Worst Blogger EVER!

I really should be posting more... but I'm enjoying spending time with my children so much that I just haven't gotten around to it... AND I cleaned the ENTIRE house today. Yea. With two kids, all by myself. I was super proud of myself! :-p

Anyways, Bubby is officially 3 weeks old as of yesterday, time is just flying by! He is already rolling from tummy to back (I thought it was a fluke... but he is consistently doing it!), making eye contact and following our voices. Time is already going by way too fast, Boogie will be 2 next week and Bubby will be a month old. Oy! Here are some pictures of what we've been doing this past week...

Lots of snuggles, sleepy smiles, and naps!

We decorated a Gingerbread Man for G is for Gingerbread Day (next year we're MAKING real gingerbread men!)

Tummy time.... or sometimes nap time!

Lots of smooching...

Danced the night away in twirly Christmas dresses...

Took walks on cool not so normal December days... seriously though... it's not cold enough to be December!

We made Polar Express snacks for P is for Polar Express Day

Had our first bath... he loved it!

And enjoyed time as a family... even if Boogie wasn't thrilled about having her picture made!

FIVE Years!

It's been five glorious, hardworking, miraculous, stressful, loving years of marriage with my wonderful husband! We have done so much in these past five years, and while we're not quite where we want to be RIGHT now, we are headed in that direction! So what's happened in these past five years? Well, we moved to Tennessee... and back to NC, we had a beautiful little girl, we both went back to school (in different forms, but I'm proud of BOTH us!), and Justin went bald... BAHAHAHA! So much more than that has happened, and I'm in awe of how much we have come through. Not every year was great, we faced a lot of hardships along the way... I think that comes with being a young married couple sometimes. I look back and think... WOW, I was NINETEEN years old when I got married. I was a baby! But I'm SO glad I took that leap and married this incredible man. He is everything I've ever wanted and has become a phenomenal father to our children. Who knew that when we said our vows back then that we would have a precious, precocious almost two year old running around and expecting another bundle of joy five years later? There's so much more I could go on and on about, but instead I'm just going to share some pics from our wedding day. I love you babe, you are my bald knight in shining armor ;-)

Lead Me

I've been thinking all day about what to write in this post and how to express everything I want to say. There's a song that I heard for the first time just shortly after I gave birth to Boogie, J made a slideshow of her newborn pictures and included this song in that slideshow and ever since then every time I hear that song it brings me to tears. The song is called "Lead Me" by Sanctus Real and I think the lyrics to this song completely describe what my husband thinks and feels pressured to do on a daily basis. He is so incredibly strong and so willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that my children and myself are taken care of and that I am able to stay home with them and raise them the way we see fit. Before I continue, please read these lyrics:

Lead Me

Sanctus Real

I look around and see my wonderful life

Almost perfect from the outside

In picture frames, I see my beautiful wife

Always smiling, but on the inside

Oh, I can her her saying

Lead me with strong hands

Stand up when I can't

Don't leave me hungry for love

Chasing dreams, but what about us?

Show me you're willing to fight

That I'm still the love of your life

I know we call this our home

But I still feel alone

I see their faces, look in their innocent eyes

They're just children from the outside

I'm working hard, I tell myself they'll be fine

They're independent, but on the inside

Oh I can hear them saying

Lead me with strong hands

Stand up when I can't

Don't leave me hungry for love

Chasing dreams, what about us?

Show me you're willing to fight

That I'm still the love of your life

I know we call this our home

But I still feel alone

So Father, give me the strength

To be everything I'm called to be

Oh Father, show me the way

To lead them

Won't you lead me?

To lead them with strong hands

To stand up when they can't

Don't want to leave them hungry for love

Chasing things that I could give up

I'll show them I'm willing to fight

And give them the best of my life

So we can call this our home

Lead me 'cause I can't do this alone

Father, lead me 'cause I can't do this alone

I imagine every husband and/or father feels those things at some point, if not everyday. Being the head of the household is a huge responsibility and job, I know that in the past few weeks my wonderful husband has gone above and beyond the call of duty for his job as a manager for the kitchen he works for and as a husband and father. I can't even begin to tell you how appreciative I am of this man who makes so many sacrifices for his family. I know that I am constantly asking J to do this, and do that (especially the bigger I get with this pregnancy) and he is wore out. But it doesn't matter how tired he is, he is always willing to play with Boogie, was the dishes, clean the bathroom, throw together dinner... that's just who he is. I am so incredibly lucky to be married to such a man. 

