11 Weeks

I thought I would share this little pic of the growing belly. I wish I would have taken one at 3 weeks when I first found out so that I had a good comparison, because when L.C. compared week 10 to week 11 he asked me if I had my belly pushed out! I don't think I did, but you be the judge!!! Oh... and I know, I know... I need to smile!

5th Birthday--Pony Party

Tonight Pheoby was telling me about a conversation she had with her good friend Mia at school today. She mentioned very casually that she told Mia about her Rainbow and Pony parties. I, shocked, responded that I didn't know she was planning on having a pony party. She said, "Yup! When I am 5!" So there ya go... I guess we have a planner on our hands! I will be really impressed if we really do have a pony party when she turns 5. That is committment!!!

Pheoby's Rainbow Birthday

Last February we painted Pheoby's bedroom purple for her birthday. She loved it and I guess she figured it would become a tradition to change things up a bit. The other day she decided she wanted to paint her room like a rainbow for her 4th birthday! I kindly explained to her that we won't be painting her room for each birthday, but that perhaps we could put some rainbow stuff in her room. She liked that idea. The idea quickly grew and within days we had a whole plan for her birthday. She has requested a rainbow cake. And the other day she asked me to show her on the calender how long before it would be her "Rainbow Birthday." Too cute, huh?!?!?

Going to work

Well... after about a year and a half of considering a return to the workforce the seemingly perfect opportunity has presented itself in this time of major transition in our lives. I am really excited about it though. I will be reporting to work at Behavioral Health Services in Pickens County in the morning. It is a full time counseling position that I don't know a whole lot about quite yet. I am sure I will be able to share more about it later in the week. It is a full time position and I am surprisingly excited about it. It will be so good for our family to have the extra finances to throw at some things that have been looming over us for a while. I also believe that it is going to be really good for me personally and professionally to get back out there and involved in what I love to do. It is pretty exciting to me, too, that they will be investing in some training for me. In order to work there you have to become a Certified Addictions Counselor. I am really excited about diving in a little deeper in my education. And who knows... perhaps this will inspire me to head back to school to work on my Masters! That could be very exciting!!!

Pray for #2!

Whelp... it is official!!!

Baby #2 is due early 2008!

Please pray with all your might that this little one continues to grow healthy and strong. We are really early in making the announcement because I want this baby (and its mommy) to be covered in prayer through this pregnancy. We had some scary stuff happen 4 years ago; it is scary to think of how fragile pregnancy is. What is reassuring to me, though, is that God's plan will come to be.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." What a great promise.

So... with that said.... let's celebrate the life that is growing, for that life does bring me hope regardless of what the future holds!

Another new downline!!!

I got notice today that I have another new downline with Close To My Heart! I am so excited!!! I haven't checked to see when I get a promotion, but it has to be soon! There are now 9 ladies in my unit (including me) and it is sooooo fun! If I can ever get MSN groups to allow new member invitations I may just open up a unit web board. Hmm.... Come on MSN!!!!

Back to the gym!

Well... I made it! After a 9 day hiatus (which sounds so much better than 9 days of laziness) I made it back to the gym!! And boy oh boy did I love it! It was amazing to push myself.

I did the weight loss course on the elliptical. I missed my goal of 5000 strides in 30 minutes, but only by a few strides. I am not sure how much extra time it took, but it couldn't have been 45 seconds that I had to work extra to get to 5000. I burned about 375 calories and went 3 miles. That was GREAT!

I have known for a long time that I work best with small challenges. I guess if I was a runner I would be a sprinter. So... instead of trying to pace myself for the whole 5000 I broke it up into little segments. Before today I don't think I got up to 200 strides/minute very often, if I did at all. But I am happy to say I stayed between 200 and 220 per minute for a lot of the workout today. And every time I reached one of my little mini goals it just pumped me up more! It was very exciting!!!

