I'm going to be an aunt to a...

Ok, so this deserved its own post. I wanted to post it last Wednesday, but Jamie asked that I give them time to tell everyone. I think that if BABY LILA... YAY, it's going to be a GIRL had her own blog (hint hint) then THEY could have told EVERYONE and not worried about Aunt Erin spreading it on the world wide web. So... Josh and Jamie are expecting Lila Wilson in January. We are so excited for them and can't wait to love on them. Motherhood is so amazing and to share it with Jamie will be such a blessing. I love you so much baby Lila and can't wait to love you and hug you (and hopefully smell you before your first bath). For those of you who know me well, you know I am OBSESSED with the newborn smell. CONGRATS TO THE COOKS! We miss you!

Been awhile...

Well, work is going much better than I expected. Mornings are still pretty hard for me, but I am doing okay. Lucy McLean seems to LOVE going to her "Aunt Lissa's". It is so funny that a little over 2 years ago, I didn't even know Melissa, and now she is the woman I am trusting with my child. The Harrisons have been such a blessing in our lives. I can honestly say that I don't worry about LM AT ALL during the day. I don't know what I would do if, on top of missing her, I was also worried about her. Thank you Melissa for being the great friend and aunt that you are!

As far as work goes, we are fully in to the swing of things. This week is pretesting for 3rd graders, so say a little prayer that my first time at testing coordinator turns out okay.

We have been SUPER busy over the last week or so. Here is the rundown (highlights)...

Thursday (8/21)- I started back to work and school at WCU. I am driving all by myself this semester and it is a haul. I miss my great conversations with Megan, but am so happy that she the reason I am not having those this semester, is because Baby Girl Monk (name to TBD) is on her way!

Sat. (8/23)- Lucy McLean turned 5 months old. CRAZINESS!

Mon. (8/25)- First day with kids... turned out great! All except the end of the day when we had to drive to Arden to find out that Ryan has ulcers on his eyeball. GROSS! So, for those of you out there who wear contacts and don't listen to your spouse when they say that 2 week contacts doesn't mean 2 months, LISTEN!!! So, he couldn't wear contacts and lost his new glasses!

Sat. (8/29)- Grandma Lucille's (LM's namesake) 82nd B-day party! We went to "the homeplace" in N.Wilkesboro. We had a great time catching up with family and hanging out. Of course I think I gained 30 pounds, but that is okay! LM and Noah are getting to be fun, actually realizing that the other exists and wanting to touch each other.

Ok, so I am going to keep up with this better! That was a lot to catch up on. Below are a few pics that I couldn't put in a slideshow (it doesn't take vertical pics). I will post the slideshow of this weekend ASAP.

Lucy McLean... 5 months!

Happy Girl!
LM with her Nana!
LM and Uncle Thomas. Note... Cutie patootie Chuck Taylor's are from him!
Grandma Lucille with her sister and brother (Aunt Annie and Uncle Mack)
Lucy McLean and Aunt AnnaSydney... GORGEOUS!!

Back to the grind...

Well, tomorrow is the first official day back. I can't believe that I am having to leave Lucy McLean. I know that I have been blessed to be home with her for almost 5 months, but it will still be hard to leave her in the morning. I know that it sounds so cliche', but I have no idea what we did before her. I am grateful that the Lord allowed mine and Melissa's paths to cross. I don't know what I would do if I didn't know that LM was going to be in GREAT hands and loved on all day. It seems like yesterday that she was this tiny (well if you call 8 lbs 11 oz tiny) baby.

Now she is getting to be such a big girl with lots of personality. I am going to miss her noises, even the crying, during the day. I will miss those beautiful huge blue eyes and her cutie patootie grin. I think I might even miss being puked on! Tomorrow will be especially hard because I have class at Western tomorrow night. So, LM will leave with her Daddy at about 6:45 in the morning and I won't see her again until 9 or 10 at night :(. Say a little prayer that I can be somewhat productive at work tomorrow!

As I try to make it through, I will keep these two verses in mind...

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart,
as working for the Lord, not for men.
Colossians 3:23

God is not unjust;
He will not forget your work and the love
you have shown Him as you have helped His people
and continue to help them.
Hebrews 6:10

HOPE

My friend Alissa had her precious baby girl on Friday. I finally got to meet her last night. She is beautiful. It is amazing what a pound and a half difference makes. She looks so tiny compared to my whopper of a child. Congrats to Alissa, Kelly and Big Sis Savanna!

Pics from our trip...

I am having a hard time tonight with our computer, so here is a sneak peak of the pictures from our trip.

Kara and LM

Pictures from the photo shoot Ryan took of Lucy McLean...



He's getting pretty good hugh?!

Fun at Grammy and Grandpa's "Farm"

Lucy McLean with her Grandpa!

Lucy McLean and I came to my parents on Wednesday. We have been having a great time hanging out with all of the many animals and people! My dad showed LM how to feed the chickens. I am sure she will remember! We have gotten to spend a lot of time relaxing and having no real agenda. That is always nice! My grandma has been able to spend time with us. Ryan got here last night. We had a photo shoot this morning with a few of the trees my dad planted in honor of LM. We are going to try to take her picture with them every year. She had more fun eating the grass than anything. I will post a slideshow soon.

