Looking Forward to 2012

Happy New Year, friends! This year was FULL of ups and down. I just wanted to post some photos so I can both remember and reflect on this past year.



{went to the Sugar bowl; celebrated Tyler's 26th birthday; met Pioneer Woman}



{Tyler's Meme went to be with Jesus}



{met some wonderful blog/twitter friends}



{my friend, Sarah, had sweet baby Charlie!}



{we went to Shreveport for the wedding of Greg and Carly}



{my friend, Rachel, had sweet Bella. And I was there the whole time. I was the 2nd person to hold Bella, she's got a special place in my heart}



{we went to the beach with our family}



{I told Tyler he was going to be a daddy; after we lost our sweet baby, my friend sent me a gorgeous memory pendant}



{we vacationed in Maryland}



{and Washington DC}



{our wonderful nieces were born!!}



{Lauren came to Arkansas!!}



{celebrated Halloween with some of my funniest friends}



{built a fort with my awesome class, I love my job!}



{worshipped together at the Hillsong Live concert, it was amazing}



{went to see the lights at Garvan Garden!}



{had coffee with Becky! Love this girl}



{decorated for Christmas with our little tree}



{celebrated Christmas Eve and morning with our awesome church, and Bella boo made an appearance}



{enjoyed Tyler having Christmas day off!}

Here's to a wonderful 2012! I truly can't wait to see what this year holds.

My verse this year is Lamentations 3:22-24
"The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him!"

Don't Judge Me, pretty please.

For real, don't judge the before pictures of what I'm about to share. :)

A little backstory, I may have shared this when we moved in, but I can't remember. Our renters were filthy and quite destructive. But one of the worst spots was my kitchen stove. It was black. The problem? It's a white stove. We have SCRUBBED this thing with everything we could think of. We scrubbed for 2 straights hours when we moved in. Tyler has taken SOS pads and knives to this sucker. It's bad. I finally gave in, I knew it was sanitized and decided I was just going to have to live with it.

Until today. My friend Ashley posted on Facebook and on twitter this "miracle" cleaning helper. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it out. And I'm posting here in case someone else is as in the dark as I have been.

This miracle? Baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Now for the stove, I used baking soda and water because I wasn't sure if HP was flammable, but decided not to risk it. Without further ado... Here is the result!





Now I know this is not exciting to everyone, but for us it's amazing!

I decided to also try it on my mixer, this yuck is not left over from a year. Ha! It's just been the last week. I baked A LOT recently and it got filthy.


I feel like my life has been changed!! My most important "job" is as a homemaker, and anything to make that job easier is such a blessing!


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12 Days of Christmas: Husband Style

I wanted to do something special for Tyler for Christmas this year. I got the idea to do a year worth of date nights this summer and it transformed into the 12 days of Christmas. Tyler has loved it! I am so glad. Ive been searching for awhile for things that came in packages, but I knew a few things would be baked in my kitchen because this sweet Love of mine has a sweet tooth like no other. Here is the list of Tyler's 12 days of Christmas!



{a sweet tree under our tree- this was a truffle from a local boutique}



{2 bicycle socks}



{3 cookie dough bites- I found a package of Mrs. Fields cookie dough bites in the Target dollar spot and they just happened to be in a set of 3}



{4 Reeses trees}



{5 razors- the boy needed new razors, I usually put a pack in his stocking, but since I found a 5 pack I made it work}



{6 ice cold beers- here's where we made a detour into the redneck days of Christmas. Ha! Fresh Market let's you mix and match beer, so I got him 6 different beers I thought he would like}



{7 reasons I love you- goodness knows I had to be cheesy at least once}



{8 nerf gun darts- this day came with a bonus}



{day 8 was by far my favorite. He had the day off and pretty much all we did was have nerf gun wars, it was SO fun - and I won}



{9 gold coins-boring, but it was a 9 pack}



{10 snowflake cookies- I made rolled sugar cookies}



{11 chocolate chip cookies- his favorite}



{12 days of date nights- the big one! It took me so long to come up with 12 different and unique date nights. I printed up "coupons" with a little poem or joke to go with each date and then included a gift card for said date night}

He loved it all. He actually just said "I want to formally give you two thumbs up for the 12 days of Christmas." haha!

Tonight I'm excited to celebrate the birth of our Savior with my church family and tomorrow with our immediate family!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours! Remember what the season is all about!

Proud.

We've had a tough year. This is no secret. We've tried our best to be above it all. And we've gotten through, barely. A lot of the year, I just kind of felt like we were being, not living. Does that make sense? We lived in the same house, yet rarely slept in the same bed at the same time. I can count on one hand the times we've had dinner together in our home in the last 3 months. Tyler has been working away from home at least 70 hours a week, most of it for school. His actual school work has taken up every other ounce of free time he's had. He's worked his booty off to do well and it has paid off. He's graduating. Finally.