Man, oh man... I really want to lose 3 lbs this week, but I haven't been that good. If I stay pretty serious tonight and tomorrow I could do it! We will see on Saturday when I weigh in. I guess I will be happy with a 2 lb. loss, but if lose under two pounds I will be discouraged. Not because life (or the program) isn't fair, but because I didn't focus and work to meet my goal.

The good news is that I made it to the gym today and I feel really good about what I did. So I know that I know that I know that I will meet my weight loss goal next week for sure!! I am back on the horse and I don't have any reason to get back off! I wonder why I got off for 9 days? Hmm... something to ponder.

Church was AWESOME!!!

Church was AWESOME yesterday at Foothills! The topic was Risk. What a great lesson! It is always great to be challenged to drop everything and immediately follow Christ. We had a very New Testament Church kind of service yesterday. They brought a pool in and had spontanious baptisms for people who heard the message, believed and wanted to be baptized. It was so awesome. There were 28 people baptized in our service and 12 in the first service. I haven't heard the numbers from the 3rd and 4th services. I wouldn't be surprised if the total number climbed to 80 by the end of the day. What a blessing it is to go to such an alive church. Thank you God for the opportunity to see you move through that place yesterday!

****Final reports state that 110 people were baptized at Foothills that day!!! There is now a video on the church's website. www.foothillscc.org

I DID IT!!!

I did it!!! I made my 10 pound goal! I didn't make it in the time that I wanted to. I pretty much fell off the "write it down" bandwagon. With Weight Watchers you really need to write down everything you eat during the day in order to make great progress. Well... I haven't written anything down in the last month almost. Reaching this goal motivates me to "write it down" this week. If I do really well in the next 3 weeks I can make my 17 pound, 10 percent goal by May 5th. That will be awesome!!! That puts me right around the lowest I got in my previous two times with WW. Any progress after that will be charting new territory! It will be great to be approaching my goal weight. Like a dream come true... only... I am not dreaming. It really is all about choices. And one of those choices may be to toss out that left over carrot cake!

Fun Pictures

It has been a fun time for candid shots around the house the last few days. I thought I would share them with you.

Pheoby has been eating Uncle Justin's venison sausage like it is going out of style. She really loves it and asked for it for lunch yesterday. She had sausage, grapes and chocolate milk. What more could a girl ask for? And yes... she is still in her pony jammies!

Today L.C. took Pheoby out to try out her new sidewalk paints. They looked like they were having such a great time.

And last but not least... we all forgot that this shirt needs to be unbuttoned before taking it off! She was so cute even before the camera came out. I didn't realize the middle shot caught her looking up at it until I posted it here. Too cute, huh?

Loving my CTMH business all over again!

I am really excited about the new growth in my Close To My Heart business again! (www.hayesydays.myctmh.com) It is funny the ebb and flow I have had with this since I signed up as a consultant three years ago. My pampered chef lady actually convinced me to look into direct sales. Bet she regrets that! ;o) I compared the two companies and decided that I should go with something that I really love and am passionate about. As much as I love my pampered chef stuff... you can only house so many stones and gadgets. Although I hear they have some fabulous cookware..... hmm.....

Oh! I was talking about CTMH, that's right! ;o) Being a consultant for CTMH was just what I needed to get me out of the house, get me focused on something other than being a SAHM. My business took off really quick! Within months I was having $1200 sales months. It was fun and exciting and I was well on track to my goal of paying for our mortgage with my CTMH income. How cool would that be?

Then when we moved to SC I had to start all over again as far as building customers goes. Thankfully I was able to leave my club girls in the hands of two new downline who signed up right before I left MI. I started getting really excited when business started picking up again. I had some more new consultants sign up which was very exciting for me, but that was also during a stressful time so I wasn't really working to keep my sales up.

Last month I got some motivation from somewhere. I am not sure exactly where it came from, but I must say that I am glad that it is here! We have a new Idea Book that goes live in a few weeks, I have girls asking about signing up to be a consultant with this great April Constant Campaign, I have a few parties booked, new girls are joining my Play Groups and I earned a substantial override commission this month! I can't wait to see where the rest of this journey takes me! Close To My Heart has provided me with lots of great opportunities, many new friends and a great reason to reconnect with some old friends. I am loving that I can work and do something that I am passionate about!

