Rocky Top!

Brian has been applying for jobs like crazy in the past oh 6 months or so. He didn't get a single one. Our hopes were running low. Each time he would come to me with a new place that he applied at, and I would google the area, look at rental houses and normally fall in love. Only to be disappointed time after time.

Well, a few weeks ago, he told me there was one available in Chattanooga Tennessee. I looked at the houses, made sure they had a good mall and a Target and I was hooked. Not to mention it is only 2 hours from nashville, Atalanta, Knoxville, and a few other places. There is a great Aquarium and Lookout Mountain!

Finally, after  a week and a half of living in suspense...HE GOT THE JOB!!!

Of course, I am going to be so sad to leave our families and take Jocelyn away from her grandparents. But, I am so excited to start something new and really on our own. Luckily, it is only a 9-ish hour drive back home. I already have big plans of returning for a wedding/Thanksgiving and Christmas! Do you really think I am going to spend Christmas with no family? No Way!

We have such a quick timeline, and all we have to do is finally hitting me. He is scheduled to start the new job on September 20th...Not even a month away. So we are flying up next week to look around and find somewhere to live.

I am trying to squeeze all my clients into 8 more days, pack,  go out to dinner with my friends, visit my family, chase Jocelyn around, sell our house... The list goes on and on. I will be excited to finally get there and have things calm down.

I was supposed to be taking the last class I need for my AA this semester too, but decided that it is going to be too much to focus on. I know how hard it is for me to study anyways and with all this I would never do it. Fortunately, I dropped it in time to get the tuition refunded!

Right now, the thing I am looking forward to the most is actually seeing a change of seasons! I am about to die in this heat ( and I know it is still hot up there, but Autumn will actually be there shortly) I am sure that I will change my tune afterwards, but I can't wait until Winter! I got Jocelyn some cute baby ugg-like boots from Target and I can't wait for her to wear them.

That's another fun thing, Since it will actually be cold, I can go get a bunch of winter clothes for Jocie and myself. I never buy cold weather stuff, it is going to be so much fun :)

It's been a while since you have seen some new pics of Jocelyn, Here she is! I am amazed by how long her hair looks and how much she has grown. I guess I don't realize it until I see her in pictures.

It's been a while

I have been so bad at posting lately.

I don't do it as often as some people, 

but the 2 I did last month was just pathetic.

Hopefully, I can make up for it this month,

but our camera broke, so there won't be any new pictures for a while :(

Brian finally finished his boat!

He built it from scratch, and when I say that, I really mean it.

This boat started at a couple pieces of plywood.

It only took him 1.5 years, but hey we had a baby in there too!

I will admit, I was questionable at first.

But, it has turned out to be so extremely pretty (and functional!)

He designed, built, and whittled almost everything in or on that thing.

He even picked out the colors himself:

I wasn't home on the day of the first launch, so he took my baby and they tried it out together!

He took me out on it's second launch.

All was going well until his old 1974 motor decided to break.

Luckily we had plenty of water and ice for Jocelyn to play with 

and we were only out there for about an hour before someone came and towed us back!

Needless to say, Brian got a new motor.

We couldn't let 1.5 years of hard work go to waste after 2 short rides!

Needless to say,

I am getting a new camera out of the deal!!!

WOOOHOOOO!

I have been begging and pleading for a Canon Rebel or something for the longest time.

I do have to wait until Christmas though, which I am pretty sure I can handle

as long as we are able to get out point and shoot fixed ASAP.

Anyways,

Good Job Hun!

Seats Taken...

Why is it so hard to make friends once you are out of school? I thought that when I had kids, I would be drawn to the other moms and vice versa. It doesn't happen like that. 

Of course I have a few girlfriends with kids, but most of my friends are from high school and don't have any kids yet, not to mention that they don't live very close to me.

Is it because I tend to get extremely shy when I run into other girls at the gym and mumble a "hi" as I walk to my car? 

