Bowling!

Friday night, we went bowling with our small group friends. And of course we took pictures...

As usual lately, my pictures start with the cutiepie, Reid. Poor guy is the only kiddo in the group, but he doesn't complain. :)

Reid's mama, Audra.

I forgot to bring socks, so Val lent me hers and they looked super hot with my capris.

We had a gigantic pizza and lots of pop. The perfect meal.

Val and Melinda.

Adam hanging at the guy's table.

Tiffany and her hubby TJ are the newest members of our group.

See the sexy socks?

Adam's not a big baby-person, so I made him hold Reid. :) He really wants one of his own...so hopefully he's better with his own kid.

Afterwards, we handed out prizes for the team with the highest scores (the girls!) and the person with the most gutterballs (me) and lowest score (me) as well as a few other things. Here's TJ, Melinda, Ryan, and Tiffany waiting for their prizes.

Luis being a weirdo.

Val reading off the girl's scores.

Fart-noise making putty! This was Val's prize. I was a little jealous.

Journal

I'm not a big journaler, but before I had this blog, while Adam and I were trying to get pregnant, I decided to write a letter to our baby, who we hadn't even conceived yet.

Four pages of my dreams and hopes and prayers.

I came across that letter last night. As well as the letter I wrote to our baby the day I found out I was pregnant. And the letter I wrote to our baby the day I began bleeding...and another written the day we lost her.

I can't even put into words what that made me feel like. I'm glad I put those feelings on paper, but it was almost too much to go back through and read them. Like cutting open an old wound.

Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to post those letters here.

The Helper

If you're not a dog lover, you can skip this post. Axl and Diesel are my babies for now, and I think everything they do is precious, so you should just feel lucky that I haven't posted about them every day. :)

Axl likes to help with the laundry. I always fold the laundry on our bed in a bunch of different piles...it's just easier to put it away since I'm in our room, and it forces me to deal with it if it's spread all over our bed.

Often times, Axl is laying on the bed when I need to use it for laundry. He doesn't move. So one day, I just decided to put him to use. I piled the laundry on top of him, all over except for his head. I think he liked it. I don't know if he likes it because it's warm, or if he's just too lazy and dumb to realize what I'm trying to tell him.

Now, Axl helps me with the laundry almost every week. So I decided to photograph it last week. Here we are towards the beginning of the process.

At the end when it was piled all over and on top of him. He was sleeping...ignoring me.

All curled up among the warm, fresh-scented laundry.

I know what you're thinking comes next. He gets up and everything scatters...all my folding is in vain. But alas, you don't know the extent of Axl's laziness. 

I begin putting the piles away, one by one. Into the drawers, hanging shirts and pants in closets, even leaving the room (Adam's closet is in the nursery...his clothes won't fit in mine) to put stuff away. I finally finish, and....he still hasn't moved. Look at that cute boy.

What?

And NO, putting the clean laundry on my dog doesn't make it dirty. He's sweet and clean and smells good, so if anything, he makes the laundry even better. Such a good helper.

And another quirk...sometimes in the morning, I find that my puppies are cold. I can tell this by feeling their ears. Adam leaves for work before I get up, so usually Axl takes his place in our bed (he's great at spooning) and Adam will cover him up and we will sleep that way for another hour or so. On days he's really cold, he'll stay under the covers while I shower and get ready...and only gets up when it's time to go to Grandma's house (my dogs go to Adam's parents house almost every day to run around in their backyard while we're at work). One day last week, he was looking so cute all cuddled up...it warranted a photo.

For all you who've met him and think he's crazy and has too much energy...this is the real Axl.

And not to be left out, Diesel under his blankets. He can fend for himself better than his brother, he'll go under the covers on his own if he's cold. And you better not be getting the idea that I love Axl more, because I don't. I love them equally. :) It's just that Axl does funnier things that are easier to catch in photos, while Diesel stares at him with disdain.

There's the puppy update for the week. More photos of recent events to come....

Hard Day

Your love, oh Lord

Reaches to the heavens

Your faithfulness stretches to the sky

Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains

Your justice flows like the ocean's tide

I will lift my voice

To worship You, my King

I will find my strength

In the shadow of your wings.

"Your Love Oh Lord" by Third Day.

Prayer, Please

Lindsey lost her cousin, Jared yesterday in a plane crash. Please pray hard for her and the family, as they're having a really rough time with this.

Thankful

I've recently started visiting some forums about dealing with the loss of a baby, trying to conceive after miscarrying, etc.

I am SO thankful that my miscarriage was natural and I didn't have to have a D&C. Everything with me happened so fast, and for that I am so grateful. If this had to happen to me, I'm glad it happened the way it did.

That's all. Have a good night. :)

Weekend in the 'Boro

Had a little catching up to do with the blogging, as you can tell from all these posts!

This weekend was AMAZING. Risa invited all of us girls to go to the Hillsboro Arts and Crafts Festival, and to stay the night before at her parents house there so we wouldn't have to battle traffic. So after our small group on Friday, Risa, Melinda, Val, and I made the drive to Hillsboro. We met Risa's parents and then (after a few funny photos in their giant bathtub...on Val's camera, sorry) went on a late night walk to Wendy's, which ended up being closed. So we drove over to Sonic instead, and got some food, watched weird high school boys be annoying, and talked a friend of Risa's. Then we headed back to her parents house and stayed up talking til 3 am. I haven't done that in ages. It was awesome.

The next morning, Audra drove in and met us at the house with Reid. We walked the few blocks to the festival and had a blast. Let's start the photos, shall we? Here's Reid, being cute as usual.

He was so good and content all day! He was pointing at my camera in this one.

Me and Val.

Melinda found a comfy chair.

The biggest reason we went was for the jewelry. This was the first of many jewelry booths we stopped at.

HATS. We all bought really cute handmade hats! Here's Risa's.

Val looking very 1920s.

Mine! With a big flower. LOVE it.

Checkbooks at the ready. Melinda didn't get a hat, but made a different crochet purchase later on, as you'll see.

Reid wanted to try on his mama's hat.

Val, being the amazing music teacher that she is, bought this puppet to use in her class. Reid loved it! He kept trying to grab it.

Audra and Val bought these really cool cookbooks/meal planners that plan out your meals for a week, and give you a grocery list for the week. Could be life changing, we'll see.

They were pretty excited about their cookbooks.

Val and I stopped at a booth that had dog stuff...sweaters, dresses, diamond studded collars, snuggle sacks, etc. When we were done, we couldn't find the other girls. We were sad that we were lost.

Here's Melinda's big purchase. A scarf! I gave her a quick lesson on scarf wearing (which did NOT include this look) and she was good to go!

Me and Reid! Can't wait to take my own little one to this!

Time for lunch. Val and I with our bierocks and Dr Pepper. Audra got one too. Risa and Melinda held out for the Verenika, German sausage, zwieback, and cherry moos. That's some German Mennonite culture for you. :)

Melinda feeding Reid his applesauce. He really wanted his mama's bierock.

Reid crawled around on the floor inside the place that served the verenika. He was so busy.

Group picture.

With our hats! And scarf!

Melinda, Val, and Audra had to leave a little before Risa and I. We were taking a photo, and a guy came by and offered to do it for us. After pointing the camera at our shoes, he found our faces. :) We made one more stop to buy a photo of Mario Chalmer's final basket during the NCAA championship a few years ago for Risa's hubby Ryan.