It's been Awhile...

It's been awhile, and it will have to be a little longer. Things are busy at work this week, but everything will settle down by the weekend. Today is James' birthday! Unfortunately, we're not going to have dinner together tonight, but James and Sadie came to Atlanta to have lunch with me! We ate at The Flying Biscuit and then I gave the office tour. Everybody loved Sadie and she was so good - no fussin' at all!

Happy Birthday James - I love you so much! I hope you enjoy your day!

Here's a semi recent picture for you - courtesy of Melissa Pepin Photography! She's amazing!

Life is So Good

We actually stayed home tonight and it was so wonderful and relaxing. James and I love to go and do, but sometimes its nice to have a quiet night at home. We had a pretty busy weekend and didn't get to spend much time in Madison. I feel like we're constantly on 441 traveling from Athens to Madison.

When I got home I fed Sadie while James ran to the store to get salad and bread - I love living 3 minutes from the grocery store! It was great to have my little girl in my arms after working a full day.



Sadie is just getting to the point where she can hold up her head good enough to sit in her Bumbo. She sat in it and played with her keys while we ate dinner (we did have her next to us - not on the counter during dinner). She is also putting everything in her mouth now!

After dinner I fed Sadie again and we went to the nursery for some stories. Sadie and I layed in the floor and read a couple of Bible stories. She liked looking at the pictures and would respond to the changes in my tone of voice. It was such a sweet time.

We also took a bath tonight. She loves to get in the big tub and float around in the bubbles. Overall, tonight was perfect. I love being a mom and I am so in love with my little girl. I love getting to spend time with her and watch her learn. Time to go - she's calling me!

Pony

"Yes, baby, I will buy you a real one one day." (Just for the record, your Great-granddaddy bought your Nonni one!) - James

Quick Catch Up Blog

I can't believe two more weeks have passed by already! Here are a couple of pictures from the last couple of weeks.



This one is from our dcf Advance. We had a great time with our church family and Sadie did great! We all stayed together in a house on what used to be Lake Lanier. We had a great time of discussion, prayer, teaching, and worship. The house had a huge deck, so we had all of our sessions outside. It was great to worship God outdoors! The weather was perfect!

We helped the Brockmanns moved - I guess technically James helped the Brockmanns move. Sadie and I weren't much help. Violet and Sadie are going to be such great friends! Violet was pretty intrigued by Sadie.

Uncle James had his first football game of the season and we enjoyed watching him play. It was sort of bright so we pulled out Sadie's glasses so she could see. It cracks me up that she likes them! James didn't win, but it was close - hopefully they'll win this week!

Sadie and James working away. He's finally learning to multi-task!

Georgia v. Georgia Southern

We watched the game at Mama's house on Saturday. She kept Sadie, while Lyn and I worked at the dcf Charity Cookout. Lyn and I had a lot of fun cooking and serving burgers, but we came home smelling like smoke, sweat and grilled meat (okay maybe the sweat and meat thing was just me). Either way, we both remembered enough from last year to bring a change of clothes. I had so much fun watching the game with Sadie. Mom kept us fed with plenty of snacks and drinks.

Everybody knows that Georgia girls are the prettiest!

I told Lyndie that one of the first things that I thought about once we became pregnant was how fun it was going to be to be able to sit in my chair with Sadie and watch the Dawgs play. As expected, UGA took care of GA Southern in what Lyndie would call a "boring" game. At the end of the day, I told her that any day that GA wins, Michigan loses and an SEC team embarasses Clemson is a good day (Robbie...buddy...that is just for you.) - James

My Day

I had a wonderful day today. I am not naturally disciplined or inclined to live by a schedule, but it was really nice to start our family's new routine today. I did not sleep much last night at all. I tend to be somewhat of a night owl, and Lyndie and I have been playing for the past two weeks, so my body wasn't quite aware of its new wakeup time yet. Unfortunately, I didn't get to sleep until almost 3. I got kind of used to functioning on little sleep while I was working third shift this past year, so getting up this morning was not as difficult as it could have been. I got up and kissed Lyn goodbye and sat in the living room and starting checking email. I realized that I had just jumped into my day without spending time with God yet, so I stopped and read in Numbers. I started a plan to read through the Bible in 90 days and stopped for no good reason a while ago and decided to pick up where I left off. (For the record, I have read the Bible since then, just not on this plan)

I was so thankful for the opportunity to just sit on the couch and eat some oatmeal and drink coffee and read my Bible and for life to feel a little more sane. Sadie started getting restless and was losing her pacifier every five minutes after a while, so I got in bed with her (our bed not her crib) and finished my reading and spent some time praying. I am so excited about teaching her about Jesus and teaching all of the cool stories in the Bible. I prayed for the Schills, the Brockmanns, and the Hodges that God would draw their children to Himself and that He would use them to teach their kids about His love.

