Red, White & Blue

First let me thank everyone of you that took time out of your day to write, call or text a pitiful hormonal pregnant woman because of my blog yesterday. It really means a lot to me. I think we have figured out a way to get the retirement money early if I get my boss to okay it and it will cost $250.00 to do it. So we shall see. I have not had a chance to talk to him about it yet. But moving on to happier things.

Fourth of July is this weekend. Erica (the lady that keeps the girls) has been working with the girls about the what the flag stands for and why it is the way it is, coloring in red, white, and blue, and they have even been reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Josie can tell you that there are 50 stars on the flag which represents the 50 states and she is very proud that Alabama is one of them :) Some days she remembers that there 13 stripes but I don't think she quite grasps that they represent the original 13 colonies. She gets so excited every time she sees a flag. It is so neat watching her take all this in and being excited about it. So to show just how patriotic they really are, I painted the girls toes, red, white and blue.

I'm a Basketcase

There is no nice or easy way to put this, I'm a basketcase right now. I'll warn you this blog has information I'm sure you want to know, but at the same time it is very blunt and emotional. Not really sure how much of the emtoinal part is the fact that I'll be 25 weeks this Thursday meaning I'm in the 3rd trimester of my pregnancy and I'm hormonal and how much is the fact that this is just a stressful thing we're going through.

So most of you know that Joe did not get the Prattville job. We talked and prayed and finally decided the best option for our family is to move to Greenville. I will quit working and stay at home with the three kids. We have to move because we can not afford for me to stay home and Joe continue to work in Greenville while continuing to live here. Okay, sounds easy enough right, wrong. We have to sell our house before we can move. No one is buying houses right now. Who knows how long our house could be on the market. I will have to quit working when the baby comes because I was going to have to ask to not take a vacation for the next 5 years to get my maternity paid for. So I can not get paid for that time only to quit when the house sells. So we prayed and talked about it all weekend and decided, yes, this is what we are doing. We are moving to Greenville and I will quit working either when the house sells or the baby comes (due October 14th), whichever happens first. The next step was telling Keith (my boss) and Erica (the lady that keeps the girls during the day). This scared me almost more than the idea of selling the house because at some point or another I had told both of them that I would be around for a long time. And now I can't even give them a definite last day. So in reality either one of them can tell me at any point between now and October 14th that a certain day needs to be my last day or the last day for the girls so that they can do what is best for them. My conversations went okay with both of them, but I still went home and cried. I had the job of telling the two people who definitely never wanted to hear this news. In the back of my mind one of the main things that was keeping me calm was the idea that I could take out my retirement when I quit and that money could hold us over until the house sold. Without this money or some money when I quit we will not have enough to live of off until we sell the house and move. Well I have been talking to the retirement people today and I have been told that I can not have the money until after December 31, 2010. This does me no good. There is no way we will be able to survive for 3+ months if we have not sold the house. Of course I started balling again, as I'm doing right now. So why am I writing this out there for the whole world to see, well I can't get Joe on the phone and like I said I'm a basketcase. Today has been worse than yesterday because I just knew that money would be there to help us out. I've written back asking if there is anything at all that we could do or sign that would help me get that money early, but I have not gotten a response back. Everyone that we have talked to about moving has been great and supportive, but at the same time in trying to figure out all the details I'm tired of being told "it will all work out." I know it will. (I told you I was being blunt, I'm crying and have no idea how we are going to work it out). I know every person that has said that has meant well, and I really don't mean to be ugly but they are not three months away from adding another person to their family with no clue how they are going to pay for it. I know God will take care of us, he always has, but I'm scared to death right now because I don't know how he is going to do it. I know we are still three months out and a lot can happen in three months, but I'm seroiusly at my emotional limit. I can not take anything else. This is the biggest decision we have ever had to make and I have no clue if this is the right one. Deep down we are both okay with and really feel that it is what is best for our family, but at the same time I feel it should be easier. I feel like I should not have to cry every day over this. I toss and turn at night thinking about this and that. I've cried the whole time I've written this blog and just don't know how to deal with it all.

