Quick Life Update

Hello Everyone!!!

So, I apologize, I obviously haven't kept up with the blog and I may or may not keep writing more posts??

But here's a quick update on things. First, I finished the internship, Jarred and I had a whirlwind month (he was the busiest he has been all year with work, I was studying like a mad man, we were packing, we had company, we moved, I took my test and officially became and RD(N), started my job) and then we got a "break" as we traveled to MO for some very important weddings! So yes, very busy month of July for us!!!

As I said, Jarred has been super busy with work. He is, unfortunately, going to be traveling back to VA for two months during September and October. I won't lie, it's going to pretty much suck without him here but I'm so thankful God has provided him with a job and has allowed him to work from home for the past year!! Also very thankful that I will have some roomies to help me and Kinsley out while daddy's gone :-)

I've been busy with work as well. Last week was my first official week and it was wonderful!! However, I'm still kind of in the student mentality and I keep expecting my boss to come in one day and say, "Let's review your notes". But my boss and coworkers are all awesome and I'm SOOO thankful for my job! Also incredibly thankful that I work 4-10s!!!

Update on Kinsley... she's 6 months old, has two teeth and currently taking a nap! Check out her pics: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g97j4tn8sjni9t7/s6ilSxzZPb

Please pray with us as Jarred is traveling/gone and as we search for a new church home in a new city.

June 12; June 13; June 14

On June 12, 2012 I peed on a stick that would change our lives forever.

Ironically, the weekend before we found out we were preggers, we saw the movie "What to expect when you're expecting." And I told Jarred, "Tomorrow I'm going to pee on a stick."

When I peed on the stick, it turned positive immediately but the directions say to wait 3-5 minutes so I thought maybe it would un-turn positive...it didn't. I was totally and completely terrified. I thought for sure Jarred would be so mad, I didn't know how he would react. Really truly, I was shaking in fear.

Well, here's the cool part of the story. Because I had told Jarred I was going to take the test, he had actually prayed for God to give him peace about the situation and the ability to react appropriately. So I called Jarred while he was on lunch break and told him the news and he was totally chill and completely amazing. I was in tears, borderline hysterical and Jarred just said, "It's ok, I'll come home right now if you want me to." God is good!

An even cooler part of the story is that June 13, 2008 is the day I entered treatment for anorexia. I wasn't really sure how easily I would ever become pregnant but hot dang, I got preggers pretty easily! ha! Such a miracle!!!

And an even cooler part of the story, on June 14, 2013, Kinsley turned 4 months old :-) She's my miracle baby!!

P.S. I did a blog-writing rampage a few weeks ago so that I could publish them whenever I had the chance so these are slightly old :-) Also, today was my first official day of full-blown studying for the RD exam so please be praying for Jarred and I during this time of busyness and change!

She's cute

Little Miss Rae is so precious! She is always doing more and more things that just melt my heart!!!

Here, Kinsley is practicing her rolling skills. She is trying to roll over on her playmat but got a little finagled...and she looks guilty...she probs just pooped.

Here, Kinsley and I are posing before I go to work. Me oh my she is so precious!! Super big thanks to Megan for the adorable bow!!!

Here, Kinsley kicked me out of my chair - she took ownership of the couch and wanted to hang out with dad.

In the previous three pics, Kinsley is slightly less than three months old. Here is a picture from her actual three month birthday :-)

And as a response to my last blog post - we will be moving to Phoenix for my new job. I start training at the end of July and then officially start mid august after some very important family weddings :-) Please be praying for us as we'll be moving, looking for places to live and trying to decide the best way to care for Kinsley (she'll be so big by then that we're anticipating Jarred won't be able to handle her and work!)

Oh, I also officially graduated from the internship today :-)

On the Hunt

Let's see...several weeks ago (because I'm that behind...it may even be like months ago now...) I started the job hunt. Actually, Jarred started my job hunt. He kept asking me, "When are you going to apply for jobs." I said, "Hm, let's see...sometime between working all day, feeding baby, washing bottles, doing laundry, cooking dinner..." So I semi-jokingly said, "Why don't you apply for me?" The next day I got home from work and Jarred said, "I started applying for some jobs, but I need more information. Dietitian applications are way more difficult than engineer applications!" So, I think he applied for like 35 jobs in a week.

Praise the Lord, the very next week I had three interviews!! One was with an eating disorder treatment facility, another as a pediatric dietitian and the third was with a private practice/consulting firm. The last two interviews were on Friday and Saturday of that week in the Phoenix area so we made a quick trip of it!

We drove to Phoenix Friday morning before my first interview. Oh, let me tell you a quick story. Generally in the mornings I feed kinsley off one bosom and pump the other. Well, this particular Friday morning I decided not to pump the other bosom because I thought my nerves may get the best of my supply and then kinsley would go hungry. Well, that didn't happen... Soooo, I pumped (thank goodness for that back-up battery pack) in the car while Jarred was driving to phoenix... stay classy folks, stay classy...

Anywhos, so Friday's interview went well but I honestly didn't really care for the place; wasn't the right fit for me and I was really bummed because the job sounded so perfect on paper. So I went into Saturday's interview with very low expectations and came out of the interview wanting the job way more than I could have imagined!!! Thank the Lord, I received an offer and by golly I took it!!!

