It's Just Not Worth It

Have you ever had a situation where you wanted to say something somewhat mean to the person you're talking to in order to "put them in their place?" Or maybe not so much say something mean, but just voice your opinion on the subject matter at hand, knowing that you will completely disagree with the person you're talking to. I've had this happen to me a lot lately and am finally starting to learn that it's just not worth it.

Most of the conversations I have like this are a difference of opinions or experiences. The times when I have said my peace to the person (or getting the last word in as my Mom said I always had to do as a kid) I've left that conversation feeling bad. I felt dumb for having to make myself heard and felt like I hurt the other person's feelings or made them feel dumb or embarrassed if there were others around who heard our conversation.

I'm very proud of myself because just this past Monday I had the same situation come up and although it was really hard, I decided to not get the last word in and let the situation go without voicing my comeback. I knew if I did say what I wanted to say I would have felt bad and hurt the other's feelings...even though they hurt mine in the first place. :)

I'm learning to try and let it go....it's just not worth it!

My Niece

My only niece, Hadleigh Denise Wiseman, was born on May 13. This is just 2 weeks and 1 day after Lucy! She was born to Ross' brother and wife, Matt and Jennifer. Hadleigh has two big brothers, Conner and Tucker. It was so much fun texting with Jennifer during pregnancy, sharing all of our pregnancy woes of heart burn, sleeplessness, miserableness. :)  Now our texting has changed to sharing about our girls.

Over the weekend, Matt, Jennifer, and their kids took a weekend vacation to Branson. Ross and I were able to meet up with them Saturday night to meet Hadleigh. It was such a fun time! Lucy wrote about it on her blog. Check it our here!

Bittersweet

June 6 was a bittersweet day for me. I went in to work for the last time and cleaned out my office and turned in my name badge so I could officially begin my new job as stay at home mom.  I have been employed at the Assemblies of God headquarters office since October 2004 when I took a job as the Promotions & Events Coordinator for the U.S. Missions division. You can read more about my job and see pictures of my office here.

I have worked in the same position for 8 1/2 years and learned so many valuable professional, personal, and relational lessons that I'll take with me for the rest of my life. I'm thankful for the experiences I had and the trust that my bosses and coworkers had in me. I made some good friends there and will definitely miss them. I'll miss the work, but not that much! I'm sure there will be days when I'll wish I could go to an office for adult interaction, but now I'm happy to be at home with my daughter and take care of her.

I received several compliments from coworkers during my last week of work (in April before Lucy was born) and when I was there a few weeks ago about how they will miss me and that I was such a good, responsible worker. That made me feel really good!

I'm very thankful that from the beginning of our relationship, Ross and I agreed that the best thing for our children some day would be for me to stay home and take care of them instead of going out to work. We'll have to make some changes in our spending habits - going from a double income, no kids family to a single income, one kid family definitely changes our finances - but it will be more than worth it! So, here's to being a stay at home mom!

My Little Family

Here's a picture of my new little family for you to enjoy!

Perspective From The Eyes Of An 11-Year-Old-Boy

Last July I wrote a post about something my nephew, Trevor, said. This post dealt with his perspective as a little boy. You can read about it here. I was with him this past week and he said something that made me realize how much different of a perspective kids have than adults.

We were driving and came to a stoplight where a man was standing at the intersection with a sign that said "Hungry and homeless. God bless." As Trevor saw the man and read the sign, I could tell that as he was reading it he was sincerely concerned about this man. He talked about him for about five minutes saying how he wished he could help the man and how he felt sorry for him, especially since it was a hot day. I could hear his hurt for this man in his voice.

I'm kind of ashamed to admit that Trevor's reaction to seeing this man was much different than mine. Trevor saw the man as being completely sincere and honestly needing help and wanted to help him. I saw the man as a possible liar and wondered if he was just trying to run a scam on all the passers-by.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way about the people who stand on the street corners like that. I wish I wasn't so jaded and cynical about those people, but unfortunately there are some people who have ruined it for those who are sincere about needing help.

I thought about Trevor's innocence and naivety to this situation and wished I could be like that. I wonder when it is that we lose that innocence.

Rookie Mistakes

Parenting...there certainly is a learning curve for new parents and I was made very aware of this Friday night!

We went out to dinner with my parents and this is the third time we've been out to eat with Lucy. All the times before when we've gone out she has done really well. She's just slept in her car seat and not made a peep. Friday night was a little different, though.

I fed her before we left home and she was awake on the way to the restaurant. When we got there, she slowly started to fall asleep. We were about 3/4 of the way through dinner and all of a sudden she just started crying. Not just a nice, little cry, but one of her waling cries. We were at Zio's, which is a pretty loud place, so it wasn't very noticeable to everyone around us. Thank God. :)

 I immediately got her out of the car seat and tried to calm her down. This didn't work, so I thought maybe she's wet. I got the diaper changer and diaper from the diaper bag and headed to the bathroom.

Now I was a bit nervous about this because I haven't had to change her diaper in public yet, so this was a new experience for me! I went into the bathroom and looked around for the diaper changer station but couldn't find it. I stood there for a few seconds trying to figure out what to do. I looked at the floor but thought no, I can't put her on the floor (even though I have a changer thing to lay her on) in a public bathroom! So I headed back to the table to get the keys from Ross - I was just going to change her in the car.

When I got back to the table I told them my problem and my Mom said perhaps there's a changing station in the handicapped bathroom. I took the keys and went back to the bathroom and she was right. There was a changer in the handicapped bathroom, but I couldn't get it to work right. By that I mean that the table I was to put Lucy on would not fold down level. I don't know if I didn't try hard enough or if it was broken, but I just didn't want to mess with it, especially while holding a screaming baby. So I headed out to the car.

I got out there and set up my changer thing in the backseat and got her changed...all while she was crying. After her diaper was changed she still did not calm down. The only thing I could think of was that she was hungry, so I fed her. In the backseat of Ross' car. Without my "hooter hider" that was in the diaper bag. I simply just tried to be as discreet as possible and hoped that the people in the car next to me did not leave while I was in the backseat.

I learned a few big lessons that night:

• Always take the diaper bag to change her, or take everything out of it that I might need, even if I think it won't be needed. 
• Always bring a bottle in the diaper bag, even if I think I won't need it. 

I guess some things are just learned through experience!