Happy "Half Birthday" Madison Hope!

I had this post started on June 22nd - but with the move and the craziness of traveling, I didn't get to finish it. So better late than never, right?!

I can hardly believe that six months ago Madison was born. After 9 hours of labor and almost 2 hours of pushing she literally came flying into our lives! She has been such a blessing to Tim and I. I thought to commemorate the occasion, I would write her a letter that hopefully she can read someday when she is older.

Dear Madison Hope,

I remember the cool April day when your dad and I found out that we were going to have you. We were so excited and yet a little bit nervous that we would not be the Godly parents we wanted to be for you. Fortunately God's grace is new every morning!

Over the next 9 months, my belly grew bigger as you grew inside of me. You used to even kick daddy in the back while while we were sleeping. We prayed for you, talked to you, and sang to you. Everything we did seemed to be in preparation for your arrival. We thought we loved you as much as we possibly could -but then you were born! I will never forget the night of December 22, 2008 when we saw you for the first time. You were everything we thought you would be and more. All of the waiting was over and you were finally here! The first night we took you home was Christmas Eve and we were so excited, but to say the least - you were not! you cried just about the whole night through. It was tough at first but you got used to our home and it was all worth it. You were such a precious Christmas present for us. We dressed you in a reindeer outfit and took pictures of you on Christmas. I got to stay home with you for 14 week s while Daddy went back to work at Starbucks, The Orchard, and finished classes at TEDS.

I loved staying home with you.
I can remember your first smile- you were only a month old! Whenever your dad would come home - you would give him a big smile. We cooed over you just about any free moment we got. We dressed you up and sent out Valentines to family when you were about 2 months old.

Your first Easter - we were in PA visiting your Auntie Rachael, Uncle Joe and your soon to be born cousin, Jordan.
You celebrated with us as Daddy graduated with his MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. You were 5 months old!

It seems like the days have flown by and we have grown to love you more each day. You are a sweet baby girl with happy smile. I thank God for sending you into our lives. You a truly a precious gift!

After being back at work for almost 3 months - I am so very happy that I can stay home with you again.

I am looking forward to seeing you grow in so many more ways -not only this year, but in the years to come. I pray that I would be a Godly woman and mother that you could look up to and

that you will become everything that God wants you to be.

Happy "Half Birthday" Madison Hope Baylor. I love you more than I could have ever imagined I would. May God continue to bless you and our family in this second half of the first year of your life.

Love always,

Mom

I am officially a S.A.H.M.

That's right folks, I have officially closed out the school year (and six years of teaching) to become a stay at home mom. I have enjoyed teaching and have always known that it is my calling. But when Madison Hope was born on December 22, 2008, my pr

iorities shifted. After maternity leave, I finished out the school year so that Tim could finish his MDiv, but my heart and calling was always with Maddy. Tim has done a fabulous job taking care of Maddy while I was away - but I have missed her so much!

I am thankful to the Lord that Tim got hired at our church: The Orchard Evangelical Free Church to begin as a full-tim College Pastor starting August 1st. God's provision has allowed me to be able to stay home with Maddy and finish my Master's of Arts in Teaching degree at Trinity Graduate School.If all goes well, I will graduate May 2010. That means that I have to finish about about 5 classes, student teach, and write my thesis. I think it will definitely be attainable as long as I begin refining my thesis topic and researching my topic this summer. I begin classes again in

August. I am looking forward to some fun summer activities with the family in Chicago. There are some great free ideas for summer fun in this city.

All in all - it has been a trying, yet rewarding time teaching at

Holy Family Lutheran School on Chicago's West-Side.

I have learned much about life, teaching, a new culture, and my God. And one thing I know for sure: God is good- all the time.I cannot express in words the elation that has come with the knowledge that I can stay home to raise my daughter - at least for now. I have never known a love like this.

I don't have a ton of pictures because our camera as gone M.I.A. - but I will post a few.

Maddy eating rice cereal - so messy!

