Judsen Matthew

I thought that weather or not I have any readers left out there...I know it has been forever, that I would go through the story of our journey to become parents.

This was probably at 40lbs

It all started with the excitement of the positive test back in May of 2006. Our hearts raced with excitement and anticipation at the news that we would become parents. We had choose to wait for 3 years after we were married to work the kinks out...do those kinks every really get worked out?!? But needless to say we were ready and excited for this baby. As the first few months past and my belly began to grow so did our excitement. We found out at the ultra sound that we would be having a boy! I was so exited and baby quickly turned to Junior. The process of getting the nursery ready and picking names, registry for all the baby accessories quickly consumed my time.  My bond with "Junior quickly formed with every kick, turn, hiccup, and trip to the bathroom.

I will be the first to admit that I became huge. I always anticipated being this cute pregger momma, but as the months past the scale numbers continued to increase the average 30-40 lbs went right out the window. We were knocking on the door of 50 and my chins had doubled and my thighs and arms quickly gave notice to the weight gain.  With every doctor visit that I didn't hear the words "significant weight gain" I quickly rain across the street to get a double cheese burger.  I got many comment's to the effect of I was either going to have twins or a 10 lb baby...don't you just love those. Everyone  was always telling me how beautiful I was...which is really just code for how huge I had gotten.  But I knew the belly was there for a reason and began to embrace the weight and indulged in many things I wouldn't have normally had (welcome back into my life mayo)!   I mean at this point what is an extra 5lbs. I remember the first time I couldn't get past my husband in the bathroom because of my belly or the time I hit one of my students in the head with my belly as I turned around. It was a whole new world to me.

hog-tator was Jud's nickname.

Our sweet baby finally decided to come into the world 2 days after his due date (when my Dr assured me he would come early...of course). I was set to be induced the morning of the 13th of Feb, but went into labor on my own early that morning. As the pain increased I wasn't shy to ask for the epidural. Once that baby kicked in it was all rest and relaxation until the pushing. For most of the day I laid in the bed and my husband napped by my side. It wasn't until after lunch when we got the go ahead to start pushing. After about 5 sets of pushes I asked if my Dr. should be in here for this. To which my sweet nurse replied, "Oh sweetie, we have a long way to go!"

In-love

Mercy I mean I was anticipating some pushing but as the minutes went by and then the hours I was getting exhausted. Although I couldn't feel the pain...thank you Jesus, I was getting tried. Luckily just before the 2 hour marker sweet little Judsen Matthew came into this world. My 9 lb 11oz 21 1/2 inch sweet baby was laid on my chest crying with the most amazing cone head. I believe my first words were..."He's huge" (and he was). I can't tell you the emotions you feel at that exact moment. I had no idea I could love someone so much who I knew so little about. This was my baby for the rest of his or my life. I was responsible for him, my little bundle who was perfect!

This is only the beginning of the journey.  Of course the easy part was over and now the hard part began.  We were responsible for teaching and training him.  For loving him and equipping him with all the skill he would need to live in this sometimes nasty world.  But for those first few months all we could do was ooh and awe over him. 

First family picture.

And so the journey begins.

A Must Read

So my dear friend Jennah sent me this blog to read and I was so moved that I thought I must share it with you.  It is amazing to see the relationship that our Mighty Lord wants to have with us.  It is a little bit of a read but totally worth the 10 minutes it will take you.  I really have nothing more to add but WOW!  Read it and you will know why.  Thank you sweet Jesus!

http://takeheartinitiative.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/all-i-hear-is-wedding-bells/

Crafting

Cabinet Door untouched ready for my husband
to use in our laundry room!

So I have had a little crafting bug lately and when it hits I am always looking for new little projects to work on.  I thought I would share a few fun, practical ideas that can easily be made.  We are literally talking about a few minutes of time.  So my craft ideas today all came from the idea of using a simple cabinet door.  Now we have a wonderful wonderland call Gopher Unclaimed Freight in St. Cloud and they always have a plethora of cabinet doors of all sizes and shapes ranging in price from $2.00-$8.00.  Not to shabby huh.  So with these fun little canvases came two of my ideas. 

