Thankful Thursday

It’s Thursday again, and this week I made it on time!

ABC’s of Gratitude:

• Eggs – I’m not a huge fan of just egg dishes, like scrambled eggs, deviled eggs, etc. But I do love Nick’s egg salad sandwiches, and I definitely wouldn’t get very far in my cooking without always having a carton or two on hand.
• Dr. E – my OBGYN’s last name starts with an E, and I just have to say that she is a FABULOUS doctor! She’s delivered both of my babies so far, and Lord willing she’ll deliver this one too. She’s a doctor who really, truly cares about her patients, and her practice reflects that. I can’t tell you how many times over the years she’s sent me home from her office with 6 months worth of birth control samples just because she knew we were having a rough time financially, and she’s always gone above and beyond the call of duty in addressing any concerns I had, whether over my PCOS or any of my pregnancies.
• Elevators – since I no longer work outside the home (other than for photography), elevators don’t play a huge part in my life anymore. But I had to visit the hospital’s billing office when I went in for my doctor’s visit this week, and you can bet I was happy not to have to traipse up and down stairs between all those floors!
• Electricity – We ended up going without power for most of the day a few weeks back due to some area storms. Now I know that there were plenty of folks without power for weeks, so we were quite fortunate to get it back so quickly, but I sure did miss it while it was gone!
• Easter – the day we celebrate the greatest gift we were ever given!

Recent Blessings:

• I went to the doctor on Monday, and everything is going well with the baby. I even got an unexpected peek at him/her! I wasn’t supposed to have another ultrasound until next month, but my (awesome) doctor asked me if I wanted her to try to see if she could tell what I’m having. Unfortunately our little peanut wasn’t cooperating AT ALL. My doctor said that a lot of times when she says she can’t tell for sure, she’s pretty sure it’s a girl, but this time she wasn’t getting even a glimpse of the relevant parts. But it was still really neat to get to see the baby, and this way Nick will get to be with me when I find out. Plus, I get to go back 3 weeks from yesterday instead of waiting a whole 4 weeks like I usually have to do.
• God has, as always, kept His hand on us financially, and as we face some upcoming expenses in the next few weeks, it’s wonderful to know that we can depend on Him to continue doing so.
• Morgan is back in school, and she’s enjoying it. Now there’s a little more to the story than just that. For the last 6 years she’s attended the Christian school that I attended from 1st grade through graduation. My mom worked there for 22 years, retiring just a couple of years ago. Now this has always been a great (if small) school with some great teachers, but over the last few years it has quickly begun to decline. The founding pastor retired in 2009 and passed away later that year, and unfortunately the man he hired to replace him has made some really terrible decisions. Sadly he has proven to be a less than honest man, although I think he genuinely wants to do a good job. Piece by piece the ministry has started to deteriorate as he has replaced some of the much loved and very capable long-time employees with people of his own choosing. At this point there are a total of 8 teachers for the entire K through 12 school, and enrollment has bottomed out. Since he took office, the school has lost about 20 different teachers and office workers, some of them who have dedicated 20 years or more of their lives to this ministry. Some, like my mom, retired because they felt like it was no longer the place God had for them, some were forced out by pay cuts, and some were outright fired because they didn’t agree with his policies. Anyway, since last year Nick and I have been in serious prayer about where to send Morgan this year. Just a few days before the school year started he fired a lady who had not only been a tremendous asset to the ministry, but who had also kept a close eye on Morgan, no small thing for us in the climate that had begun to develop there. We felt it was God really working on us to go ahead and move her to a new school, so with much continued prayer, we have done so. Her teacher at the new school seems to be a really great guy, and Morgan is really enjoying the new setting. The academics are also on a whole new level at the new school, and I just thank God that He guided us and smoothed the way for her to have everything she needed to enroll there.
• Morgan wore a uniform at her old school, and since the decision to send her to a new school was not made until literally last Friday, we didn’t have much in the way of school clothes for the new school. Nick’s dad and stepmom came and took her shopping for most of what she needed, and I was able to get a few other things on clearance for her.
• Morgan’s school bus now picks her up and drops her off 3 houses down from ours. This is great news, because at first it was going to be about a quarter mile away – not a huge distance, but far enough that I had to stick Daisy in a stroller and walk her to the bus stop the first three days. This is not such a big deal right now, but when I have a toddler and a newborn, it will be a huge help to not have to get them both out every morning.
• With the bus now coming to get Morgan, Nick no longer has to drop her off at school, and I no longer have to pick her up, saving us both lots of gas!
• We went out to eat tonight (a rare treat, but I had to take Morgan for her school physical and didn’t have time to make supper). Shortly after leaving the restaurant, I realized I didn’t have my phone. I borrowed Nick’s to call the restaurant and see if they’d found it, but they said they didn’t have it. Praying hard and trying not to panic, I drove back down there and found it under the table where we were sitting. Yay!

Baby Update:

Week 17 of Pregnancy

Your baby is practicing sucking and swallowing as she gets ready for the real thing: a breast or bottle! As for Mom, you may be warding off some unwanted belly touching.

Your Baby in Week 17 of Pregnancy

My how your baby has grown! She's about the size of your palm, weighs about five ounces, and is developing some body fat (join the club, baby!). Her heart is now regulated by her brain (no more random beats) to beat 140 to 150 times per minute — about twice as fast as yours! What else is up? She’s practicing the survival skills she’ll need at birth — like sucking and swallowing.

Learn more about your baby in week 17 and a baby’s body fat.

Your Body in Week 17 of Pregnancy

Now that you're starting to show, chances are that friends, coworkers, and even strangers may feel the urge to reach out and touch your belly. If you don't mind, that's fine. But if you do, speak up kindly but firmly. More new developments with your body: a slight vaginal discharge (leukorrhea) and a greater sensitivity to allergens these days — both are totally normal — and the appetite of a truck driver now that the queasy feeling is (probably) gone.

Learn more about your body in week 17 and your growing appetite.

Week 17 Pregnancy Tip: Snoring

If your partner finds your new snoring habit about as sexy as a hippo in a thong (which, by the way, you're starting to feel like), take heart. The stuffiness that often triggers world-champion snoring is common and temporary, another unexpected (make that inexplicable) side effect of those pregnancy hormones at work (that’s right, even your nose is affected by pregnancy hormones!). Try putting a humidifier in your bedroom, using one of those nasal strips on your nose to open up your nasal passages (doesn't look pretty, but it works for some people), or sleeping on a couple of pillows to keep your head slightly elevated. And if he still complains, buy him a set of earplugs — or banish him to the couch for the night; after all, it's more important that you get a good night's sleep these days.

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Thankful Thursday

Ok, I really am sucking at this. After being late with Thursday before last, I forgot last Thursday completely, and here it is almost midnight on this Thursday. But I made it!

