Happenings lately

     Well it's been a rough few weeks at the Reed house.  I feel like we've been sick since the weekend before Valentine's Day.  But I think we are pulling through.  Ansley had strep throat.  I used to get that all the time as a kid.  It looks like maybe my kids will too.  Adalynn had her first ear infection and man was it MEAN! My baby that rarely cries except to say "come get me" would just cry and cry and I had no idea what to do for her.  I guess she just hurt.  Very little sleep happened for about a week.  But now we are on the other side of it, hopefully, and we can resume life as normal.  I felt like maybe it was initiation to being a 2 child family or something because it had been years since someone in our house ran fever then all of a sudden one of us had fever for like 2 weeks straight.
     If you know me, you know I am not a runner!  I've never been, but the girls from my Sunday school class were going to participate in a 5k that raises money for autism.  Several of them were walking so I said I'm in because I can walk forever (almost) :).  But a couple girls started a couch to 5k plan and I figured if ever I'm gonna do it, now is the time.  So I've been running (well my interpretation of running) for about a month and a half.  This past week we kinda ditched the plan and created our own, but we'll get there eventually.  Before we started this I was trying to remember the last time I ran on real ground.  We have an elliptical machine so I've run on that a few times but I really could not remember the last time I ran on real earth. HA!!  The first week you only run 60 seconds at a time.  My first time out there I told my friend, I'm cheating, I gotta stop.  HA! I mean one minute seems forever when you're running.   Don't worry she didn't let me stop and now I'm up to running for 10 minutes and then walking a few and then running some more.  But I know all of you marathon runners out there are having a good laugh at my expense.  But, it's totally fine I'm just saying it's hard! :)

Nanny, my mom, and me at Adalynn's baby shower.

     Some not so good news is that this week we found out my Nanny has a cancerous brain tumor.  They were going to remove it Tuesday, but the family decided to take Nanny to a specialist in Dallas before any decisions were made.  She will be seeing the doctor in Dallas on Wednesday.  I am so lucky to have come from a family where everyone knows the Lord and I know the prayers of my Nanny have so much to do with that.  She and my Papaw, when He was still with us, were intentional in letting me and my cousins know about God and the importance of following Him and their legacy to our family is definitely to live a life like Christ.  So obviously, my Nanny is a very special woman.  Our family would appreciate your prayers for her and for the family as we walk through this.

Me with Nanny at their house when I was about 4

     One last thing is I've been trying to decide what to do for Ansley's 5th birthday party.  Plan A is not going to work out so if anyone has any good suggestions we are looking for a plan B.  She is pretty good about being up for whatever, but she definitely has been trying out her own skills as a little party planner.  :)  The problem is she changes plans about every 3 hours.  HA!  

     It had been a while so I felt the need to update so there is a whole lot of un-related information about my life this past month. :)  Hope you friends are doing well!  

EEW, Cockroaches

     So I updated my status yesterday on facebook about my disdain for cockroaches and I thought I should tell the whole disgusting story.
     The family was in the church office, a likely place to find someone in the Reed family.  However, this time it was so I could print some stuff off for my Tx State class.  Adalynn stayed in her car seat for pretty much the whole time.  We sat her seat on the floor while I was at Jay's computer.  Then I carried the seat into the workroom and sat her back on the floor while I got my printouts and punched holes in them.  Then Jay was helping our friend (and church secretary) with a paper she was writing for her Temple college class.  While he was doing that I sat down and had Adalynn (still in her car seat) sitting on my lap where we were face to face.  I was just sweet talking to the baby like everyone does when they see that precious face and all of a sudden out crawls this cockroach from behind her back.  It was like she was sitting on it and then it decided to make itself known.  AHHHH I'm kinda dying all over again.  So, aanyway, the cockroach crawls up onto the side of the car seat on the warning sticker that is right next to her face, literally like an inch away from her face.  I didn't exactly throw the car seat out of my lap, but I didn't set it down gently either.  Then I flailed my arms and said, "get it out, get it out, get it out!"  I look at my sweet baby and she has that puckered lip and a whimper as if to say, mom you're freaking me out.  What is the problem?  Jay came to my rescue... my big, strong, cockroach killing man! :)  Then everyone took a sigh of relief because I had made everyone panic.  Adalynn finally was taken out of her seat at this point. HA!  I really am not that way about anything else, but cockroaches are my arch-nemesis.
     I could tell you the whole back story as to why my hatred for cockroaches is so deep, but I realize no one really cares.  I was just thinking that it is a good thing I am not a superhero like in Batman Begins when he has to face his fear of bats by being surrounded  by them...I couldn't do it.  Sorry Gotham City. :)
I'll post of pic of my sweet baby in her car seat so you can see that sticker and fully visualize the whole disturbing scene. This photo was taken by Ansley when Adalynn was like 2 months old, but you get the idea.

