Livin' the Dream

So a few years ago I had a good friend in Nashville that turned me on to couponing. It took me a little while, but I got the hang of it, and this might sound a little cocky, but I was pretty good at it. Then we moved. That changed. I don’t know why, but I just didn’t have the drive to spend the time to do it. Even though it had saved us a lot of money, I just didn’t feel the same adrenaline rush when I would get a good deal. So, I’ve been half-doing coupons since we moved here. But, I am happy to announce that I am back! This week has been the best week so far and tonight’s purchases were some of the best I have made in a REALLY long time.

I have changed my organization system and I really like it. This week, my Kroger trip cost $134.86, but I paid $76.42 out of pocket. I stocked up on a few items and bought some non-grocery items so this was pretty good savings of $58.44.

Then I hit up Publix and my total was $56.32, but I paid $22.36 out of pocket. Another good savings of $33.96.

Then for the best deal I got this week! CVS. Love it. I had 2 transactions. On the first, I bought 2 packs of dental floss, which were $3.99 each, and I got 4 ECBs back for this purchase. I had 2 $2 off coupons, so I paid $4.36 out of pocket. On my second transaction, I bought 2 bottles of Aveeno lotion for $13, and a bag of gum for .99. The total was $14.36. I had 5 ECBs from October, add the 4 ECBs I had just got from my previous transaction, then add my $3 off coupon purchase of 2 Aveeno lotions, plus another $1 off coupon of Aveeno, and I only paid $1 and some change! If you add everything up, the total all together was $22, I paid a little less than $6, and I got 7 ECBs back from buying the lotion, so I actually made money at CVS! My goal is to roll some ECBs so that I always have some- tonight I actually came away with more than I went with!

And, I felt the adrenaline rush and the satisfaction of a job well done! The girls were with me and Neely was asking questions about how I did that. It was fun explaining it to her and teaching the girls about being responsible with money and how when I can do a good job with couponing, I won’t have to work so much- which means more time at home with them:)

On another note- 6 days and counting til Baby Norris #3 joins us! Maybe she’ll be named by then?

The girls were out of school a couple of days this past week and I didn’t work, so we have had a really fun few days. Gabe spent the weekend with the guys at the golf tournament so we tried to make the most of our girl time:) Thursday we had gymnastics and a visit to the podiatrist (OK, that’s not one of the fun things we did). Friday we stayed home and played with friends, then each girl invited a friend to the movies. Ansley Jane insisted on sitting by me, which was fine with Neely because she and her friend wanted to sit on their own row:( Today we started the day exchanging some church shoes to get the right size, then went to Hobby Lobby to get supplies for making t-shirts that say Big Sister. Then we had lunch at Locos, then hit the Fall Festival in downtown Watkinsville. We had a hayride and walked around looking at all the booths, then got their faces painted, like a pink spider woman, and headed home. The girls were really excited to make their t-shirts and are very proud!

Today is a big day for Neely Peely. She accepted Christ as her Savior a little over a year ago and has been learning and growing since then. She has been begging to get baptized since then so she can let everyone know about her decision. She finished her new Christians class at our church in May and today is the day! I thought I’d let her share in her own words what this all means to her:

What did it mean when you asked Jesus into your heart? “That I will be a Christian and have eternal life”.

What does that mean? “That I will live in Heaven one day with Jesus and God”

Why did you ask Jesus into your heart? “Because I learned that you don’t have to wear a crown on your head or a fancy pink dress. It just matters what Jesus thinks about me and that makes me a princess of God. I know I sin and I need Him.”

What did Jesus do you for? “He died on the cross to save me from my sins. I didnt deserve for Him to die for me. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life”.

What do you do now that you are a Christian? “It makes me have a better life. If people don’t have anything or know God and if they went to my school, I’d ask them to sit down on the side with me and I’d talk to them about God. I read the Bible and pray and try to get to know Him better and do what’s right”.