ABC’s of Gratitude:

• Dip. Cannoli dip, specifically. This one. Make it and eat it with animal crackers and you can thank me later.
• Dollars – like it or not, we’ve gotta have them, and it sure is easier when we do.
• Dogs – not all of them, necessarily, but I sure do love ours.
• Donuts – Okay, I don’t actually love donuts. They’re okay, but I’d much rather have a cupcake. But our church serves them with coffee every Sunday after the evening service, and I cherish the fellowship time.
• Date night – we really, really, REALLY need another one of these pronto.
• DVR – it has revolutionized our TV watching.                                          
• DD – is it a sad sign that I almost forgot this one? Yes, it’s been awhile since there’s been too awful much sign of it, but I think it’s still there under the surface, and I‘m grateful for however much of it there is.

Recent Blessings:

• Nick installed our new garbage disposal and it works great! Yay!
• Last year when we went on vacation, Nick’s supervisor forgot to put his vacation in to payroll, and his paycheck was majorly short. This year Nick made extra sure to fill out the necessary paperwork (which he also did last year, not that it mattered). Unfortunately, his supervisor did the exact same thing this year. Last year they refused to fix it till his next paycheck, two weeks later. Fortunately at the time we had some money coming in from elsewhere, so we made it, but this year there was just no way we could make it another two weeks. We both really prayed about it, and his supervisor pulled some strings and got Nick a check cut for the difference the same day.
• On several separate occasions both my mom and Nick’s dad have found Nick nice used left-handed golf clubs at flea markets and thrift stores. Today his dad dropped of a very cool golf bag along with another club, and his set is nearly complete.
• We’ve been interested in moving Daisy to a toddler bed in the very near future. She’s gotten very proficient in climbing out of her crib, plus we want her out of the crib well before the new baby arrives. Less chance of her feeling like the baby has pushed her out of her bed that way. Nick’s dad and stepmom found a perfect one for a great price at a little antique store while we were away in Texas, and they bought it as a gift for us.
• Nick got a little bit of side work today, which is always nice.
• More movement from the baby over the last few days. Happy times.                 

Baby Update:

Week 16 of Pregnancy: Baby's Hearing

Listen up: Tiny bones in your fetus's ears are in place this week, making it likely that the baby can hear your voice when you're speaking (or singing in the shower) at 16 weeks pregnant. In fact, studies have found that babies who are sung to while they're in the womb recognize the same tune when it's sung to them after they are born (so choose your baby Muzak with that in mind…).

And baby's busily boning up in other ways. For one, the backbone (along with the back muscles) is stronger now — strong enough, in fact, to enable your baby to work on straightening his or her head and neck even more. Baby's crown-to-rump measurement is between four and five inches in length, and weight is hovering around three ounces.

This little one's a looker — with a face that has both eyebrows and eyelashes — but a skinny looker since there's no baby fat yet. And here's the skinny on baby skin: It's practically translucent now, so if you took a peek inside your uterus, you'd be able to see your baby's blood vessels under that thin skin.

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A bit late, but so much to be thankful for!

Sorry I’m late with my Thankful Thursday post, but I was busy in Texas last week!
ABC’s of Gratitude:

• Cuddling – whether with my husband or my girls, I’m a big fan of cuddling, and I can’t wait to cuddle with the new baby!
• Comcast – okay, most of the time. There are occasions when we lose service for a little while (like yesterday), but their customer service has always been phenomenal with us, and I love their On-Demand and DVR services.
• Casseroles – I admit, these are my go-to dinners when I don’t know what else to fix, and I’ve got a million of them.
• Couches – I mentioned a few months ago that we got a new living room set with our income tax return back in March, and I just have to say how very much we all love our couches. One is technically a love seat, but it’s almost big enough to stretch out on, so I think it counts as a couch.
• Chair – Oh, and I love the huge chair and 1/2 that came with the couches too!
• Cousins – Morgan and Daisy got to spend the week with their cousins while we were in Texas, and it was so much fun to watch them interact with each other, especially Daisy and Maddox, who’s four months older than her.
• Crafting – the last year I’ve really grown into my crafting hobbies, especially with sewing, and it gives me so much pleasure and satisfaction to be able to create something. My mom was always an incredibly talented person with sewing and crafting, and it makes me happy to wander down the same pathways.

Recent Blessings:

• First of all, I felt a liiiiittle bit of movement from the baby on the Saturday after my last post. Be still my heart!
• A big one of course is the fact that we all got to go to Texas and spend the week with Kate and her family last week. It was just a wonderful vacation, very comfortable and relaxing, and with staying at their lake house, very luxurious as well.
• We got to Texas safely!!! We left on Friday evening after Kelly got off and arrived Sunday morning. It’s a long trip, but we split the driving, and it wasn’t too bad.
• Kate and Will actually have their lake house on the market (so this will be our last visit to Austin, although we’ll still visit them in Houston where they live full time). As soon as we arrived they had a showing on the house, despite prior instructions to their realtor that they didn’t want any showings this week. We were happy to just hang out and get lunch, but Will sent us to Academy (a huge sports store down there) with instructions to all pick something out for ourselves, and they would meet us there as soon as they could and pay for our purchases. Now that was an incredibly generous offer, but it was also sort of an unusual one, and we all felt kind of strange taking him up on it. None of us really felt comfortable with that kind of freedom with someone else’s money, so we all just kind of hung around the store till they got there. Morgan had picked out a few little things, but she had her own money that she had saved for the trip, and she was planning to pay for everything herself. Kate and family arrived, we all hugged and exclaimed over how much all the kids had grown, then Kate and Will did some shopping of their own. Kate immediately picked out a couple of pairs of shoes for Daisy (something she really needed!), and they insisted on paying for Morgan’s stuff as well. It was so incredibly sweet of them to do, although I’m glad the rest of us didn’t take him up on his offer, especially considering how generous they were with us the rest of the week!
• Beyond just the trip itself, there were many other blessings last week. I’ve mentioned before that Kate and her family are very, very blessed financially, and they obviously love to do things for those that they love. It ended up costing us more in gas than we had thought to get down there, leaving us with barely enough to get home. Of course we never said a word about it to anyone, but we were a little worried that something would come up that might leave us short. The third day we were there Kate pulled Nick aside and handed him a handful of Visa gift cards and just said, “Here, these are for you.” It was completely out of the blue, and she just said that they wanted us to have them and use them to enjoy the week. It turned out to be $600 worth, and there were also six $10 iTunes gift cards in there as well. He of course told her that we appreciated it very much but that it was completely unnecessary, but she insisted he take them and told him it was just something they wanted to do. That generous gift not only allowed us to have some fun down there, but it’s also helping us this week too!
• On Tuesday Nick and Grant got to have a guy day and go visit Austin Speed Shop, which is Jesse James’ motorcycle shop and has long been on Nick’s bucket list. They really enjoyed the day, and Nick got to bring home a really cool t-shirt.
• The same day Nick and Grant hung out, Daisy, Morgan, and I went shopping with both of Nick’s sisters and Kit and Maddox. I didn’t know at the time about the gift cards, so I didn’t do any shopping of my own, but Kate bought several outfits for Morgan and Daisy, and took us all to lunch.
• Wednesday Nick’s sisters agreed to watch the kids for us so Nick and I could spend some time together alone. We went shopping at one of my own personal favorites – the Goodwill! I loooove to go thrifting – I think it’s just so much fun to find hidden treasures at a fantastic price, although lately I’ve not really had much extra money to go with. Let me just say that the Goodwills in Austin (at least in the rich part of town lol) are AWESOME.

