Things that make you happy. From the mind of Nattie Rose.

This is a post of some of my most favorite things from 2005 ... slightly random and lots o' links. :-)

Discovered these pens for scrapbooking - Pilot Permaball Ballpoint pens.

The Big Picture by Stacy Julian

West Wing, seasons 1-4, on DVD

Paperbackswap.com

Target's new $1 section

My Christmas backpack from Travis

Simple Scrapbooks Magazine

Donna Downey's blog and her three "It's a Scrapbook" books

My crockpot

Netflix

The Choosing Home blog

Taking Noelle to the zoo

Diet Coke, of course.

Making cards

Scrapbook supplies

CSI (the original series)

Chai tea

Sesame Street

My Bible

Elizabeth George books (the Bible study books, not the mysteries)

Kay Arthur Precept studies

Cool stationarly to drool over

Making Memories embellishments

Okay, I'm stopping there for now. :-)

Baby Update

Just a quick update on our Dr. appointment and ultrasound yesterday ...

We had our ultrasound today and did learn some things. Right now baby girl is weighing in around 8 lbs, 4 oz. at 36 weeks. I am also carrying a LOT of extra amniotic fluid - not swelling so much anywhere else other than my tummy, but determined that that is what has been causing my constant nausea and throwing up ... all the pressure on my stomach and stuff. My Dr. said that a lot of times when there is that much fluid the uterus will be tricked into thinking that the baby is closer to due date than she is and so the best hope would be for her to come any time now, and that is a possibility. However, b/c my uterus is also so extend b/c of the extra fluid, there is a small chance of a rupture if I go past my due date or placental hemmorage which would require a transfusion. So, if I go past my due date (1/25), it's a c-section for sure. So, bottom line, pray that she comes early!! Weekend plans include loading the baby seat back into the car and getting all the suitcases packed and ready - maybe that will inspire the girl to come on out and meet us. :-)

I want to share about our wonderful Christmas and such ... hopefully later today I'll get a chance. Need to run out for dog food and a few necessities...

From Our House to Yours...

Merry Christmas!!!

Well, now

Narnia Personality Quiz
Take this quiz at
Sparrow's Song

It's been a while since I've uploaded some cards I've done ... I have had a few orders over the last couple weeks, but thankfully, not many. Just enough for a little extra spending cash for Christmas and to keep me slightly creative. :)

This one is my favorite - a guy from church who has his own business and wanted to see if I could come up with something that said Christmas/woodworking/construction. Umm, yeah.

Today is Travis' last day of work before Christmas and he doesn't go back until next Wednesday. Both he and Noelle are trying to come down with colds, so we got out this morning and stocked up on orange juice, Halls, and some medicine to get us through the weekend. (I didn't want to be the Mom out on Christmas morning trying to find someplace open). We have no plans other than family hang-out time so I'm excited about that. We've got Christmas movies here to watch, massive amounts of chex mix from yesterday cooking to feast upon, and no where we have to be until church and family stuff Christmas day. It's all good. :)

Noelle and I are sitting here waiting for Travis to get home from work. Today was my 35 week dr. appointment, and thankfully, I thought ahead enough to have dinner in the crockpot before heading out the door. The house smells like roast and I made some 30 minute rolls and have already nibbled on them because I'm hungry. :) (Thanks to Kim for the recipe.) A new Netflixs came in the mail today too, so I'm looking forward to a quiet evening. My Mom had the day off today and was nice enough to keep Noelle so I didn't have to take her to my appointment. Good thing, as the dr. was running behind this morning and I had extra snoozing sitting time in the waiting room.

The baby is measuring big ... I'm measuring at 39 weeks already so we're going to do an ultrasound next week to get an estimate how big she actually is. The dr. is predicting another 9 to 9 1/2 lb. baby and is pushing me really hard to have another c-section. I do NOT want to do that. Thankfully, Travis is off next Tuesday when we will have ultrasound #3 and will be at the appointment when I need to ask the dr. a bunch of questions ... like will she refuse to deliver me if I don't have a c-section. I like my dr. a lot, but she is very concerned about lawsuits and malpractice and, yes, I understand it is more convenient for her to have me scheduled to come in when it works with HER schedule to have the baby. However, something about just saying "ok" to having my tummy cut open again if there is any way around it seems more preferable. Call me crazy.

Continued on Wednesday a.m.:

My neice and nephew are coming over for the day today. I'm going to have my neice help me with a big batch of chex mix. I am amazed that I've made it until this late to make a batch, but we're going to double it to make up for that. :) Otherwise, it is a stay inside kind of day. I have our women's Christmas social tonight, and I'm not terribly fired up about going. One of those things that I enjoy when I get there, but the thought of getting up and out the door this evening after a day of busy kids and such ... it's already making me tired. :) I have a list of things I need to get to work on for our Christmas day service at church - hoping to get a little time on the computer this afternoon when the kids are napping and get the music organized for Sunday. It's already all picked, I just need to lay out the powerpoint and type up a few things. I'm looking forward to our Chistmas day service - it's going to be simple. Christmas hymns and communion. Normally we do that on Christmas Eve, but it just seems wrong to not go to church, just because it's on Christmas Day ... in my opinion, we should especially be gathering together to celebrate the birth of Jesus ... and His coming return!!! Granted it will make it tricky on Sunday morning with the getting up and out the door. I don't know if we'll do gifts with Noelle before church - she's little enough to not know what she's missing so maybe we should take advantage of that at this point? :) My family is going to be spending Christmas Eve at a friend's home - they have a tradition of a shrimp and pizza (and all sorts of other stuff) dinner on Christmas Eve and time to relax and visit. I look forward to that every year and it's one of the things that I miss when we are in Ohio for Christmas.

I registered for my first on-line scrapbooking class today with Big Picture Scrapbooking. I'm going to try and take Donna Downey's year long class, but to start, I've only registered for the first 4 weeks. Several reasons - one, the whole class is $200 and I can't spend that right now (4 weeks is only $25); and two, with the new baby coming I want to see if I can do the class with a little one, or if the assignments and such is stuff that I could hang on to and work on later. I'm so excited about it, though. :)

A Special Gift

Last night my Girl's Night Out group had our yearly Christmas gift exchange ... my friend Amy completely blew me away. She bought me a "Moses basket" for our baby so that we have a place for her to sleep in our bedroom.