I never would have thought that I would feel so passionate about children (I know for a fact that I said on numerous occasions that I would work with any age group except children), but I have enjoyed so much the opportunity to pray for and plan for those kids' futures at dcf. I am currently working on a handbook of policies for dcf to use in training volunteers who work with kids and it has been a daunting task to say the least. There are so many things to consider. The other day I had to take a break from working because I was starting to feel overwhelmed with the responsibility. I was really thankful for Lyndie when she was quick to remind me that we don't have to do things as big or as fancy as other churches do, and that it is my job to figure out what it looks like at dcf and not feel pressured to copy what other churches are doing.

God has been so good to me and constantly reminds me of His love for me. I was reminded today of stupid it is to question and distrust a God that has already done so much for us. I had a blast today playing with Sadie, working and cooking. I got our elders' meeting, lunch plans with someone from dcf and coffee with two folks who visited dcf, so tomorrow is another full day but I am already looking forward to all that God has in store.

Back to Reality

Today was my first day back to work after giving birth to Sadie. I actually started a new job, too! I'm now working at Premiere Global, a telecom company in Buckhead, as a tax analyst. My first day back went as well as possible. The hardest part was getting up at 5 am! Sadie and I have been sleeping until 10 all summer. Sadie wasn't too interested in getting up early with her dad and I - she slept until her customary 10 o'clock.

Leaving Sadie behind was hard, but it was good to be back at work. I really love what I do - I guess I'm a bit of a dork! Ok, I know I'm a dork - I got kind of excited about getting new office supplies today. God's provision has been amazing over the past couple of months. When I found out I was pregnant we weren't quite sure how everything was going to work, but God had an awesome plan. I ended up getting a raise with my job change that allows James to work for dcf full-time. Thankfully, he can work with Sadie by his side and I'll be working at home two days a week if he has duties that require him to be stroller free. We thought it would be years before James would be able to work in the ministry full time. God is so good! James is such an amazing pastor and I am so glad he is now getting to use the gifts God has given him to love people and share the gospel. I'm also getting to use the gifts that God's given me in the business world.

James ended up finishing up at the hospital two weeks ago, so we got to spend two weeks together and home with Sadie. It was wonderful! James spoiled the fool out of me Friday since it was my last day. He took me to lunch at Marti's - my favorite! We ran into Rachel, Kim, Erika, Melissa, Abby, and my fifth grade teacher, Dr. Ward there. After lunch he humored me and we rode around town and looked at houses. Then we dropped Sadie off at the Miller's and went on a date! We had dinner at Carrabba's where we sat at their "pizza bar." We had a great time watching the chef's cook - it was like the Food Network up close. James was in heaven! It was a great way to close out my 12 weeks of maternity leave.

Wow - this is a really long post!! James is going to post about his first day with Sadie later - but I just want y'all to know that he blew me away! He got up with me this morning and made my coffee and kissed me before I left. He tried to take a picture, despite my protests, but the camera didn't work. He kept me updated throughout the day and sent the following pictures to my e-mail account at work. He also wrote a couple of rap songs with Sadie. He wouldn't video their performance, though. He went to the grocery, worked on material for the Advance, fed Sadie, changed diapers, made the bed, made phone calls, and cooked an amazing dinner. I definitely think he worked harder than I did today!

One more thing - as soon as I picked Sadie up when I got home, she pooped all over me! I'm serious - all over me. I had poop on my shirt, in the chair, on the floor, and up Sadie's back. It was pretty gross. I'm not sure what she meant by that - but James thought it was pretty funny and then dressed her in her "I love my Daddy" onesie.

Now its time to iron my clothes, feed Sadie, go to bed and do it all again tomorrow!

Lunch at Marti's

Sadie working the phone for Daddy