I'm still alive

I know that it has been forever since I last posted anything, so here is a run down of what is going on with us.

Well, we moved to Fort Worth, that is definitely the biggest change. Moving is always stressful, but I think that both of us underestimated how stressful it was going to be. We ended up having to make multiple trips and we still couldn't get everything. We started new jobs working for Paladin Prepared, which hasn't gone exactly as planned. I was working part time because I was also staying at home with Ainsley, but now I am not working at all and I am just staying home. I do enjoy getting to spend so much time with my baby girl, but I also wasn't expecting to only have one income, which is definitely a source of stress. So now I am actively searching for another job and hopefully something comes along. Please pray for us.

June is a busy month for us. Me, Ainsley and my grandma, all have June birthdays, and there is also Father's Day. I had a good birthday with family and friends. I'm a whole quarter of a century old (I guess I can't tell Patrick that he is old now, being that we are both 25 now). We had dinner at my parents for my Grandma's birthday and that was nice. Ainsley's birthday was on the 22nd. I can't believe that my big girl is One! We haven't had her party yet, it's going to be Sunday the 28th, and I will post some pictures after that.


Patrick's 1st Father's Day
I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell the whole story that goes along with Patrick's Father's Day present, but I think that its only fitting that I do. So, I wanted to get him something special since it was his 1st Father's Day. I wanted it to be personal in some way, but I also didn't want to get him something cheesy, like a "World's Greatest Dad" shirt. He had been telling me about things that he wanted for weeks, I mean months. But none of those things seemed like good 1st Father's Day presents. So a few weeks ago I was checking my email and I had an advertisement from Big Lots. I looked at the ad and they had this really cute Wagon Wheel Bench. I liked it and I thought that Patrick would too. I decided that me and Ainsley would go and take a look at it before we had lunch with Patrick. We went over to Big Lots and we combed the entire store and I couldn't find it. I was a little disappointed but we didn't have a lot of time so I picked up a few other things and headed for the check out. We got in the car and about that time I saw the bench in the window. I didn't see it originally because it was on the other side of the checkout which is not usually where you find things for sale since by the time you get to that part of the store you should have already paid. I was annoyed because I already had Ainsley in the car and I was backing out. I decided that I would just come back later.

So later that evening I decided to go to a Big Lots which I thought was a little closer and see if they had the bench. I get all the way over there to find that Big Lots is no longer there anymore. I got back to the house and I told my sister where I had been and she informed me that Big Lots didn't close they just moved farther down the street. I decided not to worry about it and I would decide later if I really wanted to get it for him. A couple of days later I decided that I wanted it so I went over to the relocated store and picked it up. Patrick is incredibly nosey and he makes it very difficult to surprise him. So after I bought the bench I decided to take it to our storage unit and hide it in there. This way he wouldn't be asking any questions and I knew that he wouldn't be snooping if he thought that I didn't buy anything. I thought it would be really cool to somehow brand "Happy Father's Day, Love Ainsley" on the back rest of the bench. I remembered that I had a wood burning tool when I was younger and I thought that that would probably work. I went and picked one up at Hobby Lobby and a couple of small pieces of wood to practice on. When I got home I practiced a few times on the wood pieces and it proved to be harder than I thought. It was really hard to get it to look evenly burned and being the perfectionist that I am, I wasn't sure if it was going to work. I left the wood burner sitting out on a shelf so that it could cool down.

Later that evening my mom sees the wood burner and was like "oh, you went and bought one of those burners". Patrick was sitting right there and she knew that all of this was a surprise. I gave her this look, you know the look I'm talking about (the shut up look). She then tried to cover up her flub because Patrick of course starting asking questions. Her response was terrible, but luckily he let it go and didn't ask anymore questions.

Several days later, Patrick and I went to Michael's to get some things to make Ainsley's birthday invitations. We looked around the whole store and I saw some alphabet stamps that attach to the wood burning tool. I knew that if I used the stamps, it would look way better than it I did it free hand. So, I made a mental note that when I was alone I would come back and get the stamps. This story is getting way to long, so I will just say that I did go back and get the stamps and I burned into the bench "Happy Father's Day, Love Ainsley". I completed it the night before Father's Day and I went ahead and gave it to him because I didn't have a way to hide it. Needless to say, He loved it. I was very excited and I was glad that he appreciated all the effort that went into it. Oh, btw, when I was putting it together I had to take it back apart 3 times because I messed up. I can't imagine why I messed up, could have been the tiny pictures and the fact that the instructions where very obviously written in English by a Chinese person.

Father's Day was great! We had a nice lunch here at my parents and that evening we went over to Plano and had dinner with Patrick's parents. It was fun.

Ainsley
Ainsley is now talking so much. Most of it is jibber jabber, but she does say quite a few words (Mama, Dada, Daddy, Thank you, tree, sit, uh oh, bed, baby). She loves her daddy. She is constantly talking about daddy, its very cute.

I am going to try to stay caught up and keep you informed of whats going on with us, since I am staying at home now. But I'm not making any promises. Also, pictures will be coming soon, I have to upload them from my camera. Love to all.

-Steph