Elanor's Endeavors

Ella is growing up too fast. I cannot believe she is already 6 months old. Where has the time gone?

She is trying really hard to sit up by herself. It is cute how serious she gets when she is practicing.

She truly has found her voice. She tries to outdo us when we are having conversations.

She sleeps through the night now. She finally gained enough weight so I could drop her late night feeding.

She is very observant. She notices EVERYTHING!

She loves playing with her feet. The first thing she does when she wakes up is smile and grab her them.

She hates oatmeal and applesauce, at least her first tastes of them.

She is definitely teething, but no teeth yet. Just lots of drooling and chewing on everything.

Ella is such a great baby! Overall, very happy and all smiles! 

Pack Up the Kids! We Got a Van!

Having two kids in our small Chevy Cavalier was just not happening. After packing up to go to my parent's house a couple of times, we realized we have no room. We need a bigger car.

I know some people are opposed to getting that "soccer mom" van, but I really wanted one. I wanted the space for groceries and my large Sam's orders. And for luggage. I wanted more room so that others could actually ride with me if a situation came about and that would be needed. No SUV would cut it. I needed a van.

I wanted lots of space in the trunk area and I really wanted 8 seats. I thought the 8 seats thing was probably more on the not going to happen side of things, but I was hopeful. I also wanted the doors that open by themselves. 

After looking at tons, I MEAN TONS, of vans I finally found THE ONE. Now, some of you may say that there is not just one van for you, but seriously this van had everything I was looking for in my realistic mind. (I knew how much we were going to be able to spend and I knew what I was going to be able to get for that price.)

We settled on an '01 Pontiac Montana with 80,000 miles on it. It only had 1 owner prior to us and she took great care of it. It has the latch system which is a huge plus and front wheel drive. It has the 8 seats (YES!) and the back seats roll forward to produce more space in the back for hauling stuff. It has one automatic door and lots of compartments for all the things that I want to store. 

I want to publicly thank my hubby for driving an hour and a half away to go with me to get it and for my lovely mother-in-law for watching our girls so that we did not have to take them with us!

Welcome to the family, Monty!

Mema and Pepa

Prayer warriors. Loving grandparents. Close friends.

Mema and Pepa are exactly that.

My family (being Mom, Dad, Michael and me) found ourselves without any other family around when Mema and Pepa entered our lives about 20 years ago. I have never known a couple to just take in a family and love on them the way that they have us. They quickly accepted us as family, calling my brother and I their grandkids since they at the time had none. 

My favorite memories involve staying at their house for a weekend. We had special bears that they gave us to sleep with. Mema would always cook our favorite meals and Pepa would tease us about what tv shows we liked.  Over meals they would ask us about our relationships with God and talk to us about our dreams for the future. They would read the Bible with us and pray with us after the conversation. 

Mema would take us out to eat. I remember this one time when we were driving through Central Park (much like a Rally's) and Mema asked the drive-thru attendant, "Now those burgers will be fresh right?" Then, she was appalled that I thought they might spit in our food for her asking that. She was such a trooper though because we always took her to the greasiest, dirtiest places and she never complained.

Mema and Pepa are family. They have been there for our birthdays and for holidays.  (Mom and Dad would hide our presents at their house.) They have been there for the bad days. I remember going to their house when I was sick with a stomach flu once that I had gotten at camp and they took care of me while Mom and Dad were at work.  The have been there for the good days. They came to and were a part of my wedding and Michael's wedding. (They even threw me a wedding shower though I had not lived near them in a long time.)

Mema and Pepa are still very important to me to this day.  I do not get to see them nearly as often as I would like, but I am thankful to have them in my life even just through conversations and letters. They take Adam in on occasion when he travels there on business and always cook tons of food for him. (Mema is one of the best cooks I know and Adam always comes home raving about the food!)

I hope one day when my kids are grown and out on their own that Adam and I can take on a young family like that and be to them what Mema and Pepa are to us.

Family.

Important People

I have been thinking about the people in my life and how some have made such a huge impact. I have decided to blog about some of these individuals and tell my story of how they came into my life and how our relationship developed.

Keep an eye out for them.

You might be someone I choose to write about. :) 

Intentional Living

I posted briefly a while back about the Bible Study I was taking called Intentional Living. Talk about an overload of information... it was such a great class and I learned a ton, but being pregnant and having a toddler to chase made me super exhausted and very difficult to implement the things that I was learning. After Ella was born, I still found myself completely worn out and tired and unable to live intentionally. Thankfully though, the girls are finally sleeping through the night and I have been able to "turn a new leaf".

In this class, Alyssa talked about having a "Personal Retreat Day" where you spend the whole day reflecting on your life and ways to make it more intentional and focused on God. When she first started talking about it I kept thinking, "Yeah, right. Have you seen my busy life? There is just NO TIME to give up a whole day!" Now that I have had some rest and have my head out of the clouds I have finally been able to set up a time to have my PRD. It will only be a couple of hours, but it will be a start.

Let me tell you more about the focusing part. I missed the day that she talked about the rocks in our life, but she explained it a little in the next session so I quickly caught up. The rocks in our life are the big things that are important to us. A few of mine are family, friends, and ministry. These rocks are called Key Result Areas or KRA's. There is so much to say about these and if you would like to know more, I would be happy to send you my notes and an example of what one looks like.

I am rambling on so I will tie this up. I am super excited to finally be able to take this time to work on my relationship with God, my KRA's, and have some time to myself to make my life more intentional.