Bye Bye Max-i-poo and a trip to Build A Bear

Yesterday was a sad yet happy day....... Chad and I had been talking about finding a new home for our minature schnauzer Max or as Sam called him "Max-i-poo". We have only had him about 7 months and thought we were doing a great thing by getting Sam an inside dog to be buddies with. The lady that we bought him from lives in Faulkville and has been breeding these dogs for 20 years and takes it very serious!! She told us back when we bought him if things ever didnt work out she always will take her puppies back and find them a good home. Well Max truly was a great little dog but we just felt like we werent able to give him the attention he needed. We are ALWAYS on the go it seems, we just like to go places! It just seemed we were always leaving Max here at home in his crate. The hard part was how was Sam gonna take it when we tell him his dog is going back?!?!? Well Chad and I talked it over with him and explained it as Max was going back to his first home, where his mommy and daddy are and he would be so happy to be back with them and get alot more attention and love there!! Sam really took it well, he got a little upset Fri. night when we told him but Sat. morning he acted like he totally understood and actually seemed ok with it! So Doris excepted him back and said she already had a prospect for Max a new home. Someone who's Min. Schauzer had passed away and they were ready for another. That made it so much easier just to know that he would go to another family that would love him and could give him the attention he needed. Doris said she completely understood and remembered what it was like to have kids and be on the go all the time. So all turned out pretty well even though the drive was hard to take him back, he layed in my lap the whole way..... I know in the long run its gonna be better for everyone. No more doggies for us for a while......

Until we decided to make a trip to Build A Bear and let Sam create a dog that he could name Max to replace our real puppy Max. I thought that would be a great way to cheer Sam up and keep his mind off of it. Sam thought that was a great idea :) He chose a puppy and a space uniform for him to wear. ( He has been into the new Disney movie Space buddies) We ended up having a great Sat. even though it started out a little sad :( Sam has been carrying his"new doggie Space Max" around everywhere.

Enjoy the pics.......




Sam picked his new dog and named him space max


Making a wish on Max's heart before they put it inside.....

cleanin him all up

picking out his clothes


Mommy and Sam geeting him dressed in his space uniform

Sam and his space buddy Max

Bye Bye Max hope you love your new home......

private vs public

Ok everyone here is something that Chad and I are so stuggling with right now. This year Sam has been attending a pre-school program at Best Beginnings at Murphy Hill Baptist Church. It has been an awesome program and I love the A BEKA cirriculum http://www.abeka.com/ (christian based program) that they go by. It is very structured with chapel every day, weekly verse memorization and bible story, along with just learning the basics of letters, numbers, and learning to read. The director is an awesome Christian lady who has worked so hard to help make the program there what it is along with some very great teachers. Sam has done so well this year and we are so proud of him. Well now its time to decide where he will go to kindergarten . The director and majority of teachers at BB are moving to another church in Hazel Green to start another program there called Bethlehem Christian Academy . It will have pre-k through 5th grade and their goal is to add another grade every year. They will still go by they A BEKA cirr. and have small student-teacher ratios, maybe 10 to a class. That is our first option, we already have Sam registered there but in the back of my mind I keep questioning if we are doing the right thing..... The public school option is Lynn Fanning, which I have always heard wonderful things about, I have friends who are teachers there and know that it is a great school as well. We would know probaly at least 15 children or more and their parents that will be starting there next year. So there is that comfort knowing Sam will be with several buddies of his. I have heard that next year due to teacher proration there will be more children added to classrooms and I know that LF is dealing with over crowding. So obviously I have pros and cons to both options!!! Just wondered if anyone has opinions they would like to share. I am not one of these people who are just all for private or all for public!! Although I have to say in this day and time public school in general scares me, especially for the fact that they want to take God out of our schools and that is the very foundation that our kids need. I know we can teach them about our God at home and church.... I just have alot of different concerns! Chad and I are just trying to make the right decision for Sam and go where God would lead us, and I pray that he would show me where that is.

A picture says a thousand words

What a fun yet busy busy past week and a half it has been! Since I have posted we have been to a b-day party for a friend of Sam's, enjoyed a week of spring break, celebrated Sam's 5th b-day in Chattanooga, T-ball practices, a party for Sam at pump it up and kite day at church Sunday!! I may have forgotten something, all I know is we have been having fun, enjoying the weather and time together as a family. Although I feel like we have been on the go, go, go! So Im just gonna share pictures from all the fun we have been having. A picture can say a thousand words without me telling you every little detail. Thank you God for all the great memories we have made and such special times together as a family. Thank you so much for Sam and for what a blessing he is in my life. I still cant believe he is a 5 year old now!! Enjoy the pictures :) Sorry there are so many of them!!

