Stomach bug, house & photography

Yes, you read correctly....stomach bug. It has wiped me out. I think Rick's had a mild version (to me it seems mild.) I've been doubling his trips to the potty and his lasted a couple days while I'm definitely on day 5. I'm not going to complain for the whole post though, everything else is going pretty good for us.

The house is 99% finished and our loan is being processed. Closing date is set for March 17, if everything goes according to plan. Here are some of the latest pics.




I'm gonna be cooking lots of yummy stuff in here!

I love the trim and the doors!

My photography has really seemed to pick up lately. I really feel like that is what God wants me to be doing. He's made it quite obvious recently. I've had lots of interest from the bridal show (Feb. 21) and from weddings I did last year. It's really exciting. It's my dream and...the more photography I can do, the longer I can stay home with my boy.

Speaking of the boy, I guess I couldn't write without mentioning him. He's been an angel lately. I mean we still have non-stop craziness at our house and toys, blankies, etc. strung out all over the house, but that's normal I guess. I found a toothbrush in my drawer the other day when I was looking for my shorts. :) He has been the sweetest thing lately. He's in a very attached phase right now. With both me and Rick. He kind of has a melt down when either of us leave (not easy- Rick leaves every morning.) He's also addicted to his blankies! Every time we go to bed/nap, he gets to pick out a blankie from his massive collection. He usually picks 3. He will lay his head down on my shoulder, but only after I drape his blankies on me. He will then pat my arm if I haven't started patting him yet. When he wakes up, he cannot wait to get OUT, but not until he hands me all 3 blankies. We walk around with them for a little, then find toys to play with instead.

Our New House

2 posts in one day!

So we went by the house today, O my goodness! We go almost daily now because we love to see how it's coming along. The builder is incredible. He's got it together. The house is always bustling with contractors. It is almost finished. Yesterday the driveway and sidewalks were completed, today they were laying sod, and clearing out the surrounding lots (he's building other houses on the culdesac). I almost cried walking up to the house. I'm so happy I can hardly stand it. I may be crazy, but this is the most calm I've ever felt about anything in my life and it's one of the biggest purchases we'll ever make. I just feel like God has lead us here. There have been so many things that have just seemed to "fall into place." It's really a blessing and we pray with this house as we always do that it will be a place where God is praised and glorified by all who enter.

Coupon Mama

So I kind of have fetish or an obsession with saving money! I love to get our everyday items and groceries cheaper than the retail value... a lot cheaper! I did some coupon-ing in Marietta because it was easy. My favorite stores, Kroger & Publix were less than a mile from our house and we had the awesome coupon-packed ajc available every Sunday, as well as 2 separate newspapers thrown in our yard each week.

I thought those days were over when I moved to Troy. Not many good coupons and not as easy to get them, but I wasn't looking in the right places. Thanks to some coupon-fanatics online, I have found lots of good deals lately.

Yesterday, I went to CVS, coupons and their weekly ad in hand. I signed up for a CVS card and took it to their little coupon center in the store to scan it and out pops a $5 off $15 purchase. That sure came in handy. The trick is to buy ONLY the things on sale and ONLY when you have a coupon and STOCK UP! You won't be able to do this all the time, but most of the time you can. I have decided to set a budget for each week and hit the stores for the deals. Back to CVS, I ended up with:

4 boxes of cereal (2 lg. cherrios & 2 cinnamon toast crunch)
2 boxes of puffs tissues
1 tube of colgate toothpaste
1 olay body wash
2 olay facial cleansers

for free, yes FREE!
My total was $17 (I have a $15 rebate for the olay & $2 ECbucks to use at CVS next time)
I had a coupon on every item, the $15 rebate from olay, my coupon from CVS and the ECbucks.

This was my best trip yet. I've had some good days at the grocery store, but none like this. I think my total should have been somewhere around $40.

This does take a lot of time, but there are blogs out there that can save a lot of that for you. They do all the work. Here are some of my favorites:

http://www.southernsavers.com/
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/
http://www.coupontom.com/
http://www.afullcup.com/

Happy coupon-ing!

Lauren

Wow! What a weekend!

This past weekend was really awesome, but crazy at the same time. Friday am we left for Marietta to deliver some supplies for a container East Cobb is shipping to Haiti. We had a car FULL of stuff Collegedale had collected (and all we took was a duffle bag.) We got to see the youth from EC as they were pulling out for winterfest. It seems like it's been forever since we've seen them. It was bitter sweet once again. We then went to unload. EC was using an apartment to house this incredible operation. They had a place for everything...and it was overflowing. They were on the second container and looking for a third. I think God surprised us all with the response.