        We went to three different ones, and I cleaned up! I got two brand new, never-been-worn pairs of shoes, a low heeled dressy pair with the original price tag still on them for $6.99, and a pair of Converse All Stars (which retail for about $40) for $4.99. I also found a pair of awesome maternity pants for $6.99, and several shirts for $1 to $1.99 each.

• My very favorite purchase though was………….a garbage disposal! How random is that at the Goodwill? But it was also brand new, never been installed, still had all the paperwork with it and everything for $14.99. See, a few months ago, our garbage disposal bit the dust. I had really missed being able to use it, but a replacement was over $100, definitely not in our budget, so we were just living without it. The one we bought in Austin is actually a better, more powerful one than the one we had previously, and I can’t wait till we get a chance to install it!
• Wednesday Will got to rejoin us (Monday he’d had to drive back to Houston to work for a few days). He took us all to an incredible dinner at a really high end steakhouse in downtown Austin, and afterwards we went to Congress Bridge to watch the bats take off.
• Thursday they took us all to Sea World. It was an awesome trip, and we all really enjoyed the Shamu show as well as all the other animals and attractions.
• We got home safely on Sunday morning – what a long, long drive! Whew!
• After the last fill up that Kelly did on our way home (we were splitting the gas with them), we had enough gas to make it home plus get Nick to work and back this week.
• We had enough left on the gift cards to go on until payday this Friday.

Baby Update:
At 14 Weeks Pregnant, Your Baby is a Mover (But Not a Shaker Yet)
Growing by leaps and bounds, by week 14 of pregnancy, your baby is leaping and bounding. He or she is on the move almost constantly — and those movements are a far cry from those jerky twitches of last trimester (though you won't feel any of them for weeks to come). They are now ballet-like, smooth and fluid.
Your Baby at 14 Weeks: Developing Perfect Posture (or Better Posture, at Least)
Speaking of ballet, it'll be years before you'll start nagging your offspring to stand up straight — but unbelievably, he or she is doing it right now, without any prodding!  No slouch anymore, your baby's neck is getting longer, helping his or her head stand more erect. This gives your 14-week-old fetus a more straightened-out appearance.
Your Little Bigfoot — A Hairy Baby at 14 Weeks
Growth is happening on top of the head as well — by 14 weeks pregnant, your baby could be sprouting some hair (though the final color may not be determined until birth) and the eyebrows are filling in, too.
Hair growth isn't limited to the baby's head, though.   He or she is also covered with a downy coating of hair called lanugo, largely there for warmth. As fat accumulates later on in your pregnancy (the baby's fat, not yours — though that will accumulate, too), most of the lanugo will shed — though some babies, especially those born early, still have a fuzzy coating at delivery (it sheds soon afterward).

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Thankful Thursday

ABC’s of Gratitude
Babies – of course!
Breastfeeding – I loved nursing both of my girls (although I’m glad to be done for the moment), and I can’t wait to nurse the next baby!
Blogs – Craft blogs, spanking blogs, money saving blogs – fun, fun stuff!
Blogging – being a blog writer myself has allowed me to meet lots of wonderful people and have an outlet for all my spanko-ness.
Brothers – I have two, and I’m so proud of them both!
Bed – I love my bed, and I can’t wait to go spend some time with it!

Recent Blessings:

• We get to leave for Texas on Saturday! I’m soooo excited to get to go!
• Kelly and Grant are going with us and will be paying for half the gas.
• While it’s definitely going to be pretty tight, Nick’s paycheck was enough for us to be able to afford our part of the gas and have a little bit of money to go on while we’re down there.
• Morgan’s new glasses. Okay, a bit of back story: I mentioned a few months ago that Nick’s dad and stepmom took Morgan and bought her two new pairs of glasses.

        A few months ago her favorite pair got broken (I can’t remember how, but it wasn’t that she was being rough with them). There was insurance on that pair that paid for one complete replacement, so we went and got them replaced. Then, the earpiece got broken while she was at my mom’s house one night. Since we had already used the replacement, we just tried gluing it back on. It worked for a while, but the day she left for camp last month, she pushed them back up on her nose and they snapped again. And she had conveniently “lost” her second pair because she didn’t like them. The only reason she got them in the first place was because the store was running a BOGO deal.(This was the same day I found out I was pregnant – stressful much?) Anyway, we eventually found them and got her packed off to camp. And like them or not, she did wear them (except when she could get away with NOT wearing them).
        Then a few weeks later we went to the cabin for the weekend, and she had them hooked into the collar of her t-shirt while we were unloading. Of course if she’d been wearing them like she was supposed to…but she wasn’t, and they fell off in the gravel driveway just behind the car. She realized they were gone, and she and I were frantically looking for them when Nick found them for us – by stepping on them.
        The lenses were pretty scratched up, but once we got home Nick was able to get them back in one piece with some crazy epoxy work, but they could no longer be closed. We also tried making a workable earpiece for the other pair out of a matching pipe cleaner (don’t judge – we didn’t make her wear them in public like that!).
        ANYWAY, we knew we needed to get her a good pair before school started, and hopefully before we left for Texas. Her new insurance fortunately has vision benefits, so I took her today to get a new pair, and by combining insurance with a store special and a coupon, I was able to get her TWO pairs, BOTH of which she loves for a grand total of…..wait for it…….$9.98! Woohoo! We use Dr. Bizer’s Vision World, and if you have one in your town, I HIGHLY recommend them.

• The other day Nick’s dad and stepmom came by brought 5 packs of the diaper wipes we use as well as a pack of diapers for Daisy. The diapers are rather large, but they might work in a pinch, and we will certainly use the wipes! They also brought Nick 3 used golf clubs they picked up at a flea market. Back in March Nick played in a charity golf tournament using some borrowed clubs from a friend of a friend. The guy never called to get them back, and Nick has really gotten into the game. It’s rare for him to be able to afford to play, but he would go to the driving range quite a bit, and my brother took him out to play several times. Then a few weeks ago the guy wanted his clubs back, and Nick has been mourning their loss ever since. Unfortunately left handed clubs are hard to come by secondhand, so it was great that his dad brought him a few to get started with.
• A few days ago I got a partial payment on a photography CD for a photo session I shot a few months ago.
• I sold a couple of pillow covers to a girl at church, which gave me the money to pay for the sweet double stroller I got off Craigslist for $20!
• I’ve been wanting a bread machine for a long time now, and I found a great one at the thrift store a few days ago for $4.99!

Baby Update:

Your Baby in Week 12 of Pregnancy

By now, your baby weighs a full half-ounce and is about the size of a large plum. Most of his systems are in place, though there's still plenty of maturing to do. For one thing, his fetal digestive system is beginning to practice contraction movements necessary for eating, and his bone marrow is busy making white blood cells — weapons against germs once he's out of your safe haven. The pituitary gland (at the base of the brain) has started producing the hormones that'll enable him (or her) to make babies of his (or her) own in a couple of decades or so.

