Really--I'm extremely busy!

Ok, so I've only been EXTREMELY busy for maybe two weeks now, but it's an excuse that I intend to embrace. I go to school Monday-Thursday now, but am very blessed to have an amazing teacher who allows me to do work from home on Monday and Wednesday. I still have to be there for an hour and a half on those days, but it's only about 3 hours total away from my children. On Tuesday/Thursday I'm at school from 8 to 3, but the kids are in preschool at church. They LOVE it. Joel is already saying Sawwie at home, he loves Ms. Sallie already. Aurora also loves her teacher and the fact that her worm always stays on the red apple. I'm so glad she finds such joy in the fact that she is well-behaved (at school).

Joel is talking more and more. I've had the darndest time trying to get him to say anthing. He would say "uh uh," "mommy," "dada," "shoes on," and "please." That's about it. He will sign a little more than that, but mostly, that's it. After preschool started, he's been talking a whole lot more. He's been saying "Sawwie," "sleep," "Rora!," and "Sissy," to name a few. I love that being around more kids his own age seems to have opened him up. He is so smart and being in that environment seems only to help him. He also moos and barks. It doesn't matter what animal it is, he'll either say "moooo" or "arf!" It's too cute. I also love that he's starting to look like a little boy rather than a baby. It makes me so excited.

Aurora is just loving having kids her own age at school, as well. She is usually around her Aunt Andrea and Aneva, or Joel. So the age difference is quite significant. I think she's doing quite well with her social skills. She really wants to join dance classes, but I'm not so sure if we're going to do that or not. I really need to look in to that pretty soon. I don't think her daddy is going to be for that this year. I've already bit off more than I can chew.

I'm a horrible mother! I never take pictures of my kids. It's so hard to get any pictures of Joel without him running and grabbing the camera, resulting in blurry pictures. I just pretty much gave up. I'm going to take them to Sears soon and get some more done there, but other than those, I've got nothing! I took a picture of Aurora on the first day of school and Hillary has one of Joel with his teacher, but I don't know which card those are on, so it may be a while until they get posted.

We've started a ladies Bible study on Esther. I think I'm going to like it. I did my day one stuff this morning and so far, so good. It really makes me miss the times when I used to jump into the Word, so glad I have something to keep me doing that. I started teaching the PreK and K class on Wednesday nights, they are a FUN bunch, and I really mean that. They are so well-behaved and just sweet. They all seem to get along really well too, I haven't had any arguing, just laughing. They all laugh at themselves, at each other, at me, etc. I just love hearing these 4-6 year olds laughing. I am so blessed to have them, even though I'm TIRED by the time class starts. I'm excited to see what our Sunday morning class will bring. I don't know which one I'm going to, but I hope that it is good.

We have a lot of people coming up this weekend, so I have to go and be lazy for the rest of the evening so I can get some stuff DONE tomorrow. I'm so excited to see what God is doing in our lives this year, I pray it's something good.

><>In HIM<><

I haven't posted on here in a while and I'm not about to pretend like I'm going to "try to to better." No one reads it, anyway!

Joel is almost 14 months old, how the time flies! He is signing "more," "please," and an occasional "thank you." He will also say some words, but really, not much is audible, he babbles more than any baby I've ever seen. He will have whole conversations with you in his own language and really be trying to tell you something, it's amazing. If only I understood him... Joel has all but 3 teeth in all the front, so I guess that's a total of 12 or 13.

Aurora had her last T-ball game yesterday. She really improved over the season, but I don't feel like it was worth my money, she didn't learn a whole lot. She's wanting to start dance next, perhaps I will sign her up. She's doing really well with her writing, and I know if I sat down with her more she'd be full fledged reading and writing now, but really I don't help enough. She is really quite intelligent for her age and understands more than most 4-year olds. (Maybe I'm biased) Being around a bunch of older people I guess helps learning. She is going to be a flower girl in Alley's cousin Sarah's wedding in 2 weeks. Then in October, she will be flower girl in Alley's other cousin, Amber's wedding.

I finished my first semester of school with flying colors, or maybe not. I got all A's and one C, dadgum math! I hate math. Have I ever mentioned that? I mean, seriously, who friggin cares how to figure out retirement? I ADORED my English class and cannot wait to start Fresh Comp II. I have a class I'm starting on Tuesday/Thursday nights for ASL all summer, June 1 through July 30. Then, at the beginning of July, I start my Fresh Comp II class. In the Fall, I have classes Monday through Thursday, hopefully. I have to find someone to watch my children on Tuesday/Thursdays since Bonnie already offered Mon/Wed help. I was going to put them in Tues/Thurs school at my church, but there is no room for Joel. UGH! That makes me so sad, I don't know what I'm going to do. I may have to stay in school for an extra semester. I will pray that the Lord will provide someone. I've been in worse situations.

