Just Stuff ~ Part 4

Hello to all my blogreaders! Well, our time in Missouri is just about over. I have re-packed all of our suitcases and all that is left is devotional stuff and the usual toiletries (oh, and food) which I will pack tomorrow morning before we leave. Our goal is to head out between 9 and 9:30am. We shall see how well we do with it. Our destination: Tennessee, where we will be staying with author Bryan Davis and his family. Scott stayed with them for a short time almost 2 years ago and I am greatly looking forward to meeting them!

We have greatly enjoyed out stay in Missouri. Although we didn't have any official events, Scott got to meet author, L. B. Graham and I got to get some lots needed rest. We also have greatly enjoyed getting to know our hosts and I've enjoyed playing games with their 2 daughters. At first we were a little afraid that even when it's my first time playing a game, I am unbeatable. But yesterday one of their daughter beat me twice at Uno! Very impressive! I was glad because I was starting to feel bad because I was winning every single game we played. But it was lots of fun!

The past couple days my pregnancy sickness hasn't been quite as bad which I think is due to getting lots of rest. It's either that or the fact that I'm getting a little more used to it. :) I have been experiencing lots of "twinges" as the baby is growing.

On another note, I am just about done with studying A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George. It has been a great study and will go into my special stack of books that go everywhere with me because I should always be reading them. I am greatly looking forward to doing a study on 1 Peter (using Putting On a Gentle & Quiet Spirit by Elizabeth George).

I want to leave you with an interesting and encouraging quote from A Woman After God's Own Heart that I came across in my reading yesterday:
"Very few things in life call for an instantaneous decision on your part. Keep your cool. Make delay your first strategy for avoiding chaos and crisis. A good rule of thumb to remember is that most things seem more important in the present than they actually are. Wisdom waits. Will you?"

Week 9 (and an update)

Hello to all my blog readers! This past Saturday we left Sunman, IN to go to a booksigning before making our way to Missouri. We spent Saturday night in a hotel and stayed up watching movies (which wasn't a good idea considering that we had a LOT of driving ahead of us on Sunday) and just having fun being together. Of course, staying up late meant that I was VERY hungry at 12:15 am. So, I decided to go downstairs and see if there was anything interesting in the vending machines. I know, I know, what I found there was not healthy, but nothing would have been open, and I just needed some food. :)

Sunday morning I typed our destination into the gps while Scott finished putting our luggage back in the car. We were delighted to see that it was 11:15 and we were supposed to arrive there at 3:08. That meant only 4 hours of driving (of course we knew that with stops it would take us a little longer to get there. We were driving along and when we were less than an hour from our destination, I started getting suspicious. The gps said we still had approximately a total of 100 miles to go, but it was after 3 o'clock and our arrival time was 3:50 (remember... all those stops? :) ). I wondered if the clock had gotten messed up on the gps so took it down to examine it. Sure enough, instead of saying 3:15 (like the clock on the dashboard said), it said "2:15". At first I couldn't figure it out. Then I realized that we must have changed time zones, which meant we had close to 2 hours to go still. But we finally made it just after 4pm, delighted to meet our new hosts (who are very nice, by the way). :)

So, on to the title of this post. :) I am now 9 weeks along in my pregnancy and the baby is growing a lot! And, in case anyone was wondering, it is certainly taking all it can get from Mama. :) I have not been feeling well pretty much all the time, with lots of headaches and my stomach is always uncomfortable. I am having to be very careful about making sure that I'm eating all that I need (which I haven't been too good at so far).

The Baby's ears are fully developed now as well as it's arms and legs and it's fingers and toes. It is just incredible to me, how much the baby grows in 1 week. Our God is so awesome! I feel so honored that God would bless us with this Little One and that there is a miracle happening inside of me. It makes me want to take care of myself all the more! I am so excited!

Go check out my Hubby's blog to see a couple pictures from the past week.

Just Stuff ~ Part 3

Here we are with another "just stuff" post. :) Where do I begin? Well, if any of you were still wondering where we've been since Sunday, we were at one of our favorite places! Can you guess where????? We were visiting our good friends over at Seven Sisters. We had lots of fun and took lots of pictures.

