Life As A Busy Wife and Mom

3 Years Old!

jennspinks — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 02:20:28 +0000

Tomorrow my baby turns 3! I cannot believe it has been that long already, although maybe I can considering the whirlwind we have been through this year. Sean’s job loss, developmental diagnosis for Caleb, moving and financial stress…but many good things came out of it. Sean has a fantastic job that he is amazing at and loves, Caleb has made tremendous improvements through his various therapies and we are now living in a house!

We aren’t exactly at the place I thought we would be when Caleb turned 3. I thought he would be talking and that we would have another child by now, but things pretty much never go the way you have planned. But through all of the difficult times and times of uncertainty, one thing is for sure…God has shown up big time. Through this whole situation with Caleb God has put the right people in our paths to encourage us and lift us up. I have formed some really deep friendships and am so thankful that God has used other people to touch my heart and help my family through what has been a difficult time. Whether its someone saying just the right thing at the right time to encourage me, or someone sowing into our lives financially, or whether its sitting down for coffee with a friend just to vent, I am extremely grateful for the people he has put in our path. Without them, there is no way we could have made it through.

So now an update…

Caleb is starting a full day preschool program at Jones Dairy Elementary from 9am-3pm. I am SO excited for him because i know he is going to thrive in this class and learn SO much. We are going to see major changes from him and that makes me so happy for him. On the flip side I am sad. I won’t be with him for the majority of the day and I feel like now he is being forced to grow up too fast. I mean he is only 3 and is already starting school! But I know this is the best thing for him right now so that he can have a better future. It is just very difficult as a mother to let him go.

As for me, since Caleb is starting this preschool program I am looking for a new job so that I can see him during the week. Right now I work in the evenings and for the next few weeks until I find another job I will mainly only see him for a couple hours a day during the week and on the weekends, so I am fervently looking for a part time position I can work while he is in school.

That is pretty much all for now. Looking forward to Caleb’s birthday dinner tomorrow night with his grandparents and then his bday party on Saturday.

So happy that God blessed us with Caleb. He is such an amazing, smart and loving little boy. He melts my heart everyday and I cannot imagine our lives without him. Even though he was a major surprise, its been the best one of my life so far

Caleb and Change

jennspinks — Thu, 26 May 2011 02:18:53 +0000

Today we had a meeting with our service coordinator through the CDSA (where Caleb receives his therapies) to review Caleb’s goals from 6 months ago and create new goals for the next 6 months. We were completely amazed at all of the progress he has made! Developmentally, he is doing so many more things then he was 6 months ago and our coordinator was really impressed with the progress he has made. Its difficult for us as his parents to see the progress he has made since we are with him everyday, but having other people notice is a big deal to us! Still no speech yet, but i know he is very close. I think we are going to have a party the day he says his first word…LOL. Seeing the improvements he has made really makes the busyness of every week so worth it. We literally have a therapy session of some kind almost everyday during the week. But it is absolutely the best thing for him right now. Through this process I have learned so much about children and about Caleb. That little boy amazes me And even though there are days that I want to pull my hair out and scream I remember that God is in control and I need to just take a deep breath and give it all to Him.

This summer should be really busy for Caleb. He is starting at a preschool for a summer session in June and then a different preschool summer session in July. I am really excited for him to go because I know he will have a lot of fun, but I am also pretty nervous because I will be leaving him there for about 3 hours 2-3 days a week. The extra time to myself will be nice but the relinquishing of control will be very difficult. I know the people that run the preschools though and know he will be in great hands, but as a first time momma letting go of her baby boy will be difficult. But I know this is a part of life and one day he will grow up and leave home (thats the plan at least!), so I need to start embracing the change.

Any advice from you mom’s out there?

Lately

jennspinks — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 02:37:38 +0000

Can’t believe it has been a month since my last post…well actually I can because we have been super busy! Sean started his new job on Feb. 17th and let me just tell you it is everything he wanted and so much more! He is absolutely loving it and I am loving that he is actually in a job he loves. His company even moved him to a different position after they saw how much he knew about computers during training. This is a great company and I am so happy Sean has a great job. We even found out yesterday that we are able to go on a vacation this year! Sean’s company has a few different condos that employees can stay in for only $100 a week! So we put in for the condo in Hilton Head, SC and found out yesterday that we got approved for it. So we are going September 17-23. I am so looking forward to it since we haven’t had a vacation in a while.

