Trip to the Bahamas: Part 1

Several months ago, I suggested to Zach that we should take a trip this summer to celebrate our 10 year anniversary a few months early. Our anniversary isn’t until November, but logistically, with the kids and Zach’s job, it was easier to do that during the summer.

At first, Zach was hesitant. But after about 2 hours I had him on board and the planning started!!!! We mainly chose the Bahamas because it was an island we could get to fairly easily with little travel time which was what we wanted.

We sent the kiddos off to my parents house the Friday before we left, and we got up early the next morning to start our marathon day of traveling.

We had like a nine hour layover in Atlanta and after trying to change our flights and not having luck, we settled in for the long haul. However, being there all day meant I got to meet my dear friend, Jodi. Jodi lives about 15 minutes from the airport, and we have been friends for the last 5 years or so and she is one of my dearest friends, even though we had never met. It was the BEST getting to spend a couple hours with her. We talked and the hours passed way too fast!!! I’m SO glad we finally got to meet!

Our flight finally took off and we were Bahamas bound!

When we landed, we went through customs, got our bags, and were at our resort like 30 minutes after we landed. It went so smoothly! When we got there, we were met with glasses of champagne, and we checked in, went to our room and then headed to dinner b/c we were starving!

Since it was dark when we arrived, we didn’t get to see much and when we woke up on Sunday, we woke up in paradise!!!!!

We went and reserved some chairs on the beach, headed to breakfast, and then hit the beach for the day!!!!

We lounged and swam in the ocean in the morning, and that afternoon, took the boat out to the resort’s private island!

We swam while on the island and scoped out the cabanas they had there so we could go early the next day!

We headed back to our room later that day and slowly got ready for dinner. It was HOT there so it was nice to spend some time indoors.

Zach was excited one of the restaurants had sushi, so we stopped and had a quick sushi appetizer before heading to the restuarant we had chosen for dinner.

After dinner we wandered around the property and found some lounge chairs by a fire pit. We called the kids and enjoyed the peacefulness of the whole place.

I laughed that my hair there reminded me of Monica from FRIENDS when they went to Barbados. It was definitely a #bighairdontcare week!

So those were our first two days. I’ll recap the rest of the days in another post!!

Ch, Ch, Change

So, I made a pretty big change a couple months ago. Just a couple of days after Grant’s first birthday, I resigned from the job I’d been at for almost 10 years and made the leap to a new job. I mentioned before that I felt like God was in every step of this and showed me in so many in ways that He was putting me where I needed to be, and I wanted to share about some of that.

Mid-April, I learned that my future at my job was uncertain. The company had been listed for sale, and there was the potential that should the sale happen, that I could be let go. I had a tough day learning that, but after the initial shock wore off, I was ok.

A week or so after I learned that, I had lunch with one of my closest friends. I told her what was going on. She had been mentioning for a while that she’d been joking with her husband that he should hire me. When I told her about my uncertain future, she asked me if I’d ever be interested in working where her husband is the Executive Director. I told her should they ever have something open, I would definitely be open to talking.

About two weeks later, she called me on a Friday night and told me that they were going to be hiring a position that was right in line with my level and skill set. She asked me if I would be interested and I said I would love to at least talk. I sent my resume on, and early the next week set up a working lunch for a pre-interview. We met, had a good conversation, I learned more about the company and they asked me to come for a formal interview. I did that the following week and about an hour after my interview, my phone started buzzing with people telling me they’d been called as a reference. The next morning, I was offered the job.

This was where it got hard. For the next week, I cried, and prayed. And cried, and analyzed. And cried, and discussed pros and cons. Did I mention I cried? The job I left was a job that I was dedicated to and worked so hard at for 10 years. It definitely had its ups and downs, and up until the last year or so, it was a job I loved. But not only that, I loved the people I worked with. Saying good-bye was one of the hardest things. And this decision was one of the hardest ones I’ve ever had to make.

I struggled big time with the decision. But when it came down to it, I just really felt like God was calling me to move. I feel like He put this job right in front of me, at a time when I needed it. I feel like the announcment of the company being put up for sale was the catalyst that made me realize I wasn’t completely happy. Not only that, but the things I had always said along the way that I wanted in a job, came to me in this new job. Every. Single. Thing. Who else could’ve done that but God? The whole process was SO easy from the get go. There was never that waiting that you often have to do with jobs – waiting for the interview, waiting for the offer, etc.