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Thankful

So I’ve decided I’d like to do a series of gratitude posts again. While doing a series can sometimes end up feeling a little bit like a chore, it also always (at least with the gratitude series) makes me really appreciate the wonderful things about my life, large and small.

So this is going to be a hybrid sort of thing – part alphabetized Gratitude Tuesday (but on Thursday), part recent blessings, and part baby update (since Thursday is the day the I go from one week of pregnancy to the next – I’m 11 weeks today). WARNING: I’m pretty blessed, so these may be some looooong posts!              

ABC’s of Gratitude:

Again: As in, pregnant again. What a wonderful and unexpected blessing!

Amazing Grace: Not just the song, although it’s one I love, but more importantly the meaning behind the song. I truly once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.

Autumn: my favorite time of year, and the season of both my birthday and Daisy’s.

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Recent Blessings:

I cannot begin to tell you how very much God has blessed and taken care of us recently, but I’m going to try. Some of this I’ve mentioned before.

• After over a year without insurance of any kind, this pregnancy not only qualified me for a FABULOUS insurance plan through our state, but it also provided Morgan, Daisy, and eventually the new baby with full medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• The hospital where my doctor primarily delivers, the same one where I’ve had both of my girls, did not accept this insurance plan – until right around the date this pregnancy got started.
• My hospital only works with one group of anesthesiologists. This group was not in-network for my insurance plan, and with my last pregnancy I ended up with a $900 bill that accrues interest at 18% (which I’m still trying to pay off by the way). I knew that we just could not afford to have another interest accruing bill piled on top, but I also knew that an epidural is not what I’d call an optional procedure. (I know lots of women have babies with no pain meds, and more power to them, but it took 45 minutes just to stitch me back up after I had Morgan. I’ll take that needle, please.). After many, many phone calls, I finally reached someone at the anesthesia group who let me know that, despite the fact that none of the doctors in their main office are listed in my provider directory, they are in fact in-network for my plan because some of the doctors in their other offices are in-network, and they subscribe to all insurance plans that include any of their doctors, and I should be covered fully. Yay!
• With the rest of the family covered, we have been able to pick up medical insurance for Nick through his work with the cost being about $120/month as opposed to $1500/month for employee plus spouse and first two kids, the reason we were without insurance in the first place!
• Monday Nick was able to sign the papers and bring home our brand new used Toyota Sequoia!
• Trading in my Camry on the Sequoia saved us $13 a month on our car payment and $50 a month on our car insurance!
• This is a small thing, but our insurance company also started accepting payments by phone for free, saving us another $5 a month.
• Getting the Sequoia means I get to go to Texas! Hooray!
• When we bought the Sequoia, the dealership sent it home with Nick with a full tank of gas, no small thing with today’s gas prices!
• This week has been Vacation Bible School at our church. Besides offering the standard kid fare, they’ve also had an adult class and a full meal every night, so we’ve gotten to not only have some great fellowship, but also have dinner for free all week!
• Yesterday my brother-in-law C found out that he was hired for a new position in his company, something we’d really been praying for. He loved working for his old boss, and the job was one he enjoyed, but the new position is a move up.
• Coincidentally (or rather through God), my friend D had applied for a position at the same company. She’s been having a REALLY tough time with her job at the bank (where C and I both used to work), and she was just ready to walk out, but had no job lined up. C saw her name on some paperwork there at his current company and recommended that his old boss hire D for the position he (C) just left. D has an interview next week, and she couldn’t be more excited!
• Daisy has been officially weaned for a week now. I never intended to nurse her past 18 months (when I weaned Morgan), but she just didn’t seem ready to give it up then, so I didn’t push it. Then I got pregnant, and it was like she sensed something and wanted to nurse ALL THE TIME. I really wanted to get it done sooner rather than later so that she wouldn’t see the new baby as encroaching on “her” territory. Finally my mom suggested I try weaning by the Farmer’s Almanac. Whaaaaaaat? But I was desperate, so I decided to give it a try. The suggested dates were July 12-19, and I have to admit, it was surprisingly easy to accomplish during those dates. She hasn’t looked for it more than a couple of times, and she was easily distracted when she did.
• Recently we’ve noticed that when Daisy runs, her left foot tends to turn in. This concerned us, so today I took her to see the doctor. Fortunately, after a thorough exam, he declared that while there’s a slight turning right now, it’s nothing to worry about and should correct itself over the next few months. Whew!

Baby Update:

Your Baby in Week 11 of Pregnancy

Your baby (now about two inches long) has been pretty busy this week, growing hair follicles, fingernails, and ovaries (if she's a girl). She has distinct human characteristics by now, with hands and feet in front of her body, with ears nearly in their final shape, open nasal passages on the tip of her tiny nose, a tongue and palate in the mouth, and visible nipples. What else makes her look human? Those hands and feet have individual fingers and toes (meaning good-bye to those froglike webbed hands and feet). Hooray!

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Bunch of randomness :)

Gosh, I feel like I never post anymore, but it seems like the days have gotten shorter, not longer! Did you all have a good July 4th? Ours had a bit of drama.

The night of the 3rd we went to a friend’s house after church for fireworks and a cookout. They had a bonfire for us to gather around, and a big trampoline within viewing distance of where we were. Morgan was playing on the trampoline just like she does every time we visit.

Suddenly I heard a scream, then Morgan calling for me, sounding pretty breathless, scared, and desperate. I ran to her, and she was rolling around on the trampoline, unable to really speak. It scared the crap out of me, and I was begging her to tell me what hurt. Finally she was able to tell me that she had been trying to turn a flip and landed on her head/neck. It knocked the wind out of her, which was why she had a hard time talking, but what really terrified me was the fact that she was crying so hard. Morgan can be a whiney, dramatic preteen with the best of them, but she very rarely cries if she gets hurt. I ran and got Nick, and we got her into the house to lie down. Within about 15 minutes it was clear that she was still in real pain, not just scared, and we headed to the ER. It turned out (thank God!) that she had only strained/bruised her spinal cord (which is certainly serious enough, but at least she didn’t break her neck!). The doctor gave her strict orders to stay off the trampoline until she healed, and to stay away from flips on the trampoline forever! She was pretty sore for a few days in her chest area from the way she scrunched up when she landed, but she’s all better now.

I’m 10 weeks pregnant now, and the baby is the size of a prune. Sadly I look like I’m about 4 months pregnant instead of 2 and 1/2, although I’ve not gained any weight. I’ve heard that you show earlier with each child, and I know that was certainly true with Daisy. I didn’t even know I was pregnant with her until I was 13 weeks along, but I remember getting really frustrated because I was losing weight but seemed to have developed this unexplainable extra (extra) padding – above my belly button! My ab muscles never really regained their former strength after Morgan, and when my uterus started expanding, it started pushing everything up and out.

