Decisions, Decisions....

I make decisions every day from simple decisions that require no thought at all to decisions at work that affect people's lives; however I find myself facing a decision that for some reason is troubling me more that I ever thought it would. To some, I'm sure this post is silly compared to other "real world" problems but I decided to post anyway because I believe (or I hope) that I can't be the only person with this issue. So here goes....

After Sam was born I decided I was going to let my hair grow. I think I actually ended up cutting it a few times before I actually started letting it grow but that was my thought anyway. As any girl knows letting your hair grow gets boring and you need some "style" to it so throughout the course of letting my hair grow I did some simple different things to it. I noticed at one visit to my stylist that my hair was falling out, or so it seemed. I left there in tears but just didn't think much more about it. She and I talked and this was just a few months after my dad had died and she told me stress and other life events can affect your hair...Who knew??  The one thing she did tell me was NOT to stress over my now thinning hair b/c you guessed it....stress affects your hair. But if anyone reading this knows me at all, you know I have had MUCHO stress in the last few years and worry about everything including my hair. Anyways I still was determined. I even had this awesome plan that I was going to let my hair grow and then donate it to locks of love; my dad had cancer, my gran had cancer, many people I know and love have been affected by cancer, my friends families have been affected by cancer so what better thing to do. But I found out that locks of love didn't want my hair because it has been color treated ( I know that shocks so many of you, HA HA).  Appearance, hair, face, weight, etc...sadly define the world we live in. We are judged by what we look like and our appearance and even though I'd like to say I don't care about what people think about me, just like most people, I do.
So, here's the dilemma I've let my hair grow actively for 2 1/2 years I have enjoyed my long hair but I realize that it's not what it used to be. Frazier and I were cleaning out my grandmother's storage and I came across a picture of my beautiful long hair from college and it nearly made me cry b/c my hair doesn't look anything like that anymore.
I've read and read and read about thinning hair, I've taken vitamins, I've tried every shampoo known to man, I even have watched infomericals on shampoo, I know crazy but I've found myself desperate over hair. I guess it bothers me b/c something I feel like I should have control over I don't anymore. Maybe that's why it bothers me so much. I've looked at pictures of myself lately and it breaks my heart.
Like I stated when I started this post, I know to some that read this it's silly but to me it's sad. I used to cut 8 or more inches off my hair and not even bat an eye and maybe that's b/c the choice was mine and I feel like now I don't have a choice and I'm sad about it and still don't know whether to cut or hope for the best. I've attached a few pictures of me when I was younger with the hair I hoped to have when I started this process a couple of years ago.
So in the upcoming weeks if you see me with shorter Locks, here's the reason why!!

 ps: the smaller trophy is for prettiest hair! Go figure!!

Back to blogging!

     Ya know, I think I really do this for myself  because I like to share my life and my family with my friends. I never know who all reads this but if you do hopefully you'll enjoy it. I miss blogging but like everything else, it's new and fun for a while and then something else comes along or I get bored but I thought I'd give it another try.
     So much has happened since the last time I blogged in April or May 2010; hard to believe it's been 2 years! I lost my sweet daddy in October 2010 and what's crazy is before that summer before he died I had never envisioned my parent's dying. I guess I thought your parents died when they were old as dirt and you were old too and your kids were grown with kids of their on but I realized the hard way that's not always the way it is. I feel blessed to have had daddy for 8 days shy of 30 years but what makes me the saddest is that Sam will never get to experience what a wonderful man he was...
     Anyways life has gone on and for the most part it's been good. Sam is growing like crazy and he so independent and vocal! Watch what you say b/c he will repeat it!! He's fun. In January Frazier taught him to climb out of his bed, yes that's right, my husband taught him how. He had never once tried before so we had to go to a big boy bed. I was kind of iffy about it wondering how Sam would do but he's done great and I think that's given him a new sense of independence. Sam has also had his adenoids and a new set of tubes earlier this year and life for us has changed in the most positive way since then b/c Sam actually sleeps so much better! For you moms and dads who's kids slept all night at an early age you are very lucky! Don't ever take that for granted!
     We went to Disney World in October and that was fun! Sam rode on an airplane for the first time. I have a whole new respect for people that fly with children! Sam had a ball! He really like the playground where we stayed and his favorite part of the parks were the parades each day. We got to go to Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween party and that was really awesome! We were there for a week and had a blast!
     Moving on..Let's see we joined FBC Montgomery which has been such a wonderful experience for us. We visited a few other churches and all was good, really no complaints but FBC was the first church that Sam did the best in. He now says "I go to Sunday School" as he runs down the hall to class. This is also Frazier and my first church to join together and that is special. We are still visiting SS classes but I think we've finally found one that fits both of us just perfectly. The good thing about visiting different classes is getting to meet so many great people!
     We are so happy it's spring time now and the weather is pretty! We love being outside and watching Sam play. We had a wonderful Easter with our family and Sam thoroughly enjoyed himself and he really enjoyed the 4 egg hunts he went on, he's a pro now!
     In the past 2 years I've met so many new friends and had so many wonderful times! It's like I turned 30 and then 31 and really discovered who I was, what I liked and how much fun life really is. Don't get me wrong life was fun before then but I've just been blessed by a lot of people in the last couple of years!
    So much has happened and I could write all day but for now that's a brief update! I hope to be better about my blogging!!
     One last thing...If you are reading this I would ask that you keep Jeff & Mandy Moody and their family in your prayers. Their 7 week old baby girl Lela has been diagnosed with retinablastoma, a malignant cancer in the eye. They are traveling next week to St. Jude's hospital. They also have 2 other small children who will be with Mandy's parents. I know that I can't imagine what they are going through and the only thing I do know is the love I have for my child and that says it all. This is a precious family and they need God's healing for Lela!

