birthday

I had a great birthday weekend!!!!! I took Friday of for a sanity day and Morgan went to daycare, I went back to sleep after Matt and Morgan left and I slept until 11, I woke up in a panic because i have not done that in a LONG time thankfully i had nothing planned for the day so there was no reason to panic. I spent the after noon relaxing and some time in my new hammock...it is lovely and our backyard is truly a gift from God, it is so peaceful...except when Mable runs away. after relaxing in the backyard the dogs and I went to the ponds (dumb grounds, nature park, whatever you call them south of town!). I even hit up the Hy-Vee 2 day sale before the after work rush..oddly I was looking forward to going there...although I am starting to realize that i think Matt should do the grocery shopping because i spend way to money when i go, even if i have a list.  

Matt picked out a fabulous fettuccine Alfredo recipe that he made for supper and of course had some cheese cake for desert! The rest of the weekend was relaxing and to top it off Mogan slept until 8 on Saturday and was super happy all weekend even with a stuffy nose! We had her 6 month check up and she is in the 95% for weight and as healthy as can be! 

Climbing around on daddy

 enjoying my birthday present

cheesey face

 this one looks a lot like one of my baby pictures!!!

 i love this girl!

 way to cute!

.........

I don't have much to say, i am winding down from a busy week at work and a lot going on after work. I am ready for my day off to enjoy doing what ever I want!!!!

Aussie doesn't like to miss out on the snuggle time

 the nasty carpet in the kitchen is GONE! (i need to take a new picture)

 She loves to sleep on her tummy and get her head stuck under the crib toy

 So stinkin cute!

 Let me share my birthday cake with you - Happy 1st birthday cousin McKayla!

 Amazing sun set

 Anthony and Morgan

 Riley and Morgan

 Sleeps just like her dad! We got a smaller toy so she would quite hitting her head!!

 I want to eat my foot!

24 hours

Here I sit with a swiss cake roll in my hand...wondering how we all have 24 hours in a day but it seems like there are some people who have 48 hours in one day and they can do twice as much as the average person and still hold it all together. Yes i know not to long ago I wrote about how a sabbath is so important, it is so easy to forget and keep in practice what I learned recently...and i must not have taken a rest day this week. Last week i did pretty good at keeping up on cleaning but did no reading this week, i haven't done anything and the way the week is looking, i don't think i will get much accomplished on the cleaning end or on the reading end.

With only a few hours to spend with Morgan I try to soak up each moment with Morgan after work, since we have from 5.30 - 8ish with her each night and then Saturday and on Sunday really only from noon - 8 ish when she goes to bed. I am not complaining about work, in fact i feel i can be a better Mom because I work, i can focus on her when we are home and she is awake, if i were home full-time i feel i would worry more about how clean the house is then what is going on with Morgan and getting her in a routine, plus i like to be busy...to an extent, that i would need something to do... ideally part time would be better but anyways for now full time it is and we are making it work well, it helps having an amazing husband. Also we have such amazing daycare it makes working so much easier that she is in the arms of someone who loves her just as much as we do.  

Anyways back to the real post (24 hours), i sat down to feed Morgan just after 7 and started flipping through the channels and the bachelorette was on, typically i can watch a show like that for 30 mins and not care much for it...well 2.5 hours later the show was STILL on!!!!! so this made me think...how do people do it? our society is so obsessed with reality shows that how do people spend time with their kids when they are watching shows? am i the only one that stresses that i want to clean my house more? we could really clean out the laundry room tonight? do i worry to much about the dishes that i can't sit down and watch a show? whats the difference? i have NO clue but i learned and promised myself in college when i started watching Lost that i wouldn't let myself get hooked on any other shows because at the time i didn't think i had time to watch shows and i have stuck pretty true to my word. i get to wrapped up in the show that i schedule my life around it, so i told my self...NO! plus i could really care less if we had a tv upstairs, i got so much more done when we didn't have one. 

