ARG!!!

After 2 1/2 days of potty training and countless hours spent watching the Little Einstein's Pirate Adventure, that's about all I can think of to say. Arg. The "pee pee" part is going fine. The "poo poo" part, not so much. I know that part usually takes longer, so I am finding some solace in that. I will update more tomorrow as each day seems to get a little better. I welcome any suggestions or cheerful comments!

IT'S POTTY TIME!!


This weekend we are taking on the challenge of potty training. I am hoping that it will go smoothly as N has shown interest in the past several weeks. We are headed to Target in a few minutes to pick out some big girl panties and a bag of treats. She really wants panties with rockets on them (she is a big fan of Little Einstein's), but as you can imagine that has been a bit hard to find. Just a tip - don't google "rocket panties." You will NOT find cute kids underwear...

I will update next week as to how the training went. Here is a picture of N showing her doll Abby how to use the potty. I added a picture of J just because he is so cute!

I got this idea from a friend's blog. This is what's going on with me.

Things that I am enjoying right now:
-Having my husband home every night for dinner (Can I get an Amen?!!)
-Our screened-in porch
-Finding new friendships with the young and old at our new church home
-Re-reading a book from college/SBP - "The Practice of Godliness" by Jerry Bridges
-Having high speed internet
-Researching a destination for our 7 year wedding anniversary coming up in October
-Seeing my kids crack each other up :)
-Seeing bunny rabbits and turtles in our neighborhood

Things that I am not enjoying right now:
-Hot summer afternoons
-Having a yard to take care of
-A teething child
-My husband's love for the Sci-Fi channel. Every night there is a "discussion" about what to watch.
-Trying to get to a point where I can run 3 miles w/o feeling like I am going to die

I promise to post new pics soon. We have had some issues with my computer that I hope to resolve soon. Until then, it's just me!

Dreams
The other day I found myself thinking about a picture I drew in the third grade. The assignment was to draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up. I divided my paper in half and one side was titled Tennis Champion and the other, Rockstar. Well, we all know how that turned out! Then in fourth grade I discovered Amy Grant and totally wanted to be just like her. I got a guitar that year for Christmas and started taking lessons soon after that. A spark had definitely been lit within me.

Then I went to my first lesson. Not having the music appreciation that I do now, I frowned upon my teacher because he only played bluegrass and "heehaw music," as I called it. The first song I learned to play on the guitar was "Found a Peanut." Are you kidding me? I am not sure that at any age that would be a cool song to learn. Needless to say, the guitar lessons came and went. Throughout the years, though, I picked up my guitar here and there and taught myself how to play. My first "cool" song (and I use the word cool very loosely) that I taught myself was "Every Rose has it's Thorn" by Poison. You gotta love the Big Hair Bands from the 80's for putting out some great music! Thankfully, there were more songs to learn and much better songs to learn. In college and a few years after I met some really great people who helped me improve my guitar playing skills and even let me sing with them a little. Good times.

Over the past several years my guitar has sat in the corner, becoming dusty and out of tune. I play it on occasion, and each time that I pull it out I wonder why I don't play more. Then, the other night hubby and I went to a local cafe' and heard some really great music - just some songwriters and their guitars. All of the sudden, I was in fourth grade again! My heart was beating fast and I was so excited to get home, pull out my guitar, and strum away.

That night, I decided that I wanted to be a songwriter when I grow up. My music may not fall on the ears of many, but this is something that I want to do for me. It's something that I can enjoy, my family can enjoy, and my Lord can enjoy.

This is a desire that has been in my heart since I was 9. At times I felt moved by it, other times I didn't have the confidence to do it. But finally, at the ripe old age of 32, I am ready to pursue my dream. I have asked for guitar lessons for my birthday and I can't wait to see where things go from there. Watch out Nashville...Here I come!

What about you? What did you dream of as a child and what do you dream of now?

Save at the Grocery Store!!

I heard about this link on the Today show several months ago and just joined recently. It is a great, convenient way to get coupons. You can choose only the ones that you want and can get up to 10 coupons for the same item. Check it out here .

I wanted to let you all know that my blogging may be a bit slow over the next week or so. My ancient old computer won't properly download the comcast software, so I will be using hubby's computer in the evenings when he is home from work. I will be a blogger by night for a time. Also, I have been advised to not use my kids names in the blog. So until I can come up with something better, they will be called N and J (my creativity is astonishing, huh?). I promise to blog as much as I can, but for now I must go. My 6am appointment with myself for a run is finally happening at 7:30pm. Better late than never!

Weekend Getaway... Well, sort of.

My parents took the kids for the weekend so that hubby and I could finish unpacking and get 100% settled. We have almost completed everything we set out to get done, plus we got a couple of dates! I wanted to share about a fun place we went to last night. It is a corner cafe in downtown Franklin called The Listening Room. They have live music most nights and the performers range from songwriters to country star hopefuls. Last night the entertainment was 4 songwriters who live here in Franklin. It was great music - just the 4 of them and their gutiars taking turns playing their originals. One of the songwriters there played some songs that he wrote that i'm sure you all will recognize: "The Gambler" sung by Kenny Rogers, "Forever and Ever, Amen" sung by Randy Travis, "When You Say Nothing at All" sung by Alison Krauss, and "Lucky" sung by Mary Chapin Carpenter. It was such a treat to hear some really great music and eat some good food. The whole evening only cost us $24! As we sat tapping our toes, we thought of 3 couples who would definitely dig this place - The Parris', Welch's, and the Camp's. Just another reason for you Birmingham folks to come and visit!

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

Seems like our favorite things change day to day around here. Somedays it's Dora, others it's Little Einsteins. Some days it's Bear, others it's Lamb (aren't we so creative with the names of our stuffed animals?!). Here is a pitcture of N's favorite thing to wear. She got them for Christmas and we just found them a few days ago as we were unpacking some boxes. N has had them on pretty much all day every day since we found them. I love that she doesn't care that it's 90 degrees outside and that she thinks they look pretty wearing them all by themselves. She is so cute and definitely one of my favorite things!

Welcome to the Stephens family blog! I have been wanting to do this for some time now and finally have the resources and time to do so. I hope you all visit often to see what's going on with our family as we continue on this journey!

We have spent the last 2 weeks trying to get settled in our new home and it has been quite stressful and exhausting. The kids have been little troopers as Mitch and I have constantly had stuff to do. We took the afternoon to do something just for them and went to Pinkerton Park, one of our favorite parks here in Franklin. N loves to swing, slide, and play in the sandbox. J likes to climb on anything he can get to and loves to go the opposite direction of mommy and daddy. He's quite the adventurous one!