Birthday Month

June first designated the first day of what I fondly call birthday month. Because I don't just want one day, I want 30! I'm still trying to convince Jackson that I should get one gift for every day, but he's not buying it. But June is just not about me. It's also the birth month of one of the dearest people I know. And while today is not her birthday (June 3rd was), I am technically not late, because it is birthday month.
This sweet girl is one of the best friends a girl could ask for. She has helped me move more times then any one person should (including a trip to Philadelphia and back), laughed with me, cried with me, put up with me on very long road trips, taken care of me when I was sick, helped me justify the purchase of several coach purses, encouraged me, stood up for me, prayed for me, and stood by me on the happiest day of my life. She has a servant's heart and is an excellent, compassionate nurse.
Several years ago I was in school full-time getting a Masters degree while also working full-time as a transport nurse in the NICU. I was in the middle of completing 620 clinical hours at the hospital. Translation: I was exhausted and spent an average of 5-6 days in the NICU and slept at the hospital 4-5 nights a week. I would head home for a quick change of clothes or to study and then head right back to the hospital. Needless to day, my house was a mess. Laundry had piled up and I didn't have the time or energy to clean. It was overwhelming and discouraging (especially to a clean freak like myself). One Saturday I got home after working a long shift to find Jenn at my house. She had cleaned everything from top to bottom, and had done all of my laundry. On her day off. On a Saturday. I was amazed and couldn't do anything but cry. To this day, I think that act of selflessness and kindness has been the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. She demonstrated the love of God to me in a real and tangible way. I can only pray that I will be as good of a friend as she has been to me, and that I will use her example as a motivation to show God's amazing love to others.









Happy Birthday Jenn. Here's to the best year ever!
"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity" Proverbs 17:17

It's Official

I am the world's worst blogger. And the sad thing is, I've done some fun things and had some great experiences in the time since I last posted. I've written at least ten different posts in my head, but for some reason, I just havn't been able to get around to actually putting it on the blog. I think part of it is that I'm always waiting for something bigger or better to write about. It's kind of strange really. Since April, I've spent a weekend in beautiful Savannah, met The Pioneer Woman at a book signing, seen the space shuttle take off on one of it's last missions, etc., but I was still waiting for more. But all three of my readers have been asking me to update things, so here I am. I also got a brand new camera, which I am desperately trying to learn how to use. I'm sure it will take amazing pictures once I figure it out. I'm actually thinking about signing up for a class this fall to help me learn more about it. All this to say, I have pictures of all of those fun things I listed above, they're just not on the computer yet. One of the highlights of the past few weeks for me was that our office went from a hot mess of papers, books, and randomness that my husband claimed as his own, to a sewing room with my own TV. I could not be more excited! We're still trying to take care of some of the details of the room, but I already love it. I promise to post pictures of it once it's all finished. In celebration of having my very own creative space, I have been sewing up a storm. I have two friends who are expecting and were wanting a "hooter hider" AKA nursing cover, and one of them wanted some summer dresses for her girls. So I accepted the challenge and went about getting them done. I'm pretty sure Jackson didn't see me for a couple days while I was getting them done! I think they turned out pretty well for my first attempt.


Me modeling one of the covers

Norma posing with her gift

What do you think?
Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Titus for the first time. He's the four month old son of my sweet friend from college, Laine. She and her husband were in Clearwater for work and so Jackson and I headed over there to have lunch with the three of them. I couldn't get enough of him! Here he is in all his baby cuteness!

All this and I still didn't mention the fact that I babysat the 5 Knouse kids for a few days and that Jackson and I purchased some land that will one day (God willing) be the sight of our future home (more about that in another post)!
It's been a fun, busy few weeks and I am excited to see what God is doing in my life right now. Anyways, thanks for sticking with me and encouraging me to get back to blogging. I promise I will try to be better at being consistent with it from now on, as I want to document Jackson and I's life together, and I want to keep my family and friends updated and involved. Stick with me, there's some exciting things going on and I think it's going to be a fun summer!

