Yesterday's Bargains

This is just a quick post to share two things that I just have to share with someone because they were so exciting for me.

1. Did you know that everyday from 2-4, you can get a large diet coke from Sonic for only 86 cents!! Crazy, right? So from now on, at 2:00 you will find Ada and me sitting in the drive through at Sonic. Great ice. Fountain Diet Coke. You really can't find a better afternoon treat.

2. I have had my eye on this fun summery tank top from Target, and yesterday it was on the clearance rack for 3.24!! I scooped it up even though it was not the color I was hoping for. Oh the treasures you can find on the Target clearance rack.

Happy bargain hunting everyone.

A few photos and things I want to remember about Ada at 8 months

I took a few pictures while we were outside yesterday, but no matter what I did, Ada refused to look at me. Therefore, I only got profile pictures. Oh well, I think her profile is just as cute as the rest of her:) While I am blogging, I want to record a few favorite things that she is doing at 8 months, just so I'll have it on record. Her baby book continues to collect dust on the shelf, so I need to record these things somewhere.

She is sitting up so well, of course, but she won't stay sitting up because she immediately lunges forward as if to crawl. She will stay on her hands and knees and rock back and forth, but she always plops down on her stomach before she can actually move forward. She usually tries to scoot forward, but in the process of trying so hard, she flips over. Therefore, she spends a lot of time rolling all over the room. It is her preferred form of transportation right now.

She cannot sleep without her little pink blanket. We put her pacifier in her mouth, hand her the blanket, and she immediately puts it over her face and turns to her side. If she doesn't immediately do this, I know that it is going to be a battle getting her to go to sleep.

She is drinking 8 ounces at a time, and eating three "meals" of baby food a day. I only let her eat things with plenty of fiber because she has had A LOT of bathroom trouble. She tries to hold the bottle on her own, but she can't figure out how to turn it upside down to actually get milk out of it. I am starting to give her a few little pick up foods like cheerios, but most of the time they just fall out of her mouth, which, to be honest, is fairly gross.

She loves to clap, and she has learned that it is the best way to get our attention. If things are going along sort of quiet, she looks at us, gets a huge grin on her face, and starts to clap. Of course, we love it and immediately start saying, "yea, Ada." I am attempting to teach her sign language, and I am starting with the sign for more. However, every time I do it, Ada thinks I am clapping and she starts to clap, so I am not sure if she will ever learn the difference between the two.

She is a huge people person and little performer. She loves when people talk to her, and she has this way of getting strangers to talk to her. Fun story, we were in Cracker Barrell last weekend eating breakfast, and a father and his little boy who had down syndrome sat down near us. The little boy began to talk to Ada, and she absolutely loved it. He was probably about seven years old, so he totally got the concept of talking baby talk, playing peek-a-boo, etc. Well, Ada was just grinning and squealing, and the little boy looked up at his dad and said, "Dad, I love her." It was the sweetest thing. I just wanted to scoop him up and take him home with us.

So anyway...that's our little Ada, who has completely changed our lives. We can't get enough of her--though I am looking forward to my mini vacation this weekend;)

I met a neighbor, and other ways this day surprised me

so the day started out not so good. Scott woke me up on his way out the door to let me know that because he couldn't find his keys, he was taking my car, leaving Ada and me carless. This is not so good for this mom and daughter who like to get out at least twice a day just to break up the monotony. The day began with a fussy Ada, and a very short morning nap, and I thought we would not survive. At one point I put in Ada in her bed simply because I think we were both tired of each other. She was fussing for no apparent reason, and everything I tried failed, so I put her in her bed and she seemed happy enough. Maybe she is a little introvert and needed some alone time to reenergize. Thankfully, the Lord provided an absolutely beautiful and warm day, so we were able to spend some time in the backyard getting a little fresh air and sunshine--two things that are always good for the soul. During our afternoon outdoor time, a neighbor from two houses down was also outside letting her dog get some fresh air. Naturally we said hello and introduced ourselves, and it turns out, she is this cute little pregnant girl--yea for a mom-to-be. She is almost as short as me, so we were even able to compare stories on how it seems to be harder to carry a baby when there is so little room in the torso. (On a later date, I will fill you in on the joys of having complete strangers stop to ask you if you are having multiples). She immediately picked Ada up because when you are pregnant you want to cuddle with every baby that you see. I don't know if she plans to stay at home after the baby is born, but I'll take a mom to hang out with in the evenings and on the weekends if need be. I may not have best friends here, and I may not feel like McDonough is home, but on this afternoon I feel the foreshadowing of community, and for now, that is enough.

p.s. Scott took Ada and me to Taco Bell for dinner to get us out of the house, so in addition to meeting a neighbor, I also got to have a large diet pepsi from Taco Bell, plus a refill on the way out. It turned out to be a not so bad day.

