big beds

here are the latest pictures of my little darlings........ (notice their new beds! maggie is now sleeping in the guest room, and caleb is in maggie's "big" bed instead of a crib. they are sooooooo proud of their little selves!!)

just a little update...

we had a much more pleasant last few weeks, as far as family life and work go. i was able to spend some more time with maggie and caleb, and we still managed to have a great few weeks at work! we hired a few new employees lately who are doing an excellent job and i have less office work to do than usual! although i'm only down to working around 40 hours a week, i am starting to see that it is possible to work less again! the babies are so sweet. maggie really wanted to sleep in a big bed, so we moved her into the guest room, to a full-size bed, and put caleb in her bed instead of his crib. he is doing great! he is soooo proud of his little self and loves to climb in and get under the covers. sometimes if he has a bad attitude we tell him to go get in his bed until he stops whining, and (most of the time) he runs in there and comes out a happy little guy again! i'm sure that won't always be the case, but for now it works well :) every morning he comes running into our room and tries to climb up into our bed. he crawls back and forth between casey and i, giving us loads of kisses. after we get up, one of us usually asks him where maggie is, and he gets so excited. he runs to her and hugs and kisses her, too. those two have so much fun together. they also fight a good bit... it sort of goes both ways. maggie is so focused on being a big girl right now. her #1 priority is letting everyone know how big she is, and she especially wants people to know that caleb really is just a baby and she is the big girl. i'll try to post more pictures soon!

Ok, so I guess it's just going to be "another month later" every time I post.... :) Things are still wild and crazy for our family. It is really out of control! I wonder if there will ever be days where I have leisure time to decide what I want to do again.... I remember days when I used to plan my day and do things like go to Target, go to the YMCA, work in the attic.... ha ha ha, all those things are just about unimaginable now...even just going to Publix is really hard to justify these days. We'd better be completely out of milk, bread and bananas before I dare take the time out of the day, even Sunday, to go shopping... but we are doing well. Casey and I are enjoying our babies and each other, and our stores are doing well despite all the craziness. We have 15 employees who are thankful for their jobs, and that is a huge blessing and an answer to our prayers. We have so, so much to be thankful for. Here are some of the latest pictures. Since I'm not home during the day, I'm afraid I have been very, very bad about pulling out my camera at all. Most of these were taken by Casey's mom when the kids and Casey went to a familly wedding. I was working, but I was very glad to get some pictures of the little sweeties all dressed up. They were adorable! The group picture is from our first ever Got Signal Retreat... it was tons of fun! We took the employees from our Travelers Rest store on a retreat to the mountains and we had a great time. Maggie and Caleb are as precious as ever. Maggie is still really into princesses, and Caleb is always the prince. After going to the wedding a few weeks ago, she now likes to talk about being the bride. Tonight she put on a white dress and told me she was going to her wedding to get married to her prince. I asked who she was marrying, and she said, "Caleb is my prince, mama. I have to marry him!" So he got dragged around the house for the ceremony :) I will try to take and post more pictures soon.

...and yet another month later...

(this is long and very rambling.... i just needed to write out my feelings about work, babies, daycare, etc... it helps me somehow)

ok, so somehow i let another month go by without posting anything! such is life these days. the days are flying by. there have been lots of changes and lots of learning going on in our household, especially for me! maggie and caleb started going to daycare full-time on august 10th. i am learning how to deal with a very different lifestyle than i ever imagined i would have as a mother of two! i don't know what i pictured exactly, but somehow i never would have guessed that i would be working this much, with a one and two year old. i am learning to accept it, though... and God is so good to our family through it all! i know it must sound really trivial... most moms have to work and probably most kids go to daycare. i just never imagined that mine would, especially full-time! since january, i've been gradually working more and more, and in recent weeks i have realized that i am working 40+ hours each week.. not just on busy weeks. and there is zero time for extra activities other than work unless it's before or after hours (although i do somehow fit a workout in each day either early in the morning or after work, generally). what really hit me these past few weeks was how little i am able to be with maggie and caleb. they wake up around 7:30 and we have about an hour, sometimes two, before i take them to daycare on my way into work. i love being with them and i hate dropping them off (although i must say, it's an awesome place and i love all their teachers)... but when i get to the store i am totally consumed for the next however-many hours until i get off (usually sometime around 5pm). so consumed that i hardly even think about the little sweeties. i usually do a slow cooker dinner and we all eat together when we get home.... and then we play (and casey and i try to clean the house) for a few hours before bedtime. it really doesn't sound that bad now that i'm writing it out... but it's painful to me somehow. i know they are growing up so fast and i am missing it. but there really don't seem to be other options at this point. there is more to do at the store than we can possibly do, it seems. and i can't hire someone to take my spot.... i don't even make good decisions lots of the time... the company is so complicated now that we have 5 stores running... i could never train someone to make all the big decisions that have to be made every day. plus, i really LOVE my job. i love our company and our employees and i enjoy my time at the office. and staying busy every second sure makes the hours fly by. i always want to work, at least part time... i just never imagined our lives would look quite like this! thankfully, though, God is working all things for good, and He has a perfect plan for us that doesn't need to fit in my silly little box of what i think our family should look like. and on top of that.... how blessed are we that my biggest complaint is something so trivial! we have an awesome job that's super busy, and the two most precious children we could imagine. i have so much to be thankful for! :)