Our Beautiful Girls

Sometime in May we took photos as a fund raiser for Relay for Life. Here are some of them. They turned out just beautiful, but I guess I am a little partial. Everyone will be get their pictures in the next week or so. It is so hard to believe that the next time you get pictures in the mail from us there will be another beautiful Burdick child :)











Josie:


Josie:


Lol:


Lol:

VBS Certificates and Prayers

Here are the girls' VBS certificates.. I'm so proud of both of them, they both did so great throughout the week:
Jolie's:

Josie's:


One thing I did forget to mention in yesterday's blog is about Josie praying. At night we have always said the "now I lay me down to sleep prayer" followed by "God bless" and then we would list out every single family member and friend. Well one night I decided to do that prayer along with a regular prayer, you know where you pray that God helps you be better people and you thank Him for the day and your friends and other situations. So I did that the first night and the next morning as we got ready for school. Well that next night Josie asked if she could say the prayer and my heart leapt. Of course I said yes, so now when we pray in the mornings and at night she says a "big girl prayer." She prays that they be good girls for mommy and daddy and Ms. Erica. She thanks God for the sunshine and when Grammy was here she thanked God for letting us celebrate Grammy's birthday. (I didn't tell her to say this, she came up with it all on her own). Jolie always chimes in on the "Amen." It is an amazing and powerful thing watching your child learn to pray and talk to God.

Eat the Princesses

Last week was Family Vacation Bible School. For as long as I have attended First Presbyterian Church of Wetumpka we have done VBS at night so that way adults can attend as well, which I think is awesome. Our theme was "Backstage with the Bible" or a concert type theme. Mary Kelley and I spent all day Sunday June 13th decorating and getting all the last minute details ready for the week. We had a red carpet, we had disco balls, we had microphones, and of course we had lots of crafts. We had an amazing band that played for us each night and I honestly think the kids favorite part was dancing and singing. It was a great week and I think and hope everyone had a great time. Joe was awesome and stuck to his promise to get off early every day so that he could pick up the girls so I could go straight there to get things ready before each night. A lot of work goes into pulling VBS off, so I will probably be in rest mode for the next week recouping.

Friday afternoon Grammy and Emmie got in and spent a couple of hours with the girls before VBS. After everything was done I stayed to clean up the church and get everything back in order for Sunday. When I got home, I got the kids alseep and then Joe headed to Chris' house. They were going night fishing on Chris' boat. Well I woke up at 2:00 something from some nightmares and texted Joe asking him when he was coming home that I really wanted him to come home. Well he got home around 6:00 a.m. The motor on the boat went out and they had to use the trolling motor all the way back to shore. I'm sure that is one fishing trip neither one of them will forget.

Saturday morning we got up and went and walked around Bass Pro Shops (a favorite past time of the girls) and then we went to Hobby Lobby to pick up crafts for me to do with my Sunday School class the next morning. We bought little foam hands and magnet strips so the kids could make "High Fives for My Daddy" magnets. As we were leaving Hobby Lobby the bottom fell out of the sky and it took us forever to get home because of the rain. I think we had to drive 30 miles an hour the whole way home. We attempted naps, but it just was not happening. Josie was too excited because we had to leave a little after 5:00 p.m. to "eat the princesses." Let me explain. There is a mexican restaurant Jalapenos in Montgomery that has where you can eat with different characters on certain nights. Well Saturday night was princess night. For some reason, and I'm not sure how in the world she was getting this confused, Josie thought we were eating the princesses instead of eating with them. Nonetheless, she was super excited. Before it was time to eat, we had to decide what princesses wear to eat with other princesses. All of their costumes were either winter costumes and they would have too hot, or have tears in them were they play dress up so much so we opted for leotards, tutus, and princess shoes. It took us like 20 minutes to find two pair of matching princess shoes (dress up high heels that have a picture button of a princess on them.) So once our princesses were dressed Grammy, Emmie, Other Mama, Daddy, Princess Josie, Princess Lollie, and I loaded into the van and headed to Jalapanos to eat with the princesses. Aunt Tiffany, Uncle Ben, and their boys met us there. When we got there we were first greeted by a balloon princess (I'll warn you, it was really dark in there and so I had to adjust the pictures some and so they are not of the best quality):

(This takes a lot of talent to make a princess completely out of balloons.)

