Growing up

This sweet precious little baby girl will be 4 years old next Monday. I can hardly believe it. As I type she is sitting in the floor playing with her Grammie. She is just getting so big. Today we had a conversation about her learning to snap her fingers. It went a little something like this:

Me: Jayci did you show your friends and teacher that you can snap your fingers?

Jayci: OH yeah I did. They were very impressed!

Me: (In shock she just said impressed). Yeah they were. It is very impressive that I can do that.

I just laughed and laughed. She just says some of the funniest things. I really want to get better about "writing" them down.

Also this week we have started a book called "Teach your child how to read in 100 Easy Lessons." I don't know about easy but it sure is working my patience! We actually started a couple of weeks ago and did it for two days. After those two days I decided to put it up for a little bit and start fresh. Today went really well! I am trying to keep things in perspective. Little things are not worth fighting over. If it takes us a little longer to get it done or if we just don't do it one night I'm not going to sweat it. It is just not productive for me to get mad and end up so frustrated at her or her in tears.

My last post was about how hard school is for Jay's and my relationship. Well, needless to say school is also hard on Jayci's and I relationship. I am stressed and am bad about taking things out on my family. I know horrible. However, I am really trying to stop doing this. I know last semester of school is kind of a late start but I guess it is better than never.

Anyway, back to my sweet baby girl. I love her so much and she is growing up so fast! Next week I will post a longer post about her and her birthday.

Priorities and Prayer Request

This is officially my last semester of school. Can you repeat after me? YIPPEE!!! Not only am I so excited about being finished I'm pretty sure my husband is possibly more excited. School is so hard on us. It's hard on our communication abilities, it's hard on ability to spend time together, plain and simple it is just hard overall on our marriage. Personally I am tired! Tired of school, tired of trying to balance life outside of school, you know the little thing called my family. I am just exhausted. But with only 123 days to go I have to find a way to muster up the energy and will-power to get through all of it.

All that being said I know there is only one way I am going to make it through this semester. That would be by leaning on God. At house church, which is like Small group, we talked about giving our whole self/life to God and what that would look like. I am still pretty unsure exactly what that looks like just because that is such a hard concept to me. But for now I feel like it looks like being a better wife to my wonderful husband. It means to stop putting him on the back burner and pay attention to his needs. He is so amazing to me and I fall very short of showing him how much I appreciate him.

I know this post may not make since to many people or it may. I don't really know. It is more a way for me to type out how I am feeling right now. It is also a way for me to hold myself accountable. I want to be a wonderful wife, mother, student. Unfortunately my priorities have been a little bit backwards. So from now on I want to lean on God a lot more, be a better wife, and really set my priorities correctly.

Oh and one last thing...We have some friends that have just learned that their brother-in-law, Kyle, has cancer. They are not sure what kind or even where all it is. They do know that it is in more than one body system. The doctors plan on doing a biopsy later on this week to find out more specifics. Anyway, Kyle is 31-year-old husband and dad to 3 children. Please pray for him and his family during this very hard time.

Dear Santa

Today is the first day in a while that I have had absolutely nothing to do! OK well I could be doing laundry, dishes, or studying for the test I have on Saturday but instead I kept Jayci at home. We have totally enjoyed ourselves too. We have washed some dishes but mainly we have just stayed in our pajamas and watched cartoons! Can you say Fabulous?!?

One very important thing we did today though was write Jayci's letter to Santa. Just FYI I am a bit controlling so this was very hard for me. I scanned it and thought I would share.

I have to admit I helped her some. I drew dotted lines for her to trace and write her letters. However, they are learning letters at school so she can write most of those. The top people looking things are dolls. There is a Daddy, Mommy, Baby (with one eye), brother, and another baby. The little half circle things sticking out from the side of their head are ears! Then below that is a Dollhouse and a fountain. She drew both of those by herself. Then she signed her name. I'm not really sure why she has started writing her "J" backwards but it bugs me to no end. She has been writing the letter "J" since this summer and just in the last month it has turned backwards. I'm just trying to be patient about it.

OK well I hope everyone has a great rest of the day and week! After Saturday I will be completely done with this semester. Woo-Hoo! Only 1 more semester left!

Petite Jean

Today Jay, Jayci, and I loaded up in the car and went on a little adventure. At first this adventure was just going to be for Jay and I. However, since Jay has been out of town a lot lately and I have been super busy with school we decided to take Jayci along with us. Our adventure consisted of going to Petite Jean State Park. Which ordinarily for Jay and I would not be an adventure but this was the first time we had ever taken Jayci with us. And let me just tell you she was FABULOUS!!! We hiked around for 3 - 3 1/2 hours and she was so good. Here is a map of the park and trails.

Jay & Jayci when we first got there!

Jayci & Me

First we went down Bear Cave Trail. This trail had lots of really big rocks. In fact we decided to climb up one and eat our lunch. We arrived at Petite Jean at about 11:30 so it was a good time and a great location to eat lunch.

Jayci & Jay

Can you tell she loves her daddy?!?

Doesn't this look like a great spot to eat lunch? It was!!!

Nothing like peanut butter sandwich, a carrot and blue skies all around!

After giving our selves plenty of energy with lunch we decided to climb around on some of the smaller rocks.

Jayci & I showing what tuff girls we are!

Jay & Jayci on their really big rock climbing mission! Jayci kept saying, "I am soo Brave."
Of Course there is nothing like getting a little help from Dad on the way down the rocks.

Or A LOT of help!After this trail we headed over to Ceder Creek Falls trail. This trail was considered a moderately hard trail. This trail goes a little further into the woods and makes a big loop. We did not do the big loop. Instead we cut over to the boy scout trail (a moderate to hard trail) and went to see the waterfall overlook.