Fun with the Knouse Family

Last week I had the pleasure of going back down to my hometown with my favorite family of seven. My best friend Tara, her husband Kelly, her five precious kiddos and I packed up two cars and headed to Homestead. Kelly was the guest speaker at the annual Good Friday Community Prayer Breakfast that my mom helps to put on and we figured we'd all make a fun trip out of it. We got down their Thursday afternoon after a fun road trip and only two stops-which isn't bad considering we had 8 people with us! My sister Debi and her family of 3 met us at my parent's house so that Alex could spend some time with the other kids. But not before we all stopped at Robert's fruit stand for a delicious milk shake and the miniature petting zoo. She helped me babysit all 6 of them while Kelly and Tara went out to dinner with the prayer breakfast committee. After several hours of playtime, Debi and I had them all fed and in pajamas within an hour. I must say, we were a well oiled machine!
The next morning, we were all up early and headed to the prayer breakfast, which started at the crazy hour of 7:15. The kids were so wonderful and all of them were ready to go without even a hint of complaining. Kelly did a wonderful job of sharing the Good News and the hope of Easter with everyone at the breakfast, and I think everyone was glad they got to hear him speak. Following the breakfast we all headed to the Alligator farm for a little afternoon fun.








I think their favorite part was the airboat ride, although, getting to pet the alligator was a close second!
After heading back to the house for lunch followed by a good long nap, we loaded back up and headed for home. All the kids were so good and I think my parents enjoyed the fun chaos of a house filled with kids again. Which is good, since J and I are planning to send our kids to "grammy and papa summer camp" for at least a few weeks every year when we have them!
Overall, everyone enjoyed themselves and it was a quick, but enjoyable trip. And I'm pretty sure some new friendships were made...

March Madness

Yes, I realize that March has come and gone, but I wanted to at least acknowledge the month since it consisted of a lot of fun and family.
The beginning of the month I had the chance to head home to my parent's house for a week to relax and spend time with everybody. Plus, it was my father's birthday and I wanted to be home to help celebrate that. During my time at home I got to spend a lot of moments spoiling my adorable nephew. We went to the zoo and to run errands and just spend some time together. Of course the whole time he spent asking me where "J" was and telling me to "send gum". Here are a few pictures of our zoo adventures.




One thing I did learn, Alex enjoys his ice cream and sweets just about as much as his Aunt Jessica does!
While at home my brother and sister and I had the chance to give my parents their anniversary present. This April marks their 35th wedding anniversary and so the three of us (along with some sweet family friends) are sending them to Chicago for a long weekend. I think they were surprised, and I can't wait to hear how the trip goes. I'm so thankful to have them as an example of what commitment and joy of marriage is.

Speaking of wedding anniversaries, J and I celebrated our first on March 20th. We went and stayed at a hotel in Orlando overnight, but didn't do much else since I was under the weather. We had already planned to celebrate a little late with a trip to Savannah, which we will be taking this weekend. We did enjoy the top layer of our cake, which was surprisingly tasty after a year....and I'm glad to have the freezer space back!


I've also had the chance to work on some sewing and crafting projects. I am loving my new sewing machine and have been doing some experimenting. My sweet friend Nicole recently added a little boy to her beautiful family and I made a few things for him and his big sister Kate.




Here's another one of my projects, that I got from a fun website I found. They have a lot of great ideas, so if you're into DIY projects, check them out.


I know that was a long update, but I guess that's what happens when you don't blog for a month. There are some exciting things going on right now and so I'm hoping to be a little more consistent in my blogging. Be sure to check back tomorrow for a post about my fun trip with the Knouse family!

Weekend Recap

J and I had the pleasure of hosting his two nephews this weekend while his sister was out of town. It's the first time we've had the responsibility of being in charge of children together so I was eager to see how we'd handle it (and whether or not the children would survive). We started off Saturday morning by going to Target to pick out a few "necessities" and ended up with a cart that looked like this:

This of course was before the giant tent and glow-in-the-dark soccer ball were thrown in. As I said, we had to get the necessities. After that we went to Gamestop where I made the mistake of staying in the car and letting all 3 boys pick out some video games. Let's just say I think the purchase at that store was more for my husband's benefit than anyone else's. We followed this up with a visit to the Sonic drive-thru, which is always a pleasant experience.
After we went home and played for a while, Grandpa came over and we decided to go to the Laser Tag/Arcade/Bowling place near our house. I think everybody had a great time.
I'm not sure who had more fun, him or the boys...

