Monday Morning Anniversary FUN!

Good Morning!!! It's MONDAY.... ugh. My husband has left for his job this morning at about 7 and he will be there till Friday about lunch. I really don't like him staying there all week but it sure beats him having to drive 4 hours one way. It normally doesn't bother me because I know as soon as we close on our house he will be here more often but, today is our anniversary. :) We have been married for TWO whole years today. At exactly 4, (which is about 20 more mins), two years ago I was walking down the LONG boardwalk with my daddy to the sand where my family and future husband were waiting.

Kissing my daddy.

Happy Anniversary

Anyway, I decided to get a little crafty and try some of the things I found on PINTEREST. I love that website :) SO... Here is what I did today. OK... I have been slowly trying to potty train my 2 year old for a few months. We will try it for about 2 days and then give up. I just don't feel like he is ready.  I bought some training pants which I thought with the extra padding it wouldn't leak through but I was wrong. I dunno if it is boys or if every little kid pees as much as mine does but those things are just as bad when he pees in regular undies without padding. anyway I decided I needed to BULK these suckers up so we could actually use them.

Has anyone ever seen these things?? Look how huge the blue waterproof one is. It is actually a 2T and the white one is a 3T. WHAT??? The blue one on Eason comes all the way up to his chest and it balloons out making his butt HUGE. He just giggles when he puts them on and we will NEVER use them. It makes me sad to waste money so, I found how to make training pants on PINTEREST . <--That takes you to the page. I used her idea on how to make a pattern.

I used E's old receiving blankets as my interior cloth. We had at least 40 of those things and he didn't even use a lot of them, so it didn't bother me to use them.

I folded one and used the pattern to cut it out. It is about 4 layers of flannel cloth.

It kind of looks like a soaker that you put in a cloth diaper. *yes I made some of those last year* Just pin it and sew it to the inside of some training pants.

Now, here is where the GIANT waterproof trainers fit in. :) If you just pull them at the seams the would just come right off. The tutorial I used said use PUL. It is an awesome type  of fabric that I used for my cloth diapers last year. So I have some left over but I wanted to use these things up first. 

Then you use your pattern that you made to cut out a water proof patch and sew it on the front of your trainers. 

EASY HUH.. Now we will use these for sure. I know they will be perfect for long car trips and overnight. 

That's about it for today :)
JAMIE

Productive day!

         I feel very productive today. I started my diet yesterday. I have not had a cigarette in 2 days. I am FINALLY blogging and sewing again. My bathrooms are Sparkling and I re-arranged my furniture in the living room :) I feel like wonder woman after all that today.
Today, I got up real early and I am trying to keep myself busy so I dont want a cigarette. SO, I have to keep my hands busy which is why I have been cleaning and sewing. I made E a new shirt. It was super easy. I bought him a pack of the little white undershirts a while back so today I appliqued a cute TIE onto one. Just make and cut out a little tie. Heat it with the iron, stick that sticky back on it and SEW AWAY. I can post pics in a little bit.
       I also made us a dry erase board. I took an old picture frame and wrapped some cute cloth around it then I took a big piece of tulle and tied it in a bow in one corner because I didn't feel like wrapping anymore corners haha. I just put a piece of white paper in it and we can write on it with dry erase markers. Eason has already colored all over it and loved how he could just wipe it away when he was done. But it looks nice enough to leave little notes on it and keep it out. Not just a toy for E.
      I made a tank top bag and I can post the link I found it on pinterest and I had a tank I NEVER wore just hanging out in the bottom of my drawer so I decided I would make it into a bag. I dont need a new bag but it wont hurt :)
Super Fun Day being creative. Can't wait to start back to school in a few weeks and actually have something to do when Mark is gone.

Here is our family quote for the day on the new dry erase board. It has to do with our bible study E and I did this morning about friendships. Like David and Jonathan's

AND here is the shirt I made. No he is NOT asleep! I had to hold him down and told him to say cheese but he is actually yelling NOOO in this picture. ha

Today's Mayhem.