my handsome little boy



after the triathlon! (excuse the ridiculous outfit!)






Wow. Exactly one month since my last post. I am the worst blogger ever :) I have some good excuses though. Our lives have been absolutely crazy since the last post. Our little Travelers Rest store is now officially a Verizon Wireless store! It is exciting for us. We all of a sudden have the ability to service and sell to like 95% of the people in our area, since they almost all have Verizon! So... what that means is that we need to have 3 people in the store to handle all the traffic during afternoons... which is a bit overwhelming for our small company! :) Also... Casey and I have spent just about every waking moment these past few weeks... renovating, learning Verizon's systems, ordering new fixtures, phones, brochures, signage, etc. There is just not enough time in the day. One day... ONE DAY, maybe, just MAYBE... I will hire a full-time office manager so I can forget all the paperwork and stick to helping my customers and taking care of my babies!! But for now.... I'm just trying to get through each day at work. Aside from the week I had with my parents and Rachel (which was wonderful!!) I've been working 50-hour weeks, which is hard emotionally because I can't help but think about how my two little sweeties are growing up without me! Caleb has started to talk a lot more and Maggie... well, she acts like she's practically 6 by now.
In case anyone is interested, my hair is still falling out at the same rate. I do have a little bit left... but not a lot. I'm going back to the dr. on the 30th for them to retest my blood.
I did my second triathlon last Sunday, and it was lots of fun! I loved the swim (400yds), was bored out of my mind on the bike (11.6 miles) and really enjoyed the run. I keep wondering why I don't just stick with running. I love it and I've gotten pretty good at it. And I am no good at biking! I get so lazy out there, especially in these triathlons out in the middle of nowhere... it's too easy to just relax and enjoy the ride. Casey did this triathlon with me, and we are doing another in August.
I will try to post again soon.. (ha ha, we'll see!) :)

We are all having a busy summer so far. Our Alltel shops are in the middle of all kinds of different transitions as we gradually turn into a Verizon store at our main store in Travelers Rest, turn into a prepaid-only mix of wireless providers at Easley, and wait to find out what it the world we're going to be turning into in Laurens and Clinton. It feels like we have stuff coming at us from all angles!

I'm not working a ton, really... I generally am at the store no more than 20 hours a week.. it feels like it's all the running around (bank, post office, tax office, etc.) and the ordering phones, accessories, etc., from home, that keep me busy. But it's nice to be busy. I would go crazy in the house all day!

I've been dealing with a very frustrating dilemma lately... my hair is all falling out and I think it will soon be gone! It got so bad that I went to the dr. and they ran some blood tests and said my iron is super low... so I've been taking iron supplements and trying to eat lots of red meat, spinach and black beans! :) I've been on those for a week and it has only gotten worse since then, but hopefully it will stop falling out before I lose it all. It's one of those things, though, where there's nothing I can do about it, so I just have to trust that God has a good reason for wanting me to be semi-bald :) Maybe the whole point is that I put too much focus on how I look.... which I know is true. So it's a good lesson for me.

Casey and I ran in our favorite organized race in Greenville, the Candlelight Run, last weekend. I was trying to shave off 10 minutes from my time last year (34:45) and I did, so that was exciting! It was also the first race I ever beat Casey at. This Saturday I am participating in my first ever Sprint Triathlon!! I'm very excited, but I really have no idea what I'm doing! We bought bikes and a baby trailer and having been biking and running a lot... and I've swam a few times but I know I am totally not efficient as a swimmer!!! When I put my face in the water, I start running into things...so I just keep it above the water and go really slow. I don't really have a goal time for this triathlon, but I'm also doing one on August 16th, so I'll come up with some goals for that one after I survive this one!

