My Becca

Becca was taking pictures with my camera a minute ago, so I then took some cute pictures of her. I was putting them on the computer and started looking at old pictures. My little Becca is a ham. She has been since she was a baby. I can remember her crawling around and putting something on her head, just to get attention. She was so different than Maddie as a baby. Maddie was always so serious with her nose in a book. She still is. Maddie loves to laugh and be silly too, but not on the same level as Becca. (I'll do a post on Maddie on a different day) It's been interesting to see how different our two girls are. I'm excited to watch them grow up and see who they become.

Becca has made us laugh so much in the last 3 years. Becca is just an awesome kid. So I have a ton of pictures I'm going to try to add to this, so you all can see what Russ and I see every day. An absolute nut.

These last two cracked up up. Becca is such a tomboy/girly girl. She has on Russ' work out hat with a t-shirt and a fancy skirt and a ton of lip gloss. But that fits who she is exactly. And the last picture is of her trying to wink. She'll just look at me and slightly close her eyes and say, "I was winking at you Mommy." How cute. I love this little girl so much!

Friends

Last nights' lesson at Life Group inspired me a little. We talked about how to have a relationship with God. We compared it to having a relationship with our friends. What do we have to do to keep that friendship up? Number one is communication. If you don't ever talk to your friends, how can you have a genuine relationship with them? Number two is time together. We didn't feel like you had to do something profound together, it just had to be time spent with each other. Number three is listening. If we always do the talking, or the asking, how can we have a genuine friendship? All of these can help us in our relationship with God.

So here's how I'm inspired:
I make time for my family and my friends, and don't spend enough time talking or listening to God. I want that relationship to be better and to be stronger. So, we talked about how to make time for God. Mel said she put a devotional book next to her computer. (This could also be the Bible) She said if she had time to get on the computer to check her email or read blogs of her friends, then surely she had time to spend with God. I love this idea! I often check my email first thing in the morning while eating breakfast. So starting tomorrow (I had to go to Maddie's school first thing this morning) I am going to spend time with God instead of with my computer.

I also want my relationships with my friends to be better and to be stronger. I need to spend more time with them. So here's my plan on that:

I feel truly blessed to have so many wonderful, loving and caring friends. But how much do I know about these friends? Some of them I really only know on a surface level. I don't know their middle name, or their maiden name. I don't know how many siblings they have or where their parents live. So I have decided that I need to get to know my friends better. I am going to start taking two friends to lunch (or having them over) every month. Now I know that isn't a lot, but I've got to start slow. And some of these people may not be "friends" yet, but they will be! (evil laugh implied).

Here's why I haven't done this before: 1. I feel like my house is a mess and I don't want to have friends over unless it's spotless. I'm betting you all have dusty shelves and a floor to be mopped too. So I am going to stop worrying about it and invite people over anyway. So ignore my mess! And 2. I would rather spend my money somewhere else. Well, this is obviously a very selfish statement. It's not my money anyway, it belongs to God and He will provide. So I don't care about the money. ( That doesn't mean we are going out for steak!)

So now my next job is to call a few friends and set up lunch dates. Anyone want to come over to a messy house and have a turkey sandwich with me?

Jenny

I haven't blogged in a week, because I have been at a total loss of what to say. For my family and friends in Iowa that don't know, I have another friend who just found out she has breast cancer.

Jenny found out a little over 2 weeks ago that she has Stage IV breast cancer and it has spread to her liver. They are treating her liver first before they can do anything about the breast cancer. Her brain and bone scans came back clear which is a huge relief, but she has such a battle ahead of her.

I met Jenny at church, but didn't get to know her until I joined the Y. Jenny L. had encouraged me to join the Y, which I was actually very excited about. And once I started going, I loved it. Jenny R. introduced me to step class. She was great at it! We had so much fun! But the class I had the most fun in with Jenny was the spinning class. Jenny L. had been taking it and thought it was a great workout. She convinced Jenny and I to go with her one lovely Tuesday morning. Well, if you've ever taken a spinning (or cycling) class, you know that those seats are not made for people with larger behinds. They are teeny tiny little seats that are so extremely uncomfortable! Jenny R. and I were mad at Jenny L. for at least a week after that dumb class. I seriously couldn't walk right. My tushy hurt soooo bad! I didn't know you could get bruises there! But we did enjoy the class and we both went out and bought big silicone bicycle seats for the next time!

Jenny is one tough lady. She is a fighter. She has so much to fight for. Her husband, Jeff, and her two boys, Gunner and Brandon. Read her blog to find out more about how wonderful of a person she is. (It is the one that says Jenny-Rev it up) And please pray for her and her family. Jenny moved to Florida over a year ago, so she is not here for us to hug. She knows she has a ton of love from us in Oklahoma, and so many prayers are going up on her behalf. Please stop what you are doing and say a prayer for her right now.

Thank you.

Maddie's first dance

Maddie went to her first boy/girl dance last night. I know, she's only 5. But her date was her daddy. They went to the Daddy/Daughter Dance.

Maddie was so excited! She couldn't believe she was going to get to dress all up and dance with Daddy. She talked about it for weeks.

So we went and got her a new dress, painted her fingernails and toenails, and made her hair all "fancy". I even made a corsage for her. It didn't stay together the entire dance, but it looked good for pictures!
Here's Russ putting on Maddie's corsage.
Don't they look ready to dance?
How cute is this?
Ready to go!!
My homemade corsage. We bought a single rose and I cut it off the stem plus three leaves. I then hot-glued it all to a lavender ribbon. Russ tied it around her wrist and ta-da- a corsage.

Russ said they had a good time. But I need to teach our daughter how to dance. I guess she was a little all over the place. I was picturing Elaine from Seinfeld. OK, maybe not that bad, but a little awkward. Anyone know a good (cheap) place to take dance lessons?

T.G.I.F.

Thank goodness it's February!

Russ and I are back on the cash only system for our budget. We took a class at church about a year and a half ago. We used Dave Ramsey's book- Financial Peace. We learned a lot from it and have been trying to apply what we learned to our financial life.

I am blessed to be married to a man with a very financially-conscience mind. He keeps us on track with our money. I don't do a bad job, but it's very easy to overspend at Wal-Mart when you use a credit card.

We have used a Discovercard for over 10 years. (It's the card that pays you back!) We feel like Discovercard hates us because since we pay off our balance every month, they are having to pay us to use their card. Win, win for us, right? Well, not when you buy things you don't need.

So we set up our budget over Christmas and I went to the bank to get lots of cash to make it through January. I am proud to say I only cheated twice. That is-using my credit card. Once, it was an honest mistake- just habit- at a restaurant. The other, I found a $65 toy that we almost got the girls for Christmas on sale for just $20. I didn't have any budget left, so I was weak and used the card.

As of LAST Tuesday, I only had $8 left in the grocery budget. Enough to buy two gallons of milk. That's it. So I made it almost 10 days without getting groceries.

And as far as my personal budget. I saved $20 of it. I really want to have a 3D or 4D ultrasound with this baby. I didn't have one with the girls, and I think they are so neat. So I am saving my money. It's not easy. I have to get my hair cut this month, I'm out of my face make-up and I need new undergarments. (things get bigger when you are pregnant!) So I am going to try really hard to not buy anything else.

We are doing this again because I really want a new house. But we have no down payment saved up for it. So that is what we are going to be working on. So now I think, "new pair of shoes, or new house?" That helps me stay on track. I'll let you know how it goes!