My babes

Lulie had a wonderful baptism. She looked beautiful and was so sweet the whole time. As you can see, Sallie Rose was in the background being a little bashful. I love that she photo-bombed us. That kid is too funny. 

Can you tell from the pictures below which baptism baby is which? They look so much alike as babies. Both beautiful with china doll skin. 

Lulie's Baptism

Lulie will be baptized tomorrow at Church. I really love this part of being a Christian. It makes me so sentimental and grateful that we have the freedom to go to Church every Sunday and raise our children to know God and not have to worry about being condemned by it. Of course, there have been plenty of people in my life, mostly here in Savannah, that have condemned me or made fun of the fact that I go to Church regularly or attend a Bible study.

 

No, I am of course not perfect and still have a long way to go to really know and understand God. I do have a strong faith and I do pray about almost every little thing. I pray whether I should spank my children or rather I should take a certain job. I am a very strong believer in prayer and I know that what we pray for isn't always handed to us. We have to work for it and we have to know that no matter what the outcome is, it is God's plan.

 

I pray all the time that my girls will become good Christian girls and all around good people. I want them to treat others' with respect and give to those who are less fortunate than they are. And I do want them to learn how to pray and have faith in God. I want them to also know that they are never alone and that no matter how sad or lost they feel, tomorrow will be better and they have God to carry them through.

 

So, tomorrow we will stand at the front of our Church in front of about 400 people and introduce our child into our family of Christians. She will be baptized and hopefully it will be the beginning of her love and service to God, her community, and the World.

 

On a side note, it will be interesting to see how she reacts. This child squeals and shrieks with glee all day long and smiles whenever anyone talks to her. So, hopefully she will let out a big happy squeal.

 

Sallie Rose

I have really struggled with Sallie Rose for the last year. She was such a sweet, happy baby that really liked to follow the rules and have fun. Now, she is extremely moody, tests the limits of the law all the time, and can be down right rude to other people.

I have tried every type of discipline in the book and it works for a day and then the next day she's back to the same habits. She has improved greatly over the last month. I thought I would never have my sweet child back and then it slowly started changing. I love this girl so much. We have a great time together and she is so sweet and fun and silly most of the time with me. When we spend all day together, she is such an angel. We have no problems and no bad attitude. She is my first born baby and I am so proud of her, but she frustrates me to no end some days. She is a lot like her daddy in so many ways. He too frustrates me to no end most days. Kevin and I are definitely on the "opposites attract" group, and some days those oppositions really show and wear on our relationship, but we work through it.

Sallie Rose on the other hand, is still very hard to understand somedays. She has started K-3 this year and is going 5 mornings a week. It has been a hard 3 weeks of school. I knew from the first week she was not happy. I asked her teacher on Monday what was going on and she said it was hard to get her to participate and she was crying and yelling a lot. Ugh...just when I think things are good with her she starts acting out again.

Honestly, it breaks my heart. I want her to be happy, I want her to have fun at school and I try spending alone time with her and doing fun things , but it doesn't seem to work. She was very rude to one of Kevin's aunts the other night (which she has done to my family a lot but not his) and Kevin was so mad. It's awkward and we honestly have tried so many things to try and get her to stop doing it. She does not care. How do you make a child be nice when they are determined not to be? I have decided you can't. We have discussions, we spank, we do time outs, nothing works on this one.

So, I have fretted over her behavior at school all week and decided to march in that school and see what the problem was. She immediately started acting whiney and didn't want to participate. I told her she needed to participate or go home. She wanted to stay. I asked her if she would like me to volunteer one day next week and spend the morning with her, she was so excited. I knew right then, that's all it would take, for now. I don't get it. I see her 7 days a week and she still seems like she misses me and gets a little jealous of my relationships with other people. If all it takes is me spending some time at her class, then I'll do it.

Sadly, I know this is not then end of the road for this type of behavior. I know deep down that we will struggle for a long time with her. I don't like saying this, but the behaviors she has like Kevin's are so strong and opinionated. It's not a bad quality, it just has to be guided and controlled. Kevin didn't have that growing up. He and his mom have identical personalities and she worked all his life. She was very busy and they did the best they could with him. Plus, he was an only child. That is hopefully one aspect that will help Sallie with her attitude. She knows she is not the only person in the World and it doesn't always go her way.

I pray that I can guide her and encourage her in the right way so that she will flourish and use her very strong traits for good. Because let me tell you, she is so intelligent, so pretty, soooo determined and strong willed and that child will do great things if led in the right way. God has blessed us and her and I will try all her life to be the best parent to her and love her no matter how different the 2 of us are. God gave us each other for a reason and we will do the best we can to use her and our God given talents to make this World a better place.

