I did it!!!

I put in my resignation today March 29th will be my last day at Fidelity Bank!!! I am so excited! It is going to be so nice to stay at home and hang out with my two very cool little guys! We are going to have a blast. It is amazing how quickly word gets around the bank. I had so many phone calls today, and the first thing they would ask is, "Are you sure you want to do this?" I am thinking well, I am quitting my job that I have held for 5.5 years......yes I am sure! Its like they think that It was a last minute decision and I am making a huge mistake. I would do anything to stay at home with my kids! I have been inspired so much by so many of my friends that stay home and live off of one income. It is doable, and they are proof of that! I am so lucky to have such great friends to support me in this time of transition. I can only hope that I am just as helpful to them.

Changes and more changes

So I sat down Monday morning and ran some figures and it turns out that it would be cheaper to keep our house with me staying home than it would be to buy a new one, soooooo we took our house off the market. I cannot tell you how nice it is to leave a dish in the sink or my sox on the floor and no one will see it. Some other numbers I ran were my salary compared to how much daycare I am going to be paying during the summer and what that left me with and how much we actually needed to cover bills. It turned out to be $200. So Jesse asked me when I was going to quit and he told me it would be nice if I could stay at home with the boys for the summer. So after much planning, finding health insurance and running the budget over and over I have decided that May 29th will be my last day at Fidelity Bank after 5.5 long years. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to it and so is Jesse and the kids. It really scared me at first b/c I have worked ever since I was 15 and the only year I stayed home was when I was pregnant with Ben. It will be nice to get out of that environment though. You have a hard time keeping the spirit with you in a place like that. I think it will be awesome for the kids, we are going to join the summer reading club at the local library, go to the zoo, get Ben prepared for 1rst grade, and do fun projects around the house. All thanks to my wonderful hardworking husband whom none of this would be possible without. His support and encouragment through the years has meant so very much to me, and on top of that he is not a bad father! Go figure! I am very lucky and I thank heavenly father every day for the many blessings he has brought into my life.

A very busy week and weekend

Monday, I decided that I am getting way behind on a lot of things at my house so I stayed home and took care of it. I mowed the lawn, weeded the garden, steam cleaned the carpets, and organized my file cabinet. (Yes, once I start I am unstoppable) It was really nice, until the next day I realized that I had hurt my shoulder. Wednesday night I picked up my friend Kimberly from the airport and brought her to our house to stay for a few days. It was nice having her here. Thursday night Ben throws up everywhere, and I immediatly get worried b/c my kids do not throw up often and when they do that means stomach virus. So Friday afternoon my shoulder is hurting even more and my stomach is hurting and Jesse's is hurting too. Saturday morning, stomach ache and all Kimberly and I set out for New Orleans to find her an apartment for when her and her husband move here in June. It is pouring outside, and the 18 wheelers do not make it much better so we end up skipping New Orleans all together and going straight over to Slidell where we find this beautiful apartment complex right on Lake Ponchitrain. It is perfect so we sign an app and head over to her parents house in P-ville for a little crawfish boil and afterwards head to the movies to meet up with a few friends to see Made of Honor which was actually pretty cute. And this morning I drove my friend back to the airport luckily I will be seeing her soon because I miss her. I also feel a lot better today. Looking forward to the week ahead! Now that my friend is out of town I can get back to my healthy eating and exercising that I neglected last week.

Saying goodbye to someone we love

After we left the Planetarium we went straight to Hammond to go to a farewell ceremony for Cordell. For those of you that do not know, Cordell is Jesse's younger brother. He joined the National Guard a little over a year ago and is now being deployed to Iraq. Here are a few pictures from the ceremony:

Cordell (middle) Misty (Cordells girlfriend left) Aurene (Cordells mom right)

Cordells flight uniform.

The huge helicopter Cordell will be flying in.

The ceremony was nice, afterwards we got to go to the airport and get an upclose look at the helicopters they would be flying out in the next morning.