Chalk Board

The first is a simple chalk board.  All I had to do was paint the outside trim a color and then paint the interior with chalk board paint.  Simple enough and you would never guess it was a $3.00 door!

Jewelry Board

The next idea came when we began finishing our walk-in closet.  I wanted a nice place to store my jewelery.  So once again I took a cabinet door and painted the outside trim a color and then the background white.  I then bought some silver little hooks from the hardware section in Target and screwed them in the door.  Walla!  A piece of art for my closet and a very functional one at that. 

I love crafting projects that are so easy and turn out great!  Happy Carfting! 



Our closet with the use of some of those cheap cabinet
doors from Gopher.  More closet to come!



Oh For the Love!

Thursday night did not start off well when I stumbled into our house after a long day of work.  I opened the front door with my hands full of supplies from the day only to let a little green tree frog into our house.  As I was assess my best line of action for getting it out and making a plan, I set a bag I was holding down on the corner of the couch.  Well that was a bad idea, taking my eye off of the little sucker for just one quick minute led to its disapperance.  I searched high and low figuring it couldn't have gotten far.  But...no luck!  I could find it anywhere.  I decided to take the bag into the kitchen and begin getting ready for bed.  As I picked up the plastic bag I was horrified to discover that red gatoraide was leaking onto my cream colored sofa.  I mean really...this is not what I wanted to deal with at this time of night.  So now I have a tree frog loose in my house and a huge red stain on the sofa.  I begin to work franticly to remove the stain...which I was prettly successful with.  Next stop the shower.  You see, Matt and I had just got home from a long day of roofing a house.  Yep it's true, I can help roof houses.  It's one of my new fangeled hobbies, okay can I really call it a hobby...nope.  I really don't much like it, but I do like the extra money it brings into our family so this momma gets her peaches up and that roof and helps out her man.  

So anyway Matt and I were completely and totally exhausted from the long day.  We crawled from the shower into bed only to discover how hard it was to get relaxed and turn our brains off.  I mean my thoughts were going everywhere from the roofing job to my hurting feet, the tree frog that was loose in my house, and the new red spot on the couch.  Matt and I both took turns tossing and turning and bottom line...not sleeping.  I finally drifted off to sleep and I can't for the life of me tell you what woke me up but something did.  It must have been talking of sorts because I felt the need to look out my window.  When I did I was completely panic stricken at what I saw.  I lept into bed and grabbed my protector and told him that someone was in our yard and just ran across the street.  By this time my heart is pumping and adrenalin racing.  I mean I never really thought in a million years that when I went to the window I would discover someone in our yard...but there they were. 

My protector lept into action to assess the situation.  As we went back to the window together we noticed another body in our yard and then another.  All of a sudden this looked less like a raid or invasion on our house as some sort of prank.  The pranksters would run across the street and then back into our yard.  Back and forth they went.  I could hear the giggles of girls as their attack was executed.  It then hit me and I knew just what was going on.

We were being Flamingoed.  Yep that's right...in the morning we awoke to a yard filled with pink Floridian flamingos scattered about.  Mad...no!  It made me chuckle and I was certain that the boys would love this discovery when they awoke.  Needless to say Jud could not believe his eyes and wondered how all of these "penguins" got in his yard.  He was certain that I would be mad at whoever had done this!  Brodee actually ventured out into the grass...which doesn't happen often...to check out these pink unusually birds.  So thank you Dassel Ambassadors for the fun excitment for my boys and I.  I might have got a very interepted night of sleep but it was worth it in the morning. 

P.S. The red spot came out but that little tree frog as not yet been captured.

Where, Oh Where Have I been!

So you know it's bad when you can't log into your blog because you can't for the life of you remember your password or login name...and you can't for the life of you figure out how you are going to retrieve that information.  Needless to say after much trying and digging I uncovered the crucial information needed to bring you this much over due update. 