The girls are going to share a room in a few months, once baby is sleeping for a good stretch through the night. But, until then, we are going to put her in our room in this cute, cute basket. We were actually going to borrow one like this from Amy, and she knew how much I loved hers and so she bought me one for my own. It has a sweet pink checked ribbon running around it, and came with a blue and a green ribbon that I can switch it out with if we have a boy down the road. I love it! It's been a long time since I have been so surprised by a gift and I can't wait to use it. :)

Your Christmas is Most Like: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Each year, you really get into the spirit of Christmas. Which is much more important to you than nifty presents.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

I'm up and going (sort-of) after couch-tending for two days straight. My wonderful husband has kept me stocked in gatorade and not complained about the fancy dinner of mac & cheese I managed to stumble through for him and Noelle last night. I now have Noelle addicted to Toy Story and she and I had fun (well, we were still together) laying on the couch and watching it together yesterday. Today has been doing some catch-up on picking up around here, as well as catch-up on my church work, and the girl and I got out and went to Babies R Us for a bit. I've been needing to go pick up a few things for the girl-to-be, but it's not real close to our house. And, it's a good thing it's far off - I could have had way too much shopping fun if I'd had an unlimited budget. :) I picked up a part for my bre@st pump that I needed, some pacifiers (I'm hoping this one will be a thumb-sucker like Noelle so I don't have to keep up with them, but I'm going to have a few pacifiers stashed just in case), some ear thermometer cover-things, an electric toothbrush for Noelle (with Big Bird, Elmo & Zoe on it!), a Christmas present for our nephew, and these:

Matching girlie outfits. :) I'm going to LOOOOOVE having two girls to dress up. :)

Also, another pic to share - this is one my Dad took on Sunday of the three grandkids ... according to him it was QUITE the action shot. The eight-year old had her hands full pining her brother in her lap so Dad just had to wait until Noelle would wander into the picture and then start snapping. :)

And lastly, for something Christmas-y, Dawn sent this to me:

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Depends on whether or not I'm hot or cold, but if I HAD to pick just one, I'd probably go with hot chocolate.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
At this point, we don't do Santa, but I'm into wrapping presents unless it was like a bike or something horribly awkward. :)

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Tree lights are white. Not opposed to color, but the white ones still work so that's what we use.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No

5. When do you put your decorations up?
This year, we did it the Saturday after Thanksgiving. If we're going to Ohio for Thanksgiving with Travis' family, I like to put them up before we leave so that when I come home, it's already done and I can just enjoy it.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Mom's taco dip - a Christmas appetizer tradition.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
Just the lounging around after gifts and such, when we played with new toys, read new books, watched new movies, drank Christmas-y beverages, ate Christmas snacks, and just hung out as a family.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I honestly don't remember. Did my folks even do Santa? My sister reads my blog so maybe she can clarify this for me...

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
No

10. What kind of cookies does Santa get set out for him?
We don't set them out ... our dogs would have a party.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love, love, love, love, love, love it. I'm SUCH a winter/cold weather person and snow is the icing on the cake.

12. Can you ice skate?
Umm, no. And the few times I have tried it has been very, very bad.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Nothing stands out as a favorite Christmas gift. One year, when we had very little money, I remember my folks getting me and my sister pencils with our name printed on them, and I thought that was WAY cool.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Keeping my focus on the real reason behind Christmas and the joy of time with family instead of the lengthy to-do lists for home and church that come with the holidays.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
I don't know that I have one...

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Every Christmas Eve we go to the home of friends for fun time with our respective families.

17. What tops your tree?
A big snowman.

18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving?
It's tied for me - I love getting gifts (one of my love languages I think) and I love shopping for others.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol?
O Come All Ye Faithful

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Yum.

Probably won't hear much from here for a bit ... I was sick and down again yesterday. Bad enough that I called Travis to come home from work as soon as possible, and contemplated calling the Dr. on call. I've been coughing most of the weekend and I think the congestion just finally caught up with me and my tummy couldn't handle it. :-( I was up and down a bunch last night and am just sore and miserable and tired. Praying for a quiet day, maybe a few videos for me and Noelle, and some relief.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

I'm moving. :-)

My journal now has a permanent home on my website thanks to my computer-savvy husband. PLEASE come visit me at:

http://www.punkin-press.com/wordpress

I hope to be fully operational over there by the end of the week. I'm not sure what all files and such I'll be moving over, but I've been deleting pictures from way-old posts to make some more space. This is just the next step in my quest for simplification! :-)

Happy 4th of July to one and all!

Friday Fun

Things that make you happy. From the mind of Nattie Rose.

Air conditioning.

Reading a book that inspires me to be a better wife and mother.

Taking Noelle to her first movie yesterday.

Cupboards stocked with groceries.

Friday night pizza and the chance to relax!

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Appetizer
Where do you plan to go on vacation this year, or where would you want to go?

Well, we just got back from our first short trip to Ohio and we've got another short trip to Washington D.C. in the beginning of August for our anniversary.

Soup
What color is your bedroom? If you could redecorate it, what would you change?

The walls are white and the bedspread/bedding is purple and gray colors (kinda floral, but muted so it's not too feminine). When and if I get to redecorate, I would like to get a kacki (sp?) colored bedspread (something solid colored) and accent with something like a brick red for a splash of color.

Salad
Do you have a bumper sticker on your vehicle? What does it say?

I have two on my car . . . one is a country code sticker for Croatia, a round white circle with the letters "HR" in the middle. A souvenier of my mission trip there in 1998. And I have a Bush/Cheney sticker from the last election.

Main Course
What's the worst pain you've ever been in?

Photos from trip and quick recap to come shortly. :-)

My c-section. Not fun.

Dessert
Who is your favorite celebrity? What do they do that inspires you?

I don't get inspired by celebrity if that means an actor or actress. There are a few whose talents I prefer above others, but I don't consider that inspiring.

Aaaaah, air conditioning!!

I'm back!! :-)

A great time was had by all, we're pooped, and completely out of groceries. More soon, but there's laundry to be done, food to be bought and doggies to be retrieved from the kennel...

It's Friday so...

Things that make you happy. From the mind of Nattie Rose.

Meeting Leann yesterday!

Naptimes.

New Bob & Larry videos that are coming out!

Classical music.

Online shopping.

Watching Noelle play.

Eating sugar snap peas from my garden.

From Friday's Feast:

Appetizer
What time do you usually wake up each day? If you could choose your wake-up time, when would it be?

Lately I've been waking up about 6 a.m., but it's rare that I get up before 7. If I could choose it, it would probably stay at 6, I would just actually get up then!

Soup
When was the last time you bought groceries? What store did you go to? Name 3 things you purchased.

It's been several weeks since I bought real groceries, but I did go this morning and buy some snacks for our road trip. I went to Walm@rt and bought . . . grapes, slim jims, animal crakers.

Salad
How many books have you read so far this year? Which was your favorite and why?

You can see my book list here - so far I've read 47 books, although the disclaimer is that they weren't all 1st time reads. I love re-reading when I don't have time to dive into something and give it a chunk of time to get into it. My favorite was maybe Breaker's Reef by Terry Blackstock. She writes GOOD Christian mysteries.

Main Course
What is something you consider to be very elegant? In particular, what about that item/place/person conjures up the feeling of elegance?

