Answered prayers

Yesterday my mom bought me and Morgan lunch, which was really nice. Today she fixed me breakfast while I was at her house. Jack's preschool is about 5 minutes from her house, but about 25 minutes from mine, so to keep from making the drive twice in one day, I hang out with her and my dad for the three hours he's in school twice a week. It's been really nice to spend some time with them. Today I asked her to be intentional about praying specifically that God would send me just an abundance of craft orders over the next few weeks to cover Christmas this year. (I would love it if you would do the same if you think of it). Not even an hour later a lady who ordered some felt Christmas tree sets from me a few weeks ago messaged me to order two more plus a felt Thanksgiving play set. She won't be picking them up and paying for a couple of weeks, but it was really neat to see such a quick answer. 

Speaking of God's blessings, yesterday I was kind of freaking out. I opened up my laptop to burn an image DVD for a photography client, and I got a message that my cooling fan was not working and my computer would be shutting down in 15 seconds to prevent loss of data or damage to the computer. Whaaaaat?? Guys, I NEED my laptop. Without it I can't do photography, blogging, a great deal of my crafting, etc, etc.You'd better believe I started praying! I started it back up, hoping to just keep it running long enough to burn the DVD since I was due to meet my client in about 30 minutes. No joy. After about 30 seconds it got scary hot, so I shut it back down. I decided to try to take the back off and see if there was some obvious obstruction to the fan, maybe dust buildup or something. But I couldn't figure out how to get the back off. I replaced all the tiny screws, popped back in the battery, flipped it over and opened it up, then said one more fervent prayer and turned it back on. The fan fired right up, and it's been running well since!

Tomorrow I've got a photo shoot for Kelly, who's 37 weeks pregnant and ready to pop. I don't think it will be a paid shoot, since it's family, but I've done all of her maternity pics, and I'm excited to be part of pregnancy #3 for her. The next day is my nephew's 3rd birthday party, and I'm doing his three year shoot that afternoon. It's going to be a busy weekend, but full of family, fun, and love!

Staying Afloat

Guys, this month, and thus this year - it's been HARD. I mean crazy stressful! Let me see, a few of the high(low)lights:

A couple of weeks ago, when pretty much the whole country was frozen, our pipes burst and pretty much flooded the garage. Our washer and dryer are out there, and we have an old playpen out there where I try to keep all the laundry waiting to be washed. Unfortunately, the day before, Morgan and Daisy decided to "clean" Jack's room, and I don't even want to talk about why there were so many clothes on the floor in there, but they took every single piece of clothing, including some of Jack's new stuff from Christmas that had been knocked down from where I had it stacked until I could clear drawer space, and threw it all out into the garage on the floor in front of the washer and dryer. (I know my sentences are too long. I'm seeking help for it.)

So all of that stuff was soaked in extremely frigid water, and I had no idea how to stop the leak. Morgan and I started hauling all the wet laundry into the bathtub downstairs, and since Nick was at work an hour away, I called my dad. He came immediately and went into the scary crawl space under the house and turned the water off. By this time Nick was on his way to Wednesday night church, so my dad had me call him to come home instead. He came on home, and between the four of us (me, Nick, Dad, and Morgan) we got the pipes repaired (Nick and Dad) and all the laundry up and the water shop-vacced out of the garage (me and Morgan). That was the 8th. 

The 11th Daisy's best friend was having a birthday party, so I whipped up a few hair bows for a birthday gift, and we headed out the door to Chuck E. Cheese. It had warmed up drastically by then, so I was wearing flip flops (which I kind of live in) when I stepped out onto our wet front porch. My feet shot out from under me, and the right one jammed up under the bottom of the porch railing. I nearly passed out, but I kept it together, and once I could breathe and manage to stand, I went inside to change so that we could leave.

My foot was actively throbbing all day, and by the end of the night I was concerned that I might have broken the...top...of it (whatever that's called). I don't have health insurance, but I do have several nurse friends who convinced me via Facebook that I really needed to get it x-rayed. The kids were all in bed by then, so someone needed to stay with them. I called my mom to see if she would come sit with them so Nick could drive me in case they gave me something that would prevent me from driving myself home. Instead my dad came down and drove me across town to the hospital. James works there as a surgical tech, and he smoothed the process for me a bit, getting me fast tracked, bringing me a pillow and something to drink, etc. X-rays revealed that it was just badly bruised and swollen, which was good news except for the fact that I could have just stayed home and avoided the ER bill. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

Both the little kids had been sick all weekend, so my dad and I took them both to the pediatrician on the following Monday (the 13th). Can you tell my dad is my hero? He went to 3 different doctor's visits with me this month. This was a horrible visit, both kids feeling terribly bad and violently opposed to any sort of examination. It turned out that they both had double ear infections.

Daisy had gotten her referral to a GI doctor the previous week and seen her on Friday, the day before the birthday party. It was really more of a consult, and the doctor set up an appointment for a lower intestine barium scan the following Friday. She also sent me home with a little plastic vial and instructions to collect a stool sample. This was not something I was looking forward to, but we do what we have to for our kids, right? Unfortunately she was not producing anything to uh, sample. I stalked this kid for 5 days. Finally, this past Wednesday, she yelled at me to let me know she was ready. While I was "collecting" and pretending I was in a happier place, Jack managed to get hold of not just my Macbook, but a cup of tea that I didn't even know was in the room (it was Daisy's).

