Taking A Break

I can't remember if I mentioned on the blog about the 40-day devotion I participated in with our church back in October and November. Well, it was a great experience and I'm happy to say that they are doing it again. This time it's called 40 Days of Passion; Finding Your Identity in the Reflection of the Cross. Even though we have relocated and are no longer attending that church (boohoo), I was extremely interested in participating in this devotion series again.

This time, however, it's a little different. We are being instructed to give up one thing for the 40 days. After much thought, and honestly a little hesitation, I made the decision to give up the internet. For those of you that know me well, you know this is a BIG sacrifice. The internet is my connection to the outside world. During the times that I didn't have internet access, I felt disconnected and well, frankly I didn't know what to do with myself. Terrible, huh? But that's precisely the reason I knew I had to give it up for 40 days. I need to spend more time focusing on God, prayer, reading my Bible and nurturing my children; not spending every available minute doing one thing or another on the computer. So, there will be a lull in the blog posts for a little while. The devotion started February 21st and goes through March 28th.

Don't fret though! I will be here, continuing to snap pictures of the kids, play and learn with Photoshop and hopefully get a bunch of scrapbooking done. And of course, I will be spending a lot of time in prayer---every time I think of the internet and my lack thereof, I will pray. I will pray for myself and my family, as well as the people I communicate with using the internet. That's you! I will return at the end of March (hopefully) rejuvenated and satisfied with my progress in my relationship with Christ.

Here's to no internet!!



p.s. Check out the website HERE to get the details on this journey. And prayers for me would be appreciated as well. :) Thanks!

p.p.s. If you haven't figured it out already, the few posts before this that posted after February 21st, and including this post, were scheduled to be posted ahead of time...when I still had connection to the outside world. :)

Friends

Since Chris showed me how to upload my pictures on my netbook, I've been looking through the photos that I haven't had the chance to blog yet. Here is Laura Anne and Caleb with Shannen, a good friend of theirs, the day that we moved from Deltona. Shannen and her mommy came by the house to say bye to us one last time. Boy are we going to miss them!! We already do miss them. They were such a blessing to us while we were there.

*Sniff*

A Happy Day

My sweet niece, Anna, turned one on the 13th. I'm so glad we were able to make it to her party! I was honored (and very excited!) to be asked to be the "official" photographer for the event. See?
See my thickening middle? No, I didn't think so. My tummy is popping ever so slowly. But it's popping! :)

Okay, got distracted. So most of the great pictures were on my brother's camera (and I'll lead you to the place where you can see some of those in a moment). But below is my favorite shot Chris got with our camera:

What a little dollface!!! Love her!

Okay, so to see more of my handy work...ahem, I mean more pictures from the party click RIGHT HERE.

Happy 1st birthday Anna! We love you!!!

I Forgot

Shame on me! I never posted about my trip to Disney World with my lovely sister back in December. Originally, the trip was supposed to be a graduation celebration...my sis is graduating from UNF with a degree in Nutrition in April!! I'm ever so proud of her. But anyway, we've been planning this trip for a few years.

When I found out I was pregnant back in November, one of my first thoughts was, "oh no! What about Disney?!?!" I was totally freaking out. So for obvious reasons, we had to come up with another plan. We ended up deciding to take our trip during her Christmas break. It worked out really well. And actually, we received a few unexpected blessings. One of which was that we were given free tickets to Disney Quest when we showed up. Yup, just like that! Some guy had extra tickets that he wasn't going to use and we were there at just the right moment to be the ones he offered them to. :) Saved us $80!!

So anyway, our trip was absolutely wonderful! I had no morning sickness! Yay! And I even went on Thunder Mountain (twice!) at the Magic Kingdom. So without getting any more long-winded I will now direct you to a link where you can view all the best photos from our trip. :) Just click RIGHT HERE to see them!

Focusing On The Good

We had lunch with Daddy today at Chick-fil-A. This photo was taken with my cell phone and was the best shot of both of them I could get. I love it. :)

Things are a little hairy here this week. Life is trying to overwhelm me (who knew having a baby could be so complicated?!), but I'm trying hard to focus on the fact that God has everything under control. It's a constant lesson to be learned! I feel like I've been learning it for a solid year now. After all, we're coming up one year since we moved from North Carolina.

But like I said, rather than sulk and have a pity party, I'm focusing on the good this week! Like the fact that Baby Nugget is moving pretty regularly now. I feel him/her at least a few times a day. And just yesterday, I came across a name for a girl that I LOVE!! We have a first name already settled on, but the middle name constantly changes. Maybe, just maybe we found THE ONE! I don't know if I want to share it just yet..... :) As for the boy name, we are still mostly undecided. There's still time, but I'm ever so slightly getting to the freak out point. I don't want to have a baby and not know what its name is going to be!!! Who wants to name their baby under pressure?! Not me!

Okay, well anyway, that's the news for now. We're heading to Jacksonville this weekend for my adorable niece's first birthday!!! Can't believe she's one already!!

No Pictures; Lots of News

Hey there from the west coast of Florida! I'm so pleased to share that we are together again! This past weekend, with the help of several family members, we packed up our stuff (again) and moved into a cozy 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment. It's the first time I've ever lived in an apartment so this oughta be interesting. I've gotta get used to hearing people's footsteps above us. But our apartment is really nice and spacious. Most importantly, I have a dishwasher, I can use my dryer again AND there's carpet in the living room and every bedroom. Sigh. I'm happy.

We do not have our home computer hooked up yet. For now, I'm using my netbook and someone else's wireless signal. :) Hey, it works! But until we get the computer up and running and get our own internet service, I won't be able to post pictures. Unless I can figure out how to get them off my phone. Hm.

I'm also a happy camper because of the local shops and eateries we have very close. :) There's Super Target (whoopee!) about 5 minutes from our home, along with Michael's, Chick-fil-A, Babies R Us (yay!!), Starbucks (!), sigh. The list goes on. I'm really happy right now.

The best news of all I have to report: I have recently started feeling Baby Nugget's movements!!! It's the most incredible feeling ever!! I really can't wait until we can get an ultrasound and have a sneak peek of baby #3! We are NOT (and I'm serious this time) finding out the gender of this baby. To me, there's no reason to. We have a boy and a girl. Who cares what comes next?! I'm so excited I can barely stand it!

Now that we are in our new place where we will bring our baby home, we are getting a better feel for what we need to prepare for little nuggey's arrival. Since Caleb is still in his crib and I don't believe he's ready to move out of it yet, we have talked about getting a bassinet for Baby. Thankfully, a bassinet will fit comfortably in our bedroom, so the baby will be spending a lot of time with mommy and daddy. :) It's also time we buy a new infant car seat. We used the same one for Laura Anne and Caleb and it started to show a lot of wear. We will also need a stroller. Probably a double of some kind because Caleb, I think will ride longer than Laura Anne did. Anyway, it's exciting to think about all these things and I'm thrilled to have a Babies R Us so incredibly close to us!!!

I think I've blabbed enough for now. You get the idea of the goings on, so I'll leave it at that and say toodle-oo!