Why I love Paula...

Somehow every week Paula makes me crack up. This week its not due to her mindless blunder of evaluating Jason Castro before he even performed his second song, but rather did you see that one shot of her standing up dancing? The girl JUST DOESN'T CARE! She is a glutten for Simon's ridicule and she is just unashamedly herself. She is cheeseball and she doesn't care. I think we could best friends :)

Also, its like deep calls to deep. When you see her, you are flooded with memories of dancing to "Cold Hearted Snake" in your bedroom as a little girl. I seriously had that whole album memorized.

Cast your predictions of who you think is going home tomorrow :)

The Day of My Heart's Delight!

This week is the day of my heart's delight, otherwise known by others as our anniversary! I am so excited! I love special days and making them special. I am a holiday lover. We are going to celebrate all week long, so I will post pics of our fun together later in the week. For today I thought I would do my Top 10 Favorite things about my man.

10. After having a baby, there are times that the hormones run a muck and sleep deprivation is at a personal all time high. So whenever I am having a "moment," Joe always makes me laugh some way or another to snap me out of the edginess. He also calls it the "H(hormone) factor" and that makes me laugh too. I promise he was not nearly as stinking hilarious before we got married; it was like one of his wedding presents to me :) . Every night he has me in stitches about something. Oh, I have to tell you one story... So, right now his finishing up working in an active adult community (i.e. people over 55 yrs. old) and he is helping them rebuild their shower (there was an engineering issue). Anyways, he was working on this woman who is 90 years old. He went to check on the progress of the work and he was leaving her house. He said, "Good bye Miss So-and-So, I will see you tomorrow to check on things again." She stops him to do the five part hand shake that ends with the "Dukes" and says "We're solid" WE'RE SOLID! How old are you? You can't even know that terminology, because I barely do.

9. I have told you in previous posts how hot my husband is, but this story always makes me smile. After we got our engagement pics, Tara was looking at them and says, "Melissa, I didn't realize how cute Joe is. He is really good looking." I responded, "I know...Jesus has just been shielding your eyes."

8. He is so not 'religious' and he can relate to all kinds of people. The other night we saw a commercial for "Natural Light." In which he responds with, "I didn't know that Natural Light did commercials. We used to call that 'Nasty Light' back in the day."

7. He loves the History Channel. He also is a political junkie, almost as much as me.

6. He won't admit how much he likes golf. Spending time with us is so important to him, that I can count on one hand how many times he has gone to play. When I try to encourage him to go, he always says he would rather be with us. I just think its cute he's in denial.

5. We would be the best sports casting duo. We love to watch sports together and we continually have annoying commentary about every play. (Oh the Mavs...they are determined to torture us. Can we just get a Dallas team that can make it past the first round!?!)

4. He is a man wise beyond his almost 30 years. One time someone said it best of him that he has an "old soul." He continually amazes me with the wisdom that he has for our family and for the business world.

5. He is my rock. Regardless of the circumstances, he sees them from God's perspective and has radical trust in the Lord. A true man of impecable character.

4. He is so careful in guarding his heart. In so many different ways, he is cautious with his heart. I absolutely love that he saves it for me and it has been only for my enjoyment....and enjoy I do!

3. You know you hear all the in-law jokes by men, but he truly loves my family like his own.

2. He is the best dad. I love watching him with Isaac; it is such a joy!

1. I just love him more than I can put into words. God outdid Himself when He gave him to me. He is so much more than I could have ever of dreamed of and I'm so thankful that we get to love the Lord together for the rest of our lives.

Isaac's Grand Entry

Well, just for fun and for keeps I thought I would post my birth story. Some details will be left out, because I had by far, my most embarrassing moment and I will spare you the agony! :)

Before my 37 week check up, I had started not feeling well at all. When I went in to my O.B., she dismissed it and encouraged me to take this nasal spray and take it easy. Well, I tried to take it easy but I was dead set on trying to get this labor process on the road with my vigorous walking, nightly red raspberry tea, and a little somethin' else- you know what I mean :) Rather than labor, I would feel bad for a few days and then feel better for a couple. This went on for three weeks. My O.B. is really big into "kick count." She gave me a chart at 30 something weeks that would have me record how long it took for the the little man to kick 10 times. Thursday, Feb. 28th I had been out running around that day and when I got home I felt like I was hit with 100 pound of bricks. All of the sudden, I felt so sick that I couldn’t get out of bed. I stayed there until Joe got home from work and he made me some dinner. No movement from the mister. Then an hour went by and nothing. Then two. Then we are concerned. I ate a cookie and caffeine to see if that would get him moving and nothing. So we called my O.B. and she told us to go into the hospital. After four hours of being there, they tell us that I have Influenza B (which is the good kind- if there is one) and thankfully I have an appt with my O.B. the next day. No one checked my cervix at the hospital. Then at my O.B. she tells me some instructions, including “we’re not having this baby this weekend, I will see you back Monday when you are feeling better.” She didn’t check my cervix either.

