busy what? and confession.

hey there. we have had a BUSY week around here! wait, a what? what's that word? busy? never heard of it. 

well, we have, in fact, had a BUSY week. let me tell you about it. sunday we had a bbq over at josh n' joy's house. she had some family in town, and my new FRIEND christi and her family came. she has 2 girls and we worked together at a few weddings and we are friends now. amazing, i know. sooo, we had the bbq on sunday. monday was low key. we just went to the y, hung out, ate dinner, and i worked all night- remember? tuesday, me and the kids went the y, did naps and all that, ran to the grocery, and then we had some more NEW friends over for dinner. there's this guy named patrick who works at the business and he's great! he's like my little brother. we invited him and his girlfriend over for dinner. i made chicken alfredo and we ate and chatted and ate dessert. fun night! on wednesday, jake told the wedding coordinator of the business, amanda, that he would fix her porch. part of it was falling down. so we all went! me and the kids hung out with amanda while jake worked. cici's has this $3.99 buffet for lunch on weekdays, so you KNOW we hit that up for lunch. and finley and audrey both still eat free. SWEET! on wednesday night, we were invited over to a couple's house from church (spanky and lara). jake volunteers with spanky on sunday mornings setting up church. spanky does like, everything at the church. they have 3 kids and we enjoyed some meatball subs at their house while all the kids played. it was really fun! and so refreshing to be at someone else's house :) THEN today, me and the kids went to christi's house for a playdate! her oldest daughter is in school, but has a 4 year old who was home. we ate lunch and finley explored ALL of their toys :) it was another fun time. plus, she lives right by sonic! and you know i stopped for my vanilla diet coke. oh, the little things. tonight, joy and i went on our weekly starbucks date where i work and she works on her master's class. always enjoyable! 

PLUS, in all the spare time, i've been work-work-working! staying up too late and not watching nearly enough 24! ;)

SEE, it has been a busy week! and my body feels it, LOL! it's been nice and refreshing being out and socializing with other humans. 

i've been trying to think of a confession thursday... any ideas? haha! here's a bit of a silly one. when i have infants, i never put bibs on them. if you know babies, you know bibs are completely acceptable and often necessary. i never used them. for real, like, ever. my mom asked me all the time why i didn't put bibs on them when clearly, they needed them. the front of their clothes were covered in drool, milk, spit up, or baby food. ewww. i think my logic has always been, well, if i have to wash a bib, i might as well wash the whole shirt. or something extremely scientific like that. maybe when imaginary baby #3 comes along i will enter the world of bibs. and perhaps find that they are quite useful and convenient. maybe. :)

what i've been dwelling on lately:

"bind my wandering heart to thee." i am very prone to wander. and oh, how i need Him to keep me close. 

hope all is well. 

love to you.
mer
 

 

rambles

i'm sitting at my computer melting. falling into the keyboard. i am WAY behind on my calls this month, and have been working for 3 hours already tonight. yowza. this happens every.single.month. but it's not always my fault! for real. for those who don't know, i have a part time job scoring customer service calls. our company provides quality assurance for other companies... so i listen to employees and make sure they're saying and doing what they're supposed to be... anyway, this job has been a tremendous blessing to our family and is absolutely perfect for a stay at home mom. it's totally make your own schedule... which is why at the end of every month i am behind. last week, the system went down and since then, it's been slooooooooooower than molasses. every call takes 12 years to load. this is a big problem for this job. being able to work fast is extremely important. part of my work is scoring direct tv calls and last week they gave all of us this HUGE assignment putting our other work behind + extremely slow system = melting meredith into putty or glue or slush or chocolate milk right here on my computer. i've had to motivate myself with sweet tea and doritos. i'm so healthy.

ANYWAY, thank you for listening to all that. i feel better already. must keep listening to these people talk about HD, DVR, and 2 year contracts. some people get so mad they make them sign a 2 year contract. 

but let's forget about august for a second.... BECAUSE SEPTEMBER IS GONNA RULE!

here's why... in chronological order:

1. PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES WILL BE BACK! liz, can i get a holla! me and my sis, liz, call or text each other about our first PSL of the season, and any that we drink, really. we heart PSL. katie does too. but she gets decaf, soy ones. she's weird. 

