Painting

We spent all day painting at my parent's new house. They bought a foreclosed house that needs a lot of work. So we found a babysitter for Zander for the day. Thank you Rachael and Jerrod! And we spent the day priming and painting at my parents house. Racheal and Jerrod have 3 girls, so I think they enjoyed having a boy around. Rachael just loves Zander so much. We had fun painting. My parents have a huge finished basement in the new house, and it was a rose color. We have it all primed now, and it will soon be a new color next Friday. It took almost all day for three of us to just prime it because there was so much to paint. My little sister, Aubrey, Brian, and I all painted in the basement while my younger brother, Zane, and his friend worked on the putting in the bamboo floors in the hallway and living room on the first floor. They did such a nice job, it looked really nice. We picked up Zander around 5:00 p.m. and spent the rest of the night relaxing. Painting wore me out.

We had a little too much fun with the paint. When I walked upstairs my brother laughed at me. His friend had his back to me and didn't understand what was so funny. He turned around and said, "Holy Cow," (in so many words).

Brian showing just part of one wall we painted. Our wall looks splotchy, but it is really is just my camera. I took my small camera that doesn't always take the best pictures.

I love MOPS

I just love MOPS and the group of women in our MOPS group.  Today at MOPS they had a butcher come to talk to us.  I learned so much from his demonstration and talk.  I don't know a lot about meat; it was so interesting.  Then we made lasagna.  I had so much fun.

After MOPS, we went to lunch with 2 of the other moms from MOPS.  We went to a restaurant called Tylers Tender.  It is a restaurant all about trains.  They have a big train kids can ride.  Then they have a few tracks with small trains for the kids to watch.  They even have a train to deliver your food if you sit at the counter.  It is a fun restaurant for kids.  Zander is too young to appreciate this restaurant, but I just know he will love it when he gets older.  We have taken my nieces and nephew to this restaurant and they love it.  This is their second favorite restaurant to go to when they visit us. 

After lunch we went home so we could spend time with Brian.  Brian didn't work until 5 p.m. today, and that was because he didn't get off of work until 4 a.m. this morning.  He worked 15 hours yesterday.  Crazy!  I hope he gets off at a decent time tonight because he has to start tomorrow at 7 a.m.  His hours have been all over the place.  I took a nap today while Zander was napping.  It was so nice to be able to nap even if it was only for an hour.  I felt so rested after my nap.  When Zander woke up we went to my parent's house.  We cooked the lasagna that I made in MOPS.  Brian will have some tomorrow.  The lasagna was so good.  My parents loved it, and my parents had fun making Zander laugh too.  What a nice day.  I just am really bummed I have to wake up early tomorrow to go to a recertification class for CPR.  Yuck, I have to get up early on my day off to go into the hospital I work at.  NO FUN!

Wordless Wednesday

Seeing the joy in the simple things

Kelly from Kelly's Korner posted about Simple Pleasures on her blog yesterday, and I love that idea.  I get so happy and giddy over the simplest of things, and I always have.  Little things make me happy. 
Here are my Simple Pleasures.

A smile from my son Zander.

A call from a friend I haven't talked to in a long time.

Spending time with family.

Spending time with friends.

Feeling the baby kick when I was pregnant.

Hearing the baby's heartbeat, when I was pregnant.

My son, Zander's blue eyes.

Taking pictures.

Looking through old pictures.

Watching my son play.

Spending Christmas with my big, extended family.

Comments on my blog.

Quiet time with God.

Praying on my drive to work.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

Being called off from work.

Being told I get to come in 2 hours late to work.

Bare Feet.

Babies toes.

Flip-Flops.
Relaxing on a hammock on a hot summer day.

These are just a few of my simple pleasures.  I have so many more.

I love it when...

I love it when my son sees me and his whole face lights up, he smiles really big, and squeals in delight. (That is exactly what happened tonight when I went to pick him up at his grandparent's house after work.)  And this is one of the best feelings ever. 

I love it when my husband buys me flowers. (That is what happened on Sunday.)

