Ch Ch Ch Changes!

I am not good with change.

There are SO many changes happening at my school and in my school district for the upcoming school year. It has me all worried and anxious and sad and you name it. My principal is leaving, and several of my "teacher friends", and 2 instructional coaches, and the list goes on. The last time I felt this insecure about my job is 3 years ago when I was forced to move to a new campus. I was terrified. I didn't want to leave my "teacher friends" from my old campus, and I was just not sure about my new principal, and I just didn't know what to do.

But then...

God really showed me how much more He knows about my needs than I think I know! I have NEVER worked at a better campus, under a better principal, in my career. It really has been like a family. I attribute that feeling mainly to my principal (who is leaving) but honestly I think a big reason why it feels like family, is because we have a rough group of students. They put us through.the.ringer on a daily basis. (Well not all of them...but a portion of them that make us feel like it is all of them!) Withou the support of each other, we wouldn't be able to face our jobs some days!

So, I think that is why I am having such trouble with the changes. I felt so secure with these people that I worked with, and now a bunch of them are being ripped away from me. So now, I will have to get used to new administrators, and find new "teacher friends" all while dealing with a new group of students. It is just hard.

But,

If there is one thing I know, it is that God is Sovereign. He knows what is best for me. He knew it was best for me to change campuses 3 years ago, and He knows I am supposed to be there amidst all of these changes. Just like I could never have imagined loving a school more than I love my school....He knows these changes are what I need.

I just have to trust Him.

Hartlee Ruth Williams

So, when you have 3 kids, blogging doesn't happen very frequently! Now that baby girl is 5 weeks old, I figured I would attempt to take a few minutes to blog about her arrival!

Hartlee Ruth was born on January 21st at 9:57am. She weighed 7lbs 12.5 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. For those that like to compare:

Kailey was 9lbs and 20 inches
Makenna was 7lbs 12 oz and 19 1/4 inches

So she is almost identical to Makenna in size. However, she is almost identical to Kailey's newborn pictures.



(If we are being honest about it, the 3 of them are carbon copies of one another. It is amazing! The top picture is Makenna, the middle picture is Kailey, and the bottom picture is Hartlee)

The c-section went wonderfully, even though it seemed to take forever! I am so thankful though, because this was probably the best one of the 3. I was awake (I was asleep for Kailey's) and I didn't get sick! (I got sick after Makenna's). The recovery has been waaaaaay better as well, but I will spare you the details. :)

Adjusting to 3 children is taking some time. It is hard being outnumbered! Makenna has had issues not being the baby anymore. She has been very sneaky and weepy....but that is getting better too.

I took Hartlee to the doctor today, because she was having some discomfort during feedings. The doctor thinks she has acid reflux, so she will be starting on some medicine today to hopefully give her some relief! And hopefully, this will mean she won't be as fussy, so we can put her down more, which will make it easier to take care of the other 2 children! That is my wish at least!

The girls have been a great help with Hartlee so far. They love her to pieces and want to hold her and give her kisses all the time. She is a blessing to have! Here are some of her newborn pictures that we had made by Amy Odom Photography.

37 weeks

So much for me updating once a month....

37 weeks pregnant! I am so thankful to be here. Out of my 3 full term pregnancies, this one has definitely been the most difficult. I am ready for this baby to get here, to hopefully get rid of some of the ailments I have been facing!

Total Weight Gain: 29 pounds (Right now I am sitting at the weight that I finished my pregnancies with both Kailey and Makenna, and I started this pregnancy 20 pounds heavier. So I feel pretty good about that!)

Movement: We are in the "Oh I think that is her foot!" stage, where my belly moves and rolls and she is flipping around. This is my favorite part!

Sleep: What is sleep? If I am not getting up to use the bathroom, I am waking up because I can't breathe out of my swollen nose, or I am guzzling a gallon of ice water because my mouth is dry because my nose is non-functional, or my sciatic nerves and shoulders are hurting because I am sleeping on one side for too long.

What I miss: Sleep. Being able to breathe.

Cravings: Mostly just sweets.

Symptoms: I've already complained about most of them in the "sleep" category, but the worst symptom is the Kidney stones. I had a couple of kidney stones the beginning of November, and then I have one that flares up every now and then, randomly. Last night I was up all night because of the pain. It is really not fun! I am hoping this is only pregnancy related and not something new for me to get to deal with in real life!

Best moment this week: Getting her laundry clean, and her room ready for her to come home!

Prayer Request: Please just pray for my kidney stones to stay away. They really hurt! You can also pray for my anxiety as we approach the C-section. I have all of these concerns and worries that I am not looking forward to experiencing again! I am scheduled for January 21st. So 2 weeks1 Yay!

