Thursday, September 21, 2006

CPA - Hooray!

Chad called this afternoon from Palestine, Texas, where he has been for the last four days. He said, "Guess who you're talking to?" I got REALLY excited because I knew what it meant. He got his CPA scores back and passed the last two sections!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited by all the exclamation marks? Two years of hard work on his part have finally paid off. Chad has been so dedicated and disciplined as he has studied. We get our lives back! Thank you for your prayers and encouragement.

Avery and I had a lazy evening in front of the television. Thursday night prime time television is my favorite. It used to be "Friends," but now it's "My Name is Earl," "The Office," "Grey's Anatomy" and "ER." The top news stories online were about the difficult choices viewers were going to have to make as they decided which of the great shows they'd have to miss. Top-notch programs went head to head battling it out for the top spot. My remote control finger is tired.

I need to post pictures. A lot has happened since I blogged last -- Avery's first Braves game, Becca & Nathan's new baby Fenley, and Brax's birthday party -- so I need to upload photos. Maybe next time . . . Stay tuned.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Long weekend

This weekend actually felt like a long weekend! No studying, no traveling, no working! Hooray! My parents came into town and we had a ball. Nothing fancy -- just being together.

I love the Labor Day weekend for some reason. We always make Chicken Stew. It's nothing special, but it's part of our family tradition inspired by an old Mars Hill fundraiser. We made a HUGE pot of it, so quite a bit of it ended up in the freezer to be eaten later. Yum.

Labor day has a different meaning to me now, though. I think of actual labor. We had lunch with college girlfriends on Saturday and I got to talk about the day Avery was born. It was really tough and I'm sure it was incredibly painful, but I don't remember that part. I only remember seeing that sweet angel being placed in my arms and seeing the look of pure joy and amazement on Chad's face. Priceless.

We're making sure to appreciate every moment we can with Avery. The last 7 months have flown by already, so we're trying to be intentional about not missing anything. I'll catch myself just staring at her sometimes, being amazed at how she's learning how her body works. She uses her hands so well and never stops moving her feet. Even pooping is cute!

I'll be sure to post pictures next time. So sorry that it's been a while. We thought we broke the camera, but it's up and running again, so we're playing catch-up. Thanks for checking in on us!

Friday, September 01, 2006

It's getting hot in here . . .

A couple of weeks ago, it started getting warmer in our house. Chad checked all the vents and . . . nothing. He went outside to peek at the A/C unit and the pipe was frozen. It had been working too hard. You see, we have a slow, small coolant leak. We knew we had it last year, but we were told that simply refilling the coolant each year would solve the problem, at least temporarily.

So we called out a guy to do that again for us this year. It seemed to work for a while, but Wednesday after work, I came home and commented that I thought it was getting warmer again. Chad didn't notice, so I chocked it up to having just climbed the stairs. (I'm still out of shape.) After church however, it was definitely warmer inside than it was out. Chad again checked the outside unit. It wasn't frozen this time, so we knew we had a problem. At least it was a cool night, so we slept with the windows open and it felt fantastic.

He came home from work early to meet the A/C guy who determined that our compressor was "out" and that we could replace it for $1,500. Kill me. However, we still had the problem of the coolant leak and didn't know where it was. He fooled around with the system for a while longer and found TWO leaks. Great. That would cost us $1,000 -- every year!

So this afternoon, Donelson Air Conditioning will be replacing our ENTIRE SYSTEM. Perfect timing just as I've resigned from my job and we're down to one income.

I'm in my last few days at Thomas Nelson. I agreed to stay on (working from home) for another month to help with transitions, though. There are pros and cons. The pros are that I'll get to be with Avery all day, I'll have WAY fewer meetings to attend, I'll have no office distractions (printer noise, foot traffic, employee gossip time) and I'll keep getting a paycheck for a little longer. The cons are that I'll be working AND have Avery (which might be quite the load) and I'm only getting paid for part-time work. No matter what I'm getting paid for, I tend to put way too much effort into it. It's a good thing for my employer, but it's a bad thing for my sanity.

I love my company. I love my job. I'm not sure how this is going to work out, but I'm excited about trying something new. This is a busy time of year for us with major books releasing this fall. I'm sure you'll hear me talking about them. So help me afford my new air conditioner. BUY A BOOK.

My parents are coming into town this weekend and I'm thrilled. Of course, I hope the air is running by the time they get here! I've been trying to tell Avery that they're coming. She probably has no idea what I'm saying, but we have a great time squealing in high pitched voices at each other.

She is the most fun baby. She's always in a good mood and thinks everything is funny. I'm really seeing the "Laura Posey nose" that she's making. I did it when I was a baby and she has picked up the same habit. It's adorable. She has also finally figured out that her Jumperoo is for bouncing, so now she's quite the jumper. Of course, because of that, she thinks that everything she sits in is going to bounce. So fun.

Jennifer took Avery's 6-month pictures last month, so I'm finally adding a photo to my blog. I knew Jennifer was a good photographer, but she catches all the best shots. If you get the chance to use her, please do. Jennifer, I hope you don't mind that I'm posting one of my proofs! Enjoy!