I've been praying for him more so than usual lately, I find myself constantly thinking that I don't do enough to show him how thankful I am for him or wondering if he even knows how much I appreciate and love him. As the song goes... he's leading us with strong hands and he's leading us by God's command. I'm not sure if I've even gotten across everything I wanted to say in this particular post... but I hope that when J reads this he knows how much I adore him and love him. 

We are approaching our 5th wedding anniversary this September and we have been together for over 6 years now. I never imagined that I would meet the man God intended for me at 17 or that we would be where we are today with a beautiful smart little girl and a sweet baby boy on the way. I can't believe it's been almost 5 years since I stood in front of a crowd of people and promised to love and adore this man for the rest of my life. I love him more today than I did that day and I continue to love him more and more each and every day that passes. I feel bad because today on the day that I'm writing this heartfelt post, I haven't had the energy or the motivation to get anything done while he slaves away at work. He is too good to me I'm afraid, and I'm sorry to say he's coming home to a complete disaster of a house. 

J, my love, I'm sorry that you're coming home to such a disaster. I'm praying that tomorrow I will wake up a little more energized and less sore and that our Boogie will be in higher spirits (she's been a bit of a grump today). You are such an amazing man and an even more incredible father. I thank God everyday for choosing you to be my helpmate, lover, best friend, confidant, and father of my children. Thank you for everything that you do, for everything that you've worked towards, for loving us no matter what. You are incredible. 

To end, I'd like to post the music video for the song above and a few pictures of my love over the past 6 years.

First Vacation Together 2006

Prom 2006

Engagement Photos 2007

Wedding (Reception) 2007

Honeymoon 2007

Pregnant with Boogie 2010

First days as parents 2010

Family Photo and Pregnant with Asher 2012

Summer Blog Challenge, Day 26

Day 26: What Does Your Significant Other Do That Makes Your Heart Melt?

Oh man... watching him snuggle and love on Boogie makes my heart melt more than anything. She adores her daddy, it's absolutely precious. Other than that, watching him take care of chores for me or taking care of something that I just don't want to do at the moment makes my heart melt... really. I picked a good one ladies!

4 Years of Blogging!

I realized today that I have officially been blogging for four years! When I started this blog we were planning a move to a new state, hadn't even been married for a year and were learning what it's like to be husband and wife. It's amazing what four years can do in a young couple's life! J has come so far in his career path, we've had a beautiful little girl who continues to grow, learn, and surprise me everyday.... and I couldn't be happier.

We're facing a lot of changes in this upcoming year, and while it's incredibly exciting it's also incredibly terrifying. J will be completing his certification in October and will start looking for a CDM job immediately. We'd love to stay right here in our beautiful mountains, but realistically we know that in order to do what's best for our family we may have to make the choice to move. This is also my last semester of school for now. I am still lacking 3 classes to get my Associates but J and I have decided that it's time to take a break and focus on our family. I'm not looking forward to starting payments on my student loans (actually I'm absolutely terrified), but it has to be done and we will get through it!

This summer we are hoping to transition Boogie into a big girl bed, she is finally sleeping through the night! She just randomly started sleeping last Saturday... there have been two nights since then where she woke up one or two times but it didn't take much to get her back to sleep! It's incredible getting so much sleep! We tried so many different things to get Boogie to sleep and the more we tried the more she fought us.... so as I had told J over and over again, I had high hopes that she would just figure it out on her own. So ha! I was right! ;-)

Another thing we are hoping to do is to get a family pass through our local nature center (if you are unfamiliar with what that is, it's basically a small zoo with animals found in our 'part of the woods'), it will give us a huge discount and even free entry into many zoos and aquariums all over the country. Now, we definitely won't be traveling all over the country, but there are several participating zoos within a 2-3 hour drive from us. Boogie loved the aquarium we took her too on our mini vacation a few months ago, so I know this will be a great treat for her this summer!

