a new leaf

I spent years and years being very good at my job and at my friendships.  Now I find myself with no job and very few friends.  (close by friends is what I mean when I say that...I have gobs of far away friends!  thank heaven!)   I also spent years and years with no love life and no need to cook...home economics was a class in high school that I enjoyed but really hadn't needed to practice.  Now I have a rather major love life...aka marriage...and I have a home to take care of.  My how times have changed.  I am a bit out of my element but I am ready to embrace it.

This last year I was merely surviving.  I finally have my health back and I am ready to thrive, not just survive.

I spent a week with my brother and his family...I already posted a note about how dear of a relationship I have with his wife, Ashley.  That week watching their home function, their kids loving and living, their marriage working so good (I know it's not all roses...no marriage is people.) the way Ashley creatively made her home lovely and inviting.  

Well, I left inspired.  

I want my home to have the stamp of my personality in it and on the walls.  I want my marriage to be filled with love and respect.  I want Judah to have a joyful childhood with structure and freedom.  I want to serve delightful meals on delightful dishes.  I want my home to be peaceful because it has the presence of God in it, not just because we are drama free.  

I spent yesterday arranging and decluttering and hanging photo's in our bedroom.  I am finally feeling like this is "our" home instead of me living in "lance's" home.  

I have cooked two really nice meals that were a little more complicated than I normally do. The first was enjoyed by all, the second my hubs slept through and I ate alone..but still it was worth the effort.  Next time he's awake he can enjoy it too...he's a hard workin' daddy-o and needs his beauty sleep :)  

They may seem like baby steps to someone who is a pro at keeping a home...but I am a newby and for me these things are a big deal.  

I have elected this scripture verse as my home making verse.  This is what I aspire to create in my home...

Philippians 4:8

Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

less is more

I now weigh what I weighed at my heaviest pre baby...and at my heaviest I really wasn't terribly over weight or anything so I am pleased...9 lbs to go to reach where I was when I got pregnant!

simple things

I have a love for dishes. Yup. Dishes. I love them. I crave them. I admire them when they belong to others. I wish everyone ate dinner off of beautiful things. I endeavor that when someone is in my home they have a lovely dining experience if at all possible.

I bought some dishes I love at Target a couple years back, I only bought the plates and the salad plates...I didn't really have the funds to buy them all. But I am not a dishes snob, I will take them in parts if I love them :) It has turned out to be quite a fun scavenger hunt to find pieces that "match" and by match I mean, look good together and have the same flair. Lance and I found some amazing serving dishes right when we got married and have enjoyed using them this past year...we got them on sale at a dept store. We have found pieces at yard sales, second hand stores and places like TJ Max.

Today we found yet another darling piece to our dishes puzzle. 4 cups and saucers and a serving plate. Perfect for tea and dessert...ahhh...have I mentioned how much I love dishes? and how fabulous it is to buy all these today for like 15$ makes them even sweeter to eat off of :)

My husband humors my love of dishes and agreed right away when I offered to get rid of something to make room for the new matchy matchy dishes.

Here is a picture I took with my phone...hard to see the actual color...they are golden and lovely. Anyone want to stop by for tea?

Jamie Joy Jumper

A year ago today I drove into town in my Jeep Wrangler with one last load of my personal belongings, ready for the adventure of making Nashville my home.

It has been a year of ups and downs and today as I sit here and look around me I am filled with wonder.  I have a lovely peaceful home, I have a loving and kind husband, I have a sweet natured lovey dovey baby, and I have joy in my heart.

I am excited to see what the next year in Nashville will bring.  

(When I was a baby my parents called me Jamie Joy Jumper.  I have a feeling little Judah will earn the name as well.)

Happy 4th!

July 4th is my favorite holiday after Christmas.  I heart fireworks.  

I knew that tonight I wouldn't be going out, Judah's got a cold and needs his routine and his sleep.  I wondered if it would be memorable or any different from every other day...I wanted it to be...lucky for me the big guy upstairs has a way of hearing my prayers and delivering.

Today's holiday was celebrated with the power going out while I was giving Judah Booda his nightly bath...needless to say his hair didn't get washed...I was just glad I could still see he was there by the light coming in through the window :)  The power stayed out and I put his jammies on in the dark, not easy but I did it!  Then we lit some candles and Judah had his first candle light dinner ;-)  

The power finally came back on and it became clear that God had his own fireworks planned...lighting is lovely when it's far enough away :)  I also caught a glimpse of the down town fireworks from the upstairs bedroom and ended up watching the news coverage of the weather downstairs and got a good view of the televised fireworks.

I made myself a nice dinner of rice noodles (pretty much rice can be made into anything...) and a great tomato sauce with veggies and meat added.  Yum.  In fact I think I will now stop blogging and go eat some more.  

