Yeah- so it’s been awhile. I am NOT a very faithful blogger.

Sigh.

Oh well. Maybe it can be my New Year’s resolution to blog more.

Oh wait. It’s February already?

My goodness.

So, what’s new? I have a brand spankin’ new baby girl. Jazlyn Grace, born on January 12th. Whoo hoo! She is 3 weeks old and already growing like a weed. (darn it…why can’t they stay tiny forever-they are so dang cute!) She is learning to sleep at night and stay awake during the day- but it took some rough nights before we figured out the kinks- and they still aren’t perfect.

Our house still is for sale. It’s been almost 8 months. I can’t believe how close we have been to getting an offer and still have not gotten one. It is frustrating- but God’s got the timing thing perfected, so we are just going to wait until He decides to move us.

Brielle and Bryce are in everything, all of the time. I feel like every word out of my mouth is followed by the word “NO!” (ie. Bryce, No! Brielle, No! Stop! No! Did you hear mommy? I said No!) ugh. I know that this is temporary- but with a newborn, I know that I will continue this speech habit for at least 3 more years. I love being at home with the kids- but there are days where my sanity is tested. ok- maybe everyday my sanity is tested.

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. For most of us, it means thinking of our sweetheart and planning a romantic evening- but for me- it means planning a birthday party for my little girl. Lucky her to be born on Valentine’s Day. I plan on making lots of cake balls and cupcakes, and some of these (thank you Bakerella!)

Life definitely isn’t slowing down. I hope my blog can aspire to keep up.

I did a fun post on facebook about 25 things about myself. Kinda fun. Thought I’d post it here too- just for the heck of it. Enjoy reading some random facts about me…

1. I love to cook. (when I have time and am not sleep deprived)
2. I love playing basketball, and miss coaching it.
3. I hate celery.
4. My name means “devoted to God” and I aspire to always live up to that.
5. I’d love to have 4 children.
6. I was a valedictorian. (haha- I still can’t believe I was…)
7. I have 3 kids under the age of 3- and I am still sane (I think)
8. I have never broken a bone.
9. I wish I lived closer to my family and extended family, but I treasure the ones that I do live close to!
10. I love to sing worship songs- miss singing on the worship team.
11. Would have a hard time surviving without chocolate.
12. Love roller coasters- but I’m afraid of heights….go figure.
13. I drive a minivan. And I like it.
14. I love to scrapbook and love good photography…wish I was better at it!
15. I love summer!
16. My dream home would be a ranch, with horses, and wide open spaces to ride in.
17. I love art and painting.
18. My most dreaded household chore: folding laundry.
19. I love sappy romance movies and old classics.
20. I took ice skating lessons and gymnastics as a kid- probably could’ve been good at ice skating- not so much at gymnastics.
21. I am crazy allergic to cats, and horses, and most other animal dander.
22. I have huge feet. Size 10 and sometimes 11.
23. If I could pick a second career- I’d decorate cakes.
24. My favorite place to vacation is Hilton Head Island.
25. I probably can outeat most guys in an ice cream eating contest ( i don’t think I should be proud of this…;)

My two year old daughter was sitting at the table finishing her dinner while I cleaned up the kitchen, and suddenly she started saying, “Hide, ahh, scary…eyes! Mommy! Scary eyes!” and I asked her what she was looking at. She pointed out the glass door at the trees in the back of our property, and said, “Look, eyes!” I looked…and saw….trees. Well, she seemed to be getting more and more scared, and I have to think fast as a mom and tell her what she’s seeing is really harmless. So I tried the rational method first.

“Honey, it’s just trees.”

“NO! Scary! EYES!”

“Sweetie, they are just green leaves on the brown trees.”

“Scary mommy!”

So….method 1…failed.

So I tried a different route.

“Brielle, it’s God looking at you. He loves you.”

“oh…”

“Did God make the trees, and the leaves, and does he love you? It’s Jesus looking at you.”

“Mommy, I see God.”