Sallie Rose, you keep me on my toes and you have been the best big sister to Lulie and I pray I don't let you down and give up on leading you in the right direction and being a good example to you and Lulie Belle.

Lulie is 4 months old

This baby is growing too fast already. I see now why some people just continue to have more kids, holding a baby is such a short and blurry phase that you start to miss it once they hit about 3 months. I, however, will deal with missing it and not plan on having anymore babies!

 

This little girl is 4 months old now and she has really made her place in our family. She is happy, easy, and so cute! She wakes up smiling in the morning and doesn't get cranky unless she is hungry or sleepy. Then, when she does get cranky, she doesn't really cry, she just kind of yells out a couple of time and you now what she needs.

 

She loves to talk too. She will squeal and gurgle and yelp. She makes us laugh all the time. Sallie Rose will be in her playroom and Lulie will be with me in the living room and she will yelp out with glee and Sallie Rose will laugh at her from her playroom and say, "Lulie you are so funny". She really loves Lulie and Lulie already loves her. Sometimes, Sallie Rose will get a little too close or be a little too loud and startle Lulie, but otherwise when Lulie hears her sister's voice she starts smiling immediately.

 

I can't get over how much joy she seems to have already. She will be drinking her bottle and you will look down at her and she will stop drinking and give you this have smile and it just melts my heart. She is so unique already and I am pretty sure her and Sallie Rose will be a lot different. I think it will make them closer and hopefully we can instill in both of them that although they are different, they are both special and great girls. I want them to love one another for their differences, not in spite of them. I want to try and never compare them and never say things like, "well your sister picked up her toys" or "your sister isn't crying, why are you being a baby?". I really dread other people doing this as well. I have so many siblings and some of us fight all the time and don't accept each other for all our flaws and difference and I want to try and avoid that with my girls, if I can help it. I think if we start at home with accepting people for they are and loving them and seeing the best in them, then that will carry out into the World for them and they will treat everyone like that. Plus, it helps me really watch how I view people as well. Having children really opens my eyes to improve myself while I am trying to make them good people and children of God.

 

Lulie is sleeping a little better during the day and at night. She goes to bed at 9pm and wakes up usually at 5:30am and we can usually get her to go back to sleep until about 6:30 or 7. She is going to "school" twice a week in the mornings and has already been labeled as the one with the personality. She is 13lbs and 5 oz and she is 25-1/2 inches long. She checks out perfectly and is tall and thin according to their charts.

 

Although, I can't stand the idea of her not being my baby, I am so excited to see what she will be like as she grows and gets even more of a personality. We love you Lulie and are so grateful you made our family a family of 4.

 

Here she is in the morning:

 

 

Here she is on her 4 month birthday:

 

 

Here she is on her first day of school. I promise her hair did not look slicked back like that by the time we got to school. I just had to wet it so I could get it calmed down a bit.

 

This picture really captures how she is. Laid back, chillin with a grin.

 

 

 

Reality show

There are days that I really feel like I could have a reality show. We come across so many interesting people on the rentals. We have great people, we have terrible people, we have funny people and then there are the others. It truly is amazing to see how different people are and how nasty some people can be. Nasty in a cleanliness way and nasty in a behavioral way.

Last week, I came outside of one apartment and saw an older lady sitting on one of our porches. She was sitting in a chair, no big deal. I said hello to her and then realized that her pants were at her ankles while she was sitting. I immediately called 911 as I was kindly asking her what she needed and why she was there.

She said she was looking for Lou and Stacy. She assured me they lived upstairs, obviously I know all my tenants names and that was not who lived here. That's beside the point, her pants were at her ankles, that was the main thing that alarmed me. I told 911 there was an indecent lady on my front porch, blah blah blah. She finally walked off while I was waiting for the police and as she pulled up her pants walking away, I went hesitantly to see if she had pooed or peed. Thank goodness it was just pee, but still very gross. I slowly moved the chair off the porch and dumped her toilet in the yard. Then I thought, she was sitting to pee and she had to have gotten it all over herself, so gross. Obviously she was mentally challenged or very high. This is one of many incidents that I am tired of dealing with at our rentals.

Then, today Kevin went into one of our apartments at last minute to check on something. The tenants weren't home so he let himself in and in one of the bedrooms he found huge mushroom caps drying on tin foil. He of course expected it was the hallucinogenic type, so he calmly called the tenants to let them know they were being kicked out, after one night of living there. Come to find out, the guy swears it is a hobby and they are not for drug use. Sure, we will accept that for now. I'll keep my eye on him.

