I was looking through pictures today and realized there have been a few that I’d been wanting to post just for memory’s sake that I haven’t posted yet!

This was me and Leigh Ann on our first Mother’s Day last year:

And we took this one this year!! What a difference, right??? I cannot believe how much bigger Nathan is – he looks like such a little boy now!

Also, a few weeks ago, we threw a Lunch Bunch shower for my sweet friend Eryn. Little Gracie is due the beginning of July and I cannot wait to meet her!

This weekend did not go exactly as I planned, but we made the best of it anyway. 😉

Thursday night, our community group was canceled, so we headed over to Chick-Fil-A after dinner for some drive-thru milkshakes. I craved these SO bad with Nathan, so I guess it’s no surprise that he loves them now! 😉 Nathan thought he was big stuff that night:

Friday, we had a great morning playing with our neighbors and then having lunch with Leigh Ann and Hayley and so I felt absolute terrible when Nathan woke up running a 101.7 fever after nap. 🙁 Lots of sick exposure. This was a yucky virus. He ran the fever for two days and got a terrible rash that went along with it.

 Bless his heart. This was how he wanted to watch his Me Mo that afternoon when Daddy got home:

We took him to the doctor just to be sure it wasn’t anything more serious. Apparently, he had big sores in the back of his mouth and the doctor asked him if he’d like a Popsicle and Nathan said he would like a “puwrpuh” one. We also had to drag Lucky all through the waiting room. At least I talked him into leaving his blanket in the car!

 By Sunday afternoon, he was pretty much back to normal except for the rash which is finally fading today. Poor kid. He looked like he had some awful tropical disease.

He’s also been shortening his naps – I used to be able to set the clock by him. He’d go to bed at one and wake up at four, but lately he’s been doing two hours if I’m lucky. Oy. Add in two deadlines, fatigue and morning sickness and I am SO thankful that Jon has the month of June off!! I have a lot to get done!

I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!! Did you do anything special? Also, question for you: What are some of your favorite summertime dinners?? Particularly for the grill? I am running out of ideas… 🙂

Congratulations, Gabby!! I’ve sent you an email! 🙂

Thanks so much for all your sweet comments! I do hope you enjoy Identical Differences! 🙂

Have a wonderful Memorial Day, everyone!

Just in time for summer reading! (Preferably by a pool or a beach, right??)

Yay!! 🙂 I’m so excited for you guys to meet Lexi and her crazy family. I do hope you enjoy Identical Differences! Here’s a little blurb for you:

Alexia Patterson has spent her whole life waiting to get out of small town Longsville, Oregon. Her twin sister, Rachel, is a completely different story. When Rachel calls to tell Lexi that she’s engaged and asks her to come back for a few weeks before the wedding, Lexi is anything but eager to go home. Add in Justin MacPherson, a guy she’s hated since junior high, and the two weeks are not looking good. Surely God’s plan isn’t to make Lexi insane…right?

This is a Kindle-only release but you can still read it even if you do not own a Kindle! If you have an iPhone or smart phone, you can download a free Kindle app from your App Store. Or, if you have a computer, you can download a free app for your computer (follow the links here!). 🙂

And, to stick with the theme of good summertime happenings, how about a little contest?? If you’d like to win a free copy of Identical Differences on Kindle, leave a comment with your name and email address (if you’d like to avoid spammers, leave your email like this: erynnmangum AT gmail.com)

I’ll draw the winner Sunday night! 🙂 Yay!!!

Today was one of those days where it didn’t go quite like I planned. I was planning on staying home and getting the house cleaned, but we ended up going to the doctors to make sure that a rash that showed up over the weekend on Nathan’s arms and knees wasn’t anything serious. It looks like my sensitive skinned boy officially has eczema. 🙁

Then we came home and I felt so sick the rest of the day, so we just hung out and watched movies and read Go, Dog! Go! about eighteen times. He has been so funny lately – he will just randomly find me in the house and hold my hand for a few minutes before going back to whatever he was doing. It’s so cute!

He really wanted me to take his picture with my phone, so he ran across the room and posed. 😉 Goofy boy.

Jon had Bible study tonight, so Nathan and I entertained ourselves with Photo Booth on my computer before bath time. He kept looking at us in the screen and then turning real quick to look at me like our faces had really turned into that. Ha!

And fun news!! I’ve got a new novella (and a new contest!!) coming very soon! 🙂 Stay tuned!

Have a good night! 🙂

Wow, we have had a busy week!!

On Thursday night, my cousins Taylor and Troy came in town for a long weekend and we’ve had a lot of fun with them – Nathan is very into “Tader” and “Twoy”. 😉

We went to a bounce house with them and it was SO cute to watch Nathan try to fit in with the big boys. He thinks he’s big stuff right now.

We also went to the aquarium with Jamie, Joel, Julia, Hayley and Leigh Ann. This picture is awful – the lighting at the aquarium is terrible, but the kids had a great time.

