Loving Life

Here I am with one week to go before my due date.  Will I ever stop being pregnant?  I would like to think so, but it sometimes feels like I'll be forever pregnant.  Isn't Abby cute peeking around my tummy? With the finish line in sight, and my work on trying to stay positive these last few days, I thought I'd take a moment to discuss the benefits of having your own personal shelf (aka big belly).  1.  The best benefit is having a place to hold things when sitting down.  It's great to rest a cup of tea on top, or your dinner plate if you decide to not eat at a table.  It also serves well for a book holder or any electronic devise.  Having this shelf greatly reduces arm fatigue from having to hold up your own possessions. 2.  My shelf also serves as a pants protector.  Before I got this shelf, I would constantly spill things on my pants when eating.  No more!  My shelf is my own personal pants protector.  No mo...

I'm now 2 weeks until my due date. We've entered the waiting game. This is usually the hardest part for me. Even though I have never ever gone into labor before my due date (always right on my due date), I keep hoping that this time it will happen.  I'm getting increasingly larger and more uncomfortable and lots slower on my everyday tasks.  I've had several nights and days of regular contractions where I start to think "maybe this is it!" but it always stops after awhile.  It's so hard to be patient. I'm working hard on telling myself that I will be going the full 40 weeks and will have a December baby so I can stop being so extremely disappointed when my false contractions go away.  I did have a few hard emotional days last week where keeping life in perspective got a little too hard. Nothing that a few good cry sessions couldn't help. But I had a lovely weekend with Aaron this past weekend.  We went away to a marriage conference.  We stayed t...

First, I'll start off with the obligatory tummy picture since I know you have all been breathlessly awaiting the latest picture to gawk at just how far out one woman's tummy can get.  I have less than 3 1/2 weeks to go!  I just cleaned my mirror two days before this picture. It apparently didn't last long.  Grr. Here's a picture that I had David take of me.  I'm trying to explain which button to push and how to focus the camera - hence the weird facial expression. I am so ready to have this baby.  At my doctor appointment yesterday, he said I'm already 2 cm dilated and my cervix is all thinned out.  Yea! That makes me happy that all the random contractions I've been having have not been in vain.  Progress is happening.  As you can see, I never "drop" like other women do. I just continue to stick out farther and farther as my baby packs on the pounds. Abby is also getting ready for baby.  I turned our dresser to...

Ana was on the food committee for her class' Halloween party.  She volunteered to bring brownies, suckers, and candy monsters.  She was most excited about making candy monsters.  Here's a sampling of her work. I know it's hard to tell what everything is since they are all bunched up together, but they turned out super cute.  Each one is different.  She couldn't wait to go to school today to share them with her classmates. These are currently the best things ever. Caramel Pear Scones. My recipe made 10 of them.  There are currently nine left.  I want to soon make that eight.  If someone tries to help me not over-indulge in these lovely things, they may get their hand bitten off. Someone needs to teach David to put his school work away as he finishes it instead of moving to a clean spot on the table for the next subject.  This is the table at the end of his school day. This is baby's stuffed doggie and blankie. My mom has bought ea...

I guess we're back to poor quality self portraits in the bathroom.  Here I am with my torpedo belly.  Isn't it lovely?  When I'm pregnant, I only stick straight out.  I never "drop" - probably due to the fact that even if the baby drops down, there's still a whole lot of baby left to fit in my uterus! - I'm doing pretty good for the most part.  I'm definitely getting ready to not be pregnant again.  And the thought of having a baby instead is making me excited. - My level of achiness and general weariness is increasing, but that's to be expected. - My belly button is sticking out farther than it ever has before. - The baby must be sucking the calcium out of my bones as I'm craving milk and dairy products like you wouldn't believe. Normally the thought of drinking a glass of milk just because it sounds so good would have never crossed my mind. - The baby is also sucking the iron out of my blood. I was anemic on my last blood draw...

I have a new bed. Here it is: I've taken to sleeping on the couch lately as it seems to be the only place I can get a decent night's sleep.  I'm not sure why, but I think it has to do with being able to rest my back against something and I can be somewhat more propped up here than in our bed.  The moment I get totally flat in our bed, I have nasty heartburn and then can't sleep.  Grr. So instead of tossing and turning in bed until 2AM every night as I had been doing, I decided that after snuggling with Aaron for a few moments and waiting the three minutes it takes for him to fall asleep, I'll just immediately head out to the couch and get some sleep.  This is how I typically spend the last two months of pregnancy.  It will be good to get back to my bed once this season is over! On other pregnancy news: I passed my one hour glucose test! Yea! This is the second one I had to take with this pregnancy.  The first one was very early on as...

