Playing Catch Up

Wow.  How long has it been?  Exactly 1 year, 4 months, 16 days since I last blogged. 

So much has gone on.  Let me, once again run it down for you....

1. Family
2. Job
3. Finances
4. Spirituality
5. School

1. Family
February 2013 - Found out I was pregnant.  What an awesome experience and feeling considering we were not trying to have a baby, nor did we believe that said baby would actually live past month 4.  Well we did and he did.  

Garrett Aiden Madden or Aiden as he is known as, was born October 27, 2013 after being in labor for about 4 hours - yeah.  I was at work, cleaning, running around doing the job thing.  I kept sitting down because my side kept hurting.  I thought I was just working too hard.  I did wonder from time to time if I could be in labor.  It took my supervisor telling me to go home and taking a "better safe than sorry" trip to the hospital to discover that I was dilated 6 cm and "in labor".  I was in the hospital by 12:30 PM and my baby boy was enchanted his way into this world by 3:45 PM.  There he is below right after he was born - HA!!

And here he is now!!

It has been an awesome 8 months since he was born - changed my life FOREVER. I am forever thankful to God for deciding that my husband and I were the right two people to create this child.

I am thankful for my family of misfits!

2. Job

Another big time occurrence for me last year was I quit one of my jobs.  I have NEVER quit a job before but I felt like it was time out for wasting time at a job that I would never go any higher at and one that made me feel bad physically just by getting up in the morning knowing I had to go to work.  

So I've been home for almost 2 months waiting to start working at the post office.

I have had a lot of time to reflect on my life and try to make some decisions that will better the lives of my children and that of myself.  

That being said, there are several things that I wish have made up my mind to do that I believe will lead down a path to true happiness and joy.

3. Finances

MY CHAPTER 13 BANKRUPTCY IS OVA!!! WHOOP WHOOP!!!!!  I have made up my mind that I am getting out of debt completely.  Most of my debt consists of student loans so I have devised a plant to start paying them off when I start working again.  For now, my loans are in deferment - thank goodness some folks in our federal government are trying to help us out...

I don't have to make any payments and in some cases for my loans, the federal government pays the interest.  YEEEES!!!  I never thought the degree I worked my butt off so hard for would put me in the most debt.  UGH!

4. Spirituality

I decided that if my life is going to grow spiritually, then I have to do something about it. So, our entire little family will be reading and following Rick Warrens' "What on Earth am I Here For" - I have been wondering around without a purpose for far too long.  Nuff said.

5. School - or better yet HOMESCHOOLING!!

I've threatened my kids, wished, dreamed, researched (kind of) and desired to home school my girls for some time now.  Well the time has come to get with the program. So this summer I will be further researching home schooling in the state of Mississippi.  

I am already overwhelmed but have found some Facebook groups and pages that show promise.  I will blog about them soon.

Until then it's long nights teething, boob time, bible reading, becoming the teacher I never wanted to be and hopefully saving up money from my new job.  

I love my life.