Morgan came home from school just then to find him sitting on a soaked couch, splashing away in the puddle that surrounded my laptop. The lid on it was closed, so she grabbed it and yelled to me to tell me what happened. I was a little tied up, so I made sure she had gotten it away from him and finished what I was doing. When I got in there it really didn't look like anything had gotten inside it, so I set it aside while I cleaned up the tea. It was a couple of hours before I had a chance to mess with it, and when I tried to turn it on, nothing happened. Opening up the case revealed that tea had definitely gotten inside. That was really just the end of my rope. That day I had dealt with sick kids (Jack had thrown up - on me - more than once), collecting poop, piles of laundry, and fighting siblings. Plus I was supposed to meet a photography client in two days with a CD of her pictures (which I needed my Mac for), and an Etsy client wanted a custom pillow cover (which I also needed my Mac for). To make things worse Nick and I were snapping at each other, because he'd had a crappy day too (not as crappy as mine I daresay). I took it to the computer repair place I use and it's the logic board - $900 to repair.

This past Friday I took Daisy in for her barium test. She had to drink this awful chalky liquid, but she did pretty well. When I woke up that morning my right eye was kind of red and crusty. This is what it looked like then:

Two days later I was in all kinds of agony, and it looked like this:

Sorry the second one looks kind of insane. I was trying to get it as open as I could because I was texting it to my cousin, who is a nurse practitioner and was kind enough to call me in a prescription for some antibiotics. I was finally able to put my contacts back in today.

Today I got thrown up on twice (once yesterday and several times earlier in the week). Yeah, it's been a little rough.

BUT, there have been good things too. Some of them really good. I got a call one day last week from our water company telling me someone had paid our bill for us anonymously. It didn't take too much investigating to figure out it was my parents. :)

James showed up Tuesday and handed me $50 to help offset the cost off all the co-pays and prescriptions.

I called my mom Thursday morning to ask if she could stay with the kids so I could take my computer to the repair shop to see if it could be saved. She showed up a couple of hours later with a relatively inexpensive but brand new and fully functional HP laptop, all for me, courtesy of her and my dad. I was able to use it to fill my Etsy order and get it to the customer on time. They've also bought both food and medicine several times for my little family this week.

The computer repair place said my hard drive is still good, and they can move all my data over for $89. I'll pick it up this Friday and most of that cost will be covered by the CD order.

My photography client was incredibly cool about the whole situation and didn't mind waiting another week for her CD. I still had all of her raw files on my camera as a backup, so I hadn't lost them either way, but I would have had to re-edit all of them, and with the pinkeye I couldn't stand to look at a computer screen for more than a few minutes.

We were able to fix the pipes for less than $1 since my dad had a couple of pipe pieces that fit, and all we had to buy were a couple of copper joints. And we got all the wet laundry washed before it mildewed.

Daisy's lower intestine scan came back clear, and her stomachaches have become fewer and farther apart, so now we're just waiting on her next doctor visit.

So there have definitely been blessings too.

That said, I'm wound a little tight these days, and I'm feeling a little unmoored relationship-wise. We've been a bit in survival mode around here, and my very contagious pinkeye has just been the latest thing to keep us from getting close. The truth is, I miss my husband, and I miss very much feeling the comforting bounds of his authority. The day after my last post he apologized and told me that he'd known what I needed but hadn't felt like dealing with it. I can't say that that didn't hurt a little, but he was trying to stay afloat himself. I guess I've just been doing and taking care of so much at home myself lately that I'm missing a reminder that he's in charge and I actually don't have all the responsibility myself.

He's going to be staying home from work tomorrow because he's gotten sick himself in the last few days, so I don't think there will be any sort of discipline forthcoming, but I will be glad for the time with him, even though I hate that he's not feeling well.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Thank you all for all your thoughts and prayers!

Blessings (and a spanking)

Hello, everyone. Did everyone have a nice Valentine's Day? Ours was low key but nice. Our cable remote had been dying on us for a while (not a battery issue), and Nick had been wanting me to pick up a new one. So I ran out and got one and had it waiting for him with a big bow on it. Other than that we just let the TV and the Kindle be our Valentine's gifts (not that we normally go anywhere near that big). 

Today was full of blessings. Morgan had the day off from school (President's Day), so it was nice to have her home. Nick had to work, but they had a productive day, which was good. I was working on laundry when I noticed that our washing machine had quit too early. I opened it up and saw that it wasn't draining. I kind of freaked out a little, because isn't that always the way - you buy a new TV and something like your washing machine tears up? I got online and tried to research the problem, but it quickly became clear that any solution was beyond my skill level. I called my dad, who has wrestled with his share of washing machines over the years. He came down to give it a look and was fortunately able to fix it with what we had on hand.

Some really exciting news came from Nick. Kate texted him today to let him know she had shipped us a car seat for Jack along with my Christmas gift. About six months ago when Kate came in for Kelly's baby shower she told me that she was going to give us the car seat she had brought with her to use for Maddox while they were in. Apparently it was an extra, and I was really excited about it. Not only would that eliminate an upcoming expense for us (buying a new one for when he outgrows his infant one), but it was a super nice one too, a Britax, which is about $200 out of our price range. Unfortunately it didn't work out for us to follow her to the airport when they left, so she had to take it back with her. Nothing else was ever said about it, so I assumed we would be buying our own.

