finally figured it out..

My new embroidery machine almost got the best of me, but I finally figured it all out, I think... Almost as soon as I got started, though, some thread got jammed in the underneath and it stopped working. I called the Singer man up, took it down to the shop and he fixed it in minutes...and for free! I made the right decision in buying it locally! :)
These are a few hand towels I made...I call them hand towels that will actually dry your hands! This is S for Smith (that's me!) And, surprise! C for Crawford...

And N for Nix...a gift for my new sister-in-law..even though I know she doesn't actually read my blog, it turned out so pretty that I wanted to post a picture. I am in the middle of a blanket for Noah, and then on to making some cute burp clothes. I'm now ready for business, so if you need anything appliqued, embroidered or monogrammed..I'm your woman! :)

In other news, we found a jogging stroller! We got a great deal on a gently used stroller, which Ryan and I are pretty syked about. We have gone running the past two days...nothing major, but we (mostly me since he's already in shape) are training to run a 5K on August 1st together. It's a good goal for us, and we have just enough time to whip me right into shape for it! :)

name brand envy

there are two types of people on middle school: those with spiffy and cool, brand name jeans...and those poor, pathetic losers who did not have spiffy, cool, brand name jeans. i, unfortunately was in the second group and i knew it. but i had friends...lots of friends, maybe even all of my friends, were in the first group. they sported brands like bongo and guess and the limited, and oh how i envied them. i wondered how i might get just one pair of jeans with one of those names on the back...play really hard in my jeans and get them all dirty and stained-surely then i could easily convince my parents to buy me a new pair. after all, dirty jeans on a 13 year old reflect not so much on that girl as the girl's parents. good plan, right? not so much... but there was a valuable lesson my parents were trying to teach me in all of this...something about how trivial the brand of my jeans were. at the end of the day, it didn't really matter all that much what kind of jeans i was wearing, i should just be thankful that i had some to wear. while i understand that now looking back, i didn't really get it when i was a preteen. obviously, my parents were the only ones who thought it didn't matter because all of my friends had cool jeans! even so, somehow i managed to survive middle school with no name brand jeans, and i'm pretty sure i don't have any lasting scars. but, unfortunately, i am facing a new dilemma as a mommy. for, you see, there are two types of parents now....ones who have sweet, awesome brand name products for their kids, and all the rest of those terrible parents who don't...

a new standard

having a baby changes your perspective on so many things. one of those things for us is the way we view restaurants. before noah came along, we had two factors that went in to decisions about where to eat: 1) cost and 2) quality. the main question was "are we getting good food for a good price?" now, though, a more prominent question arises: does the restaurant have a "baby changing station" (you know, those big plastic things that come out from the wall that you can change babies on)? i barely noticed these pre-baby, but now it's the first thing i look for. unfortunately, some of my very favorite restaurants are off my list because i had to change noah on the floor of their bathroom. not fun! zoe's, edgar's and even the wonderful urban standard will no longer be seeing the likes of me and mine...nope, we are off to bigger and better restaurants that actually love kids. 

ughnnn

it's funny how frustration creeps into me unaware these days. i am just running along usually, feeling great, and then something sparks my frustration and i am completely overwhelmed with it. it's not a fun feeling when it happens...and this morning was one of those times. 30 minutes of the two of us crying our heads off. he was not happy with me and i was not happy with him. i couldn't figure out what was wrong and he refused everything i offered. not fun! eventually, i had to load him up because i needed to meet ryan with his work shorts..i was terrified he was going to cry all the way, but he enjoyed the ride today (thankfully), which i'm pretty sure had something to do with the temporary new car God has provided us with. the air conditioning stopped working in our trooper last friday morning, and we picked up a "new" car that afternoon. God's timing is so funny sometimes. nick and ryan had decided a while back that we could drive his jeep cherokee (strangely enough-my dream  car when i was younger) while he was in basic training...which is a pretty sweet deal for us. i have been coveting all of my friends' suvs now that i have a kiddo and have to lug 10,000 things with me everywhere i go...and now i have one for a little while. it'll be nice to drive during the heat of the summer and give us a little time to make a decision about getting the trooper fixed. :) and, bonus, noah loves the new ride. the jeep is built to be a bit of a rougher ride (the shocks or something) which bounces us around a good bit more than the green machine does...and noah loves that! so, our day got much better once we got in the car... :)

