My Confession

I've often patted myself on the back for not ever (not even once!) signing my name with my maiden last name since the day Aaron and I were married. I've still never done it, but I may have recently done something even worse.

I've been wanting a monogrammed bag from lands end like this one for a few years. I just love that the style is timeless, they literally are supposed to last a lifetime and they can be used for a million different things - traveling, beach, groceries, diaper bag, etc. Well, with our Hawaii trip for Aaron's big 3-0 around the corner, I thought this was just the perfect time to get the bag I've always wanted. As a bonus, they were on sale. I really wanted a bag that zipped that would be perfect for holding all our stuff to take to the beach. So I went to the Lands End site and began processing my order. As I anxiously awaited my bag in the mail, it finally arrived on Saturday (hooray!) But my excitement was crushed when I pulled the bag out only to read my monogrammed initials as "JMG." Ugh, are you serious, Jenny?!?!?!? You haven't been "JMG" in nearly 4 years.

Lesson learned: Never make a special order that is non-returnable while your husband is on business travel the entire week, you're sleep deprived and you have a sick baby. BUMMER.

At least the bag is still totally fashionable.

Casey at the Bat

It's funny how many comments we've gotten about Casey's name. Most people say, "Oh that's a cute name." Sometimes people have the guts to say, "Hmm, I mostly know girls with the name Casey." I can honestly tell you that I'm not offended because everyone has name associations. And just for the record, all the people Aaron and I have known with the name Casey are guys. But, sometimes we'll get, "Oh, yeah, like Casey at The Bat." YES! The classic poem by Ernest Thayer was one of Aaron's favorites while growing up. For those of you who don't know, Aaron has been dubbed "the walking sports almanac" by many who know him. He can tell you sports stats from long before he was even born. So being the sports fanatic that he is, it makes complete sense to us that our son would have a name with a sports connotation! You can read about Casey at the Bat here.
If you take the time to read it, (or even if you don't, i'll just tell you!) Casey actually strikes out at the end. People have cracked jokes about this. We've heard, "Wait, but doesn't Casey strike out?!" Yes. Yes, he does. But one of the biggest lessons we want Casey to learn in life is that he won't "win" all the time. In fact, he's guaranteed to strike out in life probably more times than he'll actually win. But this is one of the best ways to learn and grow. Now don't get me wrong, I would disappoint Aaron if I didn't say that we certainly want Casey to TRY and win each and every time. That is true. But we don't want him to have the false idea that it's always a successful attempt. It takes a lot of faith, hard work and dedication to succeed in life and life is filled with painful disappointments as well as celebrated achievements.
I want to include an article Aaron's dad had published in their local newspaper in Alaska. It speaks to what i'm saying here, but on an even deeper level. Truthfully, I nodded in agreement as I read this article for the first time. But as a mother who loves her son with wild abandon, my heart also broke. Life is HARD. And no one gets a free pass.

Hello?

I had "always" planned on being good about updates on Casey after each month. Alas, as real parenting would have it, the blog falls to the bottom of my list. Not because I don't enjoy blogging, but it just isn't a #1 priority. With that being said, I of course missed posting about Casey's 7 month birthday. So no cute picture with a sticker. Did I honestly think I could keep this up every month?! Here it goes:

Big changes have happened with Casey. Aaron and I have actually seen him change the most we've seen yet. Crazy! He sits up completely on his own, eats various foods (and LOVES them all), plays by himself (mommy appreciates this for showering!), giggles 'til the cows come home, has much longer hair that now spikes (if you've seen ads for the new TinTin movie coming out, his hair looks just like that!) and is seriously working on some teeth. No teeth yet, but my goodness it's gotta happen soon. Teething is the pits!! Poor kid. Truthfully, poor US too. We've entered the world of "real food poop" and still love cloth diapering. Some people in my family who will go unnamed were holding bets that we'd stop once he had his first really nasty poo. Sorry to disappoint! Still lovin' the cloth, y'all. In fact, we've now done two successful trip away still using cloth. We leave for Hawaii for Aaron's 30th birthday with his parents next month, and on that trip we'll be doing disposables. Not too bad though, eh?? Poor little Caseman Spaceman is very congested these days thanks to all the mountain cedar growing behind our house. Yeah, no one told us BEFORE moving to San Antonio that we'd be miserable along with everyone else in this city from December through February. Yuck!

Other than happenings with Casey, Aaron is doing really well in his new position. He has a lot more responsibility now managing an entire office of engineers. I'm really proud of him! I only wish we could see him more. He has a busy schedule and travels to different Air Force bases every month to oversee projects. This month he will be gone two weeks. I will NOT post my complaints here considering that two weeks pales in comparison to what a lot of my friends have gone through with deployments. So, in an effort to maintain my friendships, I will keep all complaints to myself. :) On the up-side, I'm involved in MOPS, a Bible study at our church and a library reading/play group. I added the play group under what i'm doing rather than what Casey's up to because I think the moms enjoy this group more than the kids do! I still don't have a really close friend or anything here yet, but I trust it will happen with time. I just need that one person I really connect with. Don't all of us women need that? I sure think so.