3 sicklings

Sophie has had a yucky nose this weekend, so I took her into the doctor yesterday. Once again---ear infections!

Madalyn woke up in the middle of the night last night vomiting and hasn't quit yet. Poor baby, she never gets sick but when she does, it is bad.

Loraly MAY have an ear infection also. When she was younger, she would always hum when she had one. I guess because the vibration felt good on her ear. So anyway she has started humming and Mark and I thought this weekend she had that look like she wasn't feeling well.

You know the only reason they are all sick is because Mark, Sophie, and I are supposed to be going to Florida leaving tomorrow morning. Hopefully they start feeling better soon or we will have to do some trip postponing.

Sophie said her first word(s)

Sophie said 'A ma' (mama) yesterday! And has said it 3 times since! I get giddy everytime she says it because it is definitely not when you want her to. I know she was saying mama because Mark was holding her after she woke up from her nap, she was leaning towards me crying and said it. So sweet. She has been saying "Hi" for a while now but I didn't know if it was her first word or not because I didn't know if she truly knew what she was saying, but now we know she knows because if you walk into the room she says "HI!" really loud and excited. She also learned to wave when she says it but it is more like she is just putting her hand in the air. So cute...

God has a plan...

So I thank you for all you thoughts, prayers, comments, etc!

I will start about 2 weeks ago Mark got a call from a company down in Florida for a job interview. We were both thrilled with this because first of all WE LOVE FLORIDA, and second of all the money would definitely have to be more than what we live on here. So we decided that we were not going to tell ANYONE because we didn't want people trying to talk us out of it, or anything else. So last week came along and Mark went in early Wednesday because he was going to leave early to head to the airport for his flight to Florida. I got home from working out around 11 and HE WAS HOME. I thought for sure he just decided to take the afternoon off to get prepared for his interview and spend time with the girls. Well, he was actually suspended from work!!!

Ok, let me stop there and explain what happened and why he got suspended---Mark is a purchaser for the company. He has to find bids and get the lowest one and buy the part. But if he spends over a certain amount of money then he has to get manager approval. At the end of every month, he has to use the allotted amount of money or the company can possibly loose that amount for good. So Mark had to buy 3 different parts, and being the end of the month he decided to buy them from different sources so that he didn't have to get manager approval. See, getting manager approval isn't the problem, it is that his certain manager would let it sit on his desk for a good week and then decide to sign it off. So in doing this Mark got the parts they needed plus saved the company over $20,000!

To get back to last week now, the reason they put him on suspension is that SUPPOSEDLY separately orders like this is against company policy but it is a very GRAY area that isn't well explained or Mark would have never done it.

So he went on to his interview in Florida, came home Thursday night late. Friday his work called him in for a meeting---THEY FIRED HIM OVER THIS!

Mark went through a light depression over the weekend and up till yesterday---Florida called and offered him the job and making almost twice what he was making. I know what you are thinking, the cost of living in Florida is higher, well, we found a website that you can look that stuff up, and come to find out where we would be it is only .9% higher than here! The houses are relatively the same prices as here, as are the house insurance, and property taxes. So all in all everything turned out great! Now we are just going to have to move there, leave our families, and basically start all over. Should be fun, scary, exciting, lonely, etc.

Mark will go on his own while the girls and I start school here. When our house sells, and we find a house there then we will move. See Madalyn has been in the same dance school with the same teacher for 4 years. This would be her fifth. This certain dance school gives out 5, 10, and 15 year trophies at the recital at the end of the year. We really want Madalyn to get her trophy she has worked so hard for. So that is partly why we are going to stay here and take our time looking for the perfect house, perfect school, perfect church, perfect dance school, etc.

So to explain the title of this blog: Mark would have never quit his job (not even for another one). He truly believes that his time would have come around at his previous one. We hvae waited for over 9 years for his time to come. He graduated with his Bachelors and thought it would happen then like they told him but it never did. So I truly believe that God had this great plan for him to get fired in order for him to be able to except this new job and be excited about it.

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV says, “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

A packet of Push toys, Sunflower seeds, and encouragement

Mom bought Sophie a new walking/ pushing around toy. Is this not the absolute cutest push toy ever?! She loves it!

My sweet little baby, already 7 1/2 months and already trying to walk!

