Good McLean Fun

Below is our facebook announcement, for Jameson's pregnancy in 2022. :)   _____________________________________________________________ Where do I start. Ryan and I are super shockxcited to announce we are gaining one crew member later this year!  As most of you know, I am one of six , so as much as this was a surprise, it’s also a familiar zone. Also as you may NOT know, most of our babies surprised us in their timing. This sweet one (yes just one) is joining an excited team of siblings and we are humbled to be chosen again. I know the common questions that get asked so I’ll address some of those below and save you the trouble How old are you? I’m 39, and will be 39 when baby is born. They now call me “advanced” at prenatal appts (which feels true bc I have always been.) How old is Ryan? He’s 38, and will be 39 when baby is born. How far along? We’re almost 12 weeks. How are you feeling? I have been off and on nauseas, it feels like I’m suddenly starving and need food or I...

6/10/2018 6:32PM. 4, 6, 6, 9, 12. The "babies" of my life are gone. It's so ok. It's fine. It's fine it's fine it's fine. I'm so fine. It's all good. I'm good. I'm so good. .

  Thank you for checking in on me! Pregnant, at 39 years old, 40 in December...with my 6th baby, and we're 36 weeks today. I wrote a blog post in 2014 about how bittersweet it was to be in my last pregnancy ever. But now, surprise!! Here we are again!  This is my 5th pregnancy. All pregnancies had led to healthy living babies. I have never had a miscarriage. I have never known that pain, I have never lost a child, I have never known that grief. But I know so many of you who have had both, or either, and so I write with all the sensitivity and sympathy in the world. Please know I don't intend to highlight your pain when I write about pregnancies and babies.  If it hits too close to home please abandon ship, you don't need anything extra to sort through and I'm just praying God will answer your prayers because He is good and He is able.  So this particular blog won't be full of clever metaphors or jokes, I just wanted a place to document what I'm experiencing and...

(Originally written in 2018, finally published, in 2022.) I don’t have the words to sum up the last 9 months of my life. Actually that’s not true. I have too many words. And some of them just cannot be shared on this blog. 2018 ended with heartache, and 2019 started with heartache. And it hasn’t actually gone away. That’s the thing about real, deep heartache. Time doesn’t ever fully heal the pain, does it? It can be dulled, it can be momentarily forgotten, it can be lost amongst the more pervasive moments we must deal with day to day. But the heartache doesn’t leave completely. And I’m struggling because I know that so much healing lies on the other side of sharing these heartaches—on the other side of eyes red and raw, on the other side of sobs and gasping for breath type crying, there is opportunity for healing, for empathy, for a willing soul to share in the grief. But I’m struggling because these heartaches run too deep. They cross over into many lives. They have already ...

Important family updates for the final quarter of 2018! I’ve asked myself these things countless times over the last 4 months... Where have I been? 👣 Where am I headed? What now? So much can change in a year’s time—even in a few months! Think about your own family members, finances, health, career circumstances— life is pretty unpredictable. This time last year Ryan got sick 😷 and developed double pneumonia, which actually uncovered serious heart problems he’s still having to manage with 6 medications. ❤️ 😳🙏🏻 Our health is so precious—so fragile. When you or a loved one’s health is at risk, you look at life through a different lense. 🔭 This time last year my team was breaking records and promoting me to the top 1% of the company. 🙀🙌🏼 Today that same company is no longer in existence as I knew it. 😳 Just 4️⃣months ago they filed for bankruptcy 📉 and left thousands of us wondering...unsure of our business future. 😲(Thankfully for those desiring to continue, a smal...

This blog was written a year ago, but I never published it. I think I was too embarrassed and frustrated to put it out into the world wide web at the time. But now that we own our first home, I can share... If you are currently renting, and you don't have any issues, count yourself blessed!!  If you're dreaming of your own home and being an owner someday, keep praying, keep saving, keep believing--it will happen for you! Captain's Log: 2016. As you may or may not know we are currently renters. When we moved from Key West 3 years ago, we were sharing living space with 4-5 other adults. For those not counting, that was up to 10 of us under 1 roof for a few years.  You can read about those fun times in previous blog posts such as The Nut House . When a job opened up for Ryan in Vero Beach we were all too ready to move. We found this little spot on Craigslist and put the 1st and security deposit over the phone without having seen the inside. We were just feeling so bless...