Insomnia...ugh!!!

Last night I had the WORST case of insomnia! At first I thought I couldn't go to sleep because I drank a lot of sweet tea a dinner. I don't drink a lot of caffine anymore, so I thought maybe that's what was keeping me up. I finally fell asleep around 1:45am, but woke up again around 3:30am. I laid in bed for a long while trying to go back to sleep, but I was just wide awake. I finally got up at 5:00 am.

Since I was up, I decided to work on a sewing project that I've been needing to do for a LONG time. Our friends, Dom and Bekah, who live in California are expecting their first baby...a boy! Since they live so far away from a lot of their family and friends, Bekah decided to make a bird mobile for their baby, but to have their family and close friends each make one bird to complete the mobile. You can read more about it and see a picture here. SEVERAL months ago I recieved instructions on how to make a bird and swatches of fabric that will be thier nursery colors. My instructions were to pick 2 pieces of contrasting fabrics, follow the pattern to make the bird, and return it to them by August 1st (OOPS!!).

I found 2 pieces of fabric in their nursery colors I liked from WalMart for $1.50 each (score!). Since I was wide awake this morning, I decided to get to work on making this bird. I mean, they do need it before the baby makes his big arrival! I am not a seamstress. I have only sewn a few things in my life. And to be honest, I didn't know if this bird would turn out right at all. But I wanted to give it a shot. (I even had to borrow a needle and thread from my mother in law!) I know this is not the best bird in the world and there are lots of blemishes, I'm sure. I actually stuffed it with left over fabric...I mean, c'mon, I definitely don't have any batting laying around my house! So, it turned out a little lumpy. But, this bird was made with much love! Maybe Bekah can put my bird at the top of the mobile so people can't see it real good :)

The top side of the bird:

The bottom side of the bird:

Now let's just hope it doesn't take me as long to ship the bird as it did for me to make it!!!

Birthday Weekend!!

This past Sunday was my 27th birthday. This one was really special because my mom and dad were able to come spend the weekend with us. It was the first time in 10 years I've spent my birthday with them!!

We watched movies, went to a Drive game (local minor league baseball team), walked around downtown, went to church, looked at some model homes, ate dinner downtown, ate hot & ready Krispy Kreme doughnuts (my birthday cake), and just had a really good time!

My parents have been to Greenville before, but have never visited Greenville. I think they were pretty impressed with the city :)

Here's a picture of my mom, me, Jack, and Luke's mom Sunday night after my birthday dinner downtown:

Tonight Luke and I went out on a birthday date...just the two of us!! He took me to PF Chang's, which was AMAZING! He also told me that in a couple of weekends, some of my girlfriends from Lynchburg are coming down for a girls weekend and he's taking Jack with him somewhere else (TBD) as part of my birthday present! I couldn't be more excited!!!!

Pure and Faultless Religion

A couple of Sunday's ago, we visited a church where the pastor shared James 1:27:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

When the pastor spoke about this verse, he focused on the part about looking after orphans. I was thinking about that sermon this afternoon and the part about looking after widows hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized that we have a sweet 86 year old widowed lady, Mrs. Jean, living in the condo right next to ours and although I speak with her every few days, I have not done a good job of "looking after her." Mrs. Jean loves our son Jack to pieces. She only has one daughter living in town that visits her once a week at the most. I thought about how lonely she must be and it made me want to cry. I felt so convicted that to look after widows is what God loves and wants from us, and I have failed to do so with the person I share a front porch with. Never once have I invited Mrs. Jean inside my home. Never once have I invited her over for dinner. I guess there's always some excuse like, "my house is messy" or "I haven't prepared anything great to eat," but I honestly don't think she would care one bit. I think she would enjoy our company more than anything in the world.

So, we hope to have Mrs. Jean over for dinner later this week and hopefully spend more time with her and do a better job of looking out for her in the future.

My challenge to you (and myself): God's Word clearly says that the religion He loves is when we look after orphans and widows (not going to church, not singing in the choir, not soaking up knowledge, etc., etc. - although all good things). What are you doing to look after orphans and widows in your life?

Potty Training???

A couple of weeks ago, Jack started telling me when he pooped. Not every time, but most of the time. So, I decided that even though Jack is still really young (20 months), we'd give potty training a shot. I haven't pushed it very much or even been really consistent with it because we've been out and about most mornings. I though he didn't really seem to interested in it or know how to control his bladder, so I was gonna call it quits. I figured he's too young for it anyhow. After his nap today, I decided to put him in big boy underwear one last time. He peed all over the den floor. But when I went to change him, he wanted to wear his underwear again instead of a diaper. A little while later, we noticed he was wet again, so I put him in a diaper. Later I went into the bathroom and saw that he had peed on the bathroom floor.....right next to his potty!! Maybe it was coincidence. But maybe I'll give potty training a little more time before calling it quits :)

Baby #2

I feel like our second pregnancy is so different from our first. When I was pregnant with Jack, we took pictures of my belly all the time and I would NEVER forget how many weeks pregnant I was. I guess we're just so busy keeping up with Jack that I forget to post much about Baby #2 on our blog! So, here's a brief update of what's been going on in my belly recently. I'm now 18.5 weeks pregnant. I've been feeling the baby move for a long time now and Luke's been able to feel the movements for a couple of weeks. The past couple of days, the baby must be doing some crazy somersaults or something because we've both been able to SEE my belly move when the baby does!! I haven't had another doctor's appointment yet. We're waiting to get our group and policy numbers with our new insurance. I have my first appointment down here scheduled for a couple of weeks. We should be getting another ultrasound soon, so more pictures to come (yay!)!!

Potty Time!!

I won't go into too much detail or post the picture that I texted to Jack's daddy and grandmas (and his Aunt Liz who didn't appreciate it ;) ). All I'll say is Jack pooped in the potty for the first time Friday and this is one proud mama!! Hopefully we can continue down the potty training road with some success :)