Archives for July 2008

Sheesh, as I keep looking at these past few years I’ve been one busy person!  Again, I had a tough time picking one occasion from this year.  A few contenders were the Daughtry concert I went to in Greensboro and my high school reunion but I think I have to pick the little photo shoot the girls and I did.  I’m sure these recent memories are getting boring for long time readers but I hope it’s a little bit interesting reading about it with a different perspective.

Anyway, my friend was an editor of a local magazine and for the second issue, asked the girls and I to do some photos for the cover and an article.  It’s obvious I was very flattered to be asked to do it and we had a great time.  I got to help pick out clothes for all of us from a local boutique, do the photo shoot and then of course have the fun of seeing it in print.  You can actually still see the magazine issue online.  Here’s one picture that I liked alright that didn’t make the cut…

I have to take a break during my vacation here and for those that don’t follow on Twitter…I’m going to be an extra on One Tree Hill on Monday!!  I wrote up a little post on how I got signed up over here.

This might sound dorky, but I honest to goodness believe this is an answer to prayer.  I’m sure some would argue that God would never be “in that” but I promise Heather and I have been praying for favor over this.   God sure did remind me that yes, He’s going to let me do it but it’s not a good substitute for real joy and happiness.  This isn’t “it”.  He’s I AM and the only true source of joy.  Yes, this will make me happy for a moment but He’s the real deal.

I have no idea how I got on a soapbox on that one, but I’m still ecstatic about Monday!

My 27th year got a bit busy.   I feel like this is the year where I really started having to juggle everything.  I was still working, we were getting more involved in church, Lexi was starting to get into everything, I was trying to get out do some fun things, not to mention all the every day household stuff I was supposed to be doing.  I guess the busyness was a little self-inflicted and it probably still is but the point was I was busy.

There are several things I could blog about from this year…my first youth camp, a special Valentine’s Day dinner, and a ton of special moments with the kids.  I think I have to pick the youth camp though.  I was asked to go I think out of desperation.  They really needed another female to go and although the kids were 3 and 1, I still said yes.  Scott’s cousin was gracious enough to take the week off with us and be our nanny for the week.  Below is a picture of the four of us that week.

When I look at that, it just seems so representative of that year.  And not to put a damper on the whole occasion, I had a TON of fun that week.  Tree63 was our worship band which was awesome and I really got to know the youth members and leaders.  That actually was our big start to our involvement with the youth group at church so it holds significance in that way too.  And I think in a lot of ways I grew in leadership skills that week.  After holding bible study all week, I decided to teach Sunday School that fall.  I guess it was just one more step to growing up.

When I turned 26 and we moved back to Fort Mill, I was pregnant with Lexi. That fall we stayed quite busy.  I was in two weddings.  Just hold for one second and see that for my two best friends’ weddings I was quite large.  I’m pretty sure I blogged about this before but let’s take a gander for the newcomers.

See that one in the purple?  That was FOUR days before I gave birth to Lexi.  I remember stopping them going into the salon saying I wasn’t feeling good and maybe I should get checked out.  When I went to the doctor on Wednesday morning, I was already 4 cm dilated.  Anyway.  That November, I gave birth to Lexi.

I chose this picture because not only did we have a daughter, but we gave Emma a little sister and the best playmate ever.  They’re so close now and even in the first year, Emma was already down on the ground with her showing her how to crawl.  So while this post is not about me exactly, it does show a definite growth in our family and a change in my life.  We were then and now a family of four and I wasn’t now chasing one little tot around, by the end of the year, two of them were racing around here!

So I think we’re all ready to head to the beach in the morning. Today was quite a busy day.  I got up at 8 this morning and started cleaning, headed out for a pedicure, went grocery shopping, got the car washed, took the kids swimming, washed the clothes, went shopping for a bathing suit and packed.  Wow, what a day.

I just got done write my last Ten Days of Twenties post that hopefully will keep this blog afloat next week.  Last year we had very little WIFI access so I’m not counting on blogging much.  I will, however, plan to use Twitter the entire week so look out for that.

*Whoops, this is supposed to be Sunday’s post.  Oh well, happy early Sunday!*

When we left off last time, we were headed out of town.  And out of town we went.  But we came back in to town. A lot.  I think every two weeks either we were up here or they were down there. We went up and down the interstate more times than I can count.

But day to day during the week, Scott, Emma and I were definitely turning into a little family.  Suddenly I wasn’t having to jostle Emma in between grandparents’ houses and I found myself cooking more (and eating out more) as there were no more home cooked meals at said grandparents’ houses, we went shopping when we wanted, stayed in when we wanted.  There was definitely a newfound freedom.  Scott was loving his new job and I was loving working from home.  We ended up moving back a year later almost to the day and I bid the apartment good riddance when we left and we were so happy to come back to town but I can’t say that the year was all bad.