Then, the next morning I got up for my usual 4 a.m. pee break and there was some fluid leaking out. I thought, "Surely, that's my mucus plug" (even though I had lost it a week before that). I went back to lay down but liquid kept leaking out and I just thought, "this is some extra discharge." MAJOR DENIAL. Then I started timing my contractions. I call my mom at 7 a.m. and she tells me that my water has probably broken and I need to call the doctor. Well, I didn't want to call the doctor right away because even if I was in labor I figured I would have a ways and so I'd rather labor at home for awhile. Finally, at 8 a.m. I wake Joe up to tell him and he turns on super dad mode. He was plotting my contractions on a graph (Mr. Business) and getting everything ready to go. He's so funny. I was still trying to keep my expectations low because I kept thinking there's no way I can have a baby because yesterday I felt so bad. Not to mention I have the flu and I couldn’t figure how I would have a baby, nurse and that sweet thing not catch the flu. From the moment I woke up with fluid leaking, I felt 100 times better though. It was seriously a miracle.

Around noon Joe called the doctor and she says, "Sounds like we're having a baby today." Wow, I was in shock. We drove to the hospital and once we got there they did this swab thing that tells you if its really amniotic fluid. Sure enough, that was my water that broke. Then, the nurse came in and checked my cervix and when she told me I was a 5, I started crying (out of relief and disbelief that I was that far along). Then, they hooked me up to the monitors and I had to stay in bed because they wanted to check me out. So, for the next two hours that's where I stayed. Also, since I had the flu they thought it would be best to give me an I.V. just to make sure I stayed hydrated. I was not excited about being hooked up to that thing, because I’m convinced that is a conspiracy to make you look as fat and bloated as possible.

Then, it was 4 p.m. and the doctor came in to check me. When she did she said she thought that the nurse was "generous" and that I was only a 4 and that I hadn't 'progressed" since I got to the hospital. Then she goes on to explain that once your water breaks the clock is ticking. It is the law that 18 hours after your water breaks they have to give you antibiotics because it can be dangerous for the baby being in limbo that long. She wanted to put an internal monitor to evaluate my contractions and see whether they were strong enough to cause me to progress. If they weren't she wanted to give me petocin to increase my contractions. OH NO, this is not what I wanted at all. I have heard what petocin does to you and I think it would be VERY difficult to not have an epidural once you are administered petocin since the contractions are so strong. So I ask the doctor if I could please be unhooked and have an hour to walk around, do the birth ball and some other things to see if I progress on my own. She said, okay I'll give you an hour and a half and then we'll see. So I walked all around the hospital with my wonderful coach, Joe, the Durhams, Graves, and Terrys who got a kick out of our little parade. Having different people there helped to keep my mind off of everything. We also prayed a lot because I really did not want petocin at all. So at 5:30 she comes in and says that I am 5.5 (so I'm progressing!) I was really thinking I was further along than that. Nicole and I called her "stingy fingers." She WAS....that little stinker.

Anyways, at 6 p.m. my mom gets there. She was so helpful. I could not have done it without her and my sweet husband. Around 6 p.m., is when my contractions started to get really intense. She came to check me at around 7:30 and i was a 7 1/2. Then, from 9-10 p.m. I had one long contraction, they never ceased. I was so weak and didn’t know how much longer I could go. Well, at 9:30 I felt like I had to #2 so bad that I sat on the toilet for 30 minutes having contractions. I felt that if I got up off the toilet that I was going to go everywhere. I know everyone was freaked out that I was going to have the baby in the toilet. The doctor was supposed to come in at 10 but was with a patient so she didn't come in until 10:30 and that's when they started the antibiotic in my drip. When she checked me then she said, "Oh wow, you're at a 10. Its time to push." I started crying then too, because I couldn’t believe it was here! I was just so thankful that I was at a 10, and from there, I pushed about 12 times (25 minutes) and he came out. I was so thankful and so happy to see his sweet little face. He was born at 10:48 p.m. and was 7 lb. 1 oz. From there, I didn't even really feel the placenta coming out. She said that I had a second degree tear but I didn't really feel that either (at the time). The whole thing seemed like a dream, I wouldn't have changed anything and I thank God that we took the Bradley classes. They really helped tremendously with the whole process. The pictures below are thanks to Nicole Graves. I don't know who in the world could've high jacked my pictures off my computer, but I can't find them anywhere.