I finally have a picture of me that I didn't take myself!  Here I am with 2 1/2 months to go! Last week I got asked six different times, by six different people if I was having twins.  No, I'm not.  But thanks for kindly letting me know I look like a tank. I felt a little emotional last week about my size.  I'm not, nor will I ever be one of those tiny, cute, little pregnant women. I would think that since I'm taller than many women that I would be able to hide a little more of my pregnancy in my torso length.  But my babies like to pop straight out and show the world that they exist.  Working at a countertop or stove is getting a little more cumbersome. When I do dishes, my stomach is always getting wet as it sits closer to the water.  I've slightly burnt my tummy a few times too when it gets against the hot stove.  Abby is still in love with Fluffball, though she complained once that Fluffball hogs up a lot of the...

David had his second cross country meet yesterday.  It was amazingly hot and very muggy out.  So much that they shortened all the races to keep kids from overheating.  The middle school race got shortened down to about 1.2 miles.  David did pretty well as he is used to training in the heat.  He would complain about going out for a run with Aaron on the really hot days of summer, but Aaron would always tell him that it would help make him tougher than other kids.  And it paid off.  He was the second boy on his team this race and had a decent time despite the heat.  Picture quality here isn't the best.  It was so sunny and bright out that I couldn't see my display to see if I actually had David in the picture.  Here are two that are okay. Abby got ahold of the camera after the race and took a bunch of random pictures.  This one of Aaron towering over her amuses me because I forget how everyone must look so tall to her when she'...

I guess it's been a few weeks since I last posted a tummy shot.  Here you go.  Sorry for the poor picture quality.  Maybe someday I'll have Aaron take a real picture of me when I'm dressed up nicely.  Until then, this will have to do! So I believe at the end of next week, I will officially be in my third trimester (yea!)  Here's a brief update on how I'm doing: I already feel pretty huge, so I'm a little worried about just how big I'm going to get. Eating is fun and I don't feel sick most of the time. Sleeping is harder and I have more bad nights of sleep than I prefer. The girls talk to their little sister everyday and give her lots of hugs - they can't wait to see her! I love to feel her kick and squirm and watch my tummy move around as she does it. I'm starting back with walking again - feeling pretty slow, but at least I'm moving! Caught another kidney infection early before it got too severe - still on meds for that one. I starte...

In approximately 44 hours, I will hopefully know the gender of this baby!  I'm so very excited about this.  I just hope baby cooperates with us and let's us know!  If baby does not cooperate, you can be assured that I will be one very disappointed mama.  I will post an update sometime on Wednesday afternoon!  Right now I'm thinking it's a boy.  But by me thinking it's a boy, that's pretty much a guarantee for it being a girl. I am 0-3 in my gender guessing.  Aaron, on the other hand is 3 - 0 when it comes to knowing the gender of his children.  He is saying it's a girl.  We'll see if he continues his winning streak. On other not so exciting news, I got a phone call today from David's orthodontist saying that the impressions they took to get his false tooth were somehow destroyed in the mail, so we'll need to go in again on Wednesday afternoon and retake the impressions and start over again.  : (  Hopefully it won't delay...

I took this picture yesterday before church - I'm almost 19 weeks here - definitely looking pregnant. Aaron finally felt the baby move last night.  It made him happy.  I had been able to feel it from the outside for several weeks now, but every time I tried to get Aaron's hand there, the baby would stop kicking.  I'm enjoying feeling good again and having a little more energy - though I do get more tired out sooner than I used to.  I guess that goes with the territory.  Next week is our ultrasound appointment.  We decided that we are going to find out what we are having!!!  I'm super excited about this! Yesterday, right as church was ending, David took a nasty fall at church.  Somehow, the only thing he managed to hurt was his lips and one front tooth. It appeared that his single tooth took the entire fall.  He cracked it vertically from top to bottom, and then along the gum line was another crack running horizontally.  S...

Seems like it's been awhile since I posted anything.  We've had a very busy last few weeks.  First my family all came out to help my Grandpa celebrate his 90th birthday.  It was fun to be able to see everyone again and hang out.  One day we took our family and my brother's family up to a nearby lake and let them all have fun swimming around.  Everyone enjoyed it.  I didn't swim though as I need the temperature to be about 95 outside to be hot enough to feel like swimming is a good idea.  I'm cold enough most other times of the year that I'd rather not be cold when I'm supposed to be hot!  Here are my kids during a snack break (don't mind David's puffed out cheeks) - they were all cold from coming out of the water, so the girls huddled up to David to pretend they were penguins and get warmed up. Earlier this year, my MIL and I worked on making a border for my flower bed.  I'm still looking for fuss free perrenials to fill in the gaps, but I'm...

