Stoic

sto·ic/ˈstō-ik/

Noun:

A person who can endure pain or hardship without showing their feelings or complaining.

Our family lost a very special man this week. Ashish's uncle Dilip past away from a massive heart attack on Monday night. Dilip, or "masa ("uncle" in Gujarati)"was the first of Ashish's uncles that I met, he was married to Ashish's mom's sister (Jynostna-masi or "masi"). I remember the first that I met him, Ashish and I had only been dating for a short period of time and Ashish's mom was unsure of me. She invited everyone over to her house for dinner, kinda like a "meet and greet" if you will. After dinner was over and the plates were cleared, Masa says, very nonchalantly, "she's a fine girl, what's the big deal?" He was the first of the family members to sit down and get to know me and accept me. I will never forget that day.

Devastation isn't even a strong enough word to describe what Masi is feeling right now. We've visited with her several times leading up to the funeral today and each time she remained stoic. She worried about what others were going to eat, where everyone was going to stay, the fact that we'd driven over an hour  to visit with her. The emotion was in her face but it was never expressed in words. She was broken. The man that she loved and had been married to for more than 40 years was gone, just like that, in less than 20 minutes. My heart hurts for her, it hurts for their two grown children, for their two grandchildren that love their grandfather more than anything.

Today I watched the stoic woman break down and I broke down. Please pray for our family. Pray for Ashish's aunt, her children, and grandchildren.

A Yes From God

Ashish didn't get the job. They called yesterday and said that they needed someone with a little more experience.He was really upset. My husband is an overachiever, he is rarely told "no." The hardest part, for him, was that he was turned down over something that he couldn't control. He can't add more years to his life, he can't add more years under his pharmacist belt. It is what it is, which stinks.

When I've prayed about it, I didn't pray for him to get the job, I prayed that God close the door on this job if it wasn't in his plan. My prayers were answer, I guess, because they said "no." As PK (our pastor) often says, "a "no" from man is sometimes a "yes" from God." So, we are taking it as a "yes" and believing that he has something better in store for The Patels! Thanks so much for praying for us. Ashish and I are beyond blessed to be surrounded by so many encouraging people!

I Won't Complain

Ashish had an interview this week! He loves his job as a pharmacist but the job is sucking the life out of him. He has wanted to change companies but this is the first time that he has taken the first step. We are praying that he gets the job. The new job would be a good change for our family dynamic. The hours are 8:30-5:30, Monday-Friday, no holidays, no weekends. We've gotten ourselves a little bit excited about it. If he doesn't get it will we be upset? No, not really. It would be a nice change but we are used to the life that we live. Despite his crazy schedule he still maintains a great home life. He makes time for Jordan, he makes time for me, and he is getting better at making time for himself. That's really all that I could ask for. Instead of praying that he gets the job, I am now praying that GOD just open a new door and shut old doors. I pray that he makes it clear to us as to what to do and when to move. We probably won't hear anything back until later this week so please pray for us.

I've had a heavy heart for the past few days. I'm hugging Jordan a little bit tighter every night. Some good friends of ours miscarried at 12 weeks. I know that it isn't for me to make sense of. I know that it's all in God's timing but I'm still left feeling heavy hearted for these friends. They exhibit so much grace during times like this and it really makes me take a step back and re-evaluate all the things that I hold dear to me. I continue to pray hard for them. I pray that they will find peace during this time.

My heart is also heavy because a little boy named Creed (you can read about him here) who passed away this morning. I don't know this family personally. Creed is the nephew of a friend that I went to high school with. He was an amazing kid that was loved and supported by so many people. I can't begin to imagine what his mom, Stefanie, is going through. Jordan is everything to Ashish and I, I can't imagine my life without him. I would take a lifetime of whining and crying, "mommy-ing" me to death,  and jumping on my couch over not having him here with me everyday.

I'm hugging Jordan a little tighter, giving just a little bit more encouragement, loving a little bit harder today.