I consider simplicity to be elegant . . . just to be content with what one has and at peace with that. I see in that calmness and elegance and tranquility . . . not clamoring for more, more, more!

Dessert
Who taught you how to drive?

Both my parents . . . it took a combined effort!

I'm offline until probably next Thursday or Friday . . . we're heading out tomorrow to visit our Ohio family and I'm planning (hoping) to be offline until we get back so I get a REAL break from work. :-) See you next week!

Dr. Update

Just popping on to say the doctor visit went good yesterday! I didn't even have to have my blood drawn . . . they are going to wait and do that at my 13 week appointment next month when we also get to hear the heartbeat. All looks good, thank you Lord! I'm measuring a little larger than normal (and poking out and showing some already), but Noelle was such a big baby, my Dr. didn't seem that surprised by it. (Secretly, deep down, and not admiting to anyone but YOU - I would LUUUUUUURVE me some twins!) :-) Did some preliminary review of my chart from the last pregnancy. I had had to have a c-section with Noelle because the Dr. was worried I wouldn't be able to deliver her (9 lb. 11 oz.) and she was worried my pelvic bones weren't turned right or something. Anyway, it looks like (as of now) that she is okay with me trying a VBAC. Of course, she went into the risks and some of the precautions we'll have to take, but I'm just encouraged that there's a good chance I'll get to actually get to experience going in to labor, water breaking, etc. I had seriously high blood pressure and borderline toxemia when I delivered last time, so those factors will all have to be taken into consideration, too.

We also talked a bunch about diet. I tested high on my blood sugar before and, we already know about the size of baby #1 . . . I am really going to consciously work toward eating GOOD this pregnancy. That said, I'm starving at the moment and dinner isn't for another 1/2 hour or so! :-) So to tide me over until supper, some pictures of my delicious girl. :-)

Noelle and the puppies in the sprinkler getting soaked!



Noelle and her friends. :-)

Summer Solstice today - apparently the longest day of the year. In honor of summer I've changed my blog header and it stars our furry babies who just don't get as much press as our non-furry one. They were feeling slighted, I believe. :-)

Busy weekend! We had a great time on Sunday at our church picnic. The weather could not have been more pleasant. For this slightly pregnant person to be able to wear jean overalls and NOT be sweating is saying something. The picnic was held at one of our church family's homes about thirty minutes outside town. Huge yard - they had badminton set up in the front, volleyball in the back and horseshoes off to the side. Of course, you'll never guess where I spent most of my time? :-) At the fish pond! They had a small man-made fishpond right in front of their house filled with fairly large goldfish. Noelle was beside herself with excitement. Her favorite thing to do at the picnic was to lay on her tummy and just stare down at the fish. (I was sitting behind her, holding on to the back of her overalls). My Dad was making bets that Noelle would be the first church kid to fall in the pond so I was trying VERY hard not to win that bet. :-)

Our Father's Day was pretty much a normal Sunday around here with the exception that my family came to our house for lunch. We made fajitas (YUM!) and just hung out. Noelle got Travis a DVD for Father's Day . . . Baby Einstein's Baby MacDonald and they curled up in our chair-and-a-half to watch it after lunch. I got about a 2 hour nap . . . a luxury!

By the way, Beth asked about Driving School. It was really pretty interesting. The guy that taught it was a good speaker and there were plenty of bathroom breaks. :-) Overall, I think it has made me more paranoid about other drivers that are out on the road (there was a lot of discussion about road rage) as well as more conscious about my driving. Still I'm glad I didn't have to take the 8 hour class - 4 hours was plenty. :-)

Tomorrow I have my first OBGYN appointment for the baby. Praying for a good report and that I don't throw up or do anything embarrassing when they take my blood. I'm so thankful I don't have to take Noelle with me in the morning - one of the college girls at church is going to come over and keep her for me. I so rarely get a real babysitter that I'm always a little freaked about what to do . . . making sure she knows Noelle's "routine", having something ready for lunch or snack, etc. It would have been fine to take her with me, but I know they are going to want to draw some blood and I don't do so well with that anyway. When I was sick a few weeks ago and had to have some taken at my regular Dr., Noelle was quite weirded out about Mama getting hurt and not liking it.

Off to switch laundry...

Check out this cool baby ticker that I found on Manda's site!

Friday Felicities

Things that make me happy, from the mind of Nattie Rose.

A day with no swimming lessons!

Going to the dollar store with Noelle and buying her pool toys.

Worship music

licorice flavored candy!

Possibly getting to have lunch with Leann next week!

A phone call from an old, dear college friend who lives in the same town as me now!

My family. :-)

I laid down for a quick nap after lunch today and I can't seem to get back awake. This swimming has been great exercise for me (and Noelle), but I'm glad our last day is tomorrow! I'm looking forward to not needing to leave the house on Friday at all. :-) Planning on spending some time list making on Friday for our trip to Ohio that is coming up soon. Need to figure out what needs to be picked up before we go and make a packing list.

A couple new homemaking sites that have come to my attention in the last few days that I'll pass along.

Menus for Mom

Lunch Ideas - creative lunch ideas.

Jamie's Holiday Plan - this is going to be a great help for me this year. Being due in January, I want to get holiday stuff organized and taken care of so I'm not heading to the mall or the post office anytime around Christmas!

More later, Noelle is up from her nap. :-)

Week two of swimming lessons for us! Big day today - Noelle put her face underwater. :-) She didn't really seem to mind until the third time that we did it and then she clearly told me that she'd had enough of that nonsense! After swimming we ran back home to eat some lunch, then went to the Drs. to have her ears checked. Finally, her ear infection is cleared up - yeah! Hoping that we don't have to go back to see the dr. until her two year appointment in October.

Our church picnic got rained out big time on Saturday . . . thankfully we had called it off before I had made the run to buy the food and paper products. We're trying again for this coming weekend. I have a massive wedding announcement project that I will be putting together, so other than buying the supplies and sending them out with someone else, I don't know that I'll actually make it to the picnic. Just have to see.

Tonight I'm checking my driving/traffic school off the list. I have to have it done before July 7, which is just days after we get back from vacation. So, four hours of that tonight and I'm done with it.

Jumbled Bits of This and That

It's Friday! My apologies for this totally random, jumping around type post - but I had fun. :-) Bread is rising in the oven, Noelle is napping, and I'm getting ready to do a few things before I curl up on the couch and make myself rest for an hour or so.


Things that make me happy . . . from the mind of Nattie.

1. Air conditioning!
2. Dinner with friends tonight at their home.
3. The house smells like warm bread.
4. Church picnic tomorrow!
5. Noelle being uber-cute. :-)

Found round the web...

3 names I go by: Stephanie, maMA (how Noelle enunciates it), sometimes Mrs. Shepherd

3 physical things I like about myself: My hair, my hands, and .... ?

