Nicholas Sparks

Ok - it is late at night and everyone is already sleeping, so this one is going to be short, b/c I am tired too! Let's see - what happened today? My sister found out that her dad is now cancer free!! Thank you God!! You are truly awesome!!! I have prayed about this for several months, and He answered our prayers! YAY!!!! Oh - also, my friend, Susie, who lives in NC went to a Nicholas Sparks book signing today. I am always telling her how lucky she is b/c she has met him several times (he ives up there when she lives.) Wellllll....she had him sign me a copy of his newest book for my 30th birthday, and then he called me!!! Butttt.......I didn't hear the phone and missed his call! What a bummer! I was going to get birthday wishes from Nicholas Sparks, but I didn't hear my phone. :( Oh well! I am totally stoked about my book that she had signed for me. She had him write Jessica Happy 30th birthday!! How cool is that? I am kind of bummed about turning 30, but what can you do?? :) Bella is excited about it and has been working hard on the invitations for the pretend party that we are having! I love her!!! Parker is a doll too, but quite the handfull! By the way - weaning him off of the bottle is still not going very well! Well, my bed is calling my name. Until tomorrow......

Dreams

The most recent pic. I have of my dad, Bella, and me!

Ok- I have been having some really wierd dreams lately. As most of you know, my dad, Bubba, passed away last December. It was probably one the saddest things that I have ever had to go thru in my 29 years on this earth. The last few months, I have had these reoccurring dreams about him, but he is alive in every one of them. In the dreams, I know that he is about to die and I try to spend as much time as I can with him before it happens. I wake up sweating and crying. These dreams are so disturbing to me, and I think about them all day after I have had them. Is it guilt for not spending more time with him before he was gone? I don't know. I think that maybe that is what it is about. Last night's dream had my grandfather in it too - who has passed away. Why am I dreaming about these two special people and why are they alive in the dreams? I love the idea of seeing them alive, but the dreams are always sad, b/c I know that they are going to pass away before I wake up. I am totally rambling on and on about this, but I have pondered it alot today, and here is my conclusion: spend as much time with your loved ones as you can, call them EVERY time that they cross your mind - don't wait to and say - oh - I'll call them later. Call them NOW! Take lots of pics - they hold special memories when your loved ones are gone, and NEVER EVER take one moment with your loved ones for granted!

On a lighter note, my friend Susie, is going to meet Nicholas Sparks tomorrow. She is so lucky and has gotten to meet him several times. Anyways, she is going to get a book autographed for me for my birthday!!!! YAY!!!! I am SOOOOOO.....super excited about it!!! Thanks, Susie!! :)

What was she thinking?

Soooo....today I was workng in the nursery at church, so Bella was with her daddy. When church was about to begin, he went to get her, and she took off running from him and ran thru one of the doors into church and caused some heads to turn, b/c she was "running" from Rob and if I were guessing - prob. screaming too. He was not very happy - to say the least. Then, she was sitting next to these two boys, and during the service she just turned around and hit one of them for no reason! What on earth was she thinking? I don't even know what to do in situations like this. She is not allowed on the computer for 3 days, but she didn't even act like that bothered her. Rob and I are really at a loss as how to punish her when she does things like this, so if you have any suggestions - that would be GREAT!!!! :)

After church, we went to a Pampered Chef party. It was fun! They have alot of neat stuff, but it is kind of pricey. It was fun to be around the girls though and have some laughs. Oh - while we were there, Bella started wrestling with one of the boys, and another child got hurt in the process. Soemtimes she can be such the girly girl and other times she is soooooo...tom boy! :)

Parker hasn't done anything new and exciting yet. We are TRYING to wean him off of the bottle at night. The peditrician told us to gradually reduce his milk at night until he is sleeping thru the night (yes - he is a year old and still not sleeping thru the night. UGH! ) So, we tried giving him 3 ounces at night this week instead of four, but now he is waking up about 4 times a night instead of two. I don't know what to do. I can't wait to be able to go to bed at night and not wake up until my alarm goes off in the am! Then, after we get him off of the bottle and sleeping thru the night, we have the task of getting him to sleep in his OWN bed and not ours. Maybe we should be doing this all at one time. Hummm?!?!

Today Was A Good Day

Soooo....yesterday was kind of a crummy day, but today was much better. Last night we had some friends over and sat at by the fire pit talking, making smores, laughing, and having a great time. So great of a time that none of us went to bed until about 2:00 this morning. I have not been up that late in forever, and I was so tired this am when the kids were up at 8:00. My sweet husband took care of the kids and let me sleep in. So, I got up around 10:30. It was great! Then, two of my girlfriends and I went to see the movie "Nights in Rodanthe." It is based on the book by Nicholas Sparks. If any of you have ever read his books, you can guess that it was a tear jerker. It was very good, but there were a lot of sniffles and tears in the theatre.

Bella has been busy today making designs and invitations for my birthday party. I didn't know that I was having a birthday party, but I guess she is planning one for me! What a sweetheart! Tonight will be an early night as tomorrow we have church, and I am working I the nursery. That always wears me out! :)

One of those days

Have you ever had one of those days where you would like to just climb into bed and enjoy some silence and alone time for a little while? I had one of those days today. Parker had his shots on Monday, and he has been cranky since then. Today was really bad. He cried non-stop, or so it seemed!! He wants you to carry him around ALL day, and I actually had things that needed to be done today. I thought that I was going to pull my hair out. Rob finally came home from work, and I had a few minutes to myslef. Rob told me that I should find a friend to go with me to see the new Nicholas Sparks movie tomorrow, so I can get out of the house for a little while. I think that I will take him up on his offer! :) I am glad that I have an understanding husband, b/c he def. gets the brunt of all of my frustration.

The weather here is still chilly and cloudy, so we are going to make a fire in the fire pit tonight, have some friends over, and enjoy some grown up time with good friends!

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a little better!

My first attempt at blogging

I decided today that I was going to start a blog for those of you who want to read it and see what is going on in our lives here in SC. All of my family is so far away, and there is never enought time in a day to talk to all of you and fill you in on the day's events, so I thought that this would be a great way to keep you all informed on the exciting events going on here. So here we go.....

The last three days have been really hard for me. My mom and my sister left to go back to Texas, and I have found myself crying everyday. It is so hard to be this far away from my loved ones. I question everyday whether or not Rob should stay in the marine corp or not. He and I have discussed it, and he is willing to do whatever makes me happy, but we both know that the military is job security and that is hard to come by with the economy like it is today. So, I will continue to pray about it, and see where God leads us.

Parker turned one on Friday. It is so hard to believe that he is already a year old. Time flies by so fast. We had both of the kids baptized while our families were here, and it was awesome! They are truly a gift from God!

Bella is in first grade and playing soccer. She scored her first goal of this season while our families were here, and she was so excited! What a perfect time to score a goal!

Well, I will try to post on here everyday, and I hope that you all will enjoy reading it. Some days may be more interesting than others, but I would just like to keep you all updated and informed! Love you all, and until tomorrow.......