Okay so where was I?  I wish I had some great story about some amazing summer travels or about a much needed media fast or a huge summer project that has eaten every last spare minute...but the truth is...well I just took a break.  I even many times wanted to blog to you dear readers but as you and I know that never happened.  I did realize that I missed the blogging community and the freedom I had to share some of my most meaningless and meaningful thoughts.  So with that being said I am back..for now.  Back to hopefully brighten your day, give you something to think about, chuckle about if you will.  A lot my dear friends has happened in these few short months and I hope to share some of those moments with you. 

Totally threw the pictures in to show you how big my sweet, precious boys are getting...plus I think a blog with pictures is well...better.  Okay I am pledging to you my readers that I will blog at least one more time this week...cross heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye!  Amen!

Sitting Back and Enjoying the Show

Our House

I have had the amazing pleasure this year of sitting back and watching the wonderful show that the good Lord performs every spring.  The greening of the grass, the budding of the trees, the pushing through of the plants, and the blossoming of the dandelions.  This year is quite different than last.  To begin with, last year at this time I was 35 weeks pregnant and huge...yes, I truly was huge, ask anyone.  Second we had no grass, just a whole lot of dirt with weeds in it.  And thirdly we had no landscaping!

The side of our house...notice no deck!

So...needless to say their was no enjoying the show last spring just a whole lot of putting on a show.  Can you imagine me 35 weeks pregnant bending over picking up muddy hoses, dragging them around the yard...my feet getting stuck in the mud, losing flip flops, all for the sake of the perfect yard.  Mercy!  The landscaping was another fiasco...but thanks to the help of momma Sue quite successful. 



Our septic tank--retaining wall built by Matt!



Some of Mamma Sue's Landscaping

The beautiful colors!

I love the way the hostas open!

The late bloomers...literally!

The pear wreath given to me by Allie that my hubby HATES!  I love the color it adds to the door...perfect!

Another wall Matt built with the help of friends!

Our new Maple Trees!

My Tina Crab Tree...not flowering yet!

So this year was easy...fun.  It was fun to see everything come back and looks so beautiful.  All we needed to do was fertilize and weed...not too bad.  I thought I would give you a little glimpse of the show that has been unfolding in our yard this spring. 

Time to Switch it Up





Before...sorry the best I had!

Okay so I did it...it was time for a change.  Normally I leave this sort of change up to the professionals, but the timing and money just wasn't right so I did what needed to be done.  With that being said... I give you my new dark ash brown hair.  Now if I could please explain.  Here is the deal; we are getting family pictures taken at the end of June and my hair was in desperate need NOW of a coloring.  So the dilemma... get it done now and it won't look good for the pictures or wait and suffer through for another good month.  That's when it hit me.  I once read in a magazine that if you are going to color darker you aren't going to hurt your hair by using a home kit (don't worry I'll add that one to my coffee table book).  You know I'm a sucker for what I read in a magazine...so there you have it!  Problem solved.  I simply bought the box at target--L'Oreal Paris 4A Dark Ash Brown cooler...because I had a coupon...and embarked on the self-coloring journey. 



Notice all the hair dye on my forhead.



I have been on this journey before, but not since college, so I felt a little rusty.  Needless to say I read the box, then reread the box, and then gave it another quick read.  Once I felt I had mastered the 3 easy steps it would take to take me from a highlighted warm brown to an almost black I began the process. 

Pour, shake, shake, and begin applying, first to the roots and grays...yes there were a few of those, and then all over.  It was painless .  Then the 25 minute wait.  I was kind of like a young girl waiting for her prom date, impatiently pacing to see what my lovely locks would look like.  I tried to keep myself busy cleaning the kitchen, but was relatively unsuccessful.  The minutes on the clock ticked oh so slowly.  Finally 25 minutes..Hallelujah!

Rinse...it was time!  Up to my bathroom I marched, oh so ready for the transformation.  Oh course when it was done, it was straight for the hair dryer and flat iron I needed to know just what I had gotten myself into and what the end product would look like.  Yes, pleasantly surprised and happy!  I do feel a little more of a tan is needed to pull off the color, but I will work on that.   

Overall I am very happy with the experience!  Angela at Robert Micheals Iwill see you in a few weeks, but for now Dark Ash Brown I thank you!



Sorry for the cheesy self portrait...Just trying to show the hair!