Now she wants to go see Jesus in the backyard. Oh well, at least she knows He loves her, and her fear is gone. Amazing how the truth can set you free

OK, so I haven’t blogged in awhile…but I think I might be jumping back in…

What better to start with than POLITICS

Ok, yeah, it gets everyone riled up (including my husband…he couldn’t even watch the VP debate), and everyone has their opinions- especially in this election. I have been watching the debates, listening to friends and family discuss, and drudging through media coverage and ads about this race. So where do I stand?

I like McCain/Palin.

There- it’s out there -now…do you want to know why? Or don’t you care?

OK, so either you’re still here reading because you want to know why or because you love me dearly and want to hang on to every word I type (love you honey).

Here are my “opinion facts” (yeah I know- some of you will disagree with me because you have a different opinion- go watch NBC or CNN instead of reading my blog, they will share your opinions more than mine)

1. McCain is WAY more experienced than Obama. He has been there, done that, and knows his stuff. Obama has lots of fancy words, but can he back them up?

2. Biden and Palin are VP canidates-not Presidential ones. Of course Palin isn’t nearly as experienced as Biden–BUT she’s just as experienced as Obama- and he’s actually running for the REAL JOB. And if (heaven forbid) she had to take over, I’d still prefer her over Obama. She’s honest- and real. (and a Mom!!!!)

3. I don’t like war. But I also don’t like terrorists or corrupt countries that kill or supress their citizens. I don’t want another 9-11. Do you? How safe do you think Obama will make our country? He’d rather employ lots of diplomacy (talking…blah…blah…blah), than increase our security. McCain has been tortured- I doubt he will let our security weaken!

4. Obama wants to have economic fairness. Know what that means? Socialism. That means that the people that work and pay taxes are going to start paying more to help those people mooching off the government for their needs.

5. Obama wants to tax big business/anyone making over 250,000. Guess what? Those people are the ones who PAY the ones making less. Guess who will have less money? Not the big guys…they’ll just stop paying the smaller guys (middle class) so much. Yep- less money in our pockets!

6. Obama has no military experience. And he wants to direct our military? Hmmm.

Ok, I know I have more points, but I’m out of time… I have two kids pulling on my legs asking me to play. I really think our nation needs strong leaders with values. I am opposed to gay marriage, abortion, and am a Christian. I want us to help the needy, and love the widow. I don’t want the government to get too big and tell me what I have to do.

Go McCain/Palin. I really hope you guys can win. We need ya.

So it’s been awhile since I posted anything, thought I better write something to update my fantablulous blog site.

Hmmmmm…..what can I write about?

I’ve got nothin’.

Ok, so life has been busy lately. Busy in an uninteresting sort of way. Our house still hasn’t sold. We lowered the price a smidgen to see if that will help bring in more people. The house is great, people looking have liked it, just no offers yet. Sigh. It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t feel like we are in a time crunch of sorts. Prayer helps…and maybe God’s timing will surprise us soon. We are getting antsy.

Bryce is standing and walking some by himself. He is so cute. This morning I asked him if he wanted me to change his diaper, and he crawled over to the diapers and picked one up- and practically begged me to change him. He finally is drinking whole milk instead of formula- which saves us some money.

Brielle is potty training, and doing a pretty good job when we are at home. She stays dry most of the time, and always poops in the potty now. Kinda nice to not have to change “those” diapers any more.

Next week we find out what we are having the third time around. I am pretty excited. I don’t know what to hope for….but either way, boy or girl, I’ll be happy. I have felt the baby move occasionally, but he or she has plenty of room to stretch out and move around, so I usually don’t notice much.

I just turned 27 two weeks ago, yet another year older doesn’t seem to change much. I have a feeling when I hit another big milestone…like 30.. things will start to feel weird…but let’s not think about that yet. I had a fun birthday weekend with the family reunion at Ludlow Falls.

Oh dang it, little Bryce is crying, probably teeth…poor guy…it’s time for those top fronts to poke through…until next time….

