Worst. Blogger. Ev-a.

Yeah, that would be me. How does it get to be almost a month in between posts and me not even notice?? Time is flying by like crazy.

Since then, a lot of things have happened! The girls have started their schools and are loving it. Jaycee is such a big girl, going 5 days a week from 7:30-3! She is having a great time but she's so exhausted every day when she gets home. Joslyn is going to Mother's day out and having a blast! Here they are on their first day:

Jaycee with her teacher Mrs. Bridges at her orientation. She just loves her already!

Also, for the first time in 7 years, I am working! I am teaching at Mother's day out, along with my nursery work. I really do love it all. I love children and babies. I love all the people I work with. It has been quite and adjustment for all of us, mostly me. My body isn't use to doing so much, and I have been dealing with a lot of pain and fatigue. But i'm hoping it will get better as I get more used to it. I see the Dr next week and will discuss everything with him. I really hope I can continue to handle everything. After all these years of struggling to get by, I just want us in a comfortable position, and feel like I need to do whatever it takes to get us there. I often feel like the life I planned for was ripped away from me. I had a scholarship to college, was planning on getting a degree and a good job. Then all of a sudden, bam, i'm sick and everything falls apart. Do I still feel bitter about that sometimes? Yes, I do. I know I shouldn't. I should just trust that God has a plan for me, whether I can see it now or not. And I should just be happy with what I have. A roof over my head, a loving husband, beautiful healthy children. God always provides for us somehow, but it's still hard to not worry. If I could just work past this feeling of "it's not fair!"

Anywho, enough of my whining! Jaycee is back in gymnastics, and loving it as usual. She is getting pretty good! I am hoping that as she gets older she may like to compete. But of course I will leave that up to her.

Oh, and MOPS has started again! I am excited. I love all these girls, and it's so refreshing to just get some mommy time. I am so thankful we were able to find enough childcare workers. I was so stressed about it and feeling like a failure as moppets coordinator since I couldn't solve our problem. I hope and pray they all continue to come and help us! We had a lot of moms and a lot of kiddos so we need a lot of help!

Some other randomness:

I attended an event at our church called the girl within, with vicki courtney as our speaker and addison road leading our music. It was amazing! I went with a few girl friends and we had a blast together. I love these girls!!

After the conference addison road did a concert and I took Jaycee. She loved it! Here she is with her little friends:

And with the lead singer of addison road:

And now I really must tackle the laundry and this messy house.

Love to all-Jasmin.

B/c along with the good....

We must also remember the bad!

This has been quite a morning. My kids have the habit of letting me sleep in. Normally, I don't mind. They know where the granola bars are, so they get a snack and play together until I wake up. But today, Jaycee had other ideas. She has recently decided she really likes our dog rusty. I don't know for sure, but I think it might be b/c I have been telling her stories about how much rusty loved her when she was a baby. He was very protective of her and always wanted to be near her. It was weird for him, b/c he isn't exactly a loving dog. He was abused before we got him, and can be a little angry sometimes. But, never with her. He was fascinated by her.

Didn't trust daddy.....

or Rara.....guarded her door.....Stayed with her when she played...I have been telling her these stories lately, and she has become more interested in him. So this morning, Daddy took the dogs to the back yard before he left for work. After he was gone, Jaycee decided to stack up chairs and toys so she could reach the dead bolt lock in the door and open it to go out back and bring rusty in. Well, that part of her plan worked. Unfortunately in the process she let Elvis get out and run away. Elvis is more of a free spirit than rusty. He's very laid back, and sort of has no worries. Rusty doesn't even try to ever leave the yard without us. Elvis on the other hand runs at the first chance he gets. I don't know how much time passed between her letting him out and me figuring out what had happened. When I got up I went to take the dogs out thinking that Justin hadn't. When I couldn't find elvis I became suspicious, and dragged it out of Jaycee that she had let them loose!! So I threw the kids in the van and we drove around all morning looking for him. Finally, a neighbor saw me and said she she had seen the dog catcher pick up a dachshund. Oh great. So I called the city, and sure enough, Elvis had been picked up and taken in. They told me he was at Dr Singer's office in town, so I drove over there and busted him out of doggie jail. He was so very happy to see me! I believe I have mostly calmed down now after the scare. And I am committed to getting him some tags with his name and address on them very soon.

I just couldn't stand it if something bad happened to this guy.....