We are also looking forward to really diving into "Tot School"... basically preschool for homeschoolers! I have a lot of fun activities and such that I want to do with Boogie, we have already made her magnet/chalk board and have purchased the Leapfrog Alphabet toy, a batch of numbers (which actually includes math symbols and things which will be great for later on!), and some Melissa and Doug Animals. Boogie loves to learn, she loves to read, she loves to color and explore.... so I have high hopes that she will enjoy some of the things I have planned!

Other than that I don't have anything to share! May is coming up soon, so I will be working on my book post (aka What's On Your Nightstand?), and I'm going to start my Five Question Friday posts again tomorrow. I'm hoping to start updating a lot more, especially since I won't have school to weight me down, and I want to post more updates on Boogie for family members because I'm taking a step back from Facebook. Not leaving... just not going on there all the time like I had been. Anyways, that's it for now!

A Whirlwind of Blessings

This past week has been incredible. As I mentioned before we spent last week moving into a new apartment with a much better landlord... this apartment is beyond amazing. Now of course we have neighbors above us so we have to get used to the creaking of floors and such, but beyond that it is SO much better than our previous home. Boogie's room is much much bigger, we have a normal sized kitchen, a back patio with a fence... and we are finally moved in and everything is unpacked (with the exception of some decor). We love it! I'm sure you could tell from pictures of Boogie in our old apartment that her toys had overrun the living room... well in our new apartment her room is big enough to fit almost ALL of her toys, including her new kitchen! We have one shelf of toys and a few of her bigger toys in the living room, but other than that everything is in her room. It's amazing having a living room not cluttered with a multitude of toys!


If you have read my posts then you know that in December a new company took over the food services department that J works in and he got promoted to a cook's position at that time. You also know then that J has been working towards getting his certification as a CDM (certified Dietary Manager) and completed the class in December. Now we are just waiting for him to complete the exam in October. Well, this past week a position opened up for the Assistant Manager in the same department he was working in (I think the technical job name is Production Manager or something like that) so he decided to apply for it. We were hesitant to get excited because we didn't know if they would be willing to hire him without having his certification complete. We were hopeful though because it would mean significant pay increase and better benefits..... well J got the job! I'm so proud of him! He's worked so hard to get here and he has a lot more work ahead of him, but this is a step in the right direction. He's gone a lot now because of his new schedule, but like I told him last night, it won't be like this forever. Currently he works from about 8:30am-6pm Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and then he works 5:30am-6pm on Fridays and Saturdays. He's off Sundays and Mondays thankfully. Another exciting thing about this new job is that once his certification is complete he will have the opportunity within the company to get a CDM position, this company is spread across the East coast, so we could go anywhere!


Boogie is doing so well with all these changes we've made. She's really grown a lot in the past week and has learned more and more new words. She completely blows my mind most days with how much she learns so quickly. My favorite words she says right now is "milk, please?" and she signs it at the same time. It comes out more as "milk, pwease", but it's SO cute. Love her!


I will take some pics of our new apartment as soon as I can, and hopefully I'll get some pics of my girl as well. Until then.... God bless!

Change is in the Air

Change is wonderful. I LOVE CHANGE. Ask J, I love to rearrange our furniture, I love to change up our decor, I like to try new things, explore new places.... change rocks. J made a BIG change today, he got a new job! It pays a little more than his last job, we get affordable health insurance, AND my favorite part.... he will be home for dinner EVERY night! His schedule goes something like this: every work he works from 5:30am-5:30pm and he has a set schedule. He works Monday, works Tuesday, off Wednesday, work Thursday, off Friday, work Saturday, work Sunday, off Monday, off Tuesday, work Wednesday, off Thursday, work Friday, and off for the weekend.... and then you start all over again. He's excited, I'm excited... and Boogie is ALWAYS excited! I guess you can tell when I'm excited in my blog posts because I do THIS! LOL!


The only not so fun part about this new job is that we're having to change up our vacation plans. We originally had planned on taking a week long vacation in Gatlinburg with a day trip to Knoxville... but now that he no longer works doubles on weekends with week breaks in between that just isn't possible. So. New plan. We'll leave on a Sunday night after J gets off, spend Monday morning in Knoxville, Monday evening in Gatlinburg (with a fun dinner at the Melting Pot!), and Tuesday will be spent in Pigeon Forge and driving home. Justin will work Wednesday, be off Thursday, and then work on Friday. That night we'll drive to Asheboro, stay the night, and then wake up on Saturday morning to spend the day at the zoo! Then we'll drive to Concord, stay the night, wake up and spend the day shopping and then drive home. It's definitely more driving, and not what we were hoping for in a vacation, but it will be fun nonetheless!



