Lucas is 10 Months (and a week!)

I cannot believe our baby boy is 10 months! TIME PLEASE SLOW DOWN! Loving every second with him! The past 6 weeks has been a little rough with him waking up every single night for 45 minutes to 2 hours but I'm pretty sure it's his teeth. This kid has such a fun little personality. He gets into EVERYTHING. He is all boy. Super rough and tough. Constantly moving and getting into everything possible. I keep saying, I wonder how long till we have our first trip to the ER. Everyone loves to tease me about keeping him in a bubble. There is NO keeping this kid in a bubble. On Monday I left him alone for 20 second (not kidding) and he was up 3 stairs! I then decided to see how far he would go (standing behind him so he couldn't fall) and he climbed up the entire flight with no support/help from me! Love this kid to pieces. LOVE him.

These pics are just awesome. They capture him so well. He won't sit still for even 2 seconds. This is the real Lucas...moving at all times and falling. LOVE!!!

Love you sweet boy!!

Jamberry Nail Consultant - wooohoooooo!!

Yes, I'm alive. I have been wanting to blog forever..I have so much to share. Life has been good.  Really good. But I've also been exhausted. Beyond tired and so busy! (I miss sleep!) Right about the time I was finding my stay at home mom groove and Lucas and I were finding out routine and life was just GOOD, I decided to mix things up a bit and become a Jamberry Nails Consultant. Then life got CRAZY busy. Honestly, has my life ever been anything but super busy?  No. So this is fitting. And now a couple months later and I am finally getting myself back into a routine back and finding balance again.

So about the Consultant thing...it's a lot of fun but I am LOVING the extra income it's bringing me, while also giving me something to do "outside of the house, while still being insides the house." :) It all started when I was invited to a Facebook party for Jamberry Nails.  I didn't pay any attention to the party because it was the week I went back to work coming off maternity leave. I was such a basket case then. I was exhausted and completely distracted being away from Lucas and trying to be the best teacher I could be. But I remember seeing something on my newsfeed about the party and I was interested but obviously too distracted. After a couple weeks I learned a little more and requested a sample. I've always LOVED having my nails done so it made perfect sense that I'd love the new trendy colors and designs! Once trying them, I was hooked! I figured if I loved them so much I may as well host a party so I could get lots of freebies. But if I was going to host a party, since I have a little extra time on my hands, why not just become a consultant and make a little money too!? The starter kit was only $99 so I didn't have that much to lose. I figured I could earn that back within my first party! (which I did) But what I didn't take into account was getting everything set up.  It didn't cost me much but it was very time consuming. Two months later I can say it was TOTALLY worth it. I've earned back more than all the money I have put into this, come out with lots of extra spending money and I've been having fun doing it! My team is fabulous, SO supportive.  I was put in touch with someone (Sarah) who lives local that I don't even know and she shared everything that she had to get me started. She didn't even know me!  She walked through my entire first Facebook party, checking in with me each day, encouraging me and answering my million questions.  SO thankful for her!!

I had to learn what works best for me and our family. I had to change the days and times of the parties I've hosted so I'm not taking any time away from Lucas. I'm learning what works and what doesn't. I can host as many or as few parties and I'd like and create my own schedule.  It's been a great experience. :)  If you're interested in learning more, let me know!  My facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/stephanielockwoodjamberrynails.  And my webpage is stephanielockwood.jamberrynails.net.

*pic is my latest Jamicure...love them!

Just What I Needed

Yesterday was a tough day. I woke up perfectly fine, walked into MOPS fine, but walked out feeling sad, lonely and missing Chicago. Really bad. On the drive home I was thinking about the city and everything about the city that I miss and I just lost it. I realized too that since we've moved here, every October we've gone home for a weekend trip. This year we aren't doing that. I cannot imagine flying solo with Lucas right now! But that doesn't make me miss it any less. Yes, yes, I know God called us here so this is where we're supposed to be but I just miss the city so much and this ache seems to get worse the longer we're here.

As the day progressed, I couldn't seem to shake my sadness. I was on Facebook (which certainly doesn't help!) but I noticed that our home church (Willow Creek) is now streaming their services every week.  Not just the message (which I usually listen to every week) but the music too!  The entire service. I lost it. Sobbing mess. God knew exactly what I needed.

