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Still Down...but Not Out

Our computer is still down, sort of. We have all the parts, and they have even been installed into the computer, but there has been little time for anything else. My dear, sweet, hardworking husband has been working crazy hours and literally has not had time to do anything but eat dinner and go to bed. They have a blessing of a job about an hour and half away that is getting them through right now, but it's been lots of work with intense deadlines, forcing the guys to work up to 15 hours a day. (That's almost two work days in one for those of you who are not good at math ;) I'm so proud of Jeremy for giving this job everything he has. He's not the "work-a-holic" type. As in...his work does not come before family. This isn't something that always happens. But, I understand, and he understands that when there are deadlines to be met, they need to met unless there is an incredible need for him at home (at which point I KNOW he would drop everything). But, praise the Lord, there isn't an incredible need, just a missing of daddy and husband. We did have a very nice and restful Sunday and I think that re-energized all of us for the coming week. I also realize that there are lots of people who HAVE to work those kinds of hours just to pay the bills, so I'm trying not to complain and to send him off each morning at 6:45 with a smile, and greet him each night at 8:00 with a kiss and a semi-clean home:-) I love Him so much, and I'm thankful he is such a hard worker and so serious about providing for our family. Lazy is not a word that come near to describing Jeremy...it's the furthest thing from him.

I usually ignore cheesy radio commercials about relationships (or really any commercial in general). But last night, driving home from our coupon club I heard something I've heard a zillion times before...but it encouraged me. It said something like..."A lot of people say marriage is a 50/50 effort. I don't know about your, but I expect my wife to give closer to 100%. There may even be times when one spouse has to give more like 150%." This made me think about us right now. I think that we are both giving at least 150%...but I know that right now, Jeremy Needs me to be as supportive as possible. I may hate (and he does too) that he doesn't get to see the girls in morning, and sometimes not even at night. I may hate that we don't get to eat together as a family right now. I may hate that all there is time and energy to do is eat and go to bed. I may hate that we don't have as much "free time" right now as normal. But...I have two options as a wife. I can either complain, grumble and make things miserable for both him and me. Or I can support and encourage and cherish the moments we have, even if it's only half an hour. I guess that's my giving that extra percent. I realize that I can have a great influence on the dynamic of our family by my attitude and actions to everyone else, the girls and Jeremy. It is so important for me, right now, to be positive, hopeful and encouraging. I think for the most part I have been...I'm sure there are times when I've given in to my selfishness and made it all about me. But, you know what...it's not all about me. Being married and loving someone is not an act to serve yourself, it is an act to serve the other person, at all times. I want to serve Jeremy the best way he needs it...and right now, this week, last week, maybe next....the best way I can serve him is to have a hot dinner ready at whatever time he makes it home, clean clothes folded (and put away), a hot breakfast made early in the morning, and a full, filling lunch for during the day. That's my job right now...that's how I can be a help-mate to my husband. How can you be one to yours today? Forget about your needs...what are His...right now. Think of one, and go fulfill it.

Hmmm...not what I meant to talk about for this post, haha. Look at the title...Oh, "Still down...but Not Out". I'm still working off my laptop, which I'm thankful for. But, it's much slower and frustrating to work on. If I have not been very good about keeping in contact with you, please bear with me. Maybe by the end of this week we'll have our computer up again. But, really...it's pretty low on the priority list right now.

The girls....let me gush about them for a moment. I LOVE my daughters. They are so precious. Yesterday was a hard day, at least after naps. They literally woke up crying and cried pretty much until bed time. Some times it was justified, but most of the time they were just fussing. A bit draining. However...little Nicole woke up this morning with an amazing sweet attitude, as did Hannah. We have had a fun day playing games, learning letter sounds (st this week)and walking around "Sam's house" (Sam's club) Nicole has been very lovey today. I can't even count how many times she's hugged, kissed and said I love you to me or Hannah today. But, I'll always take one more. I just adore our little family. They are so sweet, and I'm thankful God has blessed us with these two little girls. Who knows if we've got another sweet little girl coming, or a big rambuncious boy...can't wait to find out.