Let's talk books

Here I sit in pajama pants that I bought the week I got home from the hospital after having Ada and a t-shirt I earned when I ran the Emerald Nuts Midnight run in Central Park the new year's eve before Scott and I got married. Such contrast--such examples of the two lives I have lived. The pajama pants were purchased because I desperately wanted to wear something not maternity and everything in my closet was obviously too small. I wore them for weeks after Ada was born, even when visitors came by, even to the grocery store. They will always speak of sleepless nights and adjusting to this new tiny person that had entered our lives. And the t-shirt, such a surreal night for me. Running in central park at midnight, knowing that before the year was over I would be a Mrs., and celebrating one last moment of singleness with my college friends. And now, three short years later, I sit in the home I share with my husband, Ada asleep upstairs, and Scott gone to a community group social without me because I cannot leave Ada here alone. And as much as I may want to be selfish, as much as I AM selfish, I know that Ada needs to be in bed, her bed, so I sit here alone. And I am tempted to feel sorry for myself. Perhaps tempted is the wrong word--perhaps I DO feel sorry for myself;)

Because writing has always been a form of therapy for me, I decided the better option, over wallowing in self pity, is to blog.

Amy Rambo is the friend I was running with on that New Year's Eve that now seems so long ago. She has always been my best running partner. Neither of us have a need for speed, and we are both short girls, so our stride is the same, and we like to chat as we run in order to make the miles go by faster. Our best conversations happened as we ran all over Auburn's campus. Tonight, I am reminded of a conversation we had one night as we were running with Laura Galloway. Just as we passed Mamma G's, and needing to make it all the way back to the hill, Laura posed the question, "What books have been most influential in your life?" I love this question because it isn't the typical, what is your favorite book. So tonight, with a need to get my mind on something worthwhile, I return to that question.

That night Rambo and I both agreed that the Christy Miller series was certainly a group of influential books during our middle school years. If you were a typical Jr. High youth grouper, I am guessing that you have heard of these books. To give you an idea, my dad bought us the first one because it was a christian book and it had a picture of a cheerleader on the cover--a combination that clearly made this book a winner:) Though these books may never receive any literary claim, they did shape my views on dating and how to dress and who to be friends with in a way that parents and youth leaders cannot do for a teenage girl. I learned not to be unequally yoked and that tight jeans may send the wrong message:) And of course, I began to actually think about my future husband. There must be at least one reader out there who also crushed hard on Todd Spencer. I made many bad decisions during my teenage years, but I really believe, crazy as it may seem, that I made fewer bad decisions than I would have had I not read the Christy Miller series.

Second on the list for me has to be Hind's Feet on High Places, an allegory in which the character much afraid is taken through much suffering in order to be given a new heart, and therefore, a new name. I first read this book, or was read this book, one summer as a child. My mother wanted us to have structure that summer, and every afternoon we would sit on Ann's bed, and my mom would read a chapter to us. Later, at sixteen years old, after I had experienced an intense break up with my high school boyfriend, I returned to the book in search of anything that might bring comfort or peace. Looking back, I see that it was the sovereignity of God, and His shaping my relationship with Him, that brought me back to the book. As my young heart dealt with the first suffering I had ever known, God began to teach me the privilege of sharing in His suffering. I did not read the book in hopes of growing in my relationship with the Lord, I just wanted anything that would bring some meaning to what was happening to me, but clearly God was shaping my life through the story.

I will end with those two, for now. The two most influential books from high school segment. If I keep going, this post will be much too long. Maybe I will return to the list at a later date with the college influences chapter.

What I would love to know, however, is what books have most influenced you? Mainly because I am only 25. Hopefully I have many more years of reading ahead. And also because I want to get to know you a little better, and don't the books we love serve as a way to reveal who we are?