Today My father in law, Shelby, had surgery. He has had prostate problems for 2 years now and I told him he needed to go get it checked (Weird conversation to have with your father in law btw) and finally after two years his prostate swelled so bad that he couldn't pee for a 3 days. He was rushed to the emergency room and they told him this. I told him 2 years ago!!!! Anyway he has had a catheter for at least 8 weeks now and finally had his surgery this morning. I am so happy that he is already starting to recover. He seems so much calmer and happier. (that may be the meds hes on though) He is doing fine and thank you all who have had him in your prayers. Keep it up because he still has a tough recovery.
 I am also thankful that my friend Jordan who has waited about 3 years for kidney. Got her kidney today! Im not sure how she is doing because no facebook updates have been posted but she and her donor our in my prayers for their speedy recovery. I remember cheering with this little girl in high-school and her sweet personality it amazes me that someone like her would have to put up with all the troubles she has had and she is a super strong person for it. :)
   I also need yall to keep my best friend Stella in your prayers, her sweet boyfriend of 3 years just left for Afghanistan this week. She is handling it better than I am. haha I want to be with her all the time and just hug her until he comes back but she is doing great. Just keep all of our service men in your prayers especially this 4th of July.

ANYWAY, thanks for listening to my prayer request now I must rant. I hate house hunting. I feel like that is all I talk about now and we have put contracts on 3 different houses and something always comes up to where we can't get the house. We were supposed to be out of our apartment on the 2nd. (Yeah I know, Yesterday) and we still have no place to go. We are luckily able to stay here until we find a place but I start school the 2nd week in Aug. and Mark is driving 3 1/2 hours to work and 3 1/2 back everyday. I keep telling myself that God will show us our house and we won't have to jump through hoops or struggle to even figure how to afford it. God will say here it is and this is it!! And we will know it..... Well, that hasn't happened yet. We are homeless, and I'm getting sick of waiting. My patience is starting to run out. So I have been looking up scripture about patience for the past few days trying to calm myself down. It's not that I am mad it's just that I am tired of driving all over the place and looking at houses Im ready to move in.

I also was told by some family members that I need to potty train E. He is over 2 1/2 and I still don't think he understands it. He knows that he pees but not that he HAS to. I know it's complicated. I didn't want to potty train until we got in our new house but we don't even have one so, that is out of the question. If anyone has ANY advice about potty training PLEASE, don't tell me just come to my house and do it for me! JUST KIDDING! Any help would be great. That is about it for the day I am home alone with E tonight because Mark is staying the night at the hospital to give his poor mom a break. :) I'm gonna sleep great tonight hahaha

Childlike Faith

I had a moment at church today where a small boy from my sunday school class came and asked me a question. He asked, "Jesus is God's Son, right?" I said "Yes" Then he asked "Well, I am God's son too. Because aren't we all one big family of Christians? Which would make me Jesus brother?"

Thinking to myself, how I could answer this question so a first grader could understand. I finally said, "Yes but Jesus is His one true Son and we as christians are adopted into His family." "So YES, we are God's children but not really Jesus' brothers and sisters." He shook his head like he understood and walked away content with my answer.

This shocked me in so many ways...
1. This little boy actually asked a question I had never thought about.
2. I felt honored that someone would actually come to me with a question about the Lord. I don't view myself as a very mature Christian because I have sinned a lot and know I am no where near where I should be. But to have someone think to ask ME and not my husband (the youth minister) or even the preacher who is very easy to talk to and knows all the children at the church. I was actually HONORED to answer his question.
3. The fact that a little boy understood enough to ask a question like this, Yes it was not a difficult question but he understood how we are actually members of one large family in Christ. It made me think of the verse

Matthew 18:3 "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."

Childlike Faith, What simplicity! He accepted everything I said he accepts that he is a child of God with ease. I need this type of faith, like a little child that doesn't have to understand ALL the minute details and worry about things I can't change. This little boy made me realize that I should not worry and accept everything the Lord has told me and tried to tell me over the past couple years. I need to understand and accept that he has forgiven me for my past sins and that I can move on. It's that simple!! I am not meant to forget because how would I learn from my mistakes if I don't remember them. It makes it ok that I can't forget about what I have done. It's simple, He forgave me for them and now I need to use them to further my walk with him and lead others to realize how SIMPLE it is. So I want to let everyone know how thankful I am for my Lord Savior and his forgiveness. He is Amazing!

