Hello!

Hey! How was your Christmas? We still have company, which is why I haven't blogged at all. We've had a really great Christmas, with my parents and my brother and his family here. That means we've had 14 people since Christmas day. Loving it! :-) Although, it is a tad loud at times.

My boys have been extra ornery the last couple of days. Well, not all the time, just a couple incidents that really stand out. No one will forget this Christmas! Yesterday, Joseph and David were sitting in a chair, apparently having a very small dispute over a toy (no yelling or screaming yet). All of a sudden, David leans over and bites Joseph - on his private area! Through the pants, left teeth marks!!! OUCH! Joseph has been telling people about it, and even offered to show my sister. :-) Gotta love 5 year olds! Today, Joseph was playing with and exercise resistance band and somehow the thing snapped and hit David. You guessed it, right in the privates. Guess they're even now!?! They call their privates their "nakey", so we think this will be the Christmas of the "Nakey Wars".

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too! If you usually get a Christmas letter from me, it didn't happen again this year. I wrote the letter on Nov. 29! But, since my address list is a complete mess, I just couldn't get it sent. I plan on posting it here, eventually, and even e-mailing it out to people. Don't hold your breath though!

More Random Things

I wrote the other day that you should check my friend's blog, Life By the Handful, for a very funny post. Well, she had written another post before you all probably checked (which was also hilarious), but it wasn't the one I wanted you to read. Here is the link to the exact post you have to read. Seriously, read it please.

Lately, I've found my brain doesn't work very well. Anyone else experience that? I keep messing up what I'm trying to say. Here's a classic example that happened just yesterday while I was doing grammar with Anne:

Me: Give me statement sentence about a food you like.
Anne: I like pomegranates.
A few minutes pass, I say a sentence.
Me: Ok, so is this sentence a command, statement or a pomegranate?

A WHAT? Yes, I meant a question, but I said pomegranate. My girls and I laughed sooo stinking hard over that one. Unfortunately, I also realized I just simply have no brain left anymore.

Dawn made mac-n-cheese for lunch. I was nursing Little Bit while they ate, so not paying a lot of attention to what was going on. When I got up, I realized that David was missing. Since he's 2, that's problem. I called down the stairs for him. He comes to the bottom of the stairs with 5 pairs of scissors in his hands! Yep, 5 pairs. Wonder what he was doing. I said, "Oh, nice, he just has 5 pairs of scissors in his hands." David gets to the top of the stairs and says, "we have 5 pears for lunch?" Ahhh, we communicate so well in this house!

Now, since this is random day, I'm going to post some random pictures my kids took in the last week or so. They love to get my digital camera and take pictures. Let me tell you, pictures of me in my pj's from kid height - UGLY. They get deleted (but don't tell my kids).


I've always known you wanted to see a picture of my house. Oh, and that might actually be ME in the kitchen!






Again, no pictures of Dawn. She is many times taking the pictures or something else. I'll have to make sure I sneak some cute ones of her later!

Good Afternoon

Thanks for the get better notes. I did lay in bed Sunday and Monday. Yesterday, not so well. So, today I'm taking it easier, although you really can't lay in bed all day with 5 kids (especially not when 2 of them are boys!). I'm feeling much better, thanks!

I took this video of Little Bit today. I've never tried to upload a video, so thought I'd attempt it. Make sure you watch until the end - it has an unexpected ending.

Sick

This will be short. I'm sick with mastitis. Please pray I get better quickly. I cannot be Mommy with this. I'm actually on antibiotics at this point - yuck!

A Must Read

If you want a good laugh, please go read my friend's blog, Life by the Handful. Go. Read. Now.

Vacuuming

I had a strange dream last night. I dreamed that I was vacuuming the carpet in our basement and the carpet was covered with mashed potatoes, dirt and small sticks. The carpet was so bad I had to sweep the dirt up first and vacuum second. By the way, vacuums don't work on mashed potatoes very well (at least it didn't in my dream). I think I need to vacuum my carpet. I was sitting looking at it last night and thought I needed to vacuum, but seriously, mashed potatoes?

Tree Pictures

Here is our back deck during the snow storm, the day Old Man and Dawn got the tree.


Quite a bit of snow on the truck!


I went outside, without a coat, just to take these pictures. They loved that I told them to stop walking and stand still in the freezing, blowing snow so I could snap a couple pictures! :-) You can see how high the snow is on their pants. Deep!


Now, for something totally unrelated, but funny. A couple days ago, Joseph said, "I really like our baby, but I don't think we should have any more." I replied, "Why not?" His answer, "because I don't want another annoying little brother." Nice. Very nice. Old Man asked me if I pointed out to him that that is how his sister's feel about him. No, I didn't.

Yesterday, Joseph says, "Mom, you could have another baby when Little Bit is one. And then another one when that one is one. And another when that one is one. And another and another and another. THEN we would have lots of kids in our family!" I said, "And we don't have lots of kids now?" His reply, "Mom, we ONLY have five!" To think that to him, 5 is not a lot of kids! To everyone else we have a huge amount! :-)

Apparently he is undecided as to whether we should have more kids or not.

Getting our Christmas Tree

Let me preface this post by telling you that I have the cutest baby in my lap. She's smiling and cooing at me! I'll have to type fast!! :-)

Many years ago, back when Old Man and I were newlyweds, we had friends take us to chop down our Christmas Tree. Thus began our annual tradition of chopping down a Christmas tree. Sometimes I'm not sure whether I should thank them or curse them for this tradition. We've had all kinds of mishaps with our trees. The first mishap was with that first tree! Old Man's bow saw popped while he was cutting down the tree and he had a cut on his knuckle - down to the bone. But, seeing as it was Thanksgiving weekend, NO way did he get stitches. Gotta love those men. Oh, that's the other part of our tradition. We always get our tree on Thanksgiving weekend.

Seeing as this is "The Year of The Move", we've worked hard to keep our traditions for the kids. So they knew we were getting a tree and were soooo looking forward to it. We couldn't get the tree on Friday - too many other things going on. Saturday we were just too worn out to run out in the morning to the ONE place we found you can chop down trees (note - you can get them from the forest service here, you get a permit, treck around the mountains and get it that way - we figured that was a tad nuts with 5 kids in tow). We figured Sunday would work. We'd go to church and just run up to the tree place after church.

Checked the weather Saturday night - things looked great. Got up Sunday morning - snow. 4 or 5 inches and still coming down. The kids went out to play, I went out to take pictures. I came in and told Old Man that it was WAY too cold to take the baby out for the tree. We decided to send Dawn and Old Man only to get the tree. First they did the sensible thing and checked Home Depot. The trees weren't any good. So, despite the blizzard, they decided to drive half an hour further north to chop down a tree. I got numerous phone calls from Old Man telling me how bad the roads were and how many wrecks they were seeing. Apparently they walked through snow over Dawn's knees to the tree, had to dig the tree out of the snow and there was too much snow blowing for them to even take a picture! Hmmm, brilliant plan. On the way home, Old Man had to call me and ask me how to get home, since the road was blocked by a stuck 18-wheeler and a wreck. They were gone for over 5 hours to get this tree! The beauty of all this is that the tree isn't the best one we've ever gotten - probably one of the worse. It has 2 trunks! In order to even put it in the house, we had to cut the trunks apart and zip tie the trunks together. It won't fit in our normal tree holder, so it's in a large canning pot, held up by rocks, bricks and blocks of wood. And it's leaning. Badly. We will have to spend a large amount of time fixing it (again) this weekend.

Aren't traditions great???

(Confession: Ranee, you know how you wanted us to drive your truck? Old Man drove it to get the tree. He didn't wreck it. They did slide off the road once, but we're happy the four wheel drive works great! Old Man said he's probably going to have to buy it from you once he gets done driving it all over the place. Maybe we should take it to your folk's house soon!)

Puke (graphic - don't read if you have a strong gag reflex)

Now we have puke. It was nice to not have it on my birthday. At least she waited a couple days.

