Back to School

Once again it is the beginning of the school year. This year marks the 2nd year I have not had a first day of school. It still feels weird that I am no longer in school. I love learning but not really the school aspect. One day I hope to go get my masters but I am not ready to attack that beast just yet.

Last year, around this time, I was preparing to having Harper. Cleaning the house, getting her things ready, lots of walking trying to induce labor (lol), etc... This year, I am preparing for her 1st birthday. I CANNOT believe that our little girl is almost 1!! Time has flown by and once again the summer has been too short. This summer has been so special because we got to spend a lot of time as a family of 3.

With school approaching, there are a lot of T.V. shows that talk about going back to school. One of Harper's favorite shows is Bubble Guppies. I personally love this show as well ;). If you are not familiar with Bubble Guppies, they sing a lot of songs about things. I wouldn't consider it a musical show, but it is really close to that. They have done a few songs that play as commercials.

Their newest song is about a pencil case and it is a parody to Lady Gaga's "Pokerface". It is AWESOME! For your pleasure I have provided the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhS-REK-U3U

Your welcome =)

Whether you are homeschooling or sending your kids to school, I want to wish you the best of luck. Cheers for another great school year!

Summer Catch...up

The first item of business on my new blog is to update everyone on everything Linnell. Some time in May, Eric and I made the decision to move to Illinois after my position ended in June. I was really discouraged that I wasn’t able to find anything full-time and the fact that my position at Cedarville was ending was kind of depressing. I was in a pit...a big, huge stinking pit. We didn’t really make the move known even though it wasn’t really a secret. I personally just didn’t want to answer all the questions. Do you guys have jobs? Do you have a place to live? What are you guys going to do? In case you are wondering the answers, the answer is a big fact NO. No, we did not have jobs or a place to live and I had no idea what we were going to do. But I can honestly say that it was the right decision to make.

The first week of July is when we made the big move and it was no easy feat. I officially hate moving. I have moved three times in the less than three years and I am ready to be done with it all. Unfortunately since we moved in with my parents, we have a least one move left. We moved in during the worst possible time. My parents were remodeling the downstairs bathroom and kitchen floor. Talk about crowded.

Even though we had no idea what we were going to do, we appreciated the time we had together. It was so nice to have time off and to hang out together. I have definitely fallen more in love with my husband and it feels great. Yes, we would like jobs. Yes, we would like a place of our own. But there is no one I would rather go on this journey with than him.

Since the move, we have both applied for jobs. Eric has had an interview and should hear back from them around Monday. I unfortunately had an interview that got canceled the night before because an internal candidate stepped forward. I am trying to stay positive during this whole process but it is so discouraging. Since I have not found a job yet, I decided that I wanted to volunteer coach a softball team. Last week, I helped with tryouts and loved it. I am looking forward to start this new chapter of my life.

Harper Update:

Harper is growing like a weed. I can’t believe how big she has gotten and how smart she is. She is SO smart, smarter than her mommy, that's for sure. She just started to walk last week. I am so proud of her. It seemed like it took her forever to get to this point. She is walking and falling everywhere. It is so cute to watch and she is so proud of herself. I love this little girl more than anything. She also got 4 more teeth last week so that takes her total up to 8. She bites and chews everything...I mean everything. She also likes to pull hair. She is a lot meaner towards me than she is her daddy. When she bites me hard or pulls my hair, I give her a mommy timeout (A mommy timeout is when I put her down and won’t pick her back up). She is not a big fan of those. Hopefully she will start to learn her lesson.

I think that is all for my first blog. I hope you enjoyed the update and feel informed about what is going on in the Linnell household. Feel free to pray for us. Pray that we find jobs and a place to live. But ultimately pray that we are seeking God’s will and listening to the plan he has for us. We have some tough decisions ahead of us so prayers would be appreciated.

Blogging...what is it really all about?

I wanted to start blogging at the beginning of my senior year. I had so many feelings and things going on that I wanted a way to express myself and organize it all. Well if you haven't already figured it out...that was two years ago!!! So here I am at 3am, almost two years later finally starting a blog because once again, I am all over the place. I have been inspired by reading my friend Jaklyn Cato's blog to once again attempt this whole blog writing thing. I have been really encouraged by listening to her thoughts and love hearing about what is going on in her life, especially since she is so far away now. I don't know if she feels this way but I feel like she is holding herself (and her husband) accountable by being vulnerable. I really respect that. Accountability is something I need and I hope that this blog can help me to achieve it.

I am hoping this blog with help me to achieve a few things.

1. Help me to take more pictures and keep everyone updated in all things Harper. ( I feel like a terrible mom/person for not updating people on what is new with her).

2. Help me to organize my thoughts better and remember things better! ( I always come up with great ideas/things before bed but once I wake up they all disappear.)

3. Help me to be accountable. Not just with my walk with God but with other things. Like exercise and eating right/cooking at home. I want to grow and have others help me to grow.

4. And hopefully encourage someone else to achieve something they want to achieve. (I guess you can say that I want to pay it forward...does that even apply to this? Did I use that incorrectly? Oh well...it's my blog and I can do what I want, do what I want.)

Sorry for the cheesiness. I can't help it...my brain is like a nonstop thing and I love just writing exactly what I am thinking. I happen to think I am hilarious so sorry if you don't think I am. You have my permission to not read my blog. =) I promise that I won't get too personal (at least I think) and spill my guts out.

I guess that is all for my first post.