There were lots of other little princesses waiting to meet the princess so we got our table and waited paitenly. The first princess they saw was Tiana from the Princess and the Frog:


The second princess we saw was Ariel from the Little Mermaid:


The third princess we saw was Snow White:


The fourth princess we saw was Jasmine from Aladin:


And last, but not least Cinderella:


Josie was a little upset that Sleeping Booty could not be there. Their favorite, and I'm not sure why, was Cinderella. They got autographs from Cinderella, Snow White, and Ariel. At one point the princesses sang for us. The girls just ate it all up and it was really neat watching them getting so excited. At some point after the princesses had sang for us, I took Lol to the bathroom and I had to take everything off of her to change her pull-up. Once I got her completely dressed, I said Okay, you are a princess again. She looked at me and said yep, and I sing. I said oh, what are you going to sing, and she said "Happy Birthday." (The princesses had been singing happy birthday to a lot of people that night in the restaurant.)

After dinner we headed home for bed. Sunday morning the girls got up and gave Joe the Father's Day presents that they had made with Ms. Erica during the week, and then we got ready for Sunday School. We came home after Sunday School so that we could spend as much time with Grammy and Emmie as possible. After lunch we did some father's day crafts and then laid down for naps. That night we had an awesome birthday (for Grammy)/Father's day meal. It was a good weekend.

My mom left this morning on their way to PA. Please pray for their safe travels. Now that VBS is over we can work on Joel's room and doing our small group meeting for Joe. We still have not heard anything from Prattville. Hopefully soon we will hear something one way or the other.

I am 23 weeks and will be 24 weeks this Thursday. I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. Joel is getting to be very active. It is so hard to believe that it will not be that much longer until we meet him. My cousin Robert and his wife go in tomorrow to have a C-section. Please pray that everything goes well for baby girl Harris and Bethany.

On a completely different note, Josie has been saying so many funny things here lately and I'm trying to remember them all. She did learn something at VBS this week. One night she was supposed to be laying down to go to sleep and Lol told on her that she had something in her bed, but Josie kept yelling that she did not have anything. So I walked back there and as I walked into the room she threw the toys down. So I got her up and put her in time out. As she was sitting there I told her that lying is wrong and that God does not like it when we lie. And she looked at me, and said, but he still loves me. And I said yes he does, and I still do, but it is still wrong.

Another night we had sandwhiches from Chappy's for dinner at the church. I asked her what kind she wanted and she told me ham. Well when I picked up the sandwhiches I realized how big they were and I told her that she would have to eat a PB&J because the others were too big. So I fixed their plates, Joe's plate, and then I fixed mine. I sat down to eat and she looked at my sandwhich and said you were right Mommy, that is too big, but you have a big mouth so you can eat it. :)

I'm sure I'll remember the rest after I've posted this blog.

Quotes

I have been searching for a quote that we could put up in Joel's room. Since I am the last of everyone to have a boy all the good Bible quotes are gone, so I started searching other quotes. This is our favorite so far,

You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes. ~Walter M. Schirra, Sr.

While searching for quotes I found some others about parenting that I wanted to share:

Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have anything to do with it. ~Haim Ginott

It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge. ~Phyllis Diller

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves. ~C.G. Jung, Integration of the Personality, 1939

Your children tell you casually years later what it would have killed you with worry to know at the time. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

Whenever I held my newborn baby in my arms, I used to think that what I said and did to him could have an influence not only on him but on all whom he met, not only for a day or a month or a year, but for all eternity - a very challenging and exciting thought for a mother. ~Rose Kennedy


Changing subjects, I am 22 weeks today. It is so hard to believe that I am past the halfway point. I am still feeling good, however, he did get on a nerve or do something to a nerve last night that shot pain down my leg and tush. I was in so much pain I was crying as I tried to call Joe for him to come home to help me with the girls. I could not get him, so I called MeMaw and Paw-Paw, who were wonderful and came right over and did everything for me the rest of the night. Of course the girls didn't complain getting to spend extra time with their grandparents.

