It's Happening Again!

I love how God operates.

It wasn't even 2 months ago that Jimmy and I totally came to grips with Lindsay as our only child and here we are starting another journey of pregnancy! I am just so full of joy, shock, and amazement.

We went on a family vacation to see family! It was a great week and half of relaxation, lots of driving, and hours of memories with family we don't see. I am so grateful for the week we were able to spend with the Ridgleys, meeting my niece for the first time, and being able to feel my nephew move! What a great great time! Then we drove up to Port Huron, Michigan to see Jimmy's extended family. We had a great time visiting with them, sinking the paddle boat, and buying cute stuff at the flea market. By the time we came home I was exhausted!

On Thursday, July 8th, we were in Dollar General getting some more wipes for Lindsay and my stomach started to turn. Just for the heck of it we purchased a home pregnancy test and went home. Well I went to the bathroom and did my thing and it showed positive! Holy Cow! I was beaming, all I could muster out was, "Jimmy! You better come here!" We went to Women's Care Center on Friday, 7/9 and had them medically test for pregnancy and it came back POSITIVE! Yahoo!

We are totally beside ourselves, over joyed, and extremely happy! The Women's Care Center gave me a due date of March 10, 2011, which makes me 5 weeks 4 days pregnant! We are planning on having a Midwife for this pregnancy and are attending a "Meet and Greet" for the Midwives of Michiana tomorrow! I really want a water birth for this baby and am excited to find out more about it.

Lindsay is so excited to be a big sister. She says hi to the baby everyday and kisses it Good Morning and Good Night! She thinks now that everyone in our family has a baby in their belly, so she tries to kiss Daddy's baby and her baby night night too! It's too cute.

Jimmy is excited beyond words. He can't wait for March to get here already! However, he thinks that going to school will make the time fly by.

I'm only have nausea right now, and very tired spells. So I think I've been pretty lucky so far, Jimmy thinks that means it's a boy! Oh boy! haha I'm just waiting until next week, then I'll probably be sick!

The songs that are constantly in my head right now are:

Oh Happy Day!
Our God

Enjoy your day, I know I am!

Listening....

This week I've been amazed at how God has been talking to me. Okay so I have to be honest, I feel like my life is a never ending cycle of disappointment and busy-ness, therefore I don't take the time to sit down and read my Bible like I was so determined to do this year. So I've been surrounding myself with other medias to receive God's Word during the day.

I started to listen to Smart Talk 1270 about 3 weeks ago, just strictly for the Dave Ramsey Show but I've started to keep it on in the mornings before he comes on. During the 9:00 hour they play a program called Revive our Hearts, it's been very insightful this week. They've been running a series called What Your Husband Wishes You Knew About Being His Wife by Bob Lepine. I've really been convicted by the messages this week. The one they played on Tuesday was all about being your husband's cheerleader. That you should always encourage and uplift your husband....which I have not done over the last 2 years. I've been very close minded and selfish. Lately I've been comparing our current relationship to how it was in California, specifically when we lived in our second apartment for the year after Jimmy came back from deployment. I realized yesterday that I look back at that year as our "wonder year" because it was the year we both were excited about what we were doing outside the home, therefore we were excited to come home and share what happened. We were pretty financially set so we could just leave for the weekend and go to Vegas or San Diego if we wanted to, we were happy. And I think I didn't have to work to be a cheerleader, it was just natural. However, marriage isn't all just "happy" moments, it's not full of "wonder years" and I need to appreciate the hard times just as much as the "easy" times because it's during the hard times we learn to lean on each other and God more.

So I've decided to take the 30-day True Woman make over to better my relationship with God and my husband. I'm also hoping that it will help me appreciate my life, my family, and my circumstances more.

So Yes God I am listening.....and now I'm acting!

Lindsay Saying

I love that Lindsay is starting to talk and say things without being prompted. Here is a recent tale!

We got a puppy from the pound back in December. We thought he was a Golden Retriever, he was very pretty....

however, now that he's grown a little (okay A LOT) he's started to push Lindsay around.

We've been telling Lindsay she needs to stand up to Champ and show him who is boss! Here is the conversation she had with him the other day.....

I brought home a hat from work for Lindsay to play with. She took it outside in the backyard to play. A few minutes later she came inside without the hat to see what I was up to. I was doing the dishes and not paying attention to what was happening outside.

Lindsay yells, "Mommie, my haaaat, Mommie my haaat!"

