A Dog, a Toddler and Awesome Friends!

This week has been transitioning with much ease so far and I am feeling ready for when Hezekiah finishes up with his last week in daycare.

Today we hung out with our friends dog so they could enjoy a few days at the Gorge, because friendship and marriages matter to keep families strong. Even taking care of our friends kids fish. The dog is a very youthful and spunky dog and is a whole lot of puppy. Enjoying the beautiful weather was top priority today.

Me and the little one spent some time out walking around the the neighborhood and picking up the dress I dropped off at the dry cleaner for Corie.

A major blessing is our good friends the Carpenters who love us and our kids so much that they carve out time to bless Corie and I with a night out without kids to go to a concert.

We were invited to a benefit concert for the Underground a place I thought was only a concert venue but is so much more than that. This place is doing some great things for the future of the kids that may not have cared enough otherwise. The partnerships that they have forged and will continue to forge is going to be huge in growing the Kingdom for God.

Rend Collective is by far one of our favorite bands to worship to the Lord with. Getting to listen to them live was amazing. After the concert we got to have time with other adults without kids. It was an amazing time and all thanks to friends who were willing to let us stay out till much later than most would want to stay up on a work night.

Having friends like the Carpenters are so rare that they even bless use with encouragement through notes and letters left behind for us to find after they left for the evening. I have never known such friendship.

3 Dad's, 6 kids and lots of Animals!!

Today was Ruby's first visit to the zoo with friends and also where she was going to start recognizing animals. I was excited for the day, also we were going with my best friends here in Cincinnati and their kids.

We showed up right when the zoo was opening for those who were members which means an hour of no big crowds. I strapped Ruby in to the Ergo and off we went. I wanted her to be able to see things easily without having to pick her up out of a stroller all morning. It worked really well. We went to see the Elephants and she nailed the sound they make and then we moved on to Swan Lake. She was so excited to see the ducks. We seen Giraffe's, Lions and enjoyed watching the Hippos. Rode the train and nailed a great group pic of us! Saw the baby tigers and the polar bear and black rhino. Even seen a few college friends with their kids so that was fun to catch up. After about 2 hrs it was time to go, Ru was getting cranky and I knew that meant nap time. So we said goodbye to our friends and headed home. She took a little nap, fed her some lunch till the belly which helped to them put her down with no problems.

After the past few days of things and boxing the night before it was time for a nap myself for about 30 mins. Watched some Netflix and then got Ru back up. We took mama's dress to the dry cleaner and had a nice walk. I must say it was during the walk I started to feel kind of down. The attack was about the feeling of not having a job in the marketplace. I realize this is something that I am going to feel for a little while, but I also know that this is going to be the best decision for our family.

These next few days I am also taking care of a friends dog while they are away on a camping trip so we went by to take him for a walk and then had him hang out at our house for a couple hours while I worked on dinner and picked up H.

After dinner I went up to David McMillen's house. See every other Wednesday we have a men's meeting time to talk about a book we are reading, life and just get a chance to be around other guys for the main purpose of having a brotherhood where we can know that we are not alone and that we have other men to walk along side of us and support us in our walk with Jesus.

Day #2: Perspective

So today started out with getting Hezekiah ready for daycare.  After dropping him off at daycare came home made myself some breakfast and enjoyed some nice French press coffee. After about 2 cups of coffee it was about 8 o'clock and I went in and checked on Ruby she was still fastest Leap probably due to the fact of either growing or the fact that she's teething and dealing with a double ear infection .  So I let her sleep for another half an hour while I am joyed my last cup of coffee by the time I was finished she was up and awake .

 I realize that not every day is going to have lots of excitement and I'm OK with that today was actually a day to get a few things done around the house and just enjoy spending time with Ruby.  She has quite the character and personality I think the thing that I love the most about her right now is the fact that she's really cute when she sees a dog she usually lets out a pretty loud scream to show her excitement .

 So after nap and lunch we went for a walk around the neighborhood talked to a few people and just enjoyed the ability to get out of the house. We got home let her watch a little bit of cartoons on PBS and all she wanted to do was hang out with me and  Play dress up by trying to put my hat on my head which was quite cute.

 Before we went and picked up H from daycare I was laying on the floor and she decided to lay down beside me for a little bit which was pretty funny because that moved into her getting up and then jumping on me so we had some fun playing before I cooked dinner and then I went to my boxing class .

 For the past three months I have not been able to go to the boxing group that meets on Tuesday nights that I had started going to back in the fall.  See in December I had a vasectomy and after the procedure I had complications and after a series of tests and pain medications and scans and an ultrasound everything came back normal and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me.  This was a little disheartening and so after some time I decided that I was going to give all the pain up to the Lord and let Him deal with it. I kind of figured that somehow someway it was connected to some sort of spiritual warfare that I was going through and the interesting  thing was that once I did that the pain went away and so I felt like it was time to get back into the boxing group so I went tonight.

