Belgium Here We Come!

We just bought our plane tickets for our trip to Belgium today!

Ahh! I'm so excited! I haven't traveled AT ALL in the last year, except for a friend's wedding in Pennsyvania in February. And for someone who loves to travel, that is so not fun. I guess that's what having babies is all about.
But I am breaking this trend come October 23rd! Yippee! It's not a very long trip, just 9 days, but it should be so much fun. We are going to spend time with family, as well as attend Convention de Jeunesse 2008.
But guess what??
My sister and brother-in-law, plus the Lowries are coming with us! It should be a blast! AHH! I'm just so excited! This will be the first time my sister and I have ever been on an international trip together (well not including Caribbean trips)
It makes it so much more real when the tickets are purchased. Now I just got to make it through the next 2 months. I am SO excited people!
So yeah for traveling to see my family!


Myspace Countdown or Myspace Layouts

JON IS COMING HOME TODAY!!!!

Jon's coming home!
Jon's coming home!
Jon's coming home, ya ya ya ya!

That's the song I was singing to Lyric all morning, actually, not really, I was singing

Daddy's coming home!
Daddy's coming home!
Daddy's coming home, ya ya ya ya!

I'm so excited guys!!!

I got my hair done last night (Thanks to Jannette who did my hair at 8pm last night), shaved my legs, put on a cute outfit, dressed Lyric in a cute outfit that says "50% Daddy 50% Mommy = 100% cute!" Hopefully she keeps herself clean!

She did a little better last night as far as the separation anxiety. Except Court said that while I was gone getting my hair done, she had one melt down. But at least she didn't wake up any last night!

I am so hyper. The only bad thing is since I got my hair done last night, I wasn't able to finish cleaning the house. It's picked up, but the laundry isn't folded and it's not clean-clean. I didn't do the floors or the bathrooms or anything. But I think Jenae is coming over on Tuesday to do all of that anyways, I just wanted it nice and shiny for Jon. I also wanted to organize is office while he was gone. Ya, that SO didn't happen! :)

Only 6 hours and 42 minutes till I see his LOVELY face! I can't wait!
I think last night when I was getting my hair done, all I did was talk about Jonathan. I freakin' miss that boy! And since Lyric has officially started walking on her own, I can't wait for him to see it. Last night, she took 10 steps, stopped, turned around and walked back to the table. Then Court said she took about 10 steps last night at her house too. She just takes off on her own now and walks till she loses her balance and falls. She can also say bye-bye now, except is sounds like dye-dye. But still! SUPER cute!

Anyways, I can't wait to see him!!!! ahhhh!!!!!

Creative Writing Overdrive!

I feel like I have been on creative overload the last few days. I’m just constantly thinking about things and trying to figure out all the logistics. With work I’ve been doing a lot of re-designs of pamphlets and flyers. Personally I’ve been working on the new site and adding ideas to my novel. I’m like on creative writing overdrive!

I know, I know! There are no pictures from my week, but seriously! I tried to remember to get the camera from Court’s house and totally forgot!
However, I did get to go see a movie last night! Rachel Karlovich came over and watched all 4 girls last night so Courtney (and Judah), Christina and I could go see a movie. We saw Definitely Maybe. It’s was definitely maybe not the best movie in the world, but oh well. The worst part was that Judah was so fussy and so Court didn’t really get to enjoy herself. She just had to stand up with him half the movie. Poor sis! 5 week old babies are supposed to sleep through movies, duh! Of course he fell asleep right when the movie was over. Typical!
Also, why do babies always need to eat right when you get your food? That’s so annoying.

I haven’t blogged about our Oscar Party, because I wanted to post pictures. But Mom won for the second year in a row. Oh mom! I have found that now having a child, I never get to see all the Oscar movies because not all of them are out on DVD. I really want to see Atonement still. I did see Michael Clayton, but not There Will Be Blood or No Country for Old Men or La Vie En Rose or Elizabeth (but that one was on DVD, I just hadn’t seen it). So I think I came in like 4th or 5th. My big problem was I had never even really heard of No Country for Old Men so I never voted for it and they racked up the wins on Sunday night, so that definitely screwed me. I think Tiff came in second, but I’ll find out and post the top 10.

