Wednesday, February 29, 2012

He has my heart.

He has my heart.
Oh, how I love this little boy!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Sunday, Sunday.


Sunday has started to become our weekly family picture day. Usually we are dressed up nicely, and it seems fitting to get pictures before heading out to church. I have yet to plan in advance enough to set up the tripod. At some point, I will actually do that so we can have some full family Sunday pictures. Our Sunday was just as bit as busy as our Saturday this weekend!

I love this picture of Micah waving! Me? Well, I've had better hair days, but I'd been up baking since six am for Sunday school. That's my excuse.
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Mr. C usually does a great job of taking pictures within one or two takes. As a trained former commercial photographer, I'd say he has the advantage over me.

When I take pictures things tend to not go so well. The wind blows Micah's hair every which kind of way making his eyes hard to see...
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Micah decides to try to escape from Daddy's clutches while grabbing a button...
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Micah plans his escape while his frustrated father wonders when I'll ever get the picture taken...
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Then finally! We have semi-success with a son looking in the vacinity of the camera and his daddy smiling back at me.
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After church, we came back home to eat leftover Sakura from Jackson. I continued my day of baking. I'm not sure how, but I signed up to take breakfast (for 40 people) the same day I signed up to take sweets for MOPS.

Here's my handsome little man showing off his outfit. His sweater vests kill me. And they remind me of Friends comments about Chandler wearing sweater vests which is why I continue to dress him in sweater vests. It makes me laugh at the cuteness.
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Micah and I took long naps, and then I woke up to bake brownies for MOPS. Micah woke up to eat lunch at 3 PM! He fell asleep on the way home from church, and that is how long he slept! Right through lunch.

Here he is showing off his dishwasher button messing pusher skills! We figured out how to lock the buttons pronto this weekend!
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I spent Sunday afternoon at my MOPS meeting--have I told you how I love the girls at my church? We had a going away party for one of our friends who is moving to Florida mixed with a financial planner who came to speak to us.
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After listening to the speaker and talking to him for a while after the meeting, Mr. C and I are thinking about holding off on selling this house for a while. It's not a big house by any stretch of the imagination and sometimes I feel like we are suffocating, but the market is really, really bad. We're probably better to sit on it for a little while, but who knows what decision we'll make for the future? I'm so confused about the house thing. That's another blog post for another day.
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At any rate, you can see we had a busy, but super fun weekend. How was your weekend?

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Re-Union.

I'm very blessed to have what I consider two groups of "best friends." The first two "best friends" I met when I was six years old! Yes, six! Crazy, but true. I've blogged about them here. The other set of "best friends" I met when I entered college at Union University. It is very hard for me to choose who is my "best friend" so I just say they all are (even though my dad says I can't do that) because they are all so pivotal in my life.

This is Audrey, one of those four girls I mentioned. She & I met basically the first day of college. Yes, we did! We were in some crazy honors class (that we dropped, by the way) where we had to stare at those pictures within a picture? Do you know those?

Anyway, I couldn't see the pictures. I sat there almost crying frustrated that I couldn't see the stupid picture. Sweet Audrey (who had looooonnnnnnng hair back then I was obsessed with staring at her perfectly straight, long, dark, beautiful thick hair in class since I had the opposite--blonde, curly hair) tried desperately to help me when the rest of my group had all but forgotten (or gotten annoyed by) me. I never did see the picture, but that developed into a life long friendship which included being roommates for three years of school. We went to formals together, enjoyed (and sometime didn't enjoy) dating boys & the stories of our lives just were interwoven for those four years. I love her dearly.

On Saturday, she came to Jackson, Tennessee, to visit her sister. I drove up from Memphis to meet her so she could finally meet Micah! She lives five hours away in Missouri so we never get to see each other except for when her family comes to visit her sister Amanda (who also went to college with me.)

First, we went to the small, sleepy town of Humbolt, Tennessee, to the gallery/vineyard where Amanda sells her art. (Don't worry my Baptist friends, there was no drinking only gallery observations. I always feel the need to say that lest someone judge me or get mad at me.)

