Finding My Faith

After the things that I have been through in the last couple of years, I often find myself struggling with my faith. I think that I questions God's motives sometimes and have to remind myself that there is a reason for everything that happens. It is Gods plan for my life, and I just need to give him my all and he will mold and shape me.

Jamie and I haven't been to church in awhile for the fact that I work every weekend and have to sleep during the daytime while service is going on. When we have been we go to Abiding Savior Lutheran Church. We go to the more modern service and really enjoy it. Jamie is a Baptist and I was a Methodist, so we were looking for a church that we both could enjoy. The preacher is young and makes the sermon relate to everyday.

The other day I thought that I needed something to redirect my faith on a daily basis and I found a daily scripture and reading from Joel Olsteen (hope I spelled his name right). I love it, every day Jamie and I read it together and talk about it. I actually look forward to the next days readings and think to myself "he must have known that we are going through this," and "oh my gosh this couldn't relate to me anymore." I am going to make a conscious effort to give a 190% more time and energy to help myself through this struggle and learning period. I will keep you posted on how it goes!!!

Big Changes

So I have decided after tons of thought to make a change........... I am done with working weekend option. Starting the next schedule at work I will be just regular full time night shift. I will work more during the week and only one weekend every four weeks. It will be super hectic during the week, but so nice to be home with Jamie and Grace on the weekends.

I will be taking a major pay cut but its manageable!!!! As I am getting older I have came to the conclusion that money is nice but it isn't everything. It has put a major strain on our marriage with me not being home. I am almost giddy thinking of being able to be home with my husband all weekend. Right now he is off every weekend and works all week, and I am the complete opposite.

Jamie will take Grace to her babysitters Ms Judy and I will pick her up. My boss was super supportive of the decision and will move me to full time asap. Wish us luck, it has been a wild ride

I heart fall

I love love love love Fall. It is my favorite season. I love every thing about it. The changing of the weather, the smells, bonfires, wearing jackets, the upcoming holidays, etc. I already started burning my Pumpkin Spice and Vanilla Bean candles.

For the last couple of years I have enjoyed Halloween more than every holiday. I love giving candy out to the kids and making them tell me jokes. My mom makes chili and hot-dogs. I love seeing my siblings dressed up. It is so less stressful than any of the other holidays. Having a small child and the holidays is stressful having to make sure that you hit all the stops that you need to and keeping them happy. So I enjoy a laid back one.

I had bought Grace a little pink bunny outfit to wear to trick and treat in. My dad had called me the other day and told me that he saw the cutest little witch costume at Cracker Barrel (Hope I spelled that right) and asked me if I had already bought her a costume and I told him yes. I went to pick up Grace from her Friday with her Grandma Jo Anne and there it was hanging up in the kitchen. My dad told me that he couldn't resist buying it for her. I just hope that she keeps the witch hat on her head. I plan on getting her pictures taken in it next week.

I can't wait to take Grace to the Pumpkin Patch and Eckerts this year, everything is so much funner now that Grace is in our lives.

Condo off the market

Well our home is officially off the market. We ended our contract with our agent over the weekend. A couple of weeks ago, I had a family that had knocked on the door and asked if they could come in and look around but didn't have an agent with them. We exchanged information and they even came back to look a second time. We never heard back from them, and I didn't call and bother them.

Sunday morning we found a post it on our door and it was from them asking us to give them a call. The lady had lost my contact info. and was wanting to tell me that they were still interested. They were going to meet with a financial officer yesterday and keep me posted.

I pray everyday that something comes about, we want to buy a new home so bad............ We have a couple in mind that we like, but don't want to get our heart set on anything because you never know how long it will take us to sell this one. We are going to go ahead and try to sell it for sale by owner for a few weeks. Please keep us in your prayers that something will eventually happen for us. I never ever want to have to sell a home again!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mizzou Game

Jamie got us great tickets to the Mizzou game on Saturday. My parents watched Grace and she even got to stay the night over there. We has such a FABULOUS time. Our seats were beyond AWESOME. We have been to a few games together but when you sit so close to to the action it changes everything.

Mizzou played Bowling Green and the game started off kinda sketchy. We weren't playing very well and it was pretty frustrating. After half time our boys came out and played a whole new game. We ended up coming back, held the lead, and won. It was so much fun. I am starting to really understand football and enjoy watching it, I have to- It is my husbands first love and was around way before I came along.

We had sat by some people that had some cute little ones and it made us miss Grace like crazy. I am now on a mission to get Grace a cute Mizzou outfit to support her favorite team.

Date Night

After working so hard and for so many days in a row, Jamie and I were in some desperate need of some quality time. We dropped Grace off at my moms and she watched Grace for the evening. We headed over to Bambino's Restaurant in Arnold.

Bambino's has a great patio, and we love outdoor dining. Pasta was 50% off and that made our decisions easy. I loved what I ordered. It was noodles in red sauce, meatballs, and provel cheese that was twice baked, it was yummy. Jamie got some type of chicken and cheese pasta.

After dinner we headed over to Target to do some shopping. It had been a long time since we both went into Target and boy could you tell we did some splurging. I bought some tights and socks for Grace, I bought myself a Halloween t-shirt, and a new book. Jamie bought the new season of Friday Night Lights, the movies "Role Models" and "I love you man." Target is my FAVORITE store and have a love relationship with it. We were on a mission to buy a Halloween tablecloth and could only find plastic ones not cloth ones. So, maybe this week I can go look again and see if they put any out.

We ended a wonderful night with picking Grace and up and seeing that she had a great time with my family. My mom said she was showing off and behaved great. My sister and brothers just love her so much. There is nothing better in the world than seeing people that are so dear to me be so crazy about Grace, she kinda runs the show over there.

Busy Busy Busy

Last week was wonderful! I knew I had to work five days on and then one off and two more on, so I needed to spend as much quality time with Grace as I could.

Tuesday we went to Botanical Gardens with some of my friends from work and their children. I was kinda skeptical because Grace is so little, but we had a great time. It reminded me of Peter Pan's Never Land. It had different levels, slides, caves, boat, etc. Grace played well with the other kids, and we had a picnic lunch with my friends. Before it was time to leave we all fed the fish. Grace was in awe of them, she stood on the bridge and just put her head through the sides and pointed to them.

Wednesday Jamie took a half day at work and met me at the Zoo. The weather couldn't have been anymore beautiful and it seemed like we had the entire zoo to ourselves. Grace rode on the carousel. We spent our time going through the different animal houses. It was great to spend time with the two people that mean the most to me in life before the start of a busy week.

JoAnne's 50th Birthday

Saturday I threw my mom a surprise party. I had been planning it for awhile and it went over pretty well. I told my mom that her, Sarah, Grace, and I were going to get our pictures taken. I told her that I was running late so Jamie was getting Grace ready and he would meet us at the commuter parking lot with her. So I pick up my mom and Sarah head over the commuter parking lot and they are my moms friends with a banner waiting for her. She was totally surprised. We told her that we were taking her to the winery. So my mom doesn't drink but I thought it was a good idea for the fact that we could sit around and talk and listen to music and people could drink if they wanted to.

The problem was that you could tell that we were all a bunch of housewives that work full time and don't get out much because we had a little too much fun!!! My mom was mortified, she sat there all day and drank Diet Coke and I am pretty sure we embarrassed her. All in all, I had a fabulous day- Great friends, great weather, and a great place. I don't think I will be drinking wine anytime soon though!!!!