All in all it has turned out to be a memorable holiday :)

I am so thankful for my freedom.  I am so thankful for those who made it possible.

God Bless The USA
by Lee Greenwood

If tomorrow all the things were gone,
I’d worked for all my life.
And I had to start again,
with just my children and my wife.

I’d thank my lucky stars,
to be livin here today.
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can’t take that away.

And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

From the lakes of Minnesota,
to the hills of Tennessee.
Across the plains of Texas,
From sea to shining sea.

From Detroit down to Houston,
and New York to L.A.
Well there's pride in every American heart,
and its time we stand and say.

That I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

And I’m proud to be and American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

bosom buddy

Have you ever met someone who you instantly liked? and who then married your brother? and who then spent holidays and important occasions with you? and who then had adorable babies I call nephew and niece? and who then was a delight to spend time with in any occasion? and who then loved and kissed on your new lovey dovey baby?

Have you ever wanted to be like someone who was lovely, unique, kind, fun and delightful?

Well I have.

I call her my sister (in law if you want to get specific)
I call her my friend
I call her Mrs. B (or Ashley...what ev)

Ash inspires me. She is such a good mom, and wife. She has a lovely home and she is so creative. Spending a week in her home was a blessing I needed. I left refreshed and joyful.

Click Here To Make Your Own

aspirations in parenting

By Billy Graham

1. Learn the difference between right and wrong. It takes more character to do right over wrong. Everyone needs to learn rules for living.
2. Honesty is rewarding. A good conscience is worth more than millions. Honesty is related to happiness.
3. Suffering is part of life. Hardships are a part of normal living. Complainers do not get very far in life.
4. Self-discipline is a good thing. Discipline is the road to success.
5. There is a God is heaven. The best way to teach is by example.
6. Finish what you start. Winners never quit and quitters never win.
7. Love is a necessary part of living. Got to learn to love God, family and others.
8. Sin displeases God. Disobedience hurts God, others and yourself.
9. Becoming a follower of Jesus is the goal of life. Jesus has a personal plan for everyone.
10. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit are necessary for living out God’s will.

This is a picture of Judah sleeping on his back...it lasted all of 10 minutes...sleeping this way is a huge struggle resulting in everyone in our home being over tired...which means I can get a little cranky and whiney. Not pretty people...not pretty at all.

However...

I feel like we have turned the corner in the sleep department. (fingers crossed)
I had a particularly hard night last week (2 hrs of sleep is not enough) and decided that I would do whatever it took for us all to start getting some sleep. So now Judah sleeps on his tummy. He is a full blown tummy sleeper. He snuggles right in and puts himself to sleep...sometimes I have to pat his little back for a while but if he's tired (which he usually is) then with in a few minutes he is in dream land.

Currently we are visiting my bro and his fabulous family and our schedule has been sleeping at 7pm ish, waking at 10ish to eat, back to sleep until 4am, sleeps again from 5-7:30. A mid morning quick snooze (sometimes) and a nice long afternoon nap at around 1:00 (sometimes). Naps are a little trickier because we have been on the go.

Anyhow, I am so glad and I hope this all continues.

In other news...I enjoyed reading this article about Michael Jackson's passing. Thought I would share.

Yesterday I joined my friend Jen and her family at our church picnic. It was hotter than blazes but we sweated it out in style.

It is nice to have friends.

It is nice to make memories.

It is nice to dip your toes in a stream on a hot day.

I love my dad.

I distinctly remember sitting at our front window of our home when I was a little girl, probably a toddler, and watching him get in his truck and leave for work. I would cry and cry and cry cause I missed him. When he went to work it was for weeks at a time. I remember sitting with my dad on the porch while he smoked when my little sis was suffering with asthma and he couldn't smoke in the house any more (he quit shortly after). I remember being carried in from the car pretending I was asleep so my dad would carry me to bed.
I remember my dad driving and picking me up from college and driving me home for visits. I remember every time I first saw my dad and also when I left to go back to where I'd been he would cry.
My dad still tells stories about when I was a little baby and he accidentally bopped me in the face with a baby doll he thought was soft while we were in church and how I bellered. He also tells the story of how I rolled off of the ottoman and fell on the floor and how terrible he felt about it. (I know, sounds like I'm lucky I survived my babyhood...)

Happy Father's Day Daddy. You are loved.

I really enjoy the fact that Judah prefers me. He loves his mom and dad, sometimes Brandy. Everyone else his little lip goes out and he gets this look on his face like "I so do not know you!".
After handing hundreds of babies back to their moms over the years, I am enjoying being someone's #1. I of course want my son to have lots of people in his life who love him and who he loves, but for now I am enjoying this phase.