What are you doing today? “I’m getting baptized and I’m very excited. Daddy’s gonna dip me in the water and in 5 seconds he will raise me up. It shows that Jesus died and was buried, and He rose again”.

Does getting baptized save you? “No, asking Jesus into your heart saves you. I can’t just ask God to please come into my heart. He won’t do that just for fun. You have to really ask Him, tell him I know I’ve done wrong, and please come into my heart and change me”.

Why do we get baptized? “To tell the church that I was dead in sin, but I now have eternal life”.

I am so happy for Neely and proud of her decision to trust the Lord. We’ve prayed for this since before she was born. Mom and Dad are here and Tootise Roll is coming this morning to support her and share in our joy.

My Dad is a great man and he has dedicated his life to service. He has been a pastor my entire life and has been in the National Guard for as long as I can remember. He spent this the past year as the state chaplain for Louisiana, and retired in May. To celebrate, we talked him into taking a trip to Disney! What better way to celebrate? A great perk for celebrating this way is the amazing deal Disney was giving to military families. We stayed at Shades of Green and visited Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Sea World. It was a whirlwind of a few days, but so much fun! My girls will definitely never forget this trip, and that they were able to ride scary roller coasters with Nana and Pops.

The hard part of the trip was that I am so pregnant! I was 26 weeks when we were there, and it was sooooooo HOT. Gabe and I wanted to celebrate my dad’s retirement, and also make a really special memory with the girls before our baby is born. We know it will be a while before we are able to do anything like this again.

The girls experienced the Bippity Boppity Boutique, or is it Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, not sure, but it was so much fun! The fairy godmother’s in training made each girl feel so special. How cute is Piper? My sister Heathers family was there and the kids always love being with their cousins. It was pretty funny to watch them interact. While the girls were at the boutique being transformed into princesses, the boys were being transformed into pirates at the Pirates of the Caribbean. They looked completely different, I wish I had some pictures of them in their pirate get-up. Throughout the day we would watch the girls, all decked out in the princess attire, battle the pirates with their swords and guns.

One thing that really sticks out as a great memory is that the girls were chosen to be part of the finale of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom. They were sooooo excited. They marched around in a circle playing instruments to the Circle of Life. It was great.

We ended our day at Magic Kingdom with the parade, which was more crowded than anything we experienced that day. Then Gabe and I drove, wait, I should clarify that, Gabe drove us to Tifton where we spent the night so that we could get home at a decent time on Sunday to recooperate before school on Monday. We got to Tifton around 3am! My husband is THE man.

This summer has been jam-packed with traveling and camps and swimming pools. To say it has been a full summer is an understatement. I’m not quite ready for it to be over and plan on making the most of these last 2 weeks. We got back yesterday from Pigeon Forge. We spent 3 days there with the Norris family and had a great time.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We went to the Dollywood water park which was so much fun. I hadn’t been to a water park in 15 years and my how they have changed! The girls LOVED it. We also spent an afternoon at a race track and rode go-carts, bumper cars, water bumper boats, and of course we ate great! Gatlinburg is a beautiful area and we really enjoyed the ride there through the mountains.

Ansley Jane just turned 5 in May so it is a little early for her to be losing any teeth. But, she has. Her bottom two teeth have been loose for a long time and one especially was driving her crazy. We went to training week with Gabe and were hanging out with the staff in the gym one night. Ansley Jane decided she’d had enough and when her dad offered to pull it, she agreed. Here she is showing her bravery.

She was so excited! She took her tooth all over the gym and I do believe she went up to all 300 staff to show them:)

Over the past couple of months, I have vomited more times than I could keep up with and Neely, my 7 year old, has noticed. She began to become worried about her dear mom. I just told her it was because of the surgery, which in the beginning I thought was the truth. After we found out, I never struggled with whether to tell the girls so soon or not. I just could not fathom telling them this wonderful news of having another baby, only to let them down if we lost it. I would do the same I think for our adopted child. Until I knew it was going to happen, why build them up to possibly make them experience heartache if it didn’t. I knew I wanted to wait until at least 12 weeks, and a confident doctor visit before we told them.