Yesterday, we had 4 out of 5 kids not feeling well. No puke, but just OFF, if you know what I mean. Anne actually had a low-grade fever and laid around all day. She didn't eat until about 4. Joseph kept saying his tummy hurt, but he was still torturing his little brother, so I couldn't take him too seriously. David had a NASTY diaper, so I knew something was going on with him. Little Bit was just plain fussy all day, very very unlike her. But Dawn, she was great! Felt good, went outside to play in the snow (we had a foot out there) and swing.

There was a tea planned last night for the ladies of the church. Since Anne wasn't feeling well, I took Dawn and Little Bit. The whole time I'm driving up there, I'm thinking "what am I doing? I am nuts!" Little Bit hates the car. Hates. The. Car. She screamed the entire way there (30 minutes) and even started spitting up because she was so upset. The roads were bad. Joy. The tea was very nice though, so it ended up fine. Around 8:45, Dawn came to me and said, "I don't feel good, I'm tired. Can we leave?"

The drive home was actually uneventful. Little Bit was so tired she actually slept! Praise GOD! Dawn was quiet. The roads were only bad in the residential areas and they were pretty empty.

Around 3:30 in the morning, Dawn started throwing up. She threw up every hour pretty much until about half an hour ago (it's 9 a.m. here). Around 6:30, she was loudly throwing up in the bathroom and the boys were on there bed, covering their ears, saying "she's still puking! Gross!" At some point later, she was throwing up again and David was standing in the bathroom. Every time she would make noise, he would gag. Then he would look in the toilet and gag. I kept telling him to leave the bathroom so he wouldn't puke too, but he just stood there gagging! WHATEVER!?!

Dawn is now sleeping peacefully. Hopefully she will wake up and feel much much better. Oh, and all the other kids seem to be feeling better today, so I guess it's just a 24 hour thing. Can't wait for my turn!! Yippee! NOT.

My Birthday

Yesterday was my 36th birthday. I told the kids I was going to start counting backwards this year, so maybe it's my 34th. It was an eventful day. Not sure I would say a good day or even a bad day. I'm still undecided.

It started at 6 a.m. when Little Bit woke up to nurse. She had slept ALL NIGHT LONG (went to bed at 9). This just means we'd worn the poor baby out all week and she was exhausted. Since I'd had 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep by 6, I figured I would go ahead and get up and have some time to myself. Ahhh, quiet. Oops, then David woke up and crawled his little body in bed next to me because he was cold. So I did what all good mother's would do and took him downstairs to watch television so I could have some quiet. :-)

I decided to make biscuits for breakfast. Turned the oven to 450, made the biscuits in and popped them in the oven. When I opened the oven door, I noticed a bit of smoke and remembered that the cheesecake I'd made on Wednesday had dripped a bit. No big deal, it didn't drip too much. When I checked on the biscuits a few minutes later I realized that I was mistaken. Apparently the cheesecake had dripped a LOT. Here is the way I woke up Old Man:

Me: (whispering) Ummm, honey, I think we have a little problem.
Old Man: (eyes still closed) Huh? What?
Me: (still whispering) Well, we have a fire in the oven.
Old Man: (waking up a bit more) WHAT?

At this point he was looking at me like I'd gone insane. I'm not typically starting fires in the oven. As a matter of fact I'm pretty sure that was my first one. He climbed out of bed and went in the kitchen to check with me. By this time, the fire was out, because, even though I'm obviously not paying attention to details, I knew enough to turn the oven off and NOT open the oven door. In case you're wondering, the biscuits actually cooked in the smoky, turned off oven. And they tasted pretty good even with the smoky flavor added. Oh, and remind me to check my smoke detectors. Not a one of them went off.

My family gave me my birthday gifts while we ate the smoked biscuits. The kids got me a new griddle - a huge one, much needed. My sweet Old Man gave me a wonderful card and diamond earrings. Shock. Not because he doesn't get me wonderful gifts and he has given me jewelry before. This was just unexpected. They are very beautiful, dainty studs. I actually needed some, but never ever ask for jewelry or expect it. I was guessing I would get a new camera body or boots or pots and pans - and those would have been just fine. But these were special and I love them!

After breakfast, we went to a 5K. My dear sister had somehow convinced me to do a 5K "with" her. Really, I just went so a slow person could jog/walk it with Anne and her cousin (they are 7 and 8 years old). Here's a tip: if you're less than 3 months postpartum with your 5th child, you haven't run but once since the baby was born and it is your 36th birthday, DO NOT, I stress this, DO NOT attempt to walk, jog or run a 5K. It will depress you. And you will worry that your uterus is going to be dragging on the path the entire run. But hey, I do have a new PR (personal record for you non-runners) for a 5K. My new PR for my slowest 5K time EVER - 45 minutes. And just to make me feel better, my 10 year old, Dawn, ran the 5K in 30 minutes, 20 seconds and my 7 year old, Anne, did it in 43 minutes. Old. That's how I feel. And tired.

The rest of the day was less eventful. I took a long bath, which I figured I had earned after that "fun run". Old Man took a nap. Tell me, how does that work. My birthday, he sleeps in later AND takes a nap? Oh, he did get me those earrings. He's totally off the hook for the next year. We had good friends over for supper. Old Man cooked seafood for me and we had a fun evening just chatting.

One thing I forgot! I figured we'd go to bed a little early. But Dawn was overtired and when she gets that way she sometimes feels very sick to her stomach and feels like puking. We were up with her until about 10:30. She never did puke. Now that was a nice gift - no puke on my birthday!

Our Oldest

I have a couple of recent pictures to put on. When I realized they were both of Dawn, I decided I could just write about her a bit! :-)

Dawn has changed a bunch this year. She is growing up so fast! Less and less she seems like a little girl, she is definitely becoming a young lady. At this exact moment, she has the microscope out and is putting things on it and having the boys take turns looking at it. Just like a good teacher! :-) Sometimes I feel thrilled about this change, other feelings are fear, sadness, excitement. A huge mix. What a true blessing she is, yet I miss her as a little girl and know that one day she will have her own home.

We went hiking a couple weeks ago with some friends. For Christmas last year, my sister (the first Dawn), gave her a book on cd - Daring Girls Adventure Book - or something like that. In the book, it tells you what to bring with you out hiking. A compass, flash light, notebook and pen (to draw pictures, etc), bandanna (you can put it in your hair or tie it to a stick to carry things), binoculars, and a few other things. She now has a backpack all ready to go. Oh, I think it includes bandaids, her own idea, which she needed!



Dawn has also started baking for me. Her latest is this fabulous ginger cookie. Yum. The other day, she made a double batch, with her baby sister in a sling, on her back. I was able to vacuum. She asked me to put Little Bit on her back. I thought it was so cool!

What People Think

I was recently reading on a good friend's blog, Half a Dozen Productions, that she was worried about what other people would think when they saw her child out without a coat. Sunday, while sitting in church, I looked down at my beloved children and realized that maybe, just maybe I need to be more concerned about what people think of me. David, our 2 year old, had a head band on and Anne, our 7 year old was wearing tennis shoes and mismatched socks with her skirt. Add to that the discussion before church at my house:

I was just generally grumbling and complaining about how horrid I looked.
Old Man: Shall I nominate you for What Not To Wear?
Me: Ha ha, funny, they'd take me in a heart beat. Fuddy duddy home schooling mom with 5 kids...
In walks Dawn: What are you talking about?
Me: Oh, Dad just thinks I should go on What Not To Wear.
Dawn: (she's seen parts of the show a couple times) You look better than one person on that show.
Me: ONE person? Wow, thanks!
Dawn: I mean, better than some people. I mean, most people. I ... (I'm glaring at her by now.)
Me: Well, I feel just great now!

