Hallmark Day

To commemorate this Hallmark Day I have couple of romantic things for my faithful followers (and by faithful followers I mean Liz and Shana :-)

First, a picture of the flowers that my sweetie pie sent me for love day...

Isn't he sweet? (I love Callas)












Then lastly, a mood setting song/video...

Ah Leah! @ Yahoo! Video

Romantic, eh? Hope it gets you in the mood for some smooching!

Happy Valentine's Day!

hmmm...

Yes, I know it's been awhile. I'm really not sure what to say though. Nothing exciting is going on. We are approaching week 30. I get to take the Glucose Tolerance test on Friday. Please pray I'm not diabetic!!! Baby P's head is down, he sticks his little toes in my right ribs quite often now. Which, by the way, is not as uncomfortable as it sounds, I just poke him back where he belongs. I can say that pregnancy does really start to take it's toll right about now. I feel large, a lot, and I can't sleep through the night, a lot. But, alas, only 10 more weeks (give or take).

This season has really flown and in some instances it seems really long...and it's a little surreal. Scott was thinking out loud the other day, "Man, you've been pregnant forever...I can't wait until this is over!" I concur. It's not that I mind being pregnant, or that I don't want to be...but, I'm super excited to meet our little guy and also I'm super excited to be me again. Also, I can't wait for people to stop asking me how I'm feeling and commenting on my body and my clothes...yadda yadda... It's cute in the beginning, but it gets tiring. So anyway, about those Steelers... :-)

I will post a pic soon, of the ever growing belly and of the nursery. I have one more curtain to finish sewing and then that will be done.

Until then, check out the crock-potting blog on my blog roll, it's cool!

A few of my favourite things

Well, one of my favourite things: The album that Joel and Liz got me for Christmas... Sandra McCracken's "The Builder and the Architect". This beautiful piece of musical art is a collection of hymns, re-written and otherwise. Her beautiful alto and choice of folksy guitar and banjo compliment her song selections so well!

Currently the song that I keep playing on repeat is "In the Secret of His Presence". This song has really spoken to my heart of clay (Isaiah 64:8). Recently I have really felt the pressing of the Holy Spirit on my heart. I have such a desire to read God's Holy Word and to pray "without ceasing". I have felt burdens lifted, sorrows eased, insights into parts of my life that I'm not used to insights into and last but not least A JOY IN HIS PRESENCE. I know that it sounds awful to hear a Christian say that she recently found joy in the presence of the LORD...I can say I've had this before, but when you stop communing with the LORD on a regular basis it is easy to find being in the presence of the LORD burdensome.

For some time I have not sought wisdom from the LORD, nor have I prayed on a regular basis. I have all the head knowledge, but my heart was hardening. What a sad place to be.

But this song describes the joys of drawing near to our Heavenly Father...and this is what I've been experiencing as of late, Praise the LORD!

"In the secret of His presence how my soul delights to hide!Oh, how precious are the lessons which I learn at Jesus’ side!Earthly cares can never vex me, neither trials lay me low;For when Satan comes to tempt me, to the secret place I go,To the secret place I go.
When my soul is faint and thirsty, ’neath the shadow of His wingThere is cool and pleasant shelter, and a fresh and crystal spring;And my Savior rests beside me, as we hold communion sweet:If I tried, I could not utter what He says when thus we meet,What He says when thus we meet.
Only this I know: I tell Him all my doubts, my griefs and fears;Oh, how patiently He listens! and my drooping soul He cheers:Do you think He ne’er reproves me? What a false Friend He would be,If He never, never told me of the sins which He must see,Of the sins which He must see.
Would you like to know the sweetness of the secret of the Lord?Go and hide beneath His shadow: this shall then be your reward;And whene’er you leave the silence of that happy meeting place,You must mind and bear the image of the Master in your face,Of the Master in your face."

To Listen to Sandra sing it go here.

Brothers and Sisters, if you do not know the joy of the presence of the LORD pray for it and ask for it. "For anyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." Matt 7:8

You asked for it, here it is

The new belly pics! We are at 23 weeks, over half way there :-) Or so "they" say.

I guess the way I can tell I'm getting bigger is that you can actually see the panel from my pants through my shirt. And, maybe this is too much information, but oh well, I think I'm getting a stretch mark! Now while some people are very bothered by this, I am not. I had a discussion with my dearest, Nicole, and she and I agree that stretch marks are reminders of what the Lord has blessed us with.