The time came last Sunday at lunch. We were at Scholotzkys eating outside and Gabe began to tell them we had some big news to tell them He told them it was the biggest news, bigger than Disney World. Then he had me stand up and show them my growing belly and Neely immediately said “mommy, you’re having a baby!”. They both laughed and smiled and asked a million questions. It was such a fun time and a memory I will never forget. I will also make sure this baby knows how much his or her sisters wanted and prayed for him. Neely said she will not do any poopy diapers, but she will help with night duty if I need it:). Ansley Jane said she would take care of all the poopy diapers since Neely didn’t want to. She said if the baby poops on the wall she’ll clean it up too. Sounds like I’m set with helpers for now…hope it lasts:)

Neely said if it’s a girl, her name will be Danielle and if a boy, Daniel. Not sure where those names came from. Ansley Jane said her name will be Laura Grace. Not sure if its a boy. We shall see!

I’ve sat to write this post several times and get overwhelmed with all that has and is happening around us. The last several months have been a roller coaster and I don’t know exactly where to begin so I’ll dive right on in.

In mid-January it was recommended by my doctor to have laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis. It was scheduled for early Feb. but then we decided to post-pone it so that I could go to seminar in San Antonio with Gabe. It was re-scheduled for March 1. I went in that morning and had my surgery and went home later that day with no real complications. It took a few days but I started to feel better and Gabe left to go to Brazil on a mission trip. The next day I got really sick. My friend Norma took me to the doctor who felt it was just due to the surgery and that I was trying to do too much too soon, so thankfully Katie Underwood saved me and moved in with us for a few days to care for the girls so I could rest.

Several days went by and I did start to feel better, but still not 100%. I was vomiting a lot and just feeling really tired, and my doctor assure me that this could be part of my recovery and to wait to come in until my follow-up on March 16. Well Gabe came home on March 12 and he kept telling me to take a pregnancy test. I seriously told him he was crazy that me being pregnant was not a possibility due to my surgery and there was no chance it could have happened after it, so I refused to take a test. For some reason, on March 14 I decided to take one, mainly to show Gabe how wrong he was:) and it was positive. We just stared at it. I took another one. It was positive. The next day I took another and yep, it was positive too. I called my doctor the next day to tell him what was going on and he said he’d see me the next day.

When I arrived at my appt. my doctor was very cautious and prepared me that this was not likely at all- like less than 1% a pregnancy would have survived the type of surgery I had, and my pregnancy test before the surgery was negative. Well, he did my bloodwork and rushed it and my HCG was REALLY high, so high the nurse made a comment about twins. I did not laugh. Then he took me to the ultrasound room because he didn’t think there would be a heartbeat. Sure enough, there was, only one, but it was there and strong. To say I was shocked is an understatement.

I had to pick a different OB because my doctor does not deliver babies anymore and an appointment was set-up for the next week. I went to my next appointment and this doctor was cautiously optimistic too. He went ahead and did another ultrasound and the heartbeat was even faster this time, and showed that I was 7 1/2 weeks pregnant.

We didn’t tell anyone because of my history of miscarriages and because honestly, in my mind, I prepared myself that that is how this would turn out. There was just too much stacked against it. Surgery, the drugs I was given during and after, Neely had the flu during this time so I had to take tamiflu, I had had LOTS of dental x-rays the week before, I could go on and on. But, I went back last week and the doctor was more confident and I got to hear the heartbeat which was awesome. I’ll be 13 weeks on Wednesday.

We told the girls a few days ago and they are pumped. I’ll write more about that later. For now, please join us in praying for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby to join us in November. We are praying and trying to discern how this affects our adoption. We are in the waiting phase and will be talking to our caseworker next week to talk through all this. We know this will affect the timing of our adoption so we would appreciate prayers on this front as well.