Any of you that are parents know that it can be SOOOOOO hard to pick out baby names. You want to find the perfect name for your child, and you don’t want to get sick of it and wish you had picked a different name ten years down the road. I bought a baby name book right after I found out I was pregnant with Brielle (my first). It took us almost the entire pregnancy to find her name and agree on one that we both liked. It is especially hard for me (as a teacher), because I have quite a list of names I can NEVER use thanks to knowing those names of my students. We knew what we were having with both of my previous pregnancies, and were so glad we did, because it narrowed down our name searches immensely. We had Bryce’s name picked out much earlier. Almost as soon as we found out it was a boy, we decided on that name.

I think it is hard to pick out boy’s names because you don’t want to get too frilly or outlandish with a boy- he needs a strong name- not some froo-froo name. Girls have it a little easier, you can be creative and it won’t affect how others percieve her. She will always have the “cool, unique name” (I liked my name growing up for that reason). I liked Brielle because it was different, and Joel liked it because it sounded pretty. For Bryce, we liked the name, and it was different enough (not a bazillion Bryce’s out there- like Michaels or Jacobs)

And so now we are on kid #3, and although we don’t know what we are having, I have already started the name hunt. I have gone to many baby name websites, and I get bored just looking through the A’s. No wonder names like Aiden, Ava, and Alexis are popular-people just give up and take one of the first few they come across (I like those names, by the way-I’m not bashing them at all- I have friends that have named their kids these names, and I like them very much

I love looking at different lists and unique names. Anyone out there have some good places to look for names or names that you like? If you have a name you want to keep for your own kid, by all means, keep it to yourself, but if you are just bursting at the seams with awesome names, could you share a couple with me? I need a starting point, I guess, some good names to get the ideas flowing. There are a few guidelines. It has to go well with the name Nafziger (duh), and we won’t tell you if we are going to use that name or not. We keep the name a secret until after the kid is born. We will tell you what we’re having if the ultrasound reveals it to us, so the choices will be narrowed down to just boy or just girl names after that, but until then, all names are fair game. So, let me know… the baby name hunt is on!

Hmmm…should there be a prize? I think if you actually help us find the “perfect” name, you should get a reward! Hmmm…what to do? How about we have you over for dinner? (provided you live close enough to do that!) Challenge on! Happy name hunting!

Well, since we listed our house on the market 2 weeks ago, we have not had much interest from people wanting to see our house. Until today. Today, around 11:10, the doorbell rang, and Joel and I looked franctically at each other (trying to figure out who looked more presentable to answer the door), and wondered who in the heck was at our door. We both decided to answer the door, and were greeted by a realtor and client coming for a showing of our house. We gave them blank stares, and she asked if she was too early. We hadn’t heard anything about a showing, and we super surprised to have people wanting to look through our house. I was glad we had the house mostly clean, and I quickly ran through and tidied up as best I could. The poor realtor tried to explain the situation, and said she had called and was even under the assumption that our house was vacant…don’t know where she got that one. We called our realtor, and she knew nothing of the showing…so lines got crossed somewhere…we were glad that someone is finally interested in the house, and although the showing was super fast (I think they felt really bad about being there), maybe the guy liked what he saw and will come back for a second showing….let’s just hope it doesn’t happen again…

Yeah, so for all of you who read Joel’s blog, you may already know this, but for those who don’t-here’s some juicy info! About me…um…I am due January 25th, with baby #3. Yes, I will be one of those crazed mothers running to and fro- with 3 children-under the age of 3. How did this happen? Well…it happened because we were trying to do the Natural Family Planning thing, and someone…(me)…didn’t quite follow the temperature readings and count the days right. Soooo…we are having a third, slightly earlier than planned, but gladly welcomed all the same.

As a bit of irony (God’s humor), would have it, I found out I was pregnant four days after turning in my letter of resignation at Jimtown. So, my “teaching” skills won’t go to waste- I will get a bigger classroom in my home!

I am 7 weeks along, but definitely in that queasy, tired all day, frame of mind. It can be rough keeping up with 2 active ones, when all I feel like doing is crashing on the couch, eating saltines all day. Pray that the baby is healthy and that I have the energy to keep up with everyone!

