Update

I am planning to update soon, just have been very busy! I haven't yet finished my post for the Bible study on salvation. Need to get things organized so that it'll make sense to someone other than me.

Anyway, quick update: life is great in the Baumguardner home, except for me being sick the past few days. I don't know if it's allergies or what, but I've had a runny/stuffy nose, sore throat, and throbbing head. I finally got some Claritin today. That, by the way is crazy! The generic brand of Claritin with the same dosage strength and number of tablets cost $4. The actual Claritin brand was $23.99!! What?! That's just insane to me. Yeah, I went with the generic :)

On another note, Ella's getting so big! She's still got the same six teeth since my last post with no new additions, but they're big! Lol, it's weird to see her with big teeth. Her birthday's coming up on Wednesday. Bianca and I decided to have the parties separate, as our family schedules were conflicting. I have a lot to do before the party on Sunday.

Anyway, I'd better go. I've got several things around the house I want to get done today. I can't wait for my post on salvation coming soon but want to make sure it's done right :)

And while I did work this weekend, thought I'd share this just because it's cute!

Salvation

I've had discussions in the past with friends with difffering opinions from me about salvation. I actually really like discussions like this as long as everyone is courteous and respects other people, regardless of their beliefs. I don't usually post much on why I believe what I believe, but since this one is of particular importance to me and it's been on my mind, I'll share.

I'm wanting to do a bible study today and I think it'll be based on this topic. Sam gave me this great idea to make one post with nothing but scripture about salvation and whether or not a person can lose their salvation. The next post will be exactly that- not my opinion, but exactly what scripture says. I'm thinking of adding something to that post that includes what the early Christian church believed. While I understand that many people believe only what the Bible itself says, I think it's important to correlate both Scripture and what the early church believed and practiced. That way I can understand scripture in the context in which it was written and try to understand it as the people of Jesus' time did. Not only that, but it helps me to see how Christianity as a whole might have moved away from what Christ originally taught.

I think I'll include that after all, though I'm not sure it'll all be in the next post. Anyway, just a heads up as to what's to come. Please feel free to ask questions or leave a comment as to why you believe what you do. I welcome all discussion as long as everyone is courteous to one another.

As a side note, I am very interested in apologetics, but more than being able to justify why I believe what I believe, I always keep in mind that is is more important to show Christ's love than to show how right you are. Like the song says, "... And they'll know we are Christians by our love."

:sigh:

I feel exhausted. But my house is clean. Mostly.

No plans for today, but I hope it's a good one.

Hope I get over this feeling of tiredness.

Just some thinking

Life has been fast paced lately. I worked extra last Thursday to make up for a day I was sick the week before. Then I worked my normal Friday and Saturday but spent all Saturday night and Sunday sick with food poisoning. Uggh... It was horrible. Went back to work Wednesday and Thursday and hardly got to see Sam at all. That's the not so fun part about him working nights and me days. I'm so blessed to be able to work only two days a week. I don't know how we'd do it otherwise. I still feel that even with two days a week of me working I don't see him as much as we want. We've decided it would be best for him to switch to days a while ago, but alas, a position just recently opened up. He's going to apply, and I really really hope he gets it. The only iffy thing is that the requirements said the position would require frequent traveling between labs, and the other lab is in Maryland. That might not be so much fun.

Other than that, life has been pretty great. Ella baby now has 7 teeth!! She got her first tooth February 6th, the day she turned 10 months. I can't believe another 6 have come in since then! It's really cute; she has 6 on the top and 1 little loner tooth on the bottom :) Melts my heart when she smiles. I want to put so many pics and videos of her on my blog, but our computer is super slow at uploading. Bummer. We're thinking of getting. A new one soon, because the laptop we use now is the one Sam bought right before college, like in 2005. He's wiped the hard drive a couple of times already, and it runs fine most of the time. It's just really slow when it has too many processes going at once.

Well we find out the sex of our new baby March 16th hopefully. I'm so excited! Everyone keeps asking if we want a boy or girl, but honestly, I don't know that I'm leaning one way or the other. A boy would be great because we don't have one :-b On the other hand, a girl would be wonderful too, because then Ella would have a close sister. I'm the oldest of three girls. My two little sisters are 16 months apart, and I am 2 years from the middle sister. It was really nice growing up with someone, in my case two someones, close to your age. My sisters and my husband are my best friends. I want that for Ella, too. I guess boy or girl, she will have a close sibling, and that's what's important to us.

