Oakley Scared Us!

We were at a baseball meeting Friday night and got a call from Cameron saying that Oakley had gotten into albuterol and was going crazy. He said she was running around like crazy and apparently hit and broke the coffee table. Here are pictures of her while in the hospital :( She had gotten ahold of 4 vials of Albuterol and her heart rate was 240 - that's 4.5 beats per second. Only by the grace of God did she survive. That was a very, very long 24 hours of uncertainty!

10 Year Wedding Anniversary

In our of 10 years (October 28), here are 10 reasons why I LOVE YOU!

‎1. I can be myself when I'm with you. You love me, for me.

‎2. You are my best friend.

‎3. Peas and carrots. How is it that so many times in one day we think the same, finish each other's sentences and can immediately start talking about the very same thing? Even in random words spoken aloud, we know what each other is talking about. It never ceases to amaze either of us!

‎4. Because of you, no matter what may come tomorrow, today my life is more complete. I can't imagine life without you.

‎5. Just a touch and my stomach turns to butterflies. Being in your arms makes me feel complete. The world stops when we are together.

‎6. I love that you work so hard to provide for us. You've allowed me to be at home with our children. This was my dream as a Mom and because of you, this was made possible. You have provided for us on your own hardwork.

‎7. I love your personality. You've gotten somewhat timid over the years but that spunk and zest always finds a way to seep out. You are the attraction in a crowd, your witty and can find happiness in most situations.

‎8. I love the way you can stare at me and look deep into my soul. Your gaze into my eyes reminds me of the passion we have between the two of us. It stays with me throughout the day.

‎9. I have had the time of my life with you! Looking forward to years ahead and growing old with you brings me such excitement. I know we have so many more memories to make and things to explore together.

‎10. I see forever when I look in your eyes
You're all I ever wanted, I always want you to be mine
Let's make a promise 'till the end of time
We'll always be together, and our love will never die

So here we are face to face and heart to heart
I want you to know we will never be apart
Now I believe that wishes can come true
'Cause I see my whole world
I see only you

I've looked for you all of my life
Now that I've found you, we will never say goodbye
I can't stop this feeling and there's nothing I can do
'Cause thats the end of the end, when I look at you

When I look into your eyes
I can see how much I love you
And it makes me realize
When I look into your eyes
We will always be together, and our love will never die
When I look into your eyes
I see all my dreams come true
When I look into your eyes

October 16th

This day marked the one year anniversary that Jason quit smoking. Click HERE to read my blog from this time last year. Can you believe it? I am so so proud of him!I don't have the words to express my excitement for this accomplishment you've made. You did this without pressure from others, it was your choice. And you've made it! I continue to pray for you, for that desire to fade away for good. I pray our children see how difficult it was to quit and never make the choice to start. You have been an example to a lot of people, some of whom who have also quit and others who look to you to quit one day. I am so proud of you!

Picture Update

And some other pictures I found on my phone or Facebook from my time away from blogging:

Colton has started writing and reading a little bit. How sweet is this? For those of you who cannot read early writing skills (myself included), it says, "I like friends".

Nothing like a little trip in the middle of the night to have a CT scan done on your neck. He was at a birthday party and someone landed elbow first right in the middle of his neck. Thank the good Lord nothing was wrong but at the time he couldn't move his body and the right side of his body was hurting. They said his neck muscles spasmed to keep him from moving around as much and the tightness in the area definitely showed signs of trauma.

And these are just handsome pictures of Cameron my aunt took while they were dove hunting. He is really growing in to quite the handsome man.

Girls Trip

We had a girls trip at the end of September. The highlights of our trip? Random signs we saw while shopping the town square. And of course the piercings and tattoos we came home with! Promise... no alcohol involved the entire time away.

Since this time away, we have been told we need parental supervision while away from our families and we've made it a game to find other random hilarious signs too.

Let me tell you about my piercing. The actual piercing didn't so much hurt as the process of this man's hand up my nostril. He kept blaming me for moving, although my sister, as my witness, told me I wasn't moving. Could it be that maybe the ring you pierced my nose with wasn't the best choice? Let me explain. The next two days I spent sneezing my nose ring out. Literally. So I went to a local tattoo parlor here and had them insert a new nose ring in that basically screws in. Can you imagine how this felt on an open wound? It was fun. One might say, "maybe that's a sign that you shouldn't have your nose pierced!" True. But I really wanted it done and no way was I going to get the nerve up to do it, get it done and take it right out.


And our road trip adventures....

Meet Oakley!

This is Oakley, born July 24, 2010, at 2 weeks old. She's pretty adorable huh?!

Here are some other pictures of her. The first one(she was 9 weeks old) is the night they brought her home. She was wiped out from the drive home from Arkansas and the kids just had to make sure she had her chew toy AND her blankie. She is so tiny and her skin was so scrunched up. Love it!
This is from today (13 weeks old). Look how much she's grown! Where did her rolls go??And here she is outside playing ball. We can pretend all day she plays fetch but really that isn't the case. It's more like... "what's yours is hers and you will never see it again because she will destroy it in a matter of minutes and too bad so sad for your loss." We've learned a lesson in our home - pick your things up or they will become edible to Oakley.

