I had enough of this blog, especially when they started posting ads within my posts, so I have finally converted over to blogger. Hopefully I'll be posting a little more than I have been lately. Here's the new address:

http://afwifeadventure.blogspot.com/

I will likely be closing this blog. No need to keep it open really. I'll give it about a month.

Funny Videos of Z-Man

So, on Saturday, this guy at church was talking about the cool things God does. I think he called them "God Encounters." I've really been noticing how God works in my life lately, especially in the small areas. Here are two great examples.

Jon and I had talked and decided that if I went back to work, it would really help us out. Plus, prior to pregnancy and prior to birth, I had said that I would go back to work. Four months later and I still haven't. So, we make plans to start looking for daycare and a job. I even applied for a job that was available at a local Christian bookstore. So, then... Jon's job goes whack. It already is really stupid (6 days on, 4 days off, and every 2 days is different times- 5a to 1p, 1p to 9p, 9p to 5a). Well, they gave him EIGHT 12-hour shifts this month. Plus, there's all these other hang ups with his schedule of him not being able to get off for things he needs off We felt like this was one of God's ways of just closing the door for us and telling us no. So, instead, we sat down and re-budgeted, and wouldn't you know, if we live and spend like we're suppose to, we're making enough money for me to not need to work. God really is an awesome God and really does meet your needs like Matt 5 talks about. The greatest part? I really wasn't feeling at peace about going back to work, but I was willing to go back to help our family. However, now, I feel totally at peace. I NEVER thought I'd be a stay-at-home mom in a million years.

So then, this one seems silly, but hey, it's still a God thing. We use cloth diapers for the baby. However, I like to have some disposables on hand just in case. So last time I went to buy some, they were out of the smaller package, so I had to buy 80 diapers. I thought we'd never go through them. Then, this weekend, our washer started leaking. They came to look at it today and it's going to take up to a week to fix... and now I know why I could only buy the 80 pack of diapers.

God things are just too cool :)

So, tomorrow is our first anniversary (Holy cow!!!) so a couple from church watched Zach for us. He was great they said, and we were good parents. Didn't worry or fret or anything and took our time, didn't rush home to be with our baby, but enjoyed ourselves.

So... we went to this AWESOME restaurant. It was on top of a hill, looked out over the city. The calamari was sooo yummy! it was battered in cornmeal and tasted almost a little sweet with some kind of creamy dipping sauce. Then Jon had prime rib that was delicious and I had chicken scaloppine (chicken with mushrooms, capers and parsley). Then, we had told her it was our 1 yr anniversary, so she brought us this DELICIOUS cheesecake with raspberry and chocolate drizzled over it. It was so great and a neat experience.

Then... we went to the philharmonic symphony. It was a blast! We were in the very front row, so we saw the violins and everyone's shoes haha. They played some big band music, some opera selections- during which 2 opera singers came and sang. One really funny one was "the Cat Duet" Basically, they meowed back and forth, having a cat fight about which one was better, and purred up to the conductor. Then he had a water bottle and sprayed it on them. It was hilarious.

After that, we walked around downtown (safe to do around here!) and went to Pikes Perk, a coffee shop- way better than Starbucks, and sat there and talked about our dreams. What we thought about the past year, what do we want for the future as a couple and family, things like that. Yes, we've talked about it before, but sometimes it's good to go back over these things. All in all, we had a WONDERFUL evening. Now, we're going to go play Rummikub and call it a night soonish.

So, my new goal for the year was to just be a better housewife. I often get lazy and caught up in tv or other things. So, I've been trying really hard to get things done daily. I've been able to stay up on dishes and laundry, which really is a big feat. We've been doing a much better job at a daily quiet time. We're studying Isaiah. I've gotten several things done on my long-term to do list.

I also started planning menus for the week, so we hopefully (1) eat healthier instead of last minute meals and (2) stick to a budget better. So, we sat down yesterday and planned meals for about 3 weeks. Sadly, we actually had enough food in the house to do that.

Another thing we'd really wanted to do was to convert to cloth diapers, for many reasons. I finally got off my butt and ordered them. I've been staying on top of cleaning them, etc. and I'm LOVING cloth diapering. Jon and I also started doing a puzzle last night and that is a lot of fun together.

