4 Things I don't Want To Admit....

But will because April tagged me.

1. I stumble. Satan knows my weakness and I know he knows it. I pray for God to show me how to keep him from using my mom and sister to get me upset and in turn talk in a manner that doesn't bring light to God. I am getting better but I still stumble. God is faithful though, He is showing me where I have wronged and allowing me to come back with the words to make things right.

2. I am not the wife I want to be. My hubby is so kind, gentle, loving, more patient than I am, and so giving. I really don't know why God chose to bless me with him but I am so happy He did. There are so many things I want to do to show him how appreciative I am of him but the days just seem to get away from me. I can only do 1 thing when I planned on so many others, etc. I have always prayed for him but I recently read "The Power o a Praying Wife" by Stormie Omartian. There are so many areas that I was not thinking to pray for him in. I am committing to pray for him in all of these areas,  let him know each day how much I appreciate him, and ask God to direct me so that I can be the wife He wants me to be and that Dean deserves.

3. I am scared to have kids. Not because of the pain, body changes, etc. Having lupus I am no stranger to all of that and have a pain tolerance so high that more than 1 of my doctors say childbirth will be a breeze for me. I am scared that I will be too tired, get sick and not be able to take care of my family. That Dean would then have to work and take care of a wife and child. I can't bear the thought of getting sicker and being such a burden that neither of us can enjoy having a child and having work non-stop because of me. 

4. I am scared that I won't have a child. I want at least 1 and I know Dean eventually wants children. I want him to be a father someday but I am not getting any younger either though. I feel we aren't ready with me not having a job, health is great, and we have so much to take care of first (hello, debt). He will be an amazing Dad. I know we can adopt and that is an option we are open to if the Lord leads us there. I just want one our own too. A child with Dean's eyes, smile, and dimples, bestill my heart!  

Man, I hope that wasn't too much of a downer for anyone. I will see i I can come up with something really happy to post about. Don't be worried about us on those things. We both know God is in control and we trust Him with the direction He would have for us. Our biggest want is to be in the center of His will in all we do. 

We're Back!!!!

Yes, we are alive and doing pretty well. I am horrible with blogs as you can see. So much has happened since I last posted. Let me see if I can give you a quick run down.

• June 7th, celebrated our 1st anniversary (maybe I can post some pictures of our day later)


• July, went to Chicago for The Pampered Chef National Conference, celebrated Daisy's 1st birthday, changed primary care doctors FINALLY, celebrated Dean's birthday on the 30th, and on the 31st....100 people laid off from LifeWay and my department of 24 was in that group.


• August, celebrated Maddie's 1st birthday, started teaching New Consultant Training class for our over all Pampered Chef cluster, went to Texas for a vacation and surprise 40th anniversary party for Dean's parents, and got to go back to my wonderul lupus doctor that I hadn't seen in years, began a new prayer/study time or myself and Dean did too.


• September, started visiting diferent churches so we can find where God wants us to serve Him, participated in The Walk for Lupus and earned an ipod shuffle or raising more than $1,195 AND I was able to make it through the entire 5K with my hubby's encouraging words the whole way, celebrated my 33rd birthday and sharing that birthday with Brian (31)/Amy Johnson (twenties), and Bethany (27), then we got to visit with mom and dad Williams again as they passed through on their way to the north east states for a fall vacation.

Now October is here. I have a horrible cold. Still no job, my Pampered Chef team has REALLY taken off though. For that I praise God! Where would I be without Him. He is really taking care of me and Dean and that is why I am comforted. As of today, I now have not 1 but 2 future directors on my team! April and Kerry are doing amazing and so are their teams. Dean is still amazing. I thank God for him daily that He blessed me so by placing this wonderful man into my life. He amazes me every day at how truly loving he is and it just gets better each day. I said I have a horrible cold. It has really taken a toll on me since I am no longer on my other medications to help my immune system (dr ordered). Last night Dean brought me some berries from the store. I wanted to make this recipe from The Pioneer Woman. It isn't hard but I had made these to go with dinner and it was as far as I got. Literally, we only had cheese muffins for dinner. I was wiped out. Dean made it for me, without asking him! I got to eat that this morning and it was wonderful! I took a picture of my spectacular breakfast and added to the top of it....Pampered Chef's Sweet Caramel Sprinkle! Soooo Yummy!