Here is me having way too much fun with the labor process. Trust me, it got ugly later :)


Here's my wonderful birth coach and I having way too much fun together and he is cheering me on!
Here is Isaac's 'chocolate grandma' (as I call her, because she hasn't decided on her grandma name)

Here is me and "JJ" (that's her grandma name)
The glowing parents!
Here is Lauren and Laura torturing my child :)

Here are the MEN! (My dad is holding Isaac and Joe's dad is on the right)

Nicole Rae Bobbadee (do you think Isaac can say that? Me neither. So lets encourage her to come up with her own little name too) P.S. Lets give Nicole some props for updating her blog- you should check it out! Wahoo, she's back!
The young lovebirds wishing they could have another- hehe!
Then my father-in-love prayed over Isaac, it was one of my favorite parts!


That was so much fun, I'm ready to do it again! Oops, did I say that out loud?

Sleepless Night

Not due to my sweet Isaac though. No, because I stumbled across this blog and can't sleep for the tears keep coming. It made me hold Isaac extra tight. "I do believe, Lord help me overcome my unbelief."

www.audreycaroline.blogspot.com

Now that's my son!

The other day, Isaac wore his first little polo type onesie. When Joe saw him, you could see his chest puff out, his face light up with glee, and he exclaimed, "Now, that's my son!" It was really cute.


Well, you girls know how particular I am about my hair. I wish that it weren't so, but you win some, you lose some. I had what I affectionately called "newborn hair." This is where all the illustrious glow and thickness from pregnancy is no longer. Not to mention, my roots were starting look like bangs. So I started to brain storm about what a new mom is to do, this is all new territory for me. Joe said he would keep Isaac on a Saturday while I went to take care of my business, but it just wasn't working out with everything going on.


This last weekend, Joe and I were laying in bed and he says he wants to talk to me about something. Uh oh, I thought, I must have had a mouth malfunction. To my great surprise, he says that's not it. He said, "I have heard you talk a lot about your hair situation. A lot of talk, but no action. What's the plan here?" I explain how there were so many obstacles...blah blah blah. My husband who knows me ever so well loving says, "Melissa, there is a lot of transition going on and a little thing like your hair could send you over the edge. So I am placing an executive order that you are to have a plan by Wednesday."


After that, there was so much peace. I decided to take Isaac with me and go to a completely new place so that if my child screams his head off, they won't know me from the next girl and we can just not come back. So we go to this cute little salon in Grapevine and I bring him in his little car seat. The entire time he does not say ONE PEEP! For two and half hours, he was a complete rock star! Praise Our Glorious Savior~ It was All Him! When we got to the car, with great delight I declared, "NOW THAT'S MY SON!"



The little man gains weight in his cheeks :)



Dad telling him how proud of him he was!
Me and the mister with my new "summer look"
Isaac laughing
and then I caught him mid-smile.

Play Dates

Our first play date was to the park in Euless, but mom forgot the camera. Bare with me, I am still a rookie at all of this. If you check out Katy's blog, she was on top of it and brought her camera.

Then, last week we had lots of fun at the Town Center with Sarah and Sabrina, Stephanie and Kate. It would've been complete if we would've had Katy and Abby there with us- we missed you! Girls, you know I would be a millionaire if I had a dollar for every time I heard, "You must've drank the water?" Original.

Yes, as you can see, Sarah straight up jumped on the art cow for our pic! If you click on the picture of Sarah jumping up there, Stephanie's face is classic! You never know what Sarah is going to do next. Oh, how I need a daily dose of her humor. She has tried to disciple me in her wit, but I am a hopeless case.

