Eventful week!!

Since my last post I had a relatively eventful week. It started out Tuesday morning with a positive pregnancy test! Yahoo!!!!!!! Since losing the baby last year, we have wanted to get pregnant again, and haven't been able to, so we are thankful the Lord finally answered our prayers! AND I get to be pregnant with two of my sisters-in-law! Also, there's a girl at my church who's only a few weeks ahead of me, so we get to be "pregnancy buddies." I'm so thrilled!! I'm already feeling the nausea and extreme tiredness, BUT - I'm THRILLED to have these symptoms!! Lol!! You will not hear me complain!! :)

When we told Jared, I asked him what he thought. He thought about it for a minute, then said, "Well Mommy, I'm very excited....buuuuut.....you KNOW this is going to be a very big responsibility!" Lol!! Such a deep thinker!! He also told me that if the baby is a girl we should name her Alice (after Alice in Wonderland), and if the baby is a boy we should name him Jared 2. Not Jared the Second, just Jared 2. So creative! Laynie was excited too - we let Jared tell her (mainly because we love to hear him explain things). He did a great job, and when he was done, I asked her if she had any questions. She quite innocently asked, "When the baby gets out of your tummy, may I please have a baby in MY tummy?" Hehehe....we told her she had to get MUCH older, and get married first, THEN she can have a baby in her tummy! So she went around telling people at church that when she gets bigger she's going to marry daddy so she can have a baby too! So sweet!

Tuesday afternoon, two ladies from my church and I left for Hammond, Indiana for the Christian Womanhood Spectacular. We had a wonderful trip - the drive there and back was just beautiful - all of the leaves are turning, and we saw such beauty!! The conference itself was amazing - as usual! My preacher's wife got to speak at one of the sessions, and as usual, she was awesome - absolutely hilarious! Usually I walk away from conferences like that under conviction about being a better wife, but this time I was more under conviction about being a better mother. One lady who spoke had lost her 17 year old son in a car accident a little over a year ago. It just really opened my eyes to the fact that you just never know how much time you're going to have with your children. I was reminded more than once (by different speakers) that you never get to have the child rearing years back - once they're gone, they're gone. I decided to make a concentrated effort to spend more QUALITY time with my kids, and I'm already having fun!!

Happy Monday!

Well, today I have a huge "to do" list, but I've already got a big part of it nailed! So far, I've cleaned the dining room and kitchen top to bottom, I've cleaned both bathrooms, 2 of our 3 bedrooms (it's pointless to clean Laynie's before she goes to bed at night - it'll just get messy again!), and the living room. I'm on fire today! I also got caught up on grading Jared's school papers, and he corrected all of them that needed corrections. I still have to file them, and have him do today's sheets, but that shouldn't take too long. I'm wanting to get the house completely cleaned, and some goodies baked up, because I'm going out of town this week for a ladies' conference. I'm super excited, because I'll be seeing my mom and my sister!! Yay!! Michael was able to take vacation days for the rest of the week so he's got some fun activities planned with the kids. I'm not away from my kids overnight very often, so I'm a bit apprehensive about that, but I'm definitely looking forward to this meeting. Anyway, short post for today, but I've got lots to do, so I can't sit here too long! Have a great day!

Company!

Well, last Friday I got a call from some good friends of ours in Indiana (Tom and Anita), and low and behold, Tom is being sent down here to Atlanta for some training for his job! THIS WEEK!! Lol!! It was kinda last minute, but we're so excited to have them staying with us for just a few days. Yesterday was great - Tom went to training, and Anita and I just relaxed and visited all day - it was so nice! Then today we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese to play games (we don't eat there - makes me sick every time!), and they had SO much fun!! I had a coupon to get 180 tokens for $25.oo, then they gave us a bonus 20 tokens, just "because" so we got 200 tokens for the kiddos to split! We ended up with over 700 tickets to spend on useless junk - AWESOME!! The kids had such a good time - and to be quite honest, so did Anita and I!! I hit the jackpot on Skee Ball (sp?). Come to find out - I'm really awesome at it! Lol!! And it's addictive! Luckily, there was a game right beside it that Laynie was completely enthralled in, so I got to play for a while while she threw bouncy baseballs at a target! (It was great - she couldn't throw hard enough to hit the target, so the game kept giving the balls back to her to try again - kept her occupied for quite a while! Lol!!) Jared had a great time too - he did really awesome at the basket ball games! He loves anything that involves sports, so that didn't surprise me at all!