Friday night we went to eat with friends at one of our favorite restaurants and had a great time catching up. We had to hustle back Saturday to set up for my bridal show the next day. I went all out on the show. We built a fence for my backdrop because I wanted it to have a rustic feel. It turned out just like I had hoped thanks to my handy husband, Anna Lauson (one of our students and my savior over the past week), and my mom who always bails me out. I hope it was successful. The show didn't generate quite the crowd I thought it would, but I still got some great photography contacts and talked with a lot of brides.

Rick had Benjamin duty all day Sunday (which is the most difficult day). He has class, leads worship and just lots to do anyway, so he was quite the super daddy.

Today has been my day to recoup. I have rested, sat on the couch and painted with Benjamin. I bought some paint and canvases because it was on sale at Michael's last week and I thought it would be a fun project for us. I hadn't planned on doing that today, but he found it in the bag, so we did. He had so much fun. He would get so excited every time we opened up a new color of paint. I'm thinking that it's a good way to teach him colors too, later on. He was trying to say the names of them. Doubt he's getting the entire concept, but he was enjoying it.




I'm LOVING the weather today! It's gorgeous and feels great outside. I'm hoping to get all my laundry done today, b/c the machines are in the carport. Not a big fan of freezing every time we do a load, but I hate to complain. People in some parts of the world have neither washing machines or clothes, so we're quite blessed.

Our house! For those who don't know....We are buying a house. It's totally been a God thing! We found a great one being built. We got to pick out much of the colors, etc. We go almost everyday to check on the progress. I'll post some pics. It's really coming together quickly so hopefully we'll be in soon.



We're counting our blessings!
Love to all,
Lauren

Long time no see!

Ok, my last post was nearly 3 months ago. I really thought I could stay with this whole blogging thing but I guess not. I'm going to try to do better though.

The last week has been crazy fun. We had about 6, yes 6 inches of snow on Friday! Maybe a little sad, but that's the most snow I've seen in my life. It was so much fun. Benjamin thought it was pretty when he was being held, but in it, he wasn't a fan. You would have thought his feet were glued to the ground. He wouldn't move. It was funny.

Benjamin's not been feeling so hot these days which has worn us all out. He had a double ear infection and a tooth coming in. I feel bad that he's a little under the weather, but he's super dramatic. Everything is the end of the world. Yesterday he screamed and cried for 20 min.+ because it was time to put the toothbrush up. Today he wanted the sugar cookies I was making for the Heart Assoc. Bake Sale. Really bad. It was another break down. His crankiness is multiplied by the fact that he's not sleeping well. He wakes up an hour and a half earlier than usual and isn't napping. So I have resided to keep him on tylenol (every 4 hours) till he's better. Hopefully we will be over it soon.

I am stressfully preparing for a bridal show this Sunday afternoon. It's my first and I'm kind of going all out with my booth. Hopefully brides will be so blown away they'll immediately sign up for me to photograph their weddings. :) We'll see. I'm really getting excited. Maybe I can chill and enjoy it.

That's all for now, gotta watch Lost! Enjoy the pics. Check out the flakes on Benjamin's eye lashes!

I'll post pics soon!

The silly Blogger site is against me posting pictures! I've been trying for 3 forevers and nothing! I'll get them up soon. There are some great ones of Benjamin at the game.

Saturday was a blast....Sunday, not so much.

So a lot has happened in the last couple days. Saturday (game day) was a blast. We tailgated inside so I didn't have to worry about Benjamin playing with the cars. :) The rain held off and we were able to go to the game, and Benjamin LOVED it! It was the first time he has been old enough to really enjoy it. He loved the crowd, his shaker, shouting "Let's Go!", the band, the fireworks, everything. It was neat to watch through his eyes.

We had a great time at the game too. It always helps when you win. We walked in right at game time and found field level seats on the 50. Only in Troy. Some of our best friends from college came up for the game so we enjoyed getting to spend time with them.

Sunday....O Sunday. I woke up really feeling awful. I was super dizzy, like could hardly put one foot in front of the other. It was one of the worst feelings I've ever had. Every time I moved, the room started spinning. I stayed on the couch much of the day, then finally decided I didn't want to feel like that anymore and went to an after-hours clinic. Apparently, I had a sinus infection that threw my equilibrium off. Who knew? I had no symptoms of sinus trouble at all, but doc said I was pretty conjested. Anyway, I got my meds and am feeling 100% better.

I went to worship on Sunday night. Let's just say Benjamin hasn't quite gotten accustomed to worship/nursery here yet. He's too busy and restless to sit in church the whole time and screams to the heavens when I leave him in the nursery. He went through a phase of this at East Cobb too, but he was practically raised there. When Rick and I were working on something, Benjamin would take naps in the nursery. He walked around like he owned the place. I know he'll get more familiar with it with time, but it makes for "interesting" worship services until then. In an hour, he managed to toss everything we owned (and some we didn't) onto the pew in front of us, wave at everyone sitting behind us, get up and down out of my lap (and Rick's) about 300 times and even shout "Let's Go!" a few times. And I wonder why I can't remember what the sermon was about!