This morning, when Lucas took his first nap, I poured myself a mug of hot apple cider and went outside where I could listen as loud as I wanted and sang along to the worship songs. Our new neighbors surely saw and heard me and now think I am the crazy "religious" girl. But it was the most beautiful 25 minutes of my week.  I was crying, I was laughing, I was just an emotional mess. In those 25 minutes I heard God speak to me in a way I haven't heard from Him in a long time. I miss our church so so much. I miss the city. I miss my parents. I miss home. But God met with me today in the most perfect way. I am so very thankful that I am now able to worship along from 1,000 miles away each week.  God is good, so very good.  And for that I am thankful.

To join in or sing along go to http://willowcreek.tv

Time for your MONTHLY Self Exam! - Breast Cancer Awareness Month

It's October...breast cancer awareness month! Have YOU been doing your monthly breast self exam!? I'll admit, since getting pregnant I was a little more obsessed with the fact that I was actually sporting some real, normal sized boobs and was too preoccupied with everything else that goes on with your body during pregnancy. Then I've been breastfeeding the past 8+ months so I've slacked big time! All of that is NOT okay. However, I'm happy to say that I have gotten bad into the routine and you need to too!

According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women, except for skin cancers. About 1 in 8 (12%) women in the US will develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime. 

The American Cancer Society's estimates for breast cancer in the United States for 2014 are: 

• About 232,670 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women.
• About 62,570 new cases of carcinoma in situ (CIS) will be diagnosed (CIS is non-invasive and is the earliest form of breast cancer). 
• About 40,000 women will die from breast cancer  

Prevention is key!! 

Remember those little pink visual breast exam instruction cards you used to see hanging in your dorm showers? Yeah, I picked up one of those and stick it in my tampon box so once a month I remember to hang that in my shower to remind me to do my exam. Once done, the card goes back into the tampon box. (This obviously explains why I forgot to do it while pregnant...next pregnancy I'll have to figure out a different plan!) 

Check those boobies girls!! It literally can save your life!! 

Housewarming Party

Can't believe I don't have real pics from the housewarming party but we still had a great time regardless!! We've lived in our house since January but moved in when Lucas was 3 1/2 weeks old. I promised myself then to only focus on Lucas during my maternity leave as that time was going to fly by (and boy, did it ever!) Then I went back to work and those couple months are still a big blur to me! June, July and August we traveled all over the states so it was more craziness! Once we returned from our final trip of the year I decided I really wanted to have a housewarming party. I got the idea that it was finally time to unpack boxes, paint a couple rooms, decorate to make it our own and finally get moved in and settled! 

Well pretty much none of that happened except that we're almost unpacked and a lot more moved in and settled! I was trying so hard to get the right prints, towels, picture walls, toy boxes, bookshelves, etc all in place by the housewarming party but it wasn't happening! Our house is nowhere near decorated but that's okay.  Slowly I can add pieces here and there and really determine what I Iike! 

People still got to see our house and more importantly we got to celebrate with friends and enjoy a gorgeous day outside together! I am beyond grateful that we finally have our house that we absolutely love! And so grateful that we have friends who we could invite over and enjoy our house together!

Thank you to everyone who came!! What a super fun day that was! 

MOPS!!

I have been so excited to be part of MOPS since before I even had kids. I've always been so jealous of those who had kids so they could be in MOPS but guess what!? Now I have a son and finally get to be part of it!! (Yes I'm serious...I have been excited about it for years!)

MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) is for all moms with kids of all ages. Our church even now has MOPS for moms who work outside the home that meets on Saturdays. :)

It runs along the same schedule as school so it started 2 weeks ago for me and will run through the end of the school year meeting about twice a month. The idea is that moms are world influencers...so each time we meet we hear speakers or engage in activities to help better ourselves in all capacities. Childcare is also provided so we have 2 hours to be with other moms while chatting and feasting on a delicious breakfast. (Though I'm just short of sprinting back to childcare to get Lucas after those two hours are up!)

I feel so energized after each week being with other amazing moms in all walks of life. It's been more than I'd hoped it would be (and the bar was set extremey high!) I'm so excited to se how MOPS will shape me as a new mom, wife and woman in this new role of stay-at-home-mom. I'm excited for the challenge of who God wants me to be! Oh and my table group is fabulous too! Love our leader, our mentor mom and am excited to get to know each fabulous lady in our group on a more personal level these next several months!