Food

Adalynn has started eating "food".  I tried to be like every other American mother this time and start with rice cereal.  She wasn't a fan.  By this I mean that after the third or fourth bite she would start crying at me. So I decided to fall back on the trusty Secrets of the Baby Whisperer book plan.  I followed this book with Ansley and everything went well so I thought, forget the cereal bring me the pears.  Adalynn loved the pears.  By this I mean she smiles and starts giggling when I put her in her chair.

Eating her first cereal

On the subject of food...
December is just killer when it comes to trying to eat healthy.  Our family by no means qualify as health nuts but we do try to pay attention and eat more good than bad.  Since Jay works at church people are always bringing goodies up there this time of year.  Also Ansley brought a whole bunch of stuff home from her last week at MDO before the holidays.  I didn't realize how much the sweets had taken over until two days ago when Ansley kept saying her tummy hurt.  Turns out after a couple of trips to the bathroom she felt much better. HA!  Eating lots of sweets has always been rough on her.  And "lots of sweets" for Ansley is not much in comparison to most people.  She has just had about three days where she had eaten about 3 cookies a day.  She really doesn't eat "treats" a lot.  She does eat pop tarts and have peanut butter and jelly like every other day but cookies, candy, and such are rarities.  Now with Ansley not eating as much it means that more of it is staring at me all day.  I guess thats why someone decided we needed to make New Years resolutions after the holidays.  :)

Thankful

     Today is Veteran's Day and it just has me thinking how thankful I am for so many things in my life.  I am thankful for this country and those who serve to protect what we stand for.  I could never express how thankful I am to be born into the family God placed me in.  I am surrounded by loving, supporting, Christ followers on all sides to journey through life with as family and I will forever be grateful!  I am so thankful for my husband who is so perfect for me, whom I will never take for granted!  He is such a fun and loving provider, mate, friend, and father.  When days are blah I simply have to look at the faces of my two beautiful daughters to take me to a place of being thankful!  Their smiles and little selves that were fearfully and wonderfully made are so inspiring.

     Over the weekend we attended my 10 year high school reunion.  I was feeling a little awkward about the whole thing but once we got there sweet faces from dear friends eased that feeling away.  I have told many people that I feel my high school experience was different than most because I truly feel most of my friends were seeking to live a life like Christ.  Maybe it was my naivety but I have always been thankful to have been a part of a seemingly rare occurrence.  I'm not saying it was perfect.  There was drama as will always be amongst teenagers, but for me it was an as iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another  (Prov. 27:17) kind of experience.  If it weren't for facebook I would not have kept up with just about anyone, so on my list of "I'm thankful for" I must add facebook. :)

     Being a friend as an adult is way harder than it has previously been.  I guess because there are other priorities that take precedence and because you aren't forced to be in the same location as others day after day, especially as a stay at home mom.  But I am not using that excuse anymore.  I am resolved to be a better friend.  I'm not exactly sure how that will look but I have begun praying already that God would help me to see beyond my door and show me how to be a real and compassionate friend.

The Willeford part of my precious family

Sweet "new" friends

Cookie Lee

     So, what is Cookie Lee?  It is a jewelry business that operates a lot like selling Avon or Mary Kay.  Consultants (me) help people host "home shows".  That is how we sell the jewelry, and that is how a hostesses earns free jewelry.  I hosted a show right before we moved from Clovis to Taylor and I loved my stuff.  They have really cute things at reasonable prices.  The Cookie Lee jewelry I have, I bought over 3 years ago so it is durable as well.  I still wear those pieces which means I am either not up on fashion or the jewelry has been designed well to stay current.  I would love for you to view the catalog online at www.cookielee.com  For now I have chosen not to have a website so you won't find me in the consultant locator, but feel free to email or call me with an order, to host a show, or ask questions.
     If you host a show there are great benefits!  If the sales from your show are over $200 you earn $30 in free jewelry, 2 items at %50 off, and an opportunity to get the monthly hostess special.  The benefits only get better the higher amount of sales dollars your show generates.  Also no matter how much money your show brings in if any of your guests book a show you will receive a $25 gift certificate to use at their show and at least 1 item at %50 off.  All this information is in the catalog too if I am doing a poor job of explaining it.  There is no presentation at the show it is just a time to invite friends over to see the jewelry and hang out.  It is super low key and no pressure, which is reassuring to me.
     There are also ways to do fundraising, which I think is pretty cool.  I will have to look into it a little more and see how it all works but I just wanted to throw that out there in case anybody knows an organization, team, etc. that needs to do a fundraiser.
     So that is Cookie Lee in a nut shell.  I have chosen to do this to hopefully save money to buy a new (to us) car.  You know that Dave Ramsey... He would say to save up and pay cash.  I don't know if we will be able to do that but that is kinda my goal.