We are getting ready to go to Nana's in Valdosta, GA, for Thanksgiving. Suitcases are really getting old, but it will be great to see everyone and catch up. I love Thanksgiving! It's a reminder to thank God for everything, and I need reminding. We are so blessed!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Game day!

Today is game day in Troy. No, it's not as big as Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, etc., but it's big in Troy. Today may be a little different though. Most of the college students have gone home because they are off for the entire week of Thanksgiving and the weather is yucky. Game days will be different for us from now on. In the past we would come and go to the student center and catch up with friends while we ate a hamburger. Now we will be setting up and running the parking (fundraiser) and tailgating. We will have help, I'm sure, and it's fun, but also lots of work. I'm kinda wishing Benjamin would still fit in the baby carrier at this point. The CSC is on the corner of the major intersection at the entrance of campus, which makes me a little nervous with all the game day traffic.

Well, we are about to head out and run errands and get going on our duties. I'll try to find my camera and put up some pics!

Have a great Saturday!

Where are our shoes???

We have stuff everywhere... most of it is in Mobile Attic storage units in Montgomery, AL, some of it is in the storage building at the CSC, some in the devo room, some in the back room, some in Rick's office at the church (it's actually the only thing that has found it's new home), some at Betty's inside and some outside in storage. It's crazy! We'll never round everything up. One thing we haven't found until tonight, was our box of shoes. They finally turned up, but until then, Rick and I had 3 pair between the two of us. Rick only had tennis shoes and I had tennis shoes and a nice pair of brown shoes. It was pretty funny, but it did make me thankful for any shoes at all, as I realize there are many in the world without any.

Benjamin's all off! He's having a little bit of trouble adjusting to central time. He's waking up early, but today took two 3-hour naps! Strange boy. He hasn't been eating well for a while, but tonight he was chowing down at our favorite restaurant in the world...Sisters. His little belly was soooo full. He even had mashed potatoes in his eyelashes!

Didn't do much today...but gotta get cracking tonight on some wedding books!

We made it!

So sorry I haven't updated this in FOREVER! But I thought now would be a good time to get back to it.

Yes, we made it. It was a rough move day though. Mostly because we have too much stuff, and I wanted to take all of it! We filled all 26 ft. of the moving truck from bottom to top. When we got to the back of the truck, Rick told me to start picking our my favorite things, because all of it wasn’t going to fit. I had to hold the stuff in while Rick closed the door, and I'm pretty sure it fell out when they opened it. We definitely overestimated ourselves. We thought we could get it all done in time, but we were still doing some last minute packing even on move day. It has been "interesting" moving with a one year old. Benjamin had twice as much stuff as me and Rick put together. He also makes packing way more fun/difficult. Benjamin wanted to see/be with me or Rick all day, and play with anything not taped up, but he did get two awesome naps which were pretty critical. He loves remotes and had gotten into our "comcast" box...he came out squeezing all four remotes to his chest. It was hilarious. He would drop one and reach down to pick it up, dropping another.... Right before we walked out, he decided to try to fly down the stairs...not quite landing it. So we had a little scream fest and said goodbye to our house. We were in it almost two years, but have so many memories there.

Our house here is not quite ready, so we had to store most of our things and we are staying with our awesome friend, Betty. She had the best toy closet and has already won Benjamin over. Tuesday Rick went to unload our things in storage and Benjamin and I ate, slept, bathed and that's about it. It was nice to relax. It's been a while since that has happened. And I got to play some volleyball that night and hang out with a few of the college students for a while, which I was pretty fun.

Thanks to East Cobb for everything! The past weekend was one of my favorites! Throwing frozen turkeys around with the youth and the best send-off party ever, that concluded with Hallie being baptized! She actually texted us during the lunch, which was a first, but I love it! That's her way and that works for me. We had been studying together and she knew it so no one hesitated when she brought it up....we knew she was ready and we are soooo proud of her.

I hated to leave and I will miss it very much, but I had such a peace about it after Sunday, because I really felt like God used us in an incredible way, and I’m humbled by His power...He didn’t have much to work with. :)

We are jumping right in here. Rick was at devo last Monday night. Wednesday he went midday manna (a devo at the trojan center) and we cooked for a thanksgiving dinner at the church. I made dressing (a first for me), but it turned out pretty good. We're excited to get to know the students better and get going.

Thank you for all your love and prayers.