The one thing I am most looking forward to with Sean having a good job now is finally getting out of debt! I know it is going to take some time but now we can start working towards it again. Today, we finalized the refinance of our car loan which is going to cut our car payment almost in half! That is going to help us out tremendously so we can start paying off more! God is so good, he really does bless his children.

In Caleb news, we have been getting back into his therapy routine. This past week threw him off because we had guests stay with us for 3 days, his developmental therapist was on vacation and we are switching to a different speech therapist. Therefore, he went a week without any therapies. This week though we are full steam ahead. He started a group therapy on Monday at the preschool he is going to attend. Tuesdays will be his speech therapy days and Thursday is his developmental therapy. I am so looking forward to all the changes we are going to see in him and to actually hear him talk in English!! I dream about the day he actually calls me “mama” and his dad “dada” and know that is what we are called. I’m excited for him to start at this new preschool as well. It is going to be beneficial for him in so many ways! Also in Caleb news, he LOVES his new babysitter! We needed to find someone to watch Caleb for 2 hours a day monday through friday and we found an amazing woman! She has 3 boys which is great for Caleb and he feels so comfortable over at her house. God really led us to just the right person for him and I am so thankful for that because ever since we found out Sean got this job I began to worry about where we would put Caleb. But God had it all worked out.

Well that is about all for now. Nothing deep or meaningful this entry. I do have some things brewing that I will blog about soon!

AMAZING!!!

jennspinks — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 03:18:18 +0000

If you know me and my family you know that the past 4 months have been really hard. My husband lost his job at the beginning of October and with that brought on the hardest trial we have ever gone through in our marriage. I have heard and known of people whom their spouses lost their job, and I felt bad for them, but nowhere near how I feel now for them having been through it myself. Thankfully, my husband was able to get a part time job through a friends business that brought in some money, but it was no where near what he was making before. We went through our savings, emergency fund and money I made from my job in those 4 months and I was beginning to wonder how in the world we were going to be able to keep our apartment on my salary. But God had a plan we didn’t even know!

My husband search and applied for jobs daily but nothing really sparked his interest. We were praying and believing for a job that would have great pay as well as health insurance (since we are currently paying out of pocket and it is very expensive). My husband heard about a great company that was hiring and applied. He wanted to get out of the food service industry and this company would allow him to do so. He would be getting into the computer industry which he LOVES! Well this company called him back for a first interview, he did great and they called him back for a second interview. He was unable to go to the second interview for a good reason so the managers rearranged their schedules to interview him…but he did not get the position. Come to find out only because he couldn’t come on the day they wanted him to and test him on the software. A week later he received a letter in the mail stating he had been declined an offer. Talk about DEVASTATING! I was so discouraged after that, but tried to stay positive because I knew God had a great job for him.

Well during this 4 month period we were blessed beyond measure! God really came through financially for us. We received checks in the mail that were unexpected, blessing from our church that were unexpected and also encouragment from our friends and family whom without them we would not have made it through.

Well my husband never gave up on this company that he wanted to be a part of and became so fond of. He knew they were going to be hiring again in a couple months, so when they did, he reapplied. They called him back for a first interview and he did great. They called him back for a second interview, tested him on the software and he did amazing! They said they would be calling Wednesday afternoon and making offers if he got the job. We waited, and waited and waited all day! By 3:30pm they had not called and I was majorly discouraged. I even told my husband I didn’t think he got the job because they would have called by now! But at 5:10pm my husband called and told me that they just called him (at 5:00pm mind you) and offered him a position! They offered him more pay then what we imagined and the health benefits (which are awesome) start after 30 days. We were astonished and amazed at how God provided this position for my husband.

We learned so much during this 4 months of unemployment for my husband that we will take with us forever. All I can say is God is good and God is SO faithful. I know He has great things in store for our lives because we are His children.

I just wanted to update and boast about what an amazing God we serve. He gets all the credit for his one.