Also on Sunday, I finally got to see Abby's baby Sophie!! She is beautiful and to me looks so much like Korbin did! We have had sickness all around us, so I wanted to wait a few days to make sure I didn't get sick before I went over and held that precious little girl!
Here I am with Sophie Shull


I just talked to my husband and he is coming home soon!! They leave tomorrow at 6am our time to drive to Frankfurt where they will be leaving the next morning. Good times huh! I can’t wait to see my hubby! Only 2 more days!
Here he is with the team:


I haven’t had a chance this entire time to actually sit down and write more on my novel. Just jotting down ideas here and there. Not good I know. But I have been really focused on the website and being a single mom hasn’t helped in the area of excess time. So it will have to wait I guess. I want to get yesitsnormal.com up and running before I start on it again.
It’s funny because I feel so motivated and like I have something to look forward to outside of the monotony. Add that in the mix to great things and visions being implanted in my husband while he is in Belgium has just instilled me with a lot of hope!

And another thing to be excited about, I’m going to the Alanis and Matchbox 20 concert this Friday! I’m so excited about it!!! Except it’s just like 3 hours after the guys get back in, but it should be so much fun! Court/Nate are going with us. I can’t wait!!! I wonder if Court is going to take Judah? I think Lyric was 5 weeks old the first time I left her for an evening.

Well that is basically it for me! I need to go and pick up the tickets from the guy I’m buying them from today at lunch, so I’m waiting to eat till he lets me know when he can meet me. But it’s already almost 1 and I’m getting soooo hungry! Oh well!
I hope everyone has a GREAT day today!

Good Stuff!

Stephenie Meyer. She literally has to be one of my favorite authors. When I read her books I get absorbed. Like completely and totally. I forget where I am and what I'm doing and I emerse myself in the world she creates. She is actually the reason I want to write my own novel. She was just a mom who decided to finally write a story that had been in her head for awhile and she produced one of my favorite series of all times! If you haven't read the Twilight Series, you are totally missing out. At first glance, the fact that it's in the youth section and the fact that it's about vampires turns most people off, but if you can make it through half of the first book, you will seriously be hooked! The love story is so amazing! I felt like it was Carrie/Big/Aiden all over again! :) Well it looks like she's done it again in a whole new genre. I just read the excerpt from her new book The Host and boy is it freakin' good! If you have a minute, here read this. It's going to be good!

http://stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/thehost_chapter4.pdf

So American Idol girls went last night. My faves are still my faves. Asia'h and Carly are my girls!
My vote for who gets kicked off tonight are:

Amy Davis and Joanna Borgella
Garrett Haley and Luke Menard

Tonight is going to be good!!

I miss my husband! I've only talked to him once and for just a minute. He is busy, busy, busy. They ministered at a youth group last night. Landon and the team led worship, Nathan gave some words and Jon spoke. The leader's meeting starts tomorrow.... okay, never mind! He just called me while I was writing this! He must have picked up the I miss you vibe I was putting out. He is doing great, but they are eating my favorite meal tonight! I'm so jealous! They are going to be eating rocklette. You make it yourself with cheese that you put on a little shovel thing till it melts, and then you use the top to cook veggies and meat, etc. It's a fun meal to eat and socialize! :)
Here are some pics from my birthday in Belgium when we did this with Jon's family.







So they should have a great time tonight. I really wish I was there because I miss my Belgian family, however, someone has to hold the fort down here! I mean, what would Jedi do??! :)
I have pictures to upload from yesterday, but I left the camera in the car, so I'll do it later this afternoon. I will be up at the front all day because our receptionist had an emergency so my productivity will be low and my blogging will be high. :) It's the name of the game, I can't concentrate up here, don't have access to half the programs I need and am constantly interrupted. Oh well. That just means this day is going to looooonnnnnngggggg. :(

Okay, well I'm out! Only to be back a little later!

PS. I love you Jonathan

Contact made!

I just got off the phone with Jonathan and they made it to Belgium safe and sound! Everyone was laughing in the background, so it sounds like they are having a great time!! It made me want to be there so bad! I miss my in-laws!!
Well just wanted to let you know!!

PS.
I love you Jonathan

He's Gone...

Well, my Belgian waffle jumped on an airplane, headed to his homeland.
This trip is going to be really awesome. I'm so excited for them and the opportunities that I really believe it will bring. However, Lily and I will be missing the French flair around the house...