Lance and I had a nice walk through our neighborhood today. We found this great store that has everything you need for skating and jogging strollers and such. I think Lance actually drooled ;-) We headed to the Turnip Truck to get some probiotics and other such healthy stuff. And we both got library cards.
It was a lovely outing.
Plus I got to take a nap when we got home...Lance gave Judah his bath and got him ready for bed.
What a lovely day.

lovely lovely lovely!

And now I'm watching the Bachelorette. yay!

Birth Story...long...

So it's been just over 8 weeks...so hopefully I haven't forgotten to much...although that thing that happens that gives a person "baby brain" definitely happened to me...and I'm not complaining! :)

Once upon a time...after a very very very long and horrid 9 months...on a lovely Easter Holiday....I was eating kielbasa sausage and enjoying the company of my neighbors Jeff and Hannah and miss Brandy who lives with us. I had made it to church long enough to teach my preschool class but had little energy for much else. Hannah did all the cooking while I sat at the table and watched. We had such a nice time celebrating Easter together.

After we had all stuffed ourselves adequately and everyone had eaten at least one deviled egg, we cleaned up and Jeff and Hannah headed home. I took the opportunity to lay on the couch...as I lay there I thought to myself "I feel funny...I wonder if I should just call Lance and tell him to come home today, even though he's coming home tomorrow morning..." and then convinced myself that I was just being weird and I would probably be overdue anyways so what would the point of that be.

Not 10 minutes later I felt the baby move, heard a little pop and wowser if my water didn't break. And then I made a break for the bathroom...cell phone in hand. That was the fastest I had moved in 9 months! I first called my doctor...well, the on call doctor that is...it was Easter Sunday after all. She said that if my contractions got close to come in right away, otherwise I could wait 3 hrs or so...next I called SWA scheduling...rather than call Lance who was probably flying anyways and even if he wasn't i didn't want to send him into a panic...I called scheduling and they made sure he was contacted first thing when he landed. Which was really only a few minutes after I called scheduling. So great that he was just finishing a leg and was easy to locate!

Next I called my sister...she had just spent a week in Texas and was driving home...lucky for me she was 18 miles from home when i called her! She raced the rest of the way home and between her and Brandy they helped me finish packing up my hospital bag.

At this point I was texting and facebooking folks letting them know what was going on...my SIL Ashley texted me and asked if I was at the hospital yet...I called her up and told her I wanted to wait until Lance got home before going to the hospital...I believe her words were "What?! get to the hospital right now! you could be one of those girls who doesn't feel they are in labor and pops a baby out!" well, I took it to heart and us 4 girls (Amy had also arrived in town) headed to the car and found our way to the hospital.

They got me checked in (we had pre-registered so it was easy) and then put me in a wheel chair and off we went to my private labor and delivery room....for some odd reason they stopped me by this room and wanted to "test" to see if my water had broken...they pulled out this tiny strip of paper and were about to have me stand up when the nurse actually looked at me and said "nevermind, clearly your water has broken" well duh.

When we got to the room they hooked me up to all the monitors and come to find out...I was one of those girls who didn't feel they were in labor...apparently my contractions were 3 minutes apart but I couldn't feel them...well after a whole painful debacle where they tried to get an IV into the back of my right hand unsuccessfully and extremely painfully (worse then my labor folks, ouch!) they finally got me settled and a nurse came to check me (my sister about came undone at this part...lol) and see how I was progressing. While my water was broken and I was contracting I was only at a 1. So pretty much that meant I had some laboring ahead of me.

They hooked me into the petosin and the waiting began. About an hour after I got to the hospital Lance arrived. The girls took off at that point. The nurse checked me again and still no progress. At this point I asked my nurse how long did I have to wait until I got an epidural. The petosin was making me finally feel the contractions and I was so not looking forward to how long it was going to take to dilate. She said I had to have a certain amount of fluids in me and that would probably only take another half hour and then I could get it at any point. I told her to call the anesthesiologist and have them ready! I am not a fan of pain.

While we were waiting Lance and the nurse started talking about money, retirement and financial planning. I thought I was going to go nuts if I had to listen to any more. Luckily they stopped. Seriously not the time.

They got me going with the epidural and that began the long night of waiting. They would come and check me every so often and I was slowly progressing. I slept a while...lost complete feeling in the bottom half of my body and watched as my left leg moved with out me telling it to..freaky friday I did not like that. The sensation of no feeling in my legs but my brain having a memory of their last position was so odd. I felt like I was laying flat but my legs were not...whatever, at least I wasn't in pain.