But before I get to the pictures, a quick update on the pregnancy: I am still experiencing LOTS of "morning" (a.k.a. - ALL DAY) sickness, but I know that it is a blessing in disguise. Other than that, not much more to report. :)

We played lots of games including Phase 10, Apples to Apples, Skip-Bo and Monopoly (for those pictures go here)

Originally we had planned to only stay 1 or 2 nights, but then decided to stay until Wednesday or Thursday. So, we decided that that was plenty of time to make a pregnancy/nursing jumper for me. So Tuesday morning, we began:

First we had to trace my size onto tracing paper and cut out the pattern peices. Then we cut out the bodice, and here is Jessica, getting ready to sew it:

Here Jessica is sewing the peices together:

What? You don't think the fleecy brown is pretty? Won't that be so nice and cool in the summer? Okay, so, the above pictures is the mock-up for the bodice. :) Now we had to cut out the REAL bodice and skirt! :) Everyone helped and it took us 4 1/2 hours from start to finish. However, we took a break for lunch, and we also playes a couple games of Skip-Bo in the middle too.

Here we discussing "something" (I can't remember what :) ):

I believe that Anna was working on the skirt there, and Jessica is working on the bodice. We didn't get any pictures, but yes, I did help with some of the sewing. :)

We we all are, that evening (and me in my new dress!) :) It is so comfortable! I am so thankful that girls were so willing to teach me and help me make this jumper. (THANK YOU! :) )

And what did Scott do for fun while we were there? He played Zoo Tycoon on the computer (making absurd situations, of course! :) ) and the younger children just loved watching him. Or rather, they all loved watching each other when anyone was playing it. :)

We had such a lovely visit. It started out because we were going to look at some apartments (which we never did) and then we were going to stay longer because there was a possibility that Scott could do a signing at a Library. When that didn't work out, we didn't mind at all because it was still worth the trip just for the visit. The on Tuesday Scott called a school to see if there was any possibility they might be interested in having him come. They said they'd love to have him the next day and he stayed all day and had to go back today (Thursday), so we had to stay 4 nights! We didn't mind at all! :) We were so grateful for the gracious hospitality we received from our good friends! I ended up not going with Scott either day because of my pregnancy sickness, but he did very well regardless.

We are back in southern Indiana for 2 more days. Time to pack everything up and head to our next destination in Missouri. We are greatly looking forward to the next couple months and the places where we'll be staying. :)

8 Weeks

Today I am 8 weeks along in the pregnancy. It was about this point when I miscarried last time, and I am very happy to say that everything is very different this time. As some of you may have noticed, I have not posted in a week. Most of that is due to the fact that last week I came to know the real meaning of "Morning Sickness". Headaches and a "yucky" stomach have been my companions for over a week now. However, I know that being sick means that the baby is healthy, so I am NOT complaining! :)

The baby measures approximately three fourths of an inch and is about the size of a pinto bean. The eye lids are forming as well as the ears (inside and out) and the fingers and toes. The elbows and wrists are developed (and growing) and the legs are just about long enough so that it's feet can touch in front. It is so amazing to me how quickly a baby grows and how everything is developing and growing. Babies truly are miracles from heaven!

Stay tuned for pictures and details of where we've been since Sunday. Can anyone guess???

Just Stuff ~ 2

So, I've decided to do another "just stuff" post. These posts might become more common in the days and months to come.... who knows??? :) For more clarification, a "Just Stuff" post is a post on what my days have been filled with....

Let's see, on Friday evening Scott, my friend Kelsie, myself, and a couple of K's friends, drove to Cincinnati to go Ice Skating on their square. It was lots of fun. However, the women's skates weren't regular figure skates, and made it more difficult for me to "get the hang of" so after about 10 minutes, I along with a friend got off the ice and put our boots back on (it was VERY cold out!). The ice was not very smooth and the skates were very dull, and I think I was just nervous about falling or getting hurt, with the baby. I think if it would have been regular figure skates, I might have been more comfortable, but I was NOT used to the skates we had. Scott had a blast though! He and everyone else skated for another hour and a half and my friend and I walked around the rink for about half that time, then we went and stood in the heated tent that was there, watching everyone skating. It was lots of fun.

On Saturday we left to go look at an apartment and just as we were about to get on the highway, our car died. We ended up replacing the battery and the car worked fine. Then yesterday, we were on our way to church and just after got off the highway, our car died again, right in the middle of the road (we were about a mile from church). Praise the Lord, no cars were coming and we were right across from a gas station. We got the car parked in the gas station (Scott had to push it, and he did it! :) ) and then decided to walk to church because we knew someone there would be able to help us or know of someone who could look at the car. God worked everything out. Our new friends jumped the car for us and we got it to a garage and they gave us a ride back to where we're staying. They were so nice. The car needed a new alternator and it will be done this afternoon. Thankfully that's all that is wrong with it. God is so good!

Between Thursday and Sunday we got a good amount of snow. It is just beautiful! Snow is so white! It reminds me of the song "Nothing But The Blood"

".....O, precious is the flow,

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know;

Nothing but the blood of Jesus...."