I have GOT to get moving!

Well... it is 12:18 and I have so much I want to do today! Pheoby is almost ready for her nap and I am hoping to GO, GO, GO while she is down. I need to do prep work for my Playgroup tonight (some girls are coming over to do some stamping and scrapbooking!) and I need to work on some cards for a swap that are due on Saturday. I am hoping to get them in the mail by tomorrow. I would also like to get this house cleaned completely. We will just see about that! Perhaps I will save my cleaning for when Pheoby is awake. With all that said I will get out of blogger mode and get crackin!

Unwinding

(Is that how you spell un-wine-ding?)

This is my first "normal" day since my company left and my daughter is back to school. I am at home alone and it is lovely! If there is one thing my stay-at-home-mom self loves it is my home all to myself just to unwind. I have always been this way, too. When Pheoby was a baby I didn't long to leave for a Wal*Mart trip on my own, but having L.C. offer to take Pheoby to a ball game for a couple hours was like a DREAM!

Anyway... here I am today, the house to myself, and I am loving the ability to think uninterrupted. I decided it would be a cleaning day since my house is a disaster. My bathroom hasn't been cleaned since before we went to MI in March and I can't tell you the last time my kitchen has been wiped down... oh, wait.... yeah I can. It was Friday before the Levitt's arrived.

So... I started with the cleaning. The bathrooms are done and the towels have been washed. I really wanted to have more done by now, but I have been dealing with other little odds and ends like postponing my haircut another 2 weeks, making a to-do list, calling Close To My Heart hostesses and stuff like that. And any time now I will be getting the call from Fran to head out to the gym. She will call me when she is leaving school and I will meet her there. My time is really limited! I better type fast and then squeeze in a couple more chores before I have to go!!

I wanted to report that I didn't reach my 10 lb weight loss goal yet. BUT!!! I will by Saturday which is my official weigh in day. I didn't go last weekend because things were just too crazy for me to add one more thing to the schedule. I did go today, though, and I have lost a total of 9.2 lbs! I am excited!!! This is going well! I am excited to see the pounds dropping! My next weight loss goal will be to lose X amount (to be determined later) by May 26th. That is the night that I have planned a Stu-Be (college dorm) Reunion Game Night. I figure this is a great goal because it was at the first Stu-Be Reunion that I looked at the pictures and wondered who the fat girl was! After that I decided that it was time to do something about this whole deal. So, Stu-Be Girls!!!! Be ready to compare pics! I am hoping that it will be enough weight to notice a significant change. We shall see!!!

Another thing I wanted to ramble about as I unwind is how much I LOVE my Bible Study group at Foothills! (www.foothillscc.org) It is amazing to be learning so many wonderful things about myself and about healthy living from this study and from my "classmates." It is amazing to see the relationships building amongst the group members. This is definately a HUGE answer to my prayers over the last several years! God has shepherded me through a lot of mountain tops and valleys and it is a wonderful thing to be sharing my life with such a great group! Growing pains feel so good!!!

Phew!!! Time for a nap!

What a wonderful weekend! My brother Andy, his wife Anna and their kids, Abigail & Miles, came in on Friday morning and left today. It was GREAT to have them come to stay with us, to catch up, to share our lives with them, to play some Nintendo Wii, to learn about how cool GPS units are, and to watch these CRAZY kids play with one another. It was a busy, fun filled weekend. We had a blast and can't wait for it to happen again!!!

We normally don't fru-fru up Miss Pheoby, but she got a beautiful dress from her Aunt Jabecca for her birthday that turned into an Easter dress. Pheoby LOVED it! And she looked soooo pretty. Here is proof!

You are NEVER gonna believe this!

Ok... so keep reading and I will give you ONE guess as to what I just did!!!

One more thing...

I really need to get to sleep! I am exhausted, but I just read a friend's blog where he referred to 23 years ago (he is my age) and I remembered something that happened to me yesterday that was pretty crazy.