What else is changing? Boogie took 2 crawling "steps" today... and I missed it. Lamesauce. So hopefully that means she'll be mobile very very soon! She's also on the verge of cutting her second tooth! You know what else all this means? I've had a cranky, tired, non-sleeping baby this week! This whole sleep thing is hard. I'm stuck in the middle of wanting to just co-sleep and enjoy the baby cuddles and lovings I get... and wanting to somehow get her to sleep in her own bed, in her own room. It's a tough decision. I'm not a fan of cry it out methods, I hope to find a method that won't involve so much hysterical tears and crying. The way I see it... no matter what happens, she's not going to be sleeping in my bed forever. Someday she will want her own space... until then, I'm just along for the ride!


Guess what else is changing? THE LEAVES. No, really. It's not a drastic change yet... but a tree in our yard is slightly turning and there were leaves in our yard today! That means FALL is just on the horizon! Hallelujah! I can't wait!


I'm changing in many ways as well... I don't feel much like writing about it though because I'm not exactly sure how to put what is changing in my life into words. But it's good. VERY good! So... anyways, I'm going to leave you with some of Boogie's 8 month pictures. 8 months... hard to believe!

A Little of This... A Little of That

My life as a blogger at the moment is in meltdown mode... I just don't ever have the time or patience to sit down and type. However, at the moment my daughter is nursing to sleep and I do NOT want to read anymore American History... so here I am!

What's new? Boogie cut a tooth on Saturday, you can't really SEE it yet, but you can definately feel it with your finger! She is still not crawling, but that's really no surprise... she IS still pulling up on everything in her reach and has contemplated a career similar to Evil Kenevil's! Yesterday we were playing in the floor of her room, I was doing some reading for school and she was just doing her usual thing of picking up a toy... throwing it... screaming at me... and repeat! Well, she decided that it would be great fun to pull up on my shirt, and in the process ended up nose diving right into the closet door (which was open, so she hit the edge where it folds out when you open it). She hits her noggin a lot, but this time she SCARED me. It left an indention, she locked up and didn't breathe for a minute before she started screaming... and even nursing wouldn't calm her down. So we called the pediatrician and they had us bring her in just in case. Thankfully she is OK, and she was back to her normal self within an hour... but AH! And I'm not one of those mom's who freaks out when her kid falls... seriously, this kid hits her head atleast twice a day! Ay yi yi!

J is almost done with his class... we'll be signing him up and paying a hefty fee for his exam this fall and he'll take it in March (I think). Hopefully there will be more changes in the next few weeks for him job wise, so we'll see what happens!

I'm in school. It sucks. I'm ready to be done so I can just relax and enjoy being a mommy. Oh... but I did learn one really cool thing! There was a short little info section on Huron Indians in the 16th century! Did you know that they breastfed their kids until they were 3 or 4 years old? So ha! Proof! I'm not a wierdo, my kid's only 8 months old! :-p And I bet THEY didn't use nursing covers! Sorry... I couldn't help myself.

Ummm.... anything else I haven't already blogged about? Vacation may or may not happen when we'd like it too... more on that later.... possibly going to Ohio to see my mom's side of the family (hopefully).... oh. And Boogie is now 18lbs and slowly moving up to 12-18 month clothing. AND she'll be 8 months old in 5 days. Where is my 5lb squishy? And since I don't have a graceful way to end this random post..... bye!

Father's Day

This Sunday is J's first Father's Day with Boogie finally here! Last year I got J some AWESOME gifts to celebrate him becoming a daddy... sadly he has not been able to use most of those gifts yet! I got him a new tent and two sleeping bags to go camping! If Boogie wasn't so small I'd take him NOW, but it's too hot to take her right now. Sorry babe :( This year Boogie and I got him a card with pictures of her (because... well, she's gorgeous!) and he loved it... not as big as last year, but I think he already has the best gift of all! Boogie! My poor hubby has to work on his first Father's Day so we ordered in and just hung out tonight to celebrate a bit early.... so baby, Happy Father's Day! I love you! Boogie adores you, and you are an AMAZING daddy!

