How has it been so many months since I’ve blogged? What is
wrong with me?! Oh wait, I work full time and I have three children…. NOW I
remember why “free time” is a thing of the past. J
A quick recap since my last post:
- As much as we love our J-babies, Jaret and I made the
executive decision to forever remain a Party of Five. As in, no more J-babies.
This was a hard decision to make (harder for me, I think) but in order for us
to be confident in the fact that we can give our kids everything they deserve
in life plus more, we need to stop multiplying in numbers and start multiplying
our savings accounts.
J
Since Jailyn was conceived while on birth control, Jordyn was conceived as a
result of taking antibiotics while on birth control, and Jackson was an “Oops!”
while switching forms of birth control, it goes without saying that we needed
something more permanent to depend on in this area. So in June, I had the
Essure procedure done (read more about that here:
http://www.essure.com/ ) and had to tough out
a long three month wait to see if the procedure was successful. I was really
skeptical at first, especially after having some complications with the procedure
itself followed by weeks of pain and discomfort. I actually started to believe
that this was a sign we’d made a huge mistake. Fortunately we found out in
September that the procedure was successful and all is well! And now there’s no
more worrying about if I forgot to take a pill this morning, and counting days
on the calendar every month. I had no idea how stressed I actually was about
those things, until I didn’t have to worry about them any longer. Whew! And
super fun side fact: now I have to carry a little card around with me that
states why I’ll set off metal detectors at the airport. Ha!
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Forever a Party of Five
And I'm ok with that!
Photo by KReative Photography 479-633-4839 |
- Speaking of babies: just about everyone I know is
expecting right now. That’s an exaggeration, of course—Not EVERYONE. But a good
percentage of my girlfriends are expecting. So of course who has two thumbs and
crazy baby fever? This girl right here. But now pretty much any direction I
turn, I can get my hands on a snuggly little newborn and get my “fix”, then
turn that precious little bundle back over to their momma for the “fun stuff”
like breastfeeding and changing newborn diapers every 30 minutes. I’m pretty
certain I’ve got the best of both worlds!
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My not-so-little J-babies
Photo by KReative Photography 479-633-4839 |
- The same day as my lovely little procedure in June,
Jaret’s sweet grandparents and one of his aunts were in a horrible car accident
in Central Arkansas. All three were airlifted out of the crash site to
hospitals in Little Rock. As soon as I was feeling better from the procedure,
we and my sister- and brother-in-law from Dallas made a trip to LR to see them
and be of support to Jaret’s mother and her sisters who were spending all of their
time rotating between hospitals and working with doctors, nurses, social
workers and insurance companies to get all the details set for his grandmother,
grandfather and aunt’s extended care plans. A week later we took another trip
to LR, this time bringing the J-babies to lift everyone’s spirits! It was nice
to see them make their Mimi (my mother-in-law) smile.
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| Us with Jaret's sweet grandparents at our wedding in October of 2009 |
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| Grandma and Grandpa Bond with baby Jailyn when she was just a few weeks old, Spring of 2009 |
Sadly, two days after we came home from the second trip to LR, Jaret’s grandfather passed away due to complications from pneumonia that was exacerbated by the stress on his body from the injuries sustained in the car accident. Such a sweet, caring Godly man with the greatest smile and a witty sense of humor is greatly greatly missed every day, but we find comfort in knowing that he’s not in any more pain. His death has been particularly hard for Jaret, who viewed him more as a father figure than a grandfather, and I know he misses him so much.
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| Grandpa with Baby Jack this spring. |
- Jaret and I have made a conscious effort to have MORE FUN
together… as in, not working EVERY WEEKEND for him and not starting 1,462 new
projects every weekend for me. I am proud to say we’ve done pretty well! We’ve
taken a couple of little road trips here and there, including a trip to the LR
Zoo, a weekend in Dallas with his sister and her family in August, a weekend
away (with no munchkins!) in Eureka Springs in September, we FINALLY took the
kids to a pumpkin patch for the first time this October! …And we’ve got some
plans in mind for the rest of the year too!
- Jaret also wins the Husband of the Year award for letting
me go on a girl’s weekend away to Tulsa in September with 7 of the sweetest
friends of mine to do some shopping, eating and to see Luke Bryan in concert.
We had a blast! Luke puts on a great show, and that time with just my friends
(with no kids, husbands/boyfriends, etc.) was priceless to my heart and
rejuvenated me in huge ways! It also made me miss my sweet J-babies and realize
again (as I do daily!) how fortunate I am to have a sweet family to come home
to at the end of every day, every trip, etc. They have my whole heart! And I
came home to find that my house was still intact (albeit quite messy) and all
three kids were fed (mostly pizza and Gatorade), running around naked (as is
the norm in our house on the weekends, so by no fault of Jaret’s) and happy
(aaaaand spoiled) because they’d had so much fun with their daddy while Mom was
away. Who knows how much Dr. Pepper was consumed by Jaret that weekend… and I
probably shouldn’t try to find out! Ha!
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| En route! Tulsa Takeover 2013! |
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| Joe's Crab Shack for dinner with these beautiful ladies! |
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| Outside of the BOK Center... Ready for Luke!! |
- My Jordykins turned 3 years old a few weeks ago and
my sister-in-law came up from Dallas with three of my nieces to celebrate with
us! We had so much fun with them that weekend, visiting and playing, went to
the pumpkin patch (again! I needed more pumpkins for party decorations!), ran
countless circles around Mimi and Grandpa Bobby’s house “catching butterflies”
(no butterflies were harmed because the girls couldn’t quit giggling long
enough to catch any), and eating lots of yummy food! Family in town = good
excuse to cook big southern family-style meals!
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| The Big Girls enjoying their Ice Dream cones at Chicfila. |
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| This is my little buddy! She LOOOVES Aunt "Manna"! |
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| Oy, this girl. Cracks me up! |
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| Sweet Miss Rylee |
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| Jaibugster |
So now here we are, halfway done with November, and I’m in
disbelief.
This little guy is TEN MONTHS OLD…. Seems impossible! I know the
next two months will fly by with the holidays approaching, and before I know
it January will be here and my last J-baby will be a one-year-old. I’m already
stockpiling the Kleenexes now.
I try REALLY REALLY REALLY hard to keep up with this blog…
and then it just falls to the very bottom of the priority list every week. If
you knew the number of half-written blog entries I have saved in various
places, you’d laugh. Or cringe. I’ll try so much harder, I promise!
Until next time!