2. my friend becca's BIRTHDAY! is the 9th! sadly, i will be miles and miles away, but i love becca's birthday! we would so go out to panera for lunch, no kids of course, do some shopping, and then a nice meal with our hubsies. 

3. JAKE's 25th BIRTHDAY! heeeeey booooooy! LOVE his birthday, too! quarter of a century. we're gonna have a good one, i'm sure. 

4. MOM AND STEVE are COMING! to CHARLOTTE!!! what what! i think it's the 21st-25th! we are all SO excited about this! endless fun will be had, i am sure! 

5. my birthday is this month, too! it's the month of bdays!!!!!! 

6. our niece juliana's BDAY is the day after mine! YAY for first birthday CAKE! 

well, i am certain there are more!  i am also sure this post wins some kind of record for exclamation points and capital letters. thanks for following this weird post. it started as a bit of a downer, but now that i am thinking of how great september will be, i can make it through this last bit of august. and i'm a bit sad to see summer go. I KNOW. who am i? but it's been a nice summer. 

i mentioned last week how we were going to go to a church volunteer event, well we went. it was at an open house for a local elementary school that has a LOT of needs. ridge church has kind of adopted it and does several big service events every year. we provided a carnival theme with free games, cotton candy, sno cones, and PIZZA. tons and tons of pizza. jake was at the pizza station making sure everyone got what they wanted, refilling boxes, etc. i hung out with the kids and talked to some of the families as i could. on sunday we were on our way to church and finley said, "i wanna go to pizza church". ha! sadly, there was no pizza at regular church. but i guess he kinda got the whole service/church thing a little bit? :)

how is it going with you? hoping you are well.

love to you.

mer

 check her out. she brings me finley's clothes all day long and loves wearing his undies over her clothes! and she is always bringing me shoes to put on her. she cracks us up.

 

confession session

for those of you that know me, you know i am a major diet coke fan. this is not the confession. i just wanted to make that clear. i heart diet coke. like, so much. i know, i am basically poisoning my body. it hurts so good. hahahaha! anyway, meredith + diet coke = happiness. there, ya get it. i love it.

so here's where the confession part comes in... 

i love having diet coke in cans at my house. an ice cold diet coke right out of the fridge is the best. can i get an amen, Vanessa Eisenzimmer?! (she's my dear friend who also completely loves diet coke in all it's forms). we are stronger friends because of this bond. 
back on track... so i buy cans to have at home. not 2 liters, totally not the same, and they go flat in like 3 seconds. they might be cheaper, but still not worth it. so on average, i spend $6 a month to have diet coke at my house. and i only drink one a day, at dinner. occasionally i don't drink one from the house so i would say a 24 pack from walmart that is $6, does me pretty good. now, $6 a month for such a joy and pleasure in my life seems worth it. i know. here's what i've spent 3 years now trying to confess to you:

i never finish a whole can of diet coke.

silence falls over the internet. what is this girl talking about? she just spent 3 years describing her love for diet coke and how happy it makes her and the financial investment it costs her family and she doesn't even drink the whole thing?!? what is her d-e-a-l? 

i feel the same way. about myself. here's the thing. i can't drink the last bit of it. just can't do it. i am the exact same way with beer. i really like beer. lots of beers. but by the time i get to having about 1/2- 1 inch left in the bottle or can, i can't finish it. it gets warm and i just can't. or don't really. 

i guess what i feel the need to confess is i buy these packs of diet coke and depend on them, but i don't even drink a whole can. if i added up the amount i pour out of each can, i would say it would take 5 cans to make one whole can. so, i'm throwing away 1/5 each time. 

it's okay though. because that diet coke fix is glorious and i look forward to it. even if i never, ever finish a whole can. 

thanks for listening. and reading. 

i wanted to share a few pics from this walk jake and i did with the kids at a nearby park/greenway. it is a really cool place. enjoy!

love you guys. hope all is well.

mer

hi

hey there. just wanted to drop a quick hi and see how it's going with you. whoever "you" is. ha! 

