Not So Organized Thoughts About Husbands

I have LOVED this past week with all of the holidays and having my husband all to myself. When we spend so much time together it reminds me why we are so right for each other.
I am a loner, I love staying at home and doing "house things". I love the everyday cleaning, cooking, errands (however more difficult now with Annie Girl).
Joe is the assistant coach for Calvary Boys Varsity Basketball, he is gone a lot because of work and then coaching & games in the evening. I enjoy watching him do something he enjoys so much. He is very passionate about sports but coaching is a whole new level of sports. I think that it will make him a good dad because he has a desire to see the boys excel and grow but not at the risk of their personal lives & relationships with Jesus. He never talks much about coaching or the boys but when he does its usually about their personality's or struggles they are having, not with making their jump shots but with self discipline, pride or respect. I never realized how much he knows about Basketball until today. He watched a video frame by frame on the computer of a game from last week (a really terrible game) and made notes on every single possession! He was at the computer making 5 pages of notes front and back and never made it past the 1st quarter! All I have to say is Poor Boys!! Practice today is going to be Hell!
With all of that comes why I am OK with Joe being gone so much I know it is a passion of his and he is serving Christ in doing it. We talk frequently about his time commitments and we are always analyzing cutting back and when it is necessary. Right now this works for our family.
I don't know if it is because of his being gone so much that being together is so good. I really enjoy having him around and keeping him busy with things that need to be done weighed evenly with lounging around watching movies and playing with Annie Girl :o)
Tuesday was our Anniversary and I worked until 11:00pm. I didn't remember that it was our anniversary until I got a text from Joe's brother-in-law congratulating us and I actually thought that he sent the text to the wrong person!!! We didn't celebrate at all, we didn't even talk that day. Joe sent me a funny text at work and I sent one back and that was it. The thing is, is that I don't care that we didn't celebrate. Because it falls 5 days after Christmas we have never exchanged gifts. We also don't go on dates. I know people who go on dates. My sister is one of them, they go on dates and plan weekends away. Am I abnormal, do you all date your husbands?

As I go back and re-read these thoughts I realize that I am going back and forth explaining why I am OK with not spending time with Joe and how much I enjoy spending LOTS of time with him. I guess all of this is to say "for such a time as this". Whether Joe is away coaching or at home for 4 days straight we serve each other and the Lord in our circumstances and enjoy the season that we are in.

Clumsiest Nurse of the Evening

This is a delivery case cart. Notice the nice expandable pop-up leaf? WATCH OUT IT'S DEADLY! Here is a synopses of the last 45 min of my shift last night.

I discharged my patient and was in line to receive another. I was talking to a friend who's patient was 10 cm and ready to deliver however the Doc was nowhere to be found (OK really she was busy in the OR) My friend had an orientee with her and she was doing most of the work (gotta love a rookie) So when the call light came on we were not suprised to hear her call out that the baby was crowning. Although we paged the Doc STAT my friend and I were prepared to do the delivery without Docs present, she gloved up and waited for the head to deliver and I went to pull the delivery cart up to the bed and assist.... here is where the death trap came in... as I pulled the cart towards me the handy pop-up leaf collapsed on my wrist trapping my hand and sending ALL of the instruments and the large steel basin crashing to the ground and scattering across the room! Can you imagine my pain and humiliation as this poor woman is trying to have a baby I make a giant noise and mess! I managed to free my throbbing hand and run out into the hall to collect a new instrument cart and passed the MD on my way out. In the end it didn't really matter, the delivery was quick and we had a healthy baby girl but just consider this next time you deliver a child and ask for a non-clumsy nurse preferably one at the beginning of her 12 hour shift!

Professional pictures and others

Here is Annie Girls 3 month picture. We went to a local photography place that comes highly recommended by all because of their $10 package. It was pretty much the experience that I expected it to be. Annie (sleeping in her car seat) and I sitting in the corner surrounded by hundreds of thousands of screaming children and whining mothers waiting their turn! Sound like fun? I don't understand the thrill, I definitely don't feel the need to go back every month to commemorate my child's first year as some mothers do. I also feel like my family takes some pretty cute pictures all by ourselves without all of the nasty strangers around to ruin the morning.