I Won't Complain lyrics

by: Rev. Paul Jones
I've had some good days
I've had some hills to climb
I've had some weary days
And lonely nights
But when I look around
And I think things over
All of my good days
They out weigh my bad days
So I won't complain

Sometimes the clouds are low
I can hardly see the road
I ask the question Lord
Lord, why
Lord why
Why, why, why so much pain?
But the Lord knows what's best for me
Although my weary eyes
Oh they can't see
So I'll just say thank you Lord
Thank you Lord
Thank you Lord
I won't complain

God has been good to me
He's been so good to me
More than this world could ever be
He's been so good
He's been so good
He's been so good
To me

He dried all of my tears away
Turned my midnights into day
So I'll just say thank you Lord
through all of my heartaches
Thank you Lord
Through all of my trials
Thank you Lord
I been misunderstood
But thank you Lord
Even been lied on
But thank you Lord
Body wretched with pain
But thank you Lord
Bills were due
Don't know where the money is coming from
But thank you Lord, thank you Lord
Thank you Lord
I won't complain

God has been good to me
He's been so good to me
More than this world
More than this world
Could ever be (ever be)
He's been so good
He's been so good
To me (He's been just that good)
He dried my tears away
Turned my midnight into day

So I'll just say thank you Lord
Thank you Lord
Thank you Lord
Through all of my trials
I want to say thank you Lord
I been misunderstood
But thank you Lord
Early in the morning
When I wake up I thank you Lord
(Thank you)
You been so good to me
(Thank you)
You opened doors I could not see
(Thank you)
Made a way out of no way
(Thank you)
When I was sick
The doctor said I wouldn't get well
(Thank you)
He healed my body
Now I can say
I just want to say
Thank you
Thank you
Thank you

Nobody like the Lord
(Thank you)

When I think of the goodness of Jesus
(Thank you)

And what he's done for me
(Thank you)

My soul cries out
(Thank you)

Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus
You saved me

Santified me
You baptized me
Filled me with the holy ghost
I want to thank you
Nobody like the Lord
Early in the morning
From the rising of the sun
To the downing of the same

Thank you Lord

Thank you Lord

I won't complain

Spring Break

I'm not doing a very good job of posting lately, sorry ladies. It seems that every time I sit down to blog, I get sucked into looking at something else (i.e. pinterest). I promise to do better!

It was Spring Break for most of Georgia this week so J was home from school and I was home from "work." Here's a play by play of how we spent our Spring Break!

Monday

I started out the week with the best intentions of tackling several projects at home, the biggest one being my closet. I'd show you a picture but it is an ugly mess in there. Let me take that back, it isn't a mess, there is just a lot of clothes. My  OCD won't let me have a messy closet but it will let me have a full closet. So, I woke up and was ready to get started until I got a text from Keisha asking if we were busy. Why of course we are aren't! Sure, we will come right over! Project closet had to wait another day.

 I was so glad that I went because I got to spend time with my adorable god daughter, Kennedy!

See, I told you she was cute!

We hung out there all day and got home just in time for dinner! Great way to start my week off!

Tuesday

I am apart of a great mom's group! Our kids vary in ages from 2 months-old (I'm not sure how old our oldest member is). It's a great support group for all of us mom's with little kids! Anyway, Gianna planned a Easter Egg Hunt and picnic at one of the local parks for all of the mom's and kids! As you can see, we had a great time!

Wednesday

Same mom's group, different location! I love this group so much that I spent two mornings straight with most of them! Sierra hosted a "Sidewalk Chalk and Lunch" potluck play date at her house! There wasn't a lot of sidewalk chalk(ing) but there was a lot of playing!

Thursday

Ashish was off work! Jordan had a dentist appt in the morning then we picked Christopher (Kennedy's older brother) up and headed down to the Children's Museum in Atlanta. BTW, Jordan got a great bill of dentistry health! I was so excited. I don't know why I get nervous about stuff like that but I do! I digress, as usual, the kids had a great time! I'm so glad that Jordan has a close friend to grow up with. Keisha, Chris, Christopher, Kennedy, and baby #3 (due in August) are like family to us. We love them to pieces!

The boys were passed out in the back seat before we even got on 85N. Our small group met at Mellow Mushroom for dinner. I am not a huge pizza lover. I know, don't shoot me! BUT, they have an Italian hoagie that is pretty delicious! Ashish got a steak and cheese hoagie that he was equally as pleased with.


Friday
Ashish was off again! Purely by accident, but I'll take it! We did nothing! Well, a whole lot of nothing. We met some friends for lunch, did some shopping, came home for a nap, did some more shopping, and then had Mexican for dinner!

