What I've been up to

I'm going to do my best to summarize all my goings-on in the past several days. I said I'll do my best- no guarantees!

Well this last Friday was my last day at work. I have several mixed feelings about that. I am going to miss the people I've worked with over the past two and a half years like none other! I've already made a ton of promises to keep in touch and visit so I think they will forgive me for leaving... someday... Am I going to miss the actual job? Uh- no. I'm very excited to be working 2 jobs now that are way more fulfilling, way less stressful, and pay a whole lot better! :)

I've been trying to get my taxes done as well. For those of you who don't know me- I DESPISE taxes with every ounce of my body and soul. I pretty much can't stand anything that is this complicated and has the government involved and involves my money. My opinion? My money, my business, enough said. 

K done with the ranting on that- for now at least. :)  I know I shouldn't complain... My favorite Scripture is Philippians 2:14-16. It says, "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe, as you hold out the word of life- in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing." That whole first part saying don't argue or complain- yeah I need to work on that... I need to remember that I still need to submit to the authorities in my life, even if they're stupid, for the sake of Christ and that it will work out for the best if I do. 

Best for last! Friday night I was at Renee's house for a video chat with McMama who was in Africa. We got to meet some of the villagers and they told us their names and, I have to say, the children were precious! I never thought I'd be able to say, "Hey I met someone in Africa tonight" and now I am able to say that and I feel so blessed! Those people were so sweet, and it's absolutely mind-boggling to see "first-hand" (via Skype anyway) what the Lord is doing in Africa.

I'm the one on the far right- tired as all get out but I'm so glad I was able to be there. 

And here's the video of the actual chat. Just listen for the children saying their names- it's amazing!

It's Been Awhile

Apologies to my blog. I have completely neglected you lately. And sorry to my small group of readers for my absence. I have definitely been preoccupied.

First off, I have put in my notice to quit my job. That terrifies me to no end. My last day is next Friday and I cannot tell you how scared I am. I know I shouldn't be, but I really truly am! I should be super excited to be home with my baby girl. Like I've said before it's been my lifelong dream to be a mom and wife, but now that it's actually happening, I feel like having a heart attack. I'm sure it's just the unknown and my earthly security blanket is going away. But I am called to not hold onto anything of this earth... Need to remember that! I need not look at the many MANY things I am losing by quitting, but the many MORE things I'll be gaining by quitting. A lot of those things I'll be gaining will definitely be treasures stored up in heaven- I am convinced of this!

So needless to say, there's been a lot on my mind lately, just not much of it has been written down. Plus, last weekend was our 5 year anniversary and the entire weekend was devoted to my husband.We had a blast just being baby-less (she went to hang with grandma and grandpa), eating out, relaxing, hiking, sleeping in way late, and just remembering how much we love each other.

I have also been planning a lot of how I'm going to be working my business again and getting it back off the ground. I'm highly detail oriented so I have been going over a million different things of when I'm going to work, how I'm going to work, etc. I could probably spend a lot of that planning time actually working... ah-hem...

Well I am working on my next blog post. It's kind of a follow up to Renee's post. Stay tuned. Hopefully I won't leave you all hanging for weeks on end again. :)

TV

So I'm outing myself when I say that Nick and I... don't have... a... TV. 

Now let me explain:

Those of you who have been to our home know there's a TV in our home because it's gigantuan and near impossible to miss- it's about 5 feet long by 5 feet tall by 3 feet deep. But all we use it for is movies. Yes, it's sad. Our poor TV has been demoted and now lives a boring life of just movie playing and doesn't get to share any fun new commercials with us or depress us with the evening news. It really has been quite traumatic for the TV. We would have slowly weaned it off of the commercial and news addiction that it had gotten it self into, but unfortunately we didn't have that option. We had two options: upgrade to the digital and keep feeding our TV's addiction to commercials and news or just let it go cold turkey. We opted for the cold turkey. We couldn't allow our precious TV to follow in its past ways- it may have never gotten out of the rut that it was in. 

