Weekend Wrap-Up

Let's call this wrap-up the Greenville edition.

As in South Carolina. Where we spent our weekend.

I've alluded to the fact on this here blog that some big changes are in the air for the Imperfect household. Well as those changes are officially rolling along, I feel okay in sharing with you ladies.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked for your prayers involving a situation. You ladies rallied of course and we got answers big time.

You see, a few weeks ago the Mister lost his job.

Gulp.

The past two weeks have been stressful to say the least as we re-budgeted, checked out our options, and did some serious mild panicking.

I have to say, I have felt oddly at peace with this whole transition which is very, very odd for this girl as I am a natural born worrier. I was stressed don't get me wrong, but I never hit full on panic mode.

The past two weeks, Mr. Perfect has been doing the stay-at-home Dad thing. He's loved it, she's loved it, but it's not for him. Poor boy looked so harried when I came home one day after she had spent the entire afternoon screaming. She's a lot sometimes.

But he did it. And he was awesome and I really, really think they both truly enjoyed their time together.

Thankfully, that time is already over.

Mr. Perfect has found another job, thanks entirely to the prayers we have been blanketed in. I can't say enough about the power of prayer.

The job is in Greenville, SC so we'll be packing it up and moving it out. But that process is another post. This post is about this weekend.

Saturday we got up early to hit the road. We made a few more stops than we're used to on road trips with BG, but she did so, so well. I can't brag on her enough.

We stopped just outside of Columbia for lunch.



BG slept the entire way up to Columbia for lunch and then right back to sleep for the rest of the ride.

We got to Greenville about 5 hours after we started. We spent a few hours looking around before heading back to the hotel. BG would literally wake up to walk around a house, look around, and then go right back to sleep once we got in the car. I was so worried that she wasn't going to sleep that night since she spent the entire day asleep.

We took a break to go eat some lunch and chill out in the hotel. BG was in rare form. She didn't want to play, didn't want to eat, didn't want to watch football (gasp!). Finally she collapsed and went back to sleep.

This is how she sleeps now. Can you say "Mama has a panic attack?!".

After her nap, we drove around for a while scoping out neighborhoods and checking out the place where Mr. P would soon be working.

We went back to the hotel to get settled in for the night. BG got her bath, dinner, and story time late, but she was such a trooper. And despite the fact that she had been asleep literally all day, she went right to sleep in her pack-n-play after about five minutes of looking around.

I cannot stress enough about how good this baby is. I know our (notyetagreedonordefinitelydecidedupon) next one will be a hellian since we got so lucky with her.

The next morning we headed home. BG slept for only an hour of that trip. But she was content to play and laugh with Mom in the backseat for the rest of the drive.

After meeting up with the family for a quick lunch, we headed back to the house to hang out with Mr. P until he had to head back to Greenville.


Having a stare down with the cat..

Mr. P packed back up and hit the road about 3. We already miss him. In fact, we had to go shopping with Aunt Ash to distract ourselves. It sucks being away from him, but we've got to deal with that for now..

We did come back home on Sunday to take her 27 week picture and record this little ditty for her Daddy. We sure do miss him already...

a shout out.

Somehow BG turned 27 weeks old today. Not sure how since we had a deal about her not going past 6 months, but... It happened.

We're going to have to work on that girl.

In other news, a while ago I noticed that one of my best blog buddies' little boy had one awesome onesie on. I commented about how much I loved it, and not too much longer, BG received this little joy in the mail.





I think she loves it!!

Thanks so much Sarah! BG kind of digs the fact that she and E are Bazinga twins!

*If you don't know what "Bazinga!" is, I'm going to need you to start tuning in to the Big Bang Theory, stat.

playdates and parties oh my!

Not even kidding, BG is kind of popular.

I mean, if I was cool and laid back as her, I'd be in high demand too.

Alas, I'm not. But I will sure truck along on all her little excursions. She's cool like that. She lets me go.

And drive. Nice...

The other day, we headed over to her friend Gabby's house for a while. KW was getting ready for Gabby's first birthday, and I had to take some stuff over there for her to use. The little girls used this as some serious catch up/play time. I love that BG is getting to the age that she can actually play with other babies.


I love this picture. I feel like it shows her sweet, sweet spirit as she sits and just plays by herself.

Yes. I am an emotional cheeseball, but y'all, she is so, so sweet.

More playtime.


Can you believe Gabby is six months older than BG?! Yea. They're the same size.

Whatever.

On Saturday the 25th, Miss Gabby had her first birthday. I can't believe it's already been a year since this little girl made her appearance.

So BG got to attend her first birthday party! She kind of loved it. I don't think it had anything to do with celebrating her little friend though. More so the old lady who deboed her five seconds after I got there.

Fine with me. I used my free hands to eat cake. And chocolate covered strawberries. And cupcakes.



It took about ten minutes before BG and her bestie Kathryn, found themselves in the big mirror. It kept them occupied for a good five minutes. They thought popping up and seeing themselves was hilarious!

*Apparently I spent the whole day with a fingerprint on my camera lens.. ahem, BG. Did you know those showed up in pictures?!?

The party went kind of late so BG and I left early as I was quickly picking up on the signs of an overtired child. I did manage to snap a quick picture of the three besties before we left...


This past Saturday, we headed out to another birthday party. My childhood friend's little boy turned four so we packed up and headed one town over for his party.

BG thought my necklace was better than party food.


Playing with Mrs. Shannon while the birthday boy opened presents.


All the kiddos.