But the Christmas gift news is what has me really excited. Right after Christmas Kate called Nick and told him that they had been planning to buy me a new laptop. But when Will went to order it (off Home Shopping Network I think), they refused to ship it anywhere other than his address, so he just cancelled the order entirely. She told Nick that they had a practically new Macbook that they ended up not using once they bought it (can you imagine being able to spend that kind of money for something you don't need and probably won't use?), and that they might send me that instead. 

But it's been nearly two months since Christmas now, and I had honestly given up hope of getting anything. I have to admit, I got pretty excited about the idea of a replacement for my poor, limping along laptop, so it was pretty disappointing to watch the weeks go by with no mention of it. But I just assumed that they had decided that with Nick's bike (which was an impulse buy for Will) they had spent enough on our family for Christmas. And they really, really had, and it was thrilling for me to see Nick get such an awesome Christmas for once. But....I confess to being a little hurt, mainly because very nearly everything we gave them was handmade by me. I put a lot of love and work into their (and everyone else's) Christmas, and it wasn't to get anything back, but I did feel a little...forgotten.

Anyway, they're sending the Macbook, my very first one, and I'm so excited!

I got punished last night for the laundry issue I mentioned the other day as well as the generally chaotic state of the house right now. With the girls asleep and Jack entrenched with a bottle of milk and Yo Gabba Gabba larger than life on the new TV, he took me upstairs to deal with me. He rummaged around in the chest at the foot of our bed and finally chose the Patty Paddle from Cane-iac. He then gave me a very stern talking to for the better part of an hour, followed by a spanking that was much more merciful than I deserved. I was teary before the first swat landed, which I think is probably why he let me keep my jeans and panties up and only gave me 20 licks. 

Today I was better focused, and I got more than usual done, even with the time out to deal with the washing machine. Anyway, Jack's almost asleep, so I'll say goodnight.

Blessed nonetheless…

It’s been a stressful few days. Sunday the baby was very, very inactive. As in I didn’t feel him moving for about 22 hours. Now this happened with Morgan too, and they had me go in for monitoring. I’m nearly 29 weeks along, and I’m at the point where I should be able to count kicks a few times a day and get 10 movements within an hour. So I called my doctor, and sure enough she sent me down to the women’s pavilion at the hospital for monitoring. As it turned out, he was just fine, and once they hooked up the monitors he woke right up, so they sent me home pretty soon. Yesterday and today he’s been quite active, and in fact is rolling around in there right now.

Yesterday I realized that the function keys on my laptop were no longer working. This wasn’t a huge big deal since there’s a work around for almost all of them, but the major problem was that I had no way to disable my touchpad. This was a real issue because my cursor had developed some crazy level of sensitivity, jumping around constantly during typing and making it a huge pain in the butt to write an email or blog. It kept jumping back to earlier on the page and causing me to type in the middle of a word or even highlighting sections and causing me to type over and delete them.

I wanted to be able to disable to touchpad while my mouse was plugged in, or at least decrease the sensitivity so that it wouldn’t read every little accidental brush as a click, but the computer repair guy had not reinstalled the controls for my touchpad when he reinstalled Windows 7. I gave him a call and he asked me to bring it back down. I took it back in this morning on my way to get Daisy’s hair cut, and they called me before the end of the day to say that it was done. I picked it up and he had reinstalled the touchpad controls and set it to disable the touchpad only when the mouse is plugged in, which is what I wanted.

He also opened up the keyboard to make sure all the cords inside were properly seated and discovered that someone (cough, Daisy) had spilled something on the keyboard. Not sure what it was, but fortunately it had missed all the critical parts and dried quite harmlessly. There was again no charge for this trip, and I really think I’m finally done with repairs.

We also had them look at Nick’s laptop the other day, and they were able to get it operational again, but we will have to wait to pick it for a few weeks because we don’t have the $149 to cover the repair fee.

Tonight Nick called home about 6:00 to tell me that he’d been in a car accident. He’s okay, thank God, but it wasn’t a pretty picture. No one at all was hurt, but his foot apparently slipped off the clutch and he slammed pretty hard into the car in front of him, causing a chain reaction of rear-end collisions including 5 cars counting his.

My parents were due to pick Morgan up for church soon when he called, so I called and asked them to come on down so I could go pick him up. Daisy was asleep, and we left Morgan in charge of her for the 10 minutes it took my parents to get there while I headed out to get him. It was a really awful rainy night, and I’m just so thankful it wasn’t worse. He was pretty shaken up, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. When I got there the wrecker service had already arrived for him, and the wrecker driver was one of his good friends from high school, which gave him a bit of a distraction.

We do have full coverage insurance, and the cop didn’t ticket him for anything, probably due to the awful road conditions. I know the accident will be written up as his fault, but his tags were also expired, and the cop didn’t seem to notice. It’s not something we were neglecting – in fact we had planned to get them renewed last week, but we ended up having to pay for my computer repairs first so that I could finish the wedding photos.

