Oh yeah. Makin a baby is hard work.

I can't help but share this.

I'm so getting this. I've always loved these vintage woman posters but have never seen one like this! I don't really want to pay 35 bucks for the shirt so I may just get the pin. But it's so me... I love it!

This is from Muthacrafter (a seller on etsy). Brilliant.. just brilliant.

Drama & Smiles

Just when I think things are going smoothly somebody goes and acts like an idiot. Why? Why can't things just flow smoothly? Wouldn't that be interesting if God gave us some "no idiot" dust that we could sprinkle on people when they need a good turn around? Okay I know we couldn't do that all the time... but maybe just a few sprinkles that we could use at strategic times in our lifetime. Unfortunately we can't live peoples lives for them... even when we really, really, really want too.

One can dream I guess...

Life will never be perfect or stress free so we just have to focus on those little things that make us smile. That's why I love the verse Job 8:21 - God promises that he will give us something to smile about everyday. What an awesome promise. Some days I see those loud and clear and some days I feel like I need to remind God "Okay God you said you will give me something to smile about, I really need that right now." It never fails...

My something to smile about today was playing on the floor with Corben and he decided he wanted to lay beside mommy and rest too. He kicked his little feet in front of me and looked up at the TV. I couldn't help but smile at those little toes and feet... that used to be so tiny and now are growing strong and keeping mommy chasing after them everyday. I'm so blessed to be a mom... who couldn't smile at that?

I'm back! A quick synopsis.

I know I've been a little slack lately about posting... so here I am trying to get back on track.

I feel like I've been pulled in all directions lately but am hoping it will slow down soon. It should since I decided to finally let go of my usual gig at the Vineyard. I will still be taking on projects, just totally on my schedule which is what I need right now. My time is not my own with chasing Corben around and trying to take care of the baby in my tummy too.

God finally got me to a place where I was ready to go. It would have been even harder for me otherwise. But I'm ready. It is time.

So much has happened lately...
Corben is now settled into a big boy bunk bed which he transitioned to with such ease at 15 months! I was so surprised at how well he did. He's such a big boy now (insert sniffle here). When we transitioned Corben, we totally redid his room with IKEA kids stuff, I'll have to post some pics soon. It's so cute and so functional. We will be able to fit both boys in one room with no problem.

Pregnancy is going wonderful. I am just so tired all the time and with all the stress I have been under trying to tie up some projects and tell my boss that I'm leaving... I've felt it even more lately.

We still have yet to decide on a baby name... so if anyone has any suggestions, please throw them our way. Or I think we will just name him Bob or something. For those of you grueling over baby names like I am, I found this awesome website that really helps you narrow it down. It looks up names based on names that you input that you like. I don't know how many times I come up with a few names that are along the lines of what I want but not quite. So instead going through lists and lists of names, it narrows down the choices based on the types of names you already like. Check it out... I can't get enough of it www.nymbler.com.

That's all for now. I promise I'll be back soon.

New Hair woohoo!

Get ready for a new haircut! Okay I won't show you my belly yet but I'll show you my new haircut. I'm sad, I know.

I'm going first thing in the morning to see the fabulous Monica and finally get my hair cut off! I sadly haven't had a haircut in .... about 10 months probably. Wow. I didn't realize it had been that long! Time flies when you are chasing a baby around! I'm thinking of doing something based on one of Katie Holmes haircuts but I'm not sure. I'll see what Monica thinks.

I'm very excited! I always feel like a new person afterward.

So until tomorrow. I know all of you will be glued to the computer in anticipation. :)

Imagination is more important than knowledge

Anyone know who said that? Anyone?

Remember I loooooove quotes. They are just so darn thought provoking. Well if you didn't get it I'll give you a hint. Theory of relativity or E=MC2 ring a bell?
That's right Albert Einstein.

One of my most favorite people. He was such an interesting guy. He just fascinates me. He was a scientist that had such a respect for imagination, art and God.

I came by this article yesterday that I had ripped out of one of my Wired magazines. The article was called "The World Needs More Rebels Like Albert Einstein." It talks about what a rebel he was and how he struggled so much in school. He was even slow to speak as a child. He had a defiance for authority and strict learning. His school teachers thought he was lazy and stupid. When he was asked how he came up with the theory of relativity this was his response - The ordinary adult never bothers his head about the problems of space and time. But I developed so slowly that I began to wonder about space and time only when I was already grown up.

Apparently there's something to keeping that child-like wonder. When Einstein was 26 he landed a job as a third-class examiner at the swiss patent office. He alienated him self so much from professors he was unable to earn his doctorate or get any kind of self-respecting academic job. But this was the perfect place for him...

This was the launching pad for his theory of relativity... he saw trains rolling by that had been synched with clocks at the nearby train station and the rest is history. Other scientist had come close but they were too blinded by the dogmas of the time. Einstein discarded the notion of absolute time, one of the sacred tenants of classical physics since Newton.

Einstein knew how to think outside the box and because he had imagination he could take his knowledge and come up with something absolutely impossible (or so we thought) !

Here are some other quotes by him. Really interesting fellow. Encourage that child-like wonder in yourself and your children - who knows maybe they will grow up to be geniuses or have names synonymous with the word.

"The only real valuable thing is intuition."

"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."

"God is subtle but he is not malicious."

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."

"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."

"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

More related to this subject later...

It's SOAP BOX TIME!

Is everyone else out there as disappointed with this election as I am? I find myself at a crosswords with a decision between two candidates... bad and worse. Should I just pick the lesser of two evils?