Afterwards, we met up with my sweet neighbor and her boys at the botanical gardens. I love this picture! They were all watching the miniature train exhibit:

This weekend was probably a highlight in Nathan’s life. He got to swim AND he got his first s’more!! He was SO excited to get in the pool! It is all he talks about now. “Mimi? Pool? Bop? Pool? Daddy pool?”

He was ALL smiles!

Then he had to help Pops grill hamburgers for everyone. This picture just cracks me up. 😉

Afterward, we had s’mores!! 🙂 I love s’mores but I was absolutely terrified of Nathan near the fire pit! Ha! Notice how he’s ten yards away with his hand behind his back?? 🙂

Eventually, though, it did cook and he got to eat it. I think he was a fan. 😉

These last few days I have not felt very good in the afternoons – which is much different than when I was pregnant with Nathan. With him, I had textbook morning sickness. I woke up sick, threw up almost as soon as I got out of bed, was nauseous until about mid-afternoon and then I was usually better by the evening. This time around, I’ve been starting to feel sick about 2 or 3 in the afternoon and just yucky the rest of the day. I’m curious if it will continue like this.

I hope you had a great Monday!

Oh friends, I am so overwhelmed by all of your sweet, sweet comments!! Thank you SO much for your prayers – I cannot express my thanks enough!

This has been such a joyous, anxiety-filled, wonderful week! Sunday marked exactly a year since we started trying to get pregnant, Nathan turned 22 months AND it was Mother’s Day! What a day!

I was planning to wait and test on Sunday, but I was talking to my friend Melanie and my mom and both of them were saying what a horrible Mother’s Day that would be if I tested negative again. And the more I thought about it, the more I agreed with them, so I put Nathan down for a nap on Wednesday and took a test just so I could move on and enjoy my weekend.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I looked over after I finished washing my hands and saw two lines. 😉

It was a VERY long afternoon waiting for Jon to get home then! Ha! I spent the rest of the day crying and praying and laughing and shaking. Ha! I had bought Nathan a teddy bear that said “I’m the Big Brother” way back when we were hoping to find out we were pregnant around Christmas – just so we had a way to tell the family Christmas Day. I’d put the bear at the top of Nathan’s closet and forgotten about it, but Wednesday I dug it out, wrapped it in some tissue paper and put it in a grocery sack.

We waited very impatiently for Jon to get home and when he walked in the door, Nathan handed him the sack and said, “Here you go!” and I told Jon we found something we thought he might like. It was SO special!! He opened the bag and started reading the bear’s shirt and then stopped and looked up at me and I was holding the pregnancy test and bawling. Ha! 🙂 So then we both cried and laughed and danced around while Nathan looked on very concerned. 😉

This has been a week filled with happy tears! We told my parents on Thursday night at our early Mother’s Day celebration for Mom and we both cried, we told Jon’s parents on Friday night and we cried again and I told my grandmother Friday night as well and – yep, you guessed it – cried again. 😉 God is so faithful! I am so overcome by how wonderful He is!

(Someone helped me make pudding yesterday – can you tell?? 😉 )

My appointment Monday went very well! I changed doctors to one who is very experienced in VBACs (vaginal birth after cesarean) and I’m hoping and praying that we will be able to go that route. I really liked her! She is young, but seems very good.

(Nathan’s new way of lounging around. Ha!)

I had to go get blood work done yesterday (ugh. They couldn’t get my vein at first and y’all know my thoughts on needles!! Bleugh.) I had Nathan with me and he was the angel child yesterday. I was so thankful that he picked that day to behave! Ha! 🙂 One of the reasons we decided to go ahead and tell people is because one of his new favorite things to do is to yank up my shirt and start saying, “Hi baby! Hi baby! I wruv you, baby!” in a voice about six octaves higher than his usual voice. It’s about the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen but makes it a little hard to keep a secret. 😉

We are SO excited!! 🙂 Thank you again so very much for all your sweet words and prayers!!

And… here’s the winner of Running Sideways!

Congrats, Amy! I’ve sent you an email! I hope you are all having a wonderful week!!

Well, friends, I do believe it is WAY past time for a contest and I have just the book to giveaway!

I’d like you all to meet Kim Havens. She’s from Texas and originally contacted me about three years ago because her daughter is one of my cousin’s dearest friends. And, as it turned out, we just happened to be headed to Dallas for a conference, so we got the chance to meet in person!

Kim is just about one of the sweetest women I’ve ever met! She let me read the first few chapters in her novel and I loved them. And a couple of months ago, she sent me a copy of her book, Running Sideways, that she self-published.

I know there are SO MANY of you out there who have questions about self-publication, so I asked her a few questions and she gave me some great answers.  🙂

Hi Kim! I’m so glad you could join us on here today!! 🙂 What was the most surprising thing to you about self-publising?

I was surprised by how much input the I actually had in the process.
From start to finish, I literally decided everything from font size to
cover layout.

Would you mind describing the process you went through to get it published?
 