Below are some pictures from our play date with our Dallas family, the Graves. They always welcome Isaac and I with open arms and love on us tremendously! We are so grateful for them. John and Nicole are amazing and have incredible kids. They are such a joy to be around and I love them all like my own. Hannah, almost 10, is the biggest helper and is going to be the best little mama one day. Joseph, almost 8, is perfectly content holding Isaac all the time. He asked his dad the other day, "What is 'heart's desire' mean?" His dad said, "Why do you ask?" He replied, "Because Melissa said I could hold Isaac all that my heart desired." HAHA! Then there is Sarah, who is 4, and the first time I had to nurse over there, she freaked out. (Apparently, she didn't remember being nursed or any of her siblings :) Then, there is Rebekah, who is 3, and the first time I brought Isaac over there I was doing "baby sit ups" with Isaac. Its this thing I read about in one of my books that you can do with your baby when its "awake" time. That is now her favorite thing to do with Isaac and does it even when its "sleep" time. Then, the youngest, John Alexander, calls Isaac, "I" or "my baby." It is precious!

A Tribute to Our Faithful Neighbors

Since we have been married we haven't lived more than about 10 minutes from the Rangers' ball field. Every April they come out promising big returns and leaving us wanting. Nevertheless, they are there week in and week out providing a fun, family environment. You know I grew up a hard core Astros fan...Biggio, Bagwell, and all of those guys were who I always cheered for. Joe on the other hand is a die in the wool Rangers fan. They are HIS team and even though they have been terrible for 10 years, he is still faithful. So once we got married I got baptism by fire, because I had gotten him a Valentine's present that year to the 14 best games of the season. Is that not every man's dream to live around the corner from your favorite team? We had such a great time as newlyweds going to all the games. This is a picture of us enjoying the fireworks show at the July 4th game in 2006.

Here is us enjoying the game pre-pregnancy 2007.

Here is me sweating it up for the love of my husband while I was 14 weeks pregnant in the Texas heat- God bless the Rangers!

Now that we have our little man and we won't be next door to the Rangers much longer we had to bring him to his first game. Not only did we get to go with him, but we got to enjoy the game with some of our favorite people, the Durhams! Here are the top five events of our our little excursion:

1. Stacy calling me Friday in a panic because she heard there was a game on Friday night and I had told her the game was on Saturday night. She was seriously concerned that we were going to miss the game. I quickly assured her that they play almost every night and they would be there tomorrow too :) As you can tell, Stacy is a baseball fan. I do not know how I managed in my pics not to get one of her beautiful face, but you can see her blog.

2. In the name of good stewardship, we only took one car :) So we put all the kids car seats in the back seat. Yes, all three were lined up one next to the other. Stacy and I rode in the back seat and were tossed around like groceries. (Poor thing, she is pregnant) I know you may be thinking, why didn't your men hop back there? Oh, they offered but there is no way that our men could fit in the back of my pregnant roller skate. We may have been squished but glory to God we saved $10 :)

3. We also got the "all you can eat seats." That in itself is hilarious. Joe and Monte took full advantage of the situation and Stacy and I were about to puke watching them. We will not do that again...sorry guys :)

4. As soon as the announcer came on, Bryce starts looking all around and then finally looks at his mom and says, "Where is that voice coming from?"

5. Stacy and I were talking about something mid game and then she asks, "Whats the name..of you know...the pinnacle of baseball...??" Now I wonder where her son gets it from, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, now does it Stacy??

But the best part was sweet fellowship with our dear friends and getting to meet some new friends too.

Even though we won't be right here, do not fear, it will give us one more reason to make trips to Dallas. I may have to get us season tickets :)

Here are the boys!

Monte, Bryce, and Macey.

Isaac hung out in the sling most of the time...sweet thing.
Bryce inspecting his "all you can eat" bracelet.
Yes, we saw Third Day too. They were taking pictures with some fans behind us.

A New Adventure

This began about a year and half ago when Joe and I sensed transition was coming and the grace at Joe’s job was lifting. We had no idea what this meant or where it could lead, but we continued to pray and wait on the Lord. After that, several opportunities presented themselves but we hadn’t felt peace about any of those doors. In December, my uncle offered Joe an opportunity that we began to pray about, but being 32 weeks pregnant with our first was plenty enough for my pregnancy hormones to wrap their arms around. We knew that we weren’t going to make a decision until after our sweet little man was born so I asked him if we could revisit the subject after that. He so graciously agreed.

Once Isaac was born, we began to look at all of the doors that were presented to us. We prayed our guts out, sought a lot of counsel, looked at all the pros and cons, and so much more. In the end, we really believe and have great peace about us moving forward. This has not been an easy decision for our family. God has blessed us with some of the most wonderful friends, who are really a lot like family. We love you all so tenderly and the thought of leaving you and Gateway has been heart wrenching. You have loved our family so sacrificially and unconditionally that you truly are a manifestation of Malachi 3, "Test me in this and see if I will not pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." You are that blessing in my life.