This is some of what Joe and I accomplished on sunday. Pictures and a curtain were hung on the walls in Annie's room instead of leaving them piled on the floor in the corner! I love them so much, it was all Kara's idea really. I purchased a Eloise Wilkin little golden book of nursery rhymes from the antique store for about $2 and took it apart and matted and framed the pictures! The whole project I believe cost about $30. The frames being the most expensive part of the project at $5 each!

And who can resist taking a picture of the sweet angel napping in the bed?

Blogging is so overrated

I love that everyone feels guilty when they don't blog for a while. Its always the first line of anyones blog who hasn't updated in a while. They apologize all over themselves for not posting. I think its due to guilt. We all feel bad for reading others blogs and not contributing to the daily news. Well I can relate because I feel bad for not blogging lately. Its like I belong to a club with all of you and I have neglected to pay my dues :o) Oh well, there is nothing I can do but blog away!!

Christmas was eventful for our little family of 3. We spend last sunday at my moms with the fam. I neglected to bring my camera so you get no little snapshots of that event. It was a lot of fun and not nearly as chaotic as some of the get togethers have been with 3 little ones running around and 3 little ones laying around :o) Literally laying around, while we opened gifts Anella was placed under the Christmas tree because after presents were handed out it was the only open floor space available. I made out good in the gift department, we draw names in our family which is something I LOVE that we do (sorry Melissa T) because you get to really think about the person you are buying for and what they would like to have. Kris had my name and I came away with lots of fun kitchen things. I will have to post a picture of the cool bowl she got me, I can't wait to be creative with it its very fun.

Christmas Eve was spent with Joes family in Dayton. His "Grandpal" lives there and he has recently been diagnosed with cancer. It is taking its toll on him and so we think this might have been his last Christmas. However he was in good spirits and all the family made it in for the celebration. We play the gift exchange game where you put all the gifts in the middle of the room and you can steal gifts... you know the one. I came away with new PJ's which is ALWAYS a good gift and Joe got a giftcard to TGIF which is always good for him!

Christmas Day Joe, Annie and I spent a quiet day at my parents with Kelly. I love christmas day because its so quiet. Just enough people around to play games and bake and watch christmas movies and take naps. What better to do on christmas? :o) I decorated my annual Gingerbread House and I have to say that I took about 45 pictures of it until I had a Melissa T quality picture. I swear I dont know how she takes her pictures but I LOVE her style! Here is the finished project.And here is the picture that Kelly sent me from the next morning......
Oops, I knew the front wall was sliding the entire time I was decorating it, but there was nothing I could do about it. I guess it gave out sometime in the middle of the night!

Blogs to look forward to (so I don't forget I want to blog about it)
Having your baby's picture professionally taken
Going back to work
Cleaning the house with the "Help" of your husband

Conversation of the day

After Elly woke up from a nap in Grammys bed...
Grammy- "Elly get your socks and bring them here so I can put them on you."
Elly Beth -"Oh, Grammy, I cleaned my toes out in your bed."

Hehe, just FYI Grammy, you wont find any toe fuzz here today, you will however find it between your sheets tonight! The look on my Dads face was priceless!

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness...except when it comes to my carpets

Joining in on the cleaning (or lack thereof) trend I just had to post. As I vacuumed my house after putting up our tree I realized that my vacuum still smells like pine... from the needles that are in the bag from last year!!!!!!!! No lie I haven't changed my sweeper bag since last January! One might think that means that my house is so clean that when I sweep it doesn't pick anything up... not so my friend, it means that I have only swept my house about 6 or 8 times since last January. Ahhhhhh!! That is so WRONG! But we are so happy :o)

Here is an example of what we do instead of clean... we play dress up in snowsuits entirely too big!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love decorating for Christmas. I would put garland on every inch of my house if I could and I am seriously on my way to doing that. I have draped a large portion of my house and this is not even all of it! It took me much longer to decorate this year having Annie around, although she is not much of a hindrance (see picture below) she is just time consuming. It took me about 2 1/2 weeks to finish decorating, but it is worth it!

I was very excited about decorating the stairs our first Christmas in the house


Ann Marie being very helpful

Annie's Tree in her room. I love it because it gives just the right amount of light for those early morning or mid night feedings

New this year, this mirror is above the buffet in the Dining Room

Our Glorious Tree

The mantle decorated with the centerpieces from our wedding reception (Annie doesn't have a stocking yet!)

This is a really cool mirror with coat hooks that I got at Hobby Lobby for half off, it is a good compromise to the Hall Tree that we wish we had in the entry way.