My Next 16 Years...

For all you non country music people out there, that title is reminiscent of Tim McGraw's song about his next 30 years:)  So recently, like just a few weeks ago, I finished reading through my entire blog, start to finish.  I enjoy doing that from time to time because it's just a big scrapbook of my life from 2005 until now.  Now, I realize 2005 was not 16 years ago.  But 2002 was, and 2002 marks the beginning of four different four year segments of my life.

2002-2006

In June of 2002 I moved into my first apartment with two other girls.  We affectionately dubbed it "The Hangout" because shortly before we moved in there was a rumor that someone in that apartment complex had hung himself from the second story balcony.  Classy, I know.  That complex was a little sketchy all around and it wasn't uncommon to come home to cops all over the place.  But we survived and had a lot of good times, and after one year we moved into a duplex where two more girls joined us.  This was a time in my life where all (or most at least) of my friends were still single, and we had the best of times.  It was also before I entered the age of digital and have no pictures on my computer to show for it.  I thought about doing a picture of a picture and putting it on here but I am feeling a little too lazy to do that, so words will have to do.  I did flip through a few old photo albums from that time, and one of the albums has a logo on the front that says "Fabulous People And Places".  And those four years were absolutely filled with just that.  However, life changes so much and so many of the people that made up this time in my life now just live in my memories.  Those four years were FUN and footloose and fancy free.  Then I moved to Alabama.

2006-2010 

When I knew God was calling me to Alabama, oh how I fought it. Tooth and nail.  I was far too busy enjoying the life I had.  It was good and I had no desire to leave it.  I had a serious case of FOMO before FOMO was even a thing. (Fear Of Missing Out).  I feared being forgotten.  I feared being single for the rest of my life.  I just KNEW that Alabama would be a drag.  But the Sprit's prompting was so strong and it won over the flesh, praise God for that!  If you know me at all, you know how much I loved Alabama.  How much it shaped me and grew me into who I am today.  How, even now, I still have days where I dream of living there again someday.  That's not to say there weren't hard times down there.  Lots of homesickness, a few tough relationships that come with being with the same people for basically everything, and almost all of the friends from that first four years getting married.  I remember looking at a big group picture from something and realizing that every person in that picture had gotten married except me.  As much as I loved AL, it wasn't always a bed of roses!  But I worked with some great kids.  And one of the things I loved most about that preschool was how family oriented it was.  I didn't just know the kids, but also their parents, siblings, grandparents, and even a few aunts and uncles.  Some of my weekends were spent going to t-ball games and birthday parties for my kids.  I always had such a longing to have my own children, but since it wasn't in God's plan yet, he gave me those kids.  Those were MY kids and I poured my heart and soul into them.  Not only that, I had some awesome people from church that filled in some of the loneliness of being away from family.  A small church becomes your family.  There were some great stand ins when I didn't have my own!  Also during those four years, God brought a group of friends into my life who would be there for me when I moved back home.  And there was one guy I met while I was down there that eventually would become my hubby but I sure wouldn't have guessed that when I met him!  Just like the first four years, these can be labeled as FUN, but also very stretching and growing.

2010-2014

When I moved back to IL from AL, I cried just as hard as when I first moved down there.  Go figure.  This was actually more of a 3 1/2 year span, but for the sake of continuity, we'll go with an even four:)  This was a time of deepening a lot of relationships.  I hadn't been able to spend a lot of time with my sister-in-law or my oldest niece when I was in Alabama, and this time span really helped solidify those relationships.  I had a lot of good quality time with family and friends, and had the chance to do things I will never again do.  Like spending six weeks in Mexico trying to learn Spanish!  I had some very rich experiences during this time.  It was also a time of a great identity crisis.  When I moved back, I wasn't sure what life would end up looking like.  The things I had originally set out to do weren't really happening, I floated around between a few different jobs, and I was back living with my parents which was something I thought would never happen.  I had so many questions and I just felt like God was silent for a long time.  Eventually the doors did open for me to get started in the OTA program and I finally felt like I had a purpose or goal in mind again.  I was no longer floundering.  I was teaching Sunday School which really gave me a purpose at church, which can be very difficult for an older(ish) single to find.  I had a great group of friends that I spent time with most weekends, but I was old enough and mellow enough that the occasional weekend without plans was okay.  I also learned to really appreciate singleness for what it was.  I still wanted to get married, but I could be single and enjoy that as well, and the thought of living that life long term no longer scared me.  Once again, here is a time frame that was FUN, but with all that time searching things out, it was also the most spiritually deep.

