another giveaway!

hi lovely people,

i wanted to share another giveaway with you! today, alysha at the tarr pit is hosting a giveaway for a $15 shop credit for OnTopBabyBows or TwentyFiveDesign. You can find some super cute & girly headbands or bows for your niece, your daughter, granddaughter.. or even yourself!

head over there & enter to win!



P.S. I haven't had a chance to post this yet, but I won one of Alysha's giveaways last week! I was & am so excited! I got to pick out my item yesterday! Check out what I picked out!


So go enter now! And while you're at it.. just follow her blog & she'll get you connected with some other awesome blogs!

it's late & i'm tired...

and when i stay up later, i also get hungry. but i'm lazy & afraid of the dark.. so i'll stay hungry & hope i fall to sleep quickly.

tomorrow, my little family leaves to go to magnolia & west monroe to celebrate fox's first birthday party with our families & celebrate my nephew's birthday. maddox & fox share the same birthday. usually i am all packed up, but i have been pretty busy this week. this past weekend, we moved into our new house & i'm loving it here. of course, there was a lot of work involved. we had some pretty awesome people from church help us move.. and i am forever thankful for them. saturday night after everyone left, i noticed that fox had a fever... 102 degrees. and he had one sunday, monday, and tuesday. i took him to the doctor on tuesday & she confirmed he had an ear infection. so he's on antibiotics for 10 days. his fever is gone, thankfully.. and i'm glad he'll be feeling better for his birthday party.

so i've been home most of the week. and i have been unpacking the house as much as i can. next week, we're hosting a birthday party for fox & adalie for our friends here. fox & adalie also share the same birthday. july 29th is pretty popular. i've got most of the things unpacked & next week, i will just have to decorate & put things on the walls.. and clean the old house so we can get our deposit back! yay for money, boo for cleaning!

in other news, i went to the chiropractor today. i have had pretty bad low back pain for 2 months now.. and this past weekend while moving, my hip got out of sorts. this morning i was playing on the floor with fox & had such a hard time getting up. so i scheduled an appointment & was seen. i can say that i was scared with what the chiropractor was doing, but i am in no pain. my low back pain is gone & every now & then i will feel a little lingering pain in my hip. the doc said my hip will be like that for a few days until the swelling goes down. thank God for doctors. also, i had an ultrasound done last week to see if i had any sludge or gall stones. which i do not. that's great news! but... i'm still having pain in my right side. would you believe it that i haven't had pain in my side for a couple of weeks or maybe a month now.. but now as i'm typing this, my side hurts! ugh! not cool. i guess i'll have to do further testing which i am not fond of. but i really want to figure out what is causing my pain. say a prayer for me.

well, i'm out because fox will be up in about 6 hours & i have to finish packing in the morning & hit the road! hope you all have had a great week & have a wonderful weekend! i know we'll have fun partyin'!

my love.

i love my husband. some days i may not be the sweetest person & may not show it. and i'm trying, but i sure do love my husband.

we met when we were 13 years old. and he's always been a very big, major part of my life. he's my love. i can honestly say that i married my best friend. i remember ex-boyfriends would get mad while we were dating because i would say "brandon from magnolia is my best guy friend." it was the truth.. and it always remained that way. and i'm glad that after all the years, he chose me to be his bride.

my favorite things about brandon are his heart, talent, devotion, smile, humor and much more. he has a heart after God. and honestly, when a guy constantly strives to be more like Christ and follows him, i couldn't have done any better. i love that he holds me accountable for my walk with Christ. i fail, at times, but he's always there encouraging me. i love his talent. and his heart for worship and honoring God. he's pretty darn talented & i get jealous at times. heehee! brandon has led worship since he was younger.. and it's one of the main things that drew me to him. i played the clarinet for 6'ish years.. and i have always been drawn to musicians. i love his voice.. sexy & soothing (to me). i know when he's leading worship, he's not trying to sound sexy. heehee! i love to sing & i love music. but i can't sing. and one of my dreams has been that one day God would say "Jessica, I'm gonna give you an awesome voice." and i would say "why, thank you, God".. and then brandon & i would be the next sonny & cher. a girl can dream, right?!