This one particular time we went to a local BBQ place to eat and decided to check out a new park.  It was just us three on their playground at a lake.  We had a great time and I just remember feeling very independent and happy.  And I think for the most part, that’s the way I felt that whole year.

This year had two huge events.  In fact, I would say my 24th year held the biggest changes of my entire life.  I’m not sure I can talk about just one of them.

In the fall of 2002, I gave birth to my firstborn, Emma.  I’ve written out her birth story which old-timers would have read but is now lost from this blog but backed up on my computer and I’m too lazy to copy and paste all that stuff in.  Anyway, it was a pretty standard birth.  About 11 hours of labor and only 11 minutes of pushing.

The single thing I remember most is when my mom came in the room and I smiled with a whole bunch of pride and said through tears, “I really did it!”  I think sometimes when you’re pregnant for the first time you just wonder if you can really do this birthing thing.  It’s so scary the first time.  But I had done it and I was proud!  And at that moment only minutes after I had just become a mother, I still was that little girl beaming to my own mom about what I had accomplished.

Less than 8 weeks later, Scott went about 90 minutes away to police academy for 6 months.  He was gone M-F and home on the weekends.  I started my job back the week after he left.  I can’t tell you the overwhelming emotions and stress I went through at that time.  I made it through with a lot of help and support from a lot of people but it wasn’t easy.

The first day back to work I balled my eyes out while pumping milk and talking on the phone to my mother-in-law.  It’s a little funny thinking back to it now but at the moment, my world was ending.  All I wanted was to be back with Emma at home and I was having to pump and nursing was going so great with her anyway, I had a boss that was not being very forgiving for a first-time mother’s first day back at work and Scott was unavailable and out of town.

About a month of that and I ended up asking to go part-time at work. I decided to take Mondays off and then work 7 hours T-F.  That alleviated a lot of stress but I was still having to do the whole schpiel by myself…nursing at night, getting both of us ready in the morning, going to the sitters, going to work and pumping, picking her up, going to visit whoever’s turn it was and then heading home just to go to sleep to start over again.  Those months were absolutely exhausting.

It finally ended though when Scott graduated in June of that year.  But the changes had just begun.  He had gotten stationed in the same city he had trained in and we had to sell our house and move there.  I think our families were supportive but none too happy about our move.  With a 6 month old granddaughter it wasn’t the first option for sure.  To be completely honest, I was kind of excited about the move.  I had not moved away for college and Scott and I had only moved 5 minutes away from both of our parents so moving away was a bit exciting for me. After 6 months of Scott being gone and such a hectic time, I was ready for the three of us to really be a family and have some time on our own.

I had a few talks with work and I had planned to quit but they wanted me to finish a few projects and let me work from home.  So a few weeks before I turned 25, we packed up our new little family and a new job and headed out of town.

My 23rd year is a hard one from which to pick one event or memory to represent the year.  The year was the last one before children.  Work got really busy, we did a ton of stuff with friends, I got pregnant for the first time, we went to Disneyland (world? the one in FL) that spring, and it was even the year I started blogging.  It was quite the year. 

It was also the year of 9-11.  As of the attack, I had never been to New York.  That December I was asked to go out of town for some presentations for work and one of the trips was a one-night stay in New York. I flew in at night. I remember passing over Ground Zero in the plane and seeing the bright lights where everyone was working.  It became quite real at that point.  I honestly don’t even remember flying into the airport now.  I know I took a cab to the Marriott right in Times Square (I know I was quite proud of myself though having only flown by myself one other time). 

That night we had dinner (where I tried calamari for the first time) and a meet and greet type thing at a bar (where everyone marveled I was not drinking) and on the way back we were able to walk by Ground Zero.  I tried to get some pictures but it was just too dark.  The only one you can really see is this one memory wall we passed by.

I also took some time to go out to Times Square and another street over where all the shops were to get some pictures.  Several of the billboards had recognition of 9-11 up.

This one I think is sort of funny…Britney Spears in her heyday is advertising for Pepsi there.

The next day, our meeting only lasted until 2 or so.  I had met another woman at the meeting who was just as excited as me to get out and see some sights.  And boy did we make some quick rounds.  We went to see the ice skating rink, went up the Empire State building, down to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty and then high-tailed it to the airport.  It was probably the shortest sight-seeing trip ever but it definitely gave me a feel for the city and some familiarity when I see or hear about New York in the media.

I’m really glad I got to visit New York in a sad, but significant time in history.  Who knows, it may be my only visit ever to New York.  I’m glad I got to do it at least once.

I have to say I think my 23rd year was probably one of my favorite years.  Scott and I were well established, we had a ton of fun with our friends, we were active in church, work was a lot of fun, I was feeling more confident than ever, we got pregnant.  It was just a great time.  I’m so, so, so glad we didn’t get pregnant in the previous two years though because as I was getting ready to find out in the next year motherhood is hard!