You Capture - Water

It's been so long since I posted and I feel like this post is just me repeating myself from what I've already shared on facebook but oh well.  Maybe this post will help me get back to blogging.

Last weekend we were invited by our friends Chris and Vicki to spend the weekend with them and their kids at her parents' house on Lake Wedowee.  Brian asked me if we had anything already planned and when I consulted the All-Knowing Calendar it showed Saturday afternoon and Sunday completely plan free!  We were able to find a substitute teacher for our Sunday School class and as soon as I could pack a bag for us we were gone.  

My kids are not good swimmers and Cameron is a little bit afraid of the water but, eventually, we convinced him to ride on a jet ski with Brian and he ended up loving it!  I drove a jet ski for the first time and I think I might be a little bit addicted.  It was a wonderful weekend with wonderful friends.  

The only downside was realizing at 4pm that The All-Knowing Calendar is highly susceptible to user error.  It turns out that I was supposed to be decorating my room at church for VBS that day!  I had completely forgotten.  Oh well, it also turns out that it was a good thing that I didn't go overboard trying to decorate because 2nd grade boys can turn anything into a weapon and they haven't had much to hurt each other with except for their hands.  ; )

Now, on to the pictures of our weekend!

Law of Averages

I'm bored.  January Blahs.  Blech!  Patooey!  Rain and clouds, meh.  

I've been feeling less than stellar over the last couple days.   January started out so promising.  But I get easily discouraged and I'm horribly impatient.  

I feel like I am mediocre.  Average.  Sometimes a little less than average. 

I often feel overwhelmed at the amount of knowledge or talent or charm that I do NOT possess.  Like it is the Kilimanjaro of a learning curve and all I'm equipped to climb with is a pair of flip-flops and a water bottle.  

That won't get me very far.

But there are days where I feel I can DO more, BE more than I am even capable of imagining.   That God has great BIG gnarly plans for me.

Today just isn't one of them.   *fizzle*

This feeling will go away though.  Soon enough.  It's good to know that it's just the January Blahs that I'm feeling and that it isn't permanent.  I need sunshine and to get out of the house.  

It helps that I've spent so much time with friends lately.   I had coffee and went to IKEA with my friend Callie on Thursday.  I met Elisha for lunch on Friday.   Kristie came over for a few hours on Monday.  On Friday I'll go over to Callie's house for "Muffins and Makeovers"!  *can't wait!*   And Saturday night I have a "girl date" with Kristin!  Don't know what we'll do yet but it won't matter 'cause just sitting in a parking lot eating  a hamburger with Kristin would be fun!   Now I just need to figure out how to get all these gals together in one place now and then and throw in some of my other favorite girls into the mix!  I foresee a girls' getaway in my future.  

But I will try to do more with this here blog or Shana will pinch me again to get working on it from 10,000 miles away!   Love you, lady!   LOTS  and   LOTS!!!

All these mediocre pictures were taken in the last 14 days.  Enh.  *1/2 shoulder shrug*

Our Story - Year Three

So, there we were trying to have a baby.  And that's basically all we did the next year.   

Well, there were a few other things:  like buying a new house, changing jobs (for me...again), going to college and traveling to Puerto Rico for a much needed vacation.  But we'll get to all that in a minute...

Remember, I was expecting to get preggers right away and didn't.   We decided not to tell anyone that we were trying - at least not right away.  So, for about 6 months we kept it to ourselves.   Which was not easy.  My periods were all over the place (don't let anyone tell you that birth control pills won't affect your ability to get pregnant later).  I would go anywhere from 27 days between periods to 48 days between!  It's a tad hard to get pregnant when your body is unsure of what's happening.  Within that year, I think I took no less than 6 home pregnancy tests all with negative results.  Each time I was "late" I would wait a little longer than the last time I'd taken a test.  And each time my heart broke a little more than the time before.   I've never handled disappointment well.

February was the worst.  We went to Chattanooga, Tennessee that weekend and stayed at The Sheraton Read House Hotel.  It had been 46 days since my last cycle and I was really trying not to get my hopes up and decided that I was definitely NOT taking a test this time.  But I thought that it was very possible that I might be pregnant.   I thought we might end up celebrating while we were there.  But there wasn't any celebrating.  I was just incredibly sad.  

I struggled a lot with this issue for the next few months.  

In the meantime, I had started working part-time at Brian's office.  It was wonderful to be seeing Brian some during the day and getting to know his patients and what it was like for him at work.  We're one of those weird couples that like being around each other as much as possible and so this worked for us but we don't highly recommend it to just anyone.   

I was still going to school and was loving taking classes like Human Growth and Development, Critical Thinking and Statistics.  LOVED Statistics and earned an A!  But nearly every day, in the car, on my way to class I would hear the song We Thought You'd Be Here by Wes King and I would cry.   But I would clean my face and go into class like nothing was wrong and still managed to pay attention to what was going on.

