SUYL - Baby Names

I don't usually participate in Show us your Life over at Kelly's Korner but since I love baby names I thought I would this one time.

Baby Girl

Obviously we already have one beautiful little girl. Her name is Jayci Leigh. Her name is very family oriented, however that was not the original name we had picked out. Originally I had picked out Arabella Grace and then it went to Arabella Leigh. I love love the name Bella, always have but Jay wasn't the completely sold on Arabella. Well my aunt and I were pregnant at the same time and she had the girl name Jacie picked out and Jay and I both fell in love. So with a little modification and making it more like her daddy's name we chose Jayci. Leigh is also a family name. It is my cousin's, my aunt's, my step-mother's and my middle name and my granddad's first name was Lee so needless to say it had to continue. So that is how we came to the conclusion of Jayci Leigh.

Now for a future baby, if we have a girl it was going to be Bella Elizabeth. However, now my SIL, Cori, is pregnant now and they are naming their baby girl Isabella Grace. I know you can have two same names in one family but it's just kind of weird to me. So being the planner that I am Jay and I have been talking about different girl names. We have it narrowed down to Ava or Mia both with the middle name Elizabeth. I like Ava more and he likes Mia so I guess we will just have to wait and see. Oh and Elizabeth is my mother's middle name and I think it is just such a girlie but strong name. Oh and the first names have no family significance. I just like the names that end with the A sound at the end for girls.

Baby Boy

As for boy names we have gone through a ton of them. I can't even remember all of them we have been through. But I think the one we have settled Korbyn Rusden. Korbyn has no family significance but we both really like the name. Rusden on the other hand is a mixture of both of our dad's names. My dad's name is Rusty and Jay's dad's name is Dennis and combined we get Rusden.

OK well there are my baby/future baby names. Now if I can just keep people that I know from naming their kid's with the same name. Ha. Just kidding. I know I will have a beautiful niece that will fit the name Isabella perfectly!

Motherhood

I found this blog this evening and thought I would do this little quiz. Hope you enjoy!

1. What is one thing you wish someone had told you about being a mom?
That being a mom is not easy and you will mess up, make mistakes, and most of all you will be your own worst enemy when it comes to trying to be the best mom around. It's just too hard to try to be like all the other "good" moms just be the best mom that you can be.


2. What is the most embarrassing thing you’ve experienced as a mother?
The public temper tantrums are not a fun experience.

3. What's been your lowest point?
When my daughter was about 4-5 months old I went through a real bad depression for several months.

4. What's been the most rewarding?
Knowing that my child is happy and has a love for people and most of all Jesus.

5. Describe a mommy moment that transformed you so much so, you will never forget it nor are you the same since?
I would have to say when we first found out we were pregnant and then hearing her little heart beat. I knew life at that moment had changed forever.

6. Are you more relaxed or paranoid since becoming a mother?
I am kind of in between. There are some things I am relaxed with but seeing as we only have one child I am pretty paranoid about stuff too.

7. Did you plan on becoming a mother or were you taken by surprise?
I planned on it one day but at the moment I was definitely taken by surprise.

8. Were [or are] you close with your mom?
I am pretty close to my mom. We usually speak daily

9. What family tradition do you want to pass down?
A love for Jesus. I have recently just started to really find my love for God and I hope that I can pass that on to my kids and their kids as well.

10. If you could start over, what would you do differently?
Oh in an ideal world I would probably do several things differently. For starters, I would probably be married before I became pregnant and I would have definitely finished school. But I love my family and my life and even though things didn't go as "planned" I have grown in so many ways.

Good News

Well for starters we went to the house yesterday and it is coming right along. We have grass and landscaping. I know the little things in life are just so exciting! We also have a dishwasher which is something we do not have right now! That is very exciting because well we don't have one and we are sick of doing dishes. Well mainly Jay because he is such a wonderful husband and usually takes care of the dishes! Anyway, here are a few pictures of the house. They are not the greatest because everything is still pretty dusty.