On that note....everyone wants to know...right? I don't have a date set yet for my ultrasound. Probably at the end of the month. Will let you know later.

EBay

Last night I entered my first ever bid and won my first ever product on Ebay. It was quite exciting. I did it the "risky" way. My highest bid was not much higher than the current bid, so I waited until there was less than a minute left, entered my bid, and won:-)

I won this OK, ok...you can't tell what it is. Well, I'll tell you. It is a 5 pack of Leapfrog DVDs that teach letter recognition (Nicole already knows her letter and sounds and learned it mostly from that video), beginning and advanced reading and phonics, beginning math, and even reading comprehension. They are super and I've been looking for the 5 pack, which they no longer make. I don't think they'll be delivered by her birthday, but that's ok. It was pretty fun watching how this whole ebay thing works. Now I just hope my payment works so I get a good rating from the seller.

Sweet Hannah

Tonight, I had Hannah all to myself from about 5:00 onward. Nicole was with grammy and gramps celebrating her upcoming birthday next week (they'll be out of town) and Jeremy was working late.

I enjoyed every moment with her. It's not often that I get Hannah all to myself, especially for that long of time. I had fun laughing and playing with her. I wish I could describe everything we did, but they all were probably silly to anyone else watching. But, I think to us both...they were precious. I loved watching her play alone in the bathtub. I loved the squeal of me squirting her with water. I loved snuggling and tickling on the floor. I love it when she found a pair of to big for her shoes, brought them to me, and then kicked her feet while yelling. Clearly she was telling me to put them on her. I loved watching her try to walk around the house (holding my hands of course) with huge clunky, heavy shoes. I loved smooshing faces with her at dinner. And holding her before bed. It was a sweet couple of hours.

I get a lot of play time with my girls, but rarely alone. It's fun to just have one for a little while. I can't wait for Nicole's turn next time:-)

Dance Class

This afternoon I took Nicole to her very first dance class. She has been asking about going every day for almost a week now. A friend of mine, Ashley takes her daughter Isa who is about the same age as Nicole. AND....our friend Anna from the college ministry at church is one of the instructors. The class is free (can you believe it?) and it's a children's worship class. It was adorable. The kids did "Father Abraham" "Open the Eyes of My Heart" and some other fun preschool style dances.

So....do you want to know how the class went? If you were to ask Nicole, "What was your favorite part of dance class?" she would say (and has said) "Sitting next to mommy". Yep...she ended up sitting next to me for about 90% of the class. She stood in line well, but when the kids started marching into the room, she started crying and saying she wanted her mommy. They brought me into the room (moms are usually suppose to stay in a different room and watch through a window) and Nicole, Hannah and I sat on a bench and watched. Nicole would not budge and looked as if she would cry for the first few minutes. However....by the end of the class she was smiling and having fun watching the kids. Then, they did a song that required bean bags, and the teachers asked Nicole if she wanted to (come across the room) and get a bean bag. The first song with the bean bags, Nicole just stood there, but during the second song she started jumping up and down and dancing along.

There are only 2 more classes left :-( didn't know that or else I would have just waited till the fall) But, I think it will be really good for her to be in a class with lots of other kids and some structure. We are hoping to get her into gymnastics also. One thing Nicole misses out on by me staying home is a very structured time of learning with other children her age. So...I'm hoping after a few weeks of gymnastics or dance she will be confident enough to be away from me and begin to learn how to follow instructions from other adults and follow class rules. I think it will be really good for her, and I'm excited about it.

So...the first class seemed to be a bomb, but she watched, and maybe next week she'll get up and dance a bit more.

Crash

It's happened. It was inevitable. Only a matter of time. Our time came. Our hard drive - CRASHED. Wednesday night it fried. The sad part, for us, is....we can't even remember the last time we backed up our pictures or our music.