For now I’m still in regular jeans, but maternity jeans are starting to look awfully appealing. Funny story – my friend Elizabeth is about 8 weeks ahead of me, and about, oh ONE DAY before I found out I was pregnant I took her all my maternity jeans. I had a ton of them because jeans were all we ever wore at my job, and I gave her every single pair. She’s been kind enough to offer to give them all back, but I told her it would be great if I could just get back a couple of pair.

Oh yeah – I got spanked Monday night! I was just kind of feeling down and stressed about everything from money to the housework to a crazy day with the kids to the fact that Nick and I never seem to get date nights anymore (I know, we had one just last month, but it was the first in AGES). Nick took me upstairs, pulled out the Spencer paddle, made me bend over the side of the bed, and told me that I needed some motivation and some stress relief. He let me keep my jeans on, but he spanked hard, and I didn’t do a great job of staying put. I think I got somewhere around a hundred swats, and by the time he was done I was crying. He put the paddle down and picked up a bottle of lotion and began to massage first my back, then my arms, and he eventually took off my pants and massaged my legs and my poor throbbing bottom. When he was done with the lotion he moved on to an even more effective form of stress relief, and it ended up being a very good night after all.

Today Nick brought home a used Toyota Sequoia from the dealership where he works. He wanted to see what I thought about it, and honestly I’m a little bit in love. I have a built in bias against buying a (new to us) car, just because I never think we can afford it, but this one just may be different. We would be trading in my Camry, and our car payments might actually go down. Insurance should stay about the same. The only downside that I can see is that we would be losing just a little on gas mileage, but this would be my daily driver, not Nick’s, and I don’t do all that much driving unless I’m picking Morgan up from school 20 minutes away. The thing is, we really do need a bigger vehicle. It’s just not very doable to squeeze Morgan into the back of the Camry between two car seats. Honestly, it would be a tight fit back there even if there were three kids not in car seats/booster seats (which there won’t be for another 8 years or so). Anyway, this just came in yesterday, and we’re really praying about it. For it to work for us, we would really not be able to go up at all on our car payments.

Let’s see, what else? We’ve had a trip to Texas to see Kate and her family planned for the end of July/beginning of August for months now. We’ve made this trip for the last two years with Kelly, and this will be the first year that Grant is also able to go, something we’ve all been looking forward to since last year. A few weeks ago it became apparent that we (Nick, I, and the girls) just couldn’t afford to go. Last year Kate flew us all down, but this year we were driving. True, we were planning on splitting the cost of gas with Kelly and Grant, but with there being 6 of us total, we were going to have to rent a van or something else capable of hauling all of us, and that was just more expense to split. Plus, it’s a long, long way to Kate’s house, and the first year we drove Nick and I had to get a motel room and make the drive over two days.

SO, I decided that Daisy and I would stay home and just let Nick and Morgan go. That way they could rent a cheaper vehicle (or maybe just take Nick’s Xterra) since there would only be four people, get a single motel room instead of two if they had to stop, and it would just be cheaper to feed two less people on the road and in Texas.

Last year we had like $40 to go on the whole week – not that we didn’t try to save, just the way it turned out. Kate kept suggesting all these cool things to go and do, and finally I had to sit down with her and explain that we just didn’t have the money to really do anything. THAT was an awkward conversation, and one I really didn’t want to have. Kate and her husband are extremely well off (thus them flying us down last year), so the conversation had the unfortunate result of making her feel like they should just pay for everything for us while we were there (very generous, but NOT my intention, and it really embarrassed us and made us feel like we were imposing, especially since we were staying in their home and they had flown us down).

Anyway, I felt like Daisy and I staying home would automatically take two people out of the equation if Kate and her husband did decide to treat everyone to lunch/dinner/entertainment. Nick was not happy with the plan, and honestly I was pretty heartbroken myself, but I just didn’t see another way, and I felt like it was important that he and Morgan get to go and visit. Now that this Sequoia has come up as a possibility, and if God does allow us to get it, it kind of changes the game. First of all, we can take all 6 of us without renting a car, and with 4 adults, we can probably just drive straight through instead of stopping at a motel. Nick has assured me that he’s totally fine with just hanging out with me and Daisy by the pool while everybody else goes and does fun stuff (Morgan automatically goes along because Kit wants her to), and he’s sworn to live off McD’s $1 cheeseburgers on the road (yuck, but affordable). I’m still trying not to get my hopes up, but it would be sooooo awesome if I got to go too. We would really appreciate your prayers – both for the trip and for God’s guidance on the car!

I’ve got another Eden Fantasys product review coming up in a few days, but I’ve got to get a chance to actually try the item first.

Oh, more randomness, I’ve sold a few things from my etsy shop now. Actually I got a request for a custom order yesterday, although that lady has not yet actually pulled the trigger on buying. And I booked two weddings for this fall for my photography – one in October and one in November! Nick’s going to second shoot for me, and I’m sooooo excited!

Anyway, that’s all – I’m off to bed. Have a great weekend!

Grabbing a minute…

Ok, I’m making myself sit down and post. I’ve been meaning to get an update out here for a couple of weeks, but life has been CA-RAZY!

Everything seems to be going well with the baby. I did have a scare a couple of weeks ago. Thursday before last (the 16th) my mom was at our house helping Morgan go through her room and pare down on some clothes and toys (my job, I know, but I’m working on Daisy’s room so we can hopefully squeeze a toddler bed in there too by the time the baby comes). Anyway, I went to the bathroom and had just a huge gush of bright red blood (sorry if that’s TMI, but for the time being this is more of a pregnancy blog, so don’t be surprised to see more of such down the road).

I hadn’t yet had an ultrasound, so I didn’t know how far along I was, but I knew I was less than 2 months, and bright red heavy bleeding in early pregnancy is always alarming. I called my doctor’s office and let them know what was happening, and they told me to go ahead and come in for an ultrasound. I told them that my insurance was still in the process of being approved, but they said not to worry about it and to just get there ASAP. Fortunately everything turned out to be just fine. I got to see the heartbeat, and they gave me a due date of February 9, 2012. Yay!

My insurance got approved about a week and a half ago, and I got to have my official first visit today (er, yesterday). Everything still seems to be fine, but I’ll find out for sure tomorrow (today?) how my progesterone level is doing.

The day after the bleeding scare Nick and I got to have a date night of sorts (better do it now while there’s still just two to find sitters for lol). Robert and Faith had gotten us a Red Lobster gift card for Christmas, and Nick’s sister Kate had given him a movie gift card for his birthday in April 2010 (shows you how often we get a chance to go out!). Anyway, we had a lovely dinner at Red Lobster, but unfortunately the movie we had planned to see was sold out when we got there, and there wasn’t another one we could fit into our allotted baby-sitting time. It was still a lovely night, and this way we can enjoy the movie as a separate date. My in-laws kept the kids for this one, so my mom said she’d be happy to keep them while we go to the movie one night.

Speaking of keeping the kids – I’m a little concerned about Daisy having to be away from me overnight a couple of nights when I go to the hospital to have the baby. I’m probably being overprotective – after all, Morgan will most likely be with her, and she/they will be with either my parents or my in-laws. But Morgan didn’t spend the night away from us until she was four, and even then she got really homesick for us. Daisy will just be 2 (gaaahhhh – is she really almost 2!?!?!?), and she’s used to sleeping in a crib, although we hope to change that before the new arrival.