pulling out the tricks

noah is a funny boy. he is all about some play time in the morning...which is not always fun for me, mrs. don't-even-think-about-talking-to-me-or-even-looking-my-direction-until-after-8-a-m. the other morning, though, i couldn't help but crack up at my silly little boy. ryan, noah and i stayed in a cute little room at the beach that was just perfect for us, except for the huge windows that pretty much made up one wall of the room. the natural lighting was great during the day, but not so much at 5 am when it woke noah up. he picked up a little stuffy nose from ryan, so he'd wake up having a hard time breathing...or at least, snuffling loudly as he breathed. we hoped he'd clear his nose up himself by sucking in enough, but no such luck. as he sniffed and snuffed, he began to cough a little here and there. you can imagine, *sniff sniff cough sniff cough cough* by this point, he's pretty much awake, so i guess he wanted to let us know by talking to us *sniff cough cough cough "ayyy" sniff "iayyy" cough sniff* ryan and i looked at each other, hoping if we didn't say anything that he might go back to sleep...but then came the sneezing, which he does in series *achoo achhooo acchoo achhoo acchoooo sniff sniff "ayyyyy" cough "ayyyyyyy, ayyy" cough sneeze sneeze "iiiiiiyyy"* i was like, "seriously, noah? go back to sleep." after a few minutes of this repeating itself over and over and over again, he began to whine...i guess to let us know that he really wasn't going to go back to sleep...might as well go ahead and eat, right? so went our mornings at the beach.... (after the first two mornings of this, ryan ended up doing getting up and taking care of the boy so i could sleep a little longer...he's the best! ;))

enjoy the ride

"when the smell of poop no longer triggers your gag reflex, you are officially on the ride"

we're back

we had a fabulous time at the beach! we spent lots of time with the family, a little time at the beach, and tons of time relaxing!! we were so sad to come home yesterday, though excited about our weekend full of wedding festivities. it's such a bittersweet time: we saw one brother off to start basic training with the air force, and we will see another brother marry the love of his life...and we couldn't be more proud to call both of these great guys brothers! 

hopefully we got some great pictures at the beach, which i will post soon.. :) 

the time has come..

that's right. no more fighting it. no more excuses. the time has certainly come to work a little harder to get all of the extra poundage i'm carrying around off. i didn't want to write about it until i knew i actually would do it...but i'm proud to say that i'm on DAY 4 of working out! i have hired a personal trainer. some of you might know him actually; he's a tall, good looking fellow, in super shape, knows all about working out, and happens to be my baby's daddy. i've told him not to go too easy on me because i definitely am in need of someone to push me harder than i push myself. and, so far, he has. we started the week monday with a full body work out, then a walk/jog on tuesday, an upper body work out yesterday and a walk/jog today. i noticed today while i was moving on along that i feel better already at the whole running thing. don't get me wrong, i don't like it yet...and i'm not very fast at all. in fact, i was jogging along today jamming to some john mayer (side note: listening to upbeat music really helps me with the whole running thing) when a dog started barking from a nearby yard. i tried to ignore him, hoping that he'd stay put..but, he decided to join me in my run. not a big deal really, until he passed me and took off ahead of me. and, no kidding, i'm pretty sure that he looked back at me and smiled and stuck his tongue out because he knew there was no catching him...

more snip-its

*i am terrible at coming up with titles for my writings. it's ridiculous how much i think about this and how little i come up with. i always want to pick the perfect title that will attract people to read more, but rarely come up with anything close!

*i have spent most of the morning trying to set up my new embroidery machine and to figure out how exactly it works. they offer a class at the store i bought mine from that i am seriously considering taking... it seems complicated right now! all the same, everything is hooked up and ready to be used! i'm super excited and already have lots of ideas...we'll see how they turn out in actuality. :)

*ryan is out of town for the day! he went white water rafting with his brother and dad. nick is one week away from heading out to san antonio to begin his air force training, so they decided to squeeze in a little fun before he moves away.

*noah is smiling quite often these days! he is one studly little man if i've ever seen one!

*we have taken him out to the pool twice now. the first time, he was not very happy about his experience: but the second time went much better. personally, i think he likes swimming with mommy much more than with daddy! ;)

*he is continuing to grow and grow. you might look at this picture and think he's not getting enough to eat...but his rolls would say otherwise! ;) he is doing a great job of controlling his head and each day, his neck seems to grow a little bit more. it's at least half an inch now!

*it's amazing to watch as God continues to provide for us in spite of our lack of faith at times. i was reminded of this yesterday when God provided for me in a seemingly small way...at least, in a minor detail. as has become commonality for me, i couldn't find a thing to wear yesterday. we were throwing a shower for my soon to be sister-in-law after church and i wanted to look cute...and knew i couldn't wear the same thing i wore to the last shower (which would be just about the only dress that fits me these days)... i tried on at least a million different things and nothing was working for me. i got super frustrated, way too sarcastic with ryan and then threw myself on the bed for a little pity party. after a few moments of wallering (yes, wallering) in how terribly my life is and unshapely my body is, i was struck with an idea for something to wear. i made my way downstairs to see if it would work and it did. i ended up with a super cute dress that i already had shoes and a necklace to match. it was such an unimportant-in-the-big picture sort of a thing, but I was so encouraged to be reminded that God is even in the smallest of details in our lives. as ryan and i struggle to figure out how we will make it through the month, it was nice to see physical evidence that God has not forgotten us...

*i have a few more pictures to share from the past two months! (ahhh-our little boy is ALMOST 2 whole months old! where has the time gone?!)

he loves to sleep in his chair:
loves to relax in mommy and daddy's chair.. and loves to get his picture taken...