The Name Game: For those of you who have been following on Facebook, here are the letters so far:

R
E
T
A

And the new letter for this week is;
L!

20 weeks!

Yay, we made it half way! I am super thankful we have made it so far in this pregnancy, without any complications! Here is my 20 week update, and also a prayer request at the bottom.

How far along: 20 weeks

Size of baby: According to the ultrasound on Friday, baby is 12 oz. According to baby center, the baby is the size of a banana.

Maternity Clothes: Definitely. Most shirts still fit around the belly, but it is just easier to go full maternity clothes at this point.

Gender: It's a GIRL! Surprise, Surprise! :)



Total Weight Gain: 7 pounds.

Movement: Each day I feel some thumping, usually in the evenings during the week, and at various times on the weekend.

Sleep: I sleep ok, except that I have to get up a minimum of 4 times per night to go to the bathroom. So, that stinks.

What I miss: Sleep. And drinking diet coke whenever I want. :)

Cravings: Cake.

Symptoms: Peeing every 30 minutes, being really tired, some indigestion, and some ligament pain when I sneeze.

Best moment this week: Finding out that SHE is HEALTHY and a she! :)

Prayer Request: Ok, so it obviously was really wonderful to find out that she is healthy. The only problem is, that Brittyn was healthy too. But, sometime between finding out she was healthy, and my 23 week appointment, she passed away. So obviously, I am having to fight off the anxiety BIG time at this point, because we are in that exact stage of pregnancy where we lost Brittyn last year. Please pray for me, that I won't worry constantly. And please pray for the baby, that she stays healthy and growing and alive. Much appreciated!

13 weeks

As most of you know, we found out at the end of May that I am expecting Baby number 5! It has definitely been a roller coaster of emotions, as has the past year, but we are definitely very blessed, and excited.

My first doctor's appointment was scheduled for the day of my grandpa's funeral, so I had to reschedule it for July 2nd. It was SUCH a huge leap of faith to do that. I just really wanted that peace of mind, as early as possible. But, losing Brittyn taught me, that you can have all of your appointments go wonderfully, but that doesn't ultimately mean you will keep the baby. Plus, God is in control, whether I am at the doctor's office or not, so I just had to trust Him.

Thankfully my appointment went really well, even though I was SO nervous. I am due on January 27th!



Tomorrow, I will be 13 weeks, which I am thankful for. I am really going to try hard to update at least once a month on how things are going. We will see how that works out!

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 13 weeks

Size of baby: About 3 inches long, and weighs about 1 ounce. (The size of a pea in a pod)

Maternity Clothes: Not yet. For a few of my pants, I've been wearing my belly band, but mainly just because I don't like squeezing into them, even though I could. Plus, most days I just stay in pajamas. (See: LAZY Stay-at-home mom, from last post).

Gender: We will find out on September 6th (I could have scheduled it for a week earlier, but that is the first week of school, and well, yeah right. Thankfully my doctor will be doing my ultrasound this time, instead of radiology, which I am thrilled about!)

Total Weight Gain: I am hoping not much. I'll know after my appointment next Wednesday.

Movement: None yet.

Sleep: What is that? It really is ridiculous, but I have such bad insomnia, plus the peeing every 30 minutes, that I usually cannot fall asleep until around 2:30 or so. It is just awful.

What I miss: Sleep. And drinking diet coke whenever I want. :)

Cravings: Sandwiches. Which is SO weird, because normally I will avoid eating sandwiches at all cost.

Symptoms: Peeing every 30 minutes, some round ligament pain that just started this week, and the insomnia. Oh, and sometimes my sciatic nerve in my back hurts, which also causes me to not be able to sleep.

Best moment this week: Hm. I didn't really have anything big that happened this week pregnancy-wise.

Here is a pic of my from last week, at the 12 week mark (See: never get dressed, LAZY stay-at-home mom, last post):

Our Summer (so far)

It has been awhile since I have updated the ole blog! Part of this is because every time I think about having to upload our pictures to make the blog interesting, I cringe. The main reason is because this past week was literally the first week since school let out that we were in town, and didn't have anything we had to participate in. It has been a whirlwind of a summer, and I am thankful I still have one month left until inservice!