I have to brag about my shopping experience for a second! I can count on one hand the amount of times that I have had to buy shoes for Jordan. Why? Because my brother, Avery, buys all of his shoes. Jordan has much cooler shoes than Ashish or I will ever have. Someone once expressed to me how ridiculous she thought it was to buy your child high end shoes (i.e. Nikes, Adidas, New Balance, etc.). I'm going to climb up on a bit of a soapbox here...be prepared! My response to said woman," I'm sorry that you think it's ridiculous but I think that if all my bills are paid, Jordan has money for college, and he's happy, I should spend my money on whatever I want for my child." Aggressive? Maybe a little bit. She didn't know that I don't, in fact, spend tons of money on J's shoes, but even if I did, it's my money, what does she care? OK, stepping down now. Back to the story! We were on the hunt for black sneakers for the summer. We stopped in the Nike Outlet to see if they had anything worth buying. It was a zoo in there, it always is. I found a pair of black Jordan's that were a 1/2 size too big but would fit perfectly in the fall so I got in the checkout line. The tag on the box said $17.97, which is a steal for a pair of Jordan's. When I got up to the register the shoes rang up at $12.97 and I had a $5off coupon so I got those bad babies for $8.32 after tax. I was one happy momma! Uncle Avery couldn't even get a deal like that!

That wraps up Spring Break for us! Oh, and project closet had a "TBD" written next to it onmy To-Do list! Happy Easter!

Charleston

Ashish and I, along with my brother, Avery, and SIL, Tasha escaped for a weekend vacation to Charleston. Before I get into the details of the trip let me say this...stay for more than two days! That's my advice to anyone that has never been but would like to. There are so many great things to see and do, there is no way that you can do it all in a day and a half! Now, onto the details!!!

We left Atlanta about 3:30pm. BAD IDEA! Atlanta traffic is the absolute worst. Anyone that has been to Atlanta knows this. It doesn't have to be rush hour, it could be the middle of a beautiful sunny weekend day and the downtown connector will be at a stand still. It's ridiculous. So, I'm sure you're asking "why did you decide to leave in the middle of the day?" Well, Avery had to work a half day and that was the earliest that we could leave. So, after sitting in traffic we finally get rolling. We cruise through the eastern suburbs of Atlanta and into Augusta. I'd never been to Augusta and didn't realize that it was so close to the SC border. It seems like as soon as we crossed into SC the sky fell out. Luckily it didn't rain the whole time but there were bouts of heavy downpours every 30-45 minutes. I planned to take a pic but never got around to it.

We made it to our hotel at 9:00pm. Typically it would only take 5ish hours to get to Charleston but because of the rain, we were set back an hour. We stayed at the Radisson in North Charleston. All in all, it was a nice hotel. They have Sleep Number beds, Ashish was thrilled. I, on the other hand, not so much. We don't own a SN Bed, nor do we plan to, but I didn't like that the mattress was lumpy in the middle where the different "numbers" met. I digress, we hurried and changed clothes and headed out for dinner.

We didn't want to drive into downtown Charleston so we settled on a restaurant near the hotel called The Noisy Oyster. They had oysters. It wasn't too noisy. The food was AWFUL! I don't know if it was because it was nearing closing time or if they weren't that busy so everyone in the kitchen took a smoke break but it took forever to get our food. I ordered the bacon wrapped shrimp-fried hard as a brick, Ashish had the shrimp and grits-looked more like soup, Tasha ordered the gumbo-rice with sausage on top, Avery ordered fish, broiled, not fried-it came out fried. The waiter explained that he was new and hadn't quite learned the ropes so we gave him a pass but the food, not that great. After eating we left and decided to call it a night, we had a full day planned for Saturday.

Saturday morning we woke up refreshed, although I decided that I hated the SN Bed somewhere between 2-4am. The weather was dreary outside. My mood was a little in the dumps because it looked like the sky was going to fall out at any moment. We got dressed anyway and decided to take our chances. I'm so glad we did. As we were driving downtown the sunny came out and stayed out through both of the tours that we scheduled! We took a carriage ride through Charleston then went on a boat tour out to Fort Sumter, Folly Beach, and Mt. Pleasant. We had lunch a cute little restaurant called A.W. Shucks. Great food, I highly recommend it.