And yes the tongue sticking out, definitely helps with learning to walk!

This is a very silly picture of Loraly and her friend, Jordan in their beautiful dress up outfits standing by the sunflowers. Earlier this summer we decided that we were going to attempt a vegetable garden. We started from seeds! It was a great project for the girls. And our plants are doing great but our wild bunnies in the neighborhood are enjoying all of our veggies! While at the store picking up seeds, Loraly spotted a packet of mixed sunflower seeds. SHE HAD TO HAVE IT! So we got it home, she immediately took it outside, and poured it into my little flower garden in front of the pool.---THE ENTIRE PACKAGE---ALL IN ONE SPOT! Oh well, look at how tall and colorful her gorgeous sunflowers came out! The pictures don't do the size of these flowers justice! They are about as big around as a grapefruit or bigger!

If you are still scrolling down to look at my pictures, I want to talk about something...we have had some life changing things happen in our house in the last few days. I don't want to talk about them, but I do need some prayers on how to handle them. We have some serious choices to make in the near future and they are not easy ones. Please pray for Mark and I to make the right decisions.

WE NEED SOME SERIOUS SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT!

One year...

I don't even know where to begin...This last year (wow, hard to even say that it has been an entire year!) has been the hardest I have had being a mother. Dealing with death is hard enough as an adult but helping your 6-7 year old child deal with it is astronomically more difficult. We began talking to Madalyn about Paul dying around the age of 4 because it was always a thought that it could possibly happen. In my mind I always knew it would happen, but it was a definite shock to my heart. She always acted fine with him going to Heaven until it actually happened. The funeral was difficult for both her and I. They showed a video debuting Paul's life. Madalyn was throughout the video. That tore me up. The thought of this HUGE part of my daughter's life is now gone----and gone forever! She still to this day won't talk about Paul except on her terms and when she brings him up and unfortunately it is not very often. She still loves him dearly and misses him something terrible. This may be selfish but wasn't he supposed to be her "THE ONE?" Will there be another "THE ONE" for her?

And Paul's parents---I can't and don't even want to know what they have been through this last year. Watching their other sons grow up without their brother, them getting older without watching their son grow also. My heart aches so bad for this family tonight along with every other night they have to spend without Paul.

Tomorrow will be one year...

I remember that day like it is currently happening. I cried and wept all day. I blamed it on being pregnant. Mark and Loraly would ask me if I was ok all day---I just kept saying that it didn't seem real or fair! Paul was supposed to be the one that was healed. Little did I know or realize at that time was that HE WAS HEALED! Just not in the way that most of us here on Earth wanted him to be. He was healed in a much stronger way than any of us can imagine! Glory be to God!

Paul, we miss you! You are and will always be the light of Madalyn's life! I look at your pictures and I still remember the love between Madalyn and you. Please watch over her in a greater power than I can. Madalyn wishes and prays for you every night when she sees your star shining in the sky next to God's!

Love you...

Note to self...

Just a few cute pictures taken on July 4th while waiting for the fireworks to start.

Loraly
Sophie
Madalyn

This picture does not do this justice!!! AT ALL! Sophie was taking her afternoon nap, and the girls were watching a movie during their rest time, so I laid on the couch and shortly after fell into a deep sleep. When I woke up Mark was home, Sophie was awake, and Loraly saw an ant on the fireplace and took it upon herself to use an entire box of wipes to cover the fireplace "to keep the other ants out" in her words. I could not get upset at her because it was the cutest thing and very thoughtful of her! Look how proud she is of herself in the picture!

Bad Mother of the YEAR?

I took Madalyn to the Doctor today because she has been complaining that she is dizzy, "her head is popping", runny green nose, etc. So he diagnosed her with just a bad sinus infection and her ears were not infected but didn't look great either.

So Sophie felt warm this afternoon and has had a runny nose today. I asked if he minded taking a look at her ears 'since we were already there' but he usually will not do this type thing for me. HE DID TODAY and thank God he did! He said her left ear was fine but her right ear was "extremely" infected. I have never heard him explain her ears the way he did today and the look on his face, I had never seen either! I FELT HORRIBLE to say the least. I had no idea that something was going on with her! So here we are, home with 2 of our 3 kids on antibiotics!