Anyway, I'm just really glad to feel like I'm staying on top of things.

A friend on a board that I participate on lost her baby today. She was 39 weeks pregnant. Please pray for D and her husband S, and their children. :*(

Just wanted to share a quick update about my brother, Bryan. He went home last week. He saw a neurologist through the base on Saturday. They said they did not want to know how much swelling was on his brain originally because it was so bad at that time, but it's just going to take time to go away. He has a hard time understanding people (when he called the other day, he handed his wife the phone b/c he couldn't understand us.)  He is also talking REALLY slow, especially for him. He's suppose to take it really easy, and his wife said he's trying to do more than he's suppose to, but thankfully, she knows how to be firm. But please continue to pray for them if you don't mind. They gave him 30 days leave at least, and it's just going to take time they said. His wife is also 17 weeks pregnant.  Thankfully this ordeal hasn't seemed to hurt the baby at all and she's still doing well.

As for the guy who did this, apparently, the DA decided NOT to press charges b/c as far as they're concerned, it's just a "drunken brawl" and there was "no criminal intent". My mom disagrees and feels it's the same as if someone was drinking and driving and injured or killed someone, they'd be charged w/ it even though there wasn't criminal intent (or something like that.)

So, they are talking to their attorney to press civil charges and they've heard the military will likely be pressing criminal charges (J says they really mostly will).

She also said that his skull was actually fractured in 2 places and that that was a good thing, b/c he was able to bleed out through the fractures. Otherwise, all the bleeding would have stayed in his brain causing awful consequences, so praise God for that. Thank you everyone for the many prayers.

I really need to make a list of the things I keep *meaning* to do but forget about. Figured I won't lose it here.

• Clean above laundry machine DONE
  
• clean machines
• clean out coat closest DONE
  
• start planning menus DONE
  
• rearrange Z's room
• dust den, Z's room and ours DONE
• Dust our dressers/night stands  DONE
  
• clean our closet
• keep up ordering pics
• organize scrapbook stuff
• work on albums
• dust hanging stuff in house
• put bdays on calendar DONE
  
• put recipes in an easy to use notebook

I'm sure I'll add more as I think of more.

My brother is okayish. He went home last week, but was back within 18 hrs. For some reason, he stopped being able to talk. He could only get out like one word, like "Ma!" They had him in ICU and were hoping to have him in a room today (outside of ICU). They did another c-scan and nothing showed up. They were worried about bleeding, but none. His sodium was low, so they were working on that, but other than that, they don't know what caused the speech problem. I talked to him for a few minutes today. He was very slow and having a semi-difficult time talking. Bryan is one of these that talks SUPER fast and you can't understand what he's saying usually. This was the total opposite and I missed not being able to understand him. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

In other news, Jon and I went to MO this weekend. We had about a 6 hour talk about prayers and God, etc. It was soooo great to really connect with my husband on a spiritual level. It was honestly the best part of my trip. :) God is really working in our lives.

Please pray for my brother. Last night, him and his wife went to a party and a drunk fight broke out. He got in the middle to try to break it up and someone hit him with some object from behind! After a minute, his wife saw he was on the ground in a puddle of blood. His wife tried to get someone to call 911, but no one would because they were afraid their boyfriends would be mad at them! Her and the host decided it'd be faster to drive than call 911. However, she couldn't drive for some reason (maybe she'd been drinking) and no one else was willing to drive them. There happened to be a cabin in the neighborhood, so took that to the ER- the cab charged $200 b/c of him leaving blood in the car!

After getting to the ER, he was life-flighted to Shands. He has a fractured skull, had severe bleeding and more (I tried to catch all the details from my mom, but it was hard to get everything). He eventually was able to remember what happened, so his memory is there and he can talk. He has a horrible headache that he will likely have for a few weeks and has thrown up a few times due to the headache. They think he'll be able to go home this week, but will have to basically be on bedrest for a while.

Him and his wife are also worried because they were just married over the summer and he joined the army and is still going through his training, so worried about how it will affect his job. They finally got someone to confess as to who hit him and when they catch the guy, he will be charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Please pray for this whole situation!