Car accidents always feel like the end of the world to me for some reason, even when they aren’t serious, but I know that God is still in control, and He certainly had His hand on Nick’s safety. And we’re fortunate to have two vehicles, so it won’t be a problem for Nick to get to work and back until his is repaired (if it can be repaired). Actually, it might even be better if they would just total it out. We own it outright, so that way we wouldn’t have to pay out the $500 deductible, but could instead just take the payment for it (less the deductible) and put it toward getting him something else. In fact, he’d been seriously considering selling it to get a pickup truck for a while. Since the Xterra was too small to fit all three kids in, we’ll be taking the Sequoia everywhere as a family anyway once the baby’s here, so it makes going with a much needed pickup for him to drive daily a feasible prospect.
I guess this post is just to remind me that even in the middle of all these little and big crises, God is still right here taking care of us. In fact, since I’ve been such an awful slacker about it, it would be a good time to list a few more things I’m thankful for:
O, P, & Q:

• Orgasms – enough said on that one!
• Orange Italian Ice – yes, I know I listed this one under “I” too, but I really love it!
• Old friends – like the one who drove the wrecker tonight, and the one we had a visit from last week. That one was one of Nick’s best men when we got married (he had 2), and we hadn’t seen him in ages, so it was great to get to catch up. I also got to visit with one of my old friends from high school about a week and a half ago, and it was such a fun day of girl talk and crafting!
• Ordinary days – where nothing much happens, but nothing much goes wrong either
• Pasta – I know, I know carbs, carbs, carbs. But I do love it, and it generally makes dinner a snap.
• Pinterest – Holy Inspiration, Batman! I’m ridiculously obsessed.
• Precious two-year olds – Daisy has reached the stage where we have a hard time even wrapping our heads around how cute she is. Example: watching her do the sign language motions along with the host on her night time toddler program. They also run a montage of all the characters on the network sleeping every night, and she tells every single one good night as they play across the screen. I mentioned before that when she wants something, she says “Hin me (hand me)_____.” The other day she said “Hin me fiss bum.” I didn’t understand her, so she rolled her eyes and said with great patience “Hin me five.” Turns out she wanted a fist bump and then a high five, lol.

       

• Photography – I’m so blessed to have a good camera and to even be able to make some money with it sometimes!
• Quiet – sweet, sweet silence when I can get it lol.
• Quilts – I love blankets of all kinds, but I especially appreciate a nice, heavyweight quilt.
• Qi – Wikipedia tells me this means life force or life energy, but I just like it because it’s almost always a high score on Words with Friends, the game Nick and I play with each other via phone all day every day!

Other blessings:

• Morgan brought home an A/B Honor roll report card today, as well as a certificate showing she was promoted to the next reading group level.
• Morgan also cleaned out the freezer for me the other day (something I had been dreading), and she helped me clean out the fridge.
• A guy Nick works with gave us a huge trailer full of free firewood a few days ago.
• My mom found a good deal on diapers and bought us a box out of the blue yesterday.
• Last week my mom also bought me this awesome double jogging stroller for an amazing price. I found it at the Goodwill. It was priced at $50, a great deal since it was in perfect shape and retails for about $225, but to make it even better it was half-off day, so we got it for $25! I actually just called my mom to see if she knew anyone who needed it since it was such a fabulous deal and I knew we didn’t have the extra money for it, and she had me just get it for us and gave me the money for it.

• Nick has had a few side jobs lately that have helped with bills, and I should get the rest of the wedding photography money on Thursday. That will pay the electric bill, although we’re still waiting on God to send the house payment.
• My brother James who has been in L.A. on assignment for a few months just bought a house about 3 minutes from us. He’s still in California till January or so, but my parents are closing on it by proxy tomorrow. As part of the deal, the current owners agreed to put on a new roof with my brother only responsible for half of their insurance copay.

And a baby update:

Week 29 of Pregnancy

Your baby's packing on the pounds, which look so cute on her. If only you could say the same for your varicose veins….

Your Baby in Week 29 of Pregnancy
How big is your baby this week? She weighs nearly three pounds now and measures about 17 inches. Though she's getting pretty close to her birth length, she still has to chub out a bit. In fact, over the next 11 weeks, she'll more than double — or even come close to tripling — her weight. And as she grows and the room in your womb gets tighter, you'll be less likely to feel those big kicks and more likely to get poked by an elbow or jabbed by a knee.
Learn more about your baby in week 29 and baby fat.

Week 29 Pregnancy Tip: Counting Baby's Kicks

Have you counted your baby's kicks today? Once you've passed week 28, you should be counting them every day. To make sure that you do — and to make sure that everything's A-OK in your belly — make a habit of counting your baby's kicks twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. Best to do your counting lying down (since babies are more likely to kick up when Mom's lying down — a pattern they tend to continue after they're born). If you can't lie down, sit. Count any and all movements (even swishes and rolls) until you hit ten. If you haven't reached ten within an hour (your little Rockette may just be on her break right now), have a light snack and try again — that blood-sugar rush is likely to get baby on the move again. Just remember that fewer than ten movements within two hours warrants a call to your practitioner. Chances are everything's fine, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.

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Laptop, sweet laptop

So, It’s been a while since I posted. My laptop started running REALLY slow about a month ago. I tried all kinds of things, including of course multiple virus scans, but nothing helped. Finally, about a week and a half ago, I was having a terrible time wading through the editing on the pictures from the wedding Nick and I shot. Nick told me to take the computer in to be serviced, and they told me I would have it back within a couple of days. Unfortunately it took them a full week, but they did get it all fixed. There were several viruses on board, so we just had them back up all my files and reinstall Windows 7 completely. Apparently I had over 10 times the amount of files to as the “average” user, heh, which is what took so long. Sadly I missed this years Love Our Lurkers Day in the meantime.