Well, I guess that is it for now. Hopefully we won't be gone that long before we post again. :)

And the Winner Is....

To those of you who participated by sending an email, a big THANK YOU!!!! I know April and many others are appreciative to you and so am I.

So for my 1st ever giveaway I used Random.org and the number it chose between 1 and 5......

And comment #2 was....

Angie over at http://loveisspokenhere.wordpress.com/ YAY!!!! This was fun. Angie, if you will email me your address or the address of a place I can mail this to that would be super! My email is Jill092375@gmail.com

So now what did she win??? Well, I hope she likes The Decorator Bottle Set from Pampered Chef. These are a lot of fun and great if you have children.

Thanks so much everyone. :)

HELP!

My super cool friends April and Brandon are trying to adopt a child from Vietnam. There has been some trouble between the 2 governments concerning international adoption in Vietnam. Tomorrow is the last day for you to issue an email with your support of Vietnam adoption! To make it super easy, April made a little template! Just insert your name and maybe change a thing or two to make it a little less cookie cutter. The emails have to be in by tomorrow to the address advocate@jcics.org Thank you so much for your help in this. There are so many children over there that need loving families like April and Brandon, who will be super parents I might add. I don't think I have many readers BUT if you do send an email please leave me a comment. Since tomorrow, May 30th, is the deadline I will give away a prize, randomly selected by random.org. All you have to do is send the email by the 30th and leave me a comment saying you did so before 7pm on the 30th. :)

Here is a sample:

Hi. My name is _________ and I am writing to express my support of the A Child's Rights Campaign for Vietnam. I am close to a family that is ready and willing to provide a loving home to a child that needs it. They have a heart for the children of Vietnam and I know that there are many others that feel the same. Let's express this and get the governments moving towards a new agreement in order to provide homes for the orphans of Vietnam!

Sincerely,
insert name here

Dean

I am totally ga-ga for this man. I love him more than it should be humanly possible to love another person.

Mother's Day

This was my Mother's Day. My girls even talked their Dad into giving mom a gift. I got a card with some money in it and a hilarious message from my sweet hubby (you have read how funny he is here). It was a great day for the 4 of us. We did call our mom's to wish them a happy day cause we love them and appreciate them very much. :)

Update

Thank you for your prayers. Jimmy made it out of surgery and is recovering now at home. It turns out his appendix had not ruptured yet. That must have been messed up in translation between all the people involved. Anyway, they found a suspicious fluid filled sack beside the "about to rupture" appendix. This came back as bacteria filled due to his appendix becoming inflamed a little at a time over a long period of time. Same thing happened to me about 8 years ago. My brother also tells me that my nephew and I may have more in common than the slow onset appendicitis, Jimmy may have Lupus as well. Poor thing. James is coming back to Nashville Sunday evening and then in 1 week Jimmy goes back to see if he can return to school. James is still going to see about Jimmy moving here. A lot happened out there that gives me concern to him living with his mom and I know James and Jami would feel better with him here too.

So Jimmy is getting better and my girls, Lucy and Daisy, are getting sick. Poor little Daisy Mae has been having rear-end "explosions", as my friend says, and threw up 3 times. Now Lucy has started the same thing. Don't you know all this has been while Dean is out of town again. He left Friday morning but just got back a littl bit ago so maybe they will get better. Maybe they just didn't want to be with out their dad. And speaking of dean, he has returned to me sick too. No voice, coughing, feeling bad. Man, a bunch of sickly one in my house. I hope I don't get sick!

Prayer Needed

I have 1 newphew, my brother's oldest child from a previous marriage. His name is Jimmy, he's 15, and he lives in California. My sister called to tell me that James was rushing out to CA to be with Jimmy. He had been in pain for days and his mother would not take him to the Dr. Today he called his grandmother to take him and it was discovered his appendix had ruptured, infection had spead through his body and he is in crital condition after his surgery. I have not spoken to my brother or my sister-in-law yet to find out the details. Please pray that he is alright. Thank you

When the wife is away...