School let out on June 5th, and we left on June 9th for Nashville! Casey took the youth to Mfuge at Belmont University, and since my sister Allison lives there, I thought it would be a fun idea to go with them and hang out with her. So, my mom, me, and the girls made the LOOOOOOONG trek to Nashville. We had a great time trying new restaurants, getting to do ministry with Casey at some Rec Centers, going to the zoo, roaming around the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, eating lunch and shopping at the Farmer's Market, shopping downtown, and spending time with Aunt Allison. The only two downfalls were that 1) The girls did NOT want to sleep at the hotel, so it was a challenge getting rest and 2) It was such a LOOOOOOOONG trip. But, I would definitely follow Casey to camp again, because it was nice getting to not be apart from him for the whole week. Here are a few pictures:



Up until recently, I have been very blessed to still have all 4 of my grandparents, still living. The last week of April, my dad got a phone call that his 93 year old dad, had a heart attack. For two months my dad was back and forth between Oklahoma taking care of his mom and dad, every single weekend. My grandparents were married for almost 73 years, and had been living in the same house for more than 60 years! When my grandpa had his heart attack we had to move my grandma into assisted living, and my grandpa was put into a rehab nursing home. He was doing really well rehabbing, but the week before we left for Nashville he was taken to the hospital again, and took a turn for the worst. The next to last day we were in Nashville, my Grandpa King passed away. He lived a very wonderful, full, long, life. The funeral was set for Monday, and we arrived home from Nashville on Friday at 12:30am. Casey did not arrive until Saturday night, late. We left right after church on Sunday to make it in time for the visitation, attended the funeral on Monday, and turned around and came home that same day. Needless to say, we were a tiny bit burnt out on traveling by this point. But, I will say, that the girls did AWESOME traveling. I really couldn't have asked for them to be any better than they were, which was a blessing!

For the remainder of that week, and the following week, Kailey attended swimming lessons at UHMB. This was our first summer of lessons, and she did really well. Up until this summer she has been completely afraid of the water, but she did SO great, and by the end she was jumping off the diving board (still with floaties) with no fear. Here are a few pics of her:



The first week of swimming lessons, the girls also had their 3 year and 5 year check-ups, and passed with flying colors! I also had a teacher workshop for 3 days, which really felt like inservice. :( But when I got done, I realized I still had 2 months of summer left, which was a relief! The second week of swimming lessons, we had Vacation Bible School at church. This was the first year that both girls really understood where we were, what we were doing, and they had so much fun! The only downfall was that it was from 6:30-8:45, 5 nights in a row, so needless to say our sleep schedule got waaaay off, and honestly has not fully recovered!

The following week was the 4th of July! We went back to the Yogi Bear Jellystone resort in Burleson, Texas with Casey's family. That place is just so much fun! In fact, we already reserved our cabin for next summer! We celebrated Casey's 32nd birthday while we were there, participated in a 4th of July parade, and had a lot of fun swimming and other random things.



Kailey left Yogi Bear with Casey's parents, to spend the week in Louisiana. We got home from Yogi Bear on Friday night (the 5th), and then on Sunday, Makenna, my sister Emily, and I left for Oklahoma. As I mentioned earlier, my grandparents had lived in their house for a little over 60 years. And my grandmother literally had never thrown anything away in her life. Seriously. Twisty ties. Plastic bags. Cool Whip containers. Medicine cups. The list goes on. So, we headed up to the house to help my mom and dad (and my sister Laura and brother-in-law Kyle, who also live in Oklahoma) clean out the house. Oh my. Words cannot express what a task this was. We literally took 4 huge loads to the dump, and still had gobs of trinkets, and such to sell at an Estate Sale. We ended up only selling like 1/2 of what we had, and then on the last day of the sale we just told the people that were there to take whatever they wanted for $5! Most of it got hauled away by them, and then my parents took one more load to the dump. My parents arrived at the house on July 4th, and came home on July 14th. It was quite the task! Casey came up on Thursday of that week, and brought Makenna and I home on Saturday. On our way through Dallas, we picked up Kailey, and headed home. By this time, I was even more burnt out on traveling!

This past week was our first week at home without a single thing to do. It was glorious and boring all at the same time. I have come to the conclusion that if I was a full-time stay at home mom, I would be horrible at it. I think I would atrophy into nothing. I am so LAZY! I don't fix my hair, I don't wear make-up, I don't plan fun things for the kids. Eesh. Not to mention that my children have both given up their naps until their teenage years.

I am hoping I am wrong about this, and that I was just tired from traveling. Of course it didn't help that it rained all week and we couldn't go to the splash pad. Needless to say, this week I am going to be one of those really great stay-at-home Pinterest moms that plans cool things like making Moon Sand and finger painting in Ziplock bags. After all, we do still have a month of summer, so hopefully we can still have some at-home fun!

Although we do still have two short trips planned.

Eesh.

Life for 1,000

Brittyn's well in Uganda is complete!We are so incredibly happy, humbled, and at peace because of this project. We are so incredibly blessed to have so many family and friends who gave money to donate so that her well could be funded by her birthday, and built shortly afterwards! Because Brittyn is not here, 1,000 people now have clean drinking water in Uganda, which is AMAZING! Here are pictures of this blessing.



If you have lost a baby, and want to do this in honor of them, the website is www.holdenuganda.org.