 It was actually quite enjoyable though I knew I was gonna feel out of sorts but after some time of shadowboxing and body sparring we hit the mat for some full on sparring. I went up against a guy who is probably twice my size and body mass but I came up with a game plan that I was going to stay in my area  and not shy away from this big guy. I stuck to that plan and definitely took some good shots but got in quite a few good shots myself and felt pretty proud of myself. The guys from the group were a little concerned with the fact that I was staying so close to this guy but I held my own and felt like I came out on top so it was a good time.

 I'm beginning to feel more motivated to get certain things done especially building up the ability to spend time in the word and also spent time working on my physical properties like working out. I think the Lord's got some things to teach me and I'm actually very open to what they would be so the adventure continues.  Tomorrow Ruby and I are going to the zoo with some friends so I'm sure that'll bring on some more fun stories.

A New Chapter in Our Lives! Stay at Home Dad

Day#1 of being a stay at home dad. I think before I talk about what happened today I would like to tell you a little of how we came to this decision.

For as long as I can remember I have always thought it would be awesome to be able to stay at home with my kids. Corie would agree that I take care of the house very well so the idea was not a bad one. But we also knew that it was something we had no power over making happen on our own. So we always concentrated on just working and our family life situation and kept our focus on what God had planned out for our family. Corie and I for the past year were even blessed with the ability to get to work together in the same building during the time I worked at Fidelity Investments. It was a great experience and we have enjoyed our time of getting to see each other at work but things changed very quickly which seems to be how God likes to bring things to light with us.

Hezekiah has been attending a great day care for the past 3 years (literally 6 houses from us) and Ruby has been going to a friends house that was on the way to work with a 20 minutes off shoot from our work drive route. During H's time at Agape Kid Care he has flourished in so many areas. He is such a smart kid and know so many things. I always tell people that the day care is more like pre-school because of what he learns there. And that is why were surprised when we heard the news about what was going on at the day care.

About 2 months ago Hezekiah was sitting at the dinner table and he says "hey mama and papa, Addy and Brandie bought a new house" we were surprised by this and asked H what he was talking about. He restated what he just said and we asked him where he heard this. His answer seemed weird that he had heard it from Addy who is only 5. Corie then texted Brandie asking her if what H just told us was true. We heard nothing all night which is odd since Brandie is usually good at responding to our text messages in the past. (a little insight into this situation. I have know for a while that Brandie and Joe have been thinking about adopting again and new that it was going to involve a bigger house but did not think about the repercussions of their decision)

That brings us to the next morning. Corie takes H to day care and there are Brandie and Victoria waiting to receive H but when the question is brought up again there are tears in the answer given and some surprise. See the Carella's had bought a house in the summer around July and they were getting things fixed up before moving and also make the announcement public. When Brandie said there was no way that H could have heard this news from Addy it was clear to us what was going on.

See in the past when we had been caught off guard about having to make big decisions it was because we were not very well connected to God and his will for our family but this time we had been better equipt. So much to the point that our son heard from the Lord about what was going on. I know to some that might sound odd but I have seen where God has spoken to young children before so I was not surprised. Also loved Jesus so much that it would make sense that he would be open to hearing his voice. We all know the Father's voice it is how to recognize it.

Any way so we then had to figure out what to do and with the extra time to pray and consult others that is just what we did. I reached out to some very trusted friends to let them know the situation and to be praying about possible outcomes. Meanwhile there were things happening at work that I was frustrated with and had been questioning what was going to happen there. But after sometime of reflection I understood that the Lord was closing doors at work to make this possible. See the day care is providing a service that there is not anywhere else around us and also the price is within budget and after having looked everywhere last year for a place for Ruby and finding nothing close we found help further away and it has been a huge blessing. However the cost in daycare and gas adds up close to my paycheck so it would seem easier to just cut that out and trim the budget to be a SAHD.

After a couple weeks I spoke with those trusted friend and it was clear that leaving work to be a stay at home dad was the next step. It was not going to be easy to make a change to a single income family but our faith is strong and our village is just as strong.

So here it is the last week of March. I had my last day at Fidelity on Friday and today was day #1 of the new journey. It will be me and Ruby this week and then Hezekiah will be around starting next week. He is spending his last week with all his friends before the day care closes down.

It was very uneventful but it was a smooth start. See Ruby has a double ear infection and is teething pretty bad. So today was lots of cuddles and cartoons. But when she napped I did get the house in order including doing dishes, laundry and even made Lasagna from scratch. I don't know how often I will do this but I will try to keep posting about my life as a SAHD since a friend of mine suggested it. Also I think it would be a great outlet when times get rough. So stay tuned!