Have a great weekend!

Sam's new discoveries

Sam has discovered he can roll from his tummy to his back....at first he did it a few times, now he does it all the time and I was able to video it. This week we had attempt #2 with cereal out of a bowl. It went better than the first time we did it so we are making progress. He wasn't quite sure what to think of it...The only downside to his rolling over is that Sam loves to sleep on his belly and when he rolls over he realizes he is on his back and that wakes him up so we went from nearly 10 days of solid sleeping through the night to him sleeping 6 to 8 hours in his bed before he wakes up but it is getting better.

What a week!!

First Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Today my technically my 2nd Mother's Day but my first with my sweet angel outside the belly and so far what a wonderful day it's been. 2 nights ago when we put Sam to bed he was on his back and when I woke up he had rolled over, the same happened the night before and I woke up to him smiling on his back. Well as awesome as this is I wanted to see it for myself and last night I did! I was thrilled!! This morning Sam was dedicated at church and it was a honor and privilege as a mother to have our family there to watch as we gave Sam back to God and all promise to help raise him to a Godly person.

Sam with the help of his grandparents and great grandparents and my sweet husband have all given me gifts and it feels like my birthday!

Last week was a good week. Friday (4/30) I enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Eastside with my ZTA sisters at the Night Owl Alumni dinner. Saturday (5/1) was a difficult day as we did the Estate sale for my gran's house. It was especially difficult for my mom. As we prepare to finalize the house please keep our family in your prayers. Even though we have worked and worked in the house and part of us is so ready to be done the other part is sad to let go of b/c not only was that gran's home but we have so many wonderful memories from that house....Saturday evening (5/1) we had a special dinner for Katie at Bonefish.

Sunday (5/2) was an interesting day. Frazier & I attend FBC in Prattville but his brother, sister in-law and gran and nana go to church at Frazer so we had been talking about going to see the new pastor. We thought Sunday would be a great day to do this. We woke up on time, I had a cute dress on, Sam was looking cute in his blue/white gingham outfit and then all the sudden about 5 minutes before we are to walk out the door Sam spits up all over himself, my hair, my dress and even my feet! Well after changing him I just couldn't get myself re-motivated to go. I'm sure the church members would have loved my 'enfamil' perfume! However Sam and his daddy went to church and surprised gran and nana and was a huge hit!

Monday (5/4) Sam went for his 4 month check up. My mom was planning on coming with me b/c Frazier started his new job with State Farm Monday but she couldn't go b/c she had an outbreak of shingles and she couldn't be around Sam b/c that is the same virus as the chicken pox and Sam has never had chicken pox (Thank God!) Anyways I took him by myself and I was a little nervous but he did awesome! He weights 14 lbs and 5 oz and is 25 inches long. He even did great getting his shots!

Thursday (5/6) we took Sam to his first Biscuits game. I was a little nervous b/c Sam normally goes to bed b/t 730 and 800 but we really wanted to give it a try and he had a blast. We could tell he was getting sleepy but he was all about the game, the lights and the ceiling fan he spotted.

Saturday (5/8) Katie got married and it was a beautiful service....Sam slept through the entire wedding. Jeffrey and Stephanie came in to town and we had dinner at Mimi's and now that brings me back to today! Sam is in his jumperoo and his feet almost touch the ground....He's playing and every few minutes he looks up to watch TV!! So that was our week!

We hope you and your family had a great week!

TGIF!!

So I've decided since I forget to blog and then when I do I have SO much to catch up on that I need to try to blog once a week and I'm going to try to do that on Fridays or at least before the weekend is over!!