We also started going to Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church in the summer that year.  We both wanted to be with young couples and needed to step away from doing so much.  We developed some strong friendships there with Bill and Juli Banks, Heidi and Clayton McClure and Amy and Jamie Magee (who was another chiropractor in Brian's office and the reason we started going to ELFBC).  Those women lifted me up in prayer more than I'll ever know and loved me more than I deserved.  And sometime during that summer I started to be "okay" with not getting pregnant.  I realized that Brian and I were "enough".  That I was "enough".  That, if God had different plans for me, that I wanted what He wanted for me too. 

At El Yunque National Rainforest, Puerto Rico

I think I'll go get on the treadmill now...

And we were still doing some traveling.  Like Chattanooga (mentioned above), Puerto Rico (which needs it's own separate post) and Bill and Juli invited us to go with them to his parents' house on the Georgia coast in the fall.   The second day there I had such awful heartburn and nausea and just dismissed it as something I'd eaten.  But about a week after we got home I felt like something was different.

 I reluctantly took another pregnancy test, while Brian was at work, but this time two lines showed up in that little window!!!   I ran around the house trying to make a way to announce it to Brian.  I made a quiver out of some kind of tube and an arrow out of who-knows-what, I put on some overalls and stuffed a basketball in the belly.  When Brian got home I nearly attacked him!  Poor guy, he didn't know what hit him!   

Our third anniversary was two days later and we celebrated by visiting our parents and giving them the good news; we gave them each a gift - a positive pregnancy test. 

What did we learn during our third year?:

• Don't get bogged down - Even if you're waiting on something like a baby or a job promotion or whatever it is you're waiting for, keep working hard...keep going out and having fun....and  Puerto Rico is a wonderful distraction! 
• Stressing out about something doesn't help - Of course, there is no way to force yourself to relax either.  God has to bring you to a place of trust.  And no one else is more trustworthy than He is.
• Godly friends are priceless - Don't be afraid to reach out first, to take that risk.  Be real with people and you will find out who is willing to be real with you.
• Choose gifts thoughtfully - A home pregnancy test stick that's been,...you know...doesn't really make a meaningful or appropriate gift.

Brian's post - click here.

You Capture - Faces

This week's You Capture theme was Faces. Well, I captured a LOT of faces last week but these are my favorites.  It was only 8 a.m. but I think the temperature was up to 90+ degrees with about 90% humidity (no joke!).  That's what you get when you live on the equator and it's the rainy season.  So, I was melting but I think they're all used to it by now and were wonderful to put up with me and my camera for so long!

 

 Smile!  Oh my goodness gracious, do I ever love this kid!

 Now there's a sweet face!

 

 I wanted him to get his "sillies" out so I asked him to make a silly face.

 It was worth it to get a shot like this!

   

 But this one is the hidden gem!

I love you all so VERY  VERY  VERY much!

Scary Hair

I haven't been able to have even one uninterrupted thought today and so this is all I've got for today's Flashback.  See?  White shirt and jeans.  I love this picture for a couple of reasons.  Number One Reason:  This was the first time I had dyed my hair.  My mom helped me do it at home and when we first dyed it, it turned out pink. Pink would have been just as bad as this brassy auburn.    Number Two Reason:  Kristie!   Number Three Reason: I weighed 95 pounds in this picture and look at the size of my shirt!  Ridiculously oversized.  Number Four Reason:  It is evidence of how crazy my hair is.  It's not curly and it's not straight.  It's what I like to describe as werewolf hair.  

Lately I think of how much I need to a new haircut and how much I'm tempted to go Anne Lamott on y'all and do the white-girl dreads. 

Welcome Home! Thank you!

Welcome Home, David!

 (You made it, Jenni!)

 

Welcome Home to the 1st Squadron, 108th Cavalry!

 

 

Thank you, CSM Joey Recker (pictured above), for letting me borrow your pictures.  

But most of all :

Thank you to all of you who fought and served and gave, sometimes the ultimate sacrifice.

Pronouns

I've been composing a post all day in my head.   It started out with way too many "I" and "me" pronouns.   A lot of how "I" was feeling about something that has nothing to do with "me".

Then I changed the pronouns to "they" and "them".   It was about how much "they" gave.  How unselfish "they" are.  And "they" are but, if "I" know "them" at all, then "they" wouldn't want the post to be about "them".

And now I've turned the focus, my attention, the glory on God.  

He asked them to go.  They went.

He asked someone to give.  They gave.

 

He asked someone to pray.  They prayed.

It's about people He made who need help.  About obedience.  About love. 

Pictures by Laura Taylor.  Thank you, Laura, for going and for taking your talent with you.  And thank you to my friends who went who are pictured here.  For being obedient and for loving the people of Haiti enough to GO and DO something for them. (click on March 7th and move slider to 35:00).