Five Days and Four Nights Childless......

So this past Sunday, John and I woke up at 5:30 to load Mallory in the car and take her to my parents house(aka Nana and Pops). She was about to head on a fun long drive to Maggie Valley, NC. Several months back, My sister and brother-in-law Craig, were planning a trip to the mountains. My sister didn't want to be without her kids for a solid week, so she asked my parents to tag along, in hopes they would be happy to watch the kids while they went skiing and/or hiking. Well my parents could not turn such a fun trip down, and the next thing you know they are asking me if they can take Mallory too!

To be honest, the thought of Mallory being gone for 4 nights just didn't sit well with me at all. However, after talking it over with John, he convinced me we needed to let her go and she would have a blast playing her cousin EE (aka, Ethan). After much resistance.... John informed me we would have to let go at some point... and my response was "John she is only 2!!" ... he said "at this point you will probably never let go!!" Ha! Well I guess we will see as she gets older!!

As we drove up in the drive way at Nana and Pops, Mallory is grinning from ear to ear and ready to jump out of our car and into theirs!! Now, mind you this was 6:00 in the morning and she was running around very excited with no sign of sadness mommy and daddy were not going!! As sad as I was, I knew based on her excitement we made the right decision in letting her go.

At this point, it was clear that this trip was going to be way harder on John and I than on Mallory. The first two days weren't so bad, I stayed really busy unpacking boxes and organizing them in the office/storage room upstairs. Now, as you will see in the pictures... it is somewhat organized...but doesn't look as cute as the pictures you see on Pinterest!! I did all this with spending no extra money...so it doesn't look near as cute, but who see is besides John and I anyway right?? At night was the hardest for John and I. We would always start to miss our sweet Mallory then! It just wasn't the same without her, but we managed it and she had a blast!!

I actually worked all four mornings they were gone at the Goodyear store, and in the afternoons I would come home and sew a little bit. I really enjoyed the time I had to sew. I sew Mallory a few things and a shower curtain for our bathroom. I actually did all of this with fabric I already had, so no money spent!! John was very pleased about that... He informed me after seeing my fabric collection... that I didn't need to buy anymore fabric for a long time!! HA!!

While it was nice to have a few days with just John and I, I am very ready for Mallory and Nana and Pops to return home!!! Here a few pictures of what I have accomplished this week while being childless!!

Well I better go, John and I are headed on a date tonight before Mallory, Ethan, Caroline and my parents get back to town. I am more than ready for my sweet little two year old to return home to her Mommy and Daddy!! Here are some pictures of what I have been up to these few days without Mallory.

Happy Valentines Day!!

Yesterday was Valentines day. It happened to also be John's day off this week since he is working this Saturday. So, Mallory and I were lucky to be able to spend the entire day with John!! We had lots of fun. It started out with a yummy breakfast that John cooked. It included biscuits, eggs and bacon. We spent some time outside picking up pecans in the yard and just playing ball with Mallory. After a nap for Mallory, we decided to do take out for dinner instead of going out to eat. We ended picking up barbecue at this new place that just opened up the street. It was actually really good and the best chicken I have had in a long time. The meat was falling off the bone!!

John was so sweet and spoiled me with some beautiful red roses, a piece of Chocolate Pie, a sweet card, and a gift card to go eat a my favorite Thai restaurant in town. He way out did himself.

I got a little crafty this year. Mallory and I spent the afternoon making valentines last week and had the best time. She loves to color so, she loved decorating her valentines!! I also made some valentines this year for her class, instead of buying them. I was also asked to bring cookies for her class party, so I decided that I would just get our talented long time friend Mrs. Beth to make them. The turned out way cuter than I could have ever made and were also really yummy!!! I am sure they were a hit with her classmates!

There is this new website called pinterest that can be really addicting, but I actually have gotten some cute ideas from it. I put one to use for John's valentines present. I found this container at the dollar tree for a 1.00 yes, I said a dollar!! I added 20 reasons I love John typed onto strips of paper and folded them and put them in the jar. Now, to my surprise he loved it and I could tell he thought it was one of the best gifts he had gotten!! Lesson learned, that it's more about the thought than any amount of money you spent!!

I with out a doubt have the very best Husband in the world and I am very lucky that God blessed my life with him.