ALL of our pictures and ALL of our music was on our computer. We don't buy CDs anymore, we just buy a song here or there. We haven't printed pictures since August. Jeremy is at our friend's house right now who is pro at all things computers. He said we have a less than 10% chance of getting anything back. It has made us both sick.

To make matters worse, I believe it was Tuesday that I was talking to Greg and Valerie and I said, "I don't think we've backed our pictures up in almost year. I better do that soon". The next day....CRASH.

So....I'm thankful for the blog, because I do tend to post my favorites. I did make slide show of Hannah's first year and it's on a DVD. And, both my dad and my father-in-law have a ridiculous amount of pictures on their computers. I'm a little bummed I deleted my facebook account right now, because I also had a ton of pictures on there I could have gotten back. Our vacation to Disney World, the Lowry Park Zoo, and the MOSI museum are gone, because no grandparents were with us. Our fun little trips to the park on Sundays are gone. Foolish, Foolish for not backing up.

We will be buying an external back up hard drive for next time.

So, I am working off my laptap until we have time to rebuild our computer (thankfully it will only be $100-200 because we just need to buy the hard drive) but the price of our memories and music is far beyond that.

No pictures of the girls for a little while because I don't think I can load them onto my laptop. My laptop is pretty old, but it does the job I need of e-mail and blogging, so I'm happy to have it.

OK....go back up your computer, right now.

Girl's Night and a Refreshing Morning

Last night I had a few girlfriends over, some have been friends for a long time, and some were pretty new. It was a blast. We cooked a Chicken Curry dinner, each girl brought a couple different ingredients and had a job in the dinner. We had a really yummy and entertaining flowering tea in Valerie's glass tea pot. And we had yummy chocolate fondue for dessert. It was so fun to get to sit and talk with everyone without having to worry about little one's potty breaks, picking up thrown food, wiping spilled milk or kissing boo boo knees (although in all honesty...I love doing each of those things, even potty breaks). But, it's always fun to get away for a few hours and talk with other women. We had a really cool group of women with different interests and concerns which made for fun conversation. It was fun and I'm happy each one could come.

Then, I got the morning off:-) This I did not realize how badly I needed!!! Nicole and Hannah ended up spending the night at Greg & Valerie's. So...I got to sleep in!!! Although I did wake up to put Jeremy's already made lunch in his lunch box and see him off to work. I went back to bed and slept a bit longer (until woken up by a cell phone). Then I laid in bed for about 20 minutes and read. It was delightful! I woke up in the middle of night in need of my own potty break and realized I was HUNGRY!!! I got this crazy idea that I wanted First Watch, but obviously had to wait because they were closed. So...once I got up and going, I called my friend Alison and she went to First Watch with me. We really have only known each other a couple of weeks, so I'm sure she was a bit surprised to watch me take down a HUGE Belgian waffle, a couple of scrambled eggs and a couple pieces of toast, hahaha. I am eating for two right? And breakfast IS the MOST important part of my day, right? Ya, that's what I thought. So...after breakfast I went to Publix excited because I had a zillion coupons to use. I spent $65 and saved over $90. I was pretty happy with that. I even bought a few things without a sale or coupon but they were needed. One day I'm going to go just to buy sale/coupon items and see how I do:-)

Sooooo...all of that to say...I feel refreshed. I am happy and content and so desperately needed a break. I was excited to see the girls when they got home and I think they were even excited to see me:-)

Thank you to my girlfriends for your friendship, support and encouragement. I enjoyed having some over last night. And Thank you to Valerie (and Greg) for watching the girls and giving me a much needed and appreciated break:-)

To the Dentist we go

Today was Nicole's first trip to the dentist office. We decided not to talk about it until this morning. Last time she was at the Dr. (about a month ago) the Dr. wanted to look in her mouth and it took about 10 minutes of bribery for her to open her mouth, so I was not expecting much today. In fact, I had all sorts of bribes and distractions prepared (*note: I don't generally bribe my kids, and I'm glad I didn't have to today)

HOWEVER....she was a gem...a star....a perfect little patient. The hygentist was wonderful with her. She showed her all of her cool equipment and Nicole did everything she asked. She was so good, that when an opening came up to move my appointment ahead, I felt comfortable leaving her in the room so they could start on my teeth. After she was done, they let her pick out a couple of toys from the toy box. I was so please, and proud.