Anyway, I’m very glad to have it back, and when I get a chance I’ve got some very cool new toys I want to tell you about.

Nick and I had a conversation about DD the other day. It was very low key, which was good, and he admitted that he’s just not comfortable with spanking while I’m pregnant, but that he’s still on board with the rest of it. That was very welcome news to me since it’s been a few months since there was any spanking.

Baby Jack is doing well. I had an ultrasound a week ago, and he’s about two pounds now. I gained the 3 pounds she wanted me to plus (gulp) 7 more. BUT, I made the mistake of going to my appointment directly after eating a pretty heavy lunch at a Mexican restaurant with Nick, so I honestly think about 3 pounds of it was due to enchiladas. Either way, a net gain of 7 pounds is not terrible for being almost 7 months pregnant, and my doctor is actually quite happy with my progress. Still, it’s hard for me to watch the number on the scale go up, but I just have to remember that it’s good for the baby. I go back for my next appointment on December 1.

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on with me. Hope you guys are doing well!

November already!

Gosh, I can’t believe it’s already November! This whole year has honestly just flown by! So, a few gratitude items:
ABCs of Gratitude:
L,M, & N since I missed a few weeks…
Love – it almost seems to trite and obvious, but how could I leave it out?
Lemons – I love just about anything lemon flavored (Nick made me a lemon cake with cream cheese icing for my birthday), and I love how fresh and clean they make things smell!
Lips – Nick has the most amazing lips, and I love everything they do!
Laptops – Right now we’re having some problems with both of ours. Mine has something wrong with it that no virus scan seems to be able to find, and Nick’s is currently in pieces waiting on us to be able to order a part it needs. But even if I can only use mine in safe mode right now, I’m so glad I have it!
Making things – this year is going to be by and far a handmade Christmas, but I’m pretty confident that the projects I have in the works are suitable and gift-worthy, and I’m grateful to have the skill to make them!
Marriage – I’m so very blessed in the marriage God has given me. Like any couple, we have our disagreements, but I truly believe that ours is a great love story.
Nick – Of course this is the guy that makes that last one so great.
Naps – I don’t get to take them all that often just because life is so busy these days, but I sure do enjoy the luxury when I get the opportunity! In fact, I came home today from a super stressful trip to Wal-Mart and Target with both kids, just ready to pull my hair out, and Nick sent me upstairs to take one and just decompress. It was wonderful!
Nikon – I love my camera, and I’m so glad I went with the one I chose!

Recent blessings- The wedding Nick and I shot the day after my last post went very well. It was Nick’s first time shooting, and he was really nervous, but he did great, and we had a lot of fun working together! Also, when Nick’s sister came to pick her camera back up, she refused to take the $50 payment for letting us use it!
I passed my glucose test! I was VERY excited about this. Diabetes runs heavily in my family, and every time you have gestational diabetes it increases your likelihood of developing the disease later on down the road. Since I had it with Daisy despite keeping my weight gain strictly under control, I was pretty resigned to finding out I had it with this baby too. And beyond dreading all the extra precautions and sugar testing and special diet, I was really dreading having to shell out an extra $40 a month or so for blood sugar test strips, so it was a big relief to find out I passed!
Nick was on vacation last week, and I loved having him home! We did the wedding on Monday, then just kind of had a relaxing week together. He got to go spend one day playing golf with one of his friends and one of my brothers, and on Thursday he was able to go haul off some more scrap metal, which gave us some much needed extra money to make a couple of payments (including the house payment!)
The kids had a good time last night trick or treating. Morgan had just kind of a random costume going on with heavy zombie looking eyes and fake blood all over her face. Daisy had the CUTEST lady bug costume, but she HATED it! I ended up just sticking her in her warm fuzzy footsie pajamas and wheeling her around the neighborhood in her stroller with Morgan. She was amazed at the whole thing though - she couldn't believe all the candy she got (and neither could I!).
I’ve gotten a few Christmas gifts knocked out already. I’m making some zipper pouches for some of the women in the family. I have one of those done, as well as a couple of bird feeders made from thrifted tea cups and saucers and copper pipe. They’re really pretty! I’m also giving out 7 sets of these nativity sets, and I’ve got all of them done, along with a set for us.

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I’ve also made a set of coasters for James, and I’ve got the painting done on 4 of the 6 recipe card holders I’m making. I also made a heat bag/neck warmer for my parents. And I got a free bottle of nail polish with a coupon at Target today – stocking stuffer! But I still have a ton to do, so I’ve got to get going on it! Less than 8 weeks till Christmas!

Baby Update:
Week 26 of Pregnancy: Baby's Eyes Open

Your baby's eyes — which have been closed for the past few months — are now beginning to open. Your baby's brain-wave activity is also kicking in at this stage in fetal development, which means your little one can not only hear noises but can now also respond to them.