Well, I reached my walking goal last week.  I walked 11.6 miles.  That made my short week the week before average out to a little past my 10 mile/week goal.  Yea!  I'm on track for this week to get the distance in as long as nothing unusual happens. I had my 16 week check-up today.  Everything is looking good.  Next appointment is my ultrasound.  I hope by then we will have decided that we want to find out the gender of the baby.  And by "we", I mean Aaron.  : )  Being that I have no baby items left, I'd like to know what to prepare for.  I've already had to pass up several amazing garage sales with baby items in them because they were all gender specific clothing.  Argh!  Softball season is almost over.  I had lots of girls missing this week due to camp.  Despite that, and having to bring up three t-ball girls to have a complete team with our last two games, we won both of those games!  What fun...

We've had a busy last week or so.  Here's some big news in Abby's life.  She lost her two front teeth. They came out about four days apart.  She truly lost the second tooth and wasn't able to put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy.  The tooth fairy apparently isn't as vigiliant about leaving money when there is no actual tooth to collect.  But after a few days, our tooth fairy remembered and finally slipped some money under Abby's pillow along with an extra quarter for having to wait so long for her to decide to show up.  At the same time, David had a tooth under his pillow for about three weeks waiting for the tooth fairy.  The tooth fairy finally had to visit during the day when he wasn't in his room, when she finally remembered to pick up the tooth.  It's hard on the tooth fairy to show up when David stays up later than the tooth fairy does these days.  Here's Abby's new look: She's also delighted with the fact that she doesn't ha...

I made myself a salad and ate it yesterday!  It was so exciting to eat a salad again!  Notice that I had to cover it with a sauteed chicken breast and sunflower seeds, but that is in fact a bed of lettuce underneath! It didn't taste too bad to me.  That made me happy. I couldn't bring myself to add other vegetables to it, but I'm hoping that will come.  I need to keep reminding myself to stop grocery shopping like I'm not pregnant.  My fridge has all sorts of lovely produce in it right now that I can't bring myself to eat.  Sigh.  This lettuce and spinach came from my garden, so that helped with the desire factor.  I also added in some fresh dill, parsley and a bit of mint from the garden too.  Yum!  I have also found that water is back to almost normal for me if I drink it with lots of ice and add a bit of lemon juice to it.  Thanks, Melanie, for the suggestion!  I've been taking walks during school time for the past few day...

I had a lovely weekend here in my little corner of the world.  My Friday was awesome.  It was the first time in weeks that I felt like a normal human full of energy with no nausea.  It was glorious.  I now have hope for the next week or so as I finish out this trimester that I will again feel human.  Let us hope that this pregnancy follows the example of my previous ones! I enjoyed my Mother's Day.  I have given Aaron permission to not stress about making the day perfect and buying my expensive gifts.  I really don't want  Aaron to buy me something because he "has to do it".  He's good at doing sweet things for me throughout the year just because.  Those mean WAY more to me than anything else.  I saw on the news that the average American spends $154 on Mother's Day.  Really?  That's the average person - which factors in people like us who don't do anything that costs money.  Wow!  The thing we did do was...

Day one of full time school was a success for the girls!  They came home excited to tell me about what happened during their day.  It was fun to hear about all they did.  They even were excited about the bit of homework they had.  It sounds like they are learning to navigate the school and learn how things work.  Ana was very excited to have her own desk and a place to store her stuff.  And Abby got her own place to hang her supplies on her chair.  All of that made them each feel like they belonged instead of being a visitor.  Tomorrow's clothes are already laid out next to their backpacks in anticipation of another good school day.  Now onto things that are constantly on my mind - food.  I struggle in my first trimester of feeling good and enjoying eating.  It's usually a feeling of being sick if I don't eat, but feeling even sicker when I do eat.  I spend much time everyday trying to think of something that sounds good to e...

So I knew I hadn't posted in awhile, but didn't realize it's been over a month.  Whoops!  I guess time got away from me yet again.  So in the last month or so, two big changes have occurred that I need to tell you about. Change #1 - We have decided to send the girls to public school next year.  To help them transition into that idea, they will be finishing out this school year with their classes starting next Wednesday, May 9th.  I think in my last post, I had written that we were considering this option.  I've really struggled a lot this past year with having all three in school and trying to teach them with quality while still trying to get all my other things done that I am responsible for.  I felt like I was too stretched to be able to do a good job with anything going on in my life.  While in a perfect world, I think I would continue to homeschool my kids, it's just not possible right now.  There are too many things going on ...