Guess What December Will Bring!

So Jay and I have been trying for over a year to get pregnant, and in that time I was pregnant twice and lost both of those sweet babies. It was a difficult year and by the time I got pregnant with this one I think I was in the process of coming to terms with the fact that there may not be any more babies in our future. Perhaps God had some other direction we were suppose to go and I needed to be totally surrendered to His will, even if it seemed totally crazy in my head that I would not have more babies. I happen to love being pregnant and I could not imagine not experiencing that again. But I also knew in my heart that if the Lord was closing that door there was a reason and I needed to trust Him and wait .

Somewhere in all that I really had this revelation that it was completely by is grace that we had Ava and it would be completely by His grace that I would have another one. I could not do anything, outside of being healthy and taking care of myself, to keep a baby alive and make it grow. That was God's department and I think that realization, while a bit frustrating because I couldn't be in control, also released me from being so incredibly stressed. So I did my best to give all of that to Him. All the thoughts and worry and disappointment and fear and just rest in the things I know are true about my Father in heaven.

So we found out in April that I'm pregnant and found out two weeks ago that December will be bringing a baby boy to the family! I feel so blessed that there will be another baby in our life and I'm thrilled we get to experience raising a boy and a girl. We would have been over the moon for another little girl, but it's pretty cool we get both.

Unfortunately my scanner is not working so no pictures this time, but I will leave you with the verse, or prayer actually, that became the cry of my heart during last year. I'm not sure any woman has ever said it better than Hannah and her prayer became mine!

O, Lord almighty, if you will look down upon my
sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a
son, then I will give him back to you....
I Samuel 1:11

And now....

I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted
me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord.
For his whole life he will be given to the Lord.

I Samuel 1:27

The Kitchen Floor

Jay and I took on quite project a few weeks ago! We live in my Grandmother's old home and there are all sorts of things that need to be done to this old house, but the first on the list was the kitchen floor. The kitchen had brown indoor/outdoor CARPET!!!! Yes, carpet. It has been such a pain trying to cook and eat and live in that kitchen! I am happy and proud to say we did a beautiful job and never again will I have to clean up raw egg off of carpet. So here is the run down.

We started by pulling up the carpet and luckily this part was super easy. Under the carpet we found the old orange linoleum that I grew up with and that was not as easy. There were many days of sitting on the floor during nap time pulling that stuff up with a pry bar. I will NEVER touch linoleum again in my life. I hate it. It is worse than anything. Yes it is worse than wallpaper and the reason why is that under the god forsaken flooring that is linoleum was the paper backing that was on the back of the linoleum. That....there are not words to express the level of hatred I feel when I think of that paper. It covered the concrete floor when we got the linoleum up and the only way to get the paper up was to scrape it inch by inch with a wallpaper scraper. Yes, I mean the little razor scraper. So we scraped paper off of about 300 square feet of concrete. And by we I mean mostly me. We got tile and many months later finally started putting it down, which turned out to be easier than I thought. There are plenty of spots that are not perfect, but for our first project I am very proud. And after so long with carpet on my kitchen floor I couldn't care less about un-even grout lines. So here are the pictures!

Carpet

Paper

Concrete and purple chalk line

My man hard at work

Me hard at work

Last tile in!

Done

Still had to grout at that point

I feel blessed to have my new floor and proud that rather than go into debt to get it we sucked it up and did it ourselves. It was very hard work but we appreciate it even more I think because we did it ourselves.

There is no substitute for hard work.
~Thomas Edison

Snow

I think people who have not spent their entire lives in Texas can not truly understand what it is like for us when it snows. Normally we get yucky ice that we are not equipped to deal with so it just causes all kinds trouble. As a child I can remember going outside and playing in the ice. Snow that accumulates just does not happen here. Until this year:) We had snow on Christmas, which was just amazing, and then last weekend we had more snow than I have ever seen in Texas. Enough for a real snowman that was not brown in some spots. At some point Angela and I left to go to the store and we both noticed that everyone was smiling. Driving through the snow with big silly grins on their faces. It makes you feel like a child and I imagine we appreciate it so much because we never see it! I told Jay if Global Warming means we get snow in Texas I'm all for it;) Teasing of course...but not really. So here are the pictures!

Ava was cracking Angela up.

This was early in the day. There was a lot more snow when it was all over.


A very good friend, and very wise lady, told me once that when she sees snow that blankets the ground like this it reminds her of God's mercy. How we are covered, and no matter how ugly it is under there when God looks at us he sees white because we have been covered by the blood of Jesus. Blanketed by grace and mercy. I love that and thought about it a lot last weekend when I saw all that snow!


And of course I can't close without showing the newest member of the Reale family!

This is Frankie Angelo Reale! Named after my grandpa and great grandpa . He was born on January 2nd and weighed 7lbs 6oz. He is absolutely the sweetest thing ever and a very welcome addition to an already very large family. I don't think there is anything as truly wonderful as a new baby!

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found? ~J.B. Priestley