Anyway, enough babbling, I'm beginning to sound like Joel!

Have a blessed Day!

><>In HIM<><

School, My Birthday, and everthing else...

It's been over a month since I've blogged. I don't really have a lot of time, although if I didn't get on Facebook or Myspace I'd have some to spare. ha. Well, I am taking 16 hours of classes this semester. I get shocked looks everytime I tell people this, though I don't know why. My 2 hardest classes, Freshman Composition (which I LOVE) and Contemporary Liberal Math (whatever that's supposed to mean) are online, so I have a week to do everything and I've been working ahead of schedule anyway. I have 3 classes on Campus: Deaf Culture, ASL II, and Fingerspelling/Numbers. I find Deaf Culture fascinating and love the class. It's mostly lecture and we watch videos and answer questions at home. Though, those are due once a month, so I have plenty of time for it. ASL II require a little bit more homework, but mostly, it's easy because I know most of it. I'm learning some new stuff, but mostly I'm being reminded of signs I've forgotten. My Fingerspelling/numbers class is separated to fingerspelling on Mondays and numbers on Wednesdays. Fingerspelling is easy. I'm pretty good at reading it, and doing it, so hopefullly I won't have too much trouble there. Numbers class is requiring us to video tape ourselves a lot. But mostly, it's easy. Lucky for me, all 3 of these classes I have on Mondays and Wednesday 8-2. I have an hour for lunch in there too. So, I get to be home with the kiddos every other day of the week. It's really good for me to be able to get out and do something. I've been wanting to go to school and I finally picked something to go for. I should be a Sign Language Interpreter in 2 years. I hope to one day, maybe, teach sign language in school, or maybe teach deaf children. I'm not big on teaching oral to them, though, and that's what Baylor requires when you take their program.

Let's see, I'm 23 now. My birthday was fantastic. I got a pair of BRIGHT yellow shoes from Hillary. THANK YOU! They are awesome high heels and very vibrant. My mother in law got me a TI-84 calculator...very much needed, a great gift. And my marvelous hubby got me what I wanted the most, an undermount radio for my kitchen. I LOVE IT. He kept telling me he wasn't going to get me what I wanted because he didn't get what he wanted for his birthday. (I LOOKED EVERYWHERE, PEOPLE!) But, when I got home, lo and behold, there is my new radio! I was so excited.

Joel is FULL OUT walking now...more like running. The boy only walks when he's mad. If there is food within like a 10 foot radius, he will sprint for it. He is so funny. He makes word sounds when I tell him things like "banana" and "food" but still isn't good at mimicking them. I think he's a bit behind Aurora on that aspect. But that's okay, no two babies are alike, right? But really, he's doing great developmentally. Physically, he's a bit on the hefty side, but he's just a big boy, he's happy and that's what matters. He loves popping his lips for food or kisses. I think it's funny how it's the same for him for either. He's still very huggy. If you pick him up, he will just grab you around your neck and squeeze. It's so sweet, the sweetest hugs I get.

Aurora is starting Tee Ball this year. She has tryouts this Saturday and then they will pick her team on the 29th. I signed up to be a coach, but I have no idea if they'll need me. I hope they do because I know I'd like to coach as they get older.

I'm super excited about the kid's birthday this year. I know it's still 2 months away, but I'd like to have the party at my house, and since it's not quite finished yet, 2 months isn't much time. I'm hoping a lot of my family can come up. My aunt said she probably would, but I don't know for sure. Lucky her, her best friend paid to take her on a 2 month trip to Australia and New Zealand. I'm way jealous, I've always wanted to visit Australia. I can't believe my babies are going to be 4 and 1. It just hardly seems possible.

Anyway, I'm rambling on and probably not making much sense. I know my grammar is probably awful throughout this whole mess and that's because I'm just writing what I'm thinking. So I'm out for today!

No Title

Well new year, new blog. Same old, same old that everyone else is doing. I do this for my benefit though, to remember the things I KNOW I won't several years from now (or even months in my case). Or, I use it to point things out to Alley, like the fact that Aurora had more teeth than Joel at this point, he didn't believe me, so I pulled up her blog and WHAT DO YOU KNOW!? Mommy is ALWAYS right! (Men, don't you forget that!)
So Joel is almost nine months old now, on the fourth to be exact. He's been able to take one or two steps for a while now, like a month or so, and has been pulling up on things for about 3 months. But here in the last week he is really going. He's discovered he can walk from object to object and it doesn't have to be just to someone. He has six teeth that are adorable and I believe 2 more are trying to make their entrance. He says "bye bye" "mama" "dada" and "hi." He absolutely LOVES to give hugs, but only when he wants them, if you want them, too bad. He also loves giving kisses to his mommy, though I don't like it as much as he does. He ADORES his big sister. She is so great with him. They can just laugh and laugh at each other for NOTHING, it's pretty funny. Though, Aurora thinks she's the boss. That could lead to some trouble, eventually.

