St. Louie

We arrived safe and sound.  It took us nearly 5 hours because my pregnant self couldn't go to long without a bathroom break.  

Kyle D. rode a long and he and I had fun serenading Jared on the ride.  We plugged in the ol' ipod and poor Jared got hours of Kyle and I off key and really loud.  It was fun until they started talking fantasy football and I zoned out and listened to a little J.T. on my own for the last 45 mins or so.  

I am entering into the "feed me now" stage of the pregnancy.  I have been craving tacos something fierce so we had Taco Bell for lunch and it hasn't ever tasted so good.  It's funny because I think my cravings so far have been far more specific than previous pregnancies.  Butter tastes wonderful, burgers rock, and anything mexican is a necessity.  I may have to try Culver's I hear they have Butter Burgers add a soft taco supreme and I'm in heaven!

I told Kyle that I liked the name Hazel and he said if we used it he would lovingly call her Hazelnut.  How cute is that?  I may call her that myself.  I found an old friend on Facebook and she has a little girl who's middle name is Karinne (Karen but with a soft "i").  I LOVE it and think Hazel Karinne is pretty.  We have also talked about Scarlett and tonight I met a Scarlett and I asked her what she thought of her name.  She insisted that she loved it and any little girl would be blessed to have it.  Her friends nicknamed her Scarly or Letta Joe (her middle name is Joe).

Tomorrow we have a date planned for the entire day because the wedding isn't until evening.  We are heading out to the historic St. Charles for some antiquing and wandering around.  Jared said it's like old Weston.  I can't wait.  

The boys are being spoiled and so are we.  This weekend is a blessing.  

1+1=6

We have a very prolific household. I came home from work this afternoon to Jared on the porch quietly telling me of their very eventful morning. Apparently hamsters have a 3 week turnaround before they can give birth again. Our little Bella gave birth and out of fear began killing her young.

The boys were mortified. Jared immediately removed the male from the cage and told the boys to leave her alone. She settled down and seems to have 4 or 5 new little ones. They are absolutely tiny. They are the size of the tip of your little finger.

In a frenzy I checked craigslist for a new habitat for our little bachelor and was able to find one close. He is now residing in the office in a deluxe suite all his own.

My plan is to figure out what sex the new babies are and keep a couple males and rehome all the females. Or now that we have two nice set ups we may have a boys and girls dorm. The kids are absolutely in love with these fur creatures. Tanner gave me a big squeeze this afternoon thanking me for his furbabies. They have been a bit of work but that hug made it all worth it.

Hi Ho Hi Ho It's off to Work I Go

I'm heading back to Englewood this morning to do back to back Weight Watcher's meetings. I am struggling with the whole, "I don't wanna" syndrome. I'm not sure why. It pays well and after this morning my commitment is done and I go back to just working Mondays again.

I think I have weekend-itus. I am really eager to head off on our St. Louis adventure tomorrow and I have a lot to do to prepare for the kids and my mom as well as packing us. The idea of working these extra meetings was to have some money for St. Louis so it's a good thing I just am ready to be done.

The poor boys have 2 days worth of school to do today in order not to get behind this weekend and I know I have that waiting for me when I get home. That's a lot of paperwork and they do better when it's spread out over the course of the day verses cramming into a couple of hours.

Part of my issues is that last week I had a heckler. No joke. In the second meeting there was a lady who was mad at the world and decided to take it out on her Weight Watcher's leader sub. I bet she was fun for the substitute teachers in High School. She just sat in the back and audibly harumphed at about everything I said with offensive comments laced in. Hopefully she detested me so much she won't be there this week.

Oh and did I mention that I wrote all over their marker board last week with a permanent sharpie? In my defense they had sharpies and dry erase markers all in the same mug.

Well I better head out into the rain or I'll be late. It's always fine once I get there. I may treat myself to a QT just to make sure the morning goes well :)

Not So Bad

I went today to pick up the pack n play. The listing on craigslist had the same picture as the one I showed in my previous post and she said the only difference was the coloring. I was so excited. We drove over there gave her the cash and drove home.

Does anyone see the obvious mistake? I didn't check it...at all. Once I got home I took it out of the package and realized it's not even the right brand name let alone the right style. It stunk really bad, I mean REALLY bad. I know better so I was more frustrated at myself than anything.

Once I took it apart and scrubbed it senseless it's actually not that bad. It's not the fancy one I wanted. I probably could have bought a new one for just a little more than I paid her for this one since it's not the fancier style (ugh). But all in all now that it's clean it's pretty nice. It's my favorite color combination. It's a soft yellow and chambray blue. The little toys on the toy bar hadn't even been used and were still in the original packaging. It also has a lights and sounds feature. There is a little radio type thing that attaches to the side that plays music and nature sounds as well as having a soft light to see the baby by. I didn't think it worked at first but after some new batteries it works just fine.