What's next?

     Life is so busy these days.  I LOVE the weekends when we have time to just spend together as a family.  We always find something to do.  Recently we have been to Zilker Park, Jay's first 5k run of the fall, Lexington for the Chocolate festival, and the day of all things pumpkin.  The chocolate festival was not so much about chocolate which was a disappointment for Jay and I, but Ansley had lots of fun.  We did all eat some chocolate pancakes.  The day of all things pumpkin we first went and picked out our pumpkin.  Then we came home and painted and carved it.  We roasted the seeds, that I ate almost completely by myself because Ansley didn't like them and Jay doesn't really either.  They were delicious if I do say so myself. :)  We also made pumpkin bread which everyone loved.  There was LOTS so it's good that I had help eating it.

     We are about to enter a new phase of life I think.  As of this weekend our house will be on the market and I will try to start selling jewelry.  I am SO nervous about having people come look at the house with my disaster of a 4 year old who makes even cleaning up a mess.  Seriously, I have to applaud her effort but it is  kind of incredible how that works.  We were given the opportunity to move into our church's parsonage  is the reason we are trying to sell.  It is funny because we were actually talking about trying to sell the house anyway because we really would like to have a bigger yard with shade trees because Ansley loves to play outside and in the summer it is just SO hot.  Right now though, we do spend a lot of time outside which is nice.  Just a couple months ago we had mentioned to some friends that we were thinking about it.  We really do love our house we just kinda wish it was on a different lot.  So we won't be devastated if it doesn't sell.  We would just stay put.  That situation is totally in the Lord's hands to do whatever he wills.
     Now, for the jewelry story.  When we first moved to Taylor I thought about doing this to help our family financially, but was asked to teach MDO instead.  Then I started Grad school and at first I had classes during the day.  Now my classes are online and I can do them whenever.  Although I will have to drive to San Marcos (over an hour from our house) next semester for one final night class.  Then a few months ago Jay and I started talking about it again because our car has been aging quickly lately.  You should hear it start... poor thing.  It musters up all it's energy just to start.  I know you are all thinking... just get a new battery.  And I'm sure that would help but it's more than that I think.  So in response to needing a new car I started really looking into selling Cookie Lee and finding out what it would take and if I think I could do it.  I almost committed a month ago, but decided I should take a little more time to consider it and pray about it.  Well, I meet with the lady who is going to help me make my first purchase on Friday.  I am so hesitant about it because I don't want people to feel like...here comes Jamie she just wants me to buy something.  HA!  I have been praying that it will be a ministry opportunity as well as extra income.  Maybe I can interact with people that I may never have come in contact with before and show the love of Jesus through this silly jewelry business.  This situation is totally in the Lord's hands as well.  I will not be disappointed if it doesn't work out, but you don't know if you don't try.  I know I am not super outgoing so this will definitely stretch me.  I can be pleasant, yes, but I am NOT a conversationalist.  I so wish I could just talk to anyone but it's a real challenge for me to hold conversation with people I do not know.  Anyway after Friday I will post another blog about Cookie Lee just in case anyone is curious.
     So life has been crazy and is about to get crazier.
     Lord, I pray for strength and wisdom to juggle all the balls I have in my life.  Help me to keep my priorities in order so that I don't neglect the important things in life.  Show me how to share your love with the people in my path.  Most of all be glorified and use me as you wish.

Growing Baby!

I don't really have any interesting stories to tell.  Surely something blog worthy has happened in the last month, but life has gotten too busy to document. :)  However I did want to post Adalynn's photos I've been taking each month so I could see them all together.  She is such a doll and I can't imagine life without her.  It's like I've known her forever and she has only lived 3 short months.

1 month

2 months

3 months