We've had a good week! Tuesday night was my first night alone with Sam and we had fun. He crashed about 730pm and slept until 445am. Wednesday night we spent the night with Grammie and it was fun. She let us sleep with her in her king size bed! Sam liked that since he loves to stretch out!

We went up to size 2 diapers this week! My little man is growing so fast and we increased his formula! We have been putting cereal in his bedtime bottle for the last few weeks but I think this weekend we are going to give it to him by itself in his high chair! I am excited about that. Sam has become a bottomless pit! He turned 4 months old yesterday and we go Monday for his check up. I always love to hear that he is doing great but not looking forward to the shots.

When I came home last week Frazier told me to come in the back door b/c something was wrong with the front door. I walk in and Sam is asleep and I think he is walking me down the hall to see Sam but he walks me into the living room and on the mantle is a 16x20 picture of my sweet dumpling. It is my mom's day gift but he couldn't wait and I couldn't either! It was so overwhelming for me. For those of you who know me well I never knew I'd be able to have a baby and I'd walk into friends homes that have pictures all over their walls of their child and then last night as I ate my dinner and watched TV I was in my living room looking at a picture of our son and it just took my breath away. Often in life people question God why this or why that when something bad happens but I find myself saying what did I ever do to deserve this precious life. Not a day goes by that I don't thank God for my beautiful baby!

Please keep our sweet friends Margaret, Darren & Annsley in your prayers. Annsley has RSV. We hope she feels better soon!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Sam is napping beside me on his pallet. We've been watching Brother Bear today and playing. He has changed so much in such a short period of time!! We had his 3 month pictures made a couple of weeks ago and he did so good. I was a little worried b/c he had fallen asleep on the ride over and sometimes he's ill when you wake him up but he did so good and smiled. I have attached a few of those pictures. He had his first trip to home depot and I don't know who was more excited Sam or Frazier. Sam and I played in the buggy and he laughed and smiled. I think he was laughing at my singing but either way we had a good time.
When Sam was born he didn't sleep in his bed much and he became a HUGE fan of his bouncy. Well since then he's always slept in his bouncy (the best gift ever, thanks Margaret!) and recently I've been concerned with what we are going to do when he grows out of that but thankfully he is starting to nap on his back more and roll to his side. Yesterday he was napping and rolled onto his tummy and napped for 3 hours. As precious as it was I don't think we'll be encouraging 3 hour afternoon naps because it was 1230 am before he went back to sleep. We tried to let him sleep in his bed last night and he laid there in the crib for about an hour and just played then he was wide awake....he ended up sleeping in his bouncy but while he was in there he didn't cry so I take that as step one...stay tuned for updates on that one!!
We had to take him to the Dr. this past Tuesday. He had a diaper rash that was causing his skin to crack and bleed. Dr. Bob said this is not uncommon and that the rash had yeast in it. He gave us some antibotic ointment and Sam is doing much better. He also was horse when he cried and sounded like he had baby larengitis and was stuffy and had a low fever. Bless his heart Tuesday was a rough day for him. It took him a few days to get back to normal but now he's doing much better!! Internet isn't cooperating so video for now...pictures later..hopefully!

Sam's goes to the Doctor on Friday and to Atlanta on Saturday!

Sam had his 2 (technically 2 1/2) month check up Friday. At work Friday morning I had my American Pediatric book out studying up on what types of shots he would get. I guess I somehow thought if I prepared myself it would make it better, I was wrong. When we got to the Dr. Sam was super happy, he had no clue what was ahead of him! He weighed 11 pounds and 7 ounces and is 23 3/4 inches long. His head measurement and weight is in the 50th percentile and height in the 75th which isn't a surprise to anyone who knows us! After that Dr. Bob examined him and said that everything looked great! We addressed (once again) his gassiness and are on to more remedies to try...currenty we are on half soy and half regular formula and happy to report that since Saturday he has had wonderful days!

We had a family photo shoot scheduled for Saturday morning but it was raining so we will do that at a later date. We went to Atlanta Saturday afternoon to visit uncle Jeffrey and aunt Stef. Sam slept the entire way there and was a wonderful baby. We opted not to take his travel swing since we had a feeling there would be lots of baby holding with grammie, grandmother, pops, uncle Jeffrey and aunt Stef and that was a good decision. Sam did really good and slept the entire way home as well. I was a little concerned last night since he had slept so much that he wouldn't sleep but he did great! The time change has a whole new meaning for Frazier and I. I used to adjust pretty well but then again I used to sleep a whole lot more too!

All in all we had a wonderful weekend and Sam is doing great!! I attached a video of us playing with Sam! His personality is evolving so much and what we thought was a cough we now think will be his laugh....it is so precious!