3 physical things I dislike about myself: Tummy, tummy, tummy :-)

3 parts of my heritage: We're so American, I can't begin to narrow down just three parts of our heritage. Very jumbled.

3 things I am wearing right now: Wedding/engagement ring, glasses, clothes

3 favorite bands / musical artists: Point of Grace, Phillips Craig & Dean, and The Martins. (So hard to pick 3!)

3 favorite songs: These would have to be current favorites . . . Holy is the Lord by Joel Engle, For All You've Done by Darlene Zschech/Hillsong, and The Veggie Tale Theme Song by Bob & Larry (because Noelle now sings along to it!) :-)

3 things I want in a relationship: Trust, fidelity, unity

3 things I want to do really badly right now: Nap, go to Sonic and get a shake (Chocolate Cream Pie Shake to be exact), read.

3 things that scare me: Having a long term illness, losing one of my children or husband, heights and tiny spaces.

3 of my everyday essentials: Glasses!, Diet Coke (down to one a day), and a few minutes alone per day

3 careers you have considered or are considering: Event planning, counselling, homeschooling mama. :-)

3 places you want to go on vacation: Western US (Grand Canyon, California, New Mexico, etc.); Israel; England

3 kids names you like: Noelle for sure, and I may keep the other two under wraps for the moment until we find out if Baby Shepherd is a he or she. :-)

3 things you want to do before you die: Grow old with Travis, travel, watching my kids grow up and have kids.

3 ways I am stereotypically a boy: I can fix things (take them apart and fix them), good with a map, and that's probably it.

3 ways I am stereotypically a girl: Cry easily, pregnant, and cry easily. :-)

3 celeb crushes: I'm so out of the loop on this kind of stuff . . . I can't say that I really have one.

From Friday's Feast...

Appetizer
Name one thing that made you sad this week.

Finding out that someone spoke wrongly of me behind my back. :-(

Soup
What was the last object (not person) you took a picture of?

My garden!

Salad
Who do you talk to when you need help in making a decision?

Depends on the type of decisions - pretty much all of them I discuss with the Lord, then Travis; music related/church stuff, my friend Gina; really depends on the topic or situation.

Main Course
If you were a weather event, what would you be, and why?

A blizzard - because I am PREGNANT and HOT!!!!

Dessert
Suggest a website that you think your readers would enjoy visiting.

Obviously Women at Home! But one of my favorite sites to just surf is Movie-List - you can watch trailers for movies that are coming out in the theatre. :-)

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Who's Your Inner European?

Get a Grip

That's me. Trying to get a grip on what's going on. My schedule needs some serious straightening - not really 'cause I'm missing anything, but more because I feel like I'm just barely getting things done around here. Not the way I like to operate at all. Right now, we've been thrown out of whack due to Noelle's "swimming lessons." I put swimming lessons in quotes because they are not so much for her as they are for me - how to help her swim and learn how to kick and breathe underwater. It's been a half hour every morning this week (except tomorrow - Friday) and then next Monday through Thursday as well. Even though it's a half hour lesson, the getting there and back eats up our morning so that when we get home, it's time to eat lunch and get ready for a nap. Then I try and get a few housekeeping and work projects done while she naps, instead of resting myself, so that when she wakes up, I'm ready to crash. And I do, as soon as I sit down in the evening. :-) Anyway, hoping to get a bit of organizing done tomorrow and approach next week . . . the next several weeks actually . . . a little better. On our family schedule and "to do" list:

Arrange a time to go to traffic court . . . remember my ticket from a few weeks ago? Well, court was this morning and because I have nothing on my record, I get to go to 4 hours of driving school. I have to get it taken care of before July 7 and I want to just go and get it over with. A neat praise so our insurance doesn't go up!

This weekend is our church picnic. I'm meeting two of the young single guys from church at Sam's on Saturday morning to buy the picnic supplies so they can haul them down to our picnic area for me. Major *bursts of love* for these two guys! I learned the hard way that my car is too small to pick up all the supplies in and these truck-drivin' guys are helping me out. :-)

Make a side dish for said picnic. Hmmm, what to make?

Need to bake bread.

Next week:

Sunday we celebrate Travis' birthday! Woo-hoo! We're having a birthday lunch at my parents consisting of steaks, some kind of rice dish (and I can't remember what else, but it all sounded good!) Then I think we're going to go swimming in the pool at my folks' condo. I would post on here what Noelle got her Daddy for her birthday, but just in case he checks in I'll save it. :-)

Next week is week 2 of swimming lessons for me and Noelle. Monday also has us going to back to the Dr. for a 2nd check on Noelle's ear infection of a month ago that we are STILL trying to clear up.

The end of that week I will be working on wedding announcements for a girl that is getting married next Friday in Florida - she wants to use a picture from the wedding on the announcement so I'll be getting a picture emailed to me and then spending the rest of the weekend assembling. It will be busy, but the $$$ I will make will be worth it.

Week of June 19th

Celebrate Father's Day on Sunday . . . thankfully, we have gotten Noelle's goodie for Travis' and I've gotten something for my Dad so that can be checked off the list.

My 1st OBGYN appointment is the 22nd . . . Lord willing, we'll have a good report on the baby to share! :-) That evening, birthday party for a friend's soon to be 4 yr. old.

This is also our church's 5 Day Club week - this is the first time in a couple years that I haven't helped out with it, but I had to say no to something.

Also packing and preparing for our family vacation which is the last week in June! We leave Saturday to go to Travis' family reunion in Ohio and spend some time with his family.

Week of June 26

In Ohio!

I don't think I've shared yet the plans that Travis has made for our anniversary, either. :-) We have a frequent flyer ticket that we wanted to try and use as a family before Noelle turns 2 and we have to buy her a plane ticket. So, for our anniversary (Aug. 3), we are going to fly to Washington D.C. for about 5 days just hanging as a family there! Travis has done some research online and apparently all the Smithsonian museum, including the National Zoo, are free to get into! Woo-hoo! We're going to fly into Baltimore and take the train into D.C. - not bothering to get a rental car, but will take the train and subway to get around. I'm hoping we'll get to see my cousin (also a Travis) while there - he works for the government and my Travis has never met him, and I've never met his wife or girls. One of those rare opportunities to connect. Anyway, if you have any comments or suggestions on traveling in D.C., send them my way! I'd love to hear them.

Well, enough catching up and rambling for now . . . I'll close with a couple pictures. :-)

My tomato plants are getting huge & my lettuce is going crazy! :-)

Noelle in her $3 wading pool from Wal-mart...

---

Addendum to this post:
How could I forget?! Just to say that Lexie pointed out that my book list can in no way be complete with out the wonderful words of L.M. Montgomery added to it. How could I list my favorite books and not include the Anne of Green Gables series? And now that I'm thinking of it - Mitford!