It smells like fresh laundry and is a lot nicer than the old one I had. I wanted the fancier style because I was going to use it in our room for the bassinet. We have a nice wooden bassinet that I can use. I tried to repost it now that it's clean but internet browser won't load the page.

I emailed the seller explaining my frustrations but honestly it was my fault for not checking it out first. Here it is tell me what you would do...

A Good Week

I am beaming. There are several reasons but honestly the main reason is I'm just happy. Plain ol' happy. There have been a couple things that could cause one to flip (like a hospital sending you to collections and said collection agency drafting $500 out of our checking account; driving to the bank to stop payment on the illegal draft only to find out a couple days later the bank forgot, just sayin...). I feel more with each day that, "I will not be moved." God is good and good things are happening all around us.

Reasons for my beaming:

-Thursday Jared and I leave for a couple days to St. Louis for a wedding. We get a two night stay in a honeymoon suite as a gift from the bride and groom for performing the ceremony. I CAN'T WAIT!! Whoo HOo. My mom is keeping the boys. Vacation!!

-A family in the church called us yesterday and donated a kitchen table and 8 chairs to our family so that when our new addition gets here we will be able to sit as a family for dinner (our current table only sat 6). We prayed so fervently for this little baby and I feel that the Lord is blessing our decision to trust in Him.

-Last weekend we were able to reconnect with a lot of close friends and I've been on cloud 9 ever since. It's so nice to see so many people we love and have missed so much.

-It doesn't seem to matter who we tell about our sweet baby we are constantly greeted with love and excitement. We feel so blessed to be supported by friends and family.

-I have started back to work for Weight Watchers and my meetings are going well and the income is helping with the increase price of everything. I really enjoy the time and can feel it's boosting my confidence and overall sense of well being.

-Volunteering to watch our neighbor's little girl is already providing opportunities to get to know them better. We've been hoping to befriend them since they moved in and they came over the other night and just hung out.

-Thanks to Tashy I am going tomorrow to pick up the pack n play listed in the earlier post. She found one on Craigslist and it was within our price range and ready for pick up!! Did I mention they cost about $179 new and this one is $50!!

-God is good. Like I said, Even the things that would normally get me worked up just don't have a foothold. I can count our blessings and naming them one by one takes away all the stress and allows me to focus on the Goodness of God.

Praise the Lord. I do believe the fog has lifted.

Wanted!! Dead or Alive

Since I am going to start watching little Nadia in just a matter of a days I am on the hunt for a pack-n-play. I made the mistake of selling mine and now realize with another baby on the way it wasn't the wisest idea. I planned on watching for one on craigslist and garage sales until I found the one I was looking for but with baby sitting it all became a little more urgent.

Here is a picture of the pack-n-play I am looking for. If you have one or know someone that does please let them know we're in the market. I'm wanting to spend $50 or less. It's a Graco Pack-N-Play portable play yard. I'm not particular about the colors simply because we don't know what we're having. I did a lot of research and these are the best to grow with the baby. We tend to have massive children and a lot of the p&p's don't support children when they are bigger toddlers and are best for infants. This should work for watching little Nadia as well as be a perfect portable nursery for our newest little addition.

The Best Evening!

Last night Jared and I had the pleasure of being invited to Mr. and Mrs. Caleb Champ's wedding (yay!). Before Jared was hired at WCCC we worked at Rushville Christian Church for 5 years. This particular wedding was like reunion for us. The Bride was from our current church of 8 years and the groom was from our previous church of 5.

Jared and I are 31 and we were hired at Rushville at 19. So when you are talking about 13 years these two church families have been a major part of our adult lives. We were able to see people we haven't seen in years. It was such a blessing!

Jared commented that out of the 10 people in the wedding party 8 of them had been in his youth group at one point. I have to admit it was odd to see these two worlds of ours combining. We had Brian Champ (Rushville) and Leanne Prince (WCCC) walking down the isle together as the best man and matron of honor. They are both people that Jared and I love and respect. They both were great roll models in their youth groups and now are upstanding amazing adults that we just love to spend time with and there they were...together.

It was so much fun. We stayed out until after ten and didn't even realize the time had passed. I think the best part was people realizing that we were expecting and it was our 5th. We were greeted with smiles, encouragement, excitement and love. It was such a blessing to be reunited with so many of God's family. I imagine we caught a small glimpse of what heaven will be like.