Thank you...

for all of your sweet comments and encouraging words regarding my last post. It is amazing to know how many people can understand this due to either going through it themselves or having a family member with the condition. How wonderful that God puts people in our lives that can share in our joys and support us in our struggles.

I'm very hopeful that things will start looking up since the weather will soon (hopefully) get warmer and stay that way. It's surprising how much the weather actually affects how someone with RA feels. Frank has a good friend at work whose wife has had RA for years. His friend will actually ask him on cold and rainy days how I am doing when Frank walks in to work because he already knows based on how his wife is feeling that I'm probably not doing too well either. It's truly a pain that I can't describe, but I am confident that things are going to get better and I will beat this, especially with all of your prayers.

So, to continue my last post...on to other things that have been going on at our house...

We got a new roof this week! I never in a million years thought I would be excited about getting a new roof. Seems so boring, huh? But seriously, our house looks like it has gotten a makeover. I won't post pictures until the makeover is complete because we have many other things that we are going to be working on in the next few weeks, such as pressure washing our siding and landscaping. The outside of our house has been really neglected for the past year, mainly because we had a baby. So now we are ready to get back into the groove of things. Hello summer pool parties, working in the yard, planting flowers, swinging on the porch, etc. It does help that Little Pea's favorite place to be is outside. Although, I'm still trying to figure out what we're going to do with her while we're out there. I welcome any suggestions. I don't think she'd be happy playing outside in a small confined space, like a pack 'n play, but she can't just freely roam because of safety issues (like the pool). She does enjoy the Baby Bjorn, so that helps. Another exciting thing that has recently happened (well, exciting for me) is that I finally got some pants that fit! If you've seen me at church anytime in the past few months, you know what I'm talking about. I've been wearing the same pair of black pants that are way too big for a long time. I have lost a lot of weight since having Little (about 60 lbs). I was about 15 lbs over my normal weight when I got pregnant with her. I didn't gain that much with the pregnancy until the last 2 weeks when I blew up. Seriously, I looked like a different person. I had so much swelling and water weight. Thankfully, breastfeeding, not eating out and staying active with her has helped me to get back to the weight I was when I met Frank.

I didn't want to buy any new clothes because, well, I'm not a big shopper and I just kind of put it off for too long. With Little's nap schedule, it was just always easier to hang out at home. But now that she only takes 2 naps, we have a lot more time to be able to go and do fun things during the day. So, I loaded up Little and we went for a girls' day with my Mom to Bridge Street. It was so much fun and Little had a great time. She hung out in the dressing room at Ann Taylor Loft. She even ate lunch in there. hehehe I was very thankful for the spacious dressing rooms, huge mirrors for her to look in and clean floors for her to explore on.She was having a great time, as you can see.
She even tried to pay for my clothes. What a sweet Little Pea!Her favorite store was the Clark's shoe store. She has definitely inherited her Momma's love for shoes. Anyone that's seen my shoe closet knows what I'm talking about. I used to sell Women's shoes for Parisian (back when it was Parisian...oh, how I miss you...tear) so I managed to rack up quite a collection with my associate discount. Of course, right now I can't wear hardly any of my shoes because of my RA, but that should be better with the summer heat.

Things inside our house have changed in the past few weeks as well. With Little crawling now, she doesn't really like to be confined in her jungle gym anymore. Thankfully, we bought one that transitions to a stage where she can walk around it and crawl under it now. We are having some family pics made next week since Little is turning 9 months old, so I'll have an upcoming post about that.

Until next time,
Love to all...