Hopefully I am not the only one who feels like this. 

There is this one girl that I see all over town and at the YMCA every time I'm there, but for some reason I can't get the courage up to go introduce myself. Now, she meets with another girl to work out and I am doubly intimidated.

 Gosh, I sound like such a dork!

You would think that since I do hair, I see women all the time. Most of them are my age, we have a lot in common, but for some reason instead of saying "Hey, Let's get together one weekend with the kids and have a BBQ, or something" I think "Oh, why would they want to hang out with me, I'm sure they have plenty of their own friends..." Then the moment passes and they go on their way until I do their hair again.

One word: Confidence. and I seem to be lacking in that department.

When did that happen to me?

I will say that since our house is for sale, and not really knowing exactly where we will be moving, makes me hesitant to even try very hard to meet new people. I am worried that I will find some people I really like and then move away. But really, that shouldn't stop me.

It seems like with most of the people i know, we talk about doing something, but it rarely actually happens. That is another major problem. I genuinely want to get together, but something always comes up, then we never plan for anything else.

I need to follow that mantra of "A lot less talk and a little more action"  :)

Thanks for listening to my pathetic ramblings.

One question: 

How do you step out of your comfort zone and make new friends?

Naked on the beach

We had another wonderful session with Jenny Denson a few weeks ago. This is probably the last one until we take Christmas pictures. As fun as it is to get them taken and have them to look at, I don't think I will be needing pictures every 3 months! I'm sure when we have another kid, that one will be lucky to get any done at all!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Party Time!

The pictures speak for themselves, we had a great time!

I can tell you one thing though, throwing a first birthday party will wear you out.

everything turned out exactly as I wanted it to though, so I didn't mind too much ;)

My friend Kristen made the cake, with only 3 days notice! I am in love with it. It turned out better than I could have even imagined!

Birthday Cake

sorry this is so belated.

this is jocie's actual birthday, and eating the cupcake for the first time.

her party was the next day, and i didn't take a single picture.

so, i am still waiting on all those lovely family members to send me theirs (hint, hint!)

please ignore the strange singing voice, it's not mine. i swear!

looks like she is enjoying herself

i love icing!

She resembles a chucky doll here :)

paging dr. ferber

after our trip to kansas (which i just realized i never posted about...) jocelyn's sleep was absolutely horrible.

i was at my wits end. 

we tried reading "the no cry sleep solution" and followed it for about a month.

she would fall asleep in my arms only to wake either when i laid her in the bed or an hour later.

 being the sweet loving parents that we are, we just brought her into bed with us, because it was so much easier.

well, the last night we did this, i lost count of how many times she woke me up to nurse. 

it was over 10, i can tell you that. 

i had enough. the next night we made sure she was full of milk, had a clean diaper, and even gave her a little tylenol in case she had teething pain. all our bases were covered, so it was inevitable.

we put her in her crib and she cried bloody murder for 40 minutes.

it took all i had not to go in there and get her.

we watched her on the monitor, and every so often she would lay down.

and finally, it was quiet!

she fell asleep on her own.

i think that night she wore herself out, so she slept for a good 6 hours until she woke up again.

i didn't want to be too cruel and cut out the night time feeding at the same time,

so brian woke up and gave her a bottle (she wouldn't take it from me)

i definitely wouldn't say that it got easier each night. in fact, i think it may have gotten harder some nights.

but, she has not cried for over that original 40 minutes.

we do this for naps too now, and they are so easy! 

she might cry for 5 minutes tops.

fast forward to last weekend. 

the girl BIT me.

three times.

and laughed about it.

i was scared to death of her.

i am almost glad, because i needed a push to stop nursing and let me tell you, that was it!

of course i didn't stop gradually and i am still paying for that one

10 days later.

So basically, in the last 3 weeks we are no longer nursing and everyone here in the lee household is sleeping through the night. one year later!