Look who's looking. Your baby's eyes — which have been closed for the past few months (so that the retina, the part of the eye that allows images to come into focus, could develop) — are beginning to open at 26 weeks pregnant. What this means is that your baby is able to see what's going on now (unfortunately the view in your uterus isn't all that exciting). But do try this at home for kicks (baby's that is): Shine a flashlight at your stomach. Your baby might kick in response (as in: "Get that light out of my eyes!").
The iris, the colored part of the eye, still doesn't have much pigmentation (that'll fill in over the next month or two), so it's too early to start guessing your baby's eye color. Even the color your baby will be born with might not be the permanent shade; so you may be kept guessing until your baby is close to six months old.
Look what else is going on this week: Your baby's brain-wave activity is kicking in at this stage in fetal development, which means your little one can not only hear noises but can now also respond to them. Not in so many words, of course, but with an increase in pulse rate or activity.
And talking about activity, at your baby's current height and weight (about nine inches tall and two pounds), and at the rate he or she is growing, your baby will soon be feeling a little cramped in your uterus. Not to worry, there's still plenty of room for your baby to grow. It just means your gymnast will have less room for those somersaults, cartwheels, and other Olympic feats.

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Thankful Saturday

Yes, I missed Thursday again, but it was a really busy week! Nick was out of town at school for most of the week, and I got to play single mom for a few days. But he’s home now, and I sure am glad!
ABC's of Gratitude:

• Groceries – while we didn’t go hungry last week, we were definitely eating out of the back of the pantry, and it’s nice to have a few more groceries in the house this week.
• Gift-giving – I spent a good part of one day last week making up a couple of lists (I’m a big list maker). One was our Christmas list, and the other was a list of the supplies I’ll need to make all of those gifts. Yep, I’m going to do my best to make almost every gift we give this year. Last year I made a significant portion of them, and it really added a new layer to Christmas for me (not to mentioned helped the budget quite a bit!). Now I know that there will be a few things I can’t craft myself, but I was actually pretty impressed with the number of ideas I found online, and I even came up with a few all by myself!
• Grandparents – Tomorrow is Grandparent’s Day. I no longer have any living grandparents, although both of Nick’s on his dad’s side are healthy as horses. We’re so blessed to still have them, and we’re even more blessed that our parents are such amazing grandparents to our children. Both my mom and Nick’s stepmom were in the delivery room for both my girls’ births, and they’ll both be there for this baby as well, and it’s so important to me that they get to be grandmothers from the very first moment of the baby’s life!
• God – Wow, how on earth can I express how grateful I am for and to God? If not for Him, there would be nothing else at all.
• Grace – Grace is a concept that is so incredibly important in both marriage and parenting, and I’m so grateful God has shown so much grace to me.

Recent Blessings:

• My parents safely returned from L.A. this past Tuesday. They also dropped off $50 with me just because they knew Nick was out of town and we were pretty tight for money.
• Nick safely returned from school on Thursday. He had a great time, and he learned a lot!
• Nick’s dad came over Thursday before Nick got home and mowed our front yard and cleaned out our gutters.
• I took advantage of this deal on www.moneysavingmom.com, and it’s going to get me a sweet little stocking stuffer for Nick, always a hard order for me to fill.
• A few weeks ago I also signed up for www.savemore.com and ended up getting a couple of kids watches for free, which will also make a couple of great Christmas gifts. They came in the mail a few days ago, and I love them! By the way, the link in the last sentence only is my referral link. If you would like to sign up through it, you get a $10 credit, and then I get a $10 credit if you make a purchase (but it will not tell me your name or email address, just in case privacy is a concern). I got the watches completely free because I signed up and got my $10 credit and used it to purchase the $7 watch deal, then referred Nick, and he also purchased the same deal with his $10 credit. And because he made a purchase (albeit one covered by his free credit), I got another $10!. Currently I’m hanging onto my remaining credit for the next great deal that comes along for a Christmas gift!
• Last year I signed up for an off-site storage account with Mozy. I lost my hard drive a couple of years ago, and it was a pretty devastating experience. Once I started doing photography professionally, I knew there was just no way I could risk losing client images. At the time I got a great deal with Mozy, and I’ve been very happy with them. Unfortunately they did away with their unlimited storage option a few months back and went to a new (much pricier) by-the-GB plan. My first year with them cost me about $46. Under the new plan I would be paying over $300! My contract with them was up August 31, and they were going to renew at the higher rate if I didn’t cancel. I knew I needed the service, but I also knew we just didn’t have the money to either renew with them or open a new account elsewhere that week. Fortunately a friend who’s tech-savvier than me suggested I try out Crashplan (not an affiliate link), and they were running a 30 day free trial special. I signed up with them, and I’m so excited to have an extra 30 days to come up with the annual fee (which is comparable to the one I started out with at Mozy).
• Pinterest – If you’ve never hear of Pinterest, you should really check it out. It’s basically a free bulletin board for you to pin up all the great ideas you find online, and to see other people’s finds as well. It’s where I’ve found a big chunk of my Christmas gift ideas. A warning though: it will suck you right in, and you might find yourself exploring there for hours at a time!

Baby Update:

Week 19 of Pregnancy: Vernix Develops

Six inches long this week and about eight ounces in weight, your baby is the size of a large mango and is now covered in a protective substance called vernix. Arms and legs are finally in proportion, neurons are now connected between the brain and muscles, and cartilage throughout the body is turning to bone.