Today, Jill hit the road with Pampered Chef. We've been examining ways to improve her business and she went to two shows today that were hosted by her up-line director, Stephanie, so she could get ideas to incorporate in to her own show. Jill was out the door by 7:30am and wasn't expecting to be back until 8pm!

So, the husband had the day to himself!

So, of course I did what every husband in his right mind would do.... what Jill instructed me to do prior to leaving!

Of course, my day started earlier than that. Jill's uncle Fred and aunt Joyce were returning from a short stay in Rome, Italy, and their flight landed at 12:30am Saturday morning. I tucked Jill in to bed, took the dogs out to potty, put them in the bed with Jill and headed out the door. Once back at the house, Fred and Joyce were exhausted from their day of traveling that we all went to sleep.

Well, by "we all", I mean Fred, Joyce, Dean, and Jill. Not included in that list? DAISY AND LUCY! That's right. Lucy knew someone was in the house and was horrorstruck to come to the realization that I had no intention of her getting riled up and meeting new people! She refused to sleep on her doggy bed, so I finally succumbed and let her sleep on the bed by Jill's legs... thus Daisy pitched a fit and was soon nestled under my left arm in the bed, where she always finds herself at 6am.

When morning came, Daisy's bladder had been on hold long enough, so she got me out of bed and my Saturday morning was underway at 6:30. After taking care of the dogs, I quickly got Jill ready. I made her scrambled eggs (with Pampered Chef's Southwest Seasoning, YUMMY!) and a bowl of blackberries from Costco (they have HUGE blackberries, if you didn't know). She drank three ounces of Mona-Vie (usually only one ounce) because she would have a long day and needed the extra health boost.

With her out the door, I set out on my tasks. First things first, I had to handle "LIVE UPDATES" from the Rivals.com NIKE Camp in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (ie: University of Alabama). This was pretty easy and I was able to accomplish a number of things in between phone calls and posting on the message board.

I worked on the laundry (three loads!), I sorted through bills, then headed to the post office to mail some catalogs to a future host for a Pampered Chef show. I picked up a package (Spode Salt & Pepper shakers), then made a quick stop by TJ Maxx and picked up a "Strawberry and Papaya" sugar scrub and some "Luscious Berry" bath salts. Jill had mentioned wanting to take a bath once she got home, so I thought I'd pick up some pampering products for my Pampered Chef! (Best husband ever? Yeah, that's me. Humble, too!)

Once back at home, I made lunch, baked some cookies (a reward for myself) and then set my sights on the next big task: vacuuming.

This is where the story gets depressing. No, not because I was vacuuming. Rather, because of how awesome our vacuum is. However, what makes it awesome also makes it the most HORRIBLE VACUUM EVER DESIGNED BY MAN!

Let me explain: We purchased this vacuum based on the recommendation of Consumer Reports (Love them!) because it works on carpet AND hardwood floors, it's bagless, AND the reviews said it was excellent for DOG HAIR (we have 3-5 hairs occasionally on the floor). We used some money left over from wedding gifts for the vacuum, so it was like a late wedding gift (or NIGHTMARE!)

Amidst all of the wonderful features on the vacuum was the AMAZING "Dirt Sensor" or the "Intelli-clean" feature. There are four colored lights on the front of the vacuum. Green (clean), light orange (the dust bunnies are coming), dark orange (the dust bunnies are armed with bazookas!), and SATANIC RED (the floor is dirtier than a 13-year-old boy's mind!).

This is the most depressing vacuum EVER. With any other vacuum, you go over the carpet, you see the hair is gone and you move along. Oh no, not with this monstrosity. After 10 minutes of vacuuming the same 5 square feet, the blasted thing STILL flips over to "SATANIC RED" sporadically! And, even worse, it will flash "light orange" JUST as you move to a new section. Sure, you COULD just leave it, but in your mind, you just know there's some gunk sitting in the carpet, ready to stick to your feet! So, you continue to vacuum the same spot... over and over again, until FINALLY the carpet gives up, releases the vermin within the fibers, and the "Intelli-clean" feature flashes green "All clear, captain! The bunnies have been obliterated!" So, you push the vacuum forward 1/2".... SATANIC RED!