My sister has accused me of not posting much, but I haven't had too many moments to sit and write. Noelle is taking swimming lessons (or more accurately, parent lessons - teaching me how to swim with her and help her) and that has been eating up our mornings this week, and next as well. I'm pressed to get stuff done in the afternoon and then I crash in the evening. I really need to make some bread this afternoon, but I don't think it's going to happen.

More soon...

I was tagged by Lexie here:

1) Total number of books I own?
Ballpark guess, 300 plus?! Travis and I are book people so that is still probably a conservative guess.

2) The last book I bought?

Fix it and Forget it Lightly cookbook (does a cookbook count)? If not, then it was The Naturally Healthy Pregnancy: The Essential Guide to Nutritional and Botanical Medicine for the Childbearing Years. I know next to nothing about herbs and natural remedies so I wanted to do a little studying up.

3) The last book I read?

I'm going with a new book (not a re-read) - Revelation by Beverly Lewis.

4) 5 books that mean a lot to me? (in no particular order)

My Bible

Sophie's Heart by Lori Wick

Pretense by Lori Wick

Julie by Catherine Marshall

My mind is totally drawing a blank here . . . I know there is something I could put here!

5) Tag 5 people and have them fill this out in their blogs.

Whoever wants to - go for it! :-)

Ode to Cheri

Happy Birthday Cheri!!!

I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL birthday, my twin! Thanking God that I've been allowed to get to know you! :-)

From the mind of Nattie Rose . . . things that make me happy.

Signing Noelle up for summer reading (in her case, listening) at the library today.

Ice cold iced tea in the fridge (decaffinated!)

Pizza night tonight!

Finishing my 2 Samuel/1 Chronicles study at church this week and learning how David finished well before the Lord.

My husband standing up for me when someone hurt me.

God's soveriegnty.

Beverly Lewis' The Revelation - very good. :-)

Edited to Add: Apparently I missed some comments last week so thank you to those that congratulated us on the baby news! I tried to send emails to folks, but I missed some. So sorry!!

A quick hello to say I'm here. I'm fighting nausea and exhaustion and the remains of this sinus infection and am REALLY trying to refrain from whining all over the blogging world. :-) I'm feeling incredibly behind on housework, Noelle-care, and bits and pieces of everything else so my computer time needs to take a temporary reprioritizing whilst I catch up. But a few updates of what's been happening.

We went to the zoo this weekend and had a blast! Of couse, a few photos if you click the picture below...

Noelle & Daddy...

I finished some wedding invitations for a girl from church today. She's having a small beach wedding so the invitations were very informal and fun.

I got a fun W@H postcard from Heather in the mail and a handmade card from Cheri. ((((Hugs)))) to both of you! Mail makes my day. :-)

My women's Bible study ended today. I'm hoping to jump back into Believing God shortly and use that as my summer study time. (By the way, I made this fruit salsa to take . . . sooooooo yummy.)

Noelle starts her "Parent & Me" swimming classes next week - 4 days a week from 10-10:30 a.m. Travis has even taken off two half-days so he can go with her to a couple of the lessons.

Off to pull together a few things to go with my chicken soft tacos in the crockpot for dinner. :-)

From Cheri. :-)

1. Total number of films I own on DVD/video.

I think I counted up 68 DVDs. We don't have any videos - our VCR died several months ago and we decided not to replace it and have passed on our tapes to my neice.

2. The last film I bought:

It was either National Treasure or King George and the Ducky. We don't buy movies very often and save for the ones that we REALLY want. I keep a list of ones I want to add to our collection on the computer and watch for them on sale. I'm pretty picky about what I want to spend my money on.

3. The last film I watched.

If in the theatre, it was Star Wars III last weekend. If on video, right now, we've been on a kick of rented the early seasons of The West Wing and watching them.

4. Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me.

Star Wars
Sound of Music
You've Got Mail
Cheaper by the Dozen
Finding Nemo.

Disclaimer: These are not the ones that I watch the most, however . . . the ones I am currently watching the most either are Veggie Tales or Baby Einsteins. :-)

Friday Felicites

A meme from the mind of Nattie Rose. :-)

Things that make me happy:

1. Feeling a bit better and not like I want to curl up and diiiiiiiiie. [ / drama ]
2. A new haircut that I luuuuuuuurve.
3. A husband that is off early today and all day on Monday.
4. Anticipation of taking our daughter to the zoo tomorrow.
5. And eating a picnic lunch.
6. Antibiotics.
7. Tylenol. Rocks.
8. So do lime popsicles.
9. And gatorade.
10. And Dad's that stop by in the middle of the afternoon with Sonic iced tea with loads o' lemons.
11. And lastly, watching my husband play bass last night in a band makes me happy. He rocks.

Catch Ya'll Later...

I'm not feeling so hot. I've been to the Dr. this morning and have a bacterial throat infection (could turn into strep). You'll find me on the couch if you need me, watching videos with my girl and reading Harry Potter.

Be back soon...

Photos Galore

A whirlwind of a weekend. Star Wars Friday night - totally rocked having a date night out. :-) The movie tied everything together really well and that's all I say about it so as not to spoil anything. Saturday was a staff/elder/deacon retreat at church - planning, praying, thinking about plans and future. Good meeting and has gotten me fired up about several things. More on that later probably. Then we went over to my parents for dinner and to watch fireworks. The subdivision they live in has an annual picnic and fireworks show that is pretty good. We went down to the picnic and there were rides and kid games and all sorts of booths. There were pony rides and we tried to get Noelle to ride a one of the little horses - Travis was even going to walk around the ring with her, but she would have nothing of it. She LOVED looking at them, but there was no way we were going to get her on them. :-) We took her and played on the big playground they have there - she has recently discovered the slide and loves to go down them. My Dad got a GREAT picture of her on the slide, but I'll have to post that one later . . . I don't have it yet. This is a family shot my Dad snapped at the picnic:

We've been in a picture taking mood around here lately so here are a few fun ones to share. :-)

Noelle's speech is improving so much - she's starting to put consonants on the ends of her words: "doh" is now "dog," etc. She can say cracker very clearly. She also says "back" when she is putting something back where she got it, "stop it" when the dogs are bugging her or are in the way, and "outside" which needs no translation. She would live in the backyard if we let her, I think.

Anyway, I suppose I should expound a tiny bit on our family news - we are pregnant and due January 22, 2006. (Probably that will be fine-tuned when I go to the Dr. in a few weeks). We're so very excited. I'm a little nervous that we are telling people so early, but God is soveriegn and in control of this little life and I am trying to be faithful to trust in that. We probably would have held on to the news for a few more weeks, but like I said before, we were part of a long-range planning meeting at church on Saturday and it would have been weird to go and discuss and plan and not divulge a need for maternity leave around the first of the year! In a wild coincidence, my friend that I co-coordinate our church music ministry with is also due in January! She's about 10 days ahead of me with her pregnancy . . . so much praying and thinking is in process as to how we will handle both of us being off and for how long.