8 months of having Ada as my sidekick (and other weekend events)

So my little Ada is 8 months old....she is slowly making her way towards the one year mark. Crazy, crazy. I was thinking today, as I was getting her up from her nap, what a shock to the system those first six weeks with her were. This past summer as I was going nuts waiting for her to be born--as I mentioned in the previous post, I HATED being pregnant--my mom kept telling me that it would be a whole new level of not having control over my own life after she was born. And this is so true. Yes she controlled my life in many ways prior to being born, but she took on a whole new level of control once we brought her home from the hospital. She is truly my little sidekick. Where I go, she goes, and vice versa. That is, until this coming weekend. Ada and I will be separating for two nights. I am going to AU to be a bridesmaid in Katie Tate's wedding, and in an effort to keep things sane, Scott will be staying in McDonough with Ada. It will be a big weekend for us all. Scott has set a limit of 3 phone calls per day from me--I am sure that I will call much more than that, but I will give it my best effort to limit myself. While in Auburn, I will be staying with my best friend Amy Speakman, who is a few months pregnant herself, and Lindsay L. Krupicka will also be joining us. It will be a taste of my old life, but I have a feeling that I will be very ready to get back to Scott and Ada when Sunday rolls around. We'll see how it goes.

As for other news, Jane and Elisha came to visit this past Friday, which was such a treat. Such refreshment to talk to another mom!! We let Ada and Elisha play, and we talked, and ended the visit with lunch at Chik-fil-A. Also, Jane brought me lots of adorable clothes she had picked up at a consignment sale, so on Friday, the shopping came to me. Thanks again, Jane, for making the drive!!

Elisha found the stairs and Ada's pacifier:) And finally, Friday night, Scott, Ada, and I had dinner with another couple and their 4 month old son. I have mentioned this family before--Scott works with the husband, and the wife and I are connecting over motherhood. We have plans for coffee Monday afternoon. So, as always, God is meeting the need for fellowship with other women. Why do I ever doubt that he will provide my daily manna?

Headed to dinner Friday night. Ada is wearing a pair of pants that Jane brought.

I'm tagging more people

okay, because I am loving learning everyone's 100 so much, I want to tag three more people
Laura Bohler Foreman--a friend from Scottsboro
Rachel Olis--a new blog friend
and Amy Eaton--a friend I met in Atlanta.
Okay girls, blow me away with all of your fun facts, and keep the chain going by tagging more people.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone's 100, and I finally finished mine. It was sort of crazy trying to come up with 100 facts, and I am not sure if any of it is anything too interesting, but here goes...read if you want...

