Okay - WOW - y'all had a lot of questions!
First - I want to say that I am pretty open and honest on my blog. I think if you asked any of my close friends - I'm pretty much the same person in real life as I am on here (at least I hope they would think that). And I'm happy to answer your questions! There are some that I am not going to answer - these are ones that I probably wouldn't discuss with even my close friends and I'm guessing most of you wouldn't either - things like birth control, finances, etc. I have to maintain some boundaries of privacy. (and there were a few questions - I chose to just answer in the comment section. I'm still working on a lot of those - so hopefully I'll get them mostly answered).
Also - there were lots of questions on singleness. This is something near and dear to my heart and I want to dedicate a whole post to that. So in the next week or so - I'll do a whole day just on that topic.
Okay......................here we go:
A lot of you want to know what I did for a job before I quit and will I go back to work?
I graduated with a degree in Finance. I never really did finance. I worked for Wal-Mart at the corporate office as a business analyst/account manager for 8 years. After I got married I went to work for a major power tool company as a sales analyst/category manager. I LOVED what I did and loved working. Staying home is not always easy and there are days that I would LOVE to go to a job and sit in a nice quiet office and be alone with my thoughts and go to meetings but I wouldn't trade being home. I will probably do some kind of job once the girls go to school but my ideal job would be to work for the schools or my church. I don't know that I would go back to the business world but you never know I guess.
I'm laughing that a lot of you ask about my hair. I feel like I always get a lot of questions about my hair and y'all don't realize the love/hate relationship I have with my hair:
Yes - I'm naturally a very dark brunette. Yes - I'm now blond. When I was 22 - I started going gray (runs in my family) and I've been 100% white/gray for probably 7 years now. It's just easier to hide the gray by being blond. The white roots show up so much more on dark hair AND I honestly love being blond. I probably won't go back dark. And it was a very gradual process. It was just a few highlights at first and it just progressed. I'm in the process of growing out my bob/bangs. I'm sure I'll go back to short hair but I'm trying to grow it out. I also have wavy hair so I have to use a round brush and dry it and use a chi to fix it.
Y'all also ask about make-up - I just use bare essentials. I do try to get up and get ready as many days as I can. If I know we are going NO WHERE (which isn't often) - I will stay in pi's and no make-up and shower at night or nap time. But I feel better and more productive if my hair is fixed and make-up is on and I have an outfit on. That's just me.
A lot of you are asking about us having more kids...........
I would say right now - we are very happy with the two wonderful kids we have. Two just seems like the right number for us. Also - I will be 38 in a few months and I just feel like I don't want to have kids on into my 40's. If God surprised us - of COURSE I would be thrilled but I feel like our family is pretty perfect with our two girls.
How did I pick the girls' names and what other names do I like?
Harper is a name I've always liked. My favorite book growing up was "To kill a mockingbird". Before we ever married - we decided on Harper for a girl's name and Hudson for a boy's name. (Hudson is my MIL's maiden name) My middle name is Lee and that was my mam-ma's middle name. I didn't want to have a Harper Lee so I used my Mam-ma's maiden name which was Brown.
I have always liked when family's use the same letter for the kids' names and I had too much monogrammed stuff to not go with the same letters..........I like names that are a little different (although Harper has taken off in popularity since we picked it) and I like last names for first names. I like names that kind of have an old south feel to them. So we picked Hollis. I had several names I liked and Hollis is the one Scott liked too. Barrett is just a name that I liked.
For boys I like Sutton, Sullivan (if I would have several boys - these might have been used), Hudson, Holden (maybe even for a girl).
For girls - I like double names - anything with a Kate. I might have even used Mary Hudson if we'd had another girl.
This is a 3 part Q&A -
A lot of you have asked me why we kept Hollis' birth kind of secret, how was a c-section, and how is it having two.
Obviously I am very open on my blog - but there are some things I just have to keep private about. I try to only blog about us being out of town or going places AFTER we do them. I knew I was having a scheduled c-section with Hollis but my family and I felt it was best to not announce that until after for several reasons. I wasn't trying to be secretive - it was just in the best interest of my family. I would say a scheduled C-Section was wonderful and my recovery was 100 times easier than when I had Harper the normal way. (We had a c-section because of the problems we had during Harper's birth. It was the right decision.)
As far as having two, especially when one is a busy toddler - I am not going to lie. It's harder than I thought it would be. I think the hardest part for me is there is NO down time anymore. I took for granted how much down time I actually had with Harper but now 90% of the time when Harper naps - Hollis will be up and after Harper goes to bed - Hollis is still up so it's usually 9:00 before I sit down for the first time for the day. I can't imagine my life without either of my girls but it's VERY busy. And it's getting busier because Hollis is out of the sleep all the time and will sit still stage. She's rolling all over and won't just lay in a bouncy seat. BUT it's just a season and I'm trying to enjoy it because I know they will be eye rolling teenagers before too long. :-)
I've been asked a lot about how I knew Harper had hearing problems:
Harper had a lot of ear infections in her first year and at 18 months she was not talking a whole lot. I asked her ENT about it and he said we would test her at 2. So at 2 - they tested her and she failed. So they tested her again - and she failed. BUT it's hard to test a busy toddler. So they sent us to our state children's hospital and she failed. So that is when they did a sedated test to get the most accurate results. She talks a LOT - so much so that she doesn't qualify for speech therapy. I'm so thankful for that. We aren't doing sign language with her and don't plan to because she communicates so well verbally. We are going to a play date tonight with other kids and parents who are deaf or having hearing loss. I'm excited for Harper to see other kids with "special ears"!
You are all asking how we got rid of the pacifier:
You can ask my parents. I still don't know how they did it. They kept Harper for a week at their house after Hollis was born and they took it away that week and she has never asked for it since. So I have NO tricks or advice except maybe you could send your kids to my parents for the week! ha!
How do I keep balance and do so much and how do I keep my house so clean:
Two things you need to know - I feel like the most frazzled mom on the planet and I have crazy OCD.
No - I have really tried to limit myself in the last year or two to things I truly, truly love. I have learned to say no. Before kids - I did everything at church I could possibly volunteer for and now I'm stepping back some. I go to a weekly Bible Study with women because it is food for my soul. I'm on our church's women council because I am crazy about women's ministry! This fall I'm going to start teaching 9th grade girls' Sunday school and I'm SO excited. I have felt a pull towards teaching youth for a while and the time is finally right. Other than that - I just do things when I can. I LOVE to serve but with small children - sometimes the best place to serve is in your home. There will be time later in my life to serve more.
As far as my house - I'm crazy about it being neat. It's not always CLEAN. The floors could always use a good mopping and the bathrooms could always be cleaner. I try to give myself one task a day to complete. I always make my bed and I clean the kitchen real good every morning while Harper eats breakfast and Hollis is still sleeping. Other than that - I just constantly pick up during the day. And Harper helps. She loves to sing the "Clean up" song so after we finish playing with one thing - we pick it up before we move onto something else.
What Christian DVD's do I recommend for Kids?
Harper LOVES music so ones we have watched since she was little are Praise Baby, Cedarmont kids and Veggie Tales. You can find those on ebay, amazon or life way.com.