I knew there were a lot of self publishers
out there, so I spent some time deciding who I actually wanted to use.
Once I chose Westbow, it was simply a matter of going to their website
and purchasing a publishing package. The next day, I got a call from
them detailing how the process would work. I then submitted my
manuscript via email. About a week later, they sent me an editorial
review, and assigned me a design team. I chose the font, font size, and
where on the page I wanted chapters to start, page numbers etc. With
the manuscript finished, the next step was the cover design. They asked
for my specific ideas (book covers I wanted to emulate). I was given
access to a website where I could choose a professional photo for the
cover, or use one of my own. I chose the colors, font, and how exactly I
wanted the cover to look. Once that was finished, I waited (very
impatiently) to actually hold the finished product in my hand!

Tell us about the awesome cover design.
 

I designed my cover after perusing book stores and finding book
covers that drew my attention- made me want to pick them up. I decided
to send in a photo of my own for the cover- a good friend was my
photographer and the two people in the photo are my daughter and her new
husband. After the photo shoot we sat in the photographer’s kitchen
and edited the photo using both black and white and color elements. It
was a lot of fun!

Does self-publishing include editing?

Editing was something I was very unsure about, and would probably do
differently. I chose to not use the editing service offered by
Westbow for a couple of reasons: 1. It was expensive- $4500 for my
manuscript. 2. The edit sample they sent me didn’t make a lot of
sense. It was also an service that required another 4-6 weeks, and I
wanted my book out before Christmas. If I had it to do over, I would
definitely find an outside editor.

What was your favorite part of the process? And your least favorite part?

My favorite part of
the process was the creative side- choosing my own fonts, cover, etc.
My least favorite, was the uncertainty- wondering if the book was going
to be as professional as I hoped.

I’m so excited your book is out now!! Can you tell us a little about it?

In Running Sideways,
Medical missionary Meredith Thorne has spent years trying to outrun the
demons of her past; a past that involves Tate Matthews. Confirmed
bachelor Tate Matthews is a West Texas rancher content with his role as
protector of his seriously ill twin sister.
Until Meredith returns to Flat Rock, Texas and turns Tate’s world upside down.
In facing their painful secrets, can Meredith and Tate put away their
bitterness and find a way to forgive each other, and save the life of a
child?

 
 ***

SO… to win an autographed copy of Kim’s book, leave a comment below with your first name and email address. If you want to avoid spammers, I’d leave your email address like this: erynnmangumATgmail.com. 😉 I’ll draw the winner on Wednesday!

Good luck to all of you!! And thank you again, Kim!! 🙂

Yesterday, Nathan was in the bathroom with me while I fixed my hair and decided that he needed to hold all of his Memos (Mickey Mouse) and Pluto and Donald at the same time.

 We don’t need Goofy because he is one. 😉

Well. So, two weekends ago, I caught an AWFUL stomach virus, all last week I feel like Nathan was dealing with something along those lines and then yesterday, Jon woke up with it.

I need one of those stink bomb things but for germs. Really. Hopefully now that we have ALL had it, it will leave us alone!!! 🙂

So, Nathan and I tried to stay out of the house yesterday because the poor kid just does not get that when Daddy is home sick that doesn’t not mean he’s there to play. 🙁 So, we went to Michaels and Nathan decided that he was much too big to sit in the cart:

His latest thing is to say, “I got this.” So yesterday I said, “Nathan, are you sure you can hold on tight enough?”

He said, “I got dis. I got dis.”

He is too young for this. Surely I was just bringing this child home from the hospital.

Today, my friend Melanie texted me early this morning with an offer of going to the mall and walking around and it took me all of about .003 seconds to immediately agree. It was so nice just walking around and talking! And this is how the kids spent a good part of the beginning at the mall:

We ended up getting lunch there and riding the carousel which has become the Bright and Shining Beacon of Nathan’s existence. He loves the horses (even though they both look a little deer-in-the-headlights at the moment this picture was taken)!

 He threw the biggest fit when we had to get off and I immediately felt chastised again deep in my heart for all the times I’d judged moms when their kids missed behaved before I had one.

Sometimes I feel like I need to send an apology note to every mother in this city.

Last Saturday, Jon, my parents and my brother Caleb all competed in the Warrior Dash – a race/obstacle course that has you swim through a mud pit at the end.

They had a blast. 😉

And all of them did really well! I was so proud of them! 🙂

This shot of my parents is my favorite – ha!

The whole muddy gang!! Our friend Phoebe, Mom, Dad, Jon and Caleb.

Meanwhile, I hung out with Cayce, Bryant and this cheesy guy:

It was SO hot and dusty. We all had to take showers when we got home. And later that night, at Chili’s of course, Nathan ended up throwing up most of what he’d eaten that day. (Yes, we were those people at dinner.) So, we got the rest of our dinner to go and came home and he threw up again in the middle of the night. We spent yesterday at home and he had some pretty nasty diapers, so we were home again today.

Poor baby. I’m wondering if this is all connected to that fever he had earlier. He seemed to be feeling better after his nap today, so I’m praying that this is all FINALLY behind us!!