1. I was born August 12, 1982 as Laura Elizabeth Rhodes (I almost typed Moore).
2. I was a breech baby, and therefore a c-section.
3. I was born with a head full of black hair.
4. It later fell out and came back red. (It is a pet peeve that people say I don’t have red hair. I realize it has gotten darker and at times blonder over the years, but I am a redhead—and that is where Ada’s red hair came from).
5. I am the second of four girls—Ann (27), me (25), Sarah (22), and Kate (20).
6. Last year my students were trying to help me come up with a name for Ada, and they asked what my sisters’ names were. When I told them, one student told me, “those are the whitest names I have ever heard.”
7. This same student wanted me to name Ada, Larmeisha--a combo of my name and her name.
8. Until I was seven I shared a room with all four sisters, and I remember loving it (most of the time)
9. When I was seven, Ann and I moved into separate bedrooms downstairs.
10. Ann and I are only 18 months apart.
11. I love this now, but it made things rather difficult growing up. We fought a LOT.
12. Now we talk on the phone multiple times a week.
13. When I was in the first grade, I won 100.00 in an essay contest.
14. As young as first grade, if asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said a poet.
15. In high school I was editor of the newspaper and yearbook staff, and because of this I became very burned out with all things having to do with writing.
16. Therefore, for the first two and half years of college, I was a fashion design major.
17. I loved fashion design, but I CANNOT sew. Junior year, I designed a skirt for a class project, and it was so big, that I had to hold it up while my teacher graded me.
18. In that same class, I designed a jacket that ended up being miniature.
19. While I was spending all of my time in the design studio, I was making A’s in my English classes, and this is when I realized it was time to change my major.
20. So…second half of junior year I became an English major—fashion design and English are two completely different worlds.
21. I once again fell in love with English and the liberal arts—I can’t believe it took me so long to become an English major.
22. In addition to not being able to sew, I also changed my major for personal reasons—I tend to be a little bit of a control freak when it comes to things like weight and fashion. I realized that this was never going to change as long as I continued to immerse myself in a world that worshipped those two things.
23. This is the primary reason I changed my major.
24. This does not mean that I think the world of fashion is bad or sinful—for me, however, it tended to be bad and sinful.
25. I still struggle with being obsessed with weight and fashion, though God has given me such victory over these things—praise God for redemption!!
26. I was a cheerleader from 7th – 12th grade, and I took it very seriously.
27. I made All-American four times.
28. The summer after my sophomore year of high school, I was at a college prep cheerleading camp at Purdue, learning what I needed to know to become a cheerleader in college, and I ended up in the hospital with kidney stones.
29. While in the hospital, I celebrated my 16th birthday, and my junior year started without me. I missed the entire first week.
30. I have had kidney stones twice since then.
31. I have given birth and had kidney stones. Because I had an epidural, I did not feel the full force of my contractions.
32. Based on the contractions I did feel, kidney stones hurt worse.
33. In the heat of the moment with kidney stones, I always think I must be dying. Obviously, it gets better once the doctors give me morphine.
34. By the way, I never cheered in college. I went to the first meeting for tryouts my freshman year, but I was too terrified to actually go through with it.
35. I have had my heart broken more than once, and therefore, I have huge empathy for anyone going through a break up.
36. Thankfully, Scott and I never broke up. We had a very uncomplicated dating relationship.
37. This was the primary reason I knew we should get married.
38. The first thing that attracted me to Scott was his kind heart.
39. We had a conversation nearly a year before we started dating in which we both discussed the fact that we believed any two Christians could get married and make the marriage work. Later, this played a huge role in my knowing that he was the kind of guy I could see myself marrying (you know, the question every girl is supposed to ask about a guy before she goes out on a date;)
40. As Scott mentioned in his 100, he is very passive aggressive, and there are times it makes me want to bang my head against the wall.
41. I spent the summer after my freshman year of college in China with Campus Crusade.
This was the scariest decision I ever made—I did not want to go despite the fact that I believed God was telling me to go. Finally, when it was almost too late, I committed to the trip.
42. It was an amazing and refining summer, and I met some of my very best friends on that trip, including Amy Speakman, Amy Rambo, and Anna Thompson.
43. While on the trip, I took a personality test and learned that I am a melancholy.
44. This means that I become easily depressed, don’t do well with change, struggle with insecurity, and tend to focus on the negative, but this is NOT all it means.
45. It also means that I am passionate, analytical, artistic, idealistic, and a deep thinker.
47. And that I tend to have extreme emotions—I think these extreme emotions often make Scott want to bang his head up against the wall.
48. For the most part, Scott and I are complete opposites. We have very little in common, but this seems to be what makes us work as a couple.
49. The fact that we are both trusting Christ to fulfill our marriage vows for us is the primary reason that we work as a couple.
50. 6 months into marriage, we found out we were pregnant. This was not planned.
51. I called my mother to tell her I was pregnant before I told Scott, and I was crying so hard that she thought I had been in a car accident.
52. Ann was the second person I called.
53. Scott was the third—he was at work.
54. By that night when we were sitting in California Pizza Kitchen, I was excited about the pregnancy. My emotions continued to go from panic to extreme excitement throughout the pregnancy.
55. I did not enjoy being pregnant mainly because I had no control over my body.
56. I struggle with having to be in control. This is something that I have to turn over to the Lord on a daily basis.