Shutterfly = Happy!

jennspinks — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 21:43:25 +0000

The Christmas season is upon us and I know I think this every year, but this year it really has snuck up on me. I realized the Christmas season was really here when I received my first Christmas card in the mail yesterday. I was super excited to get our first Christmas card in the mail but kind of disappointed at the same time because we are having to cut costs back this year and that meant no family portrait Christmas cards. Until…I came across someone’s blog and found out about this AMAZING promotion from Shutterfly. They are giving 50 free christmas cards to you when you blog about them. How awesome is that! I even found the card i think we are going to get. Here it is below :

This will be our first experience with shutterfly and I have heard some really awesome things. So if you are interested in Christmas cards i encourage you to check out their website http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary/christmas-photo-cards

They also have some really neat photo calendars that I have thought about doing as gifts sometime soon http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

Another really cool feature they have are Christmas invitations for when you are having Christmas parties. So check it out… http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary/christmas-invitations

So all in all, if you are a blogger and wants some free Christmas cards check out shutterfly, or if you aren’t a blogger check them out anyways. I’ve heard from several people that they do really great work!

Feeling Thankful

jennspinks — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 02:35:45 +0000

So every time I update my blog more and more time seems to go between entries. I’ll try to do a better job! Life between now and this past July has been crazy! Well…let me just say life between the beginning of October and now has been crazy. Sean lost his job at the beginning of October and that was a complete shock and world shaker! I will say I have already learned so much from this experience and God has been awesome through it all. We have had so much support from our friends and family, without them I would not have made it. So now that Thanksgiving is among us I feel I am thankful for so much more than I ever have been. I was listening to a radio show broadcast from Focus on the Family yesterday and it totally spoke to my heart. The topic was raising grateful children and the guest was Susie Larson who wrote a book titled “growing grateful kids”. She spoke about her life and the various hard times she had in her life, but through the majority times she “chose” to be thankful and grateful for what she did have! I mean this woman went through incredibly hard times, much harder then i have had to face in my life and she chose to have a grateful heart. Hearing that has caused me to start being more grateful for what I have instead of feeling discouraged and sad about all the things i don’t have. And a huge thing to is to NOT COMPARE MYSELF TO OTHERS!! My situation is completely different from anyone else’s and when I look at someone who i ”think” has a great life, they may not. That may just be what I see. So i thought I would list some things below that I am grateful for, considering Thanksgiving is coming up. Thanksgiving only comes once a year, but I want to have a heart of thankfulness all year long!

1. Thankful for an absolutely wonderful husband who comes home to me every night and works so hard to support our family. He is my rock during the hard times and strengthens me when I am weak.

2. Thankful for a happy and healthy 2 year old son who every time I look at him, makes me smile.

3. Thankful for a roof over my head and running water. There are so many people around the world that don’t have this luxury.

4. Thankful for Jesus Christ. He died for my sins so that I could be with Him in heaven forever!

5. Thankful for a job that allows me to stay at home during the day and make money in the evenings.

6. Thankful for my health. I can walk, talk and breathe. There are so many that struggle.

7. Thankful that we have 2 vehicles to get us where we need to go. They may not be the best looking or the newest cars but there are many people who have to walk wherever they go.

8. Thankful that I have food to eat and a variety of foods. Many people don’t know where their next meal is going to come from or they have to eat the same thing over and over again because that is all they can afford.

9. Thankful that i have clean clothes on my back and shoes on my feet. Even though I may not have the latest trends, there are many people out there that don’t have shoes or clothes that fit them.

10. Thankful for an amazing church and a place where I can hear the word of God taught on a regular basis. There are people in this world that would love to have that opportunity.

These were just a few things that i wanted to mention I am grateful for. Whenever i get discouraged or disappointed with things in life I will go back to the things I am grateful for and that puts everything back into perspective.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! What are you Thankful for?!!

Fourth of July Recap

jennspinks — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:00:12 +0000

So I realized that I never posted since before the fourth of July. We had a fantastic fourth of July! We headed out to Wilmington about 8:30am and got to Fort Fisher around 12:30. There was quite a bit of traffic once we got to the actual beach part plus we had to stop along the way to get a tent for the beach to protect Caleb from the sun. One thing I didn’t realize before is that it is A LOT of work taking a 20 month old to the beach! We had a ton of stuff to carry and walking on sand is not fun. Thankfully, my awesome husband carried most of the heavy stuff. Caleb really enjoyed being at the beach but he was NOT a fan of the actual ocean. We took him up to where the water was and he did not like it. As soon as the water touched him he started whining. I think the crashing of the waves scared him. I really enjoyed watching him play in the sand with his toys though! I thought we would be chasing him all over the beach but he did really good and stayed on the blanket and/or under the tent with us. We only stayed at the beach for about 3 hours, but that was more then enough with a 20 month old!

