Thankful

I am so thankful this year, for time spent with family and friends. For all the good I know God has planned for us. For the surprises in my life, like getting to take my daughter to the Christmas parade in town with family, and for my husband getting of from work early enough, to go too. God plants these little seeds of joy in my life, to bless me, and probably to keep me from going crazy. I can't believe how quickly time is flying by, and how soon our little baby boy is going to be here! Last night, we splurged and bought him a cozy gray blankly from the local boutique, SunBeams. I can't wait to use it!

My Baby Boy

I cannot wait to meet my little boy! My best friend Becky, had her beautiful little girl yesterday, and getting to hold her in the hospital yesterday, was the best part of my week! I cannot believe that I am going to be blessed to be a mother again. I was excited this morning to find these adorable gift tags for my baby shower from the etsy shop SeptemberFaire!

Baby Battle

Well, we just found out that Baby Battle is a BOY!!! I absolutely cannot wait to meet him! I love him so much already, and now I feel like I am totally behind, in being ready for his arrival! We are coming up with a list of names, and Kaitlyn and Richard are so excited too! Baby Battle, what should your name be?

Life Flying By...

How can it be that I have not blogged since April??? Where has the time gone? Well we enjoyed a beautiful spring, and a wonderful 3 months of Summer vacation that included a trip to Oregon, time in Santa Cruz and many, many days at my mother's beautiful pool. We celebrated our 1 year anniversary, with a trip to San Francisco with friends, which was fun and we also found out in June that we are expecting Baby Battle #1. It amazes me how quickly our lives can change. Baby will be here sometime in late February and while this pregnancy has been much kinder on my body than Miss K's was, I am still amazed each morning when I wake up and realize that yes indeed I am pregnant and that I have to get prepared. Kaitlyn turned 9 this week, and yet she still seems like my little girl. Another school year began, and we continue to be busy with swim team, soccer practice, and events at church. While I love this time of year, I still look forward to the quiet evenings at home that will come with late fall and early winter weather. Time that hopefully I will be able to use to nest and get ready for baby...

My New Favorite Thing...

During a discussion about books my friend Vix, who grew up all over the world, but ended up in the South suggested a new author Sarah Addison Allen, and her book Garden Spells. I picked up the book from the library during Christmas break and ended up reading it in one sitting during a snowstorm. Her books sparkle with magic, yet her protagonists are realistically flawed and relatable. I could not help but be captivated and wanted the book to never end, but it always does ;-) Seeing another one of her books available at the library, The Sugar Queen, I convinced my husband to drive down to Sonora during a lull in the storm to pick it up. I woke up on Friday morning and huddled under a blanket with Miles and in 4 hours quickly devoured it as well. I love chick lit! I will not thumb my nose at it, despite being an English major :-) I cannot help myself, especially when it is Southern Romantic literature. I love the settings that Allen describes and the world that she creates for her characters, I escape to it and never want to leave. I picked up 2 more of her books and I am trying to restrain myself from reading them so that I have something exciting to look forward to reading when Summer vacation begins. I hope that my husband and I will be able to tour the South sometime soon so I can experience the world myself :-)

Want I Want From the Bunny...

When the power went out for a week, last month, I had to get creative with our shower arrangements as they were not readily available. Richard was content with cold showers, but Kaitlyn and I prefer to heat water on the stove and to have sponge baths. Our saving grace during this time was Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap. The All-One Hemp Peppermint bar left us clean and tingly and I absolutely love the smell. I'm addicted to it now, and it has multiple uses throughout the house and is gentle enough for babies :-) Maybe the Easter Bunny will get the hint and bring me a basket full!

Soap

As my family and many of my friends know, I do not like Wal-Mart with a passion! I dislike going in to the store, because I always spend way too much money on junk that I do not need, as well as the fact that I strongly dislike the fact that we have only one place in our small town to purchase items such as toilet paper or laundry soap at low prices. So with the ever rising prices of gas, I have been avoiding going to Modesto as often as I would like. My thrifty and creative sister-in-law, April told me about this website soap.com, which offers free 1-2 day shipping and no sales tax on all the household items you can dream of wanting, many of which Wal-Mart does not offer! I decided to give it a try, since I love online shopping and can do it from the comfort of my own home, versus wasting precious time out shopping. I found everything that I needed at a very comparable price, plus no tax! My order was placed at 4pm Tuesday and arrived at 2pm Wednesday! I couldn't believe it! My life is definitely changed for the better :-) A huge thank you to my sister-in-law April for helping me discover this wonderful website...

P.S. I tried not to say "hate" in this post, although I really wanted to, because a good friend of mine reminded me last night that it is wrong... :-) Thanks Keturah!

Candida

The snow storms of the last few weeks, have really thrown a loop into our normally extremely over-scheduled lives! It has been nice to be at home, (although I am working non-stop on the school yearbook), to spend time just being in our home, forced to be here :-) I have neglected many things, like cleaning and laundry, do to the lack of power, but it is time to begin Spring cleaning! The sun is out today, and will hopefully begin to melt the snow away. Another development in our lives, is Kaitlyn's diagnosis of Candida. Candida is in simple, understandable terms an overgrowth of "bad" yeast in the digestive tract, and must be treated through diet, probiotics, and initially anti-fungal treatment. The diet changes, that are occurring are a wheat free, dairy free, sugar free, fruit free diet for the first stage, and then we shall see what other changes are necessary as we progress. This calls for a major life change in our home, as I can no longer feed Kaitlyn anything that falls in those food groups. Along with my mom, and best friend, I have been spending hours on the internet finding resources, recipes and tips on how to adjust to this change in our lives. It seems initially overwhelming and difficult to comprehend, but the alternative is to continue to see my child in constant pain and embarrassment, when I know that I can help. On a positive note, I am looking forward to the changes it will signal in our lives and how it will finally force me into action, in areas such as a garden, and a diet overhaul that I have been procrastinating on due to sheer laziness. I just pray that this will truly help her and give her body the full health it deserves. On a side note, there is a ton of wonderful information on Candida on the internet through blogs, websites, etc.

Snow Fun

Due to my husband's new work schedule, working from 2 am to 11:30 am, Mon-Fri. we have had a very limited amount of time together. We are blessed enough to have opportunities to be together during the day, for example on a school ski trip. Richard was able to drive up to join Kaitlyn and I on the slopes, and despite the slushy snow, it made for a wonderful day together :-)

Best Friends

I will attempt to catch up on my blogging, as I am behind according to a conversation with my father :-)

Every girl needs her friends, and my daughter is blessed with many, but her best friends these days are: Madalyn, Britton and Sarah. We were blessed enough to have all three spend the night, on January 17, in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, (and no school :-) My poor husband put up with all of their escapades, which included nail polish, snacks, girl movies and even getting stuck in the creek :-) I endured it all, and even was able to create a yummy cobbler for them, out of my new favorite cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks... I am so thankful for my daughters BFF's!

Hello 2 Am...

My beloved husband has a new schedule at work, 2-10:30 AM. Needless to say, it has been a rough week for us, and I am so thankful that it is Friday, because I am exhausted, and I know that he is worn out as well. I continue to trust that God has a plan for our lives and I am thankful that He has provided this job for our family. But I could really use a nap right now...