So as I looked at my lovely children at church and thought of that conversation I realized that I need to worry a bit more about what people think. I think about those families you see where noone's cloths fit, they don't match, their hair is a mess, kids are dirty and I'm starting to think that maybe that is ME. Whatever happened to the days when I made sure my clothes were nice, my hair done, makeup on ... hmmm, maybe those days never happened for me.

Oh What a Night

Yes, that song is running through my head. Old Man is out of town, so I'm a little loopy at this point! :-)

I've been cursing Daylight Savings Time all day. Ever since 5:18 this morning, to be exact. The time David, who is 2-1/2, woke up. No, he is not adjusting to the new time AT ALL. Since I didn't go to bed until 11 last night, 5:18 was a tad too early for me. And no, Ranee, I didn't feed him until 6:30 or 7. :-)

In light of the early rising and Old Man being gone, I have had a very very very long day. No breaks at all. I tried to have quiet time while David was napping, but Little Bit was wide awake and smiling and cooing at me (which, while adorable, didn't give me a nap!).

Around 8, I was nursing Little Bit and talking to Dawn and Anne. (Praise God, the boys were sound asleep already!) I mentioned that I hadn't even started to clean up the kitchen after dinner. Dawn went into the kitchen and started cleaning it all up for me. I put Little Bit to bed as quickly as I could and went to help her. She is such a blessing to me!!!

That's all I originally was going to post, but have more to add. I was on the computer, checking the news and Dawn came in to talk to me. I started explaining to her how HUGE it is that we have an African-American (all right, I said black to her) man as our president-elect. Discussed the whole civil rights thing, how abused blacks have been in our country for so long. Just how big of a deal this really is. Then we started discussing some of the issues that polarized this election. I mentioned abortion. She asked what that was (I truthfully thought I had discussed this with her at some point - but apparently not). By the end of explaining it to her, we were both in tears. How sad that our kids have to grow up and face the reality of life. I so wish they could stay young and innocent and never know about difficult things.

So, off to bed for me. I am looking forward to Old Man returning tomorrow. I might be a puddle on the floor when he gets home though! :-) My body aches, my eyes sting, I feel like crying (and have quite a bit the last couple of days). I am just so tired! Good night!

Psalm 4:8

I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for You alone, O Lord,
make me dwell in safety.

Misc.

Not sure I have a full point to make today. Just some funny things and thoughts.

First, a few random photos:

Joseph loves holding his baby sister. He's so cute!


The girls found a turtle in the cattle guard at my grandparents house. They rescued it and took it to the pond to save it's life.


David's hair was hilarious after his nap one day. I couldn't resist taking this pictures.


I mentioned the snow one day. Here's a picture of it in our backyard. Yep, that's our yard. Notice the lack of trees? If there weren't snow, you'd see lots of sand and weeds.


And here is our precious baby girl.


Last night, Joseph was running around saying "Hadio Sim E Gose". Now, you might ask yourself what that means - think Spanish - Adios Amigos. :-) He was also really bent that I wouldn't go buy him a SCARY costume on Halloween - specifically, a skeleton costume. He really wanted to scare his younger brother. He talked about things being "spooky" and all thing Halloween related. Now, you have to understand that we don't celebrate Halloween in any way "normal". We stay home and have a family party - good food and games. How does he come up with all this stuff? I'll tell you - far too much PBS in the last couple of weeks. When the boys come in our room at 6:30 a.m. (or before), I've taken to turning the little tv on in my room so I can lay there and nurse the baby longer (and not have them pester me about food nonstop, or start fighting on my bed). Through PBS, he is getting a great education about speaking Spanish and Halloween!

I realized I haven't given an update on the house in Maryland. It is rented! Not sold, which was my preference, but rented, which is apparently God's preference. The really amazing thing is that even with paying our real estate agent a month's rent to cover her help and not having a renter move in until the 23rd of October, we are out only a few hundred dollars total for the mortgage. We did not have to pay 2 full mortgages for even one single month. Isn't God amazing!!! He has shown us He is watching us and taking care of our needs so often in the past few months. How sad that I still fret and worry over these things.

How sad that I've had to go and check my blog to see if I've already posted this stuff. My brain is definitely not working very well these days. I'd like to blame it on lack of sleep, but I'm actually getting pretty good sleep these days!

I've had a few questions about how the baby is doing. She's great! We've been trying to come up with some nicknames for her. So far, David wins, not because he's trying, but just because he pronounces the ones we've come up with so cutely - she is either "Miffabess" or "Wiza Kake". So far she's being called Wiza Kake a ton. She's smiling at us more and more every day. Getting fat and just plain old precious!

Oh, on the Wiza Kake name. Anne said, "It sounds like we're saying 'why is a cake...?" I thought it sounded more like "Wise as a cake".

Setting Goals

For an assignment yesterday, Dawn had to set long term and short term goals for herself. Her long term goals are:

Get degrees in nursing and geography
Become a missionary
Have a family

Now, her short term goals are supposed to be things that will help her reach her long term goals. Here are her short term goals:

Ice skate (as in take lessons)
Learn Spanish
Get caught up in math
Learn how to cook, from scratch

I asked her how ice skating would help her reach her long term goal. Her reply, "It will keep me healthy so I don't die!" :-) Good answer - maybe she should be a politician! (Lord help us, not that.)

SNOW!!

Yes, you see it correctly: SNOW. We have seen the first snow fly already this year. WOW! Not sure I'm ready for a real winter! Yikes!

Beardy Jumpy Cricket

When our oldest, Dawn, was turning 5, she was obsessed with The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin and all animals. We told her she could get a pet for her 5th birthday. Daddy and Dawn head to the pet store and end up coming home with a reptile - a Bearded Dragon to be exact. My reaction was not so positive - no fur, don't want it. Needless to say, my lack of interest in this lizard mattered little to Dawn. She quickly named him Beardy Jumpy Cricket - the last part of his name due to what he ate - live crickets. GAG.

Fast forward 5 years. Since I prefer things with fur, I'm not much help with taking care of a lizard. I have no experience here! Beardy was obviously not in good health. We knew there was a good chance we were moving, so we asked Dawn to consider giving him to a better home. She sadly, but sweetly agreed that if Beardy stayed with us his life expectancy was not good. My friend, Debbie, was wanting to get a Bearded Dragon and LOVES animals (maybe a little too much), so she happily took him in.

We got word between moving into the house and having the baby (so between 37 and 40 weeks of pregnancy) that Beardy had died. I could not tell Dawn. Could not. The emotions in the house were already overwhelming. I just couldn't do it. Yep, bad mom alert! Well, last night, Dawn finally asked "How is Beardy?" after we got off the phone with Miss Debbie. After my husband's deer in the headlight look (wimp), I pulled her aside and told her about Beardy. We had some tears and lots of sadness today, but overall, she is doing ok.

Here is a picture of Beardy, with our cat (much more to my liking), Cami.

An Awareness of Sin

We like to teach our kids about some Jewish holidays. Yom Kippur just passed, so we were talking to the kids about what it represents. One part of this holiday is remembering your sins for the year and "casting them into the sea" (a verse in Micah talks about God casting our sins into the sea). Our version is to write a sin or some sins on a piece of paper and we burn them up. It's just a symbolic way to remind us that God forgives us and forgets our sin.

Last night, we did our annual sin burning. :-) Joseph, our 5 year old, saw the small piece of paper (2"x2") and said, "that's not big enough for my sin, maybe if I write on the back too and then you can get me a BIG piece of paper." At least he is well aware of his sin! Now, if only there were some remorse ...

Siblings at Birth

We have always welcomed the older siblings at the babies' births. Our oldest daughter, Dawn, has now been to 3 births (she missed her sister, Anne's, because Anne came too fast!). For Little Bit's birth, only our girls were in the room for the actual birth. The boys and my niece, were brought in right after. Here they are right after Little Bit was born.



Here, our midwife, Sharon, is showing the kids the umbilical cord.


The girls and Grandma are getting to hold Little Bit for the very first time!


