Extra! Extra! Read All about It!

We are expecting! (Finally, right Mom and Dad?)

Even I have to admit that Crystal had a waaaaay cuter picture for her announcement, but this one will have to get the job done without all the cuteness, because I don't have any really cute kids to make the announcement for me. :o) Maybe next time. ;-)

My official due date for the time being is September 30, but the doctor really thinks that will get pushed back to early- or mid-October. So far I've not been terribly sick. Most of my morning sickness doesn't show up until evening, but I've recently found a few ways to help me avoid some of that. Mostly, I've just been tiiiiiiired and not got much done around the house. Poor Arthur is almost out of clean clothes! All things considered, though, I've felt great. We are both very excited about this new addition to our lives.

I'm looking forward to talking babies with all of you. The doctor was mentioning that sometimes ultrasounds are not 100% accurate. I told her that, yes, I have learned that because I've had 2 cousins who were told the wrong gender from an ultrasound. She said, "Wow, that is a really high percentage. Most people don't know anyone that that's happened to." I explained that I have roughly 30 1st cousins, so I've been around a LOT of pregnant women, so really it's not such an enormous percentage after all.

I love how our family can interact so much and support each other and learn from each other. I've already learned some great and helpful tips from relatives that have helped me cope with morning sickness, weariness, and all sorts of other things. In fact, if anyone has any suggestions that were helpful to them during pregnancy, I'd love to hear them. Leave me a comment!

A bird in the hand....

is worth two in the bush, and it's certainly worth more than one flying around the living room! Tonight, we went to Cabella's with Elise and Keith and Crystal and the kids. I bought a coat, and if we spent 10 more dollars, we'd have enough to use a $10 off coupon, so basically, we could buy a $10 item for free. Arthur chose a cap light (it clips on the bill of his cap) with green led bulbs. I have this wreath on my door:

When we got home and Arthur opened the door, a bird flew straight into his face, turned around and flew into the house! We tried everything to try to shoo it out. I mentioned that it wasn't going to fly from the bright house into the dark night. Our outside light was burnt out, so Arthur put on his new light and went out to try to fix the light. the globe on the light was stuck, so he came back in to help me shoo the bird some more. (It was basically flying crazy circles around the living room). I decided to turn out the light even though the outside light wasn't working because I thought it might be more likely to fly out if it were dark inside. When I turned out the light, the strangest thing happened. The bird veeeerrrry sloooowly started flying straight toward Arthur. It was almost hovering, not flying around crazy at all. It was like it was hypnotized. He very slowly reached both hands out toward the bird and gently caught it in both hands. He carried it outside, but when he opened his hands, it didn't fly away! He'd caught it so gently, he was certain it wasn't hurt. It was just sitting calmly in his hand. I got my camera and snapped a few pictures. Then I even pet the bird! It was like I was petting a dog or something. It didn't jump or act a bit nervous. It didn't flap around or anything, just stared at me. Arthur set the bird in a bush, and it flew away. It was so weird but very cool.

I've been coming home to a lot of strange things in my house. A couple of weeks ago, I came home to find this in my living room:

Arthur was very proud of himself.

Indoor Plumbing- the Bane of the Absent-Minded

My dear friend and former Dean of Women, Ms. V., posted about her indoor plumbing fiasco on her blog. (You can link to her blog from my list of blogs to the right). I, of course, having experienced similar fiascos, had to leave her a lengthy comment to let her know she was not alone in the world of the absent-minded. I thought perhaps I should share my close call with you, my blogging friends, in hopes of offering you some comfort as well.