"how about a hawaiian punch??"

happy birthday to me!

i am pooling together all of my birthday money to purchase my very own monogramming machine. ryan and i wheeled and dealed with the singer salesman today and got a great deal on a new machine complete with just about everything i need to get started. i have been enviously eyeing my mother-in-law's machine since she got it a few months ago and decided that this would be the perfect thing to ask for for my birthday. i am super excited about getting started and will soon be posting some pictures of my work! since i am home all the time these days, i am hoping to get a little business going of monogramed and embroidered products...so we will see how that goes. i can't wait to get started!! 

a birthing story (finally)

now 7 1/2 weeks late, i have finally written about noah's birth...better late than never, right? 

i began having contractions early on the evening on the tenth...assuming that noah was just fooling me and certain that there was no chance i was in actual labor, i spent the evening eating a large dinner, soaking in water (in hopes of stilling my contractions) and trying to lay very still on the bed. ryan even tried distracting me by putting on one of my favorite movies, but none of these helped. in fact, they all served to build my anger little by little because, no matter what i did, the contractions kept coming-stronger and stronger...aka painful by painful-er! when we decided that they definitely weren't easing up, we began timing them and realized they were just as they should be-coming every 5-7 minutes and lasting just under a minute. prior to actually being at this point in the whole process, i thought i would try to wait around the house for a while, until i was at least 5 or 6 cm and i just couldn't handle the pain any more. as much pain as i was feeling at this point, i was SURE that i was at least that dialated, if not more. after arriving at the hospital, however, we learned differently. not only was i NOT at 6 cm, i had not dialated at all since my doctor's appointment days earlier...however, since my contractions were so steady and strong, and my water was "bulging"-they decided to keep me for a bit. so, i spent hours upon hours (it seemed that way, at least...only about an hour and a half in actuality) walking around the 3rd floor of st. vincent's hospital. i got to spend some great quality time with ryan and my mom, as well as to check out all the great door hangers on all the new babies' rooms. i have some GREAT ideas for making some in the future...anyway, in the middle of all the walking, we ran in to the doctor who said that if i wasn't fully dialated by 6 am, then he would cut me open and pull noah right out. since i was already scheduled for a c-section due to noah's largeness, he was certain this would be the way he would come...but, he gave me the benefit of doubt. all that walking helped noah progress, so eventually, they laid me down and got me all prepared for my epidural. after getting that, things progressed a little more quickly and by the time the doctor made it by after his nap, i was nearly to 10 cm. he said he'd let me push for an hour, no longer, and then send me on my way to the o.r. if noah hadn't arrived. i was confident that we wouldn't need an o.r., as my friend ashley had been able to push her first baby out in a mere 30 minutes. i had twice that amount of time to get my little one out, which i worked very hard to do...unfortunately, noah and his big-headed-self were too big and me and my narrow-pelvis self were too small...which meant that he couldn't drop down low enough to even really begin thinking about making his way out. the doctor came in just before the hour was up and said he wanted to see me in the o.r. at that point, ryan, my mom and i all lost it. i think we were all pretty sure he was super close to coming out...and dreaded the thought of the looming c-section. (funny story: the whole time i was pushing, ryan and my mom were on the edge of falling apart, it seemed. they looked so pained the entire time and i even saw a few tears coming from each of them... i was telling them the other day that i kept thinking "pull yourselves together, guys, I'M THE ONE PUSHING MY GUTS OUT!" but, looking back, i understand how much they love me...i'm sure it was pretty terrible for them watching me so agonized and knowing they couldn't help) so, they suited us up and sent us in the direction of the o.r....and everything soon became a blur. i was terrified about going under the knife...and the surgery was incredibly painful for some reason...seriously, i was calling out in pain, something i have never really experienced in my life. after a few moments of me yelling, ryan asked them to give me something to take away some of the pain...which they prompty did...pushing some sort of drugs into my iv which took all of 2 seconds to get into my blood, i guess...because i felt much better immediately. unfortunately, it also made me feel completely out of it. they pulled noah out and talked about how hard it was to get his shoulders out because he really was THAT big...then showed him to me and began the clean-up. ryan got to go watch as they worked with noah, and i stayed put as they stitched me back up. the whole process took less than an hour and we had our little one! 9 pounds 13 ounces and 22 1/4 inches long (surprisingly even bigger than they thought he'd be)...born at 10:55 am on the dot! 

they wrapped him up and then tucked him in with me and began pushing us to the room.  i was pretty freaked at this point because i knew that they told me to hold onto him, but i felt like i had no real control of any part of my body, so i was sure he was going to fall right off the side of the bed while we were moving. i was so mad at them for giving him to me... later i found out that he was, thankfully, wrapped into my blankets rather snuggly. the boy wasn't going anywhere! we were wheeled right through all of our friends and family that made it out to meet our new son and into our new room (on the 2nd floor...which, was a little disappointing, not quite as nice as the 3rd floor). they promptly sent everyone out except for ryan and my mom, and we had a wonderful little bonding time with our noah! 

and now...7 weeks later, here we are...even more wonderfully bonded and so thankful that everything went well with noah's birth. i get frustrated some times because some people seem to look down on ladies who deliver via c-section...but the truth is, there's no shame. having a baby is having a baby-incredibly difficult work!...i don't there is ANY easy way to do it. and we did it this time the only way we could. otherwise, he would have had to grow old in me...which neither of us would have enjoyed. :)