This part grosses me out. Dawn definitely has a future in the medical field. Our midwife is showing her (and the other girls) the placenta. Dawn was the only one who really got into it - and I mean this literally, see her gloved hands? She was touching, etc. You will never find me doing that!


There you have it! I figure science is covered for the year. :-)

Birth Story

I never feel like I write coherently after having a baby (something about exhaustion), but I will make an attempt at telling the birth story.

Wednesday morning, I had some signs of pre-labor, lost my mucous plug, had more contractions that hurt a little more. That went on all day. I figured it meant I had at most 3 or 4 days before we had the baby. Sometime in the night, I started having pretty regular contractions, they weren't too painful though and were about every 10 minutes - I was actually sleeping between them!

Thursday morning, contractions still about 9-10 minutes apart and I'm dealing with them just fine. This was VERY different from the last 2 labors, so I wasn't sure what was going on. You hear all the time about women going in to the hospital with "false" labor - I figured this was what I was having. I finally called my sister and Doula, Dawn and told her she might as well come over, in case things progressed quickly. (My last 2 labors were pretty fast - dilating from 0-10 in 2 hours or less.) My friend, Marie, called and when I told her what was going on, she encouraged me to at least call the midwife. Since Marie's had 6 kids, I figured she had reason to encourage me in that direction!

Old Man called the midwife, she said, to just come in to the office to check me. Either while we were on the phone or just as we got off, I had a contraction and then my water started leaking. So, off to the hospital. I HATE going to the hospital in labor - I've cried every single time. As I figured, we got there, I was dilated to a 2 (2-1/2??) and my water was leaking. Which meant I was stuck there. GAG. It was about 1:45 when we arrived. Oh, after my water leaked, my contractions did get about 6 minutes apart.

Once at the hospital, my contractions quickly settled into a pattern of about 3-4 minutes apart, lasting 60-90 seconds. Yet, I still felt this was going to take forever. Again, with my previous 2 labors, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and lasting 90+ seconds! Well, this labor was longer, but definitely more manageable. Do NOT envy a woman with super short labors. I would take a 5 or 6 hours over 2 any day. Just no longer than that. :-) The contractions never got a huge amount closer, stayed very manageable. When I started feeling like I needed to push I really felt that I was convincing myself it was time when it really wasn't. It didn't feel like I'd had an awful transition, the contractions were bad, but I was chatting with Dawn, the midwife and the nurse in between each one. Basically, it had been hard, but not hard enough yet! I started pushing, things felt like they weren't right, turns out there was still a bag of forewater that needed to break - which it did quickly and out Elizabeth came! My first comment was "wow, she's little!" Everyone else's first comment, "she's already pooping!" :-)

There's more to this story that I will post later. All about having kids at the birth and after - yep, I'm weird. :-)

Oh, and since I finally downloaded pictures from my camera, I'll include one of Elizabeth.



I asked David if he wanted to hold the baby and he said, "I want to hold her feet." So, here he is, holding her feet!

BABY!

She's out! :-) Elizabeth Kathryn was born on Sept 11 (the due date I had given her - her "real" date was Sept 10). She's tiny, 7 lbs 3 oz. Cute as a button. I'm thinking about posting the birth story, but we shall see. Time is not something I have lots of right now!

Baby Watch

I'm starting to get the e-mails asking about the baby's arrival. I guess people are starting to wonder if she has arrived yet or not - due to my lack of communication. :-) Well, no baby yet is the news. I'm officially due on Thursday and my baby's usually come a few days after the due date on their own. You can pray that I can have patience to let this baby come when God wants her to and not to pursue some alternative labor inducer (herbs, homeopaths, accupressure ...). It's so tempting right now! With all the stress of the move, I haven't gained any weight in the last 8 weeks, so I'm guessing she needs to stay in and get as much nutrition as she can right now.

My Mom is in town right now - thank God for that! David (the 2-1/2 year old) has been showing major signs of potty training readiness - which I have ignored. Mom isn't, so he is potty training! (Yes, we are NUTS - as if moving and a new baby aren't enough!) He has been very successful this morning with the whole thing - pooped on the potty for the first time. Guess Mom will have to stick around for at least another month to make sure this lasts. :-)

We've been in the house 3 weeks now. Most things are unpacked. No pictures up yet. Still working to get organized. I'm basically doing nothing with the whole thing. Old Man is under extra stress due to that!

House in Maryland - still not sold or rented, although there is supposed to be an offer coming through for a lease to own thingy. We shall see.

That's all the news today! Hope everyone is doing great! :-)

Moving In

Yes, I realize that I haven't been blogging. Something to do with no internet access at my aunt's, closing on a house, moving into a house, no internet access here for a while and unpacking boxes. That would be the short version of our lives the last few weeks. A little longer update ...

We closed on the house on August 15 - praise God! Then we did the nutty thing and camped out in the new house over the weekend. My sister painted the girls' room (GREEN - very very green) on Saturday and my good friend, Claudia, shelf papered my entire kitchen Saturday evening (while I sat on the floor and watched). Our household goods arrived on Monday. Damaged furniture, missing bed supports, grill, lawnmower and David's battery operated 4-wheeler (they found all but the bed supports), many things arrived without tags - all in all, a fairly typical military move. Old Man worked 1/2 days, I attempted to get things unpacked. Claudia, my sister and my cousin Ranee all came over on different days and helped. We got most of the upstairs done by Friday. But then we stalled - the basement was overwhelming. Thank God for good friends - Claudia came over Friday night and saved us. She helped us arrange the furniture and unpack numerous boxes. We truly are down to the school room and garage that need major work. Now, things are still disorganized. Not a picture on the walls. But, Old Man is off work for the next couple days, so we should get the school room done too.

Pregnancy, you ask? Well, I'm 37-1/2 weeks. Exhausted, contracting, fatigued, drained ... You can imagine how I feel right now. Another thing Claudia helped me do was to calm my panic over being completely unready for the baby to arrive. We got out the baby clothes, cleaned the diaper bag, figured out the car seat and decided what else I needed. (Diapers!) My Mom arrives on Wednesday, Thursday I will be 38 weeks. I typically go full term, so we expect the baby to arrive closer to 40 weeks. While I physically don't like that thought, emotionally and mentally need her to wait to arrive!

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts! We will survive. :-) The biggest thing is that God has shown himself faithful and good in all of this.

Better run, we only have one computer working with the internet and Old Man needs this one. Hope you are all doing great - my blog reading has been seriously curtailed!

House

We are scheduled to close on the house here on August 15!!!! I cannot tell you how amazing this is - God really is at work here for us.

We started school this week, a bit. So far it's going well. Swimming lessons finished today. All the kids did great. Even after Joseph's enormous fit the first day, he jumped off the big diving board into the deep end today. The recommended that Dawn find a diving team - no surprise. Many gymnasts become divers. They all had fun.

Not much else to tell today. Just thought you could all rejoice with us at God's faithfulness!

Belly Pictures

My sister, Dawn (the real Dawn, not my daughter Dawn - just to confuse you all quite a bit), is a doula here in Colorado. She is just starting out, so is setting up her website. She needed a "model" to put some belly pictures on her website. Since her "little" sister just moved to the area and is HUGELY pregnant, she is taking advantage of my belly! :-) I will link to her website once it is up and running. For now, here are a couple pictures. She has a friend here who is from India and did a really cool henna tattoo on my belly. So, if you don't like to see pregnant bellies, don't look! :-) (This was a week ago or so, so I was 33 weeks pregnant at the time.)

Update

Life has been a pretty busy these last 2 weeks.  This will be a quick update.  After a week of looking at houses (close to 35), we offered on the house Old Man saw FIRST!  :-)  We are currently under contract for an awesome house.  It's huge, newer, perfect for our family.  Truly an example of God meeting more than our needs.  The house in Maryland still hasn't sold or rented.  We're dropping the price today again.  Plus we're going to have some painting done to "update" rooms that aren't neutral.  Fun fun fun.  Anyone know a good painting contractor in Bowie, Maryland?  One that can do the work in the next few days?  :-)  If I weren't pregnant, I'd fly out, paint the rooms, clean some carpet, pull some weeds and be done with it.  That would be tons cheaper than paying someone else to do this!