After the snow stops coming we will get a pic of the Honda Pilot up here. Yes, that is what we purchased. A 2004 Honda Pilot EX. It, from all appearance, seems to be a good family vehicle. There are absolutely no frills about this thing. There aren't even cup holders in the front. Yeah that's right. This is something we did not notice until after the purchase, but we are coping. The few things I will miss about my Subaru: heated seats, huge sun roof, 6 CD changer. But all's well that ends well--we have a car, that will seat more than 4 with a car seat in place.

Oh and one more thing!!! We got a crib for free!!! All we had to do was drive to Sparta :-) I love free and/or second hand things.

A Couple Links

Just a couple of links that I've been thinking about. Actually 3. The first 2 are actually from Joel and Liz's blogs and the last is from Girl Talk. All of these blogs are linked at the right hand side of my blog page. But here are the addresses for all: Liz's post, Joel's post and the GirlTalk post. All thought provoking :-)

I will post pictures of our "new" SUV soon and also, we need to get a new "belly pic" up and a picture of the awesome PJ's that we got for little man. They are so cool... :-) The reason for the new belly pic is because people are constantly coming up to me saying "you got bigger!" So I guess I "got bigger". Just a word of advice, unless you are super close to a pregnant woman, do not go up to her and say the words "you got bigger", because 1. no duh and 2. pregnant women's emotional status is easily shattered.

Oh one more thing...we might be getting a crib for free from a lady on craigslist. I love craigslist.

kicking, kicking, kicking...

Hey All! A little update on our little boy :-) As you can see in the title that's what he is doing! It's such a cool feeling. I've been feeling him since 15 weeks, but now he is so much bigger and stronger that his kicks don't feel like flutters anymore. For a little peek as to what he looks like here's a link: http://www.babycenter.com/fetal-development-images-22-weeks .

Last night Scott felt him for the first time! Normally I feel him jump on my bladder, and kick in that general area. Last night, however, I was sitting on the couch, knitting, kind of reclined and I started to feel him kick around my belly button, and a little higher. I was just sitting there thinking and feeling him when it got stronger, so I called Scott over. He sat for a minute with his hand on my tummy and suddenly the baby kicked and Scott looked up really fast..."I felt it!!! Wow, that was cool!" Scott then proceeded to talk to little man and try to coax him to kick more. It didn't work. :-) I'm so excited for this milestone. The biggest bummer about pregnancy is that while it is bringing Scott and I closer to one another, I can't share all these feelings with him all the time, like I want to. But! Alas, this is how our Lord created this process...

In other news, we still don't have a car. We are looking at the Honda Pilot. We went to a shady used car lot last night, in the pouring rain and were led around by Juan to many a repossessed Honda Pilot. The one that we were semi-interested in had been in an accident, which we don't want. So, we thanked them and left. It was a long night. Scott has a new top 4 and so we shall start all over again.

Meanwhile, we found out that our insurance is not paying for our rental like they said they were. So we are racking up the Christmas bill for Enterprise :-)

In our Small Group we are studying the book of James. How applicable here! So I leave you with this:

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:2-4

I know, I can't believe it either!

I'm posting twice in one week!!!

This will not be astounding, I assure you...I just wanted to share a few things:
First of all, I made my own laundry detergent yesterday:-) Yeah, I know, it's weird. I don't care. It costs about 1 cent per load and I am pleased. It didn't take long to make. It was actually very easy. The hardest part is grating the soap into the pot on the stove. I've done 2 loads already with it, and it does the trick! The only thing is there is no scent, for those of you who like that sort of thing. Here's the link for the site I found the recipe on: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm

Secondly, and I should really take pics of these and post them, I got diapers from my mom and grandmother! They are so adorable :-) For those of you who are now wondering how Huggies are adorable, I'm using cloth nappies...again, I know, weird. And again, I don't care. I'm using a very close knock off of the BumGenius brand. And I've gotten to use my new laundry soap on these little things, because you have to wash them three times before the first use. The first use, I know, is a while away, but I'm taking advantage of my comfort and energy level and doing all the baby laundry I can!

Thirdly, in light of the busy holiday season I have a great link to share with you ladies from the ladies at GirlTalk...so here you go! http://girltalk.blogs.com/girltalk/2008/09/managing-busy-s.html

Much love to you all!

p.s. Isn't it funny that the "i before e" rule does not apply to Weird?