So here is a day in the life of me (each week day typically goes like this besides the time watching the tv. i usually spend a little time on the computer.
3:00 Morgan woke up, get her back to sleep 
5:45 wake up and stick the nuk back in Morgan's mouth and pray she rolls back over
6:15 alarm goes off -
6:40 shower, breakfast(matt is wonderful and typically makes breakfast), pack lunch, get Morgan's bag ready
7:15 wake up Morgan - feed her and get her ready
7:55 we were out the door as a family this morning (big deal its been closer to 8:30 when we left last week)
8:15 - 5:15 work
5:30 work on supper play with morgan, play with the dogs
6:00 feed Morgan apple sauce
6:30 eat supper (home made pizza, Matt also did most of super tonight)
7 -9:30 the dreadful TV was turned on, vacuumed Morgan's room, gave her a bath, feed her, unloaded a few dishes
9:30 tried to install new car seat...didn't quite work
10:00 checked my 50 some emails and only did something with 1 or 2 (i get emails on my phone...why do i have so many when i log in...can't figure that out!!!) i hate having that many unread emails
10:30 realize i am stressed because i want to be someone who can do twice as much with 24 hours and we have a few big projects coming up at work plus we haven't even hit our fall rush and it feels like we are already smack dab in the middle of it.
10:35 Morgan is a pretty sound sleeper so i went and snuggled with her for a bit
10:45 i think i will feel better if i eat a swiss cake roll and blog
11:30 bed

I needed to run tonight and i didn't get that in...tomorrow will be close to the same deal...but i have a women's council meeting so i will come home eat quick just to head back to town for hour- hour and half, then Morgan will be in bed.

anyways i feel better now that i have blogged! I am sure i am not the only one that feels this way so hopefully someone else enjoyed reading this and it makes them feel better as well.

Living Stones

We had a awesome service on Sunday at church…. Pastor Steve talked about being a living stone in God’s plan. Today I was quite aware of how God has placed people in my life even my co-workers! I had been meaning to send a picture of Morgan’s rolls to a friend at work and I finally had my phone with me when I thought of it, so through that she shared it with another lady and we had a conversation about the heat and how it affects baby’s which totally explains how Morgan has been this past weekend. It is crazy for me to grasp that God is that big to orchestrate something so small to be so effective and at just the right times! Not only that but through the Monvee process of being challenged to spend time alone with God for Matt and what he is learning by doing that and what I selected out of a few books Monvee suggested to me, the timing on what I am reading fits perfectly into what Matt is learning. I am starting to completely forget the phrase ‘by chance’ this happen, it is totally how God has things planned out and worked in to our lives.

It is amazing to consider who God has placed in your life to have an impact on you. Take a few minutes to think about how God has put people into your life for a reason, it could be great things or it could be things that were not so great at the time but you look back on it and you can learn from the lesson you were taught, and see why it happen and why they were in your path.  We are a living stone in Gods large plan, how do you fit into it and how can you use your God given talents to serve in the capacity God wants you to? Another thing that is sticking in my mind from the last few sermons is if I serve others like God wants me to and others are serving like God wants them to, we don’t have to have this selfish mind set, because I will be serving you, so someone will be serving me and meeting my needs. As Pastor Steve said Sunday – STOP BEING CRABBY PEOPLE give grace to those around us and see how it affects our community. What does it do to your heart to be kind to others, to slow down and have a kind conversation? Try it at Wal-Mart with the checkout clerk EVEN THOUGH they are remodeling and things are not in the places they use to be. How do you feel when someone smiles at you or goes out of there way to be kind to you, even though you don't deserve it?

 Here is the picture of Morgan's leg...

What happen to July?

Next Friday is the end of the month! ahhh! here is what we have been up to in July....i had lost my camera the week after we got back ...Matt found it in the chair i sat in by the fire at the lake......here are some pictures finally!