Thinking the hat was just outside the door I gave her permission to go get the hat. I looked up to see her running across the yard to Champ, then I saw her hat was in his mouth! Lindsay was almost to Champ when I stepped out the back door and yelled at Champ, "Leave it!" Lindsay bent down and took the hat out of Champ's mouth....put it on her head....took two steps back. With one hand on her hip and the other pointed to her hat this is what she said:

"Puppy, No no no no, my hat, bad Puppy, bad Puppy. It's no no, my hat!"

And with that she was off! :)

Learning Moments

Have you ever had a moment when you realized that you weren't doing as great of a job at something as you thought you were? I'm stumbling upon that right now. I thought I was doing such a good job of teaching and guiding my daughter, and I've realized lately (really the last two days) that I've just been coasting through her life. I haven't been spending the time teaching her life lessons or how to act in situations. I've been lucky that she is naturally well-behaved, well I guess I've trained her a little in that area, but I haven't spent the time I should teaching her.

It's just been laying heavy on my heart lately. I've been spending so much time worrying about "me time" that I haven't been taking advantage of the "mommy/daughter" time that I so cherish. My new To-Do list:

1. Spend Quality Time with God.
2. Spend Quality Time with Lindsay, teaching her "life lessons" instead of putting on Puppies!
3. Re-enforce the good that my husband does, remind him that he is a crucial part to this family and that we appreciate everything that he does.
4. Have Lindsay help me outside....there's two reasons for that:
1) The yard needs picking up and flowers need to be planted.
2) Lindsay LOVES to be outside and run around (and it makes for pretty good nap times!)
5. Make Dinner :)

I hope you have a blessed day.
~Lauren

Growing Up!

My Little Lady is going to be 7 months old on Christmas?! What?! Can you believe it? It's crazy. Along with turning 7 months...she is standing on her own, well pulling herself up and hanging on to things standing. She just started crawling forward, she's mastered backwards crawling!

I can't believe that she is already doing these things, but I knew they were coming. She's been working really hard at doing them. However, she has yet to get a tooth....kinda crazy since she has been chewing on EVERYTHING for the last 2 months. But she'll have teeth for the rest of her life, she doesn't need them right now!

Here's Lindsay standing last night....she's such a little poser. She's been throwing her head back and smiling for the last 2 days....CRACKS me up! :)

Half A Year

So today is the day. Well okay not THE DAY, but 6 months ago today I was pushing my daughter out! I can't believe it. Lindsay has been around for half a year already! It's just flown by. Actually this whole year has flown by, which given everything that has happened this year, I'm glad it's flown by.

Lindsay went to the doctor's office on Friday. She weighs 17 lbs and is 27 inches long. She is in the 80th percentile for both height and weight. So I've got a good sized baby, we think she's going to be tall....just my luck, all my kids will be taller than me by 6th grade! :) After her doctor's appointment on Friday she got sick. She's all stuffed up and can't breath :(.

We leave for Grandma Helen's in the morning. The last time we were there was in January, when Mary died. It's been almost a year, CRAZY!!! So I hope this weekend won't bring up all those feelings and we'll be able to enjoy our time.

Regret and Forgiveness

Mistakes. People make them, and others don't understand. When do people think it's okay to pass judgement or expect people to not make mistakes? The only perfect person that has ever lived was Jesus Christ. Beyond that people make mistakes.

I am troubled with a situation. A friend of mine came to me with a problem, she also told a few others, who didn't react the way she thought they would. Some people believe that you shouldn't give blanket forgiveness in fear of it looking like acceptance.

I would like to bring in exhibit A. If you read 2 Samuel you will come across the story of David and Bathsheba. When David committed the crime of adultery he wanted to cover it up, and then when he couldn't he had the husband of Bathsheba killed so he could take her as his wife. Although David made this mistake he is still looked at as the most spiritual/Godly person in the Old Testament. My point is, when David first committed the sin, he wasn't sorry for it. It wasn't until later when he had to face the consequences of his actions was he repetitive for his sin.

So I close this post with this....I cannot pass judgment on this situation because I've been there. And at this point in the game, I didn't fully understand the consequences of my sin, but later I did and I repented. Therefore I will be here for my friend and I will listen and encourage until she is at a point to understand the consequences. And then I will be there when she needs to repent and move on. I encourage others to do the same. I don't approve of the sin, nor do I accept it as being okay, but I will give forgiveness to someone that needs it and needs God guidance at this time.