i love brandon's devotion. he truly is devoted to our family. he puts us first, above all else. well, except God, of course. i know there have been times where i remind brandon of the priority list: God, family, ministry, whatever else. sometimes we get sidetracked, but he does pretty well with staying on course and keeping a good balance. i know i have always loved brandon. but when our son was born and seeing his interaction with fox, i have never loved him more. he's such a great daddy. seriously. so very, very good. so proud of him. and he does such a great job with being a husband. he treats me like a princess; he spoils me when he can. he loves on me. he'll put me into place when i get out of line. i'm spanish, have a temper at times (i blame it on my daddy), i have been spoiled all my life, i have attitudes & get into moods. and sometimes i need to be smacked around! heehee! just kidding, no smacking going around! i know sometimes i can be selfish and i love that he helps me be more selfless.

i love brandon's smile. he puts a smile on my face. i looove, love his dimples. while i was pregnant, i prayed that our baby would have dimples like him! and voila! fox has dimples! and i'm sure fox will drive girls crazy when he's older. brandon is one of the funniest people in the world. honestly. we really do have a good time together. brandon can be a prankster. he prank calls the radio stations around town...disguising his voice. he prank calls his work while he's upstairs. he pranks people from church. and we just giggle & laugh about it all. i love him.

brandon is a hard worker. he works a full time job, graphic/web designer on the side, leads worship & volunteers at the church, he's a full-time student, a daddy & a husband. he helps to cook, he cleans, he mows the yard, he gets down on the floor with fox, he has started changing more dirty diapers, he helps to get fox's meals together for school. he's my help-mate. he's busy. and he usually has a great attitude; i've only s een him mad about 3 times since we've been together. and i would love nothing more than for my husband to take a month long break from everything. because honestly, he deserves it. and i am so proud of him. i know all of his hard work will pay off. hopefully, sooner than later. and i pray that i never take all of his hard work for granted.

we don't always get along. he leaves the toilet seat up, leaves dirty dishes besides the empty sink, leaves his dresser drawer open, eats with his mouth open. he wears swimshorts even though he's not going swimming. and these swim shorts will be gone next year! i've already tried to get rid of them once! i know i do things that probably get on his nerves. and it's okay! right, brandon?! okay. i love him in spite of his imperfections and flaws.. and he loves me no matter what. i could not live without him. i am so thankful for him. i love him.

i love that when we go to the mall to go "walking", i somehow end up with a purchase for me or fox. i love when late at night when we should be getting ready for bed, we get in the car, drive to sonic for shakes & go driving around town. we actually do that during the day. this drives me crazy, but i love it, too. when i'm playing with the back of his hair & he leans forward and says "i have something in the back of my head, will you take a look at it?" i tell him i'm going to stop playing with his hair if he says that again. and it drives me crazy.. but i secretly love it. i love that we can't stay mad at each other more than like 10 minutes. i love that he uses his vacation time to go with me to see family; even though, i know he would rather be in new york city or exploring a new city. i love that he listens to me. i love that he's adventurous.. because i am not. and he brings me out of my shell. i love that he loves fox. i love his beard. i love his goatie. i love his smell, except when he's been sweating. i love when he's designing graphics or mailers or has projects that he asks for my opinion & sometimes uses my suggestions. i love that he can't dance. i love his laugh. i love that he's one of those annoying, always driving the younger sister crazy type of guy. he's so funny with his sister. i love that he loves his momma. and i love that he still misses our saint bernard, dharma. but it drives me crazy that he talks about her just about every single day. and i vow that one day when we are able to, i'll get him another saint bernard. i love that he's supportive.. and goes along with my crazy ideas & quest for finding hobbies. i love him.

i think if i didn't have long to live, what would i tell brandon? (i don't plan on dying any time soon). i know there are a lot of things i would want to say and want him to know, but most of all i would tell him that i am so proud of him. i am proud of the man he is, the godly example he's set for our son and our family. he has excelled at it all. i am proud of his many talents, his hard work, and many achievements. i would tell him that he's made life worth living and it's been an amazing life and a fun ride. i would tell him thank you. for loving me. for loving our family. for working hard to provide for us all. for loving God. for being selfless. for forgiving. for forgetting. i would tell him that i love him with every beat of my heart. with all of my total being. with all that is within me. i honestly can not put into words how i love him. i would tell him he's always been my best friend and my true love.

i love you, brandon.

giveaways, giveaways, & more giveaways!

hi, my dear friends!

i have been so busy entering giveaways this past week. it's so unbelievable! but i wanted to share the wealth!

honestly, i haven't seen this many cute things in a long time! and the majority of them are all handmade! and these ladies have such great talent! i drool over all the merchandise & pray i win! .. i even have my hubby praying that i win! heehee!

one of my favorites is Gussy Sews. check it out...seriously!

but then go here. Becca Paro has teamed up with Gussy Sews to give away $30 to her shop!

also, you can go here and you can enter to win some other pretty awesome giveaways!