One day, I was running a sink of water for dishes and got distracted. I thought suddenly, hmmm, what was it I was going to do? I was going to shower! That was it! (well, they both involve hot water, anyways). So I got in the nice warm shower. I got my hair shampooed up, but the water started to get less nice and warm. Hmmm, that had never happened to me in this house. I puzzled. I puzzled long and hard neath the chilly water. I had not done laundry. I had not let the water run long at all before I got in. I would blame my dear hubby, but my dear hubby had taken his shower and left for work many hours before the water had turned cold so suddenly and so rudely. (No, I did not laze around in bed that long! He left for work at 3-ish in the morning). Suddenly, I got a burst of adrenaline! I bolted, quite immodestly, from the shower and quickly turned off the water, which was flowing from the very very full sink into the other sink, which, fortunately, was unstopped. (Another thing to be thankful for: there was no one to see this disgraceful episode). There is a small lip around the two sinks, which kept most of the water off the counter and floor, although some did spill over when I stuck my arm in to unplug the sink. I also got a great deal of water on the bathroom floor since I bolted so suddenly, but no major harm was done. Someday, I fear, I will move to a house with no wonderful lip thingy around the sink, or one with large windows in the kitchen. Then I will learn. I will learn the hard way, like I did with the superglue and the toilet tank repair work. Perhaps I should be Amish, because I do not seem to mesh well with indoor plumbing.

* Note from the author: No pictures will accompany this blog post, for very obvious reasons. :-D

Happy Birthday!

I just want to wish a quick happy birthday to my mother-in-law, Diane. Please excuse the fact that this is slightly after midnight. I had kids' club, a church meeting, a long conversation after church, AND packing to blame! I didn't get her called today due to all the other plans for the day, but I wanted to take a few minutes to publically wish her a happy birthday (I'm sure she'll understand). Anyways, Happy Birthday! Since you like pictures of flowers and are a long, long drive away right now, these flowers from Grenada are for you.

Garmin

I had a lot to write about, so I did like Crystal and put it in several posts. It's much more organized this way! Read on....
Check this out: http://sportys.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&product_id=11883&did=19
My brother helped build this. Good job, Justin!

Revive Our Hearts

This is a bit of an unusual post, but I just wanted to recommend a great site for any woman doing housework. :-) Okay, so it's not just for women doing housework, but it helps me pass the time. Crystal recommended it to me. It is http://www.reviveourhearts.com/ . You can listen to their radio progams from either today or the past. Right now, I'm listening to the Counter-cultural Woman series. I saw it recommended on Misty's site, and it's really good. I've been listening while I fold laundry, clean the living room, etc. It's really good for keeping my mind busy on productive things while I work. I can't say I agree with EVERYTHING she says, but there have been VERY few things that I do not agree with. Overall, I'd say she presents a very biblical view of things. I've got a lot of help out of the radio programs so far. You should definitely try listening to some of the programs. They are about 20 minute segments. A lot of them are a series of programs, so I like listening to one after another. They seem to stream really fast too, so there's not a lot of cutting up while you wait for the program to load. Hears a quotation from one of the programs. Just some food for thought:

-Did you know that Jesus is domestic? You say, "That sounds kind of strange. What would make you think that?" Listen to this verse in John chapter 14. Jesus said, "Do not let you hearts be troubled... In my Father's house are many mansions... I am going there," to do what? "to prepare a place for you." (John 14:1-2).
What is Jesus doing right now? He's homemaking. So as women, when we are homemakers, we are creating here on this earth a physical, visible, tangible reflection of an eternal, invisible reality.
Jesus said, "Don't let your hearts be troubled." You see, when you're making a home, you're creating a place where your family's hearts don't have to be troubled. In this world, their hearts will be troubled. This world is a messy, chaotic place, but you want to create an environment in your home- physically and also in the spirit of your home- that your husband wants to come home to and that he doesn't have to trip over 17 things in the path to get there.
There are moments, if you have children, there are going to be times when your house is not all put together. It's not all orderly, but the question is, do you have generally an envionment that is orderly, that reflects and orderly heart that's not chaotic, that is haven? If you do, then you are showing your children and your husband and your friends and your guests something that they cannot see now, and that is what God is preparing, what Christ is prepaing for us in hHeaven- a place.
You're saying, "I want you to get a glimpse of what you can experience in eternity- the heart of our Father who's going to prepare a wedding feast for us there. As I prepare food for you now, I'm giving you a taste of Heaven, and as I provide clothing for you now, whether it's homemade or store bought, but as I'm taking care of you clothing needs as my family, I'm giving you a glimpse of Heaven, where we will be clothed in fine, white linen and how you can be clothed spiritually in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You see, through our homemaking, we give those that we love a picture of Christ, a picture of Heaven, a taste of our real home.-