quickies of what we've been up to:

we got finley to eat PEAS tonight. PEAS. and yes, pigs flew afterwards. we're talking multiple bites, people. it really helped when jake told him, "you know who eats peas? thomas the train! and barney!" and then fin kept calling them barney's peas as he ate em. love that boy.

we got snocones last night after dinner. they're the bomb.com. (people are still saying that phrase, right?)

i took yoga today. yowza, teacher beth kills us. it's a "beginner" class, but she calls it "beginner-intermediate". she's no joke. 

i just had to run out for ice cream tonight. bogo free on breyers! holla! 

jake and i are on season 3 of 24!... holy moly batman. it's getting real real. ohmyg. we have like 5 episodes left and i basically cry every night when we have to turn off the tv. waaaaah. i'm sure i have a medical condition. 

audrey is saying, "my baby" "mommmmy" "bubbles" "buuba" (for finley-so cute!), she blows kisses to the Y ladies when we leave every day, and of course, her scream is still in full force. and her temper tantrums are escalating at a proper developmental pace. so, that's a relief. she can scream with the best of em.

forgot to tell y'all we went to a play date last week. you heard that right... we went out and intentionally hung out with another mom and her 3 kids. what a delight. it was nice. 

we're going to another volunteer event with our church on thursday and i'm looking forward to it. we are loving our church more and more. i'm so thankful. 

I NEED TO SEW. no, i didn't forget i own a sewing machine. 

love you guys. hope your world is alright for you. 

nighty night.

mer


 

sweet moments

hey you. i don't have too much to write tonight. no confession today. sorry y'all. just have nothing up my sleeve tonight. 

BUT i wanted to share this super quick story about finley.

it was about 1:30 this afternoon and we were snuggling in his bed before naptime looking at his picture Bible. he opened to the first page and all of a sudden said this:

"God made the world, and it was good!" but he didn't just say it. he made a big circle with his arms in the air, like making a world, and then gave two thumbs up as he said, "and it was good!" and i nearly died of joy. and i said, "where did you learn that?" "church!" he said. it was the sweetest thing ever. i melted. and made him do it about 50 more times. ha! when daddy got home, i kept saying, "finley, tell dadda what God did!" and he would make a big circle with his arms and give thumbs up as he spoke truth. he also calls EVERY person he sees in his Bible "Gesus" (meaning Jesus, of course). i try and tell him no, that's abraham, or moses, but nope. they're all Gesus. "let's find Gesus," he'll say. or he'll count all the Gesus' on the page. i've never known such joy than to see my child begin to understand our sweet, sweet Father and his love and reign on the world. so far, he knows God made the world, that it was good, that Gesus lives in the sky and in his heart. and i do pray, so much, that Jesus would capture that boy's heart and be his Hope. 

so thankful for those moments. the moments when God is so real and near. in a quiet, unexpected way. i thought i was just going in his room to read a story before naps, but He was there. and i am so thankful.

i've been singing this song in my head this week:

"your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me. your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me... on and on and on and on it goes. it overwhelms and satisfies my soul. and i never, ever have to be afraid. for this one thing remains... your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me."

hallelujah.

love to you.
mer

good weekend

hey y'all. how are you? we're doing pretty good here. i tell you what, we had a BUSY week last week. like, so busy. jake worked a lot, i did lots of calls/worked a wedding, and it was just all around nuts. BUT yesterday and today made it totally worth it. i guess i'll back up a bit... there was a wedding friday night and then on saturday we had 2 weddings back to back, a morning and evening wedding. jake had worked so much all week that i wanted to work the saturday night wedding so he could get off earlier. we actually worked together for a couple hours that night, which was fun! joy watched the kids at our house so i could work until jake got off. it was fun working the wedding. always exhausting, but fun. 
so yesterday, we went to church and then stopped for lunch at steak n' shake (kids eat free sunday, score!) (and finley calls it steak sake :)) then we all took naps. after that we went to get me some new work shoes, because my TOMS just weren't cutting it for standing on my feet 8+ hours. i know, they work for some people for that long, just not me. i also happened to need running shoes... so we went to rack room shoes where they're always buy 1 get the 2nd half off, score again! i got 2 pairs of shoes, which was really fun. i don't shop very much so when i do, i get really excited :). then we stopped for sno cones, of course. i mean, we drove right by it. and they're so cheap and amazing. you remember. then my friend bekah, who i knew from capernwray 8 years ago, lives here in charlotte so she came over for a bit and it was fun seeing her. always a treat :) it was a good day, indeed.
then today the fun kept rolling. ha! we went to this place called darby acres, which is like a mini zoo. it's a petting zoo really, but they have pony rides and TONS of old tractors you can sit on (you know finley loved that!), and they have these big sand boxes full of trucks and shovels and toys. it's the coolest place. we went with josh and joy and their kids and really had fun. it's perfect for our kids' ages. it's cheap to get in and it just has a lot to do, but it's manageable. a total win in our book for kid fun. then we stopped at chipotle for lunch and took naps again! glorious naps. then we went to cici's for dinner! i know! the fun never stops :) we really haven't been eating out lately, so it was nice to not cook and splurge. yes, cici's is a splurge :) haha! and we ended the night with our booty's on the couch watching some 24. i'd say, a wonderful 2 days. i'm ready for another week and can't wait to break in my running shoes. 