Tonight we get to catch up with a lot of my hometown friends. My wonderful friend Jenny is having an engagement party. I am so happy for her and Andrew. She has been an amazing friend throughout my whole life and I couldn't be more ecstatic for her.

Well, everyone is taking their afternoon naps (including the 13 or so dogs that my mom is boarding for the weekend). I better take advantage of the chance to relax too!

Happy Anniversary

We have made it another year! I feel so blessed to be where we are right now. This season has been wonderful. Ryan is an amazing husband and father. He took off today to be with us. Bless his heart, he ended up spending the entire day putting in a new toilet, to see if that was the culprit of our 10,300 gallons of water (HAHA). Happy Anniversary to the greatest husband ever!!!

Pure Insanity

So we got our water bill Thursday. Our bill says we owe... $149.53. I, of course, go irrate and decide to "show them". I figure that they thought we didn't pay last month. So I pull up our statement from last month and print off where it shows we paid. Haha... I got 'em. Let me insert here that this was a totally inappropriate way of dealing with the matter, but for a girl who has been home with her precious child for 4 months and that precious child has only paid her back with love and no moolah... this is a lot of money! So, I take it up there (at 8:40, they open at 8:30) and the lady tells me that we have used... get this... 10,300 gallons of water last month. WHAT?! You have GOT to be kidding me. She asks if I had company for the 4th. I laugh and politely (at this point I am just laughing) say that I live in a tiny house and if someone were taking that long of a shower, my sweet husband and I would have gone off on them. So... no answer. I get home and go to lunch with friends, to find out that my friend's mother and father's water bill was also out of the roof. They are in their 90's, so I am thinking they aren't doing a lot of watering and what not! So, I look at my bill CLOSELY Friday night and we discover that 1891 (present reading) minus 1788 (previous reading) =103. Ahh Haa... I have found the problem. Unlike my precious children that I taught place value to, the city workers haven't figured it out and have added 0's to the end. So, I call them up to let them know that my bill is, yet again, WRONG. The lady informs me that the "readings that are written on your bill, do not include 0's " and I have "infact used 10,300 gallons of water". I remind her that a fire truck holds only 3,000 gallons of water and that this is impossible. NO LUCK. So, we are trying to figure this all out. So far, I have figured out that our bill (that is usually around $60) is still twice the amount of all of my neighbors. AGHHHH!!!!! My head is spinning. So, if you are thirsty... come on down to the watering hole!

A Day of Fun!

Andrew Ammons (AKA MODEL BOY!!!)
Skylar (Hannah Montana's #1 Fan) and Kylie
Kyndra and LM with her lizzard tongue
A precious moment with Christian and Joy
Skylar's new Hannah Montana skirt is a little big. She was strolling LM around and sagging! Melissa and I got a good laugh!

Kyndall bowling
Lucy McLean and her Grammy!!!
Sweet Anslie
Courtney

Tiara

On Wednesday, we had a jam packed day. We met my mom and two cousins at Fun Depot. Melissa and the girls went with us. We had a lot of fun. Straight from Asheville, we went to church for a night of fun. Lucy McLean was blessed to be loved on by Ms. Amanda while Ryan and I served popcorn. There were lots of games. The pictures above are of all the fun!

Big Brother

Lucy McLean has decided she can actually grab for Snoop. He doesn't know how to react yet. He is pretty protective of her, even though she came into this world weighing more than him!

Cereal

I tried cereal with Lucy McLean again. It went a little better this time (thanks for the advice Jennifer). She still wasn't real into it, but she looked pretty darn cute!

L-Town Visit

We went to Lincolnton for the day yesterday. We went to see Mamaw Lucille, but she ended up having to go to the hospital. Please pray for her, as she is having a difficult time all around right now. While we were waiting to see Lucille, LM and Noah were able to play with their Nana and Papaw.

We were also able to go meet Felicity. She is beautiful and we loved seeing her Mama and Daddy's gorgeous home. Felicity was very well behaved and sweet as pie. Not to mention that we are pretty jealous of all that pretty hair. Poor LM looked even balder beside Felicity. We can't wait to see you again soon!

Daddy's Deacon.... and a birthday suit

Saturday was Ryan's b-day. Aunt Lissa (Melissa) offered to keep Lucy McLean while Ryan and I had fondue for the big day. We had a great time on our date. We went to pick up LM and she was dressed up in her Wake Forest outfit (courtesy of Nathan and Natalie) for her daddy. Kyndall decided to wear her B-day suit for Ryan too. She actually had underwear on! That child cracks us up. Happy Birthday R and GO DEACONS!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

http://www.slide.com/r/GfcwOqMh5z-HXhoMMtx_jUI5WvLfOoGX?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Dear Daddy,

I tried to post this slideshow on our blog, but it doesn't want to work with me today. I just wanted you to know that you are the best daddy in the world. I have loved getting to know you the past four months. Thank you for loving me, even before I was born. Thank you for kissing on me, hugging me, making me laugh, taking me on walks, bathing me, helping Mama feed me, praying over me, and everything else you do. I know you work very hard and that it is difficult to be away from me and Mama. Please know that I appreciate all of your hard work. You are amazing. Happy Birthday!

Love,

Lucy McLean

P.S. For all of our blogstalkers... I got Daddy Photography Lessons! He is excited about learning more about taking pictures of his cutie patootie!!