Maddy is 5 1/2 months already- hard to believe! She is very active- up on her hands and

knees rocking back and forth- dancing -grabbing at everything in site and babbling away. Her most recent sound has been "ba -ba- ba". It's so cute! She has us wrapped around her little finger-that is for sure!

This was Maddy amidst all of the clothes at the "Swap Party"

Tonight as I reflect on a closed chapter in my life and the beginning of a new one - I am encouraged by this scripture:

Psa. 28:7 The LORD is my strength and my shield;

my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.

My heart leaps for joy

and I will give thanks to him in song.

6th Anniversary in Chicago

Tim and I went into Chicago for just 24 hours last weekend, but it felt like a week! Our dear friends Kelly and Ryan watched Maddy at our house from 3pm on Saturday until 3pm on Sunday. They did such a great job and we were able to enjoy our time without worrying at all about Maddy girl.

Tim handled the reservations. He found this trendy hotel downtown called "Sax".  We very much enjoyed our stay there. It's one of those places that is so nice that when you walk into the lobby, they offer you a glass of champagne while you are waiting :) 

We decided we would make this a nice weekend as a celebration of the end of Tim's MDiv as well as a celebration of 6 years of marriage. It has been a crazy year for us and we are so glad we invested the time and money into our marriage.

Our room

The weather was absolutely gorgeous!

We walked around the city and enjoyed the beautiful weather on Saturday afternoon and then we got ready to go out to dinner at the Signature Room. The restaurant is on the 95th floor of the Hancock building. The food was excellent, but the view was even better!

We shared "Shrimp Tempura" with a lemon cream sauce as an appetizer

I had the slow roasted duck. It was so flavorful and tender. The weird rectangular-shaped pink thing on the top of the plate was a homemade cranberry sauce. Our waiter (who was this very sweet older gentleman from England named Pryce) said that duck was a good choice because it is very difficult to make at home. At which point, I responded, "Duck?! I can hardly make chicken well, never mind duck!" haha!

Tim had the "Grilled Veal Tenderloin". His was good - but he probably ate half of mine because he liked it so much.

They brought us a fresh fruit sorbet free for our anniversary.

We started our meal at 7:00pm and left at 9:30pm. It was such a leisurely and nice meal (a far cry from one of us holding maddy while eating tyson's  breaded chicken strips and tater tots in front of the tv) haha!

This was our view by the end of the night - stunning!

Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called Hot Chocolate. The executive pastry chef there has been a judge on the food network as well has been nominated as for the pastry chef of the year (nationally) for the past three years in a row. 

If you are ever in the area (especially Amanda Lee :) - we HAVE to take you.  It was very reasonably priced and the dessert was amazing!

We shared a dish called, "S'mores and More" It was made of homemade marshmallows, homemade graham crackers and frozen chocolate nugget. In the small glass to the right of the plate was homemade chocolate soda. It was out of this world!

Of course we had to try their hot chocolate. You could get any kind that you wanted (light, medium, or dark). I got the dark hot chocolate. It was 87% dark chocolate and the rest milk. It came with a homemade marshmallow. I would go back just for the hot chocolate :)

All in all, we had a fantastic time together in the city that is under an hour from our house. We have been thankful for our time near the city of Chicago. We are looking forward to enjoying all that the free concerts and activities that the city has to offer this SUMMER!

 I only have 5 more teaching days left until I can enjoy it!!!

Traveling through life together

Last Saturday the day of Tim's MDiv graduation finally arrived. It's been so interesting to look back over the past years to see where the Lord has brought us. In fact, Sunday May 24th is our 6 year anniversary.  It's hard to believe that 6 years ago we were just 23 years old,  fresh out of college, newly married, and moving to Virginia Beach. Tim went to seminary there for 3 years. Then we both taught and coached at Greenbrier Christian Academy. It was in Chesapeake, VA that we bought our first home, loved our first home,  and then sold our first home. We look back at those 4 years in Virginia with fond memories. We made so many great friends and had some really great times! 

