Lately

We have had a big change in our family within the last couple of weeks. It was a very hard and emotional decision to make, but Scott and I felt like we made the right decision for everyone involved. Marley is no longer living with us, she has gone to a very loving home where she will be adopted and have an amazing life. She is still in the family, and that makes it easier for us, but we still have feelings of sadness and guilt. I won't get into all of the details that went along with our decision-making process, but we know that in the end, this will be a positive experience for everyone. We are so happy that we were able to have her in our family for a year, and see her develop into such an amazing little girl. It is strange with her gone, and we miss her.

Scott and I have recently joined a Life Group for married couples at our church, and to say that is has been an amazing experience would be an understatement. We are studying the book His Needs, Her Needs, and it has been an eye-opener. As a wife, you want to believe that you are meeting all of your husband's needs, and when you realize that you could be doing better, it is very humbling. It is so exciting though to know that Scott and I will be able to improve our relationship in ways that we didn't even know needed work! We have made some incredible friends as well. God definitely directed us to this specific group of people.

Macey and Heidi were on Fall Break all last week from school, they didn't go back until Tuesday of this week. It was nice to spend time with them, but we were all ready for school to start back up. Unfortunately, they made it back for one day of school and then both got sick. The cold and flu season is not nice to our family every single year, whether we get flu shots or not. Like everyone else, we are paranoid about the Swine Flu, especially with Ryan's asthma. Hopefully that particular germ will STAY AWAY!

The last little while has been pretty stressful for me (kids, school, getting a business started, life in general), and a few months ago I started losing weight and having a lot of stomach pains. It is pretty common for me to lose a couple pounds when I am really stressed out, so I didn't think much of it. But the weight continued to come off, no matter how much I ate or what my stress level was. I have now lost 20 pounds, which is just ridiculous. My doctor did a lot of blood work and everything looked good. I was happy that everything looked normal, but frustrated at the same time because I really wanted some answers. She sent me to a specialist, and tomorrow I am having a procedure done so they can take a good look inside and get some biopsies, and HOPEFULLY we can figure out what is going on. It's hard not to get nervous, my mind starts going crazy with all the possibilities, but I'm hopeful that we will get some answers soon and get my body back to normal. So if you think about it, send some good vibes tomorrow to me and the doctors that we can get to the bottom of this.

Meet Jasper, the newest member of our family:


For some reason, I decided that I needed a little bit more chaos in my life. This time it came in the form of a Chihuahua puppy. He sure is a sweet little guy!

We are very excited for Halloween, it is a big holiday in our house. Scott goes crazy with his fog machines and he looks forward to Halloween every year. The twins are wearing their octopus costumes again because they are so cute and they still fit, and they don't really care anyway! Macey is going as a blue tiger (she is so funny and creative) and Heidi will be a butterfly. I am glad that it is on a Saturday this year so we can keep everyone up late. (I am also excited to raid the kids' candy!!!)