So after all that, I got every in the house safely and got us all some lunch. Then suddenly there is a knock on the door. My first thought is awe man, what did the dogs do now! I open it and there is a very young woman standing there holding 2 babies, an older one and a newborn. She tells me they have just moved in next door and don't have a phone yet and asks if she can use mine. I invite her in, and try to keep my girls from scaring her little boys. She called her husband I guess, and told him she had had an accident trying to move some furniture. She had dropped something and it landed on her foot and her cat, and her cat was squished :( When she got off the phone I asked about her babies. She said they were 2 weeks old, and just turned one year! Wow what a brave woman. I offered to come help her or watch the kids, but she just thanked me and left. I have been thinking about her and the babies ever since. I hope she has a better rest of the day....

Now, I have sat here blogging too long, and must go get ready for a busy evening. Gymnastics, dinner, then a steering team meeting. I'm praying we get everything lined up for MOP's!

Have a blessed day everyone-Jasmin

I'm exhausted.

There will probably be no pictures today. I am too tired to even find them.

We took our first trip to Branson over the weekend. We were actually supposed to take this trip last year, but my oh-so-graceful self broke my ankle a few days before and we had to cancel. So I was determined to go this summer! Justin was actually able to request the weekend off, whoohoo!

So yeah. Now we are home, and I am exhausted. I can barely remember all we did, it went so fast! And my house is a disaster, suitcases need to be unpacked, laundry needs to be done. And, the first day of school is quickly approaching. Pre-k for Jaycee, and Mother's day out for Jos. They both still need a few things to get started, and we have orientations etc. coming up. Oh, and MOPs stuff I need to get taken care of! So, I need to drag my exhausted stiff and achy butt up off this chair and get some work done! Soon, I'll be back with a full vacation post.

Ok, just a couple pictures to hold you over :)

The girls in the stroller shoppin at the outlets. The sun was in their eyes and they did not like it! I love this sit n stand stroller by the way.

In the candy store of the hotel.

Love to all-Jasmin

Summer random-ness

Well, so once again I have gone too long without blogging. What I had thought was going to be a very boring summer has turned out to be quite busy! With getting ready for Jaycee to start her school, her birthday, my birthday, gearing up for fall and all that involves. This post will probably be just a bunch of random desriptions of pictures I took for whatever reason.

I did try my best and find some enjoyable things about summer, even though the weather often felt like we had been relocated to the suraface of the sun. We were showed much kindness and generosity by several friends and family members giving us gorgeous things they had grown in their garden.

We also were given some peaches, but I didn't get a picture of them. We ended up with a ton of cucumbers all together, so I decided to try my hand at making pickles. It wasn't too difficult! I'm still letting them sit, we'll see if they taste good.
We were given a giant zuchini, and I decided to try and stuff it. Wow, was it ever huge! But it was really, really good. We ate it for 2 nights, and gave some to my mom and brother. I have heard this called zuchini boats, but my mother and I nicknamed this the zuchini ark.Cut in half, removed the seeds, stuffed with a meatloaf type mixture, then covered in mariniara sauce and cheese. Yum-oh!

I have also been spending a lot of time making trips so Danville, where my grannie still lives. This woman is the epitome of strength. She lost her husband, my grandpa, 20 years ago. She's had cancer twice, her house caught on fire, she worked till well past 80. She finally has admitted that it's not safe for her to live alone, so she is selling her house and moving to a nice place where she will be better taken care of. She offered for me to come to her house and go through things and see what I wanted and needed. I found a lot of things that I wanted, not bc they were valuable in the ways you would think, but b/c they meant something to me in relationship to her. For example this pot:Was purchased by my grandparents along with some other cookware over 60 years ago right after they got married. She was still using it to cook in. There is no telling the amount of potatoes it has boiled, and now, it continues to do so. How cool is that?

And ah yes, my birthday happened. First, I just want to say, that I thank God so much for giving me another birthday. There was a time when we didn't know if I would have another. But here I am, blessed beyond measure! Justin had been working a lot, as usual. He got off at 3pm on July 31st after working a 12 hr shift. He said he wasn't too tired for us to go out to dinner for my birthday, so we did! I wanted to go to fuji, b/c I love the food, and it's so much fun for the girls.

Jos eating soup:

Jaycee and daddy:

Then all I wanted afterwards was a snow cone. I have serious snow cone love. The girls enjoying theirs:

Sunday the 1st was my birthday. We went to church, which was wonderful as usual. Then to mom's open house at her sub-division. Mom is the realtor for cobblestone homes out in Williamson place off hwy 71. She sort of fell into the job by accident and is now doing awesome. They had an open house/family day on the afternoon of my birthday and we went and ate hamburgers and the girls got to see the ft smith Police. They got fingerprinted, toured the swat vehicle, and met the drug doggie.