After the beach we headed out to Wilmington where the fireworks were going to be held. We learned our lesson before of not parking in a parking garage, so we looked for other parking. We found a great parking deck that would allow us to sit in front of our car to watch the fireworks. We had to pay 10 dollars for it, but we knew it would be worth it and the traffic wouldn’t be as bad because as soon as the fireworks ended we could just pull out and head home. After we parked, we headed down to eat dinner at Elijah’s. I had some awesome stuffed shrimp and sean had a great steak. Caleb on the other hand is getting to that age where it is difficult to stay at a restaurant for a long period of time, so we had to pretty much eat and run. After dinner we headed over to Kilwin’s for icecream! That is our favorite place and a tradition for us to go to when we come to Wilmington for the fourth of July. We got our icecream and headed back to the car to wait for the fireworks. The fireworks started around 9pm and Caleb really enjoyed them until about half way through them when he fell asleep! As soon as the finale finished we got in the car and headed home. The only bad part was that it took us 1 hour and 15 minutes to get out of wilmington so we didn’t get home until around 1am. It could have been worse though. So all in all, we had a great fourth. Here is a pic of all of us in our matching shirts!

So i had my court date for July 7th and I was super nervous about it! I had Sean show me the building I was supposed to go to and where I was supposed to park the day before. I was supposed to be there at 9am so I left my house at 7:30am because I didn’t know what traffic was going to be like and I definitely didn’t want to be late for this! I got to the parking garage at 8:05am and just hung out in the car for a few minutes and prayed. I payed for my parking and walked over to the courthouse. I stood in line to check in and then you have to stand in a line to see a DA before you go to your court room. Well I walked up to the DA showed them my citation and then showed them the proof from the insurance company that my vehicle and the other man I hit vehicle was repaired. She kept it for my file and then said my case was dismissed and I was free to leave. I even asked her if I had to pay anything and she said “No, have a good day”. I was beyond thrilled at this point. We were expecting to pay for a $180 ticket and all we had to pay was the 10 dollars for parking. It was a great day!!

Fourth of July and Court

jennspinks — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:34:50 +0000

So I thought since I haven’t blogged in a while I would update. Lots of stuff going on in our household. Caleb is getting over teething from his molars. He started teething father’s day weekend and it was NOT fun! He had a fever, cough, runny nose and was very clingy and whining. On saturday night we couldn’t get him to sleep until midnight! We thought he would be better for Father’s day but he wasn’t . Sean and I had to take turns going to church (since I had to serve in the 4 and 5 year old class) and we weren’t able to go out to eat because Caleb needed to stay home. Sean loved his gifts from Caleb though!

This weekend is the fourth of July and we are going to Wilmington for the actual holiday. This has become a family tradition for us and we hope to continue it as long as we are in the area. We are going to the beach for the day and then heading to the harbor where the fireworks are! It will be an exhausting day though because we are coming back that same night. Thankfully we both have Monday off work to recover. I’m really excited to see how Caleb acts at the beach. Last year he was afraid of the water, so hopefully this year he won’t be that way.

Next week I have to go to court I had a car accident back in may where I hit a guy that was in front of me because he decided to slam on the breaks to make a u-turn. In North Carolina it is a law that if you hit someone from behind you are automatically at fault, no matter what happened. So because of that I received a $180 ticket! The state trooper did say though that if I go to the court date and prove both vehicles have been repaired the judge normally drops the charges. So that is what I am believing for to happen! I know i will have to pay court costs though, but any lesser amount then $180 would be great! I am also praying that I won’t have to wait all day for my case! I have never been to court by myself so this should be interesting. Pray for me on Wednesday if you think about it!

Well I hope everyone has an awesome independence day!

I Love Learning

jennspinks — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 23:13:16 +0000

Not too much going on right now in our lives. I am loving the fact that things have calmed down a little bit for us. Having the whole day to just spend time with Caleb and get things done around our apartment has been fantastic! I think being able to do that has caused me to enjoy my evening job more. I’m not so tired all the time which is awesome. Caleb is a such a great boy too because he lets me sleep most days past 8am which is amazing since I don’t get home til 11:30pm during the week and don’t get to bed til later.