AMAZING check mix we took to staff retreat

 We slept in our tent, we haven't done this in quite a while

 beautiful view of the lake

God's paintings are breathtaking - we sat out here for a while and watched the dragonflies eat the bugs

 Saturday we went to the Minor's and hung out with Morgan's friend Harvey

 And we went for Morgan's first boat ride...not to often does the camera fog up because it is so humid out

 I have seen the windows fog up from the inside...but from the outside???

 Gross picture i know... but this is huge for me...its my planner....i have way to many calendars (5) and i am sick of keeping them all up so i thought about this for a while and i am going to toss out 1 and set up appointments in my phone and utilize that instead of paper. I scheduled my first appointment in my phone today! yaya! big step.

mixed bag

a little rant.... Last week we were in Minnesota and the government had shut down…Matt was hoping to get a chance to fish while we were at the lake. He looked into if they were selling licenses and they were not, it also stated that DNR would be enforcing the law and if we were fishing you could get penalized…while today on Minnesota public radio they were talking about how the DNR is not around…….. So on the government site that Matt was looking at and that the government took time to write up this document in case there was a government shutdown citizens would know what was going on. – or in other words the government can make junk up and citizens believe it, why do we put so much trust in our government that is made up of so much greed and earmarks and not in God? The legislators that have shut down the government are getting paid…but the rest of the people with government jobs are not…..UGH! I try not to pay attention to the news to much because it just annoys me and I have other things I can keep busy with. like reading the bible more and trying to understand God’s hand book on life, instead of following the odd decisions of our government. I know we should all take a personal responsibility to it since we elect people into the government, yadyyadayyada...... Anyways enough of my rant! I feel better now :)

I have no pictures to share this time because I can’t find my camera …I am really hoping it is in the pile of laundry I have yet to do from the weekend. Morgan is enjoying being back at daycare so much that she didn’t nap today…which isn’t uncommon but it makes for one tired little girl.

We really enjoyed our time up at the Norby’s cabin. We have such an amazing staff and a great team that God has assembled! We had perfect weather for being on the lake, we had a little rain 1 night for a bit (we slept in a tent), but it was the perfect rain and I enjoyed the smell of it. We went put-put golfing one night and out to get ice cream the majority of the time we spent in the water. Aaron and Lauren brought up there wonderful hammock so I spent some quite time enjoying the beautiful view, the perfect temperature and more quite time!

Since ‘little bug’ has been sleeping for a little while it is time to get some reading in and then hopefully get some rest!

getting into the swing of things again

We spent the last week in Northern Minnesota at a Staff Retreat for the church..i will hopefully post more on that later. After a week of relaxing and Morgan staying with Grandma and Grandpa ..i don't want to do anything. During the week and into the weekends i get into such a routine that i will put off things that will take me out of my routine because i know how hard it is for me to get back into the routine..i thought taking a nap this morning would help my motivation...nope didn't work, maybe brushing my teeth putting my contacts in and brushing my hair could help kick me in the but again...NOPE....spark (a vitamin drink) and some lunch..nope that didn't work either!! the only productive thing i have done is unpack Morgan's stuff....but the list of other things piles up in my head and i am already stressing my self out for this week because i am putting off so much that it will have to get done through out the week.

Maybe the reason I am lazy is because its super hot and humid and we have just been at lake with PERFECT weather, and i want to go back!! Since nothing seems to work i figured i would blog about it and maybe i could type out some reasoning to start moving. I need to get back to running for the 5K in September...but i think that might wait for another day as well.

Before we left Matt's sister was down for a few days - Nova was sad because her flip flop broke!

 We took the dogs out to the Nature Park to get some energy out of them and enjoy the beautiful afternoon

 Aussie found a gofer hole and they wouldn't stop digging! as you can tell my Mable's face she had stuck her face in the hole a few times...Aussie's beagle side definitely came out once he was on the trail of the gofer!

Now that Morgan is down for a nap and I have wrote out how i feel about getting back into the swing of things i think its time to get some stuff done! It is great to see that if i just express how i feel, i feel better and can move on to the next thing or get over my laziness! :)