Seven Sisters' Visit

This week we were so very happy to host our favorite family!!!!!!! You may remember the dear, new friends we gained back in December last year who quickly became like family! Well, they are on a trip along the east coast and of course, they had to come visit us!!!! :)

(Susannah and I)

We had so much fun! They arrived at my house just before 5pm on Monday. Andrew started getting passed around right away and he didn't mind it at all. At 7 we headed over to my parents house (where most of them would be staying) and had fun eating pizza, and my family got to get to know the family that I had been talking and talking about for the past 10 months! Trisch and my Mom knew each other, but the kids all got to get to know each other! :)

(Trisch and I)

Jessica and Leah came back to my house Monday night, although we didn't stay up extra late as it is very different having a baby. I didn't realize just how different it is, having a Little One that needs me constantly! But it is worth it! Of course, I had lots of eager arms willing to hold Andrew whenever they could, and it was so much fun watching everyone holding him.

I tried to capture the sweetness of Trisch holding Andrew. It's not easy capturing such things on camera, but I tried. :)

Me and dear Jessica! The first thing I thought when they had left was "we didn't get enough time!" But then, I don't know if we could ever get enough time!

My family came back from vacation the same day our company came and so they hadn't seen Andrew in a week which meant that Andrew had to spend time with everyone. :)

Here is Cassia and Andrew

Bekah greatly enjoyed holding Andrew as well, and Susannah was ALWAYS on the lookout for when she could hold him next! :)

Now we are back to no company (although only for 3 weeks as we will soon be hosting J.R. Parker) and I am trying to catch up on laundry (I have 3 loads of laundry to fold from this past week and just put another load in the washer) and cleaning (have only washed dishes once since Monday, and even though we weren't home much this week, dishes still piled up, not to mention the kitchen floor desperately needs to be washed) without pushing myself too much. I also had to go through a bunch of baby boy clothes as a sweet friend gave me a TON of clothes for Andrew which was awesome seeing as we had 2 outfits and 5 onesies that fit him and only a few outfits and onesies in larger sizes. Now we are set for the next year! :)

Tomorrow I am hoping to go for a short walk with Andrew, weather permitting (it has rained the past week except for Wednesday) and then we have a baby shower to go to for my Aunt. I have 2 new little cousins who will be 2 months younger than my son, which seems funny, but I'm sure that the 3 of them will have lots of fun together as they get older.

I am ready to start exercising in earnest now, but I still have to take things slow and easy for a few more weeks, so whenever I can, I am going to try and take short walks until my Midwife gives me the green light to really start exercising. It's not that I want to be obsessed with my weight, I just want my body to be in good condition. I know that if I stay consistent with taking care of myself now, then it will be much more beneficial in the long run.

On a completely different note, Swords of the Six is now available for pre-order on Amazon for only $10.19 This is being re-released through AMG Publishers and has some new material in it. If you go on over to Scott's Blog http://www.flamingpen.blogspot.com/ you can check out the different rewards/prizes for pre-ordering Swords of the Six!

Have a great weekend!

2 Weeks

Today marks 2 weeks since our Son's birth and he has certainly changed our lives! Scott remarked on that fact this morning and he mentioned how one of those changes is that we're less lazy. And it's true, we don't have time for laziness, we have to take advantage of any extra moments we get. I am finally starting to do more. I'm still being careful about lifting anything that weighs more than Andrew and I still have to be extra careful when going up or down stairs, but it is nice to be able to move around more and do more! This morning I made us breakfast with Andrew in the sling. I am already discovering just how much I love my sling, it's awesome!

I am so in love with my little family! God is so good! When I was in labor, God met me out in our driveway. I had been just trying to endure labor, and I was trying to do it on my own. But when it got to the point of things really needing to get moving, all I could do was turn to God, and He met me and carried me further than I knew I could go. God is good!

Here is Scott and Andrew earlier this week (I must admit, I've never taken my camera out so frequently in 2 weeks as I have, these last 2 weeks).

Let's see, what are some of our achievements over the last 2 weeks? Well, I tried a cloth diaper yesterday. Of course, not long after was when Andrew decided to "mess" and seeing as I haven't quite gotten the hang of just how to properly put the cloth diapers on yet, let's just say, it was pretty disgusting as not only did I have to clean off the diaper in the toilet, but his blanket as well. Needless to say, I decided to do a load of wash right then! I am not giving up on Cloth diapers yet, but I am going to be a little more careful about how I put them on. Also, Andrew is finally wearing clothes. As you can see in the pictures in this post, he has only been wearing receiving blankets since he's been born. Mostly due to the fact that he got a rash 2 days after he was born, and the more air (less coverage) he got, the better it got. His rash is not completely gone yet, but it is so much better now.

Here he is, trying out his swing! He seemed to be entranced by the fact that as he moved, the back leg stayed. :)

Saturday, after breakfast, Andrew and I went out on the deck to get some fresh air.

Until today I had not been anywhere in 2 1/2 weeks since I was sick before I went into labor and then I wasn't allowed to leave the house for 2 weeks. So, today, in honor of Andrew being 2 weeks old, we took a ride to my parents' house and watched a couple episodes of Chopped (a cooking show that we enjoy). Oh, how I love fall! Driving along, with the windows open, was so refreshing!