Both have shown inconsistencies and want to force me to be generous or in Obama's words "spread the wealth around". But I've earned that money... I went out and worked for it. And now because you think I need to help others you are going to force me to do that. Does that promote generosity or hinder it? No wonder people are stingy when it comes to tithing or giving to charities. The government forces them to give already so there isn't much left. I believe that since FDR the government has tried become "the church" and the church has gladly encouraged it. The government and legislation is the substitute for our morality or our fervor for sharing our convictions.

We have become lazy. The church has become lazy. Why try to convince people that what they are doing is wrong... lets just make a law that forces them to do it! Does it make our society better? Maybe it keeps some people from breaking those laws out of fear. But those that are convinced to do something are going to do it anyway. Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still. I love that quote. We don't try to touch the heart anymore we just want the government to force.

So where does that leave our civil liberties? Do we really have much of them anymore? Our forefathers would be appalled at where we are today.

So we make laws and the church sits on their laurels and gets fat and lazy. No need to do anything... the government will take care of making people be moral. I'm not saying we don't' need laws for some things... but we have gotten legislation crazy. Lets make a law for everything!

so back to the election... I'm still praying about what to do. Either way... these next four years are not going to be in good hands. I'm just glad God presides over it all. But a part of me wonders if this isn't going to be the wake up call this country needs. That's how things changed at the beginning of this country. We were tired of taxation without representation. We were passionate about what we believed, so much so that we would commit treason to fix it. Where has that passion for freedom gone? You know the requirements for the house or the senate was when it was first formed? They must meet at least once a year. Once a year! That's how small they wanted the federal government to be. They knew how dangerous a government can be when it becomes bigger than "We the People"

I'm just very disappointed. God give me wisdom and discernment, because I'm at a loss for what to do.

Telling it like it is :)

Have you ever been called out? Not really intentionally but after you have the conversation you sit back and think... well maybe they are right? Most of the time this kind of statement will come from family... and it did.

As I've said before I have been super busy with the whole family business. I spend my nights on the computer or on the phone or both. Once I was on the phone, IMing, reading, and nursing at the same time. I know ... I'm ridiculous.

So It's Saturday night and where am I? At my computer then making a call to John about text approval for the website. We get talking about other things and he was telling me he was hanging out with his girlfriend and some friends and they just got pizza. Then he chimes in and says... "you know Gifton, you really should be doing something fun on a Saturday night." I laughed it off and blamed it on him being a slave driver. Then he keeps going... "you really should get out more. Tell you what, this band is going to be in town at such and such date and we should go. Okay."

It's really cool that John would invite me to do that. We have always been on the same wavelength personality wise and music wise. We just "get" each other. However, my family doesn't really "do" stuff together outside of family functions like Birthdays and holidays. So it was really cool that we are making an effort to be more proactive in our family relationship.

BUT STILL! I get off the phone and I stare at my computer. Wow, I'm 24 sitting at home on a Saturday night working.... working.... Having a life is a luxury we don't really have right now. You know what we do for fun? Get out of the house and go for walks in the park with our son. Which is great... don't get me wrong! But you know what I would love to be able to say we do on the weekends? The beach (I can't wait for Corben to see the beach for the first time), mountains, concerts, go for drinks with friends, go dancing all night, snowboarding, kayaking, see a play, go to an art gallery, paint in my studio (I would have to have a studio first :) ).

For now this is where we are.. so you know what I'm going to do? View beautiful seascapes and landscapes on my computer, watch a live concert on utube, have a cup of hot cocoa with a little cinnamon for something different, dance in my living room (with no one around to laugh), snowboard on my wii fit, and sketch my dreams on my sketchpad. This is where I am... My dreams are still alive, some are today and some are for tomorrow. I'm just a work in progress.

In the trenches

I don't really know where to start with this post. So much has happened in the last week and we have had to make some life changing decisions. You got to experience a little of my "freak out mode" but I'm feeling better and God is giving me peace.

Throughout all of our trials God has always been there. He is faithful. Sometimes we don't see him or see how he could be working in a situation but he is. We just have to keep having faith and believe that God still sees us and above all know who our enemy is. I'm feeling less alone and know that there are people out there that care about us. We are so grateful for that. We need others to hold us up sometimes. Even though we think we can always do everything on our own and we don't need to burden people with our problems. It's a learning process and hopefully someday it won't take so much to get us to let people help us. I don't think God wants us to be that way. He gave us relationship and fellowship for a reason.

Our lives are going to be changing drastically within the next six months but that's okay, I think we are ready. Ready for a change.

For those out there praying for us. Thank you, you don't know how much that means to us. We are so grateful for those willing to get down in the trenches and fight with us. We are so very blessed. Glory to God for all he has done and all he will do.

My own worst enemy

So do you ever set yourself up to fail? I feel like its my other part time job besides being a graphic designer/mom/wife.... I put too much on my plate and try to over achieve and end up letting myself down in the process and possibly letting someone else down. Then I spend the rest of the day beating myself up about it. Thank God for grace. It surprising how little I have for myself sometimes though. Is there any one else out there that gives themselves such a hard time?

It has taken and long time but I am slowly getting better... well... until I had my son and now I feel like I've had a lapse!! I'm going to get back on track though. Anyway... since realizing that I do this to myself I try to be so gracious with other peoples time. I know time is a sweet commodity and in this crazy, fast-paced, hustle and bustle world we live in it's hard to find a minute sometimes. I dread going into a weekend when I know we have more than one thing planned each day. It just tends to fall apart and nothing goes as planned. But all you can do is pick yourself back up and keep trying to keep it all together. Hey if I was perfect I would not need God. That brings me so much peace. At least my short comings can come to some good. My father has so much grace for me, I am so blessed.