It is amazing what people think they can hide behind closed doors. I am tired of opening those doors and wondering what I might stumble upon. Reason number 3039977293 that I would like to sell our rentals.

Ready for a change (this could get long)

I don't discuss our rental properties too much with most people, compared to as much as I'd like to complain about them all day, everyday. I try not to complain in general, I know how blessed I am and how much worse our situation could be. Kevin and I however have reached a point where we are not sure we can work this hard and this much for something that will show no progress for another 15 years. Is it worth it? Is it worth spending every summer working myself to the bone cleaning, painting, calling the cops, showing apartments? Is all this enough to feel like I am losing such precious time with my gifts from God, Sallie Rose and Lulie?

In the past month, we have lost Kevin's dad, worked non stop to get the apartments ready for turnover and Kevin and I have hardly seen each other. Poor Kevin didn't even have time to sit down and mourn the loss of his dad. He was too busy to be sad. That's sad. This has been our life for 7 years! Since we got married, we have struggled with time and of course financially. For what?

Kevin has a great job, I have a masters in Architecture and I am highly employable (sorry to sound a little vain). I work extremely hard and could very easily make a decent living working in architecture and still have weekends off to spend with my children before they are grown up and off to college. For the last three years, I have given up my career in my field to help our family by managing the rentals. This year will be my last year, one way or another. Is it bad everyday? No, it's not, but for 4 solid months it is bad. It is nothing but stress, cleaning, getting contractors to try and do their job, and of course talking on the phone to annoying parents of children who are going to college for the first time. These parents don't want to do any research on the area or housing, they want to call me, talk for an hour, then decide they don't like the location, price, etc. I have way too much to do to baby them and it actually angers me that they think my time is so unimportant, that I can spend all day telling them where everything is in Savannah. 

 

I would say in the last month, Kevin and I have had one conversation outside of rental talk and child talk. We have not done a single thing that was fun on the weekends with our kids. If I am home on Saturday, he is at the rentals, and visa versa. Then, Sunday comes and we go to Church and come home and are so tired, we have no energy to do anything. The thing that really got me this Summer, was after I had Lulie, I had to immediately go back to work. I had zero maternity leave. I had no time to lay around and snuggle my new baby. I was either on the phone or responding to emails. I only stopped to feed her and change her. And poor Sallie Rose, no wonder she was such a terror at that time, neither one of her parents could give her the real attention she needed. We go through the motions and that's about it.

 

So, it's time for a change. What will that change be? I am not sure. I know that I am done missing my children and being so tired that I can't bring myself to play Barbies. I am done missing my husband and discussing nothing other than rentals and when the baby ate last. I am done missing my family and not having the money or time to go see them when I want.

 

Are there people who work harder than me? Of course. Are there people who have jobs that are a lot more gritty and dirtier than me? Yes. And as I am praying that God will give me the strength to make it through this turnover time one more year, there are people out there praying for their children who have life threatening illness. I am not naive and I am not ungrateful for what I do have. There just comes a time when you decide something doesn't work and you either make a change or you stay miserable. I like to make changes and not be miserable. I love life, I love my family and friends and I have done my part of this business for 3 years. I deserve to make a change and I can. Kevin is ready for a change too. He does not want me to have to do this anymore than I want to do it. He feels awful that he brought me into this situation, but God brought us together at these properties and he had a plan for us. This is not Kevin's fault, I chose to do this in order to help my husband.

 

Soon, we will begin trying to sell our rental properties and yes I do pray that there is someone out there that wants to buy them. And I pray that I can make it until the time when they get sold. I know I can, but I don't want to.

 

I have learned many thing about myself through this. I have learned I am strong, I do work very hard, I can handle many different people and their personalities and I am also very handy. This situation has brought Kevin and I closer (odd since we never see each other), and it has definitely made me more grateful for many things in my life. God does have a plan for each of us, I have no idea why those plans work out the way they do, but I try to trust him and pray that I will go in the direction that he intends me to go. I just hope the next direction is straight to the bank with a check from an investor who just purchased all of our houses. :)

Guess who is 3 months old?

This little lady is. She is such a good baby and so easy. I do wish she would sleep a little better at night, but we can't have it all. She smiles all the time and just hangs out when she is not sleeping or eating.

Sometimes, when I put her in her swing or chair and go about doing my chores, I forget she is even there because she is so quiet! She is hardly ever fussy and most of the time will give you a big toothless grin.

She has been a true blessing to our family and we love her more and more each day.