A WINNER!

I know you ladies are dieing to know, so here goes:

Anna Copeland is the winner! 

Anna, if you would send me your address, I can get these in the mail to you asap.  Enjoy them! 

For everyone that didn't win....  No worries!  I'm going to be posting a really easy tutorial on how to make the lace earrings very soon.  Keep an eye out so you don't miss it!

A Little Talking Bean.

She's turning out to be just like Ryan....

Lace and Flowers Giveaway!

So I've been working on a couple of DIY projects for me. I finally have them perfected and decided that since I love them so much, then perhaps all of you ladies would too. I may work on a tutorial for them eventually, but for now getting the finished project for free will have to do. So without further ado, check out these super sweet, super cute lace earrings and rosette bracelet.

To Enter:  

Become a Follower of TheCookoosNest

Leave a comment below saying "PICK ME! PICK ME!", tell me how cute Layla is (JK), and  let me know that you're a follower.  

The Winner will be chosen by random on Friday at Noon.

Pretty simple huh?  Honestly I just want to know who's reading and who's not.  So lucky you gets a chance to win some free stuff just to appease my curiosity.  :)    

Missions In Our Own Backyard

God's got some MAJOR things in the works with our family right now.  For a while after we got married, we felt like we couldn't really find any ministries/mission opportunities to plug ourselves into.  So a couple of months ago, we asked the Spirit to start doing some work and let us be a part of it.  Basically, we shoved our little family into the passenger seat of a speeding car that God was driving and said "Let's Go!"  He certainly hasn't dissapointed.

We've been presented with.....I don't know.... like 5 or so HUGE mission opportunities that are right here in our own backyard.  This has made me a bit scatter-brained at times. 

I WANT TO DO THEM ALL!!!!!!! 

But I can't..... :(  I mean I could do them all, but my family would never see me, and I wouldn't do a very good job at any of them. 

Now is the hard part:  Discerning the ones that God has led us to take part in, and graciously declining the ones that we can't.  I hate saying no...  I hate not being there when I know that I could be helping someone.  We attend a newly planted church and there are a ton of things going on.  There are also a ton of needs to be met.  I think this next season God is going to be teaching me what I need to grab and run with, and what I need to encourage others to grab and run with.  After all, we can't do them all by ourselves.  Half of making disciples is sending them out and giving them responsibilities. 

Please keep our family in your prayers as we narrow down our options and decide what our family is best suited for.  Our roles in our community have been changing drastically over the last couple of months, so I don't want to let the cat out of the bag until we have a better idea of what we'll be doing.

You Want to be a Teacher? WHYYYY?????

I've been inadvertantly reading some blogs about homeschooling lately.  They are really blogs about adoption, but apparently it is almost a pre-requesite that you are planning on homeschooling and/or at least be a stay at home mom in order to adopt.  Guess we're blowing that one out of the water.....

I work. A LOT.  I work at my full-time job and I also work on school.  I am sooooooo excited to say that I will graduate this summer. FINALLY!  (I wish I could add some kind of awesome music to play only when you read that line).

I'm going to be a teacher.  Not kindergarten or 2nd grade.  High School.  I'm jumping into the shark infested waters in August, or maybe December depending on if my life decides to slow down or not.  Teaching the big kids is basically baptism by fire.  No amount of training will ever prepare you for the job you are taking on.  I'm in my very last education course, and I'm fairly certain that I am more scared now than ever about being a teacher.  Don't take that as me saying that I'm not pumped about it.  I am SOOOO pumped!  I can't wait to be doing something I love.  But trying to instill a love for something (reading and writing and poetry and all the good stuff) that they have hated their entire lives is quite a challenge. 

We're learning about teaching THE CANNON.  I'm not going to lie, I kind of hate Shakespeare..... (I feel like I need to go wash my mouth out now).   Honestly, I'm not really a huge fan of a lot of "the Cannon"  unless it is paired with something newer that the kids and I can actually relate to.  Come on now..... wouldn't you rather read 1984 with something cool and hip like The Hunger Games or Feed or The Uglies?  I could go on and on, but I'll spare you.  I'll even break down and teach Twilight if it gets the kids reading and I can use it to introduce some of the themes found in the books that I'm actually supposed to be teaching.  Maybe, just maybe, they'll even like them..... But let's not get carried away.  After all, kids are supposed to come out of school hating everything they were ever "forced" to read, RIGHT?

February in Pictures

Layla being silly Sunday morning.

There's a great story that goes along with this one:  We went to get Fro-Yo one afternoon.  Someone (I won't mention any names) pooped all over themselves.  Apparently I forgot to pack an extra onesie..... my bad.  Result = Naked Baby in a carseat.  And we are now officially rednecks....

Layla, along with like 55,234 other babies in our church, getting dedicated!

My new Favorite obsession.  No lie, I wear these every single day.  Best shoes ever.

I got this outfit from an Etsy seller.  SO CUTE.  I can't wait  for spring so we can take some more pics!

Can you say circus clown? 

Mi Madre and Layla.

Exhausted after a long day of insanity.

Sexuary

Warning:  Post may be reference my sex life.  Mom and Dad, please feel free to NOT read this post......

This month (February) has been filled with a ton of failure.  Pretty much everything I touch right now seems to wither away and die. 

*Remember that February-Photo-A-Day thing I claimed I was going to do?  Yea.....I made it to like day 5.  I forgot two days and tried to make them up, but life happened and I just kept forgetting.  Now I'm like 14 days behind and have just thrown in the towel.

*Remember how we have a 7 month old daughter?  We still have her, but we aren't really looking to add any other younger children to our family through natural birth at this moment.  Birth Control is a must!  Birth Control (the cheap kind I can afford) is a once-a-day pill.  I'm not so great with once-a-day things.......(For all those people freaking out, No we're not pregnant.....for now....da da daaaaaaaa)

*Remember how we were participating in Sexuary?  You don't?  Oh, my bad!  I didn't tell anyone about it on purpose accident.  So we decided that we'd attempt to go 10 straight days.  I got sick....for 2 weeks.  Ryan got sick.  We all got sick.  We made it a total of like 3 days...?  Not our best work for sure.

So Sexuary hasn't really worked out as planned.  It was supposed to make me feel....Sexy.  Instead, I feel like an out of shape (thanks Bronchitis!) failure.  I'm about as far from "sexy" as I could possibly be.   Not feeling sexy has completely ruined sex, which in turn makes me feel unsexy.  Ugh....vicious cycles.... 

So I did what all wives should do and I told my husband before I end up a sobbing mess one night and he is wondering why a crazy woman is living in his wife's body.  I also got lucky and found a post that Christine wrote about Feeling Sexy Just The Way You Are.  There are some underlying issues that are causing my unsexiness.  I know this.  You know this.  A lot of these have to do with feeling like I'm a failure in this department and/or having little voices in my head telling me sex is sinful (Thanks Conservative Christian Culture!)  I think I need to find Christ in my sex life.  Man that sounds weird....

 God gave us sex for a reason, I just haven't found it yet.  I'm pretty sure I need a "sex mentor."  You read that right....  I need some super wise and super sexy woman of God to walk into my life and teach me how she's conquered her demons and determined she's sexy/beautiful.  Not really sure I have the guts to just walk up to women I look up to at church and ask them how their sex life is..... 

I had a hard time deciding whether to post this or not.  It's just a tad bit taboo to talk about sex unless you're an unbeliever that lives in Sodom or Gomorrah.  Personally, I think this should change.....

For clarification: my relationship with my husband is awesome.  I'm so glad God gave me a man that I can unashamedly talk to about this kind of stuff.