We received in the mail this week his mobile, diaper stacker, curtains, and extra fitted sheet. Joe was so good that he went ahead and put up the crib so that I could start putting it together. We should be getting the bedding in the next couple of weeks. The girls were asleep when we did this so the next morning I told them to go look at it. They were both so cute and got so excited to see parts of his room coming together. That was also the very first thing they had to show Memaw and Paw-Paw last night even though they both had their suits on and were ready to go swimming.

The Past 2 Weeks

A lot has happened since my last post.

The Thursday after we found out we are having a boy, Josie and Jolie spent the morning with Other Mama and the afternoon with Pap-paw. They also spent that Friday with Pap-paw as well. Pap-paw stayed with us through the weekend because Joe stayed in Greenville to work Greenville's big tournament. That Friday afternoon Other Mama and I took the girls to see Shrek 3rd. It was a cute movie. It was the girls' first time at a movie theather. The movie was 3D so now I'm afraid Josie will think she will always have to wear glasses to watch movies at the theather. Josie did really well, but Jolie wasn't interested. She did not watch too much of the movie. Saturday morning the girls and I went and got haircuts and ran some other errands. That afternoon we had a Harris family gathering at Aunt Elisa's and had a ton of fun with all the family. Josie & Lol loving playing with the babies, Caitlin and Clara Beth. Our cousin Robert was a big hit as well since Joe couldn't be there to play with the girls. He took them riding on the golf carts, four wheeler, played on the swing set with them, and even played in the caterpillar water sprinkler Other Mama had bought just for this event.
Robert, Laura, and Josie on the four-wheeler:



We also had a little mini shower for Robert and Bethany who are expecting the arrival of their daugther in a couple weeks. Sunday evening Daddy and I cooked out steaks and twice baked potato casserole. Yummy!! Monday Joe got home after being gone for the weekend. We were all so happy to see him. That evening we went and visited MeMaw and Paw-Paw.

Then this past Friday Josie went to work with Joe until around 9:00 a.m. when Aunt Becca came and picked her up for the weekend. She was so excited to go. We rarely get to spend one on one time with either of our kids (let alone two parents to one child), so we took full of advantage of Lol being the only child for the weekend. As soon as I got off work, I picked up Lol and we went and browsed at the local flea market. Then we went home and played until Joe got home around 6:30 p.m. After he got home we went and ate and did one of the girls' favorite things, walk around Bass Pro Shop. Then we headed home for bed. Saturday we slept in and then got up and headed to the Zoo. After the Zoo we went to the mall for lunch. That afternoon we played in the pools and with the water hose. Sunday we went to church and then headed to Greenville to meet Aunt Becca and Aunt Angie for Josie. We got there early so we rode around the golf course until they go there. Josie got out of the car and she was all done up with newly painted fingers and toes, and pretty french braids in her hair. She had been swimming, been to Destin, played with some new friends, and had gone bowling. She had a blast and is in fact already planning her next trip. After picking her up we rode around some more and then headed home. We stopped at a Burger King on the way home, and at one point I turned around to find this:

She was so tired that she fell asleep with both hands on her hamburger as if she were still eating it. Bless her little heart.

Joe still has not heard anything from Prattville, so we just continue to wait and pray. It is crunch time for me because VBS is next week. Mary Kelley has recruited help to get the crafts prepared, so hopefully we will be in good shape for everything when we start on Monday.

We wasted no time in getting Joel's bedding ordered. My mom ordered the bedding set and I have ordered the curtains, mobile, diaper hamper, and extra fitted sheet. Here is what his "theme" is:


Hopefully after VBS we can really work on getting his room set up. Not that we are expecting him anytime soon, as I'm only 21 weeks, but I always feel better knowing that things are taken care of.