I wonder if she's too young to have her own DayPlanner?

thursday tidbits.

I think I like the word tidbits.

Every since people started blowing up Twitter about P*retzel m&m's, I have been on the hunt. Well, success has been mine people. I have found these little ditties at a couple of gas stations in town and I cannot. get. enough. I dream about these things people. I love you ladies of Twitter for bringing these to my life. I also curse you on behalf of my hips...

This week is super ridiculous at work. Most of our staff, doctors, etc. are at a conference in California. I am here. Lucky me, crazies everywhere. And there is no one to even pawn them off on. If my phone rings one more time...

Big, big things going on in le universe de Imperfect. Huge. Still haven't blogged about them, but if you follow me on Twitter, then you already know. I thank you for your prayers recently. Know they are definitely working!

I cannot stand country music. I don't know why. Okay, maybe it's not that harsh. I go through spells where I can deal with it and where I can't. Well now that BG is around, we listen to a lot more country music. Usually in the morning I let her watch music videos while she plays. And one video has made me fall head over heels for a country song...

Y'all. I pink puffy heart this video. I love Hootie. I love the views of the low country. I love how it makes me want to go outside and shake my hips. Love it.

Mr. Perfect has been home with BG for a few days and it is comical to come home too. I adore my hubs and he is an excellent father, but I think this many days in a row of a six month old are wearing on him... The other day when I got home, he looked harried as he handed a red faced BG off to me with the words "Here. Take your daughter". My daughter? Never good when he calls her that. I got him to admit that SAHM-othering is HARD. Poor boy. I think he needs a Daddy Day.

My dogs are still driving me crazy. They scratched all night. Nails on a chalkboard tile floor with tags clanging all through the night does not make a happy me in the morning.

The VW is trying to get me to drive it off a cliff. Now the glove compartment won't shut. Little things but oh so, so annoying. And my alternator is bad. Come on foreign made crazy clown car! You're freakin' killing me.

My skin is out of control right now. I feel pasty and blah. It's like a week into fall. This is not good.

I think I am in love with the change of seasons. Right now I am totally digging this cooler weather. In a month, okay three since I guarantee Georgia is going to get hot again, I'll be complaining that I'm cold. I'm too hot, I'm too cold. I need year round spring and fall. Where is that?

I just watched the video of BG laughing three times today. I am obsessed with my child. Truth.

I need some new blogs to read (because I'm not behind enough in my Reader). If you have one, leave the link in my comments and I'd love to come check it out.

Here's hoping everyone has a great weekend! We're road tripping it a bit and I can't wait!

Getting Real.

Amy writes one of the blogs that I most consistently read and have read for years. Amy and her husband have been battling infertility for years, and she is one person I find myself praying for very often. Today she is offering up stories of encouragement to those of you out there that are waiting on husbands or children or whatever the case may be, and I thought I'd share a bit of my story you might not have heard before.

Mr. Perfect and I met, fell in love, and got married in a whirlwind. It was so fast, it literally made my head spin. In our first year together, we also found ourselves dealing with not one, but two, miscarriages and the repercussions of those losses. For a couple of people that had only known each other for a year, it was a lot to deal with.

Infertility is hard on a marriage. Very, very hard. Even though you go through it as a couple, it can also be a ridiculously isolating experience. I had so many fears about our miscarriages; was it me? Was it my fault? Was I going to be the reason my husband never got to be a father? Did I do something to deserve this?

I turned in on myself after my second loss. I could have cared less about myself, my marriage, or what I was doing to us as a couple. It was hard. In the middle of all that, we were moving all over the place, I missed home, my family, my friends, I was twenty two.. It was just too much..

Things got better and then we suffered our third loss. After that loss, we called it quits on trying to have a biological child. I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't deal with getting my hopes up just to have the rug pulled out from underneath me. I couldn't deal with the pain of recovering from surgery. I was just over it. It was too much.

At the end of 2008, I began to push everyone away again. I don't know how Mr. Perfect put up with me as I went on a self destructive tangent. I needed everything to quit hurting and I couldn't find a way to make that happen. I ran from everything. I ran from church, from Mr. Perfect, from God, from my family... I just wanted a break.

Somewhere in my haze that was the end of 2008, I got pregnant again. Our relationship was on very shaky ground, but we came together for this child. We prayed over it and asked God to forgive us for who we had become. Right before I got pregnant, Mr. P had gotten saved and was a totally different man. He really stepped up to become the leader in our household. I fell in love all over.

We lost that baby at Christmas. I got saved in February.

Marriage is the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm not good at opening up at all and when you add in the recurrent pregnancy loss, well, it makes it even more difficult. I've gotten called out in emails before about how I portray my life as "perfect". Maybe I do. Because to me, it absolutely is.

After I got saved in 2009, it became so clear to me the damage I had caused. But somehow, I was forgiven for all of that. Mr. Perfect was still here, my marriage was better than ever, my family still rallied around me. God's grace was amazing and became even more so.

In August of 2009 I got another positive pregnancy test. And exactly 39 weeks later, I got my miracle child.

Y'all. She was so, so worth the wait.

I let you in on a darker side of this girl for one reason; there is always, always hope. I thank God that He watched over the two of us, even when we weren't listening to anything He had to say. I thank God that He is a God that forgives and always loves us, even when we don't love ourselves.

Life is hard. It's downright heartbreaking sometimes. I don't pretend to understand why we had four miscarriages. I don't say that it didn't just about kill me, because it did. But I made it to the other side. We made it to the other side.

And life is pretty much, almost perfect.