On top of all that…we realized also that our house will soon be a little cramped. So, we listed our house (do you wanna buy it? 3 bedroom, 2 bath, finished basement?????), and have been actively looking for a new house to move to. We found one that we love- and hope that the owners will wait for our house to sell and accept our offer (I think we will make an offer tomorrow…God willing). We know that someone else made an offer on the house, but the listing agent told us there was less than a 40% chance of it going through-so we have some hope! Pray that our house sells quickly, and that we find the house God wants for us- if it’s the one we like, so be it, if not, pray that we find where he wants to use us! So much going on…my sanity will be challenged some…but I know God will be with us through everything. His faithfulness carries us through all the situations of life- good and bad- He will be there for me to lean on and catch my breath.

So during lunch after church today, we were all watching a Nature program together, on PBS. It was a very interesting show, and Brielle loved watching the seals and penguins. All was going well, until we saw a huge hungry sea lion lumbering after hapless penguins. Brielle watched the chase and then began to realize what was going on, and started saying things, “Oh no! Penguin! Oh no! Penguin!” and then the sea lion caught the penguin. She kinda stared, dumbfounded, at the TV. We watched as her mouth just hung open. Then the sea lion RIPPED OFF THE HEAD OF THE PENGUIN. (I started laughing) Joel chuckled too- but mostly at the surprised reaction from Brielle. She didn’t seem to realize what was going on at that point (thank goodness) and started laughing because we were laughing. It was a taste of the real world, where animals aren’t like stuffed animals that always get along!

So….Brielle is supposed to be sleeping right now, and I heard a suspiciously loud noise coming from her room. Went back to investigate. I knew it wasn’t going to be a pretty picture when I saw light coming from underneath her door, and with the curtains shut at naptime, it is supposed to be dark. So, I opened the door and walked in to find my daughter lying in bed, chewing(or playing with-I couldn’t tell which) on her water wings, and rain boots on her feet. It was pretty funny. I was not amused of course, and she got reprimanded quickly for her disobedience. She is going to LOVE playing dress up-I have a feeling.

It has been awhile since I posted any updates about Mr. Bryce. He continues to look/act completely normal. PTL! We took him to the cardiologist this morning in South Bend, and everything looked great. His heart has no leaking, no fluid around it, and the repairs seem to be perfect. God has definitely worked in Bryce’s recovery and complete healing. He weighed 19 lb. 2oz, which is good for him, because he was 18 lb. 2oz three weeks ago. He’s gaining weight very well. He is just a happy little guy, and he is so cute when he gets to giggling. I love to play “Where’s Bryce?” (aka, peek-a-boo) with him. He pulls the blanket up over his face all by himself, then starts making little excited squeals until I say “peek!” and then he pulls the blanket down. It is the cutest thing!

I am definitely looking forward to this weekend, since my brother and his wife, and my sister and her husband are coming to stay with us. We will get to hang out and have a relaxing weekend together. I can’t wait! I better get caught up on the laundry and cleaning now, though, cuz otherwise, it won’t get done. Thank goodness for kids napping-otherwise I might never get anything done!

Well, today was a big day for me. I am officially a full-time mommy. I turned in my letter of resignation at Jimtown. It is a bittersweet day. On one hand, I know I am doing what God wants me to do and I am going to pour all my efforts into caring for my family. But, I also know I am putting my career- which is one that is done out of a God given gift and passion- on the back burner for awhile. I know I will constantly be helping my kids learn things, so my teaching will continue, just in a different place. I definitely have a peace about the whole thing. It was hard to go and give my principal a letter, knowing I am giving up a great job at a great school. (heck, our health insurance premiums were covered completely for just myself to be insured-i paid 1 dollar a year for health insurance…try getting THAT anywhere else!) I have learned a lot and gotten some good years of teaching experience in, so it was worth the effort I put in. I will miss the kids and friendships that I built. But I can trust God to make my new “career” the most rewarding and fun that I will ever do. Mommy-hood is so much fun!