As far as actually being pregnant, I've had a tiny bit of nauseau the last few days and am extremely tired. My first Dr. appointment isn't until June 21 and I'll be 9 weeks, I believe, by then. After having Noelle in October and being pregnant through the hot, hot summer, I'm especially thrilled that this is a winter pregnancy, although I've already grimaced about how big I will be in Christmas card pictures. I need to do some maternity clothes shopping - with Noelle, I wore my friend Gina's clothes, but now that she is pregnant at the same time as me, I need to get what I have left back to her so she's have what she needs. I didn't buy many things before, so other than the whole spending money thing, I'm looking forward to getting a few new clothes. :-) Luckily I have a fairly big wedding card job in the next month so that will probably go towards a clothes budget.

Take the quiz: "Which Starbucks Drink Are You? (Great Pictures)"

Starbucks Frappucino
Starbucks Frappucino

Friday Tidbits

Friday Felicities from the mind of Nattie Rose. :-)
Things that make me happy...

My new overalls

Seeing Star Wars tonight with my husband

Getting REAL movie theatre popcorn

Being pregnant

Noelle is getting better from her ear infection!

We have groceries in the cabinets

Hamburgers

Diet Coke (although less of it now that I'm watching caffiene & asparthame)

Ummmm, lazy Friday afternoons. :-)

From Friday's Feast

Appetizer
Approximately how many hours per day do you spend watching television?
Lately more than usual, but it's not TV - we've been hooked on the West Wing and have borrowed a friend's DVD's of the 2nd season. It's great to watch it with no commercials.

Soup
Which colors decorate your kitchen?
White and white.

Salad
Name 2 brand names you buy on a regular basis, and what do you like about them?
I'm having a hard time thinking of anything brand name that I buy regularly. I do think that Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing is the BEST, but it's also the most expensive compared to the store brand . . . I usually buy Act II popcorn.

Main Course
What is your biggest fear?
Losing Travis or Noelle, a long illness.

Dessert
If you could wake up tomorrow and find yourself in another location, where would you want to be?
Umm, on vacation with my family - the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone . . . somewhere outside, not too hot, lots of room to walk and pretty things to take pictures of. :)

Bonus Birthday Question
What's your favorite flavor of birthday cake?
Chocolate!!

My Day...

We lost the key to Travis' car over the weekend.

One car family . . . that's doable. Specially since Noelle and I have been housebound for several days.

Take Travis to work this morning.

Run to get a few groceries.

Bring them home and then head out again.

This time to the car dealership to get a new key for T's car. And a backup key.

Seems we have to get it made from the dealership because it's got some computer chip in it.

But they tell me there is a possibility that because the car is so old, they might not be able to make me a key.

They make me one key (they aren't cheap) and ask me to try it before they make the 2nd key.

Sounds smart.

Noelle has a dirty diaper while at the car place.

Then she throws up a little.

Most of it ends up on me and my pants. Ick.

We head back home to try out key #1.

I am thinking about the gross-ness that is now my pants and get pulled over.

Apparently I didn't see a red light.

You have know, I never speed, run lights, miss school zones.

My friends complain because I am such a slow driver.

I was mortified.

And I got a ticket.

Then I cried because I had a ticket and I was puked on.

But when I got home I found out that key #1 worked.

And I got clean pants.

And Noelle had fallen asleep in the back seat of the car.

So off we went to get key #2.

There was no throwing up at the car dealership the 2nd time.

God is good.

Then we went to the library and played with the trains and this thing that has "frocks" in it (frogs).

Then we came home and Noelle is taking a 2 hour nap.

I'm actually getting a few things done.

Like writing this list.

Off to do a bit more work before she awaketh and we have to go pick Travis up at work.

Unusual for me to be home on a Sunday morning. However, I ended up having to take Noelle to the Dr's office on Saturday morning because her fever shot up to around 103 after running one for 2 days. She has an ear infection so we are on antibiotics and all that jazz. We're having a quiet morning. Travis is at church. The back door is open and it is beautiful out this morning. Cool and a little wet (rained yesterday evening). We've (Noelle and I) been laying low the last few days and watching a lot of Veggie Tales and cuddling under blankets. We haven't seen much of Travis this weekend - he worked on the yard a bunch yesterday before it rained and then had a rehearsal yesterday afternoon. He has a show this evening and will be gone, plus a lunch meeting right after church for our summer community outreach. I was supposed to go to the meeting, too, so I'm hoping he takes good notes. :-) We were also supposed to go over to my folks' house today and celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday, but are going to put that off for a few weeks because of Noelle's contagious-ness. My nephew doesn't need to catch it and my sister is still trying to get over an ear infection... No need to spread the germs more than necessary.

So before I'm off to change a load of laundry and put some soup on for lunch (and making homemade biscuits - yum!) From Friday's Feast:

Appetizer
Whose intelligence do you find intimidating?
My husband's. Anyone with a large grasp of scripture and Biblical knowledge.

Soup
Name something you've done that surprised yourself.
Getting engaged as quickly as I did still amazes me when I think about it. From a planner-extraordinare, to get engaged in 6 weeks was so not me!

Salad
List 3 people whom you have only "met" online, but consider good friends.
Cheri - my twin!
Aleta - my Canadian buddy. :-)
Misty - another W@H pal!

Just limiting this to three was hard! Plus there are several others that I have met that I consider good friends. :-)

Main Course
Where is the dirtiest place you've ever been?
This trailer that my Dad was thinking about renting when he first moved to Nashville in 1991. My Dad took a new job as pastor of a church here in Tennessee and my Mom was going to stay behind in Arkansas, sell the house, and wait until my sister graduated high school before moving over as well. I came over with my Dad during my college winter break in January of 1991 to try and help him find a spot to live - we searched through several apartment complexes and houses to rent before we landed in a trailer/mobile home park in Franklin that had some units you could rent. First, the owner of the lot jimmied the door of the unit open with a screwdriver - couldn't find his key. (So much for security!) And then while we were inside the filthiest place I have EVER been (the center of one of the floors had this huge crater where it was rotting out), the guy spit - INSIDE - and that was it for me. I offered to wait outside and vetoed that place for my Dad on the spot. Sooooo disgusting.

Dessert
What is the best example of "perfection" that you can think of?
Diet Coke. :-) Seriously . . . things in nature come to mind - sunrise, the ocean rolling out and in, the beautiful of majestic mountains.Just as God created them.

Massive headache.

If you need me, I'm the one on the couch with my eyes closed.

Oh wait, Noelle has a fever and threw up. Change of plans...