***Side note: We had planned on going down the trail that leads down to the bottom of the waterfall. However, I thought that it might be a little too hard for Jayci and did not want to attempt it her first time hiking around on a mountain. Well I was wrong because she did excellent and this trail was pretty hard.



So instead of seeing the bottom of the waterfall we just saw the top (I didn't take any pictures). Which was really good enough!

Walking down the trail like such a big girl. There was a pre NO WHINING clause stated and signed at the beginning of the day!

A little jump down!

Stopping to feel the water on the way down. It was pretty chilly.

This is stopping to splash water on our hot faces on the way back. Really hoping the water is clean!

After this trail Jayci started to get a bit tired but we wanted to go to one more place. This really neat cave. It is super huge and is made of rocks. In fact it is called Rock House Cave. This was the last stop of the day!

Tired but still willing to be brave to climb some rocks!

She was super brave on this one and climbed around all by herself. OK Jay was just right outside of the picture. But she felt very brave and proud of her self.

I love fall! Today was the perfect fall day! We had a beautiful time and just loved being a family. Many thanks were given to God as we ventured through His forest today!

Light at the end of a VERY Long Tunnel

Well these could not have come at a better time! They are not really all that good and I really didn't expect them to be but I was so happy to see them. It's like I know that the end is coming. I always saw myself going to college and having a bachelor degree of some sort one day. And that day is coming near! Then GASP they are actually going to allow me to take care of real people, probably kids by choice! Oh man that is just scary but exciting all at the same time. Well I really just wanted to share the pictures with everybody. Only 192 days to go!!!! May 15, 2010 cannot get here any sooner!!!!

Kaps for Kidz

OK so I know it has been soooo long since I have posted anything at all! I really will work on this once I get out of school. For now, I am doing all I can just to stay a float with paper work, research papers, test, oh and taking care of my family. Luckily for me I have an amazing husband that stays on top of things. He has definitely been my rock through all of this. Seriously, I know I get frustrated with him about a lot of things but I could not imagine doing all this without him.

Anyway.... Back to what I am really posting about

Kaps for Kidz

I don't know if you read Mckmama's blog or not. But a few weeks ago she posted about making and donating hats to cancer patients either via sending them to her or to your local hospital. Well I decided to take on this project. I am in nursing school at a fairly big school and started the Kaps for Kidz campaign to benefit Arkansas Children's Hospital. And since I have this blog I decided to branch out a bit more.

So here is the deal...

I am collecting all kind of hats, scarfs (for heads), beanies, doo-rags, or just anything you can think that would keeps these children's heads warm. They could use hats from toddler size all the way to teen/adult size. I know a lot of people around here knit hats for ACH but a lot of times those hats just do not fit the bigger kids. And the ones that do fit go really fast. I know that ball caps would go over very well, especially with the older kids. Anyway, I am putting a picture of the flyer I made for school up to give you a better idea. I have no problem collecting the hats from you and making one large donation. In fact I would love to be able to give them an abundant amount of hats!!! So if you have any questions regarding this you can e-mail me at the e-mail on the flyer or at nursemom0510(at)gmail(dot)com.

Oh and one last thing...If you decide to donate the hats must be new or made from new material due to the suppressed immune system of these children.

Thank you in advance for you generosity. Even if you can not donate or make a hat; a simple prayer for these children and their families would do wonders!

Life

Life...

Not really sure what to write about it. So I am just going to let the keys take the lead and we will just see...

School is going pretty good. It is a lot of busy work! I feel like I cannot just get ahead on most of these things. Mainly because I am a huge procrastinator but still I should be able to not stress so much about procrastinating. Ha. Which reminds me I may want to go print off my lecture notes for tomorrow! Anyway, I really feel like some days I am completely losing my mind. Here are a couple of things I have done in the past week or so to prove that I may just be going a bit crazy:

I saw the September calendar in Jayci's school folder took it out because I thought it was October. Then proceeded to tell her teacher that I had lost the October calendar and could I please get a new one. Needless to say she looked at me a little funny and said, "You do know it's still September." I know she must think I am a complete nut.

I was at lunch with some girl friends from school. We were all just chatting and telling stories. I decided I would tell one about Jayci (of course). However, when I started the story I called Jayci by a completely WRONG name! Now I know this happens to moms; especially when they have more than one child. But I don't! Jayci is my one and only. Even one of my friends went "really you just got your only child's name wrong?" HA!

OK well those are the 2 stories that I can remember right now. I'm sure there is more but I've probably just blocked them to at least keep what sanity is left.

This is Jayci and her cousin, Parker. He is actually her second cousin but she is 1 month older than him. Anyway, here they are in their matching Macks Prairie Wings shirts. They are so sweet in this picture and they really play so good together! I hope as they get older they continue to be good friends.

On another note...Jayci has started to tell a small little rumor to everyone she comes in contact with. OK well maybe not everyone but a lot of people. She is convinced that I am going to have a baby. And she does not hesitate to tell people, " My mommy is going to have a baby" or "We are having a baby." I am pretty sure this all came about because some good friends of ours are expecting their second child. However, I am NOT! I really want to but am trying to hold off until closer to when I finish school. It is still a bit embarrassing when her teacher at school asks if I'm pregnant and then the next week at church her Sunday school teachers ask me the same question. I'm just glad they asked instead of assuming she was right. Anyway, I don't ever bring it up to her except for when she has told someone new and that is just to clarify that I am not having a baby. I'm sure it will pass. Oh but she does insist that when I do have another child that she is going to have a sister. So I thought this would be kind of fun.

If I have a girl I imagine Jayci's face something like this:


However, if it is a boy, I imagine her face more like this:

HA!!! I just could not resist using this picture some how! OK well guess I should head off to bed since I have class in the morning. Hopefully it won't take me as long to blog again!