Back to Work

Tuesday was my first day of work at Edmond Sonshine School. I knew that I wanted (and financially needed) some kind of part-time gig when I decided to not teach once Jens was born. I get to keep our sweet cousin, Jane, on Mondays and Fridays, and teach pre-school at Edmond on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am so blessed to have found a job where I can still have my baby in the same building. In a couple of weeks Jenson will start going to SS School with me, and will just be right down the hall in the baby room. She's still a little bit too young for now, so my mom and mother-in-law are sharing responsibilities for her for the next couple Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I was just a tad bit sad about leaving her this week, and so my mom said she would send me a picture of her every hour to help ease the pain. I received the following picture texts and captions.

9am Talking to my cats

10am Snoozing

11am Woke up starving and with a big dirty diaper

12pm Sleeping again :)

1pm

2pm Studying with Dad

(of course Ben gets off early on the first day that I have to work)

3pm Finally home with my baby! 

It was a great day. I had already forgotten just how much I love teaching. It's going to be a great year. 

On a totally unrelated note: This week I washed an entire load of laundry without any soap, and I sold our completely perfect, working weed eater at our garage sale for $3.50, thinking that it was the broken one that's been in our garage for 5 months. So now we have one broken weed eater and three dollars and fifty cents. 

Bloopers

Here are a few out takes from Jensie's two-month photo shoot:

 No, we are not serious about that bow.

And some keepers: 

Best two months ever. 

Motherhood is, hands down, just the best thing ever. Jens and I spend our days cooking, cleaning, running errands, babysitting Jane, and making videos to send to her dad while he's at work. I get in major trouble if we go a couple of hours without a picture.

I find myself being in a constant state of anxiety that I'm going to forget something. I want to remember every single little thing about her. I want to remember how her little hand holds my finger when she's nursing, how her long skinny legs are constantly moving, the calmness in her face the instant that we swaddle her, her cute precious perfect booty, and the smell of her sweet milk breath. I wish there was just some way to bottle all of that up and keep it forever.

Things to remember about our sweet 6 week old...

- She has slept in her own bed since Day 1, and is so great at it! We still get a little sad every night when we put her to bed away from us, but we know we'll be glad in the long run.

- She LOVES to be swaddled. The second we wrap her up, she becomes so calm and relaxed.

- Everyone says she looks exactly like her dad.

- She's almost out of her newborn clothes. People's first comment is usually how tiny she is, but she's looking huge to us!

- She is so good at sleeping! Just last night, in fact, she slept 7.5 straight hours. So thankful.

- The last couple of days she has started "talking" a lot and smiling. It completely melts my heart every stinking time.

1 month old!

Ben is really worried that I'm going to turn into one of those moms that post pictures of their children on facebook nonstop. However, people don't have to subject themselves to this blog, so I don't feel one bit bad bombarding it with pictures of my daughter.

Last Thursday, Jenson turned a month old. The past month went by way too fast. I die a little bit inside every time we put something on her and realize she's outgrown it.

 1 day old

1 month old

Also! Kerri AND Ashley are getting married! I cannot even believe how lucky I was to somehow end up with these girls as my best friends. 

A night with the boys..

My mom and I had tickets to see Brad Paisley and The Band Perry for months. I guess it had slipped my mind a little bit that I would have a 4 week old when the time for the concert rolled around. The concert was last Thursday and I left little Jensie Girl for a few hours, in the very capable hands of Dad and Pappy. I had so much fun with my mom, and being away from Bumblebee was made bearable by these picture texts sent from Ben. 

The poor girl had to drink from a bottle!

They let her just walk around without a bow!

Snuggled up, ready for bed, and I'm sure thinking "Where's my Momma?!"

It doesn't seem that any permanent damage was done.  

My best friend moved away...

One of the greatest blessings to come out of marrying Ben (and believe me there are lots of them) was Meag. Now to say it was love at first sight would be a complete lie.  But after living together in a foreign country, we were forced into becoming friends, which resulted into her becoming one of my most favorite people in the entire world. 

Meagan decided to leave the comfort of her family and friends and life in America, to follow God's crazy, radical will for her life. Meag is off to Zambia to be a mother for the motherless... and we're left here - missing her like crazy, but being proud beyond belief. 

Haven on Earth