She gets what she asks for

Today we went to The Cracker Barrel for lunch with Grammy and Gramps. When the waitress came to take the orders, Nicole said, "I want white milk and one pancake". She knows what she wants. Well, after a while the rest of us ordered and we were on our way to a nice lunch. About 5 minutes later the watress brought out a plate full of cornbread and biscuits. Nicole became concerned and said, "No, no, I want pancakes". After being reassured this was not her lunch she was satisfied to continue coloring.

About 5 or 10 minutes after that the manager came walking around and stopped at our table. She asked if we needed anything and Nicole said, "I want my pancake!" She was polite, but you could hear the slight attitude of demand in her voice. The manager went straight back to the kitchen, and a minute later brough Nicole her pancake! hahaha. We all got a good laugh. I wish I would have asked for my chicken tenders too:-)

Last week we were at lunch with just grammy and we decided to be mean to Hannah and offer her a lemon (sorry Hannah). She happily obliged (if you know one thing about Hannah, she never turns down food, at least not at first). I wish I would have gotten the first several reactions on video. But, here are the last two. They were taken from my camera phone so the quality isn't great and they are short. Enjoy

Compassion

Last night I had nursery duty and was excited to be in Nicole's class. Usually, I get put with the babies, so it's a treat when I'm with Nicole. I got to serve with my friends, Jennifer and David. I think I was very little help to them, probably even a bit of a nuisance since I was just wanting to chat with Jennifer. Jennifer teaches the class every other week. Since I'm not in there often, it's so nice to see how teacher like her, and Tanya, love on the children. Children's ministry is NOT my forte. I get annoyed and frustrated to easily with other's kids (sorry:-( I don't think I could do it every week. I am happy to volunteer when needed because I so greatly appreciate the time, effort, and love these ladies (and their husbands) put into the classes.

It was fun for me to be in there last night because I got to see Nicole play with an interact with the other kids. She seems to be getting better. For a while I was worried about her because she was sort of a loner and wouldn't play with or interact with the other kids. I think it was just her age. This time around, she was pretending with other little girls and playing ball with the group. Yay!

Here's what I Really wanted to post about though. A situation arose where a little girl took off her big play jewelry ring and threw it. I picked the ring up and Jennifer (the teacher) told me to put the ring in the little girl's bag. Well, the little girl was none to happy and threw a big fit. Bless her heart. She was crying and begging me not to put it away. We assured her she would get it back and it was in her bag, but this did not help. She went over by herself and cried for a while. I went back and sat down with the group and looked at Nicole. She looked at me, very concerned, and then back at the little girl, then back at me again. Her eyes got a little watery and she even poked her lip out a bit. Then, she went back to playing roll the ball again. About 1 or 2 minutes later, Nicole got up from the group and went over to the little girl (who was no longer crying, just moping). Nicole bent over, put her hands on her knees and said, " Little girl, why you crying?" (She was incredibly sympathetic) The little girl told her what happened, and Nicole stood there shaking her head as the little girl spoke. Then girl looked at her and said, "It'll be alright" then came back over to the group again. She looked at me one more time and smiled.

It was precious because you could see that she was concerned that this little girl was crying. She was upset that somebody was so sad. I loved seeing her compassion this way. It was adorable. And...I'm thankful Nicole didn't get mad at me and think I was a "bad guy" I told her later what a good thing she did and that I was proud of her.

So sweet....