Thank you Lord

Sometimes I forget to stop and say thank you for the amazing life I have and the beautiful blessings I have been given. I was reading the blog of a friend earlier this morning and as I read about the pain she has been drowning in after the loss of her toddler, I can't help but sit here and cry (at my desk. at school. while students walk past my door and mutter about the crazy teacher crying in her classroom) and desperately wish I could hold my own son right this second and tell him how much I love him. And so, today, I say thank you Lord.

Thank you for this man, who loves me and his sons with all of his heart.

And thank you Lord for this precious little boy, who fills my day with so much joy there are no words to express. And for his little brother who is already a loved member of this family.

I thank you Lord that you have entrusted me to be their Mommy and their wife. It is a gift that I have never and will never take for granted.

Being a grown up is hard.

Remember when you were younger and you thought "if only I was older, things would be so much better!" What was I thinking?!

Here are just a few of the things that I do NOT like about being a grown up....

1. Dealing with issues regarding my house. Unfortunately, my husband, although totally capable of taking care of things around the house, works too much. Since he works so much, he rarely has time to deal with things like blown electrical outlets, broken sprinklers, clogged drains etc...that leaves me to take care of things. Totally boring and not really my cup of tea!

2. Work. I have always said that I love my job. Teaching 8th graders has always been an entertaining challenge that I have been able to face head on. Not this year. I think I have finally met my match. This group of students is challenging in a way that I cannot handle. For example, in the last week, I broke up a fight between two football players, (yes, I realize this isn't smart being that I am all pregnant and what not....I don't need to hear it again) sent 8 kids to detention and signed up 23 students for after school tutoring to bring up their grade....all of which are under 50% with 4 days left before report cards. I want to help them, but they have to want to help themselves first.....sooooo frustrating.

3. Dealing with bills and money. I know we probably all hate this, but man...Nothing makes this more frustrating than insurance and bills. BLAH. Every freaking time I call them with a question I end up in tears or so frustrated that I can barely see straight. Do these companies screw us over on purpose?

4. Learning how to be a good Mom. Please notice that I didn't say "being a mom" but rather, learning how to be a good one. I want the very best for Jonathan and Baby Ley 2 and sometimes, my concern for them and their well being takes my breath away. I wouldn't trade my job as a Mom for anything, but I could deal without all of the worry. Oh and I am going to add the annoying problem of competitive Moms to this as well. Come on ladies, we all want what is best for our kids.....no need to judge.

So that is that. I think I am just tired right now. I would LOVE to snatch up Jonathan and Zack and go to some beach far, far away and just sit and play and relax. Jonathan loves the sand so he could sit next to us and build sand castles (okay, maybe not yet) and Zack and I could lay on chairs and stare at the peaceful ocean.....with a fruity drink in my hand.....doesn't that sound amazing?

A few things that make me happy!

After reading back over my last post, I feel like it was a lot of complaining. I don't want to come across as somebody that has only been dealing with crap lately and nothing fun, so I want to immediately follow up with the things going on right now that are making me happy today!

1. Jonathan has learned to sing Happy Birthday (or something like it) and after I put him in bed at night, he will lay there singing to himself for a pretty long time. I love to hear that sweet little voice (please do not confuse with the voice I described in the last post...) over his monitor!

2. Since I struggled with preterm contractions with Jonathan, it is no surprise I am already experiencing them with Baby Boy. The good news here is that the best way to control them is to drink lots of water (not the good part) and stay off my feet when possible. Here is the good part....this means I don't have to work out. I don't have to go to the gym or even feel guilty for not going. In fact, I would feel MORE guilty if I did go. I mean, I can't put the baby at risk....

3. Eating. A lot. Obviously being pregnant gives me the green light to eat as much as I want, whenever I want. Right? I sure do love food. (combine this with #2 and we have a winning combination!) My favorites right now are Cheez It's, the new baked "fried" chicken sandwich at Subway, and any candy that doesn't involve chocolate (I LOVE me some NERDS!)

4. The fact that Zack's surgery has kept him home for like 2 weeks. Obviously I am not happy he had surgery or that he is uncomfortable, but I have loved having him around more. Even if he can't pick up Jonathan or really do anything around the house, it is nice to just have him around. I mean, who else would I have watched the red carpet at the Emmy's with?? He is a pretty good guy :)

5. My friends. I have finally found a group of Christian women who are encouraging, loving, supportive, thoughtful, challenging and super fun! We all have babies around the same age and it has been such a blessing to be around them. In fact, we are meeting tonight for accountability group and I couldn't be more excited! (of course, part of that could be the promise of a strawberry smoothie from Starbucks while we sit and talk....)