I really can't tell you how good it feels to say he's done. I am so excited to have my husband back. I need him here with me. He needs me.

Proud isn't near strong enough a word to say how I feel about him today. He's pretty amazing. And I'm glad the Lord made him for me.

"Commit to the Lord, whatever you do and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3

Home.

We arrived home late last night and are SO not ready to be home! We had such a good time being together for an extended period of time. It's been awhile. I'm going through the 1100 pictures we took to post a few, but wanted to share these from my phone!



We spent Saturday evening in Baltimore and went to the "date night" event that the aquarium put on. It was magnificent. No kids, no annoying parents trying to discipline their kids. Beer, wine and German food. And sharks. Divine.



Delicious mint mocha and pumpkin muffin from Ebeneezers!



We stayed a block and a half from The Capitol! It made for some lovely evening strolls.



Also, while we were gone our nieces were born! We are going to meet them tonight when Tyler gets out of school!! I love them already!



I also had this necklace from my friend Lindsay waiting on me when I got home. I adore it. Such a sweet reminder of our Bluebaby.

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October 15th

Tomorrow is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I wish I weren't someone with a story. But my story is so fresh. The loss is so new with me. With us.

I had a miscarriage Monday, October 3rd. I was 6 weeks, 5 days pregnant with our first child.

The loss is unimaginable. I know people who have lost babies, I have said "I am sorry, I'm praying for you." to all of them. And that is 100% the truth. But, I had NO idea how much they were actually hurting. No clue of the loss and heartache they were actually going through. I wish I were still oblivious.

I'm still hurting. I'm sure I will be hurting for a very long time. We were SO happy to be pregnant. I'm afraid I will never have that pure joy and excitement ever again. I've been told that I will. I'm not a place that I can share everything. I don't know if I ever will. And that's okay.

Tyler has been so strong. But I have had to remember that I am not the only one mourning. Tyler is sad, too. He doesn't know the physical pain, but he has emotional pain. I have to remind myself that I'm not the only one hurting in our home.

I am SO thankful for the friends and family I have. They have been absolutely amazing during the last 2 weeks. Amazing. I know I am not alone. We have felt so much love and support from everyone. I hope that you will never have to go through this, but if you do I pray that you have support all around you.

I'm also thankful for our Lord. I don't know how people get through so much pain without Him. I know we couldn't have. We have had so many amazing people praying for us and we know it's helped.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12

One last thing, please know this wasn't posted to get sympathy. I merely want to share part of our story. Until I told a few people, I had no idea how common this was. It doesn't make it hurt any less, but it is good to know I'm not alone. Other people have been exactly where we are now. They've gotten through it. I will get through it. Other people after me will also get through it.

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More than 140 Characters

We are in Washington, D.C. and we just left the George Washington Masonic Monument.



A little backstory: Tyler has cerebral palsy. He has had a lot of surgery in his short 26 years. The majority of his surgeries happened at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Shreveport. They wear hats.

As we are touring the Shriners room in the Memorial my sweet, dear, hilarious husband says "well that explains the damn hats. Those things scared me all my life."

Apparently no one explained the men in hats to Tyler. Ever.

He just thought there were creepy men in hats. He had no idea they were the wonderful men paying for his surgeries. Bless him.


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My Dirty Little Secret

Ok, so its not dirty and its not a secret. But it does have adverse reactions from A LOT of people. It is something I feel very strongly about. 

duh. duh. duh.

Car Seat Safety.

And since it is National Child Passenger Safety Week, I decided I should just man up and finish this post... that has been in my drafts for a month (or more).

I know. I'm not a mom. It's weird that I care, but I DO. Oh so much. I have a car seat I keep in my car full time in case I have to take kids anywhere. It is installed rear facing. All of the kids I watch are over 1, most over 2. See a trend? Extended rear facing. It's the way to go. The law says 1 year and 30 pounds. But that is not anywhere close to best practice. Your child is 500% safer rear facing until 2 years old. I rear face to the limits of a seat, because no matter what, they are always safer rear facing. The newest recommendation (that car seat people have known for a long time) is to rear face until 2 OR your child outgrows their convertible seat. Two years old is the new minimum. 

(in case this isn't obvious, my seat does get turned if the child exceeds the RF limits of my TrueFit)

Car seat safety is a personal decision. But your children will be safer the longer they rear face. Period. I got some flack (actually, I didn't, someone just tweeted a link to my blog, but didn't have the guts to tag me in it) for RFing a three year old... who was SOUND ASLEEP, but looked uncomfortable. First of all, not uncomfortable at all. Second of all, I'll take uncomfortable legs over a broken neck any day. 

Chest clip usage is an issue I see pretty often. It's a chest clip. I feel like that is self explanatory. But apparently some people (and advertisers - looking at you TARGET) seem to think it is a belly clip. It's not. It can cause internal damage in a crash. It needs to be over the chest. About nipple/arm pit line. Another issue I see frequently is loose harness straps. That car seat isn't going to do what it is supposed to do if the harness isn't tight. The child could go flying out of it. 