My aunt and uncle are moving to Austin and have hired Joe to be their business manager. This will include doing personal investments and managing a thoroughbred breeding business that will include us moving to their ranch. Their ranch is in Normangee, TX which is about 30 minutes north of College Station. The great news is that there is plenty of room for you to come, play, swim, and visit. We are also really excited to be closer to family in Houston and Austin.

We are really excited about what God is doing and about our new adventure with our new little family. We covet your prayers as we transition and move into this new season. One of the scriptures that has been a banner over our family since its conception is 2 Samuel 22:31, “As for God His way is perfect, all the Lord’s promises prove true.”

Here are some pics I took of the ranch on a visit 4 years ago. The operation has grown sizeably since this...

The Three Amigos

The battle for purity is for the heart, but more practically speaking, a great deal is won by not putting yourself in compromising situations. When Joe and I were courting we did not trust ourselves and knew that if we were alone it would lead to the inevitable. Joe's best friend, Kenny, was our escort :) No, we loved hanging out with him and I affectionately referred to us in those days as the three amigos. When Joe and I first were praying about things, he even made a trip down to Houston with Joe and I to "Meet the Sprys." On the way back we visited Crawford, TX to pay tributes to our beloved George W. It was a hilarious trip because there were war protestors and police presence everywhere. In this small little town one of the only stores was a souvenir shop that you could stock up on Crawford memorabilia and of course I got a shirt to commemorate the trip. (This is an actual picture that I took while we were there. This guy was saluting and saying the pledge to the Crawford billboard...hilarious!)

Now Kenny is married, and he and his wife are about to celebrate their one year anniversary! They came to visit us this past weekend and we had a wonderful time. They are such an amazing couple, they exude God's presence, and they are so refreshing to be around. We had a great time together. We had lots of great talks, went to the Arboretum, enjoyed Gateway, had our traditional Thai Chili indulgence, and stopped by Jason's 30th bday party. Yes, Isaac is a trooper and he did so good! Here are some pictures of our time together...

Its apparent that Isaac gets his looks from my hot husband!

My Full Time Job

This picture cracks me up because it looks like he's doing tae kwon do on me :)

So you may have wondered, "What is up with her blog name?" Well until I become witty you will have to endure cheesy things like that. The truth is that I do have a new full time job...nursing. I was doing the math yesterday and Isaac and I spend at least 42 hours a week tending to our business. FORTY TWO hours it is true, can you believe it? So needless to say, the boppy is our best friend because occasionally it gives me freedom to do other things like read, talk on the phone, peck away at the computer, and enjoy everyone else's blogs.

Since I enjoy reading everyone else's blogs, I decided its time that I am faithful with my own. Since we are embarking on a new season I thought it would only be appropriate to keep everyone informed of all that is going on with us. Not to mention, Isaac is already almost 10 pounds! yikes! I think I am going to try that Chinese binding technique so I can keep him small. But if he is anything like his namesake, my dad, who is 6'4" and my little brother who is 6'7" then I am going to have a run for my money.

A real photographer

I so wish I was a good photographer. Until then, we really enjoyed having Amy take pictures of our sweet little man. If you go to http://www.imagesofgracephoto.com/ then click on "proofing" and finally put "Terry" in as your password, you can view.

We hope you enjoy!

Timberland?

Well friends, we are going to try this for the third time. I am hoping that Isaac will be my inspiration and that this will be a link to see what is going on with us (and funny stories).

As some of you have heard me talk about, I aspire to be a cool mom. What is a cool mom? Well, that will be for another post because it is multi-faceted :) My little man is already 4 weeks and I already have strike one.

Laura and I ran a quick errand last Friday. While we were in the car she pulls out her ipod and wants me to listen to this song by One Republic. They went to ORU with Stephen and now they are really famous b/c their song was on Grey's Anatomy. (I'm clueless). Anyways, she proceeds to tell me that this song is featuring "Timberland." That's when I intelligently interjected, "Justin Timberland?" She busts out laughing and says, "You mean Justin Timberlake?" Right. I'm up on music and pop culture. Then she proceeds to tell me that it is "TIMBALAND" and everybody who is anybody has him featured on their songs or albums. Still clueless. Either way, I salute you oh Mr. Timbaland, oh guru of all things rappy.

Have a great day and off to the pediatrician we go....