2014-present

The last four years have been full of LOTS of change!  Getting engaged to Danny was an unexpected surprise!  A good surprise though:)  We spent the first six months of our marriage travelling and doing fun things because we knew we were going to try to have kids soon.  That's what he gets for marrying an older woman!  And sure enough, we soon became a family of three, then a family of four, and here we are in the process of becoming a family of five.  I also had another identity crisis.  I moved here and people only knew me as "Danny's wife".  That's not a bad thing to be known as, but I had 31 years of life filled with lots of things besides being the girl who married Danny.  Someone at church, who now is a good friend of mine, sat down once and said she had no idea who I was before I moved here and would I tell her about my life before I came.  I cannot tell you how much that meant to me.  Also, moving somewhere as a single person is different than as a married person.  As a single, I could always go home.  Moving somewhere with your new husband is way more permanent, and it gave me somewhat of a trapped feeling.  That's not to say I haven't loved being married though!  I do love it, and I love Danny and our kids and his family, but the adjustment to IN has been way harder than the adjustment to AL.  That being said, we've had a lot of great times the last four years and so I can still say they have been FUN.  But hard.  Change is hard, period.

Well now that got a little long, eh?  I guess 16 years is a long time and it's hard to make it short!  If you were to ask me which four year segment was my favorite, I'm not sure I could say.  They have all been so different.  All good, but in very different ways.  I'm thinking the next 16 years will likely not be blocked off into four distinct segments.  I know we can't see the future, and I know that changes will come with kids getting older and such.  If you would have told me 16 years ago how life was going to go, I probably would have had big eyes and a few tears thinking woe is me.  I would have never thought that it could be such a good thing.  So looking into the next 16 years, even though I don't know how it will go, I'll just be all cliché and say I'm glad to know the One who does!

Round 3...

Well here we go again!

I always feel weird talking about all this on a blog but since I really like to read when other people do I will!

Due date?
September 25.  But if this one is anything like the first two, we can expect to meet him/her around October 2 or 3.

How do I feel?
Meh.  Not terrible but I'm looking forward to the second trimester!  I am not a puker but I do get nauseous.  I have noticed it is kind of dependent on what I eat too.  If I stay away from too much junk it's better.  Except it's pretty much always yucky in the evenings.  For example, today I baked some cookies to take to someone and because I like keeping them in the freezer.  And so far I've had two.  They taste good but they don't feel very good!!  And I can't eat creamy things without feeling nasty.  Same with the first two pregnancies.  It will go away once I start feeling better, but for now ice cream, cheesecake, alfredo, and even milk are on my bad list.  They taste good, but I feel awful after I eat them.  Not sure why!  Meat and fruit go down pretty good.

Will we find out the gender?
Not planning on it this time!  I know that when we have that 20 week sono it's going to be reeeeeaaaaallllllyyyyy hard to not.  But I think I would be a little bit sad to never have a surprise.  And I really don't think I care what it is this time.  I did care with the first two but there's good reasons to have either gender this time around so I really think I'll be okay no matter what.

Any intuition?

The only thing that makes me think maybe boy is because sickness wise this has been similar to Sawyer.  I was definitely worse with Summer.  But I will be interested to hear the heartbeat and know how fast it is.  Summer was always 180ish and Sawyer was always 140-150-stereotypical for both genders.  So if it's a faster heartbeat with the more mild sickness, I'll just be confused!

Cravings?
Not really.  Do those come later?  Like I said before, meat and fruit go down pretty good and sometimes at night right before I go to bed I eat some turkey because it makes me feel a little bit better.  And I can't plan my weekly menus at night because NOTHING sounds good at all then.  But during the day I can think about food without feeling too gaggy.

Speaking of being gaggy, brushing my teeth is the worst!  I can handle it okay in the morning but more often than not my night time teeth brushing gets skipped.  Gross, I know!