Speaking of pregnancy - 34 weeks tomorrow.  Feeling huge, uncomfortable and exhausted.  But, still not really ready to have a baby.  I mean, seriously, we don't even have a name picked out, I can't even think about the fact that in a few weeks I will have to go through labor and then have a newborn.  Wow.  At least then my body will shrink a bit and doing normal daily tasks will be physically easier!  :-)  We met the midwife yesterday - she's wonderful and I'm very pleased with her.  Which is a good thing, because Tricare has only ONE midwife in this town that they cover!  

Kids are doing pretty well.  We started swimming lessons on Monday.  Monday was fun - screaming and crying from Joseph and puking at the Loaf and Jug by Dawn (drank too much pool water and worked out too hard).  Ahhh, the joys of parenting!  :-)

We're here!

I'm sure you are all dying to know how we are doing. Well, we are here in Colorado Springs. We arrived Wednesday evening. The drive was long. LONG. Very very long. We survived. I am still exhausted and not wanting to do anything at this point. Old Man is out on his second day of house hunting. The kids are thrilled to be playing with cousins.

Speaking of family, my parents and a niece and nephew are actually in town here this week. The day we left Maryland, one of my great-aunts died. So my parents met us in Kansas on their way to the funeral. Yep, we even managed to throw a funeral into the whole move. I didn't actually attend (I decided taking 4 kids to a funeral, who had been cooped up in a car for days, was foolish). I did attend the reception afterwards.

Not much else to say right now. Old Man and I are worn out. I'm wondering if this whole move was the "right" thing to do. We prayed about it, I felt this was what God was doing, was certain He answered the prayers by giving us this job. Right now I just think this was about the worst possible timing for us and nothing seems to be going well. House in Maryland still not sold or rented. 32 weeks pregnant and living in a relative's house (without a/c). Uprooting 4 kids, which makes parenting much harder - and I'm 32 weeks pregnant. Old Man could have just retired in 6 months. So, I'm feeling much guilt and question about this whole thing. I remind myself that we prayed, He answered, but right now it just "feels" sooooo wrong.

Waiting for the Movers

I'm sitting in a house full of boxes, kids are at the Auntie's house, Old Man is mowing the lawn (to get rid of the gas in the mower). And I'm just waiting. I've read all the blogs I read, checked e-mail, read the news ... Now what? I suppose I should be cleaning a bathroom or something productive. But I know that once the movers get here I will be busy. So I'm trying to relax for a few minutes and just wait. Unfortunately, I'm not feeling very patient. I just want to get this over and done with!! I want to go back to my kids. Poor David cried and cried this morning when we left. I actually had to wake Dawn up and give him to her for him to finally settle. We rarely leave him anywhere but here at our house. This moving thing is hard!

Packing, Day 2

Well, the packers are done. They stayed until 10 last night, hoping to finish in one day. But, they couldn't get the tags on all the boxes and read them all in the dark, so they came back today for about 3 hours (just 2 people). I've been here with the kids (and our fabulous babysitter) all day. So far they've handled things pretty well, but they are starting to get mean and nasty with each other. I'm soooo stinking tired right now I can hardly see straight. I think I'll go lay down and take a nap before we head out to my brother-in-law's for the night.

Packing

The packers are here. All I can say is that we have WAY too much junk. You think you've gotten ride of stuff, gone through everything. What a bunch of junk. I keep thinking, "100 years ago..." and "in a 3rd world country..."

The good news is that they are done upstairs and working quickly through the downstairs. The bad news - they still have to do the kitchen, garage and 2 sheds. At least they scheduled 2 days for this!

Now, go clean out a closet!

The Move

The last couple of weeks, I have caught myself saying numerous times, "what a zoo". Every time I kind of laugh to myself and think that I gave my blog a very appropriate name!

The packers arrive tomorrow morning between 8 and 10. We are NOT ready for them. Oh well, I'm guessing they won't arrive until 10. I get the most done early in the morning, so I've given up for the night. Our house is a mess!

No our house hasn't sold or rented yet. But hey, we did have someone come look at the house TODAY, interested in renting. Yes, the house was a mess when they showed up. They did call ahead of time, but Old Man was outside and I was at the midwife, so we didn't know they were coming. Did I mention we even emptied the attic today, into our bedroom? Yep, a mess. I'm guessing they will be the ones who want to rent. Nothing like working your tail off for a couple of months to keep the house ready to be shown only to have it shown at its absolute worst.

Back to the move. Packers here Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday, Old Man has to go to Virginia for outprocessing and a farewell luncheon. Obviously these people have no clue about moving or they would have planned it 2 weeks ago! Thursday the movers will come and empty the house. Friday morning, Old Man has to go to the Pentagon to do his final sign out. Not sure what we will be doing. I thought about cleaning some, but now I'm thinking breakfast at IHOP is a much better choice. :-) We drive out Friday afternoon.

For all you who think I'm nuts to drive this, I am. BUT, we are being wise about it! We will do no more than 6 hours of driving in a day and we are stopping every 2 hours. Seriously, I'm 31 weeks pregnant - how long can I go without peeing? And, yes, we are taking 2 cars.

Did I mention we need prayer??? Specifically for the drive, house here to rent or sell, buying a house in Colorado - the obvious stuff. But please also pray for the kids. Dawn, our oldest, is very sad. She is handling it well though. Anne, #2, not handling it real well. For those of you who know her, you can guess how easy she is being. The boys are doing pretty well. Pray also for the marriage here - moving is VERY stressful. Add pregnancy and the fact that this area is "home" for Old Man and you have a good chance of fighting.

All right, to bed. I am TIRED and I live in a zoo. :-)

I Might Be a TINY Bit Emotionally Unstable

I was out running some errands yesterday and realized (very quickly) that not bringing a bottle of water was a huge mistake. Now, normally not having water with me isn't an issue. Not a reason to stress. But, given my current state, drinking water is critical to my well being and my baby's well being. I thought, no big deal, I'll just pick up a bottle of water at Target. I finish my shopping at Target - NO water in the refrigerated section up front. I still had to pick the kids up from the pool, so I debated what to do now. At first I thought I would be fine, but as soon as I went outside, I knew I needed to get some water. I decided to just go to McDonald's and purchase a bottle of water and ask for a large cup of ice. Of course, there was a family ahead of me and they took their sweet time deciding what they wanted, and the lady behind the counter wasn't paying attention and took a few minutes to figure out that a line had formed. At this point, a couple of men had also come in and were standing off to the side a little. The family orders their food and I am sweetly waiting, very patiently. Then, the MEN went up to the counter. At this point, I'm a little irritated, just feeling like it was pretty rude for a couple of men to cut in front of an obviously pregnant woman. But, again, not a big deal. I'm fine. Finally, my turn. I ask for a bottle of water and a cup of ice. She hands me a cup that would hold NOTHING. I said, "Can I get a bigger cup? I'm very thirsty and would like a large cup of ice." She looks at me with absolute confusion on her face. Then, the manager steps up, "You have to pay for a larger cup - same as a 16 ounce drink." WHAT? "Ummm, I just want a cup of ice to go with my water." All the time I'm thinking "can't they see I'm very pregnant?" I wanted to ask them if they wanted me to go into premature labor, but decided that would be rude. So I said fine. Gave her 2 dollars and waited for my change. She gets out my change, shuts the drawer, drops a quarter on the floor, looks for 2 seconds and tells me I will have to wait for me 25 cents. At this point, I started boiling. I grabbed the water bottle said, "Thanks, but just forget it." And I left the store. I get to my car and start crying. Why can't someone be nice to a pregnant woman? What is wrong with the people here? Put me in a funk for a couple of hours.