I had to fill out a volunteer survey to work in the nursery at church. One of the questions on the form was when did you become a Christian. That was pretty easy. I was in ninth grade. I started going to the youth group first semester and that was when my life was changed. The CRAZINESS happened when I decided that I also wanted to document how many years I have been in this relationship with God. Well... it was 1990. I know that right off because I went with the youth group to Impact 90 and felt called to go on my first mission trip while there. So then it was time to do the math which you have probably already done.

SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO I was in 9th grade!!!! How CRAZY is that!

I am sure it wasn't really that long ago!!! I am sure of it!!!!!!!!

We are DONE!!!!

I haven't wanted to brag too much because I am a little scared, but I think we are finally done potty training! That was the LONGEST process of my life and probably Pheoby's, too! I am documenting this in blog-fashion partly to share this wonderful news with you, but also because one day way into my future I hope to have another child of potty-training age and I would like to pass along some perspective.

I once thought that Pheoby showing interest in potty training meant that she was ready to potty train. Um.... NO!

I once thought that if Pheoby could go 3-4 days with out an accident then we were nearing the end of the road. Um... NO!

I once thought that if you "train" a child using one of the gazillion methods of "training" that are out there that a child would "learn" the proper place for potty and put it there. Um... NO!

I once thought that consistency is key to dealing with ALL parenting issues. Um... NO! Consistency doesn't change a will/genetic predisposition.

I once thought that stickers could convince a child to do anything. Um... NO!

So to the Sarah-mom of the future I say this.....

DON"T POTTY "TRAIN" until you near the 3rd birthday. Oh... it may be fun for a 20 month old to sit on the potty and experience the sweet freedom of not having to sit in filth, but just because something is fun doesn't mean we want to/will choose to do it 8 times a day!!! My theory is that "training" is for goofballs who like to feel like failures! (Ok, so maybe I am a little emotionally extreme at 3 AM as I type this, but come on! It has been a long journey!)

Congratulations to my Sweet Pheoby for being such a responsible big girl who has not had an accident in weeks!!! I am sooooo proud of you! (And so thankful I can be a tad lazy in the name of helping you be independent and responsible since you can now handle the whole bathroom process all by your self!)

Darn it!

I had a long story all typed out the other day about an infestation of our home while we were in Michigan. Unfortunately when I tried to upload the pics I lost it. Sorry bout your luck... nothing fun to read here today!!! ;o)

~S

7 years: a great time to land

Next Sunday, the 25th, marks my 7th anniversary! It is hard to believe that we have gotten into these not-so-newlywed-numbers. Sometimes it seems like we are still very much newlyweds, but then when I stop to think about where we have been and what we have done in the past 7 years (10 years total!) it makes me realize we have covered a lot of ground.

We have lived in 2 different states, 6 different cities and 8 different homes since we got married. We have had 10 different jobs together, not including the most honorable job of all... parent. Yeah, thinking of all this really puts into perspective that we really have been married for a long time. And these 7 years of marriage have added so much to our journey.

It seems that from the very beginning we have been working toward a goal of "getting somewhere." For instance, when we were first married we wanted desperately to return to Michigan to be close to my family. That was years of the process. Then God did a work in my heart that I never expected and called us back to South Carolina. (What a process that was! I always said I would NEVER leave Michigan again unless I was perfectly clear that it was in God's plan for me and my family. I praise Him for working in me and showing me gently what His will was.) Once we arrived to SC the journey involved "resting & waiting" for God to direct us to the place, town, home where we should settle. And there's another year in the record books. Finally, as of last summer's relocation to Liberty, it seems we have landed!

Oh, the journey hasn't ended... I guess to make it clear I will use an analogy. (My husband taught me this art of analogy early on in our dating!) I will compare our first 7 years of marriage to an Orlando vacation. We were in one park riding several different rides for a while. Eventually, due to many factors (timeline, goals, priorities), when it was time to move to the next park we were excited to have the unique experiences the next park could offer. After years of park-hopping, it seems that we have landed in one place. We liked the entire Orlando experience, but we have decided upon a favorite park in which we will spend most of our time. There is something very refreshing about choosing a favorite**. It is as if choosing a favorite and speaking it with confidence helps me to know who I am a little better. What a relief to know myself!