Audrey and I in front of the vineyards.
Audrey and her sister Amanda (who is pregnant with her FIFTH child--bless her!)
"Papa Rusty" as he is now called in his grandfather days & Audrey's son Kale.
I love Audrey's dad! I've enjoyed the company of their entire family for almost sixteen years now. Yikes!
After driving to Humbolt, we spent some time shopping. Then we had to go to Union to take some pictures. This is not what Union looked like when I went to school here. The bell tower in the background was built the year I graduated. There was a tornado in Jackson that wiped out all the dorms four years ago. So the place I lived is no longer standing, and many things have been rebuilt or added from that event. This sign wasn't even here when I went to school here!

Audrey, me & Micah (Mr. C spent the day at home sleeping. Audrey's husband was at home working, too. We missed them but surely did enjoy our girl time!)
Closer up.
We decided to try and make this a Union themed photo shoot and be artistic with my camera. Well, you can see how that went.

Micah wouldn't look, the wind was whipping about...
At this point, he's starting to get mad that I'm holding him on the edge of this sign...
Ok, and now he is really mad, but Audrey is shooting away trying to get that generational college alumni shot. Well, it didn't work.
I guess we'll have to settle for this far away shot where he wouldn't look at the camera! Oh, babies! They sure have their own little minds, don't they?

While I had the boys cornered (ahem, strapped into carseats), I took a few pictures of our sons together. Otherwise, they wouldn't sit still for a picture. I realize these aren't that great, but hey! You do what you can, right?

Two kids sitting still and looking in the same direction. I'll take it!
We loaded up Micah's car seat and Kale's car seat and now headed out to Beech Bluff, Tennessee. If you haven't already kept up that is a trip to Jackson, Humboldt, and Beech Bluff. The point of this trip (after some major shopping) was to take the kids back to nap at Amanda's house. Micah got his nap in the car between all our stops, so he was happy & ready to go!
While several of Amanda's four kiddos napped, we entertained ourselves with things like finger mustache tatoos! I have a lot of pictures of Audrey, and I have to say this is one of my faves ever.

Audrey & her niece Ellie (who looks just like Amanda in my opinion)

Mia, daughter #2 of Amanda, showing off her new cowgirl boots.
After naps, gallery observing, & shopping...it was time for dinner. I mean, we had a big day on Saturday! We left Memphis at 9, and we didn't get home until almost eleven Saturday night. Micah was such a champ! In true college fashion, we debated about where we wanted to eat. Only this meal included four adults, one grandpa, and six children seven and under. You might think we are crazy, and maybe we are but the kids were so awesome! They did a great job! I am a firm believer in continuing to live your life with kids as you did before as much as you can. If you never take them out in public, they won't learn proper manners.

Much debating abounded, but I made this comment, "I know you guys are trying to think of somewhere to eat, but you know Papa Rusty will want Sakura in Jackson!" You see, since 1997 whenever Audrey's parents would come in town to visit they would take me, Audrey, Amanda, and any boyfriends we had at the time (which eventually became our husbands) to Sakura. When your best friend is Asian, you learn to eat lots of Asian food! She introduced me to things I didn't even know existed before college--food wise.

Here's our group (going around the table from left to right):
Mia, Kale, Ezra, Brian, Digory, Amanda, Ellie, Papa Rusy, Audrey, and Micah who turned around in his seat. I obviously took the picture.
The kiddos wanted to make silly faces:
Mia, Kale, & Ezra (Brian's mini me)
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After almost twelve full hours of my best friend, it was hard to leave. I even cried a little on the drive back to Memphis. I get all kinds of nostalgic sometimes remembering the past, where I've come from, how I've changed, and all the people who have entered my life. I loved this time in my life so much, and it went by so fast! I'm just so thankful to have memories, experiences, and friends that truly have lasted a lifetime thanks to Union.

Audrey & I, February 2012.
We met in 1997.
We've known each other fifteen years.

How is that possible?
Love you, Dro. Miss you every day!
How was your weekend?

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Enjoying the wonderful weather!

We had such a wonderful, unseasonably warm day today in the Memphis area. It even set a new weather record. If you are nerdy enough you can look up the actual high. For those who don't care about accuracy, I think we reached near 80 degrees.

We decided to take a family walk after I got off of work, and in the process we got to see a lot of God's handiwork in this sunset.
It was gorgeous!
Of course, I enjoyed the family time with an awake husband and happy baby.

(Please ignore my hair. By the end of the day I don't care. Also, please don't notice my Zeta shirt from Union circa 1999.)
Daddy went, too! (In his pajama pants! Yes, we multitask at the Confident house so he was able to go straight to bed after the walk. We're crazy like that sometimes!)
I lurve this weather!!