Yes, I'm emotionally a wreck. I'm crying over water, ice and a quarter.

Confirming our Direction

Life has been pretty stressful the last couple of weeks. Still not a single person looking at our house. It is now below market value and listed as a rental on a couple of military rental sites. Nothing. Not a thing. Old Man is not thrilled about moving right now - for many reasons. I'm just tired and not up for much beyond finding a comfortable chair and reading a good book! :-) Because of all this, we both were feeling like somehow we had pushed a move that God wasn't wanting, but we kept begging. We finally sat down Friday and had a really good talk about what we had prayed for and that, if we believe God wanted this move, then we need to trust Him with the details. Now, I know this doesn't mean our house will sell or rent or anything. Maybe He wants us to learn how to budget our finances TIGHTLY for a while. We don't know. We do know that He has a plan and we need to trust Him with our lives.

Saturday, my sister called me and told me that our Great-Aunt has offered her house to us for a full month after we move. WOW. We thought we were going to be living with my sister! Which, in theory would be fine. We get along well, her house is big enough. But, in reality, adding 6 people (one who is 2 and one who is hugely pregnant) is a lot to ask of anyone - especially for an indefinite amount of time. Now we have a whole month of time just given to us. If we have to live with my sister at that point, it will be for a month less than originally thought! God just blessed us and confirmed that this IS what He wants for us. Ahhhh, I can't tell you how much I needed that confirmation and blessing.

Now, a much smaller thing, but still, a need. I mentioned last week that the only thing we didn't have for this baby is an infant car seat. No big deal, we'll pick one up when we get to Colorado. Yesterday, we met with a group of friends for dinner. These are friends from WAY back in California - back when we were newlyweds. They are like our family. One of the girls had her 5th baby last year. She shows up and tells me she has a few things for the baby - if we want them. What do you think she gives me? Yep, a car seat. Used for ONE baby - in excellent condition. And, she only buys the best, so I know it is a great car seat. Again, thank you GOD for meeting our needs.

Old Man has called me twice this morning - I believe this is a record. :-) First he called to tell me the official move dates are finalized (another small, but necessary thing here that we have been waiting on). We got the dates we wanted! The packers will be here July 8 and 9 and the movers will be here July 10. That means we drive out on the 11th - exactly as we had hoped. The 2nd thing was another small, but necessary item we needed. He is taking some military classes. He wrote a paper a week ago and submitted it. He needed it graded so he can get the materials for his next course (1000+ pages of reading and a test - all needing to be done by September 5). Sure enough, the paper has been graded - he got an excellent on it - and his new books are being sent. Thank You God!

So, God is good. He knows our needs and He is meeting them. I just need to be very very patient and trust that they will be met. And that whatever happens with the house is what we need. :-)

Our Youngest

I've been wanting to do a post for a while about each of the kids. We will start with the youngest, David, and see how far I get. :-) It might just be one post about him and none about the rest!

David is 2 and 3 months now. His verbal skills are amazing, his ability to throw a fit is unsurpassed, he screams "NO" as well as any 2 year old ever has, he can give wonderful hugs (when he's in the mood) and he is cute as a button one second and I'm ready to give him away the next.

A couple weeks ago, he had some pasta on his plate and I put a spoonful of vegetables on his plate. He looked at his plate for a few seconds, looks up and says, "Can you take the carrot out of my pasta?" WHAT? Excuse me? Old Man and I just stared at each other and started laughing! David is most definitely a neat freak, can you tell? He puts books on the bookshelf correctly - none of my other kids have figured that one out yet. He stacks bowls - in order of size - again, the only one. He likes things organized and neat. And man, can that kid do a puzzle! He is almost as good as Joseph - our 4-1/2 year old! Oh, and he loves to color. In other words, his fine motor skills are very advanced. But, just so we stay humble, remember, he is strong willed. He fights us nonstop on most issues.

Isn't it great to have a big sister who can slick your hair over and take a picture of it? :-)


Another picture taken by big sis, Dawn. She took some really cool ones of the kids on the trampoline. In most of them, David is picking his nose. :-)

A No Good, Very Bad Day

Warning: I'm grumpy.

I woke up at 6:30 this morning with a horrific headache. I took 2 ibuprofen right away. No help. My stomach is hurting due to the headache. And, I seem to have developed heartburn - no matter whether I eat or not, no matter what I eat. So, I'm feeling pretty bad this morning. I really just want to crawl back in bed and sleep/read the rest of the day. No such luck! We had to get ready for the house to be shown! Yep, a scheduled showing from 1:30-3:30 today. I should have told them that was a horrible time, but I was caught off guard, said "sure" and regretted it instantly. See, I had a midwife appointment scheduled for 1 today, so had a babysitter coming over to watch the kids. That way David could still get his nap and I could go and have an easy appointment, by myself. Change of plans!

Around 9:30 this morning, I was actually back in bed, taking a nap. Where were the kids you might wonder? Anne was playing a computer game - which kept both boys occupied. Not sure what Dawn was doing. I managed a 30 minute nap. 2 more ibuprofen (don't kill me folks, I know this is bad during pregnancy, but so was my headache!) and half a cup of coffee and I started to feel better around 10:30. At that point I tell the kids what all they need to get done. Much grumbling and complaining and whining (it's horrible when I do this!). :-) We managed to get the laundry put away, the whole house vacuumed, bathrooms wiped down, kitchen cleaned up and all of us out the door around 12:15. Phew.

I pick up our babysitter and we head to Subway. (Remember, my house is spotless. Not a chance those kids are eating in there!) We're running late for my appointment, so I'm very frustrated when the parking garage is full. I finally park in a garage further away and pick up my cell phone. Someone left me a message. The house showing is canceled. All that work, with a massive headache, for nothing. Just shoot me folks. Now I'm at the appointment - 15 minutes late, with 4 kids and a babysitter and we spent money on lunch. Argh!

Now, for the really horrible part of my day. This part nearly made me cry. As I got to the door of the midwife's office, I realized that my shoe was broken. Are you kidding me? I hate to shop. Hate. I own very few pairs of shoes. This pair I happened to purchase at a Marshall's or TJ Maxx in Colorado Springs last summer. Not a chance I can replace them. And they were comfortable!!!!! At this point, comfort is key. I truly wanted to cry. Could anything else go wrong?

David didn't nap the entire day. That's what else could go wrong. And my headache is back, in full strength. Old Man was supposed to get home early. It's almost 4, he left before 6 - can someone tell me if that is a short day at work?

On a positive note. My blood pressure was 110/60 - which truly shocked me. I thought for sure she would send me to bed! :-) Everything else is fine too. And our babysitter is a wonderful help. Oh, and it's Friday. I think I'll take the kids swimming at the neighbors, read my book and drink some water. And try, try, try to forget about this day.

Very Very Funny

I completely forgot to post about this until now.

A couple weeks ago, I was shopping at a maternity clothing store. This young, tiny woman was shopping there too. She became very chatty. All about how hard it is to find maternity clothes when you're so tiny and petite and a size 0. I really wanted to tell her to shove off, but being a nice, charitable person, I listened. I eventually told her we were moving, baby #5, blah blah. Then, she said the funniest thing to me. I swear, I keep thinking I heard her wrong. She said, "Well, if you're a Christian, then the baby will just fall out!" What, excuse me? Are you saying that if I'm not a Christian, then the baby will get stuck? Wow. None of my babies have just fallen out. Guess I'm not a Christian. Darn, all this time I've been thinking I was. I didn't realize that the true test was if the baby just falls out! By the way, I'm definitely a Christian NOW. I made sure. This baby is going to FALL OUT! :-)

Sometimes you just have to laugh at what people say!

Moving

Ahh, the joys of moving!