p.s. if you win, you should definitely share with me! heehee!!

good luck & happy entering!

looking back

before brandon & i got married, we agreed to have two kids (more like i talked him into it) & agreed to wait at least five years before we had babies. we picked out the names: fox if we had a boy, jasmine/jasmina (after my mom) if we had a girl.

so after we got married, the only thing left to really do & complete this circle of life was to have a baby. i wanted a baby. right then and there. we were the only couple within our inner circle of closest friends that did not have a baby. so i talked brandon into us waiting until we were married for two years and then we would start trying. i remember crying one night and exclaiming to brandon that the only thing i wanted most out of this life was to be a mommy. my patience was a little bipolar. one week i was willing to wait two years, the next week, i didn't want to wait.

during the time that i was actually being patient, i had a urinary infection in early october and went to the doctor. i was put on antibiotics. and think what you may, but antibiotics and birth control does not go together. some people say antibiotics do not affect birth control, but i have a child to prove that it does. so one day (november 28, 2008 to be exact & one day late from my visit from Aunt Flow), i told brandon that he should probably go get some pregnancy tests because i had no symptoms of my monthly. so my hubby obliged. i went into the bathroom. i was a nervous wreck. i didn't know if this could really be happening and then telling myself to not get my hopes up. after like 10 seconds, the test showed that i was indeed expecting. i opened the door to the bathroom & called yelled out to brandon to come. and through tears, i told him i was pregnant. well, he freaked out. he started grabbing his hair, almost pulling it out, and exclaiming that this couldn't be true. he said "take the other test." (because you know it's best if you buy the twin pack) me: "i just peed all i had". brandon: "go drink more water." me: i drank more water, peed on the second stick, and again: POSITIVE!

so we agreed to each call one person & tell them our great news! i called my sis in law & he called his best friend/pastor. we decided to wait until christmas to tell everyone else. the following week, brandon went out of town. we went ahead and told our family members about the pregnancy. they were so ecstatic!! on the friday afternoon, on my way home from work, i began to experience some cramping. when i got home, i found out that i had some spotting. i freaked out and went over to friend's house. she took me to the emergency room because of the pain i was having, the nurse believed i had an ectopic pregnancy. i waited 6 hours in the emergency room, had two different types of ultrasounds, had to have a catheter (that is of the devil!) only to find out that we couldn't find anything out and that i would have to wait all weekend long to see if i had a miscarriage or not. so yea. i remember texting some girlfriends to pray.. and i was so bummed that i didn't have a chance to officially tell them our news, but they had to find out when i was having problems.

after three different appointments and several ultrasounds and blood work within the next two weeks, we finally heard a heartbeat. it was the most amazing thing in the entire world! i couldn't really tell what i was looking at, but the sound of a little being inside of me just blew me away! of course, i cried and brandon was just in awe. it was just amazing. i had a little bit of morning sickness, mainly just nausea. i didn't exercise for the first three months and just took it easy for fear of anything bad happening.

the ultrasound where we found out the sex of the baby was fast approaching. I wanted nothing more than to have a little girl. I had always prayed for a little girl. When Lester and Gina were expecting, I always prayed they would have a boy…and my prayers came true! I want(ed) to have the first girl. I wanted to name her after my Mom. I prayed and prayed for a girl. The night before the ultrasound, i had a dream that i went to the hospital & they gave me a sonogram (photo) & said "it's a boy!" and i kept telling them it wasn't my baby.. that i couldn't see it (the male part) & just kept saying that over & over. well, i woke up the next morning & just knew that it was a boy & told brandon about my dream. at the hospital while in the ultrasound room, the tech was checking all of the baby's vital organs & she just started to move the device around my tummy (i guess to spread the gel out) & she passed by the baby's legs quickly & in a split second i saw his "third leg". ha! i looked over at brandon & said "it's a boy. i saw 'it'". my ultrasound confirmed my dream. and what's funny is that in my dream i kept saying that i couldn't see "it", but during the actual ultrasound, i saw "it". (snippet of a previous post)

During my pregnancy, I had a few ultrasounds that resulted in more ultrasounds and many doctor visits. One ultrasound showed that the baby had dilation in his left kidney and the doctors were a little concerned. They said it was fairly common in boys and usually it self corrected itself. Then a couple of weeks before Fox was born, I had another ultrasound that showed dilation in his lateral ventricles (the area in his head where the cerebral spinal fluid is made)… talk about being scared. Luckily, we had a lot of prayer warriors and many prayers were sent up. We just put our trust in God. Honestly, there was nothing that we could do, but to trust God…fully rely on Him.