~Jennifer

My baby will soon be 5 years old :(

Yesterday Sams birthday present (a wooden swing set) from Chad and I was delivered to our house. Even though his b-day isnt until next Wed. it worked out great that it came early beacuse the weather is supposed to be rainy for the next several days and they may not have been able to get it set up. So I took him to my moms yesterday after preschool because I didnt want him to come and see it until they were completely done.When he got home yesterday afternoon about 5:30 they were still working on it and believe me it was very hard keeping him from going outside until it was finished, by that time he had an idea what was going on because he had been asking us for a swing set. He had one at our old house and he has missed it so much! So anyways what a great surprise it was for him and the weather was great so we stayed outside till dark and played! Sam loves his new swing set and was so upset this morning when he saw that it was raining :( Looks like he's gonna be a busy little boy playing outside this spring.
On the other hand I am having a hard time dealing with the fact that my little Sam is about to be 5 years old.Not a baby, not a toddler not even a preschooler for much longer. He's so big now, where has the time gone. I cant believe he will be starting to kindergarten this fall. He's learning so much.... how to read, and Mr Independent..... he has so many little friends, the best personality ever, and is so loving! At least he does still let me hold him and snuggle with him. And to just think what I was feeling at this time 5 years ago.I had struggled to get pregant for quite a while, God blessed us, and I was finally preparing to meet this sweet little baby boy who would change my life forever! Truly a blessing from God.

We had an appointment yesterday with Dr Long and he has recomended that we take a rest break this next month before I start on the Follistim shots. I told Chad I am gonna do my very best to not think about any of the infertility issues. Over the next month we will have alot going on with Sam's T-ball getting started, his b-day, spring hopefully around the corner, my b-day, our anniversary. Wow, we are gonna be busy! So maybe not taking any fertility meds and going back and forth to the Dr. will be a good break for us all, maybe even what we need right now. Im seeing more and more everyday how important it is that I quit worrying about it and leave it to God. Thank you to all of my blogging friends new and old for the encouraging words. I know God has brought us together, because alot of us have been down this same road at one time or another, and he knows we need each other!!

Sorry such a long post today, guess I just had a lot to say :)

~Jennifer

Spring Fever

I am absolutely loving this weather! I know spring is around the corner, but Im sure we will have some more cold weather, so we have been enjoying these last few days outside. Over the weekend we took Sam to the park to feed the ducks, that is one of our favorite things to do together as a family, we have just always gone to Big Spring park, that is even where Chad proposed to me!!
These are just a couple of pics of the park ( i didnt take these, i forgot my camera)



We also bought some trees to plant this weekend in our "bare" yard! We got some redbuds, river burch, a weeping willow and my favorite a weeping cherry tree. I looked for a weeping cherry tree last year, I wanted to plant it in memory of my PawPaw but we never got one so this year I have one and we planted it in our front flower bed. just a picture of what I cant wait for my weeping cherry tree to look like

Yesterday was the start of Sams T-ball season, it was their first practice. He was thrilled! Especially to see so many of his friends!! So here are a few pics of him at practice.



Hope all of you have been able to get out and enjoy this weather because looks like we are in for rain and 50 degree temps later this week!

~Jennifer

Melissa??? Dancing with the stars???

Just a note for all you bachelor fans..... Melissa has supposively signed up to be on dancing with the stars, I hope she does well!! I still cant believe I let myself get so invloved in the Bachelor, I really dont watch alot of TV, not even sure if I will be able to watch the season premire of Dancing with the stars tonight! But after all Melissa had to go through, I hope she does well on the show!

Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

~Jennifer

Oh Happy Day.....

I know when some of you saw the title of this blog, you were probaly thinking, oh is she pregnant, well no, unfortunately, not this month! I have to tell you I havent really felt much like blogging this week, I feel like its been the same ole same ole that I've been blogging about lately! This week I got bad news regarding my progesterone, it was a whopping 4!!! NOT GOOD! So then I go through the motions, of feeling like we just wasted $600 for nothing this month and all of the other negative things that I could think of! Then the next day after getting that news, Amy George (amysbabyblog.blogspot.com, a fellow blogger friend) posted an awesome post on her blog titled "the waiting game" (you have to read it!!), that had to have been coming straight from God through her to me!! Im serious!! God knows my heart, and he knows how bad I am struggling right now, especially with his timing not mine and me surrendering to him and putting ALL, I mean ALL of my trust in him! It is so hard to do and after reading Amy's post it really made me stop and realize I have to do this, I have to give it all to him, I have to stop worrying about it. I worry about it all the time and sometimes I even feel like Im not giving my all to Chad and Sam beacuse Im so consumed with worries. So I pray for the courage to "Let GO" and give it to him.
Next day, which was last night Chad and I were looking at our money situation. We have gotten our taxes back but usually we try to put that in savings because with me being a stay at home mom we use that to fall back on throughout the year on top of what Chad makes. The cost of infertility is crazy expensive and our insurance doesnt cover alot of it. So we were talking about what we were gonna do if this does take several months of fertility treatment, what were we gonna do, again we are worrying!
Today Chad checks the mail and we recieve a very unexpected check in the mail from where our escrow on our house was overpaid last year, and I mean this was very unexpected. I totally started thanking God right then, here we were last night worrying about it and then God says here let me take care of it!! Isnt that awesome. Thats why today is such a happy day, God's love and faithfulness!

Thanks again Amy for such an awesome post that seemed to be meant just for me!

Hope everyone enjoys this 70 degree weather this weekend!!

~Jennifer