It's been a long time!!

I think it is time to start this back up!!

I was looking at the last posts on here it has been almost 3 yrs. Since that time I have changed jobs twice. I know work for Fidelity Investments. Corie and I have celebrated 8 yrs of marriage. We Have moved into a beautiful little house. We welcomed Ruby Autumn into our family. And now it is 2016. Many more things on the horizon but I will drop there for now!

36 - 40: What a Blur...

During the last month of being pregnant, I was rather exhausted, working 2 jobs, attempting to help keep the house together, prepping for baby... Well you get the idea; blogging was not a priority and as I sit to write about those last 4 weeks I find myself not needing to share as many details or to process all the emotions I was feeling at the time.  So instead of doing each week as a large post, I thought I would hit some highlights. 

Week 36

- Our weekly treks to see the docs as babies birthday grows nearer begin.

- Only 15 pounds gained thus far

- Our new mattress was delivered and they couldn't fit the box springs up the stairs. :-(  However, I am loving the mattress.  Much more comfortable. 

- Sleep is extremely evasive as I only got 3 hours one night as the uncomfortableness increases.

-I'm ever so torn between Lil Lusch come out early and for him to remain to get more of the vital development time/nourishment/growth.  This is connected to the discomfort. 

- And the reality of getting closer to having our baby come home with us has set in a bit more as Brock and I installed the car seat into the prius.  

Week 37

- My parents purchased a computer and an internet package so that they could Skype and see our lil babe.  So Brock and I have been teaching her how to use the software.  It has been interesting and you can teach older people new tricks; it just takes more patience as well as figuring out how they learn the best so that you can revamp how you teach them so that the highest level of comprehension is achieved.    To say the very least it has been an interesting process.  

- I gained 2 more pounds and we are at 17 which is right where I am supposed to be at this point.  And I have 1 centimeter... Cheers for progress but it is a slow moving process. 

-   We also took some more belly pictures this week with our dear from Ronda.  We had so much fun at the Krohn's Conservatory.  Kate and Ella; Ronda's daughter and granddaughter joined us as well.  I am thankful they were there to share the moments and give ideas for pictures.  It was great fun and we got some awesome pictures. 

- The nursery is coming along this week, we finally put the crib together as well as putting up the wall stickers.  It brought great joy to me to have them up.  these decorations were intended for our first little babe 2 years ago but we were not able to use them since she left us so unexpectedly.  I am excited to teach Hezekiah about his older sister and the beauty of her little life. 

- This week was also full of surprises.  Both of my jobs decided to give me a surprise baby shower.  And a third was planned for Saturday given to me by my Gladstone Church Community.  My in-laws got to come and enjoy the party as well as visit for quite a while.  It has been good to have them come visit a bit more than normal.  I know it is due to the lil fellow growing inside but it has still been very nice. 

- Brock was also very surprised as the Men of our small group took him on a Pre-dad Adventure.  They went flying over Cincinnati on a rather turbulent and rough day.  Unfortunately, Brock's stomach did not fair too well and while he greatly enjoyed the morning he did not feel well on his return home. 

-And right in line with Brock's stomach problems, my tummy has decided to be extremely upset and it just doesn't want to let up.  

- I guess this week was busier than I expected and it took all kinds of energy to get through all of the joyful experiences. 

Week 38

- Getting closer and I just want this fella to come join us.  

- A bit of joy was brought to my heart this week as I got to train my dear friend at work who was recently hired.  I really enjoy having another friend to work with.  It brings peace to my mind while I am at work.  

- I have also just wanted to become a hibernating bear this week as the frigid cold has decided to move in and hang out.  It makes me feel awful and just want to snuggle down in bed for the duration.  

- Working at my counseling job has made me miss my internship experience tremendously for more reasons than I can count. And I really do not enjoy when clients or anyone for that matter attempt to touch my belly.  COME ON PEOPLE, I DON'T TOUCH YOUR STOMACH WHENEVER I WANT TO.
- Brock and I randomly surprised each other on the same day.  I came home to a clean apartment and fresh beautiful flowers and he came home to a bottle of bourbon and some pistachios.  I love when we spontaneously bless each other this way.  It is just another confirmation that I married the right man.  ;-)
- A surprising moment came this week as my Dad guessed the name we have chosen for our son.  I was stunned that he figured it out especially since we have a very non-traditional name.  He was so giddy when we told him he was right.  He also took the liberty to tell some people.  I was not happy about this but I have since expressed my feelings, explained them, and forgiven my dad.
- And the last major event of this week was that our doctors explained there was no progress toward our little fellows arrival.