Since I have been having more free time it has allowed me to do something i love, READ! I attend the young mother’s book club at church on Wednesday mornings and absolutely love that time! We are reading through a book called “Transform your thinking, transform your life” by Bill Winston. This is such a great book for me because it has really caused me to see just how important the way we think and the things we say are. I am growing so much from this book and God is definitely using some things I’m learning to change me. Its been great. For our book club we read one chapter a week and discuss the things we got out of that chapter. Its great to hear the opinions of other women and grow in our friendships.

The other book I am reading is “Bringing up Boys” by James Dobson. I have been wanting to read this book since before Caleb was born but have just now gotten the chance. This book has been so great! It has tons of facts that I never knew and it is teaching me how to be a better mother. The last chapter I just read talked about fathers and how important their role is in a man’s life. It seems fitting that this was the chapter I was on since this Sunday is father’s day. I was pretty much blown away by this chapter and some of the statistics I read. One of the statistics that shocked me the most was this: 70% of african american children are born out of wedlock and 19% of white children are born out of wedlock! When I saw that I was like WOW. It made me sad to think that this many children in America are not being born into what God intended. It made me think of my own life and how I was one of those statistics. My parents weren’t married either when they had me and my brother. It made me thankful that my children will not be one of those statistics. And it made me want to instill in my children even more the importance of family and what the Bible says. This books keeps talking about the importance of having both a mother and father in their lives and the impact that has on a growing child. I’m so thankful my children will have both, because I know what its like to not have that. It is hard on a kid. I know that even though my parents got divorced and it was super hard on me and my brother, God used it to show me just how important marriage is. I am sure I will have more to share on this book since I am still reading through it, but I just wanted to share some things that really touched me.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there. I hope you cherish the time with your children because they for sure cherish you!

I’m Back

jennspinks — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:56:26 +0000

Wow, I can’t believe that I haven’t blogged for over 6 months! Actually, I can believe it. My life has finally started to slow down a little bit which has been unbelievably awesome. We just returned home from our Texas trip and now I am only working one job. Having free time during the day is great and I am getting used to it. I have mixed feelings about not doing the deliveries for Panera anymore. I’m way happy because now I have more time to spend with Caleb during the day, more time to spend on ME during the day and most importantly more time to spend with God during the day! I am so excited to not have every day planned out ahead of time, it is truly like a breath of fresh air. It has been an adjustment though because for the past year I have been constantly on the go and had to plan out my time or else things would be crazy, now this is not the case. It’s so awesome to have time to clean my apartment, organize and do so many things that I didn’t have time to do before. It makes me realize how I took for granted the opportunities I had before when I stayed home full time with Caleb. I am so thankful for where we are now though as a family. We have a great situation all because of God. I am able to stay home with Caleb during the day and then Sean comes home to stay with him in the evenings when I go to work. We are blessed that we don’t have to put Caleb in daycare. Don’t get me wrong, I know there are tons of mother’s out there who put their children in daycare to work and i think that is a fabulous situation for some people and some kids do need that, but I know for me, it has always been my hearts desire to stay home with my children and not put them in daycare. There are times when I get disappointed with the fact that I can’t stay home with Caleb full time now, but I know that day is coming very soon. God is teaching me so much right now through working and I know when I do stay home full time I will truly cherish it because I will have known what its like to not be able to.

The other aspect of me not doing the second job anymore is the money factor. I was working that second job so that we could pay off a lot of our debt. We were able to pay off about half of our credit card debt (which is a huge praise in itself) but we really wanted to be able to pay it all off. So now we are in a position of “are we going to be able to pay off our debt?” But right now I have a peace that we will. I know that God is our source and not our jobs. He is our provider and he always has been. Even though we’ll have a drop in income I know that God will provide for us and allow us to still pay off debt. And that is a great feeling!

On another note, we had a GREAT trip to Texas! I will be posting some pics later and blog about the trip more. Caleb had a great time with his grandparents and he had more sugar in that one week then he has ever had in his whole life! We did a ton of stuff and had such a fun time. Caleb got to meet his Aunt Dawn, Uncle Jeff and Cousin Chris. They have never seen Caleb in person so I was so happy they got to see him then! Some of the things we did in texas were Six Flags, San Antonio Zoo, and Zilker Park, just to name a few things. It was a fantastic trip and we already can’t wait to go back!