Giving

This past week my husband worked with the Meadowdale Mission Alliance, the mission team from our church.  He has worked with the mission team the past few years and they have usually gone out of state to help start new churches or repair churches who needed construction help.  This year they worked on a house in our home town that an elderly lady from our church owned. 

The MMA had one week to work on the house.  They went in and gutted the house completely out.  The team gave the lady all new windows, a new heating/air system, new flooring, a new room, new landscaping, new paint, new sheetrock, and more.  It was a very hard job that at times seemed overwhelming to me. Justin was gone every morning before 6:30am and was not home until 10:30pm or later at night.  It made a very frustrating and long week for me and the kids to not see him at all, but today I saw the finished product at the revealing and the joy on the lady's face was marvelous!  She was brought blindfolded to the house and saw it for the first time since they had begun the cleanup over a week ago.  She wept tears of joy and was overwhelmed with everyone's sincere giving of labor, time, and love. 

What little faith I had when I saw the house on Wednesday and saw how much was left to do.  But the Lord provides.  Everyone worked long hours together and got the house completed before the weekend was up so the lady could move it and everyone else could go back to their "regular" jobs.   

I was very proud of the people in the mission team who worked to make a better home for this sweet lady.  But more than that,  I was so proud of my husband for his sincere, giving spirit to help someone in need.  He worked hard everyday to get the job done.  I know the Lord will bless him, not because of the work he did, but because of the attitude behind the work.  God Bless to all!

Before:

After (if you can see over the people):

July 4th

Every year we go to our church for the 4th of July.  It is close to the fairgrounds, where the fireworks are shot from, and we have a great view from the church parking lot.  The children's ministry at church always provides fun inflatables for the kids to enjoy before fireworks. 

Malone loved the inflatables this year and spent all of her time at one that was set up like a batting cage.  She loved hitting at the ball.  I think we may have a ball player on our hands. 

We also eat and have a cookout at the church.  This year they provided a classic cookout food, hotdogs.  They were very good and they definately made it feel like summertime. 

This year there was a lot of lightening right before the fireworks which made me EXTREMELY nervous because I am very fearful of storms.  My nerves had finally had enough and we decided we needed to pack up the kids and try to find a spot to watch the fireworks from our car, instead of the open, exposed parking lot.  Justin had a friend whos family was having fireworks at their house so we headed there.  I stayed in the car with Jagger (I was afraid it would be too loud for him since the fireworks were being shot from right there in their front yard) and him and Malone got out and watched them.  I was really worried Malone would not like the fireworks since she is afraid of loud noises, but she did really well and enjoyed them.  After the fireworks we came home and Malone played with the glow in the dark chalk that my mom had gotten her to have for the festivities.  She LOVED it and had a blast drawing with it.

I am so thankful we live in America where we are free!  God Bless!!

Happenings

This past week Malone went to ballet camp.  She was so excited to go.  She loves to dance and loves the cartoon "Angelina Ballerina", and she wants to be a ballerina too. 

As I expected, Malone did not want me to leave her each day.  Most days she observed more than she participated, but came home every afternoon and was able to show me what she had been learning.  On Wednesday, her teacher had to call me because Malone never calmed down after I left.  I went back and she finished the day.  On Thursday, her teacher made a special point to let me know how great she did that day. She said she participated and followed directions and was in a great mood.   I was so excited.  But then came Friday...performance day.  Malone does NOT like crowds, attention, or clapping.  She has an even harder time when I am around to watch her.  So on Friday she came around the corner into the ballet studio, saw the crowd, and completely melted down.  I felt so bad for all of the other parents and her teacher.  After that performance I wasn't sure she was ready for dance, but we are going to give it a try and hopefully get her over hear fear of performing.

We have also been having a hard time with potty training with pooping.  We have absolutely no problems with pee pee and Malone is a pro.  But she acts afraid to poop in the potty.  We finally had some success tonight.  Justin caught her about to poop in her panties and she was able to go a little bit in the potty and then said she was done (which I knew she wasn't). So I took her panties off and made her play without them so she wouldn't have that "safety net" to poop in.  Well, for tonight, it worked.  She went in the bathroom all by herself and then called me in there and said, "Mommy, look what I got in the potty".   We were so excited.  We did a happy dance and had a mini-party to celebrate.  I am not getting my hopes up that this will be every time, but hopefully we are on the right track.  Keep praying for poop success for Malone and for it to click. 

Jagger turned 3 months old this week.  I can't believe he is growing so fast.  He is such a happy boy.  He loves to smile and coo.  He is happiest in the morning and loves to get all the attention.  He is growing a lot of hair already and so far it is dark brown like mine.  He goes to bed at 7:30pm every night and sleeps until almost 8:00am the next morning.  He seems like he is going to be a Mommy's boy.  If he is fussy he calms right down if I get him.  He melts my heart so much.  I love his little personality and can't wait to see how it will develop. 