I’m actually thinking about letting Morgan be in the delivery room this time. The hospital is pretty open about who you have in there, so I think it would be okay with them. She wanted to be in there when Daisy was born, but I felt she was too young then. I guess I’ll wait to see how the pregnancy goes. Daisy was an amazingly easy delivery, and they tend to get easier with each one, but we’ll definitely have to do some praying about it.

What else? Father’s Day was a week ago Sunday. I got my dad a book about the history of our town, which he LOVED. That made me really happy, because he’s really hard to buy for. I got Nick a pair of shoes he wanted. For Nick’s dad we got a book about roadside attractions across America – really cheesy stuff, but exactly the sort of thing he and his wife are into, so it was a big hit too. And for Nick’s papaw we got a book like my dad’s only it was about the town where their lake cabin is, also a winner.

And speaking of the lake cabin, Sunday was mine and Nick’s 13th anniversary, so we spent the weekend there with the kids. It was a short trip, but a lot of fun, and both girls had a blast in the lake.
Geez this is a long post! Well, I’m off to bed – night all!

So what’s new with you guys?

So I look up and it’s been three weeks since I posted. Surely I’ve had a few interesting things happen since then!

Let’s see – I had a photo shoot. It turned out great, and the client (a repeat client!) wants to buy a CD just as soon as she gets the money together.

Daisy turned 20 months old (gaaaaahhhh!).

James moved to L.A. He’s really close to Venice Beach, and he seems to be enjoying it there. He’s planning on (hopefully) being back home by the time Christmas gets here. Last year he was gone for Thanksgiving and Christmas, not to mention New Year’s and Easter, so it will be nice if he can wraps things up there by then.

We’re supposed to be going back to Texas to visit /kate and her family in August. I’m not sure if we’ll be driving or flying (depends entirely on whether or not they book us plane tickets like they did last year lol), but either way it’s going to be an, um, active trip with a 22 month old!

Tonight I made this pie. It’s called Danger Pie, for two very good reasons. First of all because there really is an element of danger in the prep work if you do it wrong – but only if you’re careless with it. It calls for the magic of boiling an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for 2 1/2 hours, then opening it (after cooling!) to find it astonishingly full of ooey-gooey caramel. This really, really does work, but you have to keep a close eye on the water level and add more as needed to keep the can submersed – otherwise it will explode (thus the danger). The second reason it’s called Danger Pie is of course that you may very well face the danger of locking yourself in the bathroom and eating the whole thing yourself. It is THAT GOOD.

Morgan is away at church camp this week. It’s her very first time going, and her first time being away from home this long. (Well, she stayed with my parents while we were in Hawaii a couple of years ago, but that doesn’t really count since she was with her grandparents and even got to take Pancho with her.) Anyway, she was super nervous about going, but being the pushy awesome parents we are, we insisted, and of course she’s having a blast!

Nick finally got his Fairlane running! Yay for him not being in a bad mood about it anymore!

Anything else? Oh yeah – I’m pregnant. What?

Yep, I was about a week late, so Monday after taking Morgan to camp, I went to Wal-mart and picked up a couple of tests. Honestly though, I was a little stunned when they came back positive. And the teensiest bit panicked. Uh, we don’t have health insurance. The health insurance through Nick’s job is – get ready for this – $1500.00 a month! That $18,000.00 a year! There’s just no way on earth we can afford that, so we’ve just gone without since mine ran out after Daisy was born. I’ve been taking Daisy to the Health Department for immunizations, and we found a health department referral clinic willing to take payments so I could take her in for a check-up about a month ago. Fortunately Morgan hasn’t been sick.

BUT, God has already begun providing for us with this baby. Me getting pregnant makes us a family of five and qualifies me for maternity benefits through a program in our state. When it was just four of us, Nick made too much money for us to be eligible. I had checked into it before because I was trying to get coverage for the kids as part of the same program, but no dice. Now, not only do I qualify, but Morgan and Daisy do as well, so they’ll have insurance again – yay! And actually it’s much better insurance than we would have had through Nick’s job anyway. This program pays 100% with no premiums, I’ll have one $15 co-pay on my first doctor’s visit, one $100 co-pay for the hospital stay (can I just say that we still owe almost $1000 on Daisy?), it will cover the baby for a year, and me for 60 days after delivery. Another awesome thing God has done: I called my OB-GYN to tell them I had a positive test and explained that I needed a statement from them saying I was pregnant so I could apply for the insurance. They let me come in and do the bare minimum (a simple blood test to confirm the pregnancy and check my levels), and the lab is going to let me make payments. Unfortunately my progesterone came back very low, so they needed to put me on medication immediately to raise it. Now this happened with Morgan (and very well may have happened with Daisy, but since I was 3 months along before I knew I was pregnant I have no way of knowing), so I’ve dealt with it before, but still, it’s pretty critical to not delay treatment. Unfortunately, this is a pretty expensive medication. Even with a discounted cash-pay (no insurance) price, every pharmacy I called was charging $5 a pill, and I need two a day. $70 a week is just not within our means right now. BUT, my friend Elizabeth is also pregnant right now. AND she’s been on the same medication for low progesterone. AND they’re taking her off of it today, but she has two refills left! She called in the refill and let me pick it up, and for $40 I was able to get 30 pills, enough to do me for 15 days, by which time the insurance should kick in!

Anyway, please be in prayer that a) the baby will be okay and my progesterone will come up and b) that there won’t be any snags with getting approval for the insurance. Oh, and if you’re my friend on FB, my in-laws are out of town and don’t know yet, so please don’t say anything about it on there. Thanks!

So anyway, what’s up with you?

Mother’s Day, etc.

Hello, everyone! I had a moment free to sit down and post, so I thought I’d take advantage! Life has been good. God provided some unexpected side work for Nick to help meet our needs, and I’ve also sold some photography packages. I also made my first etsy sale – yippee!

Did everyone have a nice Mother’s Day? It was a busy weekend for us – Kate and Will went to the Kentucky Derby, and my in-laws babysat for them, so we got to see the kids over the weekend and Kate and Will on Sunday when they came back. We went to church that morning, then the whole family spent the day at Kelly's house until it was time for Kate and family to fly back to Texas.
I made anniversary pillow covers for Nick’s stepmom and grandmother, a pillow cover for Kate with the address of her lake house translated to French, and a pillow cover with a favorite hymn lyric for my mom. For my gift, I bought myself a couple of watches on sale a few weeks ago.
Coincidentally, James also came home from Texas that weekend. I think I’ve mentioned that he’s a surgical tech and was doing a travelling job there for a few months. That job has ended, and in a few days he’ll be packing back up to do a stint in Los Angeles. I miss him like crazy, but this is a good time in life for him to travel. He’s single, childless, and still in his twenties, so I’m glad for him to get the opportunity to see some new places. He makes good money being willing to travel, and that’s allowing him to save up for a house.