Ethan Fox was born on July 29, 2009…a week before my due date and on his cousin, Maddox’s birthday (and Adalie’s birthday). You can read about the birth here. He went straight into NICU as a precaution. The NICU doctor stated he didn’t really need to be in there, but they wanted to do a couple of ultrasounds to check his head and his kidneys. So the next day, Fox had a couple of ultrasounds. His ultrasound on his head came back normal, but the one on his kidneys showed that they needed to perform a different test. My poor baby had to have a catheter inserted and something pumped into him to see what was causing the dilation. Thankfully, that exam came back normal. So no worries. Now that we’re in Arkansas, we’ve had another set of ultrasounds just to be sure all was well. Thank God all looks great!

I honestly feel that Fox is our little miracle. I thank God for all the stuff I went through; even though, I was scared at times. I’ve learned that when we trust in God, He takes care of everything. I’ve heard the saying “Worry about nothing, pray about everything.” And honestly, this saying is the only thing that really gets me through sometimes. So if you’re worried about something, just pray about it. Let God take care of it. I put Fox in God’s hands and let God work in him. and God continues to prove that He is good.

makeover.

i'm working on sprucing up my blog.

i want to get a new layout. something more me.

i want a new name. a new slogan. any ideas?!

i've already added a couple of pages. you should check them out under my banner!

i've got a long ways to go to get it more to how i want it.

aaaaaaaand i want to blog more.

i think i'm on the right path!

garage sale

i had my first garage sale this past saturday.

i had actually been mulling over whether or not i was going to do it. brandon, fox & i are moving this saturday to the town we both work in.. where fox's school is located & where we attend church. it's only reasonable to do it.. and quit driving 30-45 mins/one way to our destinations. and save on gas or putting so many miles on our cars. we have been carpooling for almost 2 months now. we've made it work in new mexico for a year & half with just one car.. so we're pros at car pooling!

i hate the whole moving process. i dread the packing.. especially after finally getting the house how we like it.. comfortable, decorated & into a routine. or sometimes lack of a routine! ha! and now having to start all over again with whether we'll make the spare bedroom an office/exercise room with the futon. or making it just into a guest bedroom with the queen size bed & two dressers. i say spare bedroom, husband said office/exercise room. i think i'm caving into making it into the exercise/office room. honestly, i don't want to work out in the garage (no air conditioning) & after 3 yrs of marriage, brandon deserves a room, right?!

so anyways, i had this garage sale. brandon & i have so much stuff. it's unbelievable!! it's ridiculous! honestly, a lot of the things that we have still boxed up are my childhood things. like my trophies, my dolls, my mom's china that she spent about 2 years finding & getting together (brandon, buy me a china cabinet!?!), a box of my mom's clothes that i hope to one day make into quilts for all my brothers (one day before i die), knick knacks, clothes, clothes, and more clothes. i have an armchair & a loveseat that i brought with me when we got married. and thankfully, my dad bought us new, matching living room furniture a couple of years ago.. but i've been holding on to the couch because it was my mom's.

so after talking to my brother, lester, he reminded me that i didn't need objects & materials to make me remember my mom.. so i decided to sell it in the garage sale (i had previously tried to sell it on craigslist).. and no one bought it! ha! so i think it's going on the curb tomorrow. so sad. i am keeping the armchair in hopes of getting it upholstered.

so my friend, rachel, & i had a two family garage sale. we did pretty good! better than i expected. it was actually a lot of fun. did i like the work involved?! no, of course not. but i did enjoy seeing people talking their friends into buying my junk..i mean treasures. daddy had baby duty so i got to sit outside in my red lawnchair & tally up our earnings or make change while rachel bagged the goods. i'm actually thinking of what other stuff i can get rid of to make some extra cash!

and will you believe me when i say the money is already spent? well, it is (basically). ha! brandon had given me a budget for fox's first birthday party (which is next weekend).. but i thought i would use the garage sale money for his party. so i went into the garage sale with intentions of all the money going to the party. but after all my hard work, i feel i deserve some of it, right? well, my hubby is kind enough & is letting me keep half the winnings & he will put the rest in for fox's party. so in my head, i already have my share spent!

have i told you that i love my husband?! he has been the mvp of our family these past few weeks. just rocking the daddy/hubby role!

so yay for my first garage sale!

boo for packing this week! brandon & i have somewhat of a schedule of what is being packed when & whatnot. say a prayer that i don't stress out & take it easy this week! and that i don't neglect my child & hubby while trying to get this house packed!