the matts:

Presley is sitting up completely by herself now. She can even kind of topple over and find her way back up. She is thissss close to crawling. She’s got the position down and what to do with her legs… It’s the arm movement that’s stopping her. She gets those legs going and her little booty goes straight up in the air because the front half doesn’t move! I am going to buy a new camera charger today (for 50 bucks… ouch) so that I can upload more pics. We can’t miss all these once in a lifetime milestones!

Chris found out this morning what he made on the test he took after the completion of training. He got a 99%!!! I am so proud of him! I guess that 96 he made on the first test wasn’t good enough so he bumped it up a notch. Doesn’t get much better than that. He’s such a smart cookie and Pres and I are so lucky to have him around to teach us new things every day.

Congrats to our cousin Alisha Gyger and her hubby Shawn who recently found out that they are expecting! Can’t wait for more babies at holidays

*Weight loss update: Chris is staying around the 20 pound weight loss… which is all he wants to lose. Mission accomplished! And while he was gone at training, I lost 3.5 more pounds, bringing my loss to all the baby weight plus about 16.5 pounds! I fit into some pants that I haven’t worn since I graduated full-time Elevate and was at my skinniest. Yay! I even got a new haircut to be a little more rocker-chick with the new bod!*

Chris has been gone for two weeks training for his awesome new job with Paychex, so I have been living the life of a single mom. Wow… What a learning experience this has been! The day he left, Presley got a crazy viral infection and cold. She had never been sick before, but the day Chris travels to upstate NY, she gets two illnessess. With that came vomiting, crazy bad diapers, doctor visits and no sleep. Lovely. Caring for a baby alone is hard enough- but caring for a sick, sleepy baby is even harder. On top of that, I got sick. Lovely.

Thank goodness for great people in my life. I got to hang with some awesome friends, some people brought me food to break up the monotony of eating the same easy-to-fix food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and family pitched in to watch the baby so I could still go work out. Plus, girls like Nicole Duplechain called to check in on me almost every day to make sure I was ok. Friendships like that are such blessings… She has 2 small girls of her own, but she is always thinking of others. I love that chick!

Chris did great at his training class and is eager to be home (which he will be very soon- yay!). Presley is now getting up on all fours trying to crawl and it’s freaking me out! To stay in tune with what’s happening in our lives, catch Chris and me on Twitter. We are able to update that a lot more than we can blog. Also, my camera battery died and we lost the charger, so pictures are being withheld temporarily. I have new pictures to share, but can’t upload them from a dead camera. Gotta get a new charger before she crawls! Agh!

I have never seen my husband so motivated or determined to succeed, and that drive is definitely paying off. His boss loves him and thinks he is going to be a star in the company. He also tells Chris’ co-workers to watch out because Chris is going to out-sell them all! In fact, before ever going to training he was selling his little heart out! He has already been given the opportunity for advancement if he sells to a certain number of new clients in October… which he totally can do! At training he made a 96% on his entry test and was disappointed because it wasn’t a perfect score.  Chris comes home in a 100% better mood because he is so happy all day to be doing what he’s doing. He’s making better money and once he starts making commissions, our comfort level might be a little easier financially. And to top it all off, he has only the best of intentions. He wants to make money so we can have a blessing account to give away to others, so that we can give HPC more money, so that we can give to missions more, and so one day we can start an orphanage in Africa. His heart and motives are so pure and so beautiful and I could not be more proud of him. (Oh yeh- and he’s lost somewhere around 22 pounds! I’ve gotten rid of the baby weight and 10-13 more pounds)

I got a chance to help him study for his massive entry exam and learned a lot about the company. If you are a small business owner who outsources your payroll to an accountant or pays someone a lot of money to do it, you need to talk to Chris. Paychex is the real deal and they offer huge savings to their clients. I was blown away at what you get for the money!

Here are a few recent shots of Pres. She is already 5 months old, weighs 16 and a half pounds and is well over 26 inches long. It’s craziness!!! Say a little prayer for her, too… She’s got a little viral infection, poor thing!

For all three of you out there who read this blog, I apologize for the delay in posting. We are some of the few Baton Rougians still without power. Our roof has some major damage and we lost my favorite tree, but other than that our house came out OK. It could definitely be worse. We are so grateful that God spared us from anything tragic or catastrophic.

Chris is loving his new job and the people he works with. He is, of course, still going through training, but should be able to get out in the field really soon. I have been able to find some part time work from home, and that is going well. Life is crazy juggling housework, work for money and spending time with my precious baby, but God makes a way. And oh yeh, she will be five months old this week. Agh!!!

With no power and no TV, I have been able to finish three great books in the past week and a half. Two Christian living books by Mark Batterson: In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase. The other was a fiction novel, A Lesson Before Dying. I highly recommend all of them. I was challenged to a new level of spirituality with Batterson’s books, and I feel like I could conquer any hurdle or achieve any dream. As for the novel, I am very anti-death penalty, and it reminded me of the horror of it. It was riveting and inspiring.

I am now on Erwin McManus‘ Chasing Daylight and so far it’s awesome!! What were all of you doing during the power outage and hurricane craziness?