It is nice to be settling into a life that I can be confident will remain mostly stable for quite a while. Narrowing down our preferences has helped us to focus on things we haven't been able to focus on in the first several years of marriage. Trying to get to the next place was always such a huge focus that we sacrificed some other things that were also important to us. I am enjoying switching the focus from trying to arrive to living the life. A lot of life was lived while we were trying to arrive, but a lot of life was missed, too. What a journey.

Here is a little extra tidbit that I included mostly just to document some great growth, but I will share it with you because you seem so interested! rofl

**Favorites are something very new to me. For as long as I can remember, I was uncomfortable choosing a favorite drink, meal, color, friend or song/artist. It was very safe not to pick favorites. I didn't have to explain myself or defend my selection, I didn't have to butt heads with someone who liked something opposite, and most of all I wouldn't hurt anyones feelings by not picking the same favorite as them. I have learned that I attempt to earn worth through my choices, behaviors, and attidudes. Realizing that this is not a healthy way of living (because my worth comes through Christ and who He says I am) has released me to be able to be who I am without regard to how others percieve me.

And... just to excercize my use of favorites I changed to my favorite font color! ;o)

Here a blog, there a blog, every where a.....

I can't tell you how much I love reading my friend's blogs! I think it must be because I am such a relational person and I love to know lots of little tidbits from my friends lives that I may not get to share if it wasn't for their posts. Most of the blogs I read are from friends far away, but even if I lived close to them I think I would still love it! As I mentioned in my first post here, I think it only fair to share a little something back with anyone who cares to read. The only thing is that I have a hard time coming up with a main theme or focus point for my blog. I don't want it to be boring so that no one wants to read it! But, I suppose... if I don't make entries no one will read it either, huh? So... here I am... I am going to try my best to jot something in here a few times a week. I think it will be a good outlet for me. And I think in my though process while typing I just came up with a theme! The journey.

I have really felt in the last few months like God is drawing me closer to Him than I have been in a long time. I have had more clarity of mind to deal with some things that have been on my mind for a while. Because of that clarity I have had more zeal and passion to become healthier in many areas of life. L.C. and I joined the local rec center last month and I have been loving it! I also joined Weight Watchers again (for the 3rd time) and am pretty serious about this being the last time! I asked L.C. his opinion on what I should focus on at the gym to start with. He said cardio to drop the weight first. I am glad I have a smart husband!!! So I have been doing an hour at the gym several times a week. It actually feels good. I have never been an exercise lover, but I guess I discovered a passion for the accomplishment I feel from it now. It feels good knowing that I can run for 20 minutes!!! (I bet it will shock many of the people who know me well that I am loving to run!) Fran even got me on the elliptical twice this week and I am loving that. Thanks, Fran!

That was a long deal about the exercise portion of the journey, but hey... if I don't write you can't read, right? And if you can't read there will be little snippets of my life that you will miss out on, huh? ;o)

Oh... the main thing I wanted to post here is links to my favorite blogs! That would have stunk if I forgot, huh?

Dan's Bike Trip is a definite must! Dan was a great friend in college and a fellow RA (my favorite college job!!). He is currently on a bike trip across the nation to raise money and awareness for an orphanage in Mexico called Tapestries of Life. People in Croswell should recognize this as Steve Brewer's ministry. You can click on the following link to find out more about Dan's bike trip and to read his journal. It is pretty cool!!! http://wesleyanteens.com/dbt/

One of my very best friends, Tammy (Hurley) Williams, is gearing up for a big relocation to China. She and her husband (and their two little ones) are heading to China to learn Chinese at a university there. They have been working with international students at Michigan State University for 4 years and now it is their turn to be international students on someone else's turf. You can follow their journey at http://williamsinqinghai.blogspot.com/.