Not only does our vacuum suck out every atom of dirt, it also sucks your will to live.

With all that being said, I still giggle when I tell someone how awesome our vacuum is by saying: "Our vacuum really sucks!"

It's 11:30 now and Jill is asleep on the couch. I think we're going to go see Iron Man tomorrow. If so, I fully expect his nemesis in the movie to be our vacuum.

I'm serious.

Birthday Princess

First, I want to share a picture of my lovebug, Daisy, with you. Dean had taken her outside and she is more of a lover than a fighter so she got scared and ran inside when my neighbor made a noise out in his yard. Mind you it was dark. So this was her after she ran inside and Dean brought her to the office to be consoled by mom.Now for the weekend. Can I tell you I don't know how in the world single mother's do it. Dean and I don't have kids as yet unless you count our furry children, but they are a lot of work too. I had my niece and the girls this weekend and thought I would die! It made me miss him all the more. Apparently I have become dependent upon my husband and not as independent as I once was.

So after my Pampered Chef show on Friday evening, I picked up Amanda-Shea at Shea's house. They had been to the park, gotten pizza, and ice cream. I was exhausted and lucky for me so was Amanda-Shea. We planned our Saturday on the way home and went to bed. Now the girls were not ready for bed and had slept most of the day so they decided to let us sleep for 2.5 hrs and then woke us up and wouldn't let us sleep the rest of the night.

Saturday! Got up and prettied ourselves up for the day. Decided it was best to look just alike in case someone decided we may not belong together so we both wore matching yellow Merced shirts. Amanda-Shea had gold glitter eyeliner since it was her special day.Met up with Shea and Miss Maddie at Opry MillsNow Amanda-Shea REALLY wanted a ring to match mine so since it was her day we went to Claires. We didn't find a ring BUT we did find a way to let everyone know it was her special day.Next stop...Build A Bear. Sarah, her first bear, gets something every time Amanda-Shea comes to Nashville for a visit. For this special occasion, Sarah wanted a friend. Not just any friend, a skating dog friend. So here is the progression of Blake, the black lab. They didn't have yellow to look like Lucy. :(

So now Blake can skate, has clothes, boots, leash, pajamas, virtual dog house, AND Sarah has a microphone so she can sing as she plays her guitar...somehow...because she has to hold them both.

Then we parted ways with Shea and Maddie. We went to Target to get party supplies. You know, party plates, favors, and and the bling we were looking for at the mall. Now even though we only had 2 people for our party, we went all out. High School Musical plates and matching stickers as favors. #7 candle to go on the cake. And why sing Happy Birthday just once when you can light the candle again and start all over! Here she is 2nd time singing, showing off her BLING Then she opened the rest of her birthday gift. Stay with me now, really cute story coming up. Pink Camo Purse that matches Jill-Jill's shoes, a new Herbie DVD on Telling The Truth, her once a visit fake tattoo, and her own cookbook with red sticky flags to mark the ones she wants to make. We make food every time we are together and she loves her cookbook as much as I love all of mine.

Now the story. As I was about to give Amanda-Shea the gift bag with the rest of her birthday gifts in it, I sat her down and explained that there weren't any drum sets, guitars, or flashy presents in there because she had wanted the Build A Bear trip and that was a pricier gift. She was sitting there and upon hearing this she looked down for a second and then up at me and with the saddest little face she said "I'm sorry Jill-Jill. I didn't want for you to have to spend all of yours and Jelly-Dean's money on me." To which I told her it was ok because we had planned on that gift so we wanted to do that for her but that was her big gift and she was so very worth it. I just didn't want for her to be disappointed when she opened the bag. She looked at me and with the sweetest smile on her face and twinkle in her eyes she said "I could never be disappointed with you Jill-Jill!" and jumped up and gave me the biggest hug. Be still my heart, I love that little girl more than humanly possible!