Grandpa and Shawn playing


After playing laser tag and a slew of arcade games, we cashed in our 667 tickets for 2 small bouncy balls, 2 plastic flash lights, 2 rope bracelets and 2 dolphin key chains, and decided to head home.
We ended the night by lighting up the fire pit and making smores which I think everybody enjoyed. Then J and the boys put up their brand new tent while I blew up the air mattresses in true roughing it fashion.




I had to get up early and head back in to work Sunday morning, but not before enjoying a pancake breakfast with these 2 boys

I think we all had a great time and are hoping we get the chance to do it again soon. They are such sweet boys (and they go to bed early!).
Hope you all had a great weekend!

Home sweet home (away from home...)

The past 40 hours of my life have been spent here:

My call room at the hospital. It's not too bad, and I'm just glad I have somewhere to rest and decompress! In addition to my lovely room are some great nurses, who never cease to keep me entertained.

Exhibit A: Audrey (AKA Swami) who I met last fall and seem to have a lot in common with. We both got married on the same weekend last March, and we both failed the great cracker challenge of 2010. But that's a whole different post.
The days leading up to this 2 day work-induced hibernation were actually quite productive. I went to the local sewing store in hopes that they could fix my machine, and instead ended up walking out of there with a brand new (FABULOUS) one. I think my mom is going to have sewing machine envy. It's a BabyLock Sofia and embroiders, monograms, and has all kinds of great functions. I went home right away and finished the kitchen curtains AND a baby blanket that was made for one of my friends. The blanket was a bit of a challenge, but overall I think it came out pretty well and I'm excited for her to see it.



I have a few new projects lined up that I'm eager to get started on , and I'm going back to the sewing store next week so they can give me a one on one tutorial on how to work my machine.
Overall it's been a productive week. Although, being stuck in the hospital hasn't been good for my wallet. I bought these cute shoes and purse online today:



At least they were on sale.
Have a great weekend!

Precious Time

So, as you can see it has been awhile again since my last post. I'd like to say it's because I've been doing really important work, or changing the world, or anything else worthwhile, but the truth is, I've been basking in the glory of working once a week. I've been staying up late reading books, going to bed without setting an alarm, going to the gym, spending time with some of my favorite children in the world, and overall enjoying life. Of course, I've also been fine-tuning my domestic skills like picking up the dry cleaning, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, and cooking. I mean, just last night I made fish sticks and sweet potato fries for dinner. Don't judge, I think it's J's favorite meal. His face lit up like a 4 year-old at Chuck E Cheese when he saw what I had made. Tonight we went out for dinner, because I wouldn't want to use up my newfound cooking skills all at once.

I've also been trying to finish some sewing and craft projects, but have been unsuccessful thus far. My sewing machine has decided to rebel against me before I could finish the curtains for the kitchen, an experience that has taken me to a new level of frustration. So tomorrow will consist of a trip to Joann's to see if they can help exercise whatever demon has taken residence in the bobbin holder thingy (yes, that is the official term) thus causing it to malfunction. Hopefully, I'll soon be able to post some pictures of my kitchen curtains hanging in all of their homemade glory.

Anyways, I've been trying to think of some fun things to post on the blog and one of the things I decided to do was post some weight-watchers friendly recipes that aren't entirely tasteless and boring (although it will be hard to top my fishsticks and fries feast). I've been in the gym every day and trying to eat healthy, and looking for some fun things to make (which unfortunately means staying away from my Pioneer Woman cookbook...). So if any of you have any recipes you'd like to contribute, email me and let me know!

Hope you all are having a great week. J and I are hosting his nephews this weekend while his sister is out of town and I'm really excited about it. I'll try and take some pictures and let you know how our first experience in parenting goes!