My Harris Happenings Update

So a lot of little things (one only in size) have been happening lately, all of which have been keeping me away from the computer other than for work.

The most exciting of which is that my nephew is here. Logan Eli Hatton born 5/5/2008 at 12:59 PM. Weighing in at 7 lbs, 9 ozs., & 21 inches long. He is oh so precious. I get to go meet my little Logi Bear on the 29th. I am counting down the days and cannot wait. His big cousins are oh so excited too!!! We have all waited a long time for him, he came in God's time and we could not be more thankful.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! We spend the morning and early afternoon at church and my kids made me the cutest gifts. They sure know how to make my heart melt! We then went home and picked up Daddy who was waiting and ready to go. We went to CostCo to pick up a magazine rack that I wanted. I love it and really want to go get one more! Dustin also got me a bathing suite. We then went to lunch, and I chose Chuck-E-Cheese!! Who wants to spend their mother's day lunch shushing their kids and telling them to sit still. So we went to the place where a kid can be a kid, and Mommy and Daddy can be kids too!!! Then we headed home and had some cuddles before Daddy had to go to work. We then put on our suits and went out to the pool at the apartment. It was the first time we have used it and it was really nice. It is not very large and gets quite a few hours of sun, so it wasn't too cold. I even jumped in myself. The kids played and played for a couple of hours. Then with only a few steps we were back home and Jayden was in the bath. We ate a quick dinner since we had a big lunch earlier and the kids were off to bed. With no whining since they had tucked themselves out. It was a wonderful ending to a perfect day.

I want to say thank you to my Mommy for teaching me the value of family. Not only me immediate family but extended family as well. You also taught me that, you don't have to share blood to be family. You teaching me those things has helped make me who I am today. It is one of my best qualities and I have you to thank for that. I love you Mommy, more than words can say.

I want to thank my Mom (in-law; just so I don't confuse anyone) for teaching me to slow down and cherish every moment with my family, especially my kids. I tend to get caught up in the tasks aspects of the day to day. You remind me with a few kind words that, that is not what is most important in life. I love you and am so blessed to have you in my life.

These two women help make me who I am and I don't know what I would do without either one of them. I feel like God has truly blessed me with two great female role-models (not to say anything of the males, but it is mother's day, you'll get your Thank you's on Father's Day). Thank you both for just being who you are and making me who I am. I am so proud to call you both my Moms; I can only hope that you are even a fraction as proud to call me your daughter.

A good friend, you know who you are, recently reminded me that it's not only about cherishing the moments with my kids but finding pure joy in them and getting down and having fun. So what if I look goofy. I have always found joy in my children's smiles and giggles, but who says I can't just smile and giggle with them. Being silly is awfully fun and addicting.

Along the same lines, God has been placing something on my heart that I did not want to hear. Jealously and envy have always been one of my greatest struggles. I have always justified in it that they were goals and ambitions, but recently I realize that I was really letting "wanting" affect me. While I would still love to have the things I was longing for, such as being a stay at home mom, I have stopped let the "wanting" keep me from being happy with all of the many blessing that I have. I am learning to "love the life I live", while it is a process I feel like I have come a long way in the past couple of weeks.

I know this blog has been a hodge-podge of everything but if you know me you know that is how I work. If you've known me for any length of time you can probably even follow along with my random thoughts by now. I guess the unifying theme of this email is the strong women in my life. Like my baby sister who has wanted to be a Mommy for so long and never lost hope, my Mommy who is an amazing woman and raised 3 great kids, as well as influenced many many other kids (the countless foster kids), my Mom (in-law) who is an amazing woman and helps keep me on track and listens to y endless ramblings, and my friends who help keep me balanced! I love you all!!! Be proud of yourself, you are amazing women. Let this be a "pat on the back" to all the Mommy's. The work is hard, the hours are long, and we are under-paid but the reward is greater than any paycheck. I will leave you with a quote from Jill Churchhill that I got from a book I am reading "The most important thing I've learned over the years is that there is no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one." For me I am going to leave the perfection up to the Lord, since he is the only one that can get it right anyway; I am going to embrace just being "good".