I can hardly believe that this summer it will have been 2 years since we moved to the Chicago area for Tim to study at TEDS.

It was a bit of a hard transition, but we are so happy that we made the move. Tim has absolutely loved his study here at TEDS. He has been challenged intellectually and spiritually. Seminary has certainly been a challenge for our family, but we are thankful for God's continual grace and strength in both of our lives. God truly is good all the time. All of these challenges have made us who we are as individuals and as a couple. I wouldn't change a thing. Tim has written a very sweet blog in reflection of our past 6 years traveling through life together.  He is  a much better writer than I am.

 

I am so proud of Tim and how hard he has worked to get this degree and to graduate Summa. His hard work and intellectual prowess have been noticed and praised by professors here at TEDS. He took on a part-time job at the church and a part-time job at Starbucks just to help us pay the bills (Chicago is the 2nd most overpriced city to live in-just behind Los Angeles!) 

And yet, through all of his hard work and dedication, he has made time to spend with me and now with our little girl Madison. 

He truly is an amazing husband and father. Marriage isn't always easy. It's such hard work some days, but he has been willing to work hard with me to make it work. 

 I am glad that after 6 years, we have never given up- it has been worth it all to walk through life with my best friend by my side. Happy Anniversary babe. I Love you.

New Pics

I would LOVE to write more right now, but life is so busy. So I will just post some new pics instead :)

Maddy's First Easter

Maddy and I were in Pittsburgh, PA visiting my twin sister Rachael and her husband over Easter. I flew by myself with Maddy girl while Tim stayed back to work on his thesis. He joined us halfway through the week. The first flight with a baby was quite the experience. But I will leave that crazy story for its own blog post.

I don't have much time (or energy) tonight, but I had to post a few pics of our sweet girl on Easter Sunday. It is hard to believe that she will be 4 months this Wednesday!

Things I thought I'd never hear, see, or say...

So I have had some fun, crazy, and wild times teaching on the Chicago's west side. I was on my hour drive home the other day and I thought I would make a list of some of the things that I have heard my kids say, seen my kids do, or things that have come out of my mouth that I thought NEVER would!

Things I hear frequently from my students:

1. "Ms. Baylor - he wasted his milk all over the floor!" - evidently wasted can be used in place of spilled. They would also say, "I wasted the pencil shaving everywhere!"

2. If one of my students are angry at another student, they might say, " Ohhh - Little Boy (or girl) - you better watch yourself or I'm gonna..." and that is when I step in and usually say - "Your not going to do anything. We don't make threats to one another in this school.

3. If something doesn't look right - maybe a little weird, a student of mine would say, "Man, that's jacked up!" 

4. I was trying to get the kids in and out of their lockers in a timely manner, when one of my boys said, "let's get movin' people: time is money and money is time". I immediately died laughing!

5. One time when I told my student that he was in trouble for acting out in class, he was so mad with me that he said, "I'm gonna tell my mom on you". I quickly said, "This is not your mom's classroom" :)

6. When they don't think something is fair, they will say, "That's Bogus!"

Tattle Tales I hear DAILY:

* Ms. Baylor, He called me a "B" - and yes, it is the bad "B"

* He said my mama (or if they are feeling creative- he said "my bald headed mama") - I don't know exactly what that means, but evidently isn't good because the always seem offended. I used to ask what the other person said about their mama - but they would just repeat themselves again..."he said my mama!"

* Ms. Baylor, he's all up on me!

* He stabbed me! (usually just poked them in the back with a pencil) - kids are so dramatic!

* Ms. Baylor, he called me out of my name! 

Things that I have said while teaching that I never thought I would:

* Go sit down, you're all up on me!

* I'm not playing!

* You don't need to use your hands to get someone's attention or to say excuse me 

* Everyone sit down right now or i'm going to take your recess for the rest of the year! (as soon as it came out of my mouth, I knew that I totally didn't mean it - I was just stressed. I quickly had to backtrack and let them know that is not what I had meant.