Monday, March 28, 2011

Bettering HIS Kingdom, new job, Ayden update, and living the green life!

Good morning friends!

Ayden just went down for his first nap, so I'm hoping that gives me a few minutes to post this much needed blog.. (fingers crossed!)

Well, it's almost April! Which is INSANE! Jaymes & I have almost been married for 2 years! I think I can speak for both of us when I say that these have been the craziest, most amazing, most rewarding, 2 years of our life's to date. Time is a fast moving thing.. very fast. I sometimes, well, most of the time, wish I had the "super power" to slow it down. :) All that being said, here's what's going on with us these days:

Jaymes has a job, Ayden's almost 7 months old, we found a Church, and I'm on a "living GREEN" spree! I guess this means I have to elaborate on everything? Probably the fair thing to do!

Jaymes has just completed his first full week of work (aside from his week of training in Indianapolis.) He's enjoying it! There's lots to learn, but he already knows so much from his experience in the Corps, so the odd's are in his favor! He's working with some pretty neat people, AND he has normal hours (which spoils us because we never had a "schedule" to rely on in the Military!) I will never fully understand what he does, because quite frankly, I'm not that smart in the "technology" part of life.. and that's okay with me! :) This job like I've said before, is a huge blessing. It's allowing me to stay home with our baby boy, and really, there isn't a job more rewarding in this world! I'm planning on doing this until it's time for pre-school. Thank you Lord, for making this possible!!!!

Okay, "living GREEN".. I LOVE IT! I've been on a mission for some time now to better the well-being of my family, and I'm just now getting "serious" about it. This includes making my own home cleaners that are free of chemicals, switching to cloth diapers, making all of Ayden's baby food, and changing the things Jaymes & I are eating as well. Right now I'm focusing on making the cleaners. I'm personally not comfortable with any of the traditional cleaners you can buy at the store. Clorox, Lysol, "green" works, (which is not green, by the way!), and everything else they sell out there. They all have harmful chemicals and that marvelous "WARNING: Keep away from children, if ingested, call poison control immediately, etc. etc. label on them!!!" WHY ON EARTH would I want to clean my home with these things? I have a little boy who's working hard on crawling, and putting his mouth on EVERYTHING! I want to know that what I'm cleaning with, will NOT harm him! So, that's my main motivation for doing this. I know everyone has their own opinion on this sort of thing, and that's fine. But mine is this: if I can make something better, healthier, and more safe for my family, I'm going to. I'll blog about the rest of my "Green spree" later! :)

Ayden will be 7 months old on the 7th of April. He is SO much fun! I love my job, because I get to stay at home with him and play all day. It doesn't get better than that. :) He's experimenting with all sorts of fruits & veggies! So far he's tried butternut squash, peas, plums, pears, and avocado. This week we'll be trying sweet potato, and apricots! I LOVE making his food for him, and he loves it too! Let's see, he's a blink away from crawling.. literally. He knows how to pick his butt up and turn in the direction he wishes to be in, but he's still working on the scooting part of it. Once he figures that out, he'll be off!! He's also learning how to give kisses, sitting up perfectly on his own, saying "da-da" all of the time, and starting to high five. This boy learns at the speed of light! Jaymes & I are blessed beyond words to have Ayden in our life's, he truly completes us.

Well, I saved the most exciting news for last. Jaymes & I have chosen a Church, and we are completely confident that this is where the Lord wants us- Cedar Road Missionary Church! This was by far one of the most difficult decisions we've ever made, and I'm glad it's over with! We're very excited about the ways that God is going to use our "gifts" here. When we made this decision we had 2 main things to focus on: where we could be used the most to better His Kingdom, and obviously, what would be best for our family. Both of the Churches we were choosing from were GREAT Churches, which made the decision that much more difficult. One of them appealed to us a little more than the other for a number of reasons- there were more people our age, more children Ayden's age, more things to plug into right away, etc. However, we didn't want to take the "easy" way out with this choice. God didn't tell us ONCE in the Bible that serving Him would be easy, actually, He told us the opposite. And for that reason alone, we chose Cedar Road. Because we know that God NEEDS us there, and that our family can do great things through this Church, for Him. We have some great friends that attend there along with us, and we're so excited to worship, and serve there along side of them! It's our hope that we can help the Church to grow & start some really exciting things there. God is faithful, friends!


That is all for now. Ayden will be up soon, and I have other things to accomplish before then!!

God Bless!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

New beginnings in March!

It's March- isn't that exciting? That means one step closer to beautiful weather, which means: one day closer to playing OUTSIDE with my baby! Hallelujah!!!!! I was about ready to book our tickets back to Cali.. ;)

Well, we have some really exciting news this month.. (No, I am NOT pregnant again! You won't be seeing that exciting news for a few years, friends.)! Jaymes got a job!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's been hired by the "AME Group" (Advanced Microelectronics) in South Bend as their network engineer! He starts on the 14th with a week long training course in Indianapolis. After all that's said and done, he'll be working out of their South Bend office. This job is such a huge blessing to our family. It's full time, with full benefits.. and that's exactly what we needed. Now, I'll be able to stay home with little Ayden until it's time for him to start school, just as planned. We are blessed, and SO thankful for God's provision in our life's! Thank you to everyone who prayed for this job to come along, we cannot explain how much we appreciate it!

Since this blogging thing doesn't happen very often anymore- I suppose I'll update on the rest too.

Ayden James will be 6 months old in T-3 days. Excuse my language, but HOLY CRAP. That's his HALF birthday. That makes him HALF of a year old. That means only 6 more months until he IS 1 year old. Really, I'm still trying to figure out where the past 6 months have gone. He is learning at the speed of lightning! He's sitting up almost perfectly, learning lots of new emotions, and within the next month he will be crawling. He is beautiful, he is healthy, and he is happy (when he isn't teething)! We really couldn't have asked for a more perfect child! Thank you, Lord, for Ayden.


I just have to add a little paragraph or so on how amazing my friends are. I have such a great group of friends that encourage me daily! Recently, a dear friend sent me SUCH a sweet message about how much she looks up to me & how she thinks I'm such a great mother/wife/woman. I think she must have sent the message to the wrong person, because I fall short SO many times (if only she knew!) I'm so happy that I, also, encourage my friends. THAT is what friendship is about.

Last but not least: we've been on the hunt for a good church in this state for the past few months. We're happy to say that we have it narrowed down to 2 churches and will have a final decision by Sunday, March 13th! God is in very the center of this decision- we're not basing it off of who wants us where, not even necessarily what we feel would be easiest for us, but by where HE can use us the most. With all of that said, this will not be an easy choice & your prayers for us as we decide would be greatly appreciated as well!

Time for bed, hope you all enjoyed :)

God bless!