New Blog

I just recently started a new blog. I kind of wanted to take a new route hence the new blog. I'llno longer be posting on here so you can follow me on the new site. It's called The Simple Life.  Check it out!

Update in the Rinderknecht Household

So things have been quite busy here lately. I feel like I've hardly had the time to breath. With winter storms, power outages, Michael's school, Theo and other things I've been super busy. Thankfully things feel like they are slowing down either that or I'm getting used to all the craziness, probably the latter haha. Here are a few things that have happened so far in 2014:

Weather in Georgia is the strangest. This winter has been the coldest I've seen since I've moved here. We first went through a little snow "storm." I wouldn't really call it a real storm because I've seen worst but its a big deal here. It was a fun couple of days of snow. Not even two weeks later we got even more snow not as much as the first time but this "storm" was a whole lot worse. There was more ice than snow which caused a lot of damage. It cause a lot of trees to fall which then caused most of the city to be without power. We went about 15 hours with power which meant no heat. Longest night ever. None of us got much sleep. Of course to make it stranger once the ice storm was all over with we experienced a small earthquake. It wasn't big but it was strong enough to have my heart racing and I was two seconds away from running upstairs and grabbing my sleeping baby. It wouldn't be Georgia if we didn't have 80 degree just after all this snow and ice now would it?

Before all the ice

After...It's a shame, I liked that tree

Keeping warm

When we first got married we didn't have much money. So for our first table we bought a cheap card table and folding chair set from Walmart. It did its job but I really hated it. Finally after 2 years we bought an actual dining room table. I absolutely love it!

Table before

Our new table, ahh I love it!

This may not sound like a big deal to anyone but to me its a major accomplishment. Theo sleeps great at night in his crib but we have had the hardest time with naps. He would only sleep in his bouncer and only if I was bouncing him. I've tried to slowly transition him to take naps in his crib but it never worked very well. After a very long and tiring day over at my brother and sister-in-laws house I finally said enough. I told Michael that we were going to go cold turkey on the bouncer and he would eventually get the idea. Michael is my hero in this. I have to say Theo's success is all due to him. So now he takes all his naps in his crib. I'm seriously doing a little victory dance right now. My little boy is just getting so big!

Reflections

With only a couple more hours left of 2013 I'm inclined to sit here and reflect on all that has happened in the past year. I do have to say it has been quite an amazing year! The past several years I could honestly say that there were some really difficult hard times that I went through. Though I did go through some hard times this year, they were nothing like it has been. I've been truly blessed. This is what the past year has brought me:

1. First Anniversary
In the year 2013 I was able to celebrate my first anniversary. Can't believe I've been married for over a year now and about to celebrate my second! Time sure does seem to fly!

2. Pregnancy and Baby Theo
The day after our first anniversary we found out the wonderful news that we were expecting a baby. Boy did I not know what was coming. Never knew that I could love a little person so much even after all the sleep deprivation and endless crying. We have had some pretty rough days but this little boy still has a firm grip on my heart.

3. New Apartment
So maybe this doesn't seem like a really big one but it has made quite a difference in our lives. I really do like our new place. Without this new place we wouldn't have been able to get a dog which brings me to my next point.

4. Mozzie
Though this dog can drive me crazy at times, I still love him. He can have his moments of sweetness. He has been kind of needy lately because he isn't getting as much attention lately but he's still a good dog.

5. Michael's Job
So Michael started his job last December but its kind of big thing so I'm listing it here. We are incredible grateful for his job at Delta. Michael really likes working there. The job is boring (what job isn't?) but he really likes the people he works with and Delta as a company. We're really hoping to stay with them for years, Lord willing.

6. New Year's Resolution
Last New Year's I made the resolution to start learning French. So here's the big reveal to see whether I actually kept to it or not. Drum roll please........I did it! Ok, I'm not fluent in French but I did keep to it and start learning the language. I feel as if I came pretty far. There have been stretches of time where I drifted from it so I didn't get as far as I could have but I think I did pretty well. My sister-in-law is also learning French and she told me about this fabulous website where you can learn French for free! I loved it the moment I tried it. It has helped out a lot, and they do other languages other than French. If you're interested the site is called Duolingo and I highly recommend it!

Ok, so this is all I can think of right now, though I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting things. But hey its late and I'm tired. I'm really looking forward to all 2014 has to offer. Happy New Year!

Christmas

First of all Merry Christmas! It's a little late but hey, its the thought that counts right? We had a great little Christmas this year. Since Michael was working on Christmas we decided to open presents on Christmas Eve in the evening and do a little "party". We just had a few little finger foods, opened presents, and watched a Christmas movie. It was really rather wonderful. :) We still have a Christmas dinner to do with Michael's brother and his family. We were going to do it the day after Christmas but my sister-in-law and nephew came down with something (poor things) so its been postponed till they get better.

Little Theo

So its about time I write a post announcing little Theo's birth. Little Theodore Michael was born on November 7 (so he's a month old now!). He weighed in a 7 lbs 14 oz and 20 1/2 in. long.