I thought that was a really good lesson to think on. If you are a momma or a wife or just a woman that frequently welcomes others into your home, you can make your home a place that reflects Heaven and what God is doing for us there. It is such an important job. I don't think you have to be a perfect housekeeper to do this, but I do think it's important to make your home as pleasant a place to be as possible. I can remember when I had a hard day at school being so happy to get home. Our home was a pleasant place, a place without harsh judgments, yelling, or coldness. Yes, we had our bickerings like every other family, but overall, it was a peaceful place to be. Our parents were warm and loving to us and to each other, and I always felt secure at home. Mom and Dad never, to my knowlege, went to bed angry at each other. We never had to be afraid that one of them might get mad and not come back. They did not yell at each other and seldom ever yelled at us, although they might have had to raise their voices now and then to get our attention. Home was a place where we could talk about anything we needed to talk about and have an ever-listening ear. Yes, it was a place with boundaries, but those boundaries were never oppressive. Even as a child, I was able to recognize that my parents had my best interests at heart in their boundaries. One important thing that I think my mom did for us was to respect our dad. The longer I live, the more families I see in which the mom did not respect the dad, and the kids learn to either think their dad is worthless or resent their mom. Even when she did not agree with him, my mom always respected our dad and let him be the leader in the family. She was always welcome to voice her opinion, but if he made a decision that went against that opinion, she always respected his decision. She also helped us to look forward to the time when our dad got home from work everyday. She always had us worked up and excited for when "daddy comes home." She never ever failed to greet him with a smile and a kiss. It didn't matter what transpired that day or the day before, when he got home, he got a smile and a kiss. It did not matter if they'd had a disagreement or whatever, she was always happy, and even excited, to see him and made it clear that she still loved him and respected him no matter what. That unconditional love and respect rubbed off on us, and as a result, we were always happy to see him and never had rebellion problems with him because we respected him no matter what.
Just think about what that teaches children about their Heavenly Father. That teaches them to love Him and respect Him and obey Him even if they don't understand why. That teaches them to look forward to the day that He comes back, not be afraid of or dreading that day. It teaches them about a loving and warm and happy home that they can look forward to someday- a home where all will be peaceful and safe. We as women have been given the important job of cultivating that Heavenly environment in our homes, both in the physical environment and in the spirit of our homes. We've been given the job of ordering our homes in such a way that our children and husband will want to be there, and we've been given the job of respecting our husbands in order to teach our children and others looking on how to respect God. When a husband loves his wife as Christ loves the church and a wife respects her husband as the church is to respect Christ, everyone gets a picture of Heaven. I don't know about you, but this really motivates me and encourages me. Sometimes it's easy to feel as if what you do is not that important, but you never know... it might just show Jesus to somebody.

Silver Dollar City Pics (plus some random ones from this summer)

I'm a little late on this too, but here's my pictures from the trip to Silver Dollar City. I had a great time riding down with Florence and Aunt Wilda. If you saw my mom's blog, you've already seen that dad was "King of the Pig Races." He had to start off the races with the royal decree: "Run them hogs!"He got tired of having that snout on his nose, I guess.

This is the damage I did to Arthur's truck a few weeks after we got it painted from our accident. I side-swiped a brick pillar at the bank drive in. Now when I tell Arthur I've got to run in to the bank, he says, "You already did that once. Please don't do it again." :-) He was really understanding though. I have a good hubby.

This is a picture of part of the family that was at Sami's graduation. We have the greatest family. Pretty much everyone you can see well in the picture is family or friends that were there to support Sami. She was valedictorian. Way to go Sami!

Just a quick note: I want to encourage everyone reading this to stay close to your family, even if you don't agree with everything they do or say. Your family can be such a great support system for your kids. I know I could call any one of my aunts, uncles, or cousins right now for any reason and they would help me if they could. Family is a beautiful thing.

Speaking of family, this little darlin' had a birthday this summer. Her tiara says "The Candy Queen." :o) We got her the little purse with the lotion, combs, etc.

Finally, I come to this sweetie. She was partied out, I guess. If you look really close, you will see that her drool is blue. :-D The washable marker just couldn't handle it!