23!

Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to meeee! Happy birthday to me! LOL... yes today is my birthday! I love birthdays... and this one is a zillion times better because the best gift I could have asked for is finally in my life. Elah. What more could I ask for? She laughed for my mom on Sunday, just a little giggle... but she LAUGHED! Of course, she has YET to do it again, but hopefully we'll start hearing her giggle again!

To celebrate, J is making hot wings and baked fries for dinner tonight, and mom will probably stop by to say hello... but ya know she's coming more for Nene cuddles with Boogie ;-) But that's ok, because that will give me time to take a nice hot birthday bubble bath!

I'd also like to finally share more about all the drama and stress that we've been facing with J's job. Hopefully he won't mind me sharing so much, but I really am proud of  him! A month or so ago J was informed that the majority of the "head honchos" at the nursing center he works with were leaving and going to a new facility in a town about an hour from here. The owner of that facility used to own the facility J is at now, so most of the staff that were leaving knew him from that. Before finding this out, J started taking his dietary management certification class and had planned on doing his fieldwork with his manager, Cathy. Now that she was leaving, he wasn't sure what to do or who to turn to for support.

A week or so after finding out all of this information, J was offered a position at the new facility. It was a great oppurtunity, he would still be able to complete his fieldwork with a manager he knew well and trusted, there was a chance of promotion in the future, and it's always exciting (yet scary) to go somewhere new. He struggled with the decision to stay or go... I know it stressed him out. And honestly, it stressed me out as well. Moving as a family of 2 is no big deal... add in a baby, and that adds a whole different level of stress that I just can't explain.

Two weeks ago (or so?) Justin found out that he might not be guaranteed his current position if he stayed, so of course, my poor husband being the worrier he is, was worried to death. He had pretty much decided then and there that he was going to give his 2 week notice in April and take the job at the new facility. We even looked at apartments online, and went to see one about 45 minutes from here... it was awful.

So what happened next? As if we hadn't been through ups and downs with this decision already... J was then told that he would be guaranteed his job if he stayed... so here he goes trying to decide what to do now. We knew that if he decided to take the new job he would have to start that job by driving back and forth an hour there and an hour back... we just could not find a home appropriate for us and Boogie to move too. It was a hard decision to make.

Well... all I can say is GOD IS GOOD. Last week, Cathy informed J that the new CDM (Certified Dietary Manager) that was taking over her position was most likely going to offer him the Assistant Manager position... meaning a promotion and a pay raise. We didn't want to get excited, we had heard similar stories before with no positive results... well guess what? Yesterday J was offered the job! I wish I could have snapped a picture of the huge smile on his face when he walked in the door today. He was so excited, and I can't tell you how proud I am of him. He has come so far in the 5 years we have been together. Next month will be 5 years since he got his GED, and that was a lot of work for him! And now look at him! A managment position, and taking classes to take his career farther than I ever imagined he would. He is doing what he loves, and I know he is excited. Congratulations baby!

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" -Jeremiah 29:11

Trust

"When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am."

-John 14:3

The passage that that verse came from is where Jesus is telling His disciples to trust Him and that if they trust Him and accept Him that he will prepare a place for them in heaven. Sometimes I forget that not only is God preparing a home for me in heaven, but that He is also preparing my heart everyday for the day when I go to heaven... and in doing so, He is ALWAYS with me. No matter where I go, who I'm with, or the troubles I'm facing... God is always there. Isn't that reassuring to know that we have Him there to lean on? I find it very reassuring.

In the past month J has been faced with many hard decisions and stressful situations when it comes to his job. Things have finally settled down, although not completely, but much less stressful then before. I've been praying every day that God would give him some rest and show him where He wants us to go... and I believe He is doing that for us. Life definately isn't easy right now, but even so, we are abundantly blessed! Boogie slept long enough this evening for me to finish one of my assignments... might not have been enough time to get all of my work done, but it was enough to do SOMETHING. So I say it again, life is NOT easy right now, I'm struggling to stay caught up in school, to get the laundry done and Boogie's diapers washed, and sometimes I have to hand Boogie over to her daddy and go into another room to get things done (which I HATE to do). But it's my life right now, and as I said before... no matter how tough things seem, I just have to remember that God is holding my hand through it all. When I struggle to remember that, all I have to do is look over at my beautiful little girl and remember that my Father blessed me with her, that's all that it takes.