So now that we're on Aurora, she is a HANDFUL...but in a good way. She is a very smart girl. She can write her name (for a year now) she can read and write some simple words, like Cat, Hat, Cow, Dog...etc. She's doing amazingly well. I think she could read more if I sat down with her some more. She writes her ABC's and practices every day, so writing isn't the problem at all, it's the sounding them out. And the only ones she has a problem with I never thought about. C's, K's and Ch's and S's confuse her. She understand that an S says SSSS but when a C says it, she gets confused. and when a C sounds like a K and CH what is that!? But she'll learn, I guess those are the words you just have to memorize. On top of being smart, Aurora is bossy. She knows she's smart which makes her bossy. She uses her "logic" on us all the time. "Well, since I'm 3 now and I'm turning 4, I won't have to listen to what you say when I turn 4." Or, "Since Joel is just a baby, I can boss him around and tell him what to do." What I find extremely hilarious, is that here lately, she says "eh" after everything. "you love me, eh?" HAHA it is too funny. I guess she's been hanging around Canadians, or perhaps watching Brother Bear way too much.

There are some little things about each of my kids. I could go on and on about both of them, especially Aurora. Her personality has just BLOSSOMED over the last year. As for Alley and I, well we are doing well. We love being parents and love being together. We still have our differences at times, it would be dishonest to say we don't, but we are MUCH better at working through them together.

I am still planning on starting school in the Spring, have everything turned in, just have to go get registered on the 6th and perhaps have to take the math portion of the Accuplacer. BLAH! But, that shouldn't take more than the one day. I have a orientation on the 7th and classes start the 12th. I'm planning on 12 hours at the moment, but 9 of them will be online and one of those is a class that will be over in March. Hopefully, I can still get in those classes. They are all pretty much classes I'd need for anything (English, Speech, Computer, and Psychology), but I am planning on doing Sign Language Interpreting. But I have a hard time making up my mind on things, so hopefully I can stick with it. It's something I've loved and been good at for a long time now, so I think it'd be best. Not to mention, I prayed about it, and that's what I believe I was called to do. I kind of found that out at a church camp called Youth WAVE when I was in high school, but I don't think it was time for me to go to school yet. God has a plan for me and has had all along.

Praise the LORD for his blessings.

This post isn't much about my beautiful children, while they are absolutely ADORABLE and PERFECT! I love them so much. I will dedicate a post to them later with pictures. This post is more to share because I want to share something I found wonderful!

It never ceases to amaze me when God shows me something so clear. When I left Alley, I was depressed and bitter. I maybe left him for a little longer than I should have, but the Lord did not let me run away from Him. He yelled and YELLED at me until I turned my life down enough to listen.

Ok, now about this amazing thing. I was upset one day because I have a hard time forgiving myself for the things I did. Anyway, for some reason we were reading Isaiah in church, and I decided to read on my own for some reason. I was praying through communion about getting help to forgive myself, and here is what I got:

For your Maker is your husband— the LORD Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.
6 The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit— a wife who married young, only to be rejected," says your God.
7 "For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
8 In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer.
9 "To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again.
10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Ok, so not exactly talking about a person here, however, it was just what I needed to hear at that point in time. It was a verse in Isaiah ALSO about Zion that I received when I was praying about going back to Alley. Anyway, I just love when I get answered prayers that I can HEAR.

Whether that made sense to anyone but me, I don't know, nor care. I just wanted to document it somewhere so I wouldn't forget...and maybe my words are meant for someone else to see. There is no such thing as coincidence nor "accidents." God divinely orchestrates EVERYTHING, whether you want to believe it or not.

Picture Update

I promised I'd come back, didn't take me tooooo long! Hope you enjoy!

The House (still not 100%, but close!)

The kiddos!

Currently, I am trying to upload and resize all the pictures I want to post. But before I get to that, let me share with you how GREAT my night was last night...

Joel decided to wake up every hour crying and wanting to nurse...so I finally caved in and just let him nurse, all STINKING night long! That's right, my fat boy probably just got fatter, and I don't care. My sanity is far more important at the present time.

I am trying to figure out why God gave me a semi-difficult baby. Aurora was so good, I mean, occasionally she would cry for teething, but this is the second night in a row Joel hasn't slept well. I thought maybe he was teething, but I guess not, nothing has cut through yet. OH please pray that the Lord will teach me what he needs to without losing too much sleep. Maybe he figures fatigue is a good thing for me? I don't know. I'm sure there is something to learn.