There’s not been a whole lot happening on the DD front, but neither has it felt like it’s absent. There’s just been no reason for punishment, which is a good thing!

Well, I’m off to edit pictures and work on the laundry – have a great day!

Happy (okay very late) Easter!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter! Ours was lovely. It was also both Nick’s and Morgan’s birthday, and while I’m quite alright with being married to a 32 year old, I’m having a bit of trouble with being mother to a 10 year old! How on earth did my little baby get to be such a big girl? I swear it seems like 6 months since she was Daisy’s size! Of course Daisy’s pulling this growing up trick on me too – she’s still supposed to be brand new, and she’s almost 19 months old already!

Anyway, we went to church that morning, then went to Nick’s grandmother’s house for Easter/Birthday brunch and hunting eggs. Right now I’ve got the only two children in the family except for Kate's two, and they live in Texas. Speaking of them, they’ll be coming in next weekend. Kate and Will will be going to see the Kentucky Derby, and they’re leaving the kids with Nick’s dad and stepmom for the weekend. It will be great to see them all, even if it’s only briefly.
Backing up just a bit, Nick made Morgan the most awesome birthday gift. (Well, I helped with reading off the plans, and my dad provided the scrap wood and the saw, and my mom made the linens and bedding. Oh, and I painted it.) I think I’ve mentioned how much she loves her American Girl doll Kate bought her for Christmas. Shortly after she got it, I found her an Our Generation doll at Tuesday Morning for a great price. Anyway, great big ten year old that she may be, she still has enough little girl in her to really, really love them and want tons of accessories for them. Well I found a plan for an American Girl farmhouse doll bed on Ana White’s website, and Nick and I spent a couple of hours at my parent’s house building it. We modified it just a bit to make it wide enough to accommodate both dolls, and Morgan was THRILLED with it! Nick doesn’t do a lot of wood working, but he did such a great job on this, and I couldn’t be happier with how it came out!
What’s really neat is that she has the plans for this bed all the way up to a California King size – I’d love to have one for us!

Morgan and I did some really neat egg dying this year. I found a really cool tutorial for dyeing eggs using silk ties, so I headed to the thrift store, and we ended up with these!

Let’s see, what else has been happening? Nick had to go away for school (for work) the Monday through Thursday prior to his birthday. Morgan’s spring break started that Wednesday, so I was home alone with two kids there for a couple of days. But he brought me back a Godiva cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory so I forgave him.

 I was also supposed to do a photo shoot that Wednesday, but it got rained out, so we postponed it to this past Wednesday. Of course that was the day all the storms hit, so hopefully we’ll actually be able to make it happen this coming Wednesday. Speaking of the storms, we were very fortunate to get only heavy rains at our house. A lot of people in our city got tons of hail and hail damage. One friend on the opposite side of town lost every window in her house, her brand new roof had holes torn through it, and her vinyl siding looked like it had been through a drive-by shooting. And of course Alabama was hit terribly hard. We had several cities in our state take some heavy damage as well, but nothing like Tuscaloosa suffered. Please keep them all in your prayers.

Today my mom kept the girls for me so I could spend some time at a car show with Nick. That’s something I’ve not gotten to do kid-free in a very long time, and I really enjoyed it. I got to take some cool pictures, and I got to spend some time with my favorite guy.

Anyway, I think that’s about everything that’s happened since I last posted. Happy Spring!

It’s Spriiiiiing!!!

Hello, everyone! How are you all? I’m doing great! Our beautiful pink azaleas have bloomed, and the peonies are hot on their heels! (No pictures – what was I thinking?)

I finally (on the third rescheduling) got to take Morgan’s team pictures on Monday, and I think they turned out great. Hopefully the parents will think so too and will buy lots!

My awesome chair and 1/2 came in last Wednesday, and I LOVE it! I’ve been doing some more crafting, and I’ve come up with some more pillow covers that I’m really pleased with. I plan on eventually stocking them in my etsy shop. (June 26 is our anniversary).

Oh, and I got spanked last night. Here’s the thing – weekend before last, I told Nick I would really appreciate some attention in that area, and he said he would try to get to it that weekend. It never happened, and I think that may have factored into last night’s spanking just a bit. I’ve been working really hard on getting the laundry done, and I’m most of the way there. Nick was out in the garage working on his Fairlane, and I went out to put in another load. I teasingly said something about how I had the pile just about gone “despite the lack of promised motivation.” He said that I had been doing really well, but that he wasn’t afraid to step up if I started screwing up, and without really thinking about it, I said that I’d rather not have to do that. It was an offhand remark, not one that I really meant to make, but I think he heard it.

Sunday night after church I fell asleep on the couch and didn’t wake up till about 11:30. Nick went to bed shortly after I got up, but I was wide awake. I knew I had the soccer photo shoot the next day, so I started working up an order form (the coach’s fiance had made me one, but it was crooked, misspelled, and just generally not very professional looking, so I wanted to make my own). While I was waiting on our excruciatingly slow printer to churn out 10 copies of the 5 page order form (1 page of package details, 3 pages of team photo template choices, and 1 page for the actual order form), I started working on the Mr. and Mrs. pillows pictured above. By the time I got in bed, it was after 5:00 in the morning, and Nick woke up and caught me, although he didn’t say much about it at the time other than to let me know that he noticed.

Now a few weeks ago we had made an agreement (at my request) that I would be up by 9:00 every day and text him by 9:15 to let him know. I’d been trying to keep to it, but I’d missed a few times without him saying anything, and I’d kind of fallen off doing it just because I felt like he didn’t really care either way. Monday I slept (way) in until 11:00, and obviously didn’t text him. When he got to Morgan’s soccer game he said something about it and let me know that we’d be discussing it later.

Monday night he fell asleep on the couch, and I kind of didn’t wake him up until I was pretty sure he would just go straight to bed. Not very mature I admit, but I was feeling pretty nervous. Nervous enough, in fact, that I couldn’t fall asleep until late. Despite my alarm and my best intentions, I didn’t wake up until 10:15. I immediately texted him and told him that I’d overslept. The text I got back? “Wow, sucks for you.” Yikes!

By the time he got home my stomach was doing pretty much constant flips.

I had rented Due Date for us to watch, a movie he’d been wanting to see. Soon after he got home I quietly apologized for staying up late and oversleeping. He told me that he was going to take care of it, and I asked if we could do it before we watched the movie. I really didn’t want to sit through it while trying not to think about what was coming.

I put the kids to bed at nine, and we watched TV for a little while to give them time to fall asleep. Before I knew it though, he was ushering me upstairs. I immediately ran to the bathroom to pee, and when I came out he had the AngelBrat Paddle in hand. He made me bend over the side of the bed, then he took down my jeans and panties. He honestly probably only gave me 25 or 30 swats, but I had an awful time staying still for it. My bottom was on fire by the time it was over, and I don’t think I could have handled much more. Fortunately he had a good handle on what I needed, and he ended it much, much sooner than most spankings he’s ever given me.

After he spanked me, he held me and rubbed my bottom for a bit, then left me to compose myself and come down when I was ready. I put away the paddle, pulled my jeans and panties back up, and joined him downstairs. The movie was very funny, and I enjoyed it so much more than I would have if I’d had the paddling hanging over my head.

