Perspective

My heart is particularly heavy today for some close family and friends. Although I firmly believe that there are many things that happen in this broken world that we will never fully understand, it still breaks my heart. Reflecting on the difficult circumstances over the course of my own life, I see a gaping hole where I am quick to cry out to God in pain, but not as eager to dive into His Word to hear him speak in response. This excerpt came to me today, by no accident I am sure.

"The eradication of doubt and its hesitancy, the removal of confusion and its chaos, the banishment of fear and its paralysis, comes not by gazing at the circumstances of life to know God's will but by knowing God's word. Then we can understand the circumstances of life so doubt is replaced by confidence, confusion gives way to clarity, and fear gives way to courage.Simply put, you do not grasp God's will by reading circumstances but you grasp circumstances by reading God's will- His word."

-Pastor Harry Reeder
www.briarwood.org

Old News is Still News

This is old news for practically everyone, but for posterity's sake I will say again, "We're having a baby!" Chase and I are thrilled to be able to share that we are expecting our first bundle of joy in January 2012. Chase is still shooting for an early delivery and a tax write off, but I'm just praying for a healthy full-term little one.

I went to my first visit with my new OB-GYN here in Huntsville in April. (Side note: picking an OB-GYN is so ridiculously awkward, and this is the 3rd time I've had to do it with our various moves. yuck.) I'm pretty sure I picked a winner with Dr. Callison. During my visit, we discussed pregnancy, but neither of us thought I'd be back in 2 months for an ultrasound. On June 7th, we got to see this sweet little eggroll move and wiggle. 

We were also able to see his/her heartbeat. The ultrasound tech was so sweet to go over every little millimeter and explain each detail. Going in to the appointment, Chase and I were both so nervous. After it was all over, we just didn't really know what to do. So we ate. Some people have celebration dinners at Ruth's Chris or Connor's. Not the Tyson's........we headed to Mama Goldberg's Deli. (ironically, also part of our 'new baby tradition' seen in this post)

And for those of you keeping track.....a barely pregnant 6 week baby bump picture taken at a Memorial Day BBQ.

Newness

I've completely lost track of what happened and in which month the following events occured, so I'm grouping February, March, and April all together. Looking back over the things I've included, there seems to be a theme of 'newness'.

We traded in my old faithful Toyota Camry for this shiny new girl. (except ours is black)

My plan was to drive my Camry until the wheels practically fell off (because the car was paid for). When we started to sense that it might need several expensive repairs in the coming year, we began casually car shopping. We visited several local dealerships to check out the used car inventory. Honda started offering 0% financing, and when we paid them a visit they offered us much more for the Camry than we thought we'd get. As with any purchase, Chase researched and researched.....and researched. Oh, and negotiated - that's his favorite part.  About a week later, we drove this little girl off the lot. (just in the nick of time, too, seeing as how my car battery had died 2 days before)

I also have a new Sister-in-law! Sweet Brianna (known to us as Bri) officially became part of our family when my in-laws adopted her. For those of you that aren't familiar with our family, Chase's parents serve as temporary care foster parents. Bri was placed in their care on Thanksgiving day 2007, at 5 1/2 months old. 

She is now 4 (going on 18) and we love her to death. My mother-in-law, who raised 2 boys, has been thrilled to have a girl to dress up and shop with. If you know them, you know that Bri is my mother-in-law's 'mini me' in every sense of the word. It's hilarious.

Keeping with the theme of new, we finally quit browsing MLS and hired a realtor to help us purchase a new home here in the Huntsville/Madison area. When we moved here a year ago, we settled in an apartment to a) save money, and b) figure out what area of town we wanted to be in. Regina Underwood, who I highly recommend, did a great job showing us properties we requested to see and neighborhoods she thought we might be interested in. In the end, we placed a contract on a house in an area we hadn't even considered looking in and in a price range well under what we expected to pay. We put a contract on this....yes, this.

The best part about it has been that we have been able to select, within reason, several of the finishes and colors. I'm crossing my fingers that the things we picked out in 6 inch swatches end up looking good when they all come together. More house updates to come....

January...

...in bullet form. Did you expect anything else?

• Early January, we woke up to a record breaking snow for our area. Roads, schools, and businesses shut down for several days. We took advantage of the down time and entered into our church's snowman building contest. I have to give all of the credit to the 3 boys -- the rest of us just watched. :)

• We're always looking for new things to do in town, and someone discovered a coupon for a local arcade that promised "as many tokens as you can hold in your hand" for free. We took full advantage and spent a few hours playing every game in the place...and then spent 20 minutes trying to decide what to spend our tickets on.

• Our Birmingham friends are still nice enough to invite us to Birthday celebrations, and we shared in celebrating the big 3-0 with Jonathan at Jim n' Nicks BBQ.

 

p.s. clicking on the pictures will make them bigger

Surprised to see me at the top of your blog list? I'm Updating!

Most of you did a double take when you saw my neglected blog at the top of your reader list again. After several months away, I'm back. I certainly don't promise to blog frequently, but for posterity's sake I find it important to document the life events of the past few months. To keep this as painless as possible, I'm using bullets. That's right. Bullets and unedited, straight from my camera photos.

Let's rewind back to......December.

• We drove South to welcome the newest addition to our Birmingham crew, Ms. Mackinley Kate. She's such a snuggle bug (I know this because I steal her away every time we visit.)

•  We also met miss Sadie Kate and visited with proud parents Brian 'catfish' and Sally.

• We celebrated Chase's birthday here in Huntsville and broke our tradition of sitting in the Golden Ticket Seats for the Rick and Bubba radio show.

• We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house this year and rallied together to play Rock Band. I will not embarrass my family with the video we recorded, but let's just say that Mom won't be asked to sing Shania Twain again anytime soon.

• Christmas morning we woke up to a liiiiittle snow. This was my view when looking out the front windows. I was so grateful that we were able to experience the snow at my parents house because it just felt as if it went on for miles, perfectly untouched.

• After we had spent sufficient time looking at the snow, a rare thing in Alabama, we opened gifts and went to the kitchen to begin preparing our traditional Christmas Morning breakfast extravaganza. And that, my friends, is when the power went out because of all the snow and ice. My mom, a stickler for tradition, was beside herself with no way to cook breakfast. The rest of us laughed and ate cereal.

• On New Year's Eve we were able to spend some much needed time with our sweet friends Bethany and Stephen. They just relocated from Colorado to Mobile for Bethany to attend Medical School. (imagine the climate adjustment that occurred). We were able to enjoy a meal at one of our favorite spots during undergrad, and then went to a small party where we rung in the new year.

•  I also can't leave out that my absolutely adorable friend Ashley got engaged on New Years Eve and we happened to bump into the couple not long after the proposal had taken place. She and Brett are just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. And I totally stole this photo from their wedding website. (credit to the person who took this photo by hiding in the bushes)