Last night. Spiritual struggles with self-pity.

Last night, I started to write a post about how rough a day it had been.

Last night, I started to complain about my husband being gone or asleep at such weird hours of the day.

Last night as I loaded the groceries into my car, pushed the cart back to the cart stand (what is that called anyway? cart catcher? cart keeper?), toted my child across the parking lot, and buckled the baby in the seat I was tempted to complain rather loudly on the blog. Man, this will make a great blog post! I can complain about grocery shopping alone when I used to do it with my husband. Poor me!!

Last night, I almost wrote about how I'm so tired I made an executive decision that Little Caesar's pizza was on the menu (for the adults) for dinner. I almost even admitted to you how much we are eating LC lately since this job change.

Last night, I collapsed in a heap onto the couch at nine pm because that was the first second I had all day between washing clothes, loading/unloading a dishwasher, cleaning out the fridge, wiping the shelves in the fridge, folding and hanging two loads of laundry, grocery shopping, feeding and bathing Micah, grading papers, writing lesson plans, making newsletters, responding to parent emails, and various other time zappers of my day.

Last night, I skipped my quiet time.

Last night, I skipped writing a complaining blog post because I was too exhausted to complain.

This morning I read my Jesus Calling book by Sarah Young. You must get this book if you don't have it! I'm telling you, it is changing my attitude, my heart, and my quiet time. Plus it isn't too long for me to read in the morning. (Every night I do the lessons to Mirror Mirror on the Wall study written by Jean Stockdale and watch the PodCasts online. I used to go to this group in Memphis while I was staying home with Micah.) Please go buy it for yourself. (No one paid me for that plug, and my blog isn't even big enough for sponsors to want to find me anyway. Haha!)

Here's what my Jesus Calling book said for February 23. To say I was blown away this morning was an understatement!

"Be on guard against the pit of self-pity. When you are weary or unwell, this demonic trap is the greatest danger you face. Don't even go near the edge of the pit. Its edges crumble easily, and before you know it, you are on the way down. It is ever so much harder to get out of the pit than to keep a safe distance from it. That is why I tell you to be on guard.

There are several ways to protect yourself from self-pity. When you are occupied with praising and thanking Me, it is impossible to feel sorry for yourself. Also, the closer you live to Me, the more distance there is between you and the pit. Live in the Light of My Presence by fixing your eyes on Me. Then you will be able to run with endurance the race that is set before you, without stumbling or falling."

Psalm 89:15-16; Hebrews 12:1-2 (NASB)

--written by Sarah Young

Today, I am thankful that I am allowed to live another day even though yesterday was a rough day.

Today, I am so excited about my husband's new job even though I don't like the hours. We prayed for this job for so long! The Lord has blessed us! Who am I to complain about the hours not being just right?

Today, I am thankful for the money to be able to afford those groceries, the ability to walk with my own cart without assistance or medical aid, for the car that I can drive to get me to and from the grocery store.

Today, I am thankful there is a Little Caesar's five seconds from my house so that I can run to get us a quick meal.

Today, I still may collapse in a heap onto the couch at nine pm, but at least I have a house in this economy.

Today, I will not skip my quiet time because obviously the Lord is ready to speak to me just where I am if I will take the time to listen.

Today, I am thankful that I skipped my complaining blog post because it would have reflected poorly on my faith when I should be a testimony to God's grace & goodness instead.

What a difference a day makes. Make sure to look for the blessings around you in your life today, and don't get stuck in the trap of self pity that mothering--an almost thankless job--can pull you into at times.

Obviously, I'm preaching more to myself than I am to you.

Happy Thursday!!!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Our little man.

Our little man sitting in Daddy's chair.

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Our little man, growing faster than I care to admit.

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Curious, boisterous, loud, & full of laughter and hugs.

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He discovers new things every day like how to "brush" his hair
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This is what a toddler looks like when he jumps on top of you to grab the camera and topples you over. We love every moment with you, Micah! We love you!
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Who knew brooms were so interesting?