Anyway, that’s been what’s going on in our house. How have your lives been?

Catching up

Hello, everyone! It’s been a busy few weeks for me, but I’m finally getting the chance to pop in for a minute. We got our new furniture last Tuesday! Yay! Well, except for my awesome chair and a half. That’s coming in on another truck. Boo! But seriously, we love, love, love the furniture we do have. We also sold our old couch on Craigslist along with a couple of other items, so that was a nice to have a little money to help out.

We painted our living room, which has made a huge difference, since we went from this:
to this:

Also, I made a pillow for the new couch using my Silhouette SD to cut a stencil for it, and I’m soooo in love with the way it turned out. Pancho, it seems, is too:
Let’s see, what else?

Oh! I can’t believe I forgot to mention this earlier, but on Feb 27, a little girl Morgan’s age at our church asked Morgan if she could help her get saved. Morgan asked me if I would talk to her, so I grabbed my brother Robert (the pastor), and together we led her to the Lord! But the evening got even better – Morgan made a profession of faith and was baptized several years ago, but we’d always had our doubts that she really understood it at the time, and we just weren’t seeing the attitude and actions of a Christian in her. I talked to her about the little girl who’d just gotten saved, and she told me that she didn’t feel like she was really saved herself. So this time I grabbed my brother’s wife Faith and my mom, and we went and talked to Morgan about it some more, and she prayed and asked Jesus into her heart! Then a couple of weeks later the first little girl’s twin sister asked to talk to me, and she also became a Christian! Nick called me the kid whisperer, but I can assure you it was all God and had nothing at all to do with me. Yesterday all three girls were baptized!
Let’s see, in other news, Morgan is playing soccer this year, so that’s an adventure. She’s still learning, but we think she really has the potential to be a great player.

My photography is really picking up with the warmer weather. I had a shoot with a great family a couple of weeks ago, and I have a few more on the books for this month. I’m actually supposed to do the team pictures for Morgan’s soccer team this evening (if we don’t get rained out again grrr!). I’ll be offering several packages, so hopefully that will bring in a little money.

I love that spring is starting to bloom around here. Nick brought me some gorgeous flowers out of the blue a few days ago , and the trees in our yard are starting to blossom. I’ll leave you with a few local shots from the last few weeks.

Just what I needed

Last night I had reached my breaking point stress-wise. I hadn’t had a break from the kids for what seemed like days, and they were both just dancing on my last nerve. Morgan’s first soccer game was yesterday, the teams were not well-matched, and she was turning out to be a very sore loser. Daisy was into absolutely everything (as 17 month old babies tend to be), and Nick had been working for 6 days and spending some of his evenings on side work at his friend’s house.

Basically all of this had left me with a pretty horrible attitude myself, and I found myself snapping at everyone. When Nick asked me if I had done any laundry like he asked, I retorted that I hadn’t done a thing all day except take care of the kids, but that I’d be happy to get to it when I was done with what I was doing.

A few minutes later I went out to the garage to pull the clean clothes out of the dryer.Within a few seconds the door opened behind me, and I found myself being pushed forward over the washing machine. Nick had grabbed a paddle on the way out and proceeded to spank me hard enough to break it across my bottom. Once it broke he continued to use the half he had left until he felt like he had my attention. Granted, it wasn’t a very heavy duty paddle, but it was sturdy enough to leave my bottom throbbing, even used over my jeans.

After he finished spanking me he turned me around and told me in no uncertain terms that he was absolutely done with my attitude. At that point all I could do was just hug him and thank him for bringing me back from the edge. He held me for a few minutes, and it was just exactly what I needed. It’s almost crazy how quickly and consistently a spanking will solve an attitude problem for me, and it was such a perfect thing for him to do right then.

Gosh, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?

I looked at the blog and realized it has been almost a month since I’ve posted! It seems like I just never have any time!

I did actually get a spanking Saturday night – the first one in nearly four months. I’d finally broken down and told him I needed it a while before it happened. It wasn’t the longest or hardest I’ve had by any means, but four months really gives a girl’s butt time to get tender! He told me to pick an implement, and I managed to convince him to use his hand since it had been so long. That lasted until his hand started hurting. After that he switched to the snake paddle I reviewed a few months back.

Yesterday we had a short conversation about the length of time it had been since there had been any sort of discipline. I have to admit that I had gotten to the point where I was feeling both neglected and very angry about it. He told me that he felt like I should be happy that he was ever doing it at all since it’s not something he enjoys and that part of it was letting it happen when he decided it needed to happen. I kind of call BS on that though. If he doesn’t want to do it at all, then the whole reason he’s doing it is for me. And if he’s doing it for me, but he’s not doing it at anywhere near a level where it will be beneficial to me then what’s the point of doing it at all?

I tried to explain it this way: Imagine there are two people, one of whom is madly in love with the other one. Person A wants a committed relationship, but Person B says that he doesn’t want to commit, but is willing to have a few romantic weekends here and there, just so long as he doesn’t have to go too much out of his way and they don’t have to ever talk about their “relationship”. In that situation, it would be kinder for Person B to just end the romantic relationship completely so that Person A can come to terms with the loss and move on.

It’s not that I want him to just pull the plug on DD completely, but it’s incredibly hard to have the need and believe there’s some small chance it will be met, but spend the vast majority of my time with it unmet. I just need to have some attention paid to it more than a few times a year. Sometimes I think it would be better to just cut ties with DD completely so that I can mourn it properly.

BUT, with my undying optimism apparently firmly in place, I’ve ordered something that I hope will help. A few days ago I got a $10 coupon from Zazzle.com. LOVE that company! It’s where I ordered these. Anyway, it’s super easy to create your own designs, so I ordered these magnets, to put up on the fridge when the need gets especially strong. All of them are subtle enough that I can explain them away if Morgan asks about them, yet specific enough to tell him just what I need.

Hopefully he’ll be on board with it, but I guess we’ll see.

In other news – we got our income tax return back!! Aaaaand…it was awesome! We got back enough to catch up on all of our bills, pay a few of them ahead, and buy some stuff we really wanted! The big ticket item we got was a new living room set! Squeeee! We’ve never in our whole marriage had a brand-new-never-been-owned-by-anyone-but-us piece of furniture. Well, we did buy a new crib and rocker when Morgan was born, but nothing for us. Anyway, it looks almost exactly like this:

Unfortunately we won’t get it all for about another 3 weeks, but that will give us time to paint first. We also got to finally pay off Nick’s Fairlane (this was actually from him selling his bike a few weeks ago), and he’s going to be able to get a transmission for it (which is the main thing it needs). I got to get one of these:

It’s a Sizzix BigKick Die Cutter, and it has made making hair bows super fast and easy. Oh yeah – I’ve been making and selling hair bows and glass magnets along with a few other crafty things, and I will eventually move all of it into an etsy shop. And along the lines of crafty things, I got to finally order:

 

I am SO excited about it! Anyway, that’s been our lovely last month. How has yours been?