I ended up getting induced one week past my due date. They would have let me go longer but his cord was wrapped around his neck and the fluid was getting low so the doctor it was best to go ahead and induce than wait any longer. The whole process went smoothly for the most part. They brought me in on Wednesday (the 6th) night and started me on certavil. It wasn't to bad until they started the pitocin the next morning. The contractions were coming on hard and strong. Soon after they administered the epidural there was a slight complication with his heart rate dropping. When it first started happening they rushed into the room turned me to my side and put a oxygen mask on me without saying a word. I was kind of freaked out not knowing what was going on. The theory is that his cord was possibly causing his heart rate to drop since it would only happen if I was laying on my back or my left side. Thankfully he was born a healthy boy with no complications. I ended up laboring less than 24 hours from start to finish. I certainly got lucky.

Life at home with him has certain been a challenging one. It has been a great life adjustment. I just try to take it one day at a time and try not to think how tired I am. He's definitely a morning person. He's all smiles after he wakes up and slowly fades as the day passes. 

We haven't really had any major problems with nursing. He caught on pretty quick and my milk had no problems coming in. He's already a little over 9 lbs! He's still in newborn clothes which surprises me. I personally think he carries all his weight in his cheeks haha.

Don't you just want to squish those cheeks!?

We have had some problems with sleeping at night. There have been quite a few of restless nights and I don't doubt that there are more to come. Though I am pretty happy that he only woke up once last night. I don't think it will stick for now but I am grateful for one good night of sleep! One of the best things is that he does really well going out. I probably just jinxed it though. He falls asleep pretty quickly in the car and then whenever we're in the store or at a restaurant he just sleeps the whole time. I think he likes all the background noise.

Ok, so now for an embarrassing/humbling/never-going-to-happen-again story. The day after Thanksgiving Michael and I went out to Hobby Lobby to look at their fake trees (we had a real one last year). They were having a sale so we went to see if there was one in our price range. Lucky enough for us we found one that was perfect. After buying the tree they told us to bring our car to the front while they go get the tree from the back. We do just that. They bring the tree out and we proceed to load it in the car. Unfortunately our car is not very big so it didn't fit in the trunk so we had to put it up front on the passenger side. Kind of hard to explain but it ended up with me moving to go sit in the back seat. Now since we were just loading the tree into the car we left the car running. Once the tree was safely in the car I proceeded to go around to get in the back of the car. Out of habit we shut the doors. That is when it hit me. We just locked not only the keys but our newborn baby in the car. I, of course, started freaking/stressing out. I felt like such a failure. How could a mother lock her own child in the car. We tried all possible ways of getting in but all efforts failed. We tried asking for help but all anybody could tell us was to dial 911. Luckily for us someone was parked illegally in the fire lane behind us. A cop showed up and asked them to move their car. Michael quickly went to him and asked for help to get in the car. Of course once he heard that Theo was locked in their he quickly got the tools to help. Thankfully he was able to unlock the car and we were able to finally all go home safe and sound.  Whew, I was beyond stressed and tired by the end of the day. I'm just really glad that Theo slept through the entire thing.We are determined to never let that happen again.

Birthday Celebrations

Today is the most special man in the world's birthday. My sweet dear husband Michael. :) I make a big deal out of my birthday so I tend to do the same with other people's birthday, especially Michael's. Last year since we were really tight on money I wasn't able to do much of anything, and I was afraid I might not be able to do much of anything this year either because I didn't know if Theo would be here already or not. But thankfully I was able to do somethings for his birthday. Since he works on today we celebrated his birthday on his days off, Thursday and Friday. Thursday we went out to Red Robin for dinner because Michael could get a free burger for his birthday. We don't go out to eat much so it was a nice treat. We came home for a birthday "pie" afterwards. On Friday we went to go play miniature golf at a family fun center that I recently found. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was for Augusta, not the nicest place putt putt place I've been to but it was cute. I bought Michael Dutch Blitz for his present. We used to play it together before we started dating. Friday night we went over to family and had a nice dinner. Overall it was a great success and I'm really happy I was able to "spoil" Michael for his birthday, I don't get to do it often and I love the chances I do get to. :)

Delicious!

Love this man!

Almost 40 weeks!

Words

I'm going to take a little break from all the baby talk (sigh, yes I'm still pregnant) and share with you something that has been on my heart. The other day I was listening to a song on the radio, one that I had heard many times before but this time I took the time to actually really listen to the lyrics. After really listening to them the song really spoke to me and touched on a subject that I've been very adamant about for awhile The song is Words by Hawk Nelson.

 It speaks of how words can really affect a person and how the words we say should be uplifting and encouraging and pointing back towards God. This has been an issue very close to my heart. I have been on both ends of damaging words, and I don't like it either way. A lot of people today like to joke around and tease people as a way of having fun, I know, I've done it. But this can be a big problem. Though you may be teasing and just joking what you say can really hurt a person and bring them down. I've had people tease me in my life, and I've teased people in my life. It just seemed like the way to goof off with people, but after seeing how out of hand it can get and how I could hurt a person's feelings or have my own hurt I started reevaluating myself. I didn't want to continue this vicious cycle. I didn't want my words to bring people down but instead bring them up and encourage them, perhaps even put a smile on their face. I especially don't want to bring down my own children or husband with discouraging words or have them see me do it to other people. What kind of example would I be? Its not an easy task. It can be so easy to get sucked in and start "innocently" teasing a person and then it get out of hand. It's my prayer that I can learn to control my tongue and continue to uplift people.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29