How for apart will all the kids be?
Summer will be 3 in May and she is 17 months older than Sawyer.  He will be 23 months when the baby comes so there's a little more space between them.  Regardless, we will have 3 3 and under for about 9 months and it will be busy!  Because of that I can get a little overwhelmed, especially these days when I'm just so tiiiiiirreeeed.  But I know it's pretty common and people do it all the time and survive so we will too.  And I'll be glad when they're older to have them close!  But there will still be two school years between each one.

So there you have it.  I'm only 10 weeks which is a little early to tell, but I hate hiding it!  And we had good opportunity to tell family the past couple weekends so we went ahead and did it.  It's way better when people know!

Regular Ole February Life

Regular life is good life:)

Sawyer loves to look at books.  He doesn't love to be read to though.  He's getting better but typically he wriggles out of my lap and goes to the other end of the couch where he can hold his own book and look at it by himself.  One day he decided to read a parenting book by Dr. Dobson that I currently have sitting on the end table.  Maybe it will inspire him to be the perfect child?

If the piano bench is out, it's a sure thing you will see this at some point.  But I usually keep the bench pushed all the way in because it's also a sure thing that you will see one or both kids climbing up the keys to the top of the piano.

When you really don't want to wear the headbands that your daughter gives you but then you put it on and she says "You look pretty mommy!", you wear it for awhile:)  And then you have terrible indentations on your forehead when you finally take them off.

Spending the day in Indy with the four of us!  Cheesecake Factory, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, The Container Store, IKEA, and Portillo's.  Followed by some Olympics watching upon our return home.  Fun times!

And while you're in Indy and the babysitter sends you this picture.... this has never happened before!

Clown hat from circus day at the library toddler time.  I should have stapled the stem a little bit farther down:)

After about two months of Summer asking us if she could sleep in her big girl bed we finally gave in.  It's been set up in our basement for guests to use and she knew it would eventually be hers.  She loves it!

Oh and speaking of the circus, there was a small one ring circus that came to town!  We felt bad cause there was probably only 40ish people there, but they still put on a show.  And I got to ride the elephant!  Something I've always wanted to do but never did cause it's $10 for about 2 or 3 minutes of riding time.  But with elephants not really being in the circus anymore I thought it might be now or never.  So glad we did!  I grinned like that the whole time we were riding:)

The show was pretty decent too.  Good enough to keep this squirmy wormy sitting still for an hour!

Yep, regular life is pretty good.

Staycation Overnight Date

If you remember, about a month ago we kept a couple of our nieces overnight while their parents went skiing.  (You know- that same weekend our furnace broke down...)  Anyway, this weekend it was our turn!  We looked around for different ideas of places to go overnight but nothing really jumped out at us so we just did a staycation.  And we had so much fun together!  

We started at the local bowling alley where, between a couple coupons we had, we played three games for the price of one!  (My forearm is only now fully recovered.  I am such a weakling.)  And indulged in way too much bowling alley pizza.  Oh, and I really am not trying to snuggle with the ball.  I just wanted it in the picture!

We also each had a few quarters to use for fun.  Danny played a couple arcade games and I picked a couple songs from the jukebox.  One of them being Sweet Home Alabama of course.

And not that I'm bragging or anything, (well okay maybe I am just a teensy tiny bit) but I did happen to win the first game!  That just doesn't happen to people like me.  So it was only right to document it!  Don't worry- Danny smoked me pretty good in the second two games.

And that was the end of my picture taking for the weekend.  But it also included going to Walmart for fun snacks to eat while we watched a movie (we both randomly ended up with a doughnut), sleeping in with no kids to worry about, running errands, and eating out for brunch AND supper.  Nothing too out of the ordinary but still refreshing for us!

2018 Hasn't Been Boring

Just 18 short days ago, we were talking about how 2017 was just so ordinary.  Really nothing at all happened that made it stand out to us.  Not that that's a bad thing, but we do like a little excitement once in awhile.  Well 2018 so far is showing us a grand ole time!

The first full weekend in January we had two of our nieces overnight while their parents went on a little ski trip.  Our furnace had been limping along all week but somehow it would keep on going.  Unfortunately it decided to officially die right before lunch and naps on that Saturday.