The last few weeks at my old job were very hard. It wasn’t quite how I expected it to be and I think God used that time to reaffirm I had made the right decision. I was so nervous starting the new job. Could I do it? Would I fit in? What if it’s a mistake? But God showed up with me and I can tell you absolutely it was not a mistake. Four days in, He showed me in a BIG way that I was some place that is the right place. I would love to share more about this because in and of itself is incredible, but it’s one of those things that I don’t feel is proper to share in a public forum. Just know that my mind was blown and that God is good.

I do miss my old job. I miss my friends there. I miss knowing exactly what’s expected of me and how to get a job done, but I’m so proud of myself for what I’ve accomplished in my new job. I’ve been challenged and I’ve proven to myself that I CAN do new things and that I’m way more competent than I gave myself credit for! I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to do what I was hired to do and it has made me giddy to realize I CAN!

One of the very best things about my new job is that I have the ability to more or less dictate my working hours. This is HUGE for our family. It’s already been a blessing this summer, but when school starts? I think then we will really get to see the effects of it and I am SO excited!

I know this is getting long but I want to share one more thing about how I feel like God just perfectly orchestrated this. My friend whose husband hired me is a fairly new friend. We met about 4 years ago, and our friendship basically started online. She was a blog stalker reader of mine ( ), and we ended up sitting on the gymnastics bleachers together one season. We started talking and slowly our friendship grew. We started having lunches, texting, letting our girls play together and we came to be very good friends. Because of this friendship, I have a new job. I just think it’s amazing how even when we have no clue, God is working on the details of our lives, maybe even years down the road. So, if you are in a situation, ANY situation, where you are struggling or questioning, hang tight, because God can truly change things in an instant!!!

Grant’s 1st birthday party!

We had Grant’s birthday party the day after his birthday. We kept it fairly low key with just family. We also had a family graduation party that night so it was a day full of partying!!!

When Grant figured out the day was about him, he pretty much hammed it up all day. He certainly doesn’t mind being the center of attention, at all!

He was definitely ready to jump into cakes!! He’s his momma’s boy for sure!

I love watching babies eat their smash cakes. They all approach it so differently. Grant pretty much attacked his.

You mean this is all for me?!!!

When using your hands isn’t cutting it, just put your face in it.

Or pick the whole thing up!

This makes me laugh because it looks like he’s scared someone is going to take it away from him.

I’d say he smashed that up pretty well! We had a wonderful day celebrating him. It’s crazy that already two months have passed since this, but I guess time flies when you’re having fun!

Grant’s Birthday!

I took the day of Grant’s birthday off so we could spend the day together! We started out with a little “I’m one!” photo session!

The big kids were so excited for his birthday that they wanted to take a picture with him, too!!

We took the big kids to school and dropped them off for their field day, and then we went to Wal-mart to get our supplies for his party the next day. This was before we had the oh so GLORIOUS Wal-mart pick up. I’ll probably dedicate an entire post to that one day because I love it THAT MUCH!

After we got home and got our groceries put away, Grant took a short cat nap and I did some things around the house. When he woke up, we headed to have lunch together at Chick-fil-a!!

And then he crashed again on the way home! Apparently we partied hard!

After dinner that night, we let him have a chocolate cupcake! He had fun digging into it!!

I would say that was a pretty happy and satisifed birthday boy!!!! I loved spending the day with just him. Next up – 1st birthday party!!!!

Dusting off the blog

Hey there! Remember me?! After an unintentional three month blog hiatus, here I am. For a while, blogging got harder because the platform I used to blog quit working. I finally found something very similar and I hope this is just what I need to get back into the groove.

A LOT (A LOT A LOT) has happened since I last blogged!!!!!!

Grant turned 1!!!! I still need to post his 1 year post as well as share about his birthday party!!! (if you look to the post previous to this one, I post dated his one year post. All the others will post normally now – I just wanted that on May 20th.)

We wrapped up the school year and jumped into a fun and busy summer!!

We had a big BIG change in our family in the middle of June. I took a new job and want to share more about that and the process because God was involved in every single step and I want to share that.

Zach and I took a trip to the Bahamas all by ourselves (!!!!!) to celebrate our 10 year anniversary a few months early!!!

Grant started walking!!

We got our master shower re-done and we also got a new roof!

I’ve started selling a new product which I am PASSIONATE about and love what it’s doing for me and for my customers!

And who knows what else I’ll find as I start scrolling through my photos!?! It’ll probably take me a couple weeks to get all caught up on everything, but I’m SO excited to have this easier way to blog back again. I’ve missed the record book of our lives.

I’ve had many of you reach out to check on us and I appreciate that so much. We’re all great and fine. We are BUSY BUSY and I’m convinced at this point that we’re just destined to be busy at this point in our lives, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep this as up to date as possible. Can’t wait to get back at it and I hope there are still some of you out there who will be reading along!