In Our Life

A whole month without blogging.  Not typical for me.

We haven't taken any pictures, so that must mean we haven't done anything too exciting, so in summary...

MaryBeth
*Still absolutely loves Miss Lilliana to pieces!  She's 14 months old and the things she is picking up on is fascinating.  She's officially walking (she's been able to walk for awhile, but it has finally overtaken crawling as the primary mode of transportation).  It should also be noted that when I first started watching her, when she was 5 months old, she served as great birth control for me, but those days are long gone!  more about this at the bottom of the post!
*Started working at Michael's as a seasonal employee and is already counting down until January 1st, when she is "let go".  Even if offered to become a regular employee, that is not happening!  It is good for our budget to have this other job, but it is not good for my sanity (and therefore Marcel's) for me to dislike it as much as I do.
*Is just about caught up with scrapbooking for 2010 and is VERY happy about that accomplishment.  I haven't printed pictures from our trip to Yellowstone but I think I'll wait until the holidays are over to consolidate orders.
*Has started a countdown to Marcel's graduation and as of today we're only 179 days away!
Marcel
*Is in his last week of student teaching in his elementary school placement.  His cooperating teacher has a VERY different teaching philosophy and style from Marcel but he's made it through just fine.  Now he's just got to put the big work sample together so he can get licensed, which can't officially happen until after the next round of student-teaching.
*Looking forward to his next placement, which allows him to be in a middle school AND a high school because that's what his cooperating teacher teaches.  This is the same teacher he worked with when he was helping with the marching band.
*Still keeps plenty busy volunteering at church on the sound team and the worship team playing drums.  He loves it, but I'm selfish and hate having him gone Wednesday nights for practice.

We're both very excited for Christmas.  We are still on the hunt for a gift for each of our mothers and Marcel to get my presents, but I'm done and it feels wonderful.  Our tree is up and decorated and while I had hopes of hanging more lights in our house, I don't think that will happen.  And by working at Michael's I've become jealous about not having decorations for our house but realize it is just stuff and we're only spending money to pay our bills (and finish Christmas shopping); everything else is out of the budget for now, because...

We've decided to go on a cruise in June, after Marcel graduates.  We're not entirely sure where we're going, but I'm pulling for Mexico.  And it is still very tentative because even though we'd be able to pay for it in CASH (the only way we'll vacation or pay for anything now, thank you Dave Ramsey!), we may need the money for savings if Marcel is unable to find a job or if we need it for moving expenses, which could add up fast if we move to the other side of the country :)  And we'd totally be okay with that.  Yes, we'd be terribly sad to move away from family but trust that God will move us to where we need to be.  So it is still up in the air, but for now it has been great motivation to not spend money and it feels wonderful that I haven't swiped my debit card in a few weeks!

When I put the cruise plans on facebook as just a BIG celebration to being done with school, my sister started a bad thing saying she was hoping for a nephew and then people went crazy telling me how great of a mom I'll be, etc.  There is still no Bailey Baby in the picture!  Marcel came home from school (his college) one day and had a classmate very upset and just wanting it all to be done because her kids asked her when she'd spend time with them again.  It made me realize how happy I am that we've decided to wait at least until Marcel is done with school.  We struggle to spend enough time together with his hectic schedule and couldn't imagine adding a baby to the mix.  We talk about it like we talked about and planned our wedding before we were even engaged, just knowing it is coming sometime in the future.  After June 4th, we'll start praying for God's guidance and know that we'll become a family of 3 (or 4, if my mom gets her wish of me having twins) at just the right time!