Gettin their fingerprints

Then we had to head back home so Justin could get ready to go back to work. After he left, he called me and told me he forgot his dinner at home. I grudgingly told him I would bring it to him. After all, I had just listened to bro Ronnie preach about showing God's love, right? So we brought him his food, and I thought well since I didn't have a birthday cake, we will swing through braums on the way home and get an ice cream. So i'm driving, eating my ymmy ice cream, and feeling good about doing something nice for my husband, and all of a sudden SLAM! We were hit, the ice cream flies everywhere, and the kids are screaming. They start crying, I start crying, it was mayhem. The guy runs up to the window and tells me that oh, there is only a little ding, and asks me if I even want to look at it. I say um yes of course, and tell him we should pull over and get out of the highway. So I do, then he does, and speeds right past me!! A nice couple that was in the other lane saw the whole thing, and said they saw him texting on his phone when he hit us. Great. I called Justin, b/c um yeah I was driving his truck. He called the cops for me b/c I was so upset. They came out, took a look at everything, got all the info, and basically told me there was nothing I could do. The nice people that witnessed the whole thing stayed though and gave them their name and numbered and offered their help. At least some people still have a concience. By then I was angry, upset, and just wanted to go home and go to bed. We still had to the store, and then Justin calls me and says that his friend is bringing over a dog for us to dog sit for a month. Seriously?? I love dogs but at this point I can't take anything else. I have to admit I was a little miffed by the fact that he hadn't even given me a birthday card, or said happy birthday to me. I just kept telling myself oh, he's tired and so busy with work. I was finally able to crash into bed that night, and just wanted to forget the whole day. Then, the next day I walked into the kitchen, and saw this:

Cake, a dvd player for our room since we just got a new tv for in there, and a box of ice cream cones. On the card it says look in the freezer. I did and there was a tub of cookie dough ice cream. It took me a minute to figure out what he was trying to do. When we wrecked I was eating cookie dough ice cream in a waffle cone and it got splattered al over the truck, so he was replacing it for me. I forgave him for not giving me a card on my birthday :)

Just some random cuteness:

The girls have been begging for bunk beds so we finally did it. Here they are, so proud:

Jaycee, being Jaycee. "mama, take my picture with me posing cool on my skateboard!"

Out to lunch with mom one day at Bravo. MMMMM so yummy!

My brother and his girlfriend have moved back home and i'm so glad! We needed some yardwork done and they needed some work, so we hired them to help us out this weekend. The girls thought they needed to help too, it was so cute.

Ok I think that's it. I'm so ready for fall. Lot's of church activities, kids in school/mother's day out, MOPs group meetings. And cooler temperatures! I'm tired of sweating!

Love to all-Jasmin

Happy birthday Jaycee!

Today, my baby girl turned 4 years old. 4!! 4 seems so much older than 3. Like she's not a baby, or a toddler. She's a "kid". A Little girl. It's not so much that it makes me feel old. Ok yeah that is part of it. I will be 27 in a couple of weeks, 27!!!! That is like, way on the downside to 30......

Oh, yeah. Back to Jaycee's birthday, ahem. I just will always see her as my baby, my tiny little 5 lbs 15 oz red-headed chicken legged though cuddly baby.

6 months old
1 yr old

Lovin on baby sister, she was 17m old

2 years old

3 years old
And, 4 yrs old....

We had a great little party at the outback at flame gymnastics. She was surrounded by loving friends and family, and got so many nice things! As you all know, she is completely and totally obsessed with Toy Story. My mom has a friend who makes awesome cakes, and had her make Jaycee a Toy Story cake.

Isn't that adorable? Look at Woody's boot......

Talk about attention to detail, it says Andy just like in the movies!

Jos, Jaycee, Hannah, Isaac, and "Mrs. Wendy" as Jaycee says lol. Jaycee was so excited that Hannah came to her party. She still asks to go see Hannah!

Concentrating. It's tough to open all these presents!

Today was her actual birthday, and we didn't do much. The girls are still recovering from last week I think! I let Jaycee pick what we would have for breakfast. Then we met mom for Lunch, then came home for a nap. The slept till 5 o'clock! It's hard to be 4 I guess :) Then she got to pick dinner, and she asked for macaroni and cheese, and hot dogs. Yum lol! Then we had some cake that was leftover from the party, and mom brought some candles so she could blow out candles again. It was a great day, and I'm glad I got to spend it with my sweet special girl.