Home-y Kind of Post

There are certain things that make me feel good. One of them is when I feel like I have made another step on my Proverbs 31 walk - you know, learning how to be a Godly wife, mother and manager of our household. Yesterday, in spite of much busy-ness, was one of those days. Grocery shopping, making some strides on cutting our grocery costs, help me to feel like I'm being a good steward of what my husband entrusts to me. Yesterday's lesson was little, but I think it's going to save us stress and money in the long run. :-) I love shopping at Aldi's, but until a few weeks ago, the closest one was about 45 minutes away, one way. A long haul there and back to buy groceries. So I've been doing our grocery shopping at Wal-mart early in the morning before the crowds descend. Well, yesterday, I went to a new Aldi's that opened up - still about 30 minutes away, and as I compared prices, I realized that overall they are about the same price as I can get at Wal-mart with a few exceptions. Plus, at Wal-mart, they have a bigger variety of fat-free items and healthy food. With the price of gas what it is, it makes me glad that I am making a good decision to shop at the close-by Wal-mart, instead of spending extra money on gas to spend the same money across town. Makes sense when I started figuring it out. :-)

Another thing that I enjoy that falls into the household management category . . . reading cookbooks! :-) I picked up Fix it and Forget-it Lightly last night at the library and read some of it last night, making notes of those recipes I want to get copied down before the book has to go back. I love using my crockpot and these recipes were so simple and healthy that I'm fired up to use it again. When it gets hot outside, I like finding good crockpot recipes to use so I'm not heating up the kitchen with the oven and stove . . . it takes forever for the house to cool off again. This is definitely a cookbook that is going on my wish list to pick up.

I took some garden pictures yesterday . . . I think these are the snap peas.

Leaf lettuce:

My cherry tomato plants that survived a quick frost we had a few weeks ago and are apparently thriving.

Note to self: Next summer, remember to write down what you planted and where it is in the ground! :-) We're having fun guessing what is what as it comes up!

I made this recipe today for our small group tonight . . . I don't know about others, but I prefer lighter desserts in the summer. I don't like eating heavy things when it's hot outside. I have two of these hiding in the fridge right now for tonight. :-)

Raspberry Chocolate Cream Pie

1 cup milk chocolate chips
2 tsp. oil
4 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed
2 cups fresh raspberries
1 chocolate crumb pie crust

Combine chocolate chips and oil in small microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes until chips are melted and mixture is smooth, stirring twice during melting process. Cool for 20 minutes. Fold cooled chocolate mixture into thawed whipping topping. Fold half of the raspberries into this chocolate cream mixture. Place in crumb crust and top with remaining raspberries. Cover and chill 2-3 hours until set.

Life has been simple lately and I'm enjoying it. Quiet days, few errands, lots of evenings at home hanging out with Noelle and Travis. I'm enjoying the winding down of some of our "school year" activites as we head towards our summer schedule. Next Monday, I'm going to try and get Noelle signed up for a summer "Parent and Me" swimming class. I'm looking forward to it (hopefully she'll like it to!) :-) It's at the local rec center and I do have ulterior motives getting her in this class - her mother has never been fond of water (at least putting her head under it) so I want Noelle to learn how to swim EARLY and not have the fear that I did as a little kid. We live in the South - she needs to be able to enjoy time at the pool when it gets hot! :-)

Naming My Blessings...

1) Soveriegnty of God
2) His forgiveness and mercy
3) Travis
4) Noelle
5) Getting to be a stay at home Mom for Noelle
6) Caffiene
7) Sleep
8) The blessing of being able to work from home
9) Air conditioning
10) Being able to go to church on Sunday
11) Memories
12) My garden
13) Long-distance friendships
14) Short-distance friendships :)
15) Chocolate
16) Peanuts
17) The combination of 15 and 16.
18) Good movies
19) Hot popcorn
20) Inerrancy of Scripture
21) Going for drives
22) Black licorice
23) Star Wars tickets
24) New recipes
25) Ingredients in cabinet to make said recipes
26) Money in the bank to buy the ingredients needed to make aforementioned said recipes
27) WAH
28) Journalling
29) Deck chairs
30) Mondays where you stay home all day

Take the Quiz here!

If I Could Be...

I've been tagged by Nattie and Cheri so I guess I'd best get to work on this! :)

The idea is to pick 5 and complete the sentences, then pass this little meme on to 3 more of your blog pals! But no tag backs!

If I could be a scientist...
If I could be a farmer...
If I could be a musician...
If I could be a doctor...
If I could be a painter...
If I could be a gardener...
If I could be a missionary...
If I could be a chef...
If I could be an architect...
If I could be a linguist...
If I could be a psychologist...
If I could be a librarian...
If I could be an athlete...
If I could be a lawyer...
If I could be an innkeeper...
If I could be a professor...
If I could be a writer...
If I could be a backup dancer...
If I could be a llama-rider...
If I could be a bonnie pirate...
If I could be a midget stripper...
If I could be a proctologist...
If I could be a TV-Chat Show host...
If I could be an actor...
If I could be a judge...
If I could be a Jedi...
If I could be a mob boss...
If I could be a fast food restaurant worker...
If I could be a preacher...

If I could be a farmer . . . Travis and I always joke about "living off the land" but I think that would be so cool. Have a big farmhouse, with a wrap around porch, lots of rocking chairs and a huge garden. I would know how to can things, and make preserves, jam & jellies. We'd have a barn with hay and chickens - I love chickens. I would collect the eggs each morning.

If I could be a doctor . . . I don't know what kind of doctor I would be, but if I had unlimited funds and resources, I would LOVE to go to medical school for the sake of knowledge. Just studying about the miracle of the human body and the amazing way that it works and functions. Psalm 139:13-14 says, "For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well."

If I could be a psychologist . . . I would want to be one that works with young girls, teaching them about self-esteem and identity in Christ. Listening to them and being someone for them to sound ideas off of. Being someone they can trust with worries and questions about being a woman.

If I could be a writer . . . I would first and foremost want to once and for all be a journaller, someone who diligently takes the time to chronicle my thoughts on paper for better processing and prayer time with the Lord. I would want to write books about things I am learning from the Lord and to be an encouragement. I don't see myself as a writer of novels or fiction at all, but one that writes of real life and how the Lord works in it.

If I could be a Jedi . . . I would be Princess Leia. You know, where in Return of the Jedi she finds out that she is Luke's twin and then she realizes that she has Jedi powers, too! I always wanted to be Leia. She had that way cool hair and her cool flow-y white robe. She was and is my fav.

Me and Han Solo. :) Just to prove that I would make a GREAT Princess Leia. :)



All right, I'm tagging Lexie, BeckyA, and Beth!