Here are some pictures from Valentines! Enjoy.

Christmas 2011 a little late....

Ok so I know it's like already February now and I am just getting to posting about our Christmas, but it's been really busy around here with the recent move!

Ok so a recap of our Christmas 2011....

We spent Christmas eve at the wonderful candle light church service at Hardy Street Baptist. I had to run sound for the service, so John was in charge of keeping Mallory quiet during the service since there was no nursery. He actually did a really good job, considering Mallory and Ethan didn't even last 10 minutes last year. They both lasted the entire service year, so I was really proud!!

After the service, we headed to my parents house for some yummy Gumbo and other yummy food! We invited several families that didn't have any family here. Our new pastor's family and several other families came and enjoyed the evening! It was fun to fellowship with everyone, but by the time everyone left we were pretty tired!

The next morning, we woke up and Santa had come to see Mallory!! I still don't think she understood what it was all about, but she did love her new toys!! She got some new clothes, baby dolls, a school bus from Aunt Krista, A princess Tent, books, and lots of other stuff. However her favorite gift of all was her pink stove that matches her pink sink! Nana, Pops, and Granna and Papa got her the stove for Christmas. She loves to play cook and have tea! Her next favorite gift was probably the purse from Aunt katy and Uncle Craig or her baby doll stroller and pack-n-play.

After opening up presents we had some yummy beniets Pops cooked for us and then got ready to head to church. I just love being able to go to church on Christmas Morning!! It is so awesome to be able to celebrate Jesus at church on Christmas Morning... after all isn't that what Christmas is all about anyway??

Well after church, we headed to my Grandparents, to spend lunch and the afternoon with my Dads family. This was the last year my grandmother was going to have Christmas, so it was special in that everyone was there. It's was great getting to see all my cousins and Aunts and Uncles!!

After, lots of presents and a tummy full of food, we packed the car and headed to Cordova, Al to spend a few days with John's family. It was great to spend a few days with his parents and Nanny! After 2 nights, we headed back to Hattiesburg to officially start the moving process!!

Well this about sums up our Christmas 2011...

New years ... well it was spent Moving this year, so not much else was done. We enjoyed finally getting to spend the night in our new home new years eve! Mallory is still loving her new room and our new house, but I think Daisy loves it the most!

A Bittersweet but Exciting Change!!

I will first give you the background, so I will warn you that this could be a long post!

If you didn't already know this, John, Mallory and I have been living with my parents since we moved back to Hattiesburg, which is about a year and a half ago. So just to clarify, that means my wonderful selfless parents have had our family of 3 plus our dog Daisy living with them in their house. Now if you have never done this, I know you are thinking "I could never do this", but I will tell you that you can and if you ever have to, you will be a better person from it than you were before!

After having Mallory, I longed to be near family. It made me sad to think that Mallory would not grow up near her grandparents or cousin. I was blessed as a child having my grandparents only 20 minutes apart and my dads parents lived in the same town. On top of missing family, I could tell how unhappy John was in his current Job. The long crazy hours and being on call 24 hours a day was not his idea of a fun career, even if he was good at what he did. The atmosphere at this plant was so different than his previous plant. This one was very negative. However, God had given John this opportunity, so he tried to make the best of it, while being an Christian example and having a positive attitude. During these days, I spent many hours praying and searching the Internet for John a new job closer to Hattiesburg or Alabama where he is from, but sadly couldn't find anything.

To our surprise in Early 2010, my dad offered John a job and needed him to start June 1st, 2010. My parents knew that we still owned a house in Florida, so they offered us to move into the second floor of their house! I admit thinking to myself.... "Do they know what they are getting into bringing a 6 month old baby, who tends to do lots of crying, into their house to live and do they realize it could take forever to sell our house in the Florida housing market??? As far as I could tell they had no concerns and seemed to be excited to have us coming back!! Honestly, little did my parents know, but this was a answered prayer I had been praying for. I just never expected it to happened like it did!! Luckily, God's plans are better than our own!!