Here are a few pictures

The Vandeputs at the airport



The world travelers


Saying bye-bye to daddy




Poppy, Lily and Jon


Peek-a-boo


The Lowries


Saying goodbye at the gate entrance!


Bye again!


Bye!!!!


So ya! Jon's gone and I'm here and Lyric and I are awesome and we'll have mother/daugher bonding like crazy!!

PS. I love you Jonathan

American Idol!!!

American Idol is on tonight!!!
This is the first night where we can vote for people!
I seriously love this show. I have a few fave contestants, which I won't announce till I see everyone perform, but they are more on the female side than the male.

I must send another shout out to Grand Prairie's own Jason Yeager! No matter who you like most, make sure you vote for Jason tonight!!!



I am going to leave in about an hour to go and wish Jonathan farewell at the airport. I probably won't cry, so don't expect any tear streaked pictures. It's a ritual for me, I have to say goodbye at the airport. I can't do it at home. Part of my ritual consists of standing at the gate entrance where they run everything through the detectors. I like to stand there, and make Jon feel awkward. Every time he looks back, I keep waving, like the dork I am. It's really funny because he gets embarrassed at my "American-ness" as he puts it :) Whatever! I love my American-ness (and so does he, or he wouldn't tease me about it!)

So I'm about to be husband-less for 2 weeks. I think that calls for a girls night ASAP! :)

Ok, back to work. I'm trying to redesign our newsletter... oh the joys.

He's leaving tomorrow...

And man am I going to miss him. Seriously.
I HATE it when he leaves without me.
Part of it is the fact that I wish I was going with him and detest feeling left behind and part of it just has to do with the fact that my life functions so well with him, that when he is gone, there is a gaping hole.

So Jon leaves tomorrow for Brussels and I'm sad.

Absolutely NO laundry was done this weekend, so that means I get to scatter like a mad woman and do a ton of laundry so packing can get done tonight. Oh and my dishwasher is clogged or something. It won't drain. I told Jon that if he did nothing else, to please get that fixed before he left... guess what?? He leaves tomorrow and it is STILL not fixed! So on top of my incredibly dirty house, dirty laundry piled up in the bedroom and bathrooms that haven't been cleaned in weeks... I now have dishes beginning to stack up. Translated into NO ONE IS ALLOWED IN MY HOUSE!
It's best not to see how we are living right now :)

So one more night with my sweetie and then he's gone for almost 2 weeks. I really enjoyed our weekend together though. I don't even regret the extreme nothingness we did all weekend.

I mean seriously. We ate and watched a bunch of movies.
Friday- Olive Garden to go. Watched Invasion and Rescue Dawn. Invasion was great. I really liked it. Rescue Dawn, I didn't even make it through the opening credits before I was asleep. Jon said it was stupid.

Saturday- On the Border for lunch- roasted chicken and french fries for dinner-
Caught up on all Oprah's and Ellen's. Watched Reign of Fire and Sunshine. Both were great (I've seen Reign of Fire a few times) and Sunshine was good, though for some reason I kept getting lost- though it wasn't difficult to follow).

Sunday- ordered pizza mid-afternoon and ate it again for dinner. Watched Coyote Ugly and Good Luck Chuck. Good Luck Chuck is so stupid and crass. Don't recommend it at all.

So here I am, back at Higher Power after a long relaxing weekend...

I feel pretty refreshed! Except I'm covering the phones till Natalie gets here and I HATE covering the phones.

I think that is about it for me!

The Johnson Wedding

Finally got all the pictures uploaded.

Click HERE

Changes

So we've mixed up next weekend a bit.

We decided it would do no good for Jon to go a day early to see his sister because she has to work on Friday. So he is now going to go with me on Friday, but then I moved my ticket earlier so we would have no issue getting to the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner on time.

THEN, we decided to make sure that we wouldn't get stuck in the snow in Baltimore, to spend Friday night at a hotel in Harrisburg and then stay Saturday night with his sister. I will leave on Sunday at 5 and then Jon will stay a day later to spend time with his sis (she doesn't work Monday).

So then it's all good.

And, for some reason the fare was cheaper this way, and we actually saved $12. I love Southwest Airlines for the fact that you can make changes to your ticket and there is no charge, except if there is a fare change. Go SWA! :)

So I've been really busy all morning, I had two lunches to plan and execute. But now I'm covering the phones while the receptionist is at lunch and I can't access my network drive from up here, so I'm left to my own devices. So I'm thinking too much about everything that needs to get done, about $$ and bills, and personal crap... too much to think about.