So hopefully you can see that even in the midst of craziness, we are happy, healthy and blessed! I have a wonderful son and husband, amazing friends and I get to eat a lot. What could be better? :)

I guess an update is in order!

So apparently I am pretty much the worst blogger in history because I forgot I even had this blog. Man, one post and away it went, into the depths of my always busy mind, never to be seen again. Well, maybe this time I will keep it up!

So much has happened in the past few months! Obviously our biggest news is that our family is about to expand again! Baby Boy Ley will be here in January! My actual due date is January 22nd but since I will be having a repeat c-section, I will probably deliver sometime the week before. This makes the new baby and Jonathan almost exactly 23 months apart. Life is about to get pretty crazy! My pregnancy has been good so far. Other than the one trip to L&D, we have been blessed with no major problems!

As for other news, our summer was a wonderful, very much needed time of travel, relaxation and family time. The beginning of the new school year, not so much. The day before my first day with students, I ended up in L&D for dehydration. Unfortunately, I was so dehydrated that I had to stay for 24 hours and get LOTS of fluids. This meant missing the first day of school. Now, if you have ever taught 8th graders, missing the first day of school can set the precedent for the rest of the year. And I believe it has. My kids are still struggling to take me seriously or basically listen to anything I say. So that's been fun.....

The week after my crazy start to the school year, Zack had to go in for knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. When the doctor actually looked at his knee, the damage was much more extensive than he thought, so he ended up doing micro fracture surgery to repair it. Due to the lengthy recovery time with this type of surgery, Zack will be on crutches for 6 weeks, has not been able to drive the past few weeks and will not be able to run/play basketball for about 4 months. And as you can imagine, the crutches kind of hinder his ability to pick up, play with, give a bath or put to bed our little tornado. So that's been fun.....

And finally Little Man. He has discovered that he has a voice (a very loud voice) and he plans on using it ALL.THE.TIME. Yes folks, we have a screamer. A scream at the top of his lungs in the grocery store because it echos, scream at the top of his lungs in the restaurant because it makes people look at him, scream at the top of his lungs at home, in bed, in the kitchen, in the backyard, in the bathtub, in the bathroom SCREAMER. We are working on it, but let's just say....that's been fun....

All of those things being said....it has been a great few months. We are learning just how amazing our families are for dropping everything to come help us and how lucky we are to have friends who are literally calling every single day to see what they can do to help while Zack is out of commission. We are truly blessed and no matter the hardships we are facing, we know that this too shall pass. Soon Zack will be back to normal, Jonathan will learn to control himself and my students....well, let's just keep praying that one day I can be a stay at home mom :)

Coming Out of Hiding

Okay. Fine. I will admit it. I am a blog stalker and have been hiding in the blogosphere for months reading about the "way-cooler-than-mine" lives of my friends. Alright, maybe saying everybody elses lives are cooler than mine is an overstatement....I think I have a pretty fun life. But I have to say that I have friends out there doing some pretty awesome things and they write some pretty creative blogs about it. So, for my first post, I want to share some of the rules of blogging that I have learned from stalking my fellow bloggers. (notice how I say "fellow" like I am a regular already??)

1. As soon as you get pregnant (or buy a house, get a new job...basically any big life change) you have to get a really awesome camera, take totally professional level pictures of your kids (or babies, nursery, belly etc...) and then say "Here are some random shots I took.....but I am just learning! One day my pictures will look great!" Seriously....your pictures already look amazing and way beyond anything I will ever capture with my semi-cheap digital camera!

2. If you are posting a new recipe that you discovered, you must first use the before mentioned camera to take amazing pictures of every ingredient and then of course the final product.

(Great...I am already behind on the first two rules.) And you must of course say things like "this is my first attempt, so bear with me!" even though everything looks insanely delicious.

3. It is important to remember that you have to have at least a few people "follow" your blog. It is like high school all over again. Your blog is not popular unless the popular bloggers read it and follow it. Obviously you only get the points if they click "follow" and are therefore added to the list of followers....making your numbers look bigger and better. Hmm...I can't promise I will ever recieve ANY followers....not to mention a lot of them.

4. And possibly the biggest lesson I have learned is that the best posts are most often the ones about absolutely NOTHING. I mean, look at the success of shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld. People LOVE to hear about the random, everyday, you don't think it is funny but it is actually hilarious stuff that their friends go through. Ahhh....finally a rule I can follow.

So with those rules in mind, I am starting a blog. About nothing. Seriously. I have nothing important to say but like many of my friends, I feel like this would be the easiest way to keep a "scrapbook" of this wonderful time in our lives. Please do not expect to see amazing, professional level pictures, awesome recipes (with pictures included of course) or any sign of friends following the blog. All I can promise is a glimpse into our very crazy, very fun, beautiful life :)