For some reason the dishwasher picture is sideways. I tried and tried to turn it but you get the point!
The second and in my opinion, the most important, I found out today I will be a Registered Nurse at Arkansas Children's Hospital!!! I am so excited and thanking God for such a blessing. The unit I will be working on was my 4th interview at Children's. Yes, I interviewed 3 different times with 3 different people (actually more if you include the group interviews). So talk about your stress. Each time I would just stress until I heard any news. This time I did worry/wonder but I really tried to give it over to God and just decide if this wasn't were I was supposed to be then I would be okay. And I did know that I would be OK but I still wondered/worried. Anyway, praise God for this WONDERFUL blessing. My tentative start date is June 7th, which just happens to be my birthday! I know, the best birthday present, right!

So now that all that stress is over with I can just focus on passing the rest of my classes and GRADUATING!!!

Update

Yes I know it has been a while since I have updated. I think that school has just taken all my brain cells because I have no idea what to write. So I guess I am just going to update with some pictures from the zoo. Oh and I only have less than 1 month until I graduate! Woo-Hoo!!

Last week we went to the Memphis Zoo with some friends from church. We had so much fun!

All the kids in front of the zoo. They really wanted to take a picture in front of each animal.

Ellie and Jayci in front of some pretty flowers and hiding in a hollow tree.

Jayci doing something she has gotten really good at....Pouting!

The kiddos in window that looks at the Sea Lions.

Jayci and her Daddy

This is what happens when little girls feet get tired!

Oh and as for a house update: We went yesterday to check on it and they had put the grass down! So that is very excited. Oh and no news on job prospects. I had another interview last week and should here something tomorrow. I am trying to not get my hopes up because this was my 4th interview. I am trying to just give it over to God and let Him decide where I am supposed to work. As a kind of controlling person by nature this is VERY hard for me to do. Just waiting and praying!

Broken

Update: Jay and I found out this morning that our offer has been accepted on a house! Our God is so Amazing!

As I sit here in our small two bedroom rented house I am overcome with thankfulness. I am thankful for an Amazing God that cares enough for me to show me the hurt of others. Jay and I are on a fantastic journey coming to a turning point in our lives. I will be graduating May 15th, we are trying to buy a house, we are starting to think about having another baby. All of this change has brought me to my knees with God just praying for him to show me what he wants from me. I want the next part of my life to be lived for Him. I will be the first to admit that it has not always been that with me. I have sinned countless times against Him. I have questioned what he is doing in my life. I have even blamed him for any bad thing that was happening in our life. But I have never just leaned on him and said "Please, just show me."

So now I am praying like never before and He has just broken me. I feel His love, His compassion, His ability to just calm me. I know He has been here through our entire journey and I have never questioned His presence. But I guarantee He has questioned mine.

Now what? What am I going to do with this brokenness? I don't know yet. I know I want to praise him in all things. This house that we are praying for I want Him to be seen throughout it. The child we are raising now I want her to see Him through me. I want to share my love for God with other people. I want to share the wealth that He has given us. I want to stop being so selfish with our money. I don't know what the future holds but I don't want to look back and think we really should have leaned more on God during all that. Trust me there are times in my life where I already think that and I don't want those times to become more prevalent than the times I look back and say "Wow God really knew what he was doing with that situations."

Well, I leave now to enjoy this beautiful day with my wonderful family. I hope your weekend is relaxing as well!

Penny for My Thoughts?

OK well you don't actually have to give me a penny for my thoughts. I will just give you my thoughts for free!

Lets just start out with how crappy of a day this started out being. Well in all honesty it started out good. Got up on time, took a nice shower, fixed my hair and make up, left the house on time...Or so I thought. Yes this morning I had a test. Most of our test start at 9am and this one, I thought, was no different...Until I got to school at 8:30. I get to school thinking I'm early, text one of my friends. Who does not answer. So I call...still no answer. OK I think her phone is just on silent. Call another friend...NO ANSWER. Decide well I'll just go to the floor where the test is going to be. Usually test day there is a crowed of people waiting in the hall today NOBODY!!! So a panic comes over me. I start to think maybe I'm in the wrong place or even worse I am LATE. Well the latter of the 2 options was the actual reason. So I pull out my phone and look at our schedule and it says the test started at 8. So at this point I am really FREAKING. I get to the room where the test is at see the teacher and ask if I can still come in? At this point I am just shaking and in tears I was so scared they were not going to let me take this test. Well nobody had left yet. THANK YOU FELLOW CLASSMATES!!!! Therefore I got to go in and take my test. Still upset and trying to pull myself together but none the less I was going to take this test. I ended up making an 87% which was just fine with me but I think this was one of the most anxiety inducing moments of my life! Oh this test was supposed to be last week at 9am but due to snow they changed it to this week. UGH. Oh well it is over and done with. Only 86 more days (but whose counting).