Micah is now notorious for wanting to be wherever you are. He likes to follow Daddy & I all over the house, and he gets frustrated if you close the baby gate leaving him behind. Most of the time, we don't mind him following us everywhere. Except for the bathroom. Sometimes I'd like to get to go to the bathroom alone. However, with our schedules (and an older home which is not "open concept"), he basically has to be by your side anyway. Otherwise, he's attempting to eat dog food. (Um, yes. He did that this weekend at my friend's house. Oh my! That was quite the story right there.)

Anyway, I used to clean with him, but now that is getting almost impossible. If I load the dishwasher, he will try to climb inside it. If I am doing laundry, he's banging on the washing machine. (That isn't too distracting, really.) If' I'm folding clothes, he is unfolding everything I just folded. You know how that goes if you are a mom, I'm sure. Toys are just an unnecessary expense because he sure can entertain himself well enough with Tupperware, dvd cases, and socks. Well, we can add another thing to the list of what he wants to do while I'm cleaning. I attempted to sweep up the kitchen, but suddenly he just had to have the broom. I took some much better pics on the "real" camera that I'll add to this post later, but for now iPhone pictures will have to do! =)

Obviously, he's just able to push it around without much cleaning getting accomplished, but it made me laugh. Apparently I need to buy him a little broom now that he can use while I'm trying to sweep? Scratch that, I'll probably just give him the old broom out of the garage while I use the kitchen broom.
And yes, he was running around in a diaper and t-shirt because that is how we roll at Casa Confident. He's not a big fan of having his diaper changed, so sometimes it is just easier to let him run right after I've changed him! He is definitely Mr. Independent!

Happy Monday!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Our weekend.

Every week, I'm trying to take a picture of our family before we head off to church since it seems like a great way to document Micah growing. Plus, we're all nicely dressed. Might as well take advantage of it!

This weekend was really, really busy. It was kind of an unexpected busy, but I enjoyed it anyway. On Friday night, I went out for our monthly MOPS Mom's Night Out. This month presented a challenge since Mr. C's job change. I ended up taking Micah out to my parents' house. They graciously watched him, and I'm so thankful that I don't have childcare issues.

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I enjoyed a fun evening with dinner at Osaka's followed by the movie The Vow. I wasn't too impressed with The Vow honestly, although I was reminded of how much I love to go to dinner and a late movie. I invited a girl from my work, and it was fun getting to see her outside of our typical school setting. I was so tired from my late evening out, and the baby was sound asleep at my mom's house. I ended up spending the night Friday night to avoid waking the baby and driving across town at midnight.

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Saturday, I woke up at my mom's. Micah & I ate breakfast with KayKay, and then we headed out to run a bunch of boring errands. I feel like there is never enough time to get everything on my list done, but we tried to cut our list a little bit shorter. Micah fell out at home and took a three hour nap that afternoon. Afterwards, we headed to a friend's house to help support her new family business.
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Saturday night was spent at home enjoying a quiet dinner off the grill ala Mr. Confident. He's such an amazing chef!!
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Sunday was an equally busy day. We woke up, got ready, went to church, and Sunday school. After Sunday school, we headed to Mississippi to celebrate my birthday with the Confident side of the family. We didn't take our camera, and apparently they all forgot theirs. So we have no pictures of my birthday on that side, but that is ok!
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Late Sunday evening we headed back to Memphis to wrap up our weekend. Unfortunately, I have to work tomorrow, so...off to bed we went.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Your morning dose of cuteness.

I am thankful for so many things this week. On Facebook I read of a teacher in my district at my old school who lost her baby after only seven hours. She carried a baby she knew was going to pass away to term because of her beliefs despite doctors urging her to have an abortion. (Honestly, I totally agree with her decision!) My family photographer took pictures for their family so they could document their brief time together.

I have cried and prayed for her since.





I don't know her because she started teaching at my old school after I left. I'm not sure I should publicly share her entire story (she blogs) because I don't want to perpetuate gossip, malice, or ill intent. Please pray for this family today. She & her husband have two other children, and from what I understand he is going into the ministry. Email me if you wish to see the link.

That story has my heart full of sorrow for them this morning, but also thankfulness. You never know what another person is going through. I'm a firm believer in trying to stay positive about ALL your situations and look for blessings. I know I don't always do that on the blog, but I try to do that. At any rate, I snapped your morning dose of Friday cuteness when Micah woke up this morning. Happy Friday!!

All smiles! I have such a morning person. He mostly wakes up happy and ready to go.