I hope you are as blessed as I am tonight, and I pray that you go to bed and wake up tomorrow refreshed and overflowing with the love of Christ in your heart!

Changing for the Better

J and I are making many changes in our lives, both at home, in ourselves, and with our careers! You already know, if you read my blog, that we cloth diaper... well we are adding cloth wipes into the mix. I ordered some great wipes from gogreenpocketdiapers.com, yes I could have made my own, but when do I have the time? These wipes are lots of different colors, and each color is textured different. Some are just cotton stretchy fabric, some have ridges, some have bumps... but they will all do the job! One, maybe two, of these can handle a large bowel movement from Boogie (which is great considering she poops once every 5 or so days... and they are HUGE and nasty!) when typically I'd have to use several disposable wipes to get the job done! This is going to save us a ton of money! And it doesn't add much to my laundry considering I can just throw them in with our diapers!We are also going to try some 'green' household cleaners. I found some great "recipes" to try out that use baking soda, vinegar, water, and baby oil... I will let you know how that goes!

I've already mentioned that J and I are both on a path to a healthier lifestyle. I was cleared to start really exercising again at my 6 week checkup, so now I can start using the Wii Fit again! We are trying to buy more healthy, organic foods... and I have pretty much stopped drinking sodas. I will occasionally have a sprite or caffiene free pop, but it's very rare! I've also had to eliminate milk from my diet, it makes Boogie's belly hurt apparently. (That and broccoli actually). Cheese and other dairy products don't seem to bother her, just plain old milk. So I'm drinking soy milk and when I crave ice cream I've found some great soy and coconut options that are quite yummy! Last time I weighed myself I was down 24lbs, and I've pretty much stayed around that number for the past week or so... hopefully once I get to work out some more and when the weather stays pretty so I can walk the weight will start dropping off again!

Now for our careers. I can't go into much detail about J's decisions in this area, but I can tell you that he is starting the class for his dietary management certification! He's nervous, but excited, and I know he's going to do great! He loves what he is doing, and this is just the next step to making it a true career with great benefits! I am also making some changes to my plan... my original plan was to finish my A.A. and go on to get my Bacherlor's in Elementary Education and get my teacher's licensure... or if I went to UNCA to get my Bachelor's in Psychology w/Teaching Licesnsure. Well, since we have defintely decided to homeschool our children, I want to make sure that I will remain home throughout their childhood. (I speak in plural because obviously we plan on having more children after Boogie!) I will have to be gone for an entire semester to do student teaching if I continue on the path to becoming a teacher. So... here is my plan. I did some research on http://online.northcarolina.edu/. They offer a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology online, as well as a Master's Degree in Psychology online. My hope is to pursue those degrees and eventually, after my children are older, work with children with autism and other disorders. I might change my mind about the career I choose someday, but I don't think I'm going to sway on this change in heart for my degree. Having Boogie in my life has changed my perspective on a lot of things... I am BLESSED to be able to stay at home with her, and have a husband who is willing to support that dream and to support and want me to homeschool our children. I really look forward to that! (And the fact that I have a wonderful woman to look up to who also homeschools her children coughjanellecough... it makes it all that much better!).

I'm looking forward to all of these changes... and obviously with those changes will come MORE changes. Hopefully with a new job for J, possibly purchasing our first home, and eventually adding more children to the mix! Please pray for us as we start these new adventures... because they are defintely going to be adventures!

Love

I've been working on putting some music on my Itunes for the hospital, and as I was going through my CD's I came across several burnt CD's that J and I made for eachother when we first started dating. It got me to thinking about the first few months of our relationship, how I fell head over heels for this shy, KISS fanatic. Then I started thinking about the first moment when I just KNEW I was going to marry him... I already knew that I was falling for him in the first few weeks of our relationship, but the turning point for me was in the reaction of one of my favorite kids.