BUT on a good note I had a good productive weekend:

Friday night we went out with Ryan and Tiff. We ate at this yummy italian restaurant at Highland Park Village and then went and saw 27 dresses at the little 4 screen movie theater in the square. They had a Paccugo's in the lobby, so I had some yummy Italian icecream to wash down my yummy chicken marsala. 27 dresses was ok. I thought it was cute, but definately not something to rave about.

Saturday was the freakout organization day. My house has been quite dirty, so it received a face lift. I also did 7 loads of laundry. Lyric is growing out of her 3-6 month clothes (finally since she is 9 1/2 months old), so I went to Courtney's house and got the 6-9 month clothes and then pulled out stuff that Christina gave me as well as people in Belgium and just had myself an organized clothes party. I put away all of her 3-6 month clothes, even the ones she could still fit into. Then I washed all the 6-9 month clothes and then put them up in the dresser and the closet. I also put up all the toys she is too big for and organized her changing table again. I washed and cleaned all the toys that Abby has let me borrow and got them all ready to go (along with baby girl clothes for her baby girl).

Then I went and ran errands with Courtney. Got groceries and formula and baby food and a few shirts and sweaters for Lyric.

Then came home and was too tired to cook, so we just ordered pizza.

Then Sunday I went to Church but left early to help my mom set up everything for the ANHOP meeting. Then we went to her house. Lyric took a super long nap while I chilled and started reading my new book Sight. Then we made a fire and my mom made cheesy potato soup and cornbread and my fam hung out by the fire and had fun together.

SO that was my fun weekend! It just went by soooooo fast!

Okay, that's it.

Israel Reunion

Last night we had an Israel reunion (minus Jenae and Bekah) that Jon went on this summer.

It was a lot of fun and was good to catch up with everyone. Although I didn't actually go on the trip, I still sort of feel like I did for some reason! :)

HERE are the pictures.

Travel in February

Well, we have plane tickets bought for our upcoming trip.

Today I bought mine and Jon's plane tickets to go to Kish's wedding! Fun, fun! Even more fun is the part that I just now got my reimbursement check from Delta from my baggage fiasco in Brussels, so that paid for one plane ticket. Nice. We'll be visiting Jon's sister in the same trip. The not so fun part will be Jon's leaving a day earlier than I am. So I get to take the baby on the plane without anyone to help. It shouldn't be that bad, but an experience nonetheless. Now we just have to make sure little CB is born soon, so I get extra time with him before I have to be gone a whole weekend. If he is not born by February 1st (when I leave), I'm not going. But there is like no way Court will last another 3 weeks… hopefully not at least!

Then we bought Jon's plane ticket to Brussels this past weekend. I'm so sad I won't be going. I really hate when he travels without me! Oh and the fact that I have to get up in the morning extra early to get Lyric up and take her to Christina's extra early (oh ya, I need to talk to you about that Christina, but it's not till 2/19-29). I'm not used to doing that, so that will be an extra adjustment, on top of the fact that I will be missing my husband dreadfully! This will be the 2nd trip he's taken without Lyric and I and I definitely am not appreciating it! But what can you do? Nothing. I need to send out a support letter for both him and Nathan to help with some of the expenses for this trip. We were able to find great prices on the plane tickets, but neither of us have the extra $500 bucks plus travel expenses for this trip, so we are needing the Lord to provide. Also for my brother Landon because he is going also and will be going to France to minister at some churches in addition to leading worship for the conference… I'm really excited for them, but again, I am feeling left out. But I guess someone has to stay here and take care of Courtney and CB and all the baby girls!

I have been SO lightheaded today. Like I'm talking or typing and all of a sudden I feel so dizzy that I want to pass out. Strange. It passes really quickly though.

I'm still in a funk today.

Went by all too quickly.

I'm in this strange mood today.

I don't really know how to describe it without sounding negative.

So I'm not going to. At least not on here.

Okay, I'm almost done with work. I've been busy today so that has helped with the passage of time.

PS. Court is doing great. Still having contractions (though not as consistent), still feeling a lot of pressure. When CB comes, he's coming fast!