Other than interviewing we just drove around the area to get a feel for it and we also spent some time in Old Scottsdale.

Jarred really got into the spirit of Old Scottsdale

It was rather warm even though the sun was starting to set

Technically, Kinsley rolled over for the first time in our hotel room :-)

 

Me and the baby takin in the view from our hotel room!

When Jarred was Gone: Part II

The next week that Jarred was gone, grandma again watched kinsley monday-wednesday and then Megan came!!!!!!! I hadn't seen Megan in like a year - which is totally ridonc and WAY toooo long!!! It was just such an absolute blessing to see her - I can't even describe it!!!!!! Just seeing her was such a gift...but...she spoiled me and kinsley her entire stay!! She started spoiling us by making TONS of beautiful hair-bows for Kinsley and giving her some new clothes!

She then spoiled me on my birthday!!!!!!! She made the coolest crafty things ever!!! A "c" sign, three small states (MO, VA and AZ) for places jarred and I have lived and another framed saying talking about the joys of kiddos!

Oh, and we went shopping to spend some birthday money

no worries - everything was like 75% off :-)

And my hubby...sweet hubby... he wasn't sure if he would be back from VA in time for my birthday, so he had flowers delivered to our house. Flowers in the shape of a puppy!!!!!! He knows me too well!!

 

But, he did make it back in time and we celebrated my birthday by getting dessert from the cheesecake factory :-) yummo!!

 So even though I had so much help in watching Kinsley while Jarred was gone, those two weeks were really difficult for me! I had SOO much going on in the internship but I felt like I had to (and I really wanted to) spend time with my guests in the evenings. I wanted for them to all be able to relax in the evening after taking care of little miss all day, but I had so much to do for the internship...it was really, really hard to find a balance and I have to give soo many props to all single moms out there - I just don't know how they do it. But I tell you what, I praise God that I have such wonderful, loving, supportive family and friends to help me out!!

When Jarred was Gone

I haven't written a post in like 2 months so there's a lot of catching up to do...but we'll do it slowly :-)

Jarred made a trip back to VA right after Easter for two weeks. Kinsley was not very happy that daddy had to leave and she tried to convince him to stay by boycotting his suitcase...

Here's Miss Rae in her pretty little Easter dress!!

While he was gone, my grandma, mom and beautiful friend Megan helped me watch Kinsley during the day.

The first week he was gone, grandma watched Kins monday-wednesday and then mom got here!! She took a very flattering picture of little miss...

But, the real reason that mom came in was for grandma's 75th birthday!!! As part of her birthday, my grandpa treated grandma, my mom, my aunt and myself to pull mani-pedi's :-) haha...awkward pic of my feeties :-) haha!

Grandpa had scheduled a giant surprise party at the house for grandma so we partied all afternoon long. And the next day, we got some Applebees to celebrate more :-)

Fam adventures

Like I mentioned earlier, allllllllll of Jarred's family came to visit us a couple weeks ago!

First, Calen and Cameron came!! This was the first time we met Cameron so it was especially great to see them and get to hang out with them! We didn't do a whole lot because we knew it would become slightly chaotic when the whole fam got here. So we mostly just took it easy around the house. But, we did make a quick trip to Bisbee, which is an old mining town...see?? There's just a small remnant of the pit where they dug for the copper.

So after just driving by the pit, we headed to town. Mostly it's kind of a hippie town but there are tons of old shops with all kinds of fun stuff. Like this...check it out!!! I've never seen one of these before!!

So yes, if you didn't know it, I play the euphonium and that's why a double bell euphonium with five valves is so cool! After hitting up all the shops, we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was pretty good but the portions were small - especially for us tall folk!
 

 While Calen and Cameron were here we also went on a small walk through Sabino canyon.

Later, on Saturday, the whole fam went to sabino canyon and took a tour via bus of the place!

On friday, the whole fam was here and we went to Desert Museum. It's a "living museum" or something like that and Jarred almost stepped on a snake - a live snake that just casually slithered across the walking path!! YIKES!
After Desert Museum we went to El Corral steakhouse to celebrate Jarred and bethany's birthday, as well as mom and dad's anniversary.
This is the only pic I got from Friday's adventures...

After Calen, Cameron, Bethany, Drew and Sarah left just Mom, Dad and Hannah remained. So, we took another bus tour of Sabino canyon (Hannah was sick and dad stayed home with her). This time, I also joined in the fun with Miss Kinsley (it was really hot a few days and I didn't want to get her out too often! Plus, Kinsley had this MASSIVE spit up. I looked down and my child was covered in spit up shrapnel that completely soaked her clothes and even came out of her nose - so I wanted to keep her inside. It scared me half to death to see that spit up coming out of her nose!)
So here are picks of the canyon bus tour!

One day, I again stayed home with Kinsley while Jarred took the other three on a quick hike!

We also took Mom, dad and Hannah to Old Tombstone, but I didn't get away with any pics...except this one!! It's a gila monster at the Tombstone Reptile Museum :-)

But, we rounded out their stay by eating at The Lodge - Sasquatch Bar and Grill! ha!