We played a game that night and went to bed. Got up Sunday and upon request, we made French Toast with the extra special Cinnamon Sprinkle from Pampered Chef. That stuff made me the bomb! Over breakfast we discussed cooking tips.To finish up our visit, we got ready and prettied up again. This time we used silver eyeliner and then used to to put a silver "T" on her cheek to give a shout to Texas, Texas Tech, or Tennessee which ever you wanted it to stand for.

How sweet is that face! I just love her so much. It should be noted that she really missed dean and wished she could be here next weekend so she could see him too. I dropped her off with her mom and I went to another Pampered Chef show. You don't care to hear the rest but I had to share about the birthday time. It was exhausting but a blast to have her. Now Dean is back and all is well in my world. :)

Ready or Not, Here Comes the Weekend

So my super good-looking husband had to go out of town this weekend. Sad Jilly :( BUT, I am thinking there will be more than enough going on that will keep me busy while he is away and so the weekend will fly by. Come back to check in as it seems the strangest stuff always seems to happen to me when I am on my own. I'm like a weirdness magnet. Here is a picture of us just so you can see his handsomeness. :)


Anyway, here is a run down of the weekend events to happen. I have a Pampered Chef show to do this evening but after I am going to my fantabulous cousin's house (Shea, she is more like my sister and you will hear a lot about her on this in the future. I love her so much!) to see her and her cuter than humanly possible daughter, Maddie. My sister, Jana, will have met Shea and dropped off my niece, Amanda-Shea. Amanda-Shea is staying with her "Aunt Jill-Jill" tonight and tomorrow. You just don't understand what this little breath of fresh air means to me. I was there when she was brought into the world. She spent her first night with me since her mom and Grammy had to go back to the hospital and I saw her every day for the first 3 years of her life. Amanda-Shea is almost like my own child. She is turning 7 years old next week. My how time has raced by. Anyway, back to the events. We will be taking care of Daisy and Lucy on our own and having a BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION all for my sweet as pie, 7 year old, pretty as a princess, niece. Shea and maddie will be there of course and who knows what we will do but I think Build A Bear is involved. I will take pics so you can see. Then I have a Pampered Chef show again on Sunday and then my Prince will return! Here I will intoduce you to a few of those mentioned above so you can put a face with the names.

Here is cousin Shea, on the left, 7 months pregnant with Maddie as Matron of Honor at my wedding. My little sister, Jana, is next to her. The hair is my sis-in-law, Jan.
Next, how cute is this, we have Maddie. Although she is technically my 2nd cousin, you will hear me reference her as my niece since I actually think of Shea as a sister. She is an only child so Maddie has to have an Aunt to spoil her, right?

And now, the most beautiful flower girl to have ever graced a wedding (she was in mine and Shea's). Here is Jana, me, and Amanda-Shea. This was obviously from my wedding. She was so sweet. She wanted to look just like me so she picked this dress out and had shoes and jewelry that matched mine. She wanted the veil too but we didn't go that far. And there is her Build A Bear, Sarah, dressed for the occassion.

Sound the alarms!

So three posts in, this is officially becoming the "Dean and Jill talk about their dogs" blog. Sad that the most exciting thing in our lives are the (mis)adventures of our two canine misfits. It appears our girls have been watching TV during the day while we are at work, as the other night they attempted to recreate a TV show.

And by "attempted"... I really mean "succeeded."

Because of Lucy's recent surgery, neither of the dogs has had much playtime. They can't play together, because they are too rough, but we don't trust Daisy to be out by herself. So, with Lucy getting healed, we put up the two gates to lock Lucy in the kitchen/living area and we let her out of her cage, leaving Daisy in her cage in the kitchen. Jill and I headed to the office (down the hall) to work on organizing.

After awhile, we started hearing sounds like BOTH dogs were out, but we dismissed this notion, knowing that Daisy was locked safely away in her cage.

Now, at this point, I must point out that in the past, Jill and I have both observed Lucy and Daisy working together to free themselves from bondage (typically when Daisy is held captive). They were never successful. Not even close.