Always have to get a pic of a pharmacy-for those that don't know, my hubby is a pharmacist!

It can be yours for the low price of 13 million!

After our tours we decided to hit the outlets! What's a vacation without a little bit of shopping? Right? Remember me mentioning that the sky looked like it was going to fall out? Well, it did, right as we were getting out of the car at the outlets. We were SOAKED! Good times! Good times! We shopped anyway, in the pouring rain. Ashish snagged a new pair of Nike Shox. I scored a new COACH purse and a new watch! All in all, a successful shopping trip!

After all of that we headed back to the hotel for rest and relaxation before going out to dinner. We decided to eat at The Charleston Crab House. The food was okay, nothing to write home to mom about but good. The highlight of our night was going to The Market Place Pavilion rooftop bar. The night was great. From the rooftop you could see all of Charleston. I didn't expect it to be like a nightclub up there. There was a deejay playing all the latest music, drinks were flowing, laughter was loud. We had a great time!

Sunday, it was time to head home. J was staying with my parents. With all of the pollen, his allergies were going crazy and he wasn't feeling great. He had a miraculous recovery while were were driving home because he was completely fine once we got home. I think he just missed us!

We'd definitely go back to Charleston again, we had a great time!

Weekend Recap!

Good Morning, Happy Monday everyone! Did everyone have a good weekend? Do anything exciting? Here's what we were up to this weekend...

Friday:

Well, let's start with Thursday night, J went to bed at 10ish and was wide awake, screaming, at 12:30. Mind you, J just turned 3 and has been sleeping through the night since he was 9 months. I know his sleep schedule like the back of my hand. A and I take turns going in to check on him, threaten console him, but he still continued to wake up. After about 2 hours of this, yes, 2 hours, I finally decided to whip out the good ole thermometer. No fever. Okay....plan M (cause we've exhausted plans A-L), we let him come in our bed with us. Once he fell asleep, A and I feel asleep. I had to be up at 4 to workout so at this point, sleep was a foreign language to me. He woke up again, I said some obscene words in my head (honestly! I think it's so rude to curse at people, especially your children, despite how frustrated you are-stepping down from my soapbox now), this time he told us that his ear hurt! Ah ha! And there it was, a good old ear infection. Since it was 3:45am we gave him some Tylenol, some ear drops, and sent him back to bed. He slept until 9, I had to wake him up to go to the doctor.

So, back to Friday, I was exhausted. I trip to the Minute Clinic, some antibiotics, and my little guy was back to normal by 11. We raced home just cleaners to get there.

SN: A finally agreed to let me hire someone toe help out around the house. Not everyday, not every week, but once a month. I think that's pretty fair, considering I am away from the home 2 days a week, 2 days I am home but I have 3 little crumb snatchers, whom I adore ( don't get it confused), here with me, so I don't get a solid day to clean because who wants to clean on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?

I digress, the cleaners did an awesome job! Ashish came home early because he was exhausted from J's little night time episode. I decided that I was going to do some planting, not gardening, just planting. I jumped in the car, headed to Wal-Mart...the flowers were AWFUL. Not just ugly but AWFUL. I was disappointed. When I came back home, empty handed, Ashish felt so bad for me that he took me out for Mexican!

Saturday:

It was Ashish's weekend to work. Me Me and I met up for manis and pedis and then we had lunch. J hung out with his second favorite lady, my mom.

We went to hang out with some friends Saturday night for a couple's game night. I don't remember the last night that I laughed that much. The girls beat the boys!!!

Sunday

I rode with Ashish to work to get my car and pick J up (he was staying with Ashish's parents overnight). A quick trip to Sam's, lunch, and it was time to head home. I got ready for a baby shower while J took a quick nap then it was off to shower Abby and Baby Finn with presents and love!

All in all, I had a great weekend! How was your weekend?

It's OK Thursday

Hey Ladies!  I'm linking up with Neely and Amber for an It's OK Thursday!

It's Ok...

To love the Real Housewives of all of the cities! I do!

to eat most of your child's Starburst jellybeans

to watch soap operas

for me to be pee in your pants excited about our trip to Charleston next week

to eat ice cream for breakfast-hey, dessert is dessert!

That's all I have for today!

Link up with the ladies and tell us what's OK in your world!