So we ever so hastily packed up their stuff, our kid's stuff, our stuff, put carseats in the van, went through Little Ceasar's and Taco Bell drive thru (multiple palates to satisfy) and headed to Danny's sisters house.  The kids all ate and went down for naps and we got settled in cause we weren't sure how long we would be there. 

They were quite the gracious hosts!  They were even going to let us stay until our furnace got replaced on Wednesday!

But Monday night around 10:00 Summer started throwing up.  I ended up taking her to the couch to spend the night with her where she continued throwing up until 4:30 in the morning.  Somewhere between 8 and 10 times.  I lost track.  So when morning came we promptly moved over to Danny's parents house in an attempt to not infect the other kids.  Summer took a 4 1/2 hour nap that day!

Poor buddy just wanted to play.  He got it a couple days later, but not nearly as bad thank goodness!

Danny and I both had just a small touch of it but got feeling better really fast and thought it would be just fine to not cancel out on the plans we had to have people over for supper on Saturday.  Turns out there might have been some gunk still floating around our house because it sounds like we may have passed it on to several kids and adults who were there.  HUGE WHOOPS AND APOLOGY!!!!!

Then when we thought we were finally done with all the puking, Summer choked a little bit on some candy at church and emptied her stomach contents all over her carseat.  So it was a fun toy for the kids to play on for a couple days while the cover was washed and dried!

2017, we miss your boring old self!

2017 Wrap Up- Long Post!

I love the hustle and bustle of December.  Sometimes it does get to be a little much- this year I found myself backing out of an overnight girl's shopping trip to Indy.  I was bummed to miss it but something had to give and unfortunately that's what made the most sense.  But that's not the point here now, is it?  The point is that December is full and busy and fun!

One Saturday this month we swapped babysitting with Danny's brother.  We took the day time date and went out to lunch and did some Christmas shopping.  It was the perfect ideal shopping date- complete with snowfall that lasted all day, dessert coffee drinks, and good moods all around!

The kids got their first real taste of playing in the snow.  Summer loved it and Sawyer couldn't move so he just sat there.  But he didn't seem to mind his hand me down purple coat.  Don't worry- he doesn't wear it everywhere:)

The tree and presents are just. so. hard. to. resist!  He became an old pro at shaking his finger at the tree while saying "no no no no no".

Christmas antlers!

Danny had some friends over one night and they got roped into a few rounds of Duck Duck Goose.  I'm not sure if it was more entertaining for Summer to play or for me to watch it all happen!

The 2017 overnighter!  Lots of kids, lots of food, lots of noise, lots of fun, lots of CHAOS!

Danny played with a nephew's toy helped a nephew out with his new toy.

One of our treasures from the adult grab was this giant Jenga game made by Cassie!

Two of Danny's siblings and ourselves have all been neighbors with this kind lady.  She has us over for supper each Christmas and gets our kids cozy jammies.  So sweet!

Christmas with my dad's side of the family

We played a whodunit Christmas game complete with props.  My two favorite things about this picture are my grandma's Mrs. Clause shawl and my mom's face.

We did gingerbread houses one day at my parent's while our kids were sleeping.  We had family members vote on their favorite and Danny won.

But in my defense, mine was delicate and simple and his roof fell off because he had so much stuff on it!  So he should have been disqualified.  But I'm not bitter at all... :)

Summer got her first haircut!  It really doesn't look much different, it was just time to trim it up and get off all the baby hair and split ends.  She did really good!

We had my family's celebration on Christmas day, came home the day after, and on the 27th finally did our little family Christmas.  We acted out the Christmas story with our Little People nativity.

However Sawyer was way more interested in the fire.  It was the first time he's really seen it.

We got the kids a trampoline and it's been a hit!

We, along with some of our friends, wrapped up the year with a taffy pull, games, and worship.

Fun times!

2017 was incredibly normal and uneventful.  And ya know what?  I think I'm okay with that!  I can do normal.  I don't mind some excitement here and there but normal typically means good.  That's something to be thankful for!  So here's to another normal year in 2018:)  Happy New Year!