Our house is on the market. The open house was a complete waste of time. One person came by to see the house, one person called. And other than that, nothing! No one has called to look at the house. I'm struggling to not stress over this. And, truthfully, not doing a very good job. I know God is in control. I know He knows who will buy our house. I know that all things will work together for good ... BUT, that does NOT mean that my house will sell in the next few weeks - before we move. And that is what I am struggling with. My dear Old Man does not want to buy a house until we sell this one. Which would be fine, except that we have this baby on her way. My sister has graciously said we can stay in her basement until we get a house. But let's be serious here folks. How long can anyone tolerate an extra 6 people living with them. Remember, one is a 2 year old and another is a fat, cranky, miserable pregnant woman. Get the picture? I'm guessing 2 weeks will be fine. A month and she will wish I never moved to Colorado to begin with. Soooo, I need this house to sell!!!

Now, on to buying another house. Since Old Man doesn't want to buy until we sell here, not much to say. He actually suggested we may just have to rent. Again, who wants to rent to a family with 5 kids and a cat????? WHO? Plus, I would feel so overly responsible to take care of that person's house. I would freak over every ding in the wall, every stain in the carpet, every crayon mark, everything. It's not MY house!!

I also have this strange thing going on with buying a house. Since we are selling a house, I have HUGE amounts of empathy for other people selling houses. I look at houses to buy in Colorado and I feel sorry for the sellers. I want to buy the house, just so they don't have to stress over selling their house. And offer full price! I mean, these people have put their time and money into their house. They may even need the full price asked, etc. Obviously, Old Man will have to do the business dealings here. I am just too full of emotion over their plight right now.

Last thing. I love Old Man. Truly, love him. He is incredible. But, he pretty much stinks at communication. If I don't ask, he probably won't tell me. Take our conversation earlier today. First, he was leaving work early. Massive storms in the area - tornado warnings, etc. He isn't home and it is after 5. I, understandly, start to get a little concerned. Can't get him on the cell phone, etc. I finally reach him around 5:15 - STILL at work in Virginia. Ummm, he didn't think to call me and say he wasn't leaving before 3??? After 15 minutes of chatting, he's ready to get off the phone. I say, "I suppose you haven't heard about your orders." His reply, "Oh, yeah, their sitting right here on my desk. I printed them out." Excuse me? You didn't think to tell me this? At this point I'm ripping my hair out! :-) (For you non-military types - without orders, we can't move. We can't get movers scheduled. We can't do anything. They are necessary and very important!)

Last couple of items. I will post pictures in the next couple of days. This blog is a tad long on words and dry on pictures. And, very last thing. It's 7 o'clock and Old Man isn't home yet. Gotta love DC traffic and his awful commute! (Oh, he called around 6 and was leaving then - shall we take a bet to see if he makes it home in time to watch the beginning of the hockey game?)

Hello!

I haven't been writing much, due to a few extra things going on right now. :-) Thought I would get in a quick update.

We were out of town this past week. Took our one week of vacation this year. We got to go to a Naval Rec Center here in Maryland that we just love. Right on the water, protected, not many people, hiking, parks, relaxing. Very very nice. We were all sad that we had only planned to be gone 5 days!! Oh well. We came home yesterday afternoon and hit the ground running.

Today was our Open House. Or, I should say, was supposed to be. We spent yesterday doing all the laundry and this morning making sure the house was cleaner than it ever has been. Then, about 2 hours before the Open House was supposed to start - rain. Not just a drizzle. Lightning, thunder, drenching rain. Oh, and did I mention the Tornado Watch? It all went away about 5 minutes before the Open House was supposed to be OVER. Needless to say, we canceled it and it is now happening tomorrow from 1-4 ... we hope. :-) My neighbor said this was all a sign that we weren't supposed to move. I said that I was believing this is God's way of saying He is in control. :-)

So, I am way over tired. WAY over tired. I'm 25 weeks pregnant and we are moving in 6 weeks. Our house has been on the market for 3 days. It is clean, but it will take a huge amount of effort to keep it even close to this state for very long! Plus, I need to get back to school mode this week. Finish up a bit of school and order supplies for next year. We have a ballet recital next weekend for Anne (which will take a lot of work this week). A family reunion for Old Man's family the last weekend in June. Can't think of what else is on the schedule. I think I'm ready to go back to the beach! I'll read, sleep, take baths, go for long walks, sit on the beach, swim ...

All right, back to reality. Maybe I should go to bed early tonight. :-) Oh! Hockey game on at 8 - Old Man won't even notice if I'm not in the room. :-)

How is everyone else doing?

Update on Vertigo Issue

While putting some books away today, I found a pregnancy journal I had kept while pregnant with my 1st child. (I only did that for baby #1, by the way - all the rest, nothing!) I glanced at a page - 22 weeks pregnant. Funny, I had horrible vertigo one day while 22 weeks pregnant with my 1st child!!! Hmmmm, what does that mean??? Melissa??? Any ideas?

Bad Mom Alert

I am not fit to be a mother today. I was feeling very sick this morning with vertigo. Since Old Man leaves at 6 in the morning, I didn't know this until he was already long gone. What do you do if you can't stand up for very long? Actually, it started off with just a little bit of dizziness, but quickly progressed to me feeling like throwing up while I stood. So I called the babysitter, asked her to come over asap (I should tell you about her - she is amazing - lives 5 minutes away, so was here in 15 minutes). I went to bed as soon as I called her. Oh, woke up the 10 year old and put her in charge while the babysitter was on her way. After a couple of hours in bed, I felt well enough to get a shower and come downstairs. Strange. Now we are getting to the horrible mom thing. It's 11ish this morning. I've been downstairs for maybe, hmmm, 15 minutes. I realize that none of us changed David's diaper. It is my responsibility, so don't blame the babysitter. First, I was up with him for 2 hours before she came over - and I didn't change it. Second, I always ask her if it needs to be done. As soon as I realized we hadn't changed him yet, I went to pick him up out of our LaZBoy chair. Stuck my hand right in the poop that was clear up his back. GROSS. His diaper was soooooo full of pee and poop that it couldn't hold it all. GROSS. Then I realized we only had 3 wipes downstairs - one for his back, one for my hand and one for the chair. I had to cart him upstairs, strip him down, wipe poop off of everything and give him a bath. Oh, and wash my hands 20 times. GROSS.

I'm turning in my Mother License this afternoon.

On a very funny note: apparently the other day our 4 year old son, Joseph, told his sister that he would rule over her one day. She was not impressed. I thought it was hilarious. Where do they come up with this stuff?

The Joys of De-cluttering

I think that title is a little bit of sarcasm. Anyone agree? So, as you can imagine, we are in frantic mode at my house. We need to have the house on the market by June 1, at the latest - preferably by May 23. Make note of that - it is less than 2 weeks from today. If I gave you the list of all that needs to be done, you would pass out. I feel like it. And I'm still attempting to finish school in the same 2 weeks, although it is definitely becoming less of a priority each day. (Especially since I missed taking a needed nap yesterday in order to do school work. Ouch.)

Yesterday I worked on getting the boys' room ready. It actually looks great right now! A friend called while I was working on it and she came over to help. (She brought her 4 kids too, so while we cleaned upstairs, the kids destroyed downstairs. :-) Oh well!) We took down the crib, sorted toys and books, moved the bed, rearranged all the furniture, cleaned, ... We even managed to get the crib in the attic! Old Man wasn't impressed that I helped to move a double bed while pregnant. I sweetly (ha) reminded him that HE ISN'T HOME to help me, so what am I to do? Yep, he worked another 14 hour day yesterday. I thought this would end once the move was certain. Sigh.

Today, we are tackling the girls' room. I am down here, on the computer, to lower my blood pressure. Nothing like opening the closet and seeing clothes everywhere - on the floor, the shelves, on top of the hangers - but NOT on the hangers. My blood pressure shot up, I took everything out of the closet, put it in a huge pile and told them they had 30 minutes or I was giving it all away. Each of the girls has been down here crying. Not budging. Nope, not. Other than that, it's going ok, but very very slow. Anne, our 7 year old wanted to keep half of a plastic egg. Why? Why? Why? Can anyone explain this to me? She collects everything. Rocks, feathers, beads, lip gloss, plastic jewelry, broken things, half of toys ... This could take a few days.