The most exciting part of our summer BY FAR is that my parents are coming home in July and we get to see them! I miss them so much lately... more than ever. We are going to visit them while they're in Charleston, and theyn they are coming to our house for one night on their way up to Pennsylvania to visit everyone else. We can't wait!

little ledford update

Ok... well, this is the third try in writing a post on here tonight. My computer keeps shutting down for no apparent reason and I forget to save as I go along, so each post is getting shorter and shorter as I lose my patience in having to start all over. It is difficult enough to find the time to sit down and write at all! :)

Not a whole lot of news at the Ledford house, just a few little things. For one, my hair is all of a sudden falling out! Not just a little, either... but enough to where I went and got my blood tested this week to see if they can come up with some kind of solution before I go completely bald! I started training this week for a triathlon, which has been really exciting. It's August 16th, so I have a little bit of time. It's a 400m swim, 15 mile bike and 5K race. It's nice to have something else to work on besides running.

Maggie and Caleb are as sweet as ever. I wish I could somehow record Maggie's precious little voice and expressions and post them on here. She is the most thoughtful little girl... We talk to each other all the time, and I wish I could remember all the details of our little conversations... I love the things she says. She asks lots of questions, and she has her own ideas about everything. She is very into princesses these days. I'm not sure how she really found out about them, but she sure knows all their names and stories. Her favorite is Cinderella, so she talks alot about castles, princes, getting married, wedding dresses, living happily ever after, etc. She especially likes how the prince takes care of the princess.

Here are a few sweet conversations we've had lately...

Today...
Julie- "Maggie, do you want me to have another baby in my tummy?" (note: I'm not pregnant... I just wondered what she would think about it)
Maggie- "No."
Julie- "Would you like to have two baby brothers?"
Maggie- "No."
Julie- "But it would be a tiny baby and you could wrap it up and hold it in a tiny little blanket!"
Maggie- (excited) "It could COME OUT of your tummy!?!?"
Julie- "Yeah, you could hold the baby."
Maggie- "Mama, then you would have THREE babies!"
(then, as Caleb crawls all over us, getting in her way and trying to push her around) "No.. we already have Caleb."

Last week, in the car...

Maggie- "Mama, is Daddy the boss?"
Julie- "Yeah, Daddy is the boss of Mama, Maggie and Caleb."
Maggie- "Is Daddy your king?"
Julie- "Umm, no, not really"
Maggie- "Is he your prince?"
Julie- "Umm, yeah, he's my prince."
Maggie- "Cody (her uncle) is my prince. He danced with me".

My parents are coming back to the US for a short visit in a few weeks. We can hardly wait to see them! We'll probably go to Charleston for a few days to spend some time with them while they're here.

Caleb is finally starting to talk some... he says bye bye, mama, uh-oh, please, thank you, banana, and nana. He runs around the house looking for excitement and begs to go outside and play. He is all of a sudden a chunky little boy and weighs about a pound less than Maggie does. I'll write more about that little wild man later.

fun times at the beach

(notice Caleb going in for the bite, here)









We were thrilled to be able to go on an awesome beach trip with our friends Scott and Heather, to Litchfield Beach for almost whole week! It was the first time since our honeymoon that we went anywhere longer than three days, and it was the first time ever that Casey was able to leave the stores and really relax. Amazingly, things went smoothly and our wonderful employees pulled off a whole week of working all day every day to cover for us! We stayed for free at a beautiful condo right on the beach. Casey and I did lots of running and we played games all evening with Scott and Heather. And Tabitha was able to come along with us as the nanny :) It was definitely the most fun vacation we've had together.

Yesterday was our 4th wedding anniversary! It was been such a happy four years. I surprised Casey by getting a reservation at the Westin Poinsett in downtown Greenville (with credit card rewards so we paid nothing... otherwise he might not have been so pleased with me!!). We checked into our room and walked to dinner at High Cotton (which is amazing!) and then went for a run through downtown and the parks. Then we went to Blueberry Frog for frozen yogurt, which is now my favorite dessert place! This morning we got up and ran 5 miles and then went to breakfast. What a fun and relaxing time! We'd better be done with vactions for awhile now...