Week 39

- Nothing too exciting happened this week.  If fact it was a rather physically draining week for me.
- I dealt with a migraine, which are no fun when prego because I cannot do my normal coping strategies.
- I am extremely ready for my body to be mine again or at least not have an extra residence inside of it.

Week 40

- Anticipation of the coming and going of our due date is rather frustrating.  I had prepared myself mentally as I was 100% positive that our baby would not be "on time" according to the projected due date but it is still mentally taxing.

- I also realized that the stress of working at my intensive out patient counseling program has just become way too stressful for me to continue until I actually go into labor.  I explained this to my boss and chose to take my leave this week.  The day I left was the craziest and most stressful day that I had experienced thus far in this position.  I am thankful that I was able to step out when I did as I know the stress was not good for me or our baby.  The one blessing that did arrive during this transition was that my supervisor offered to continue to be my supervisor as needed if I chose to take a different position.  

- In the midst of all this craziness... my friend Katie took me to a salon for the wonderful blessing of a pedicure.  This was my first experience in a higher end salon and it felt amazing to have a soak, massage, and painted toes.  I had not been able to paint them for several weeks and it was amazing!  She brought rice crispy treats and then we went to dinner.  It was a wonderful evening before my lil boy arrived.
- Brock and I also decided that one more night out would be a good idea.  My sweet supportive hubby wanted to see the Hobbit... I wasn't opposed but i also didn't realize that is was 3 hours long.  Surprisingly, I was able to enjoy the entire move with only slight discomfort due to the fact that it was really warm in the theater and well I was 40 weeks pregnant.
- This week also brought about feelings of missing Brock and I's little girl Rose.  I have been open about my first child and her tiny life with many people around me.  Since I have chosen this path, it has opened doors for me to be able to talk to others in a similar situation.  And ministering to women who have had a miscarriage is only one way that I honor my little daughters life.


So, after 40 weeks of pregnancy and little progress toward our little guys arrival we headed back to the doctor to see what the next steps will be. 

35: Happy New Year... The Year our Son will be born.

Wow, I cannot believe that it is already the New Year upon us.  Brock and I got to spend the Eve with our good friends, the Hatfield's, the Douglass's, and a few other familiar faces.  It was a good evening/morning but boy was I tired when we got home.  I am thankful we got to enjoy the event as usual.  Lots of good food, games, the ball dropping, and a bit of belly watching as our lil guy did some dancing on his own.  Everyone seemed captivated by his movements.  It was funny to see their reactions.  

New Year's day, Brock and I got to have some lunch with more friends, the Reasor's, which was lovely as it seems like it has been so long since that has happened.  We then went on a mission in search of buying a new mattress and to check out a few bed frames that we had noticed on the web and were deeply discounted.  We were rewarded and found a mattress!  This was our Christmas Present to each other this year.  Praise the LORD for this blessing.  We have never had a new mattress and it was extremely over due.  I am sure it will take some getting used to but I think we made the right decision.  :-)  We were not as rewarded with the search for a bed frame.  Everything that we had found just seemed extremely cheaply made or out of our current price range.  Alas, we put a hold on the search until a date TBD.  One day, I will live my dream of having a matching bedroom set.  

In other news, I was pleasantly surprised this week as I was officially offered a permanent position at my data management position.  Previously, I was hired as a temporary employee.  Nothing wrong with this but it can be a bit unsettling to have a job that you really enjoy and know that at any moment that can state that they no longer need to fill the position you have been doing.  Thankfully, my hard work ethic/desire to not be bored at work paid off as my boss found an employee who wanted to work while others played games on the internet.  Of course it helps that I knew the company had an awesome reputation and several of my friends were already employed there.  God is ever so good to me and he is always providing in ways i do not imagine until they happen.  

This week was also a big week as my beloved husband, Brock turned 33.  We really did not celebrate too much this year as well, I'm 35 weeks pregnant and he had to work that evening.  However, by another provision of the Lord, Brock's awesome boss allowed him to get done with his work early on the 7th and because of this blessing we were able to go to a burger joint, watch the national college football championship and have dinner together.  Unfortunately, Notre Dame epically lost but it was a wonderful night to say the least.  

In baby news...

Jan. 7th was the due date of our first child and while she didn't make it there, I still wonder and think about her from time to time.  I am thankful for her tiny little spark of life that was with us so briefly.  And now, I am thankful for her brother who will be here before we know it.    He grows bigger every day and always has a strong/encouraging heartbeat at our appointments.  He should be about 18 inches long and 5 1/4 pounds, or the weight of a honeydew melon.  He is now at a birth weight that he could survive outside of me.  While I would love to give birth to a smaller babe as it would be easier, I would rather give him all the time he needs.  And it is looking like he will take all the time we will allow. 

Until next time... Happy readings and many blessings.