One other thing I want to mention is expiration dates. Car seats do expire and you should not use a car seat after its expiration date. Check your seat for the date of manufacture and check your manual for the expiration time. It's usually around 6-8 years. 

I read and talk about car seats all day. I am waiting on the CPST course to start. I care. I have experience. I know what I'm talking about. If I don't know an answer, I have some of the best CPSTs in the country that I can ask anything to and get that answer. Please get your car seats check by a CPST. They know what they are doing and will make your children as safe as possible. 

Here are a few links that I would love for you to check out. Get informed. Know and do what is best for your child. 

http://www.joelsjourney.org/

SafeKids.org

USA Today article

Extended Rear Facers

Older and taller Rear Facers

List of CPSTs on carseat.org

Failure. Of the temporary kind.

alternate titles: 

"The Devil is a Jerk"

"I want to Punch a Wall"

"The hate the *#&$^!&# Devil with Every Ounce of My Being"

"Thank God for Good Friends that say Yelling & Screaming is Okay"

You all know we are on the road to fostering, right? Well? That road has just hit a detour. I haven't posted much about it, because we just weren't sure, but after discussing with the director of the agency, we know that we don't have another option. 

We live in an old house. We knew that certain things needed to be done before we could get certified. We've been working on getting these things done for a long time. Well, we were told last week that WAY more than expected has to be done. Like 10-20 grand more. 

In the last 3 weeks we have found out that we aren't "updating" our roof, we are now replacing the entire thing. We aren't just putting new floors down, we are replacing the subfloor and fixing the foundation. We aren't hanging 2 new doors, we are ripping out the trim of 4 and replacing them all. The bathroom reno we've been doing? It's on hold until the floor is fixed. 

After talking to the director and praying over the situation we have decided its best to wait until the next session to get certified. We can't pass certification without all of these things done.

Now I'm going to go cry some more. 

Tyler's vlog

I convinced him. Ha! A few things. You know I have to give a disclaimer! Haha!
First, he literally just woke up. As in, he popped out of bed and I said "you wanna do a vlog? Brad did it! You have to!" haha! Second, I don't think his accent shows very well. But it's still funny. Third, this is his second try. Because sometimes he has a potty mouth. And last, it's ridiculous.

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Accent Vlog time, yo

Hi y'all! Long time, no see! Ive got to get our vacation pictures up here, but am still sorting through them! We had a blast, though! For now, I'm going to do the accent vlog that is going around. Jenna has it all on her blog, so go over there to see everyone else's!

Word of warning. Ive got a cold and it's early. I look and sound rough! Also, I just recorded and uploaded, so Im acting a fool in part. Haha! No editing. Obviously. Please forgive me. :) And I say umm. a lot.

The instructions are to say these words:
Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught


And answer these questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?

What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?

What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?

What do you call gym shoes?

What do you say to address a group of people?

What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?

What do you call your grandparents?

What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?

What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?

What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

And I totally just realized I forgot to say "sure" oops!

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My Baby Brother is 22.

I honestly cannot believe we are adults. Real adults. Pay your own way, make your own decisions, adults. Scary.

We had Matthew's birthday lunch at my Mom's yesterday after church. Tyler had to leave straight from church and head to work, so he missed out on the fun! But I took him steak and cake, so he was a happy camper!

Mom, Matthew and I. This picture proves that I'm the "future soccer mom" of the group. She's in a shirt from the juniors department, he's wearing skinny jeans. I'm in printed shorts. ha!

Mimi, Matthew and Papaw

Matthew and Danielle

My mom is so funny and made Matthew do a scavenger hunt for his birthday gifts. His girlfriend and I were dying laughing. He wouldn't ever tell her what he wanted, so she got mad that she couldn't watch him open presents! So she went this route. Best decision ever.

Hint #1 Rhymes with Slant.

Hint #2 Check your email.

The poor kid had to check 3 computers before he realized there was a gift card IN mom's laptop. ha!

Hint #3 They tried to make her go to Rehab, but she said no, no, no.

This was the hardest. It was hidden in the People magazine about Amy Winehouse's death. (still sad about that)

Hint #4 I honestly can't remember this hint... it had something to do with popsicles. ha!

Hint #5 Queen of Hearts

It was fun watching my brother being forced to play Mom's silly games. I love silly games and I will SO be that mom!

I made his birthday cake because my mom was going to get a box cake and canned icing. I admit I am a snob. Not so much against boxed cake, but I HATE storebought icing! Especially when it's so easy to make fresh buttercream. Yum! I loved his cake, but thought it might be a little girly. He said he loved it, so I was happy!

he was proud that he got all of his candles at once. 

Happy birthday, Matthew! You might make me want to pull my hair out, but I sure do love you!