He takes care of me like I'm supposed to. He's so involved with the pregnancy. He reads up on my symptoms and asks what he can do to help when I have a complaint. He's just been real good to me. I am so blessed. I have a lot to be thankful for. :)

I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
Kristen

PS - Pictures later. :)

11.20.2008

oh, hi!

I'm sorry for lack of update - we don't have the internet where we are staying and have to go to the library to get online for now. It's limited in time, so I sometimes forget about updating here.

The move went as well as it could I guess. We're staying with one of the older ladies at the congregation until we can get our own place. No cable TV, no internet, and no shower (yes, just a bathtub... definitely not fun hoisting my ginormous body out of), but we're dealing. We get to look at goats.... and yes, it is as fun as it sounds. :) But the good news is, we have a house lined up to move into hopefully the first weekend of December! We're being patient and optimistic.

Benjamin continues to grow and kick and punch. He's gotten into scraping across my belly with something sharp, and sometimes sticking a sharp elbow or knee straight up so you can see it poking up a half an inch! haha. it's... somewhat painful actually. But only 7 weeks left! Can you believe it? We had our first doc's appointment this past Monday and I really like the place. and the people. My next one is Dec. 1st, and we'll have an ultrasound to check on my placenta. Don't know if we'll get pictures or not. We'll see!

Anyway, that's all I have for now. Hope everyone is staying warm. :)

Love,
Kristen