Whew... we've got a lot to cover!!!

Let's start with: Got shoes? So Ashtyn had a major foot growth spurt and suddenly nothing fits right. We headed out this afternoon for Payless (gotta love Bogo!) with a semi-cranky Ashtyn to see what we could find. To put it simple, Ashtyn is super picky about her shoes. She knows what she likes, what she doesn't like, and when she wants to wear which. Doesn't matter if they match the outfit, thankfully which she has never argued about. Just shoes. Trips to find shoes usually result in a lot of crying, fighting, and one pair as we're checking out with a screaming little girl. Today was nothing short of a miracle; we left with a very happy girl and six cute pairs! She gladly tried on all six pairs and only threw a fit thinking we were trying to take the last pair off (which we were not about to even try). I have to admit, I think they were the cutest pair we got!

And Mom is going to probably notice so I'll go ahead and mention....yep, we got a new carseat. We moved the tan/brown one over to Bruce's truck since it matched his truck interior. Now that it's just me and him here in town, we thought we both need a carseat, just in case, and got a new black/grey one to match my car. She is definitely not a fan of it just yet, but she had started fighting against the other as well. She does like that the arm rests raise on this one so she has something to play with at times. It has cupholders that swing out on the other sided. Plus this one converts up to something like 80 or 100 pounds so it should hopefully last her until she can go without. I just hope she stops fighting against it soon.

Don't mess with Ashtyn! She can "box" with the best of them! She loves to box with her daddy and can really whop him when she wants to. I think the girl feels no pain at times. Literally though, she was running through the house and got a (papercut)
scrape from an open box last night. It looks just terrible. She points it out to us about every five minutes, just to make sure we know. The forehead? Skeeter bite she won't leave alone. It's amazing. She seems to keep four or five "boo-boos" going at all times, then she had none for the longest time. Now we're back at four again. Geez!

We've been watching a lot of SpabBob lately. This is how Ashtyn asks for SpongeBob Squarepants. Yuck. I just can't stand it, but she loves it! I usually just go in the other room and watch something else until she starts screaming. I know it's commercial time. We have them DVR'd so we can fast forward for her through the commercials. I don't mind watching Phineas and Ferb at all though. This is a pretty common sight around the house...

Ashtyn is still speaking Ashtynese. She still definitely has her own way of saying words such as SpabBab, but also starting to use correct words and full sentences. We have figured out with anything larger than two syllables, she is cutting out everything in the middle and just uses the first and the last syllable. Tonight, she wanted Bruce to do bathtime with her by just telling me "No, I want Daddy. I want tub." Easy enough and I was grateful, because I still had a ton of things to do. He kept trying to get her to set down in the tub (not an easy task), to which she replied with a whine, "I don't wanna set down. I'm the baby." She comes up with the funniest excuses or reasoning at times.

I'm still not happy with my job. They are a little crazy at times and definitely misrepresented several things about the office to me. Things I don't think I can't live with on a permanent basis, and so far off what they said that it's now a trust issue with me. I just haven't made up my mind what to do yet so I'm hanging on and hanging out until God leads me. Bruce is under a lot of pressure right now at his job, with having to run two depots and several employees out at any given time sick/on family medical leave/worker's comp claims. And even one employee out at a time can be a challenge. I hope they find a manager soon for the south side to give him a break. And in September, he'll be traveling some (as will all the managers) to each depot in the region. Yuck. But I have to say that I have never been happier. We are a family, getting to spend the most time together since who knows when! It's great!!!

We know we aren't going to find the church home we felt we had at South Caraway Baptist Church right away, but we've started looking for a church. We visited a church Sunday that seemed nice enough and had a good message, but still had a "too perfect" feel to it. I realize it was just the first time, but first impressions are important and it just didn't feel right. We've already picked next Sunday's church to visit. We want a church that is down to earth, accepting, caring, less focused on production value perfect worship and more focused on the meaning of worship, and has a contemporary service. SCBC has made large shoes to fill in our hearts. Please pray for us that we do not get discouraged as we did in the past before we found SCBC. We miss you guys!!!!

PS to Emily: Thanks for the tag; I'll do that on another post. I didn't expect this one to be so long. I've got to get to bed now. =)