There's a happy ending though! Our TV has been able to battle the withdrawal symptoms and has (I'm proud to say) come out on top! It is now a proud movie only playing TV and if it could talk, it would tell you that it is the better for it. It no longer fills itself up with the garbage of the world and then shares it with us, but rather only shows us the stuff we wish to see (although sometimes that does tend to be garbage anyway, but we're a work in progress just like the TV). 

So for my friends who are happily watching the Super Bowl, I am sad for now. I do wish our TV could share that with us, especially the commercials. But for now, we'll find a movie. Or maybe no movie at all. Perhaps we'll just play together as a family tonight and enjoy some yummy food. 

P.S. I do want to know who wins!!! :)

Blogging

So here it is. I have no clue how to blog. I know how to type, and obviously that's as far as I've gotten. I should put up pictures or make a fancy design, but I don't know how and I don't have the time either... So apologies all around for having the most boring blog ever. I promise it won't last forever! For now, you'll have to listen to my rambling... No complaints yet, so that's good.

There's not too much new here, minus our car troubles (more on that later- going to try and focus on the positive for now) and we're all doing better. Talia is FINALLY eating again and doing much better with teething and being cranky. We actually had a wonderful night tonight! She and I ate and played (pictures to come of the eating...) and she was laughing all night long. It's been a long time since I have heard her crack up for hours on end and I LOVE IT!!! It was a blast to just hang out with her, eat some yummy grilled cheese, and crawl around together. I swear, she's the most fun kid ever! ;)  Thank you so much for all of your advice and prayers. I really appreciate you all!

Also, I am SO grateful to my friend and coworker who gave me a ride home from work and even went out to Talia's daycare and back to my house. I don't know what I would have done without her! She was such a great blessing and I can't thank her enough. Maybe lunch will be in store for her tomorrow... She deserves it!

I think the rest of my night is going to consist of strategizing, a little worrying, and calling various people to figure things out- so for now I'm off. Hopefully I can squeeze some relaxing in there too.

Night everyone and God bless and stay warm!

Why I look forward to Heaven

1. No more tears. In particular baby tears. And this is for two reasons. One is that it tests my patience and sometimes, regrettably, I snap. Two, it really is heartbreaking when my baby girl screams and there's nothing I can do to fix it.

2. No more need for patience. That just lets out a big "wooosawww" in my soul. Working all day outside the home in a place that requires a ton of patience (for patients! HAHA sorry I couldn't resist...) and then coming home to a baby who can be either sweet or screamy. I can't imagine being able to be around people and we'll never have to have patience with each other ever again.

3. No more worry. Whoot! That's exciting! There will be nothing to be worried about... Nothing! :)

4. Walking by sight, not by faith. Being able to see everything instead of having to trust is going to fantastic!

5. No more being sucked down into yucky stuff. There won't be any temptations to gossip, curse, be lazy, lie, cheat, cut corners or any of the like. No temptations to fall or fail. That's such a huge weight off my shoulders. I have a bad habit of falling and failing and to know that it's only temporary is great!


Good night all!

An Update or Two

Well I got a new comments system down on this blog thing! Now anyone who is a living, breathing human can comment. Unfortunately since I changed it the prior comments have been deleted. So I apologize greatly for that, but at least I did it fairly soon...

About me not having pictures on here, I am sorry for that too. Honestly I try to find enough time to write and adding pictures would take up more time. Plus, I blog on my husband's lap top and all the pictures that aren't currently still on the camera (I download them about a whole whopping 4 times a year... ah-hem...) are on my old, ancient, prehistoric desktop. So basically, the short answer is- I'm LAZY. :)  But I really do want to share pictures with you all, so it will happen, just be patient with me...