You can listen to the song and read the words here. Snow is so white and pure. When the sun comes out just after a snow storm, it can be blinding because of the sun reflecting off of the snow. To think that Jesus' blood makes me white as snow, is quite the thought! It is overwhelming!

Just Stuff

Since it has been 4 days since my last post, I figured I should post again, to give everyone something to read. However, for the last 2 days I've been trying to come up with a good topic to post about. Since I'm here, that must mean I came up with one, right? Wrong!!!! I haven't come up with anything so far, so I thought I'd just write about what I've been up to this week.

I have had some issues over the past year with a Wisdom tooth coming in. But nothing I couldn't handle. However last week it was bothering me again and I discovered I had a large swollen "abscess" or some such thing on the side of my gums. I immediately made Garlic oil and started applying it directly as well as drinking lots Lemon water. That combined with T-Tapping, I managed to keep all pain at bay. Nothing was hurting, I just had this "bump." On Sunday we visited a church and went out for lunch afterwards, with 3 of the couples (and their families) that we had met there. Wouldn't you know, one of the guys is a dentist! So, naturally I told him about my tooth and asked for some advice. As I'm sure you've guessed by now, his answer was: Root Canal or get the tooth pulled. Now, I do NOT like dentists (no offence to any dentists), I just don't like people playing around in my mouth! So I was not too pleased with the answer... The "problem" is that because I'm pregnant, I can't do anything about the tooth now. So Scott and I agreed that with proper eating and giving my body what it needs, I could reverse the tooth problem. That means, I am not allowed to have any sweets and NO junk food!!!!!
On Monday we went out and bought a juicer (and a bunch of carrots) so I can be juicing every day. As of Tuesday morning, the bump was gone, with my gum still slightly swollen. Today, it is completely back to normal! Praise the Lord!!!! :) I will be continuing to eat well (good for the baby, too! :) ) and juicing!

This afternoon I have been going through and re-organizing everything (it seems like I do that every week now), and making lots of head-way. I have also gotten rid of 3 grocery bags full of clothes within the last 4 weeks! I've realized how few of all my clothes I actually wear, and although I can't bring myself to get rid of more yet, I got rid of all the things that I don't wear because I don't like them. (I know, why then, did I even bother to bring them with me???)

I've also been doing very well, exercising daily! Scott is noticing more of a difference than I am, but regardless of losing inches, exercising just gives me more energy for the day! It "get's me going" and is very healthy! :)

Come What May

For Christmas, Scott bought me this movie, Come What May which I had been wanting to see for some time!
I was very eager to watch it, and finally last night, Scott and I set up our computer, on our bed and watched it before going to sleep! It was an excellent movie, and very well done, considering that none of the actors are "professionals". You know what I love? Movies like Come What May, done by a group of Christians (such as Flywheel and Facing the Giants) are all better than all the movies that come out in every single movie theater across the nation! The hilarious thing, is that the better movies aren't done by "professionals". Why is it that all the movies done by "professionals" are never as good as the movies done by "non-professionals"? I am so glad that people don't stop when they realize that they aren't professionals, but keep going, because I honestly believe that our poor country is worse off because of the focus on "professionals". They lost sight of what's good and right and it is so sad to see what is considered a "good movie" now. I highly recommend Come What May! Both Scott and I really enjoyed it!

Happy New Year

2010

Happy New Year to all my Blog-readers! :) I meant to do this post yesterday, but as a result of probably too much "bad-for-me" food, late at night on New Year's Eve, and other things, I was not feeling well yesterday. So here I am, doing the post, a day late. However, since it is only January 2nd of 2010, I think, I hope, I will be forgiven. :)

We had a small gathering on New Year's Eve, and about 45 minutes before the new year rolled in, we decided to go around the room and share our favorite things about 2009. Of course, that got me thinking, and so I'd like to share some of my favorite things from 2009 here, with you all. :)

• Marrying my Husband!
• Finding out twice, that I was/am pregnant.
• How my family did all that they could to make my dreams (my Wedding) come true
• Getting to spend 2 weeks with both of our families before leaving for the tour.
• Making new friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Thank you Lord, that Scott set up booksignings in northern Indiana!)

There are so many things that I am thankful for about 2009, but there are just a few. Now it's your turn. What is one (or a few :) ) of your favorite things about 2009?????

I am greatly excited to see what the Lord has in store for me, for us, in 2010. I would greatly appreciate all your prayers with this new pregnancy. Prayers, for me as well as the baby. I am not worried about miscarrying. I know that everything is in God's hands, and no matter what happens, I trust Him completely and I am so happy to have another life inside of me again!