I’m still feeling shocked and feel like my world has been completely rocked- in a good way. God has truly blessed us and we are extremely thankful. This is another time in our lives where there is no explanation other than God is actively involved in our lives and has chosen to bless us with an awesome surprise!

Neely is a little obsessed with making her bed. It is rare that a morning will go by without her making it. I don’t just mean straightening out the blankets and such, I mean REALLY makes her bed. Like military style. Takes her at least 10 minutes. She doesn’t like for me to make it anymore because I don’t tuck in the sheets and blanket all around her mattress.

Well, this morning as she was making her bed, Gabe and I happened to be in her room, and she said something profound for a 6 year old. She said “Dad, what the blanket does depends on what the sheet is doing”. Gabe asked her what she meant and she went on to tell us its kindof like our hearts. Our hearts control everything we do…whats on the inside, effects the outside. If the sheet is wrinkled underneath, the blanket will be wrinkled on the outside.

Gabe and I just stared at each other? Seriously? As a 6 year old she gets this?

We’ve been talking to the girls a lot lately about what’s in their hearts. When one gets jealous and complains “what about me”, we ask them what’s in their hearts in that moment, and they tell us what they think it is. When one doesn’t want to share, they respond with selfishness or meanness. When something great happens and they encourage each other, they respond with something like happiness or thankfulness. It is so gratifying and encouraging to see that Neely has really been thinking about this and came up with such a great illustration of this. Maybe she’ll be a teacher one day?

Last Tuesday I had outpatient surgery and from all accounts it went well. My recovery was going like the doctor said to expect and I was thinking I was in the clear. Gabe left for Atlanta to train for the mission trip to Brazil on Thursday, so that was the first night I was on my own since the surgery. I fed the girls, bathed them, did my usual routine…and went to bed at 8pm:). The next morning I wasn’t feeling right so my good friend Norma drove me to the doctor who said the incisions looked good and that I was doing well. So we stopped by a consignment sale, at which I found 4 dresses, including AJ’s easter dress, and decided to stop for lunch before she brought me back home.

I felt kindof funny on the drive to the restaurant, and sure enough, about 5 minutes after we sat down I was in the bathroom throwing up my mexican chicken from the night before. Sorry if that’s too much information. Poor Norma. I felt so bad for her. She got me home, gave me a zofran she had, and the pest control guy showed up to spray our house. By this time I was on the phone with Gabe, who’s flight to Brazil was going to leave at 9pm that night. I was crying and saying I was fine, and the pest control guy was giving me the “it’s OK, I have a wife and understand hormones” look while he sprayed my house in record time. The poor guy was trying to get out of our house fast. I felt bad for him, in hindsight he was probably really trying to decide if AJ was safe to leave in my supervision!

I’m not sure the order of events, but somehow Neely got home from school, I think Norma got her for me, I talked to my doctor and he gave me some phenergan, Katie Underwood moved into my house for the weekend, I cried to my mom because she couldn’t get here (all flights from LA were cancelled due to weather), and Gabe flew to Brazil. Oh, and also, the pest control guy showed back up on my front porch with his card, because of course he is the pastor of a Bible Baptist church down the road, and he wrote his wife’s name and number in case I needed to call her to talk. I said thank you very much and that I just might call her!

It’s really kindof amazing that during all this crazy mess, God was involved and our community of friends really jumped in and took over for me. I honestly don’t know what I would have done otherwise. They’ve stayed at my house with me, completely cared for the girls so I could take my medicine and sleep through the worst of it, brought meals, called to check on us, and prayed for us. It’s really been so amazing to feel so loved and cared for during such a terrible time. Any of these friends that read this blog, THANK YOU!!!

Gabe is having a good time and learning a lot. I’m so glad he went ahead and went. I really miss him. I’ve never really been in a position where I can’t reach him. I mean I really can’t reach him. This has been really hard. He’s my best friend and I don’t remember a time ever before where we’ve had to go a day without talking. He’s called twice and it was so great to hear his voice. So, say a prayer for his work over there, and for my heart that’s hurting from missing him!