I am so thankful to the Lord that I have such precious children.  They challenge me, especially Malone at the age of 3, but they are also my entire world. 

Anniversary and Father's Day

Yesterday, June 18th, Justin and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary.  Wow...how time flies!  We have had an amazing 6 years together as a married couple.  In those 6 years we finished remodeling my grandparent's old home in Resaca and lived there, sold that house, built our house in Red Bud, gotten pregnant and had 2 precious children, and remained best friends through it all.  Don't get me wrong...we have had some rough spots along the way, but we always work through them.  I know we managed to do that first and foremost by having a Godly marriage.  We go to church together and pray together and keep our Christian life our first priority.  We also managed to have many more good times than bad these last 6 years because we truly are each other's best friend.  We take time and spend together and talk about our interests and lives with one another.  I know the rest of our lives won't always be a glowing report, but I also know that we CAN have a great, happy marriage and not just "get by".

We celebrated our anniversary this year by spending the night in Athens, GA at The Colonels Bed and Breakfast.  We ate our anniversary dinner at our favorite restaurant in Athens, The Last Resort.  I miss living there and was so excited to go back to the campus of UGA and remember good times. 



We also celebrated Father's Day this weekend.  Justin is an amazing father and is very involved with our children's lives.  He takes time to play with Malone (even dolls), and holds and loves on baby Jagger, as well as getting up with him at night (which we luckily don't have to do anymore), changing diapers and feeding him.  I am so lucky to have a man who wants to be so involved with our children, because I know there are many mothers out there who pray for a more involved father for their children.  We celebrated Father's Day by going to church, and then we had our own fathers over to our house for BBQ and home made ice cream.  Malone and Jagger got Justin an I-Phone cover that was personalized with our family's picture.  The kids also made their grandfathers birdhouses with their hand and feet prints.  It was a great day!

A few of my favorite things

Just thought I'd share a few of my favorite things for right now.

--Java Chip Frapuccino's from Starbucks

--My new casserole dish by MudPie. 

--Lipgloss by NARS in Angelika

--Jason Aldean's new song, "Dirt Road Anthem"...I am dying to see him in concert!!!

--Bumble and Bumble hair products

--Dancing with the Stars (I'm obsessed and hate that it is not on this summer)

--Long maxi dresses...they are so cool in the hot weather (and slimming, which is really important )  :)

What are some of your favorite things?

Weight Watchers

6 weeks ago I joined Weight Watchers in order to lose my baby weight.  I have never really struggled with my weight before and didn't know where to start to lose extra pounds.  I like to eat...well that is probably an understatement....I LOVE to eat, and I wanted a program that allowed me to still eat foods I liked.  What I really like about WW is you are taught to make some better choices, while still being able to enjoy the foods you love.  People are assigned a certain number of points per day (I get 29) and then foods are assigned points based on carbs, fiber, fat, and protein. You are also allowed an extra 7 points per day, or 49 weekly, in order to protect you if you need to eat out, are celebrating a special occassion, or just go over on your daily allowance.  This makes me feel like I am not being deprived and helps me to avoid over-eating.  You can also earn extra points by excersise and activity in your life.  I am been very pleased with the program and my results.  So far I have lost 12 pounds.  I am only 5 pounds away from where I was when I got pregnant with Jagger, but I had some extra weight I never lost from being pregnant with Malone.  So, I would like to lose an additional 12 more to be happy with my weight.  I now need to get on board with toning up my abs (which were destroyed by my 2nd pregnancy) and walking several times per week in order to finish off my weight loss and be even more healthy.

Has anyone else ever tried WW?  What did you think?

Summer Fun

The weather is heating up, which for me means pool time.  However, we have found that Malone is terrified of the water this year.  I'm not sure what is going on, but last year she was FEARLESS.  She would jump off of the diving board and swim all over the pool.  This year she barely wants to splash her feet on the steps.  It may be a long, hot summer without our pool time!  I do not want her to be afraid of the water, but I am not going to push her.  I know how it feels to be fearful of the water and being forced into it. 

Malone is attending cheer camp this week.  She has cried every day when I drop her off, but when I pick her up she says she had fun and tells me her cheer.  She is definately not going to be initially outgoing...it takes her forever to warm up to people and places, but I just want her to have fun and get to play with her friends.  I can't wait to see her performance on Friday (if she will do it).  I'm sure it will be super cute!!

Jagger turned 2 months old yesterday.  I can't believe how fast it has gone.  During the first few weeks when times were tough I kept telling myself to not be stressed since I knew it would go so fast.  And I was right.  At 8 weeks he is already sleeping through the night.  He takes his last bottle at 9:30 pm and then sleeps until around 6:30 am-ish.  Most nights he starts fussing around 4 am and wants his paci back, but he always goes back to sleep for a few hours.  I am so grateful to be getting my sleep again.  :)  He is getting so big and I know before long he won't be a baby anymore.