Better run. My blood pressure is down. I need to eat something. Hold David, who just crawled on my lap. Get back to work.

IT'S SIGNED!!!!

It is official. The waiver is signed (was on Monday, but did they think to call us and tell us? NO. Whatever.). Now it just has to go through AFPC (Air Force Personnel Center for all you non military folks) to have the orders made official. Old Man asked for a report no later than date of August 1, which means he will plan to leave here around July 15.

You probably think I'm jumping up and down right now, thrilled. Nope. I think I'm starting to panic. Feel overwhelmed. Freaking out. We have sooooo incredibly much to do, decisions to make, house to sell, things to get rid of, YIKES! Yep, panic. That is my feeling. Fortunately I have some verses posted next to me that I will be quoting over and over for the next couple months. Philippians 4:19, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Isaiah 40:31 and Galatians 6:9.

Gotta go. TONS to do!

I'm Having a Moment

I've been really patient with this whole not knowing thing. Serene, calm, not worried, patient. But right now, at this exact moment, I'm NOT. My living room is a shambles. We had it painted over the weekend and nothing is put back where it belongs. What to do? Do I put it all back the way it was, or pack up stuff in prep to sell? The lawn needs mowed - badly. But since we don't know if we're moving, Old Man is still putting in long hours at work and hasn't had time to mow. I would do it, am seriously contemplating mowing, but our lawn mower's self-propelled thingy is broken and the lawn mower might break me if I mow (which I am still thinking about doing). Hire someone else? Great thought, but so far I've been unable to come up with someone who can do it without hiring a service. Basically, I'm just tired of not being able to move forward. Do I pack up a bunch of stuff in prep for moving? Do I just try to reorganize and get rid of a few things in prep for baby #5 living in this house? Argh.

Ok, things could be worse, much worse. I keep telling myself this. Normally it works, but not at this moment. I will tell you about 3 people who are going through much worse things than I am right now. Maybe this will help fix my perspective.

Friend #1. They own a rental house. Went to check on it over the weekend. Largest amount of marijuana growing in a house EVER found in that county. Nice. They don't live in that town and are moving to England this summer. So in the next month they have to get the tenant officially evicted, clean up the house (which may require extensive renovations) and decide whether to attempt to sell or keep the house, all in addition to getting ready to move overseas!

Friend #2 (I don't actually know her, just know of her through another friend). They just moved to Hawaii. Expecting baby #7. Husband is on a ship and will be on it when baby is born. Living in a 1000 sq foot house - which has a termite problem. Household goods? Still on a boat somewhere. No maternity clothes, nothing. Oh, and she homeschools.

Friend #3. Her husband just died, at the age of 29, in a motorcycle accident last week. She is a widow, at 31 years of age with 3 children under 10 years of age.

Ok. So, see, my situation is NO BIG DEAL. No one is dead. My husband is in town (sort of - he works in another state, but he is home at nights!). If we don't get the waiver, no big deal, he will put in his retirement papers. Either way, this horrendous commute will end in the next 6 months. We can put the house on the market today, as it looks, and God is still in control of selling it. Bottom line. God is in control. He knows what is going on. He has a plan. Do I trust Him? Breathe, Tonya, breathe. Time to put on some uplifting music, pray for a while and get my mind back on track.

***Just in case you're wondering, we will not put the house up for rent. See Friend #1 above. :-)

The Reunion

Well, we made it to Old Man's reunion. And it was definitely interesting. I was trying to figure out how to tell about it and really haven't come up with something creative, so I'll just tell things chronologically.

We left Friday around noon. Got stuck in traffic, of course. Poor Old Man - he drives this awful route to work - 55 miles one way around DC - and hates it with a passion. Nothing like starting out a vacation with your most hated commute!! We arrived at the hotel around 5. The first event was a dinner at a country club. Just my thing! :-) The whole weekend we heard, "Is this your first baby?" "Nope, our fifth." "Oh! God Bless You." WHAT is up with that response? Almost everyone said that. One person I know was introducing me to another lady and told her that I was expecting my fifth and I homeschool, "She's a superhero mom." Really? Don't you want to BE like a superhero? If that's the case you all better start getting busy having more babies, quit your job and start homeschooling your kids. I think what she meant to say was, "This woman is NUTS!"

Highlights???, maybe memorable events is a better explanation, from Friday night - sitting across the table from a woman with a new set of head lights and watching her n*pple pop out of her dress; having a woman argue with me that my eye color cannot be hazel, they are blue; listening to the guys tell hilarious stories from college.

Saturday we had pictures at the college at 9:30 and then wandered around there. Nap at the hotel and then Old Man and I - just the two of us, NICE - went into town and walked around. We ate a late lunch in an empty restaurant while it poured rain - very very nice. We even got to wander around an antique mall, something we used to love to do but have given up since we have all these people with us who love to touch things. That evening we had a barbecue at a picnic pavilion. Again, just my thing - hamburgers, hot dogs, iceberg lettuce salad, etc. Oh, another night to watch 40+ year old men get smashing drunk. It poured rain, so we were thankful for such a large pavilion, but it was extremely loud under there! After the picnic, Old Man and I went to a restaurant so I could eat something before trying to sleep!

Memorable events - watching 40+ year old men (and some women) do a beer bong. Really? A beer bong. Nice to know that our leaders in the military can still be soooo stinking stupid. At what point do we grow up? Explain this to me. Chainsaw and Ranee, you're on the spot here - I have a feeling you've seen more of this than I have (please don't tell me you've participated, I don't want to know, it will lower my opinion of you greatly - unless you were 20 at the time).

The big highlight of Sunday was getting a phone call at 7:45 from my neighbor (you know something is wrong when your neighbor calls you and you're out of town). She puts Dawn on the phone and Dawn tells me that Grandma has thrown up all night and can't walk. Fortunately those neighbors are wonderful and willingly took my 4 kids and my niece to their house for the morning. They played Wii and watched a movie and did crafts. We, obviously, left the hotel rather quickly so were home by noon.

Back to reality! :-) And trust me, this has been a Monday. Tired Mommy, tired kids, recuperating Grandma. Grumpy, irritated people running all over my house. Did I mention it's raining and I can't kick anyone outside? And Old Man will be home late? And we still don't have the stinking waiver in hand?

Patience, trust, joy - all lacking here today.

It's a GIRL!

We had the 20 week ultrasound yesterday and it is confirmed - we're having a girl. Everyone is happy, although I am surprised at how excited our 7 year old, Anne, is about this. We went to a museum yesterday and while there, I took a picture and said, "say cheese". Anne yells out, "NO, say It's a girl!" She is obviously thrilled.

Old Man and I are off to his college reunion today. You can pray for us. I'm happy to get away with him, but not excited about his college reunion. Nothing like attending a 20 year college reunion with your very pregnant wife. Others there have kids in college! The comments have already started via e-mail.

Update

I know, I know, you are all dying to hear what is happening about us moving to Colorado! Well, frankly, so am I. I will tell you that we are only one signature away from the waiver being completely signed. Once that is signed, I am told that we will be moving for sure. Of course, since this is the Air Force, one can never be too sure of anything. I will feel much better when orders are in hand and a move date is locked in. And even better when this house is sold and another purchased in Colorado! :-)

While I Was Sleeping ...

This actually happened a couple of weeks ago. I went upstairs to take a nap. When I came down, Dawn handed me the camera and said, "You've got to see this!" Apparently the girls decided to turn Joseph into a rocker. He happily complied.



At some point, the girls decided to put a "tattoo" on him. It's just stickers and a piece of paper taped to his chest. Note the stickers on his ears too!!


They also did his hair!

Can you believe that these kids have never seen MTV or a music video? I'm not kidding! Dawn has watched a bit of American Idol, but truly, very little. How do they come up with these ideas???