I am in a serious funk. Bleah. One that I am convinced can only be solved by peanut M&M's. And I have none. Double-bleah. Right now I am babysitting a friend's son until about noon. I can tell you where Noelle and I will be headed after Ty leaves this afternoon - off to find peanut M&M's! And maybe some Good 'n Plenty. Ty is napping right now, and Noelle is sitting in my lap eating a graham cracker stick and being alltogether way too precious. We had Ty all day yesterday, too, and I think Noelle enjoyed having a buddy right about her size here for the day. Ty is about 7 months younger than Noelle, but about 5 pounds heavier - a cute chunk of a boy. :-) He's crawling like a maniac and pulling up on everything. I forgot what it was like when Noelle was this age (and it wasn't that long ago!) I had to close off the kitchen and the baby gate to the hallway/bathroom/bedroom areas to contain him. Busy around here.

Anyway, I'm not going to get into the funk-i-ness. Some of it is some legitimate disappointments in situations/people. Some of it is my expectations that are probably not in line with reality. But all of it stuff that I need to wrestle over with the Lord and work through it. My paper journal will probably be getting a work out later when there isn't an adorable sweet girl on my lap who would want to help with the writing. :-)

We have an unusual weekend ahead of us. Noelle is going to her Aunt Ka-Ka and Uncle Boo's tonight and spending the night with her cousins Jo & Bubbe. (I love all her nicknames for family!) :-) She has a big evening ahead of her - Uncle Boo's softball game, and then tomorrow she'll go see Jordan's soccer game and then (I think) they are going to the Smyrna Air Show. I don't know what Travis and I are going to do tonight. I think a trip to Target is planned - all together, "ooooooohhhh!" Seriously, I need a new nightshirt/gown. (Not THAT kind!) I've been sleeping in XXL t-shirts for about 7-8 years now and they are in serious need of burning. It's pretty sad. I've had them from when I was heavier, continued to sleep in them when I lost a bunch of weight, wore them through 9 months of pregnancy and now, 19 more months later, they are just worn out. I just finished a book that Nattie sent me and it was really good. (Note: it was non-fiction and I read it! *applause*) Anyway, one of the chapters talks about how the writer needed a new "boditude" - grasping the concept of making friends with your body regardless of the number on your scale or the size of your hips. That made total sense to me - while I'm working hard at slimming down, it's not going to happen overnight. I've been amazed at how much better I've felt about getting myself ready and dressed in the morning just from going to Wal-mart and buying 3-4 new $5 t-shirts that are the right size and don't have holes tucked away on them! All that to say, slowly but surely, I'm going to be doing some boditude overhaul - that may mean buying a new $2 lipgloss in a fun flavor, using my new heel smoother that either Cheri or Dana tipped me off to, drinking more water (drank some yesterday - woo-hoo!), and not being ashamed of needing at least 8 hours of sleep to function and being a nice person. :-)

Also, we have a wedding to go to tomorrow. This is the girl that I just finished doing wedding programs and change of address cards for. It's an 11:30 wedding and then followed by a fancy-schmancy brunch/lunch with a jazz band. Hence Noelle going to the Aunt & Uncle's - not a kiddie event. And Travis gets to wear his suit. I *heart* him in a suit.

Someday I will...

be a homeschooling mama.

maybe be closer to grasping the concept of the submissive wife.

have enough pens. :-)

have a housefull of little ones.

be out of the Bob & Larry phase and stage of life! :-)

This meme compliments of Swonderings at Women at Home. If you haven't come by and mingled with these fabulous, Godly women, you are missing out. :-)

I've been buried under card making projects the last few weeks . . . maybe that's why I haven't been posting as much? I finished some bridal shower invitations a couple weeks ago. They were a pain to get laid out right. The design is not original to me but they turned out cute. Now I need help! I was assigned 4 p.m. as my "time" - what do I get a bride for 4 p.m. in the afternoon? I'm stuck... I also wrapped up some baby shower invitations this weekend (this is front cover, but it was purple) and some wedding programs and change of address cards for the bride and groom. I think I have a window now with no pending jobs, which I'm thankful for. It's time to put my energies for some other things.

As I've mentioned (I think), I'm the administrator for my church (read: pay bils, buy toilet paper, church calendar, print bulletin, etc.) I'm also one of the music coordinators. I'm praying through and seaching where my role needs to be with our church music team. It's a busy job - even when shared by two people. Gina and I (the other 1/2 of the team) met a few weeks ago and have been processing where we are now that we've working together for 9 months or so and what do the next few months look like. Our strengths and weaknesses compliment each other so working together has been a huge blessing and helped share the load. However, she's got a little one that is nearing a pre-school homeschooling age and we're wanting to add to our family. Personally, I go back and forth to wanting to jump in even more with the team, to being ready for a break from being in charge and wanting to hand it off. I'm trying to seek and discern whether this is where the Lord wants me to be serving or should we be praying and seeking the next person to step into this spot and so far I'm just doing a lot of waiting. That's probably the answer for now, but I admit it makes me feel anxious that I don't know what's coming up. We have an Elder/Deacon/staff retreat coming up in a few weeks and it's the first one that I've been part of so maybe that will help clarify some of my feelings. Having some direction from where we think the Lord is leading our church . . . all to say, I'm looking forward to the get-together.

I think some of it, also, is the tiredness that just comes with several activities winding down for summer. We have 4 more weeks of women's Bible study and two (maybe 3?) more of Awana and our small group that meets concurrently. I'm looking forward to free evenings where we can sit out side and watch Noelle and the dogs run in the grass and watch my garden come up. (Speaking of which, I think we lost some of the cherry tomatoes in the frost we had last week. But there is other stuff coming up!) :-)

Just a couple pics of my girl to end. I am amazed by her vocabulary still . . . today she told me she wanted some "pack-kie" (popcorn) and told her Daddy that she saw a "frock" (frog) yesterday.

Is she a budding artist? (A rare picture of her actually using the crayons instead of eating them.)

Or a musician like Daddy?

Productive Monday

I love Mondays. When I was working at the job I was at before having Noelle, I loathed Mondays. I was struggling so much at my job and dreading Monday mornings, especially because of staff meetings. But now, my perspective has totally changed. Mondays are great! A fresh week. A chance to get back on track with house cleaning and with eating poorly over the weekend. Back to Noelle's regular routine instead of the one that we creatively come up with when Daddy's is home and we want to hang out with him! Monday means recovery from Sundays around here. A Sunday morning playing hard with the kids in the nursery, and then Sunday lunch at Grandma and Grandpa's means Monday is a good day for Noelle and I to stay home all day and get back to a normal routine. I'm thankful for Mondays.

That being said, we are having a great day at home today. Laudry is happening - the last load is in the dryer right now. I made a new recipe for lunch - Szechuan Chicken w/ Peanuts. Very. Good. W@H mail is going out tomorrow to Skipper, Amanda, Tammy & Annemarie.

Noelle is up from her nap now . . . I'm off the computer!

Appetizer
Which keys do you have on your key chain?

One car key, four church keys (front door, side door, baptistry door