Six inches long this week and about eight ounces in weight, your baby is the size of a large mango.
Your little action figure is able to choreograph Matrix-like moves at 19 weeks pregnant. Arms and legs are finally in proportion, neurons are now connected between the brain and muscles, and cartilage throughout the body is turning to bone. All these upgrades combine to give your baby more control over limb movements. Which explains all that kicking, stretching, and bodysurfing (or rather bellysurfing) you've possibly started feeling by now. 
Something else going on this week: Your baby is getting a cheesy varnish. Say what? Yup — a protective substance called vernix caseosa (vernix is the Latin word for varnish; caseosa is cheese) now covers your baby's skin. It's greasy and white and is made up of lanugo (that downy hair), oil from your baby's glands, and dead skin cells. This waxy "cheese" may not sound too appetizing or attractive, but it's there for good reason: Vernix protects your baby's sensitive skin from the surrounding amniotic fluid. Without it, your baby would look very wrinkled at birth (sort of what you'd look like if you soaked in a bath for nine months). Some babies — especially those born early — will still be covered with vernix at the delivery, so you might get a look at your baby's first anti-wrinkle cream.

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Thankful Thursday

Er, Friday. Okay, fine, SATURDAY. So yeah, I’m late again. But I’m here now!
ABC’s of Gratitude:

• Family – you can’t choose the one you get, but Nick and I are both incredibly blessed with the ones we have. My parents have been married for 43 years; Nick’s mom and dad were married for just over 20 years when Nick’s mom passed away, and Nick’s dad has been married to Nick’s amazing stepmom for almost 12 years now. We are so thankful for the wonderful examples we’ve had of married couples in our family!
• Fathers – First of all, my own father is just an incredible dad. He’s taught me so much, and I’ve never for one day doubted his love for me. Secondly (but just as importantly), Nick is a wonderful father to our two girls – and I know he’ll be just as fabulous with our new little one. And the most important Father of course is my Heavenly Father. I cannot even begin to express how much I love God and how very much He loves me!
• Fathers-in-law – Nick and I both got lucky here. My dad considers Nick a son, and he truly treats him as such. Nick’s dad is forever coming over to help out with something we need fixing around the house, and my very first Mother’s Day he was the only person who thought to buy me a gift.
• Fixing stuff – Today I had something scary happen: the charger cord on my laptop died. It had been fraying right at the base of the end you plug into the computer, and it finally completely broke tonight. Right now we do NOT have $80 to go buy a new one, and I depend on my laptop for SO much. We do have a desktop upstairs, but all of my clients’ photos, as well has all my editing software is on this laptop, and frankly I would be lost without it. Fortunately, after a lot of prayer, soldering, and electrical tape, Nick got it fixed good as new! Now we’re dealing with a broken DC jack on his laptop, also a serious issue because he uses it daily for work. The part that will fix it (we hope) is really cheap on ebay, but it’s still not quite cheap enough for us to buy it this week. Anyway, we would really appreciate your prayers that we can get the part soon and that he will be able to fix it completely!
• Faith – these last two years our faith has really had to stretch with the switch from two incomes to one. But I am so glad to be able to say that not once has God failed us. Right now we’re definitely running on faith: It’s 6 days till payday, and I only have enough food for about 3 more days, plus Nick is completely out of gas, and I have just enough to get us to church on Sunday. But I’m not panicking. Matthew 6:25-34 tells me all that I need to know, and I can know it with such certainty because He has proven it over and over again:

   Matthew 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

²⁶Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
²⁷Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
²⁸And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
²⁹And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
³⁰Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
³¹Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
³²(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
³³But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
³⁴Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.


• Freebies – It’s getting to be the time of year again when I start thinking about Christmas gifts. Last year almost every gift that went out of our house was something I got for free or almost free with various online deals and/or coupons. It was actually a lot of fun to be able to get Christmas gifts for everyone for so little, and it really helped us focus on the true meaning. I’m looking forward to a now holiday season full of great deals and freebies, not to mention lots of crafting and handmade gifts!
• Fabric – I’ve mentioned that I’ve really gotten into sewing and crafting over the last year, and I’ve found myself developing a real love of fabric. There’s just so much you can do with it, and I love how unique a project can be depending on the type and print you use.
• Fun – well who doesn’t like to have fun?

Recent Blessings:

• At my last doctor’s visit I had my quad screen. This is the blood test that checks for, among other things, indicators for chromosome abnormalities (such as Down Syndrome) and neural tube defects (like spina bifida). This is a common test, and one I’ve had with all three pregnancies, but it’s still nerve-wracking, especially since the results take a few days to come back. Toward the end of last week my test results came in, and they were all normal.
• Nick will be going to school for work next week. This is a mixed blessing for me, because I always hate being without him. But they feed him (quite well, actually), as well as pay for travel and lodging, so that means we wont have to pay for gas for him to go to work and back for most of the week, and we also won’t have to worry about lunches for him. This is also a necessary step for him in getting his ASE certification, an accomplishment that will mean more money for him. He also gets to go with one of his closest friends at work, which is nice.
• God has already stretched our food this week. More than once I’ve found things in the cabinet that I didn’t know we had, and our bread machine has really been a lifesaver, giving me the ability to put together things I would not have otherwise been able to. I also really appreciate my meat and potatoes husband sweetly eating whatever I put in front of him (and even taking it for lunch the next day!), even if it wasn’t exactly what he would have chosen.
• My parents are currently in L.A. visiting my brother, who’s there on assignment. They visited him in Houston last year and hated almost everything about the trip, but this year they’re having the time of their lives, and I’m so happy for them!

Baby Update:

Week 18 of Pregnancy: Fetal Nervous System

This week your baby is about five and a half inches long, crown to rump, and weighs about five ounces. And fetal development has reached the stage for you to start feeling those movements some time in the next few weeks — so get ready!