Let's see. Today I was so incredibly bored at work! I was watching my life pass before my eyes... Plus I really needed to go grocery shopping and was going to go after I got out of work and with all those hours just ticking by... well it was just uber-painful. I could have had all my shopping done by the time I normally clock out... So what did I do in my time while I watched the computer clock change from minute to minute? I cut my hair. That's right! I cut my hair. Does it look good? Eh... not bad per-say. But I had a million split ends and there was LITERALLY nothing else to do. I tried to play email tic-tac-toe with a coworker (who is also one of my best friends), but she was busy... Or I could have watched TV in the waiting room, but nothing good was on. Or I could have sat there and counted how many ceiling tiles there were, but that would have only made me cranky because I would have lost count... So hair cutting it was! One of my other coworkers even said she was pleased with my thriftiness. Her words were (or close to her words... I forgot her actual words), "You saved time by not going to the salon, and didn't have to pay for a haircut, but rather GOT paid to cut your hair!" Once she said that, I realized, "Hey I'm not half bad when it comes to thrifty- and I wasn't even trying! Imagine if I actually tried to be thrifty... hmm..." Of course, I did just get a Great Clips coupon in the mail... So what am I going to do with that now? Bad timing, Sarah, bad timing...

In response to Talia's sickness and other random things that are troubling her, she's doing better today but still not back to normal. She won't eat much, but is at least hydrated. I think the teething will just have to run it's course for now along with the anti-eating thing. But I have gotten some good advice from a couple people and I really REALLY appreciate it! Thank you so much and you know who you are!

 Well, tis Friday night and I have some Stargate to catch up on... oh wait, did I say that out loud? Dang it! Now the whole world knows I'm a nerd!!!!

Talia's Troubles

The 2 main reasons of this post are one, to complain, and two, to ask for help! 

The lowdown is this: Talia has been sick off and on for about 2 months now and has been teething severely. Then on top of that she's entered the Terrible Twos early and has become so rambunctious that I can't keep up with her. She's constantly moving, won't ever sit still, and always wants her way. There's lots of these things that are definitely positive and I am so thankful for this stage because it is really a ton of fun. I absolutely LOVE feeling my heart leap when she gives me that cute little, almost sheepish, smile or when she wants to play Point or Baby Race down the hallway. But I am exhausted. My back is actually hurting because of having to chase her around constantly, move her from danger to safety, and calmly try to calm her down/"explain things to her" when she's throwing a tantrum. I need some good, practical help!!!

Her latest shananigan is refusing to eat. She won't eat! She refuses pretty much everything (except for yogurt or sometimes cereal in the morning) and then merely sips at her bottles and juice. It's a miracle if she finishes her dinner! I caught her today mushing up her food in her mouth but she refused to swallow it! Ai-yai-yai!!!

Right now she's on her third set of antibiotics due to ear infections. She's on tooth number 7 (she has gotten all of them within the past 2.5 months) which adds to the crankiness. Please pray that God will heal her little body and give Nick and I the energy to deal with all this. Speaking of energy, I am so exhausted from working and then having to take care of her in the evenings by myself. I feel like I can't even enjoy my baby because I'm so tired! I know, I wrote about being a stay at home mom the other day, but we're still not there yet. But I guess with all these other things Talia's going through that God is trying to tell me that working isn't working (hehe, no pun intended there...). I think I'm trying to do too much. There's too much on my plate. I don't have time or energy for the things or people that really, truly matter. I spend it all during the week on people who, most likely, I won't ever see again but then have nothing to give to my Lord, my husband, and my daughter. I should be flooding those three with my energy, attention, and love, but I have it all backward... I am draining myself, but rather should be seeking God. I need Him to help me with these situations and for Him to show me the way, but I only seek Him for some things, not all things, which is not good... Okay we're getting off topic here, but that's okay. I needed to write all that out stream-of-consciousness style to help me on a therapeutic level. Sorry for the detour... :)

So, fellow mommies, here's the list of things I need help with! Comment below with any/all advice!

1. Teething

2. Sickness/Infections

3. Not eating

4. Tantrums

5. Diarrhea/Rashes