Andrew's first car ride. He did very well. :)

I am working on straightening my house and getting things back in order seeing as I've been sort of "out of commition" for the past 2 weeks. So now I'm taking every few moments I get to do something. Tomorrow, some very special friends (from the Seven Sisters blog) are coming and I am so excited about their visit!!!!! You may remember when we visited them on our book tour, we had so much fun, and hopefully they'll have as much fun visiting us. :)

Well, *someone* is trying to get my attention, I think he wants to eat (again!). This little boy eats more than I thought possible. I mean, I knew he'd eat this frequently, but I just didn't fully understand what that meant. :)

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. :)

Our Trip So Far - In Pictures

We arrived safely in Sunman, IN at 7:30 last night after doing 2 book signings en route. We so enjoyed our stay at the Richardson's house! I've made new, dear, friends, and we can't wait to go back. I have taken lots of pictures since we left New Jersey, and so I thought I would do a post about our trip so far, in pictures! :) So, here we go:

We left New Jersey Wednesday morning at 9:00. As we were driving through Pennsylvania, we drove through several tunnels. Here is our view as we headed into the first or second one (I can't remember which one)

Here is our view, driving through the tunnel. Scott loves to drive through tunnels, but I have yet to experience it myself, so I just take his word for it, for now at least. :)

We arrived safely in Pennsylvania, however it was raining constantly. Here are a couple pictures from the concert.

Shane Barnard (Bethany Dillon's Husband)

Bethany Dillon, singing and playing. She and her Husband are very talented on the Guitar!

This was during the Intermission

After taking a nap when we first arrived at the Richardson's on Thursday, I taught the younger girls how to play Parcheesi and from that point on, when anyone had a free moment, Parcheesi was brought out. :)

On Saturday, I stayed "home" while Scott went back to the book signing he was at the night before. We played Apples to Apples (Bible Edition) and took lots of pictures :)

All my new, dear, friends!

I didn't get any pictures :( but, Susannah, Jessica, and I played Monopoly, and the game lasted a total of 6-8 hours. We had a blast playing!

Sitting around the dinner table, our last night there.


On our way to the second book signing on Sunday, waiting for a train to go by... :)

At Kelsie's!!!

Sunday was Scott's birthday, and Kelsie (and her family) helped me surprise him with a celebration after we got to their house. Scott had no idea. The poor guy, thought he wasn't getting a cake or anything other than birthday greetings, but "little, did he know." :)


That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed the pictures!!!!

Drive from NJ to PA to IN

After a total of 14 hours on the road (including stops for fuel and a 1 hour stop for a nap), we arrived in Mentone, IN around 7:30 this morning. We drove the 6 ½ hours from New Jersey to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania for the Shane & Shane “Glory in the Highest” concert Wednesday night. Just before we arrived in Beaver Falls, we started toying with the idea of not staying the night in a hotel and driving straight through instead. I told Scott I was game to do whatever he was up to, and so after a few more quiet moments of thinking, he said “I think we’ll drive through the night.” So after the Concert, just before 11 o’clock (PM!) we headed back onto the highway.

The drive through Pennsylvania was uneventful for the most part, except for around 11 in the morning when after staying very close on our tail for quite some time, a very large 18-wheeler decided to pass us (we were in left-lane going at a decent speed). We had no problem with the truck passing us, but then, knowing that he was still beside us (he knew we had a trailer, and his cab had just passed the front of the car), at a high speed he started moving back into our lane, and he wasn’t even halfway past us yet. We hit the brakes, and the back end of the truck just barely missed us. I will admit that I had to work very hard, the rest of the trip to keep myself from getting nervous every time an 18-wheeler was passing us.

Scott's favorite part about driving through PA was that we got to drive through 5 tunnels (through mountains!). I have not yet gotten a chance to drive through a tunnel, but Scott says it's lots of fun! :)

We are very blessed to be staying with our new friends from the Seven Sisters blog. We are greatly enjoying our stay! Tomorrow I am looking forward to spending the entire day visiting while Scott goes back to the bookstore we were at tonight. We are going to try to not go to bed so late tonight as we did last night, but we plan on staying up late again tomorrow night! I so enjoy making new friends and getting to know other lovely Christian young ladies! I have been thanking the Lord this week for all the people that He has brought into my life and for new friends!!!!!!

(Above picture taken by my Husband at Harkness park in 2007)

Love Your Husband... Titus 2:4

My time this morning is limited, as I have a full day ahead of me (when don't I?), but I could not let the day go by without sharing this with you.

Titus 2:4 says, "That they may teach the young woman to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children..."

The love in this verse is phileo, meaning friendship love - a love that cherishes, enjoys, and likes our husband. We are to value him and build a friendship with him. We should see our husband as our best friend and want to be with him more than any other person.

I am not saying that I have a problem with making my husband my best friend. He is my best friend. The above is from part of my devotions this morning. (Yes, I've finished the chapter on Submission and am now on to "A Heart That Loves".) The thing I wanted to share with you today was the following, by Elizabeth George.

"How can a wife nurture a heart of love, a heart prepared to support her husband in practical ways, "until death do us part"?
Decide to make your husband your number one relationship! Our relationship with our husband is meeant to be more important that the relationships we enjoy with our parents, friends, a good neighbor, a brother or sister, a best friend, and even our children - and the way we use our time should reflect that rank ordering!"

May you all have a blessed day, and to any wives reading this, I encourage you to ask yourself throughout the day if you're making your husband your number one relationship. Who are you eargerly sharing things with? That's what I'll be asking myself today.