Another thoughts....
I LOVE my husband so much. He is an amazing man. He has his times of temper tantrums (really who doesn't) but he is so supportive and encouraging to me. I just adore him.

I love Jayci being 4-years-old. It is absolutely FABULOUS! I can't explain it. It was like everyday I wished she were a little older but now I just want her to stay this age. I know as babies it is so cute and fun to watch them explore but it is hard (at least for me it was). It is hard because they can't communicate very well, they cry for everything, they are into everything, and many other reasons. As toddlers it seems they become whiny and are just testing boundaries constantly! Oh this drives me crazier than anything. Even at 3 Jayci's boundary testing would drive me up the wall. I used to say "A 2-year-old will make you want to run away but a 3-year-old will make you want to send them away." It's like when they are 2 you just feel like you are not doing anything right and at 3 sometimes you just want them to go away and to understand. Now I know Jayci has only been 4 for like a month so the change has probably been gradual but I like it either way. She is much more obedient. A lot less whiny. And I just love watching her intelligence grow. Don't get me wrong she has her days but for the most part it's like we are finally getting it. I don't know if it is her getting older or me just finally "getting" this whole parenting thing down a little better. Maybe it is both but whatever it is it is working out for us.

OK I think those are the only thoughts I have for now. My tummy is growling so I can't think of any other ones! Hope everyone has a great weekend. Mine is filled with working and studying. Oh and a birthday party (that I will probably take my books to so I can study there as well). Oh well 86 more days!

It's been a minute....

Yes, so it has been a minute since I have updated my blog. It has just been so busy this semester that I feel so overwhelmed. However, late Sunday night it started to sleet/snow and didn't stop until Monday afternoon. That just does not happen here in Arkansas. We got like 4-5 inches at our house. Which is just complete craziness for central Arkansas. So I thought I would share some pictures of our two snow days that we have had here. Oh yes everything shuts down when it even snows like 1/2 an inch here so we have been at out of school for 2 days now.

All that being said I thought I would update with some photos collages....

We had a Princess Tea Party for Jayci's 4th birthday.

I think everyone had a really good time. I know Jayci had a blast. I would recommend Parties Ect. in Bryant to anyone that asked. It was so easy. All we had to do was show up and take pictures. This is only some of the like close to 300 that I took that day. No I'm not obsessive about photos at all...

The birthday was in late January so that tells you how long it has been since I've updated about our family.

From then until this week I haven't taken any pictures so here are some from our 2 days of being at home because of the snow...

After Jay came home from work on Monday we went out to his dad's house to ride 4-wheelers and just hang out for a little bit.

The heart shaped picture is Jay & I, of course. We are about to leave. I was still warm, DRY, and cozy at this time. The left bottom is Jay going up a pretty steep hill. The bottom right is Jay's dad, Dennis. The water right there does not look that deep but right behind him, where he came from, came up over his head lights. I DID NOT venture into this.

The top right picture is ME! I will be the first to admit I am pretty girly but I really enjoyed going riding this day. It had started raining at this time but I tried to be tough and just stick it out. I think I did a pretty good job. The mud that I was driving through right there was not at all the deepest water I went in but I made Jay stop and take a picture of me driving. I know silly but Whatever! I think I made my husband proud because I didn't argue and trusted him while I was driving. If he said I could make it through I tried. Well all except the very big water you see behind Dennis. That was a little too much for me! Plus I'm always nervous of messing up Dennis's stuff.

On our second day of being snowed in we went outside and attempted to build a snowman. Well all the snow had frozen over night so it was pretty hard. But as you can tell from the pictures we had a pretty good time. I just love watching Jay playing with Jayci. She thought she was so funny throwing "snow balls" at him. It was a great time!
I hope everyone has a Fabulous rest of the week. I am going to go finish up some vegetable beef soup and make some corn bread to go with it. YUMMY!!! OH and watch American Idol...Can't wait to see Ellen on there. I just think she is so fun!