Jaycee, since the moment I found out I was pregnant, you were very special to me. The dr's had previously told me that it would likely be hard or impossible for me to have kids. You gave me so much hope, more than you'll ever know. B/c you defied the odds. You showed me that, I will have a life. I will have something to live and fight for. When you were born, I fell in love when I laid eyes on you. You even had red hair just like I knew you would :) Ever since I have felt fortunate just to know you, much less be your mom! You are so insanely smart. And you care so much about other people and their feelings. You are curious about everything and so eager to learn. You love your sister so much, and even try to protect her. As hard as it is to see you growing up and not being my baby anymore, I am loving seeing the wonderful person you are becoming. I love you so much, and always will.

Love to everyone-Jasmin

The 4th, elvis dog, and more.

Wow, yeah i'm not good at this blogging thing. I can't seem to keep up with writing enough! Maybe I just don't have much that is interesting to write about heh.

Right now, i'm sitting here in a quiet house with nothing to do. Why? My in-laws offered to take the girls home to dallas for a whole week! At first I was so excited. Then I started to think, oh wow, i'm going to miss them so much. And when I dropped them off in Oklahoma with them, I admit, I cried on the way home. This is the first time they have been away from me for more than 2 nights. And, they are 5 hours away! When I first got home, every time I would see a toy, or look in their room, it would make me feel like crying. Also Justin is working constantly, so I was feeling pretty lonely. But after the first day, I started to feel better. I started getting ideas for all the things I could do! Go shopping and plan for Jaycee's birthday party coming up. Get a pedicure, go out to eat in peace. Sleep late. I'm really enjoying my time now!

Last weekend was the 4th of July Holiday. We had a blast! Saturday we went to Prarie grove to Justin's aunt's house to swim. The girls were showing off, jumping off the diving board in their little life jackets.

We also had a wii bowling tournament, where Joslyn found a neighbor boy to latch herserlf on to. This kid is such a flirt! She also loves Dalton, Justin's cousin. Thankfully he's so sweet to her.

That picture was taken Sunday, the 4th. We were invited to Justin's brother Nick's house for food and fireworks. We took our blow up pool/slide for all the kids to play on. Mostly it was just Jaycee on it, imagine that! Joslyn did actually go down it willingly though, and last year she wouldn't do that.

Justin and his brother Nick

Jaycee and Memaw, Justin's step-mom

Jos and Aunt Rachel

My girls in their 4th of July shirts. I had a better pic on my phone, but I got a new phone so I don't have it anymore!

It was such a great weekend. I am so glad we decided to take the risk to move home from TN. Yeah, it has been rough, and we are still struggling. Justin's work schedule is always crazy, trying to make ends meet and pay bills. But when I was sitting there watching fireworks, seeing my girls sitting in their grandparents lap and surrounded by family, I knew we made the right choice.

Oh, in other big news, I have been sucked into the twilight craze. A group of girl friends are somewhat finatics (I mean that in a good way guys, you know I love you!) and I heard that they were going to see the triple feature on the opening night of eclipse. I sort of invited myself to go with them, and being the sweethearts they are, they said they would love for me to come! I had a blast hanging out with the girls, and actually liked the movies. Since everyone was telling me that the books are even better, and well I can't turn down a good book, I decided to read them. I started about 1.5 weeks ago, and am almost done with all 4 lol! It really did suck me in.

Oh also, we had bible school a couple of weeks ago! Our chruch is awesome and actually had a class for 3-4 yr olds so Jaycee got to go. I felt like I should help in some way, so offered to help Wendy with the nursery being kept for the worker's kids who were too little to go to VBS. I'm glad I went, b/c she ended up having more kids than she thought she would! We actually had a lot of fun, playing with the kids and getting to spend some time talking and hanging out. I feel so privilaged to be able to call her my friend, b/c she is an awesome person!

Next week Jaycee will turn 4. yrs. old. I seriously can't beleive it. It seems like just yesterday she was a tiny baby. Her party is saturday and she is so excited about it.

Oh, and elvis, our sweet doggy who we have had for 7 years now, had a little surgery yesterday. He had a problem with his ear we had to get taken care of. Thankfully, our Sunday school leader is a veterinarian and we took elvie to him and he did a wonderful job. Elvis seems to be feeling better now and is recovering, and enjoying getting a little spoiled by me since the kids are gone. I love this dog. He was my baby before I had actual babies. He is the sweetest thing ever. I am so thankful was now have a good vet to take care of him.

You can see the little staples in his ear. Poor thing. He is doing a lot better than yesterday, when he would just cry and his ear was bleeding.

Well, maybe I should go and actually try to get something constructive done today!

Love to all-Jasmin