At one point Lance started singing some Madonna song (he had his ipod in while he slept I guess)...I took this to mean he was awake....singing along to madonna makes me think that. So I started talking to him...I was quite bored and couldn't sleep any longer. Apparently singing along to Madonna is not a sign of being awake...but to late, I was talking and Lance got to listen and be awake for it.

Eventually they came in and I finally progressed to a good point, they had me sitting up so gravity could also do it's part in the process...I ended up pushing for about 2 hrs...every contraction I pushed while Lance counted to 10 3x. I couldn't use my hand that had been hurt with the bad IV placement, and every time my blood pressure was taken my hand felt like it would fall off...I guess it was a good distraction from the other things going on...silver lining right? yeah. At one point I remember smacking Lance and telling him he was counting to slow. I threw up a few times which was a joy. Someone told me that the only cure for nausea and vomiting was birth...so true, right up until the very end.

Finally the pushing paid off...the nurse called the doc, 10 minutes later baby made his first appearance. 11:28 am
9lb 13oz
21 1/2" length
15" head

Relief.

I believe the first thing I said was "I'm so glad I'm not pregnant any more!" lol. seriously so glad.

Lance cut the cord. They cleaned Judah's alert yelling little self off a little and put him on my chest right away. He stopped crying the second he was in my arms. That felt good.

I couldn't stop touching him all over, he was so perfect. They took him after a moment to a little station set up in the room and cleaned him off better, they did a few other things too and Lance took pictures. The doc was busy putting me back together and it all happened so fast. Before I knew it I was holding Judah again and it was just Lance and I there. The next hour was euphoric. Bonding with my son.

And then...pain. So much pain. The nurse brought me pain meds but dang o rama that was pain like I'd never known. I am now a huge fan of percoset. While I waited for that to kick in Lance and Judah had some good bonding time.

What a day!

shot through the heart

I knew I was nervous for my sons first shots...I just didn't realize how emotional it would be for me to see him getting his shots. Lance held him on the table and the nurse did her thing and I stood there with my hands clenched and tears in my eyes...I scooped him up right away and nursed him which seemed to help him calm down a ton.

I do not like seeing my child in pain. It is one thing for an accident to happen and a little pain inflicted, it is another to hold him down while someone hurts him on purpose. dang I felt bad. I know he needs his shots and that they are keeping him from worse things than a little needle but man oh man...not easy.

It made me think of this song...
I know there are harder more painful things in life than shots...I guess I have to start giving Judah to the Lord right away for even the little things so that when bigger things come along I am good at trusting him into the care of a loving heavenly father.

Prayers for this Child
Sara Groves

I do not know how I am to pray for this child
as a mother I don't want my baby denied
but in the waiting in the waiting
I learned

every instinct in me wants to shield him from pain
take the arrows of misery heartache and blame
but in the sorrow in the sorrow
I learned to hold on

I only have two eyes - be all seeing
I only have two hands - be everywhere
I do not know enough - to be all knowing
I give this baby up into your care

I do not know how, how to pray for this child
I want to guard her from everything wicked and wild
but in the trial in the trial
I learned to hold on
And in the trial, in the trial
I learned to hold on to the heart of God

My dearest friend Kristen got married this weekend. She was a lovely bride and I had so much fun seeing people we have in common. Such a delight.

Lance was a trooper watching Judah for me while I did my thing. One of the other bridesmaids also had a newborn. Her husband was also along for the ride. Poor guys. I got some great pictures of them doing daddy duty.

As much fun as I had I was glad to wake up at home today. I was feeling some horrible mommy guilt for how much I was dragging Judah around when he was clearly tired and over stimulated. He lived of course but he let us know when he wasn't happy.

It was a big weekend for all of us.

Happy Honeymooning to my girl! Thanks for including us in such a special time!

(our friend Becca took the really nice pics i'm posting...)

true love

Newlyweds become oldyweds, and oldyweds are the reasons that families work. ~Author Unknown

I am so appreciative of my husband working so hard so that i am able to stay home and raise judah. i think my heart would be torn from my body if i had to leave him in someone else's care. I pretty much have an amazing husband. If you know him I'm not telling you anything new :)

And tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary...goodness what things can happen in a year! I wouldn't have wanted to have gone though any of it with out Lance. I love him love him love him!

update...

feeling good about this...





plus i bought some cute clothes to get me through until my old clothes fit...cute is good:)

I am very very happy these days. The contrast from now to when I was pregnant is vast. I was so miserable. And now I am so happy. I am so thankful that life goes in seasons, when a bad one happens I am always assured it will end soon and when a good one starts I know I'm in for a great ride.



(ps...the diet changes I have made are making a difference for Judah's fussyness...not sure the thrush is gone for me yet but it's definitely improved...thanks for your prayers.)