I talk about my little Flint Monsters a lot, I know... but they are a huge part of my life, as is there mommy, Janelle. When I first met them Janelle was pregnant with JoyAnn and Jesse, and Joseph was 2 1/2 and hadn't been diagnosed with autism yet. I started babysitting them when the babies were around 6 months old, and at the time Joseph was at a stage where he didn't want to be touched or talked too... there were many nights of babysitting where he would just scream at me. Obviously he has grown out of that, and I understood that it wasn't because I was doing something wrong but because he just couldn't handle that attention yet.

So, a year later the twins were 1 and Joseph was getting ready to turn 4 and I was in this new exciting relationship with Justin. I had to get Janelle's approval ofcourse ;-) and asked if I could bring him over to meet her family. We walk in the door and step into their living room and within 5 minutes of meeting Justin, Joseph is hugging him, talking to him, and wanting to sit on his lap. Now... this just didn't happen! Joseph acted like he had known Justin his entire life... it took me MONTHS for Joseph to allow me to hold him or talk to him without screaming, and here walks in my boyfriend and Joseph immediately is drawn to him. I KNEW in those moments that I would marry this man. If my sweet little buddy JoJo could see how amazing Justin was, then I knew he was the one for me.

Joseph still adores my husband, he frequently asks if we can have pizza dates and watch movies and invite Justin to come along. I thought a lot about this today and it still amazes me that that one simple interaction between two boys that I adore set the path I would choose to take. What a blessing you are JoJo! And how lucky am I to have an amazing hubby, who despite his shyness allowed a little boy to love on him no matter how uncomfortable it made him! LOL!

Project 365: Day 70

J's coworkers held a baby shower for us today... and I was little afraid to go because one, I used to work there and didn't leave on very good terms almost 4 years ago... and two, I didn't know any of the people that J worked with in the kitchen... so I was afraid it would be kind of awkward. It wasn't... it was wonderful. J is LOVED at his job, and they truly blessed us with many gifts, gift cards, and money. We would have been cutting it super close on bills this month, and not have much for groceries, but they gave us enough to cover groceries and even buy a few small gifts for our immediate families. THANK YOU Mtn Ridge for blessing us so abundantly!

Not to Get Mushy...

I'm sure that the closer we get to Boogie's birthday the more my hormones are going to kick in. I already knew how amazing and sweet my dear hubby was before... but wow! He's really gotten into this whole blogging thing, and he doesn't sugar coat what he writes, it comes straight from his heart. I get teary eyed every time I read something new he has written! Sure, he can be a real butt some days and get on my nerves, but at the end of the day I know how much he loves and adores me, and that's all that matters.

The way he reacts when he sees Boogie move in my belly, or when he feels her kick against his hand... the way he talks about our future with our daughter and all the things he plans on teaching her. He's going to be an outstanding dad... a protective, perhaps a little overbearing dad... but most of all an AMAZING father.

The last blog he posted was about how jumpy he's getting the closer we are to delivery... what he doesn't know is that he's been like that the ENTIRE pregnancy LOL! In the first 32 weeks (yes, 32 weeks) when I was up throwing up almost everyday, he would rush to my side with huge wide eyes and ask if I was ok. Ofcourse, as I'm puking and my face is turning blood red from bursting veins, all I wanted to do was scream at him and say "NO!" I woke up yesterday with a cold and this morning had to run to the bathroom to blow my nose and (tmi) spit out all the gunk that had gone down my throat so that I wouldn't throw up... I've never seen that boy run so fast in my life! I think he thought I was getting sick again... oh J!

It will be interesting to see how he handles different things when Boogie finally gets here. Diaper changes... boy that's going to be fun! I doubt J ever thought he would be with a woman who wanted to cloth diaper, babywear, and all those crazy things that people think only "hippys" try! I wonder how he'll handle Boogie's first fever, or first runny nose... he freaks when that happens to me, so there's no telling what he'll do when it's Boogie who's sick. If she is as clumsy and accident-prone as I was growing up (I surely hope not)... she could have many broken bones in her future... I don't even want to think about how he will handle that! It's wierd knowing that I may be the calm one in situations like that. We shall see!

My dear, sweet hubby has a lot in store with him... this little girl already has her tiny fingers wrapped around his heart and I'm sure she won't be letting go anytime soon. I've prepared him in every way that I could... now it's all up to him and God to get him through the rest! If anything, I am continually reminded of how blessed I am to have a man who is willing to love me and care for me the way he does.