I Am Going To Be A Dad

i am going to be a dad. weird huh? actually its exciting. talk about change. big change. initially, my wife and i were shocked. we were completely not expecting the news. before we knew for sure that we were pregnant, i was sensing it. i could sort of just tell. you know what i mean? when you live with a person every day you begin to pick up on anything different. i think that is really cool.

but we are so excited and are gearing up for this wonderful addition to our lives. we have no idea what it is going to be like. i suppose that is why everyone says you are never really ready. but now i have all these questions. is our baby a boy or a girl? do i WANT a boy or a girl? (boys are fun. girls are sweet). what will he or she be like? will he look like me? will she look like my wife? my blue eyes or Leigh's green eyes?

i would LOVE to have a daughter that looks like my friend Isa. except that neither Leigh nor I have any latino in us. but Isa is the bomb. she is sweet and fun. so she makes me want to have a girl. if we have a girl, we really like the name Norah Grace. but if we have a boy, we really like the name Brady. i think a boy would be fun because then we can watch the patriots together.

to be honest, i'd been hoping for twin boys. i think that would be the bomb. but it looks like we'll just be having one to start. i suppose that should be the easiest transition for our family. but then again, to go from zero to two, we wouldn't know if its any harder than just one. i guess God has his plan and he'll give us whatever kid he wants.

here is the question. what do you think? are we having a boy or a girl?

Simple and Specific

i'm not going to apologize about the length of my previous post and then write just as long in this one. so i am sorry for how long the last piece was and promise to just get to the point.

something so interesting happened. my wife and i experienced a wonderful blessing the other day.

we're taking this financial course to help get our lives in line. save money, reduce debt, and prepare for the future. so we have been implementing these principles into our lives and our spending habits. and one principle this course has shared was going back to the old fashion cash envelope system for certain budgetary items to help prevent overspending. but in order to make this work, you have to be stubbornly disciplined - otherwise your budget won't balance out.

so we budgeted $150.00 for groceries for this first pay period. we planned to spend $80.00 the first week and $70.00 the second because there were a few personal care items (conditioner and toothpaste) that we needed to purchase. so we head into wal-mart with $80.00 cash. that is it. we calculate every single item as we go down the aisle. we finish and the grand total was $75.55 - with milk and granola still to be purchased. we were going to buy milk at rite-aid because its cheaper, and granola at another grocery store because they have good stuff there :).

we go to rite aid and buy milk. and now we only have like $2.50 left. so leigh and i decide to can the granola idea because we know that it is more like $3.75. it is really good granola. but we must stay accountable and NOT go overbudget. just for once. we can't do it. so we just decide to be ok with frosted shredded wheat each morning for breakfast.

last night we go to our marriage class with three other couples. when we leave, our leaders hand each of us a bag of home made granola for us to enjoy. inside i was floored. God came through when he didn't need to.

so simple and so specific. the hand of God is in all things. he blesses accountablity and responsibility.

granola. so simple and so specific. and that is why i love God.