Now, to the house selling part.... we put the house on the market when Mallory was only 4 weeks old!! Now I will tell you.... this was not what I envisioned after coming home from the hospital. I mean wasn't taking care of a brand new baby enough? Well I guess not cause my husband insisted we get the house ready to sell and put on the market even though we had no where to go at this point!! Five months later and the house was still sitting on the market while the end of May was getting closer and closer. At this point I am wondering if we are making a terrible decision...... and if the house not selling was some kind of sign from God that we need to stay put.... but after much prayer , we packed up our most important things and moved into the second story of my parents house!

The first several weeks and months were interesting in that Mallory didn't want much to do with anyone but John and I. She would just scream and cry if I left her with anyone even Nana and Pops.... in fact one time when John was out of town, I tried to leave her with my dad for a little while to go with mom to the store. 30 minutes into the trip, my dad calls me very stressed telling me that I MUST come home NOW cause Mallory had been crying for the entire 30 minutes I have been gone!! He said he had tried everything he knew to do and nothing was working. I can laugh about this now, but at the time it was terrible and I had not seen my dad that stressed out in a long time!! Thank goodness we have come a long ways and she now loves staying with Nana and Pops!!!

Some of the best things about living with Nana and Pops, were having family dinner almost every night and Mallory getting to see Nana and Pops everyday! This past year and a half is not only filled with lots of great memories, but also many lessons God taught me as well. Patience, Sacrifice, humility, and what it truly means to be selfless are just a few of the lessons God taught me through this time in our life. I never thought it would take over a year to sell our house, but patience was definitely something I had to learn all over again!! Also, being content with what you have and where you live... I mean you have to admit it's not the coolest thing to tell someone that you are married, have a 2 year old, and live with your parents!! I definitely got lots of crazy looks when people would ask me where in hattiesburg we lived and my response was my parents house. In the end, I was just grateful that I had such selfless parents that allowed us to live there so we could not only wait out the sale of our house in Florida, but also save money for our new house!

I have the the best parents hands down, they are not only humble ,but they are selfless, and giving too. I thank God for their daily example in my life and the lives of people around them. My mom and dad choose to uproot their normal life, allow our family to move in ,plus the dog(which my mom is not a fan of), and didn't complain one bit the entire year and a half we lived there!! In fact, she told us we didn't have to leave several times!! Although, I secretly think she was mainly referring to Mallory not leaving. So, thank you mom and dad for blessing our life and allowing us to uproot your quietness and space for the past year and a half!! They not only allowed God to use them to answer our prayer, but far surpassed my original prayer request!

After, God was teaching me once again how important it is to be "still and know that I am GOD"..... our house in Florida finally sold last Feb(2011) after 2 failed contracts and over a year one the market! We were finally free to start looking for us a new house here in Hattiesburg!! We were really excited, but after months of looking and looking for a house and not finding anything we liked that had at least an acre of land, I was very discouraged. We then decided to check into possibly building a house. We actually found land, had the plans drawn up and an appraisal done. After the appraisal coming back very poor, we didn't know what to do. I felt disappointment all over again, but knew we have to be patient.

Over thanksgiving, we decided to look at a foreclosure that our realtor had just seen and thought we might like. I had seen it online a while back, but they had recently dropped the price, which then put it in our price range. Little did we know that we would not only really like the house, but that someone else would like it too. After the bank requested the final offer we were willing to pay, I just knew we wouldn't get the house. Well, I was wrong once again, they accepted ours and we were under contract!! We were excited, but tried not to be to excited since we knew it was a foreclosure and that could bring up many unknown issues. However, to our surprise after a inspection, and very awesome appraisal, we closed on our new house December 23rd! I honestly am still in awe that we have our own house again!! Don't get me wrong I miss my parents, but I think it's great that we can now live in the same town, and have our own space... and I am sure they are enjoying the quietness again!! I honestly do miss their company... but don't miss all the clutter!!

So we spent the weekend of New Years moving into our new house!! John's mom and Aunt Betty came down after Christmas and helped us do so much!! John's dad even built us a awesome gate for the stairs!! We are enjoying our new normal and loving our huge yard and space! We have 4 pecan trees, a kumquat tree, 2 fig trees, and several other fruit trees that we are not sure what they are. I am looking forward to making new memories in our new house and hopefully blessing others by glorifying God!

Here are a few pictures. I am still in the process of organizing and unpacking... more pictures will come soon.