Look closely in this picture at her tag? Jason and Cameron picked this out themselves! They picked pink for her!! It has her name and rhinestones on the front. How stylish is she?

What a Break!

I had an unplanned break from blogging. We had our internet turned on after almost 4 weeks without having it and shortly after that, our computer crashed. Who knew holding one side of the computer could actually damage the hard drive? Lesson to be learned - hold on to the computer with two hands, one on each side, while moving the laptop around.

So what has happened since my last blog post?

We moved our family into our new home! We were officially unpacked with every box out of this house in less than 48 hours. I never want to see another box again. Even more, I never want to LIVE out of another box again. The organizing stage wasn't as hard as it seemed since we had shoved things into every possible crevice in the house. Everyday was a new task and every day we felt a little more at home.

Today, it feels just like home. The carpet is dirty, the boys have christened their bathroom floor, mounds of laundry are everywhere, tiny hand prints decorate the walls, dinners have been held with family and friends and everyone LOVES the changes.

We also picked up the newest member of our family! I really should say Jason and Cameron picked her up - it was a long drive to and from Arkansas in less than 24 hours. She was worth the drive for sure! She was the tiniest little thing when we got her, so timid and quiet and she had the hardest time just walking on the tile. Now she barks and whines, plays and runs and even still has some slippery times on the tile. We love her so much! She is such a perfect match for our family. Here is a picture of her when we brought her home. This is a full bred Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Look her up - she is a sweet dog, they are not known to be mean or attack, very rowdy and playful but good family dogs. Love this baby girl! You know.... she is so stink sweet, she deserves her own blog! Coming soon.....

The kids... Cameron started football. I'm not the best football Mom; probably could be the worst football Mom. Not a sport I enjoy watching my son play. Colton started tball. BEST tball Mom EVER! Love baseball, far less contact for my sweet boys =) Courtnie started her dance season and is doing a solo this year. I cry every time I watch her dance by herself. Her shyness just disappears on stage. All her timidness must pass on to me because I'm a nervous wreck for her.

Worst Mom of the Year Award may go to me because I have failed to take pictures of everything. I didn't have a computer to upload them to, so I just didn't take them. How great am I? Terrible. I know.

But alas, I've resurfaced and will try to get back on track with my blogging. I'll have my camera out more too! Even though football and tball are now over. Yes, I know... worst.mom.ever.

We've Moved =)

After signing my life over no less than 5, 763 times, we finally have our home and have moved in. We will not have internet access at home until October, more blogging to come at that time!

New Adventures

A friend and I have started a new business - Molding Minds Preschool!

To make a long story short last week I quit my job. I was the Assistant Director for a preschool program and I absolutely LOVED my job. I poured myself into that program working long hours outside of my regular hours because I loved it. This year one thing after another happened and it was revealed that from as high as the pastor of the church down to the administrator of the MDO the program was attached to, that things were not right and the environment became very stressful and toxic to work in. I have grieved over this program as all of my children have attended this very preschool. I truly have felt a loss by leaving. However, God made it clear to me I that it was time to move on.

A friend and I have decided that since our gifts are working with children that we are going to open a 2 day a week PreK program out of our house (hers actually) and hopefully move it to a more sound church once it grows. Over the past few days things have moved into place and already we have seen a good amount of interest and are hoping to start enrolling on Monday. If that isn't God moving I don't know what is since we only started "advertising" on Wednesday!

I will save all of the advertising for you to look at in your own time, but if you have a child and would like to see them in a safe, nurturing, Christian, play-based PreK program and are in the Dallas Area please have a look and feel free to contact us. And of course, you can always send referrals our way even if you don't live in this area!

The Molding Minds tab is on the right and form there you can read the blog in order or you can click on the PreK tab on the top and click the links from there.

I Quit My Job

I'm having a rough time right now with the changes in my life. This is sad really. Definitely not a joyful time! I'm confident I made the right decision to leave the preschool program I have been the Assistant Director of for 7 years now. To be very frank, I didn't have any other choice. The Bible is very black and white to me; there is right and there is wrong. I absolutely could not work for a church that is allowing sin to fill it's rooms and ministries. I know we are called to do what is right, even if that decision is a hard one to make.

I had no intentions of leaving this year. As a matter of fact, I never saw a time when I would be okay without that preschool program in my life. But over the summer the stress of the program became a bit too much for me to handle. I dealt with the problems in a Christlike manner and expected the same from the leaders of the church. This was not to be and led me to make the drastic decision to leave my job I loved so dear.

I'm writing to ask you not to talk to me about the program and I am asking you to please keep me in your prayers. I really need time to heal from these changes and it is really a struggle for me right now. I am very bitter and I need to get past these feelings. I know there will be bad days at work; I predicted this weeks ago. That is the very reason why I stood up for my teachers and the very reason I lost my job. I know things are going to happen that will upset them. I know things are going to get very rough before they get better. And believe it or not, I continue to pray for the church, the program and it's leaders.

I love all my friends and co-workers dearly. I hope they know I pray for each of them every Wednesday and Friday morning as they head out to work. I thank those who have stood by me throughout this entire ordeal.

I have no idea what God has in store for me. I toss around various ideas and pray for His guidance. I haven't been at home without children in 12 years and I haven't been at home 5 dyas a week without some sort of income. But God provides. I can't wait to see what He has planned for me!