The weather is supposed to be in the 70's today. I think we'll go forma walk at the park and let my legs catch a few rays :) I think pretty soon I'll go for a pedicure and buy some nice brown sandals to show off my toes. I'm so glad it's getting warm now!

Bianca and I need to start planning the babies' birthday party. Levi and Ella both turn 1 April 6th. I absolutely cannot believe she's about to be 1. It's amazing how fast time goes by. I so love her and love being a momma :) One of my favorite parts of the day is when I go to pick up from her crib in the morning and she gets so so happy to see me. It's like she knows who momma is <3

Anyway, back to the party stuff, we really ought to get started on the planning. We don't want anything really big or fancy, because they're not going to remember it anyway. But I do want our family and a few close friends there to celebrate with us. The question has become how
much family to invite. Sam thinks we should keep it between our two immediate families and grandparents. I feel bad doing that though, because we get invitations to o to all of my cousins' kids' parties. Everyone invites everyone. The thing is that I have a lot of cousins. At least 25 first cousins on my mom's side (that's being conservative) and probably another 15 first cousins on my dad's side. At least.

While I know they won't all be able to come, it'll still be a big crowd. We're most likely going to have the party at our house. We're thinking of
renting those big inflatable jumpers for the kids and making burgers or something. We have a huge backyard, so we'll have more than enough room. I just don't know. Sam wants to keep it small and I can understand. But to me, family is family. I'll have to ask Bink what she
wants to do.

Love it

A Happy Spouse Is A Happy House By Colleen Martin

Posted by Colleen Martin on November 27th, 2010 in Columnists

So then why am I so busy trying to make myself happy at his expense?  I like to think that for most of the month, I am a nice, affectionate, sweet, and understanding wife. But there’s that one stupid week per month where I can act like a total witch, and unfortunately, my husband bears the brunt of all that angst.

Suddenly, he’s not helping out enough, even though he does everything he possibly can.  Or maybe it’s just that he’s not doing it correctly, or fast enough, or reading my mind.  I’ve even argued with him about splitting an english muffin with a fork. I maintain that they are already fork split, you just have to pull them apart, but he thinks to maximize the nooks and crannies, you need to use the fork to split them.  He sees potential yumminess, and I see another dirty fork in the sink.

Speaking of dirty dishes in the sink, I was recently heard singing “It’s a magical sink, a magical sink, where everybody puts in their dirty dishes and they come out clean.  Don’t worry about cleaning them yourself because it’s a magical siiiiiiiiiiiink!”  Pathetic song and even more pathetic attitude.

Why do I feel the need to bark at him about helping with the laundry, when he has never once asked me to mow the lawn, fix the faucet, take out the trash, or work full-time to support the family.  Why do I see what he isn’t doing instead of all the things he does for us every day?

I think many of us wives can admit to this sort of bad behavior from time to time, and I’ve been looking for ways to overcome it.

First, I put myself in his place.  Would I like to come home to a nice dinner and a clean house, or to a nagging spouse who complains about every detail of his day?  Would I like to get a thank you for all I do, or a list of things to do?  The answer is easy; treat him as I want to be treated.

Secondly, I learn to love him in the language he hears best.  For my husband, that is with physical touch.  Although at the end of a long day, I sometimes feel “touched out” by the babies, a hug or back rub shows him just how much I love him.

Another way to become a better wife is to change my attitude in my daily chores.  I recently read a wonderful article that suggested replacing the “have to” with “get to”.  For example, I don’t have to take care of my kids; I get to take care of them.  I get to go to work to help our family’s financial situation.  I get to make a wholesome dinner for my husband and children.  It truly gives my priorities a much needed makeover at times.

Finally, I can offer it up.  This month of November, as we pray for the Souls in Purgatory, we can offer up all our daily nuisances for their eternal salvation.   It’s not easy being a good and holy woman, but it’s a lot better to suffer here on Earth than in Purgatory.  So carry your cross with grace and with a smile on your face.

These are some of the things I have been trying to do to make my spouse (and house) happier.  What are your tricks for having a happy spouse?  I’d love to hear them!

Copyright 2010 Colleen Martin 


Source:

Little by Little

It's 7:07 pm as I begin this post and already Ella's been crashed out for about 20 min. Silly girl didn't want to take her afternoon nap so bedtime today was 645. She did the same thing the other day and slept 645 to 9 in the morning! Her usual hours are 8 to 8. We'll see about tomorrow :)
I feel accomplished! Over the past few months Sam and I have been seriously talking about getting rid of some unnecessary monthly expenses so we can build our savings faster. We looked at some of our bills that can be modified or completely cut out and set up a mini plan to make it happen.