here's a few pics for your viewing pleasure. 

i am so thankful for this rest we got as a family. 

hope all is well.

love to you.

mer
 

confession thurs

confession thursday: i don't have anything this week. BOO! stone her! throw those tomatoes and potatoes and whatever else village people in the movies had on hand to throw at people. 

well, there is one thing. jake encouraged me to confess this, but i am reluctant. because it's pretty bad. and embarrassing. and shameful. and bad. baaaaaad. now you really wanna know. i suppose i will just let it out. and i'm sure i will be judged. and i will accept it. 
remember that relationship with red robin i wrote about last night... well, we love red robin, okay! we do.... so, jake and i have, ahem, stolen 3 or possibly 4 bottles of red robin seasoning. 

I KNOW! that's really bad. why not just pay for it you cheap, stealer people? i know. the truth is, i don't know we didn't just buy it. i think one time we just brought some home with us and we just kept doing it. the seasoning is great to have around and really makes potatoes taste good. i highly recommend buying some next time you're there. LOL! as i write this, i do know it is stealing and i feel guilty. so maybe i should go to RR and give them $10. or write a letter. or just never, never do it again. well that one, yeah i def need to do. 

it feels kind of good to get that confession out. at least i am now held accountable. 

whose idea was this confession thursday thing? keep these things to yo-self meredith! 
i'm gonna get myself in trouble.

you guys, i hope you are doing well and enjoying the little things. thanks for reading. and please know, this is in good fun, but i do know stealing is wrong. we did get robbed for goodness sake! hope you know where my heart's at.

love to you.

mer

late night

hey out there. how's it going? it's late here. and i'm up. i was going to do some work tonight, but the site is down and alas, i cannot. so here i am talking to you fine people. i was going to tell y'all about a fun saturday we had this past weekend. there was no wedding and so we went to red robin for dinner with josh and joy and listen to this... back in portland while we were in college, jake worked at red robin. he had a manager there named aaron. he was so great and after jake quit working there he was always so kind to us and occasionally gave us discounts or free drinks or whatever :) anyway, we heard a couple weeks ago from a server we are friends with on facebook that aaron moved to charlotte! say what??! we went to the red robin on saturday that we always go to and that is the only close one to us and who is there when we walk in the door? AARON! yes, i tell the truth. it was so nice to see him and he was so friendly and it was just really nice seeing a familiar face in still, a new city. anyway, i still smile about it because i think it's hilarious that we all moved here! and jake and i still, just might, keep getting the red robin hook up... it's gotta be a record for years-past-working-still-getting-discounts-even- across-the-country or something. after dinner we went to THE BEST SNO CONE PLACE EVER. i do not exaggerate. it's called pelican sno balls! and they have these cream flavors that are ah-mazing. it's a pretty cool location and they have some corn hole set up and finley has indeed thrown many bean bags over the hill. whoops, sorry, pelican's. anyway, it's always a treat to go there. the kids get all red faced, sweaty, and sticky and it's just so summer. love it.