The next day Jesse, I and the kids went and met Misty at the airport. She had to drop Cordell off there around 7 and after that we were only able to sit there and wait for the helicopters to take off around 10. So we went and ate at McDonalds with Misty and her mom and came back. Here are some pictures of us waiting and of the helicopters taking off.

Ben, Jackson and Misty in the trunk of her moms car. Surprisingly you could have fit more people in there. It was huge!

Jackson throwing rocks at everyone.

The helicopters as they were taking off.

One of the things we all said was that if we had known we were going to have to wait so long we would had set up a tail gate and had some burgers and music going. We also said that if we really would have thought about it, being the creative people we are, we would have made signs and had balloons and a flag on top of the car. In the end all we had was me and Misty standing on top of her moms car waving at all of the helicopters because we truly didn't know exactly which one he was in. It all happened so quickly you almost couldn't believe it was over. We are happy for Cordell. We love him and cannot wait to hear from him and see him come home next May. In the meantime we will be communicating with him through email and sending him care packages.

Field trip at the Planetarium

So starting Friday morning we went on a field trip with Ben to the Plantetarium. I was a chaperone for his class and was responsible for 5 really cute kids including my own. They seemed thrilled to be there! Here are some pictures below:

This is a picture of Bens teacher Mrs. Beatty with her group.

This is a picture of Ben and a little girl named Falon whom he has a crush on. She is cute huh?

I just thought she was adorable so I asked her if I could take her picture and this was that face she gave me. So cute!

I don't want to join the loose tooth club!

So on the way home today I hear Ben crying in the back seat. I ask him what is wrong and he says that he has a loose tooth. He then said, "Momma, how am I going to be able to eat if all of my teeth fall out?" I then explain to him that not all teeth fall out at the same time. He then proceeds to ask me how we can make his teeth stronger so they won't fall out. I told him that it was inevitable and that both Daddy and I had lost all of our teeth and got big new ones. Thinking he was ok with that I continue driving and a little while later I hear him crying again. So I ask him again why he was crying. He then tells me very loudly in between sobs, "I don't want to join the loose tooth club! I am not ready!" Trying to stay serious because to me, this is hilarious! I tell him that everyone does it and if he looked closely at some of his friends at church he would see that they had lost a couple and were surviving just fine. This seemed to make him feel better and he proceeded to tell me that just last week Jackson Degraph had lost one of his front teeth and he seemed to be doing allright. I was glad because he sounded so sad.

Long time no blog

So here I am, feelin guilty because I started this blog to communicate to my friends and family what we are up to and I have not been keeping up my end of the deal. Anywho, we Mallory's have been extremely busy. My best friend Kimberly got married the weekend before last and that was so beautiful. When she came down the isle I cried, and I am not talking about a one tear drop cry, I mean full on snot running down your nose is anyone looking at me I hope not cry. Yes, it was embarrasing but it was a beautiful moment. And then just like all of my other friends (yes you Courtney) she left me and went to Texas. I am starting to wonder what is so darn special about Texas and if I need to be there! I keep praying for an answer to that and what I am getting back goes something like this, "My dear Cherie', you need to hold your britches and finish out what you got going on where you are. You are doing enough. Quit worrying." Ya know what? I think he is right. Here is what is going on, we are selling our house so that we can move back to Baton Rouge to be closer to friends and family, once that is done I am going to quit my job and stay at home with my two beautiful children who crack me up, we are working on starting some kind of business (not sure what that is yet but I am sure it will be FABULOUS once we find out), and Jesse is going to start school. Not only that but our kids have so much that they want to do themselves. So through all of that transitioning, and I cannot believe I am going to quit my job (can you hear me hyperventalating? I hope I spelled that right=) we have come to the conclusion that we need our friends and family to make it through it and they are all right here. Texas might be in our future though, who knows! I really hope everyone is doing well. Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing and I promise I will do a better job at updating this blog.