WHOOO!

Wow. What a week! I was the head teacher this week for preschool VBS. It was some serious stuff. I had an average of 14 preschoolers every day this week thursday we had 16. When I say preschool I mean 3-5 yr olds. :) That is a huge age difference but it was fun. I realized it can be difficult to get and maintain their attention especially for a couple of them. I am exhausted, I came home yesterday and took a 3 hour nap and it was glorious. I also had my own baby boy in my class and that made it difficult because he didn't really want me to teach the other kids because I am "HIS MAMA". I do believe that kids are walking germs because I haven't been sick in over a year and today, I can't even breathe out of my nose and Im sneezing like crazy!
 
BEWARE MAY BE TMI!  Today was also a first for me because one of my preschoolers had "an accident". One little one came out of the bath room and said, "I had a bad poop and I left a mark on the toilet". I was thinking oh it was a streak I can just flush it and it will go down. I opened the door and it was like..... On dumb and dumberer when Bob Sagget opened the door to the bathroom and Loyd had put melted chocolate all over the walls and toilet and windows. Except there was actual poop EVERYWHERE!!!! I don't know how a little person like that could get it all over the place like she did but OMGSH! I ran out of the room trying to find gloves and clorox and anything else.

Anyway, I have also come to realize that house hunting is not for the faint. :) It takes time and commitment and some serious driving. We found the perfect house but we are having to JUMP literally JUMP through hoops to get it and it just doesn't feel like the Lord wants us at this place. I feel like He would make it happen and we wouldn't be struggling and trying to get loans that aren't working out.  BUT, I feel like He is looking at us saying "HEY, I already gave you a house,  I offered you a house and why are you trying to find another one". When I say he has already offered us one it is because we had a friend offer us a house for free and we just pay utilities. It is her mother's home and her mother is in a assisted living facility. We just wanted OUR house. One that we will OWN!! But the Lord will provide and He will provide what we NEED and maybe not what we exactly want.

It is just taking me a while to understand and accept this fact. I want what I want, I want God to give me what I want not what I need, I guess it is because I feel like I NEED what I want. It is just hard to wrap my brain around and not be so selfish. I realize I am a selfish person and need to just accept what God gives me and be content and happy with it, because everything is a blessing from Him.

Keep us and the kids in your prayers next week as we host youth camp for the last time and as we try to find our home and get adjusted to moving away from our family and friends for a wonderful ministry.

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

Just so you know.

I just wanted to let yall know we are super busy this week with VBS and putting our first contract on a house :) It is so exciting and I have had very little time to post anything. I do know I have found my calling as a teacher and believe that the Lord is trying to show me that, that is what he wants me to do. I love every minute of it but I don't see how teachers do it ALL DAY. I have these preschoolers from 8-12 and I'm exhausted. God Bless the teachers. :) Anyway I will post later with all of the fun things we have been doing.

Thrifty Thursday

Hey I wanted to share what I did yesterday. It was super easy and you can do it with pretty much ANYTHING! I got the idea from pinterest except they were doing it with a mirror. I'm sure it would be beautiful but I honestly have no place to put a mirror right now. SO.... Here's my time out chair. :) E is 2 1/2 and so we have a time out chair. It was an old ratty brown chair that someone donated to the village (a LONG time ago). It also had some "pictures" drawn on it that really were not good to have on a toddlers chair. (You know what I mean) Anyway, so I told Mark I wanted to spray paint E's chair. He just laughed and said alright whatever you want.

Here is the "before".

First, I figured out where I wanted my letters and spray-painted it white. I knew I was going to paint over most of the white so I didn't have to make it perfect. 

After it dried (Make sure it is completely dry, you don't want to pull of any paint), I put my stickers on it. I didn't want it to be straight because I feel like crooked letters made it look more childish and I probably couldn't get it completely straight if I tried. I used stickers from the scrap booking that I had sitting around. 

Finally, you get to paint it WHATEVER color you want. I just used spray paint.  Leave your stickers on and just paint over them. Then, when it dries CAREFULLY peel your stickers off. 

TA-DA!!!  How stinking easy was that! I'm sure you can use this for classroom signs and just about anything. Your letters always look amazing! :)