At 18 weeks pregnant, your baby is hitting the height chart at five and a half inches long (remember, that's crown to rump) and weighs about five ounces (the weight of that boneless chicken breast you're making for dinner).
And now for the skill of the week (drum roll please…): The art of the yawn has been mastered by your baby (someone's sleepy!).  In fact, you might catch a glimpse of that adorable yawn if you're getting an ultrasound this month. You'll also catch a glimpse of all the fetal movement your baby's doing — twists, rolls, kicks, and punches. And would you believe your baby is finally big enough for you to start feeling those movements now (or anytime in the next few weeks). So get ready!
Something you won't see on the ultrasound, but you'll know is in working order, is your baby's nervous system, which is maturing rapidly at this time.  Nerves, now covered with a substance called myelin (which speeds messages from nerve cell to nerve cell), are forming more complex connections. And those in the brain are further specializing into the ones that serve the senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. Talking about hearing, your baby's is growing more acute, making your little one more conscious of sounds that come from inside your body (which means you could both be listening to each other hiccup  — a skill that your baby has by now).

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A new laptop!

I got a new laptop! I'm soooo excited, because my beloved Gateway has been on its last leg for a while now. My hard drive crashed back in October and we lost everything on it. Best Buy was unfortunately unable to recover anything at all, and we were unable to find my restore disk. Because there was absolutely nothing at all on the new hard drive, we had to load everything from scratch. One of Nick's computer savvy friends kindly got us set back up, but all that he had to put on as an operating system was Windows XP Pro, a system I love, except it was registered to him. So for the last 9 months I've had to deal with Windows Counterfeit Software notices, extremely frustrating since we have my actual original authorized disk somewhere. Added to that, Morgan broke the hinge on one side when she accidentally opened the lid too far, and the charger has been threatening to stop working for some time.

We've not gotten it fixed for a couple of reasons - first of all we just didn't have the money, and second, I've had it for about three years now, and it's obsolete enough that it would cost as much to fix it as to get a new, better computer. With the baby coming, we knew we wouldn't have much more of an opportunity to repair or replace it. So with some great deals at Best Buy right now, Nick decided it was time to shop. We ended up coming home with an Asus for about $300 less than we paid for my Gateway, and a lot more bells and whistles. Besides having a much bigger hard drive, it's got a ton more memory and battery life, as well as a built in webcam. It's soooo much faster, and the graphics are amazingly crisp.

In other news, I've unfortunately developed gestational diabetes. My mom had it with my youngest brother, so I wasn't entirely surprised, but it's still a complication I'd definitely rather do without. I'm 29 weeks pregnant today, so I've only got about 11 weeks to go (hopefully a little less). I can deal with it - I'd just rather not have to. We started painting the baby's room today, and my mom and mother-in-law will be having a baby shower for me on August 30. I can't believe how close it's all getting! I hope you guys have a great week!

Life

So how's everyone been doing lately? I know it looks like I've completely dropped out of bloggerland, but I'm still here, I promise. A couple of weeks ago my hard drive on my laptop completely crashed, and I lost a lot of good stuff. Fortunately most or all of my family pictures were saved in my gmail history, and most of my spanko stuff is on here. Unfortunately we lost a tremendous amount of music. We had over 5,000 songs in our iTunes, most of which are gone now. Most of those were songs we had loaded from CD's (ours and other's), so it's not like we had that much money in it, but still, we had probably $400 worth of actual purchases on there. What really sucks it that until about a week before this happened we had the whole library stored on Nick's iPod just as a backup until we could copy it all to the external hard drive I got not long ago. Then Nick got tired of scrolling through hundreds of artists, and he took off all but about 190 songs. A positive note is that iTunes let us redownload part of our purchases for free. Songs that had been changed or deleted from the store since we bought them couldn't be restored, so we didn't get everything back, but we were able to restore 250 items.

Anyway, I've just now got my laptop back up and running, so that's part of why I haven't been posting as much. As for the rest of it, well, I just haven't had much to post about. There's been no spanking whatsoever, not even the much advertised birthday spanking. And I've not really given him any reason, other than the fact that I've been stressed over any number of things and could just use my reset button pushed, but lately it's just seemed like it would feel awkward and forced. So I haven't asked. And I haven't expected him to offer, because that would require a response from me, and I know that the one I would give would be to blow it off, because I am in that place where I cannot ask.

So for now I'm spending my time restoring my laptop to it's old familiar self and working on getting our house clean. Nick and I in fact have spent the last week doing some heavy cleaning, finally fixing the hundred little things that always need fixing in a home but always seem to get pushed to the side. I've spent hours going through Morgan's old clothes and toys and getting rid of things outgrown. The house actually looks great right now with the exception of our bedroom and the still large (but much smaller than it was) pile of laundry.

I hope you guys have all been well. I'm still reading blogs and enjoying peeking at other people's day to day living. Have a great week!

I promise I'm not dead!

Hey, guys. I know it must have looked like I'd fallen off the face of the earth, but I promise I'm still here. I've been sick for one, although I'm pretty much through that. Right now we're having some issues with my laptop, so I've really only had access through work - definitely not a friendly environment for posting and surfing. Also, my Photobucket account has exceeded it's bandwith for the month, so my blog looks like it's under construction. Hopefully we'll get it all fixed very soon and I'll be back up and running. Thank you so much for all your sweet thoughts and comments. I miss you all!