YOU GUYS will not believe this potty update................. yes, keep reading............

finley, like, just goes. a few days ago i asked if he wanted to go potty, he said no. then i said, "when are you gonna potty train?" he said, "potty train!" and he always calls his potty the potty train, so i guess it being a train made all the difference! anyway, he sat down right away and pottied (is that a verb?). today he wore underwear all day with no accidents! he even went in the marshall's restroom while we were returning something. we haven't tackled poo at all yet, and he's still sleeping in diapers at night, but i am beyond encouraged. and so thankful it seems to be really natural. he was/is ready and i know it won't be long till we are a one child diaper house. holla! i thought you guys would be as excited as me. especially, meema! 

well, it's later now. sure hope life is alright with you. 

with love.

mer

confess sesh.

in my other life, i was an olympic gymnast. yes, that's right. me. a balance beam, uneven bars, vault, floor exercise genius. i have always LOVED the girl's gymnastics olympic team. growing up, we had these benches at our kitchen table we used for seating. i used to pull one of them into the living room and pretend it was my balance beam and do my "routines". i had the gymnast pose down. you know, the one where they do that funny arm thing up in the air when their name is called. yeah, i was really good at that. just ask my mom. anyway, i loved watching gymnastics and have been so bummed because even with the amazing rabbit ears my kind husband got for me, we can't get the olympics on our TV. but i just wanted to give a shout out to the olympics going on right now that i can't watch, but fully support. and know, i am one with you, amazing gymnast girls. i know exactly what you're going through. 

how is life in your world? ours has been full of reasoning with a 2 year old who wants to do EXACTLY the opposite of anything we tell him, watching a precious 16 month old dance her heart out to "walk it out", trying to eat extra healthy, watching 24 (jack bauer rules), and just making sure clothes are clean, bellies are full, and dreading when official potty training will actually begin. i know, perhaps finley could possibly be a potty pro already, but he's not. and i just haven't mustered up the will to get it done. a good friend sent me a simple and very encouraging text about that... "Eh. it will happen when he's ready! ;) enjoy the summer!" and it just was really encouraging to me. obviously, he will be potty trained someday. and that day will be a sweet day. and we will all be ready for it. 

oh, it's thursday, you say. and i know you are here for another installment of confession thursday! how kind of you, indeed. let us waste no more time.

i am a hypochondriac.

yes. you heard it from me. from the mouth of the babe. or 26 year old. i have always had this reputation, you see, of occasionally over-emphasizing symptoms i am experiencing. i have never quite embraced this said quality about myself, but in my old, wise age, i think i am coming to grips with it. as a child, when i would complain of something that my much wiser mother knew wasn't really an issue, she would tell me, "go put it in your book." it was this imaginary book that my whole family knew about that was a place for me to categorize all my ailments.  anyhow, i suppose this certain quality cannot be undone. when i have knee pain, i am sure my leg is about to fall off. when i am really, really tired, i am sure i am on the brink of death. when i stub my toe, yep, the world just ended. most people who know me have probably picked up on this little quality. i'm sure it comes from the overarching personality trait of just being DRAMATIC. as i think about it, it makes some sense. most things in my life have happened a bit different than most. we had a massive, huge, crazy, huge, BLIZZARD on our wedding day. but that happens a lot, right? when i had finley, my step-dad had to have emergency colon surgery and my brother had the swine flu! i mean, what?!? right before i had audrey, jake broke his arm in 3 places and had to have surgery. i was sure that i was going to go into labor right in the waiting room. which would have really worked out fine because i was in labor for 46 hours!!!!! all i'm trying to say is, perhaps there's some reasoning behind my hypochondriac-ness. i'm just saying, there's a chance. i wouldn't change my life for anything. how many people can say several of their wedding guests got snowed in several states away from their loved ones and almost missed christmas? or that they missed 2 days of their honeymoon because the airport was shut down? praise the Lord, none of my "serious" health problems have been real problems. which is when i am grateful to just be a silly hypochondriac.

there ya have it. you are just learning so much about me through this little confession time. i wouldn't mind hearing some of y'alls, you know. 

i've been listening to lots of david crowder lately. he just never gets old. "after all" is particularly awesome right now. 

must go to bed now. i mean, before i just keel over onto my computer and die. 

love to you.

mer