l i f e // november

    

I kind of feel like this season of life should be officially renamed from "engaged" to "Wedding Planning!"I'm always working on it, and  have to consciously make an effort to not talk about it constantly. Its honestly astonishing how many thousands of details and decisions there are to be made. I have lists everywhere which is helping,  but we have to decide everything from shiny tulle or matte tulle, to his wedding band, to what kind of dessert we'll be serving.There are so many things we don't have figured out yet, like honeymoon plans, and what time we're having the wedding... (On a side note, I did my passport application today... even though we don't know where we're going yet. And I was happy the photograph didn't turn out as awful as I've heard most do. ;) 

    I am so excited to get to marry my best friend, (92 days!) and I cannot wait until our wedding day. But lately I've been thinking so much about after the wedding and honeymoon are over. The weeks and months after we say "I do" and real life begins. People keep asking me if I'm nervous to get married. And I'm not nervous at all about marrying Scott. I am completely at peace with the decision to get married, and I'm beyond excited to be his wife and spend forever with him. 
     The only part that makes me nervous at this point is learning to run a household by myself, (obviously with him, but I mean without my mom overseeing things.) and everything that entails. Having to decide what to do for meals every.single.day! Finding a balance between working, and keeping the house together. But I keep hearing that it'll be fine, we'll figure out how to make everything work, and things will settle down into a routine. My sister-in-law and a couple friends have been a huge help with it comes to questions about all that. :)

     Its so strange to think about the fact that in three months I won't be living with my family. I won't be doing any of my normal routine, nannying for my cute kiddos, running siblings around, or the endless laundry. The people I nanny for are starting to look for a new Nanny.  Last month I visited my best friend, Hannah, for a long weekend, and it felt so odd, because its one of the last times we'll hang out just being girly like that. 

anyhow, what has been happening in your life lately? 

xx

L y d i a ~ J o y

whilst thinking about this post this morning my brain was spinning typically in four-million different directions. But the main thought I had was that I'm never personal on my blog. I rarely post family pictures or updates on my real life. most of my hesitancy about sharing personal thoughts and updates is that my life is so normal. I'm not an amazing writer, or photographer, I don't have my life together and picture perfect. I'm not a super fashionable person. And five-days out of seven, I'm at home doing perfectly normal things. Laundry. Cooking. Helping various littles with math. Endlessly cleaning my room and various parts of the house. My life feels (and looks) so boring when compared to the posts and pictures I see all over the blog-sphere. Okay, so I know I'm supposed to be content and not envy other people and all that jazz, and in all honesty, I'm not really sitting here in a puddle of self-pity, sobbing over the fact that my life isn't as awesome and beautiful as my favorite bloggers. 
In reality- I am lonely, and bored. But I find ways to occupy my life, and I can see beauty all around me. I've only lived here almost eight months. I don't have many friends, or activities and obligations outside of my home.  I read to occupy my time and "improve my mind.". A lot. (I've read 148 books so far this year. Only two more to complete my reading goal this year on goodreads.) I browse Pinterest and the blog-sphere. I bother my bestie with emails and phone calls. 

but you know what. I think there is a really good reason that God has chosen to keep my time free and un-engaged. (Not like getting married engaged, but obligation engaged... just so we're clear on that point. Although the other would be great. *cough* Anyway.)

One of the things I don't think I got around to sharing on here was the fact that my mom was pregnant with our twelfth (or rather fourteenth, if you include my parents) family member. After my littlest brother's birth mom thought she was completely done having children. It was a rather rough pregnancy and she was quite at peace about not having any more. And then we moved earlier this spring, and she gave away all her maternity and baby clothes and baby gear. And two weeks after moving into this house, whilst driving up our horrible, bumpy, major hill rutted, driveway, mom turned to dad and announced. "YOU HAD BETTER BE GRATEFUL THAT I WILL NEVER BE PREGNANT ON THIS DRIVEWAY." and God decided to prove that he does indeed have a sense of humor because two weeks later, lo and behold she found out she was expecting #12.

She had tons of complications this time around, with High-blood pressure and allergic reactions to all the drugs the tried to control it. And then, ten days ago she was hospitalized and diagnosed with preemclampsia (and I can't spell that word to save my life so please just read it out phonetically. ;) And, on October 29th, Lydia Joy was born, via C-section, at 31 weeks. She weighed 3'12. She is doing fabulous and one week later she is off everything: oxygen, IV's, the only thing she is still on is her feeding tube. She is going to have to spend five weeks in the hospital, but that is completely normal procedure and she's doing amazing. Mom came home on Saturday, and is still having really High-blood pressure problems and trying to deal with all that and stabilize it, but is otherwise feeling pretty good. Dad's been going into the hospital twice a day on his way to and from work to hold her and spend some time with her. And Mom got to hold her yesterday, because she was feeling a little better. 

So my life is suddenly crazy, and overwhelming. But I think I understand a little bit why I have't really found a lot to do around this area yet. ;) 
so, how has your life been these last few weeks? Are you starting to get into the holiday spirit? I'm getting excited about the holidays. Especially since my brother and his wife are coming the first week in December, (right after he officially get's out of the Army) and are planning to stay with us for a few weeks.) Two nights ago we picked names for Christmas Gifts. I'm slightly excited!

so, tell me about your life. :)

Busy Summer??

Hey gals,

Well, this month is gonna be pretty busy, 'cause Thomas is leaving next month and we are trying to pack everything into this month.

So.... let see. Last weekend we went up to Oylimpia to visit my Aunt and Uncle and a cousins and second cousins and maybe third cousins for all I know!!!! :) (The whole cousin thing just confuses me, is it a second cousin, or a first cousin once removed?!?!?)

This weekend we are heading to the beach for days, with that family I think I told you about that we went to visit and pulled the all nighter and all that... :) It should be really fun. They have  kids and we have 10, so there will be a whole ton of all kids to watch!! *smiles*

And then the next weekend, Thomas and Andrew are having a huge airsoft war, (with tons of guys. I am already feeling sorry for myself. I think I will have to have a couple of girls over to counter the overwhelming amount of guys!! :) )

And the next weekend (*laughs*) We are heading up to a fiddlein' camp for like 6 days, I think.

And sometime in August we are planning to go bungi jumping... :) SCARY!!!!!!!