Just a few moments pass and Jill turns to me and says "Does it sound like both dogs are out?" I agree that it does and make my way to the hall, where I see not one, but TWO dog heads poking up over the gate, looking at me! Prison Break! THE DOGS CAN OPEN THEIR CAGE!!! As a homeowner, this is a disturbing thought. As a homeowner that has also caught Daisy gnawing on the couch frame, pulling up the carpet, chewing the island cabinet, ingesting the coffee table, and swallowing (or attempting) just about anything on the ground (or on the cabinet) that is slightly smaller than her throat... this is HORRIFYING news.

Currently, JillyDean's HomeLand Security has set the threat level to Orange.

Burt's Bees Lipbalm Anyone?

So an update on my girls. Lucy made it through her surgery just fine but once she woke up she decided she didn't want to stay any longer. Got the call to come and get her before she could hurt herself. So a drunken Lucy, Dean, and I go home to find Daisy has made herself sick from missing Lucy and thinking she was left by herself. Poor thing had a mess going on. So for the rest of the day and the entire next day we had 2 sick little girls. Lucy was sick from the drugs and Daisy's tummy was beyond upset.

Lucy is back to normal. Tries to run all over the place when she is out of her crate. We don't want her to mess up her boo-boo so we have to keep her calm. The pain meds are supposed to do that but you would never guess she is on anything unless it was Kool-Aid to make her hyper.

Now yesterday I get home to find my youngest playing with a Kong that her dad had given her. This is horrible and hilarous at the same time. She has chewed on it so much that herlittle mouth is raw! I looked at her as she looked up at me and thought "Have you been playing in mommy's red lipstick?". Little Lovebug's mouth looks so sore. I have pics but it just doesn't do it justice. Looks pink in the pics but mind you, it is bright red in person.

Here is Daisy Mae and Dean just lounging. but if you look at her closer...

And even closer....

And not to leave my other darling out, here is Miss Lucy. She is back to sitting pretty and eager to get out of her crate here. She is having to stay in it a little more than normal to keep her calm since she runs about all the time.

And here she is while out of the crate. She doesn't look happy because she had just been caught running like a crazy dog. You can see her "boo-boo" too. Looks to be healing nicely.

Our sweet Lucy Lu is growing up

So for our first blog entry, I am sorry to say, we won't be discussing anything profound or wonderful. No, instead you get to hear about the one of many weird happenings that I go through (we, now that Dean has joined my interesting world).

Background: My sweet Lucy Lu, pictured right, is our oldest sweetie pie. I have been in her life since she was 8 weeks old. My best friend Brian got her and I named her. He was over all the time and it was almost like Lucy was ours! She is such a joy and I wanted to be around dogs so badly (my mom has mine from my "at home years" and is in Chattanooga now). I grew very attached to Lucy. Brian bought a new place and, long story short, it was just too small for a Yellow Lab. Lucy had also grown quite found of Daisy Mae, our youngest lovebug (how we got her is a whole other story) and Lucy didn't want to be alone when Brian was away so Dean and I adopted her 1.5 months ago. We had been keeping her for Brian for a while by then, as he was often busy with music. I would have been lost without her anyway so my loving husband knew I would be a basket case without her.

All along the plan was for B, Brian, to have her spayed but had never gotten around to it just yet. She had always been fine and since she is my little girl I kinda forgot that that happens early with dogs. Wellll, it happened all right. We awoke to a grumpy little girl and then saw why. YUCK! She had been restless the past few nights and not as active but we didn't catch onto that. She stays inside and there aren't many dogs in our neighborhood so we don't have them hanging around the house either.

My poor little girl just whined and wanted to be petted. She normally sits so pretty and proper but now throws her leg out to the side like her sister, Daisy (who is VERY unladylike!). I am forced to accept that my baby girl is growing up
:-(

I called around to find a place that would be affordable to take her to and have her spayed since it is really expensive at our regular vet. She has an appt but they can't do it til Monday. Pray for us this weekend, please! And pray for me on Monday. I am trusting these people to take care of my Lucy and she is a girly girl. She doesn't want harsh scars!

Anyway, thanks for reading our first blog attempt and if you feel so inclined come back and visit often to see what is happening in our lives. I will post pictures in the future too. Just not in this instance because no one wants to see this.