I love it when my husband lets me sleep in.

I love it when it is sunny and in the 70's.

I love it when my husband surprises me.

I love it when a child runs into your arms and hugs you.  I remember, when I hadn't seen Mary, the little girl I used to nanny, in a while and she ran to hug me.  I love that.  I love the unconditional love of a child.

I love it when my husband smiles at me and whispers or mouths the words "I love you."

I love it when my son falls asleep in my arms.

I love it when I stay in my pajamas all day.



Love, it is a wonderful and beautiful thing.  And God commands us to Love Him and to Love others.

Love everyone you can.

Accident

This morning was a rough morning. I was woken up at 8 a.m. to a phone call from my mom saying my dad got in a car accident (I went to bed at 3 a.m., who knows why). At that time she didn't know if he was okay or not. Thankfully my dad is okay. I got dressed and met my dad up at the hospital and spent all morning at the hospital. He was having some neck, lower back, and right wrist pain. He was c-collared and back boarded at the scene. Some guy hit a patch of ice and lost control of his car. He ended up hitting 3 vehicles including my dad's pick up truck. My dad seems to think the truck is totalled. I am just thankful he is okay. He had some x-rays done and he had no fractures. My dad is really sore, but other than that he is doing well.

I just love my dad and I am so glad he is okay.  Thank you Lord.

The rest of the day we just laid low.  That was enough excitement for the day.  I was going to have dinner over at my sister-in-law's house, and Zander would have been able to play with his cousin Jayln.  But Zander took a late morning nap.  I thought he might just skip his afternoon nap, or have a short one.  He was starting to get fussy around 2:30 p.m.  I finally put him down for a nap at 2:45 p.m., and he slept until 6:30 p.m.  He never sleeps that long, but it was nice because I got a nap too.  I sure needed one and obviously Zander did too.  So tonight we are just staying home, just the two of us while my husband is at work.  I can't wait until my husband starts working days.  I would love to have him home at night with us.  We got our garage door fixed today too.  I hope it works well now, I haven't tried it out yet.  Zander just went to bed and it is 8 p.m.  Yeah, the last 4 days in a row he has not gone to bed at his normal time of 7 p.m.  Today he got closer to his normal bedtime.  I would have put him to bed at his normal time, but he had such a long and late afternoon nap.  Now it is time to watch "The Bachelor," and then I am going to bed early tonight because I have to work in the morning. 

I love...

...our Young Married Couples Bible Study Group.

I worked today until 3:30 p.m. I was able to get someone to work my last 4 hours. It was so weird to come out of work when it was still light outside. I haven't had it be light out after work since late summer or early fall. I got off early from work today so I could go to our Young Married Couples Bible Study. Tonight we had the biggest group we have ever had. We had 25 adults and 7 kids. I love this group. We meet once a month on a Sunday night. During our first year of marriage, my husband and I felt like we wanted a group of other young couples that we could relate to. We wanted to start a bible study for young married couples because our church didn't have anything like that. We go to a really new church, and at that time it was only a couple years old. Brian and I went to our pastor to see what he had to say about this. He thought that was a great idea, and wanted to introduce us to an older couple, Bill and Barb, in our church that he thought would be a great couple to lead the group. He actually called Bill and Barb a young, old couple because he said they are so hip and young at heart. Anyways, that was over 3 years ago. And now our Young Married Couples Bible Study has grown to about 12 to 14 couples. We meet one Sunday night every month, and we meet at Bill and Barb's beautiful spacious house. I look forward to this night every month. Right now we are going through a DVD series called "Love, Marriage, and Stinkin' Thinkin'." It has been a great series.

The woman in the right picture, on the far left is Barb, her and her husband, Bill lead our group

Zander decided to play under the table while we were there. He was having so much fun that his daddy decided to join him. Then I crawled under there to get some pictures. Don't worry no one was sitting at the table. While all 3 of us were under there 2 other kids joined us there. All 5 of us had fun laughing, playing, taking pictures, and even reading a book under the table.

What a fun night!