His new thing now is to "jump jump" or "bounce bounce" in his bed and making me hug his teddy bear whom we've named "Mr. Bear."

As you can see, those fingers are an ever present sight in our home. Morning, noon, and night!

I just love this little guy! My heart just swells to be near him. Thank you, Lord, for sweet blessings that daily improve my life.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

iPhone photo dump.

What a week so far! I mean, whirlwind just describes our life right now. We're in the middle of a major life change that involves Mr. C going to work all night long on different nights, training for his new job (so he is working 12 hour shifts instead of just 8), helping his old boss with old responsibilities while he hires someone to take his place, adjusting to life as a "single" mom at night while he is a "single" dad during the day. I am SUPER thankful for his new job, but I will say our family is a bit in turmoil as we are trying to readjust to accomodate Micah, the job, and my job.

I had my "pop in" or drop in evaluation at work recently. Our state has set up a new evaluation system which scores teachers on the basis of a 1-5 scale (five being the highest). Teachers with tenure have four evaluations a year (which is now been placed into two parts) including a "planned" lesson and an "unplanned lesson" where you are surprised.

She left a happy note on my desk, and I got my scores back. I was pleased!

I have spent a lot of time doing this. What is this? This would be Micah's hand, my hand, and a book. He loves to sit in my lap at night after he brings me book after book. He's in love with this one plane book, Mama Llama, and an Easter book. Love spending some time snuggling with my little fellow!
Micah and I are getting used to our new evenings together. Daddy is now going to bed as soon as I walk in the door (or thirty minutes afterwards so we have some time to talk.) Micah and I sit down to eat dinner together, have bath time, sing, read books, and enjoy precious time together. We miss Daddy a whole lot, though! Eventually, we'll adjust. At least he is still in the same city as we are.


Many other nights Micah comes into the kitchen with me as I clean up and do dishes. He likes to "cook" or stir his fake pot with various wooden spoons as he sits in the floor.

I love watching him learn and grow into this little person!

My birthday was also this week (not gonna tell ya the day because I am a little afraid of "identity" theft), and my class has been awesome to me! They brought me all kinds of flowers, gift cards, goodies, chocolates, stuffed animals, sweet cards, and drawings. It is so nice to feel loved! To celebrate my "birthday week" I even have different parents bringing me lunch to school each day!! How nice is that?? Monday was Newks, Tuesday was Huey's, today was Bogie's, tomorrow is Chick-fil-a, and Friday is McAlister's Deli.

Yes, I know I'm spoiled.

Yes, the other second grade teachers hate me. =)

For my birthday dinner, Mr. C & Micah met up with me one day after school at my favorite Mexican restaurant for "bacon tacos." This Mexican restaurant has some rib eye steak mixed with bacon and put in a tortilla. I'm not sure the real name, but we call it "bacon tacos". It is my favorite meal so it was fitting for a birthday celebration.

Mr. C gave me my gift (an iTunes gift card!!) for the first time in two years. This may be sad, but we have barely bought the other one gifts in the past two years. The year I was pregnant, we made a savings goal so that I could stay off from work for as long as possible. We decided to forgo any gifts so that we could save for when the baby came. Then when Micah was born, we decided to "skip" the gifts to keep our budget in check so I could stay off the entire school year. Honestly, that was the best present either one of us could have been given! I would never take that almost nine months of family time back.

Here is Micah & Mommy on the birthday at Rio Azul.
Valentine's Day was pretty low key, I have to say. This new schedule is absolutely kicking our butts adjustment wise. His days are all off, and his sleeping is all off. I know Mr. C's body clock will soon align, but for now it is hard. Micah stays with him during the day, and that worked with his other schedule. I'm not sure how next fall is going to go, but for now we are just all trying to adjust. My main adjustment is not getting to see my husband because he's sleeping. =/

On Monday night, I decided to surprise Mr. C with his Valentine's Day gift before he headed to work. He actually worked a double shift that day trying to help his old boss out. Needless to say, this transition has him exhausted! At any rate, I thought there could be NO better present than something for his love of coffee. Especially since he needs coffee to stay up all night long now. So I got him a Keurig machine, and he absolutely loves it.

At any rate, there is a small update with what we have been up to this past week or so. I fell off the #febphotoaday band wagon. Mainly because of all the change we're undergoing in our family. Maybe I'll pick back up with it, and maybe not.

Hope you are doing well!