1) We bought the Land Rover in Oct. with the intention of selling my Nissan Rogue so that we'd have no car payments. There were few repairs Sam's had to make to it and we bought all new tires. With him having school and work, the work on the Rover is almost done and hopefully very very soon we'll be selling the Rogue. Yaay- no more car payment and decreased insurance!

2) We have really not been happy with our current cell phone plan. I don't ever dicuss exact dollar amounts pertaining to our finances, but I'm sharing this one to prove a point. We have Verizon. Sam has a Blackberry with the unlimited data plan and I have a regular phone with Internet capability but I don't have a data plan because I don't use the web on my phone. We share 1400 minutes and have unlimited everything else: texting, picture messaging, no roaming... Well, we pay $195 a month for this "service". We've been trying to understand how in the world we're paying $200 a month for two phones and one of those doesn't even have Internet?! What?! Outrageous considering my parents still have my two sisters on their plan and pay less than $175 for four Blackberries (lol) with unlimited everything!! We went to Verizon today to see if we could lower our bill and I left completely unsatistfied. We're considering paying the early termination fee and switching to another carrier.

3) We went to our gym today (one of the 2-3 times in over a year, sad, I know). We realized what a waste it is to pay a membership fee for both of us every month when we never go. Seriously, this past November made 1 year that we hadn't been and our first time back was one day in January. Sucky thing is that when we joined, we signed a two year contract. Ugh, so wasteful, I know. Well, we went today and paid the early termination fee to get out of it and stop throwing money away. Finally. We should've done that a year ago. Oh well, it's done.

So I feel really good to say that we're taking steps at trimming some of the fat from our budget. All that money will be reallocated to savings or home improvement projects. There are still a few more areas we're going to be looking at and adjusting, but I feel more efficient, less wasteful, and overall satisfied with and proud of our progress.

Lately I've been wanting to write, but alas with nothing to write about, I've been quiet.

Right now I lay in bed pondering what I'm pondering. I feel as though I have so many thoughts in my head while I cannot name any of them. Strange feeling.

Over the past 2 1/2 weeks Sam has been talking an online winter interim sociology class to get close to wrapping up prereq's for PA school. Uggggh I HATE this class! The professor apparently thinks sociology is the most important thing in the world and treats his class as such. Sam had 33 assignments and tests in 19 days.... ahhhh! And the professor made the assignments in such a way that he had to read all the chapters to complete them. With him working and trying to get an A in this stupid class I feel like I haven't spent quality time with him at all. He gets home from work, sleeps, gets up and does homework almost until when it's time to repeat the cycle. Ughh... I can't wait until this class is over. Luckily that will be this Thursday. We've already decided we're going on a hot date this weekend. My parents have happily volunteered for babysitting ;) come on Thursday!

On another note, I'm still completely undecided in what I want to do with my career. Here are all the things I'm considering:
A) Family nurse practitioner
B) Acute care nurse practioner
C) Masters of nursing science (a general master's)
D) Certified registered nurse anesthetist
E) master's in nursing education (I'd actually love to teach either as a nurse educator in a hospital or as a nursing professor but they don't pay enough and most of the time require full time hours)

:sigh: I've got a lot of choices and don't have my heart set on any of them. I should decide sometime in the next several months so I can have my application in early for whatever I do. I think most of the programs have May application deadlines. I need to do a lot of research.

Finally, I'll conclude my post with the most exciting news. Ella's going to be a big sister!!! Well we're excited anyway. She, on the other hand, just stared at us blankly as if saying, "Me no speak a the English yet." Sam and I are so completely happy. We're very excited that the babies will be close in age- about a year and a half. If we have a boy Sam will have someone he can play a little rougher with and I won't so much worry. If we have a girl Ella Grace will have a close sister. I can't begin to explain how amazingly blessed we are. I know several couples that never could get pregnant or have been trying for a which and still aren't. I can't begin to put myself in their place- wanting a baby so badly and not being able to have one. I just trust in God's plan for us and know that no matter what what comes our way or what we think should happen in our lives.
"My thoughts are completely different from yours," says the Lord. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55. 8-9

I want to post some pics of our holidays and recent going-on's in our home. Haha Sam has bought me two very nice cameras and while I can take all the lovely pics and videos that I want, I still don't know how to upload them. I need to get him to show me so that y'all can see beautiful Ella Grace.

Goodnight all :) hope everyone is as happy and peaceful as I feel right now. (I guess talking about our babies helped me get over the sociology thing :)