Has it really been over a MONTH?!

I guess I can tell life is busy when I haven't blogged in over a month. Yikes!

Well, I guess I have to start somewhere... In July, Tim and I met

my family in Ocean City Maryland for a vacation at the beach.

It was so wonderful because all of my siblings and their families were there. Specifically, I finally got to meet my twin sister Rachael's baby boy Jordan who was born in May.

He is such a handsome little guy! Also, my grandparents (my mom's parents) were able to come along as well. We had such a nice time together! Looking back, it was especially wonderful to have them along because just a few weeks ago,my papa ended up having to get quadruple bypass surgery. He went through the surgery well and is recovery nicely. We are thankful to the Lord for every day with get to have with them!

For more pictures of our family vacation, click here.

Then in late July Tim's mom, dad, sister and her boys came to Chicago to visit for a long weekend. We SO much enjoyed there visit! There are also more pics here if you are interested.

Then truthfully, the rest of July and the first half of August have been spent playing in the pool with Maddy, going for walks, heading into the city for picnics, and just trying to enjoy some family time.

Tim officially started at the church on August 1st. His main title is the College Pastor, but he also heads up the saturday night service (does the communion, announcement, prayers, and follow up and discipleship with the people), and he is also helping our pastor do some research as well. He is enjoying it, but much more busy that either of us thought he would be. The trick is now to try and figure out each week what days/hours he will get off. It is always changing. But we are so thankful to the Lord for this opportunity and Tim has been great about spending time with Maddy and I.

I had to slip this picture in. Maddy has started to really love holding/snuggling her little blanket at nap and bed times - I LOVE it!

Mid-August I started up my graduate classes. I am taking 12 credits from Trinity International University and then 4 undergraduate credits from Harper (a local community college). As well, I am studying to CLEP out of Health and College Algebra (gonna need a tutor for that one!).

I have Zoology class at Harper on Mondays and Wednesdays 6pm -8:40pm and then Teaching Methods class at Trinity on Tuesdays from 6pm -10pm. Overall I am really enjoying my classes, but I am NOT enjoying being away from the fam 3 nigh

ts a week. But we will just have to be creative about finding time to spend together. This will be my schedule until mid-December. Then I have a break and should start of student teaching in January sometime. YES, I did say student teaching. Northland was not regionally accredited, so I never received my state certification. This Master's program at Trinity will certify me in the state of IL and in order to do that I have do my student teaching over (after teaching for 6 years). It's a little frustrating, but I have already appealed to the highest levels and it looks like it is an issue with the State, not TIU.

So now when Maddy is sleeping I am either trying to clean the house or frantically do homework. It's been a little crazy adjusting to the busy schedule, but I can't complain! I am loving the opportunity to stay home with Madison and to pursue my graduate degree. I think once I get down a good schedule for homework and studying, I will have more time to just enjoy this phase in my life.

Madison is growing up so fast! She is crawling around the house so quickly now, that I have to keep a pretty good eye on her. She gets into everything! If I am doing dishes, I let her play with the tupperware to keep her occupied -it usually lasts a whole 2 minutes :)

She is pulling herself up on just about anything she gets near to. I left the fridge door open for a few seconds and when I turned around found that Maddy was grabbing herself a little snack :)

And she has just recently started to "cruize" a bit around the coffee table, couch, and chair. She carefully lets go with one hand as she reaches for a new piece of furniture. The hilarious about all of her activity is that she looks about the same size as when she was 4 or 5 months old! It is cracking us up! The doctor says she is as healthy as ever, but that she is just going to be petite. We sure do love our little peanut!