In other family news...I found out that we are expecting a new baby...NIECE!!!! Yay!! Justin and Jacqueline found out that they are having a little girl in February - so exciting! In about a week we will be finding out if Angel and Kenny are having a boy or a girl - we can't wait! Of course, we're kinda hoping for a little boy for them, but another girl would be so much fun too!! I'll keep everyone posted!

Coupons!

I'm not sure if anyone who reads this uses coupons, but I just got some really good ones today.

I'm registered with a site called Mypoints (check it out!), and they send you e-mails with different offers where you can earn points that you can cash in for merchandise. I was a bit skeptical at first, but so far I've earned 3 $10 Wal-Mart giftcards, and I'm about to cash in my points for another $50 gift card to TJ Maxx!

You get 5 points just for clicking on the link in the e-mails they send you, then you get extra points if you actually participate in the offer. (I RARELY do this - actually, I pretty much NEVER do this - I just click on the link and get my 5 points!) Occasionally they send you an e-mail where you can earn extra points for taking a survey - I usually do those and get a few extra points that way.

Anyway - what does this have to do with coupons you ask? On their site, there is a section you can go to that has several pages of coupons you can print off. You get points for redeeming them, PLUS the good deal that the coupon offers. Some of them are REALLY good - lots of "$1.00 off" ones! It's free to register with the site - just make sure to put my name down as the person who referred you! (If you do that, I get extra points!) :)

Fall Cleaning!

I started to type "spring cleaning" but obviously, it's not spring, so I improvised! :) Lately we've been working extra hard at getting the church spic and span (I'm sure the pastor's daughter's upcoming wedding has NOTHING to do with it! *wink wink*). Normally I clean the church myself - occasionally someone helps out here and there, but I do most of it. Well, a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine from church came to me and said she'd like to start helping me with it! What a blessing!!! So we met there today and got TONS done! We did all of the normal stuff, plus a bunch of extra things that needed to be done before the wedding. It was so nice to have someone there to work with!

We still don't have a working washing machine (long story), so I've been taking our laundry to different places (church, laundromat, friends' houses, etc.) to wash it, then bringing it home to dry. Well, I decided to start cleaning out the janitor's closet at church, and throw in all of the nasty mildewy rags with my whites, since they needed to be bleached. Well, dummy me - one of the rags was a dark red color, so guess what color my whites are! Yep - a beautiful shade of PINK!! Lovely! For the most part it didn't ruin anything important - mostly socks and undershirts. I think the only thing I'm going to have to replace is Jared's Patch Club polo shirt. I don't think he's going to want to wear a pink shirt...call me crazy! Lol!! Thankfully, they're only about $7 at Wal-Mart, so the damage wasn't too horrible. Of course, I have to endure the teasing from my husband, but I'm used to that, so no biggie! ;) Hehehe....

Doctor's office here we come!

We're headed over to the doc's office today for our Laynie girl. She's had this odd rash for a few days now, so I figured we'd better have it looked at. Thank goodness it doesn't seem to be anything serious - I'm just so glad that we get to keep our old pediatrician. We love love love Dr. Benson!! She is just great with the kids, and when we switched to Tricare, I was afraid we may have to switch, but hallelujah - she's in our network, so we get to keep her! Yay!!

I also have to swing by the mall out there to pick up Jared's shoes for April's wedding. Have I mentioned that Jared and Laynie are going to be the ring bearer/flower girl in a wedding next Friday night? I can't wait! I think they'll do great - they did awesome in Holly's wedding (which I JUST posted pictures of - woops!), so they should be fine in this one. I ended up buying Jared's tuxedo (or as HE says "TEXedo). Waaaay more economical! I can rent one for over $100, OOORRR I can BUY one for right around $60, then resell it on E-Bay and get a good portion of that back. Hmmm.....what should I do??? Lol!! Needless to say, I didn't have to think on that one long! The only downside is that it doesn't come with shoes. That's ok though, I'll just buy a pair then sell them with the tuxedo more than likely.

We got Laynie's flower girl dress for $25!! Brand new on E-Bay - I'll post pics of it when I get some - it is absolutely ADORABLE! She calls it her princess dress, and she can't wait to wear it!

Pictures of Holly's wedding

I realized I didn't post any pictures of Holly's wedding, so here are a few!



Laynie decided after she got to the front, that she needed to pick up all of the flower petals she had dropped!


Laynie and Haley


The two most adorable kids in the whole world! :)


The happy couple! (Who had not kissed before this day!)


So cute! :)


Laynie and Haley


My handsome lil man


The bride with the two flower girls