All by myself...

Don't worry, guys. I just burned a pan of water... Seriously? There I went, busily cleaning the house before Kris arrives home from his trip tomorrow, getting bottles made and babies to bed, and bags packed for school tomorrow. I made a healthy bedtime snack of egg whites and summer squash. I filled the pan with water to boil the remnants of egg off of the pan and somehow ended up forgetting while I went and took a bath, and got ready for bed. I started panicking when I smelled something burning.

Our tiniest frying pan is literally- fried. And I'm sitting with my windows open trying to air out the smoke so I can sleep without stench in my nose. Uck.

It's just been one of those weeks! This is my first week going back to work Monday-Friday since Keegan was born, and this is also Kris' first business trip week- ever. It's been a whirlwind and seems to be passing at a snails pace. Kris comes home tomorrow and I could not be happier.

This week has been an awesome reminder of the companion and team mate that I have in my husband. Yes, I can do it, but boy, do we miss our Daddy when he's gone.

And apparently he misses me too, because he had flowers sent to me at work yesterday!

Talk about making a girl feel special!

And I tell you, looking at these flowers after a long night of Benny-Boy who is STILL sick and always ends up in bed with me around 4:00 in the morning the past few weeks as he's recovering.

But how yummy is he?!

Also, Keegan had a VERY successful potty-training day at school. He has been awesome for the past couple weeks, but suddenly had some rough days this week. He had multiple accidents because he's kind of frightened of the big potties at school. He was not going potty ALL DAY and waiting until nap time when he would go in his Pull-Up. Because he held it for so long he had a couple major accidents two days in a row.

Today, however, Keegan did A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

Not only were his undies dry, but his Pull-Up stayed dry all nap. He sat on the big kid potty at school and was so grown up. So thankful for his school and the girls there that help reinforce good behaviors.

Keegan got his Thomas hat for a reward for being Mr. Big Kid today:

This kid.


He gets me every time.



Ah, it almost hurts!


Now it's time for a little Covert Affairs and nail painting before bed. Here's my new pick for fall nails:

It's Essie's Carry On. It's nice to have more of a purple tone rather than a red base during the fall. Love.

Anyway, the smoke starting to clear (literally) and I'm going to try to enjoy my last night as a single lady for a while.

I will post tomorrow about how we potty trained Keegan and how it's going so far in more detail! :)

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 1

Day 1: Today I am thankful for my job.

I work with great people. They are understanding, honor our family lives, and show me more love than I've ever experienced in a workplace-ever!

I learn from everyone I work with and have tremendous respect for all of the ladies who work so hard to serve our customers selflessly... even the customers that don't make what we do easy.

They act as co-workers, friends, counselors and mentors... and I am thankful for them! All of them- even if I don't have a picture of everyone! :)

So November 1st- here's to focusing on the positive and showing gratitude for the multitudes of blessings in my life.

Arriving Home...

Today was a rather emotional roller-coaster in our household. Kris had to take his dog of twelve years, Tyler, to be put down. Even though he'd gotten sick and become kind of an ornery old man dog, we will miss him as a member of our family.

Today was also Kris' last day at Coca-Cola. That was where Our story started, so what a gift his time was there. Even though we're both excited for his new opportunities, it's a rather melancholy time for us. So many emotions! But boy, at the end of a long, emotional day it feels good to be home with our family and a glass of wine!

That being said, here's how we ended up back home...

Just in case you didn't read my posts over the last couple of years about trying to sell our home and eventually moving, here's a quick synopsis of our story over the past few years...

We moved into our dream home right when we were married. Both my husband and I made decent money, and I always assumed I'd be a working mom. I loved my job in banking, and was pretty good at it.

All that changed when I got pregnant with Keegan. I suddenly realized that I couldn't stand to be away from Keegan those long hours. My bank was open til 6:00, and quite frequently I didn't get home til darn near 7:00. Babies go to bed at 7:00!

The opportunity arrived for me to switch companies and industries and work part time at an insurance agency for the greatest boss I could ask for. But great bosses and work environments sometimes come at a cost- and ours was a pay cut. We put the house on the market and agreed that we would downsize because focusing on our family, and living within our means was important.

After a year and a half on the market, and one offer that fell through due to financing, we finally decided to give leasing it out a shot.

We quickly found tenants that more than paid the mortgage and we moved across town into a small rental. It was fine, and we adjusted to our smaller space and made sure to save, save, save. We figured that since we so quickly placed tenants, we could continue to lease it out until the market turned around.

When the lease came up for renewal I was 7 months pregnant. They showed it multiple times, and within that month, determined that they'd need to drop the monthly lease payment down substantially- so much so that it would no longer make sense to rent it out.

We had assumed that since the lots in our neighborhood were filling up we could try selling it again... But then they expanded the neighborhood by 70 new home sites... So, that was off the table.

We prayed about it and decided that we love our home. It was and still is our dream home. I literally had a dream of a little blond haired-blue eyed boy wearing a plaid shirt getting his picture taken on the front porch on his first day of kindergarten before we bought it (the little boy in my dream looked eerily like Keegan FYI. I'm kind of psychic).

I remembered a sermon at our church from while we'd been trying to sell our home before when he said that God has us in the exactly place, the exact street, the exact home where He wants us in that moment. If it was His will to have us elsewhere, we'd be elsewhere.

We decided to move back.

With perfect timing, Kris was offered a new job that he's starting soon, and we've adjusted our lifestyle to focus more on eliminating debt and saving than spending and acquiring more.

And it feels good to be home.

It feels really, really good. To ALL of us.

Keegan cheers every time we pull into sight of the house, "Yay, my 'new' home!"... And we've lived here for almost three months again already...

And it was so good to bring my second baby home from the hospital to the same home that I brought my first baby home to.

I am so thankful for the home we've been given, and continue to build together. I'm thankful for a husband who works his butt off for our family, and takes risks because he loves us.

God is good.






And just for another remind of how good God is... here's my sweet tiny boy sleeping in our bed this morning before school...

How Big-Boy does he look already?

Thankful for comfort and an early Friday night in bed. Enjoy your weekend with people you love, I hope!