57. I did, however, enjoy labor. I thought it was a very cool experience. (I should add that I had a very easy labor, which included an epidural and only 30 minutes of pushing)
58. I did not enjoy the days following labor because Ada would not nurse, and the nurses in the hospital guilted me into giving her formula in a bottle.
59. Because of this, nursing was a struggle for the entire five months that I did it, and I am now very interested in learning about baby friendly hospitals.
60. While in graduate school, I tutored Auburn football players. As a result, I got to know both Kenny and David Irons. Kenny is extremely shy, and David is crazy. They are both very nice guys. I absolutely loved that job. It prepared me for my first teaching job.
61. My first and only year of teaching was at a Performing Arts School, where I taught the district kids, not the performing art students.
62. My school was considered “at risk”, which meant that many of my students were difficult to deal with in the classroom.
63. I really stood out in the classroom, since I was this little 5 foot tall white girl from Alabama, but I grew very close to my students, and strangely enough, I was able to manage the classroom fairly well.
64. I was a floating teacher, which meant that my classroom consisted of a huge bag packed full of everything I needed to teach a class. I just carried this bag from classroom to classroom.
65. I played the trumpet in the middle school band.
66. I quit band in the 8th grade so that I could be an office worker.
67. In my senior class who’s who, I was voted most dependable.
68. I used to be able to start at one end of the football field and do back handsprings (almost) across the entire field.
69. If I tried to do a back handspring now I would break my neck.
70. In the 5th grade I played rec league basketball, and I was so short that if I ever had to shoot a free throw, my coach told me to do a granny shot.
71. In 6th grade I wanted a pair of white guess jeans overalls. I received a huge bag of hand me down clothes from a family at church, and there was a pair of guess overalls (not white) in the bag. I told my dad that the Lord had heard what I wanted and provided, and I was very serious.
72. Scott and I started dating after weeks of running together my senior year. Scott overheard me tell somebody that I wanted to run a 10k, and he told me he wanted to train with me.
I later learned that Scott liked me and was looking for a way to get to know me better—turns out Scott hates to run, and we never ran the 10k.
73. We really haven’t run together since those first few weeks of dating.
74. Lindsay Luginbuhl Krupicka also ran with us, and she and Scott often talked about dogs.
75. Because of this, I thought Scott liked Lindsay, not me.
76. I’m not really a dog person, which I hate to tell people because I know it makes me look like a mean person. I try to act like I like dogs when I am around them, but Scott says that people can see right through this act.
77. I do think that there are many beautiful animals, and I don’t mind watching television shows about them. I just don’t really want to have any pets.
78. My favorite animal is a tiger—not because of Auburn, though I think it’s cool that Auburn’s mascot is my favorite animal.
79. The summer after my sophomore year of high school, I turned my hair blonde using lemon juice.
80. This completely fried my hair, and I had to cut it short.
81. In high school I was the flyer on my cheerleading squad, meaning I was the one who went up in stunts.
82. One day while falling from a stunt I broke a girl’s nose.
83. I became a Christian when I was four years old. My mom was giving me a bath, when a friend of hers called to tell her that her son (the friend’s son) had become a Christian. I began to ask questions about it, and I prayed to receive Christ that night. I had a very simple understanding, but I believe it was real.
84. I was very legalistic in high school, and looking back, I think that my actions revealed that I was finding my identity in my “goodness.” It was not until my senior year of high school, when my brother-in-law became my youth minister (he was my youth minister first, brother-in-law second) that I first began to grasp the truth that even me at my best was complete filth compared to Christ.
85. I am still learning this truth, and I find my actions often reveal that I still find my identity in things other than Christ.
86. I believe that only in Christ can we find satisfaction. Everything else—money, looks, fame, success, family, marriage, whatever—will always come up short. I believe that even the good things in life exist to point us towards Christ, and if we are relying on them rather than Christ they will lead to death. It is only in Christ that we can find life.
87. I can read strangely fast, and I often finish books in one sitting.
88. I literally will read anything. For example, if I am sitting in a chair, and I see a children’s book sitting beside me, I will pick it up and read it. I have even been known to do this with things like the backs of shampoo bottles.
89. I really enjoy writing poetry, but I don’t do it often because it overwhelms me.
90. My favorite poet is William Carlos Williams.
91. Langston Hughes is a close second.
92. I dream of being a published author one day.
93.But I doubt very seriously that it will ever happen.
94. I have only been out of the country twice—once to the Bahamas and once to China.
95. I so badly want to go to England.
96. In Jr. High I started writing a young adult novel, and got through maybe four chapters. The book was basically the story of what I wished my life was like as a 7th grader.
97. My main character was pretty, popular, lived on the beach, and went to parties with cute boys. Such depth.
98. I am not a stay at home mom because I love staying at home with Ada; I am a stay at home mom because I feel like it is what God has called me to do.
99. I miss teaching so much that I often dream about my students and my old office at Pebblebrook.
100.However, I really, really mean it when I say that I am so thankful for Ada and how she has changed my life.

And now I tag Milla (I know you've already been tagged, but I planned on tagging you anyway, so I am still going to), Jane, and Lindsey Slagley. No pressure girls. I realize that you probably have much more to fill your schedule with (such as teaching, Elisha, and Kate) than typing 100 facts about yourself, but I chose you three because though I know you, I feel like there is lots more to learn.