On the subject of listening to God, I prayed about moving here before we did. I had a feeling we should and knew things would work out to our advantage if we did. I have yet to figure out why. Maybe losing Dillon and getting to spend time with him was part of it, but there has got to be more. I feel it. Anyway, pray that I can hear His plans for our life.

I went to a beautiful wedding on Saturday. Ryan and Stacy wrote their own vows and had a really cool wedding all around. I absolutely LOVE how they put God first in their lives and love each other BECAUSE of Him. It's beautiful. Reminds me of why I married Alley in the first place.

Okay, back to the pictures...will put a new post up with them in a bit.

God Bless!

><> In Him <><

Why do I seem to take month long sabbaticals from writing in here? That is the right word, correct? Sabbatical? That means a long break, yes? Man, I hope I didn't just sound really dumb. ha So, I guess I should update where the heck I have been.

In the past, I felt the need to write down all my thoughts, good and bad. Here lately, I haven't felt the need to write at all. Crazy, seeing as how it was once my absolute favorite thing to do. I want to get back in the habit, but I don't know if I will, so no promises. I have been neglecting Aurora's blog as well and still haven't added Joel to it. I'm going to try to change the address to auroraandjoel. We shall se if I can.

First, I will start from where I left off. Well, sort of. I was five months pregnant with my beautiful baby boy. I had a miserable pregnancy, that lasted even longer than my first. I also waited to find out the sex again. So on April 4, 2008 at 11:24 pm, after 27 hours of horrible labor, Joel Xavier was born. He was a whopping 9 lbs and was 21" long. He came looking exactly like Aurora.
A few days after Joel was born, the 16th to be exact, Aurora turned 3 years old. What a momentous occasion. I don't think I've ever seen her that proud of herself.

Since then, I've been trying to finish our house and juggling two children. Aurora is a good kid, don't get a lot of trouble out of her, and Joel, well, he's a fussy baby.

Alright, well here are some more recent pictures of my beautiful family, the kids anyway.

Guess that's all for now. I have some pics on my camera I need to upload. I have to do that on a different computer, so I will do that later. I also will post some before and after pictures of the old house.

<><><>

Spirituality

Alley and I got in a discussion last night on religion and spirituality and why we feel the way we do about it. Strange thing to discuss after 3 years of marriage, but it was a very good conversation. I find myself having a hard time actually studying the Bible. Between Aurora going "hey mommy, mommy" and my brain just not functioning due to what I'm going to call "pregnancy," Bible studying is a very difficult task for me.

I realized something when we were talking last night, it's not really the first time I couldn't focus. I don't know if it's because I didn't grow up in the church or if I just didn't pay attention in school, but memorization is something that just does not come easy to me. My "religion," is my faith. By faith, I mean solely the intimate, spiritual relationship I have with my Father God. While it's good that I have that relationship and can prove it to myself, it hardly will work to evangelize.

When it comes to others asking me advice or about Jesus and God, I can only go so far with the Good Book. There comes a point in a conversation where I have to lead them to someone else or simply say "well I'm going to have to pray on that for a while." While this can be both good and bad, it's all I can do. And while some people, even very intelligible people, don't believe God can talk to you, I'm living proof of His voice. If it weren't for His voice and consistency in my life, I would not be where I am today. I would not be back with my husband, I wouldn't have married him in the first place, I wouldn't have a beautiful little girl and another on the way, I wouldn't have some of the friends I have now. I am very scared to think of where I would be if He had not spoken to me.
Anyway, I just wanted to share my lack of intellectual knowledge on this fact. If you need to know where a certain verse is....ask my husband. If you need to know how to be still and listen to His voice....that is my department. Seems like we make a pretty good team, even though I am way more attractive. ;-) haha

><>In HIM<><

Catching up

Alley came home from India today so I've been out in Baytown visiting my family. It was a lot of fun getting to spend time with my parents. I also got to see the ever so lovely Lois Snead. She has got to be the most amazing woman ever. I absolutely LOVE her with all my heart. Anyway, my trip was fun and Alley's was interesting to say the least. He sure did seem to have fun with the orphan kids though...I will be posting pictures soon. I'm also going to be working on adding some stuff to Aurora's blog. I need to keep hers up so that I can make another one for baby #2. I'm so excited I could burst.

I went to the midwife yesterday morning. I pretty much am healthy except I am Rh-negative, so we have to run some tests to see whether or not I have to give birth in a hospital or not...I am hoping NOT! Also I am measuring 2 weeks ahead, but apparently that is normal in second pregnancies. I have also been instructed to take a B Complex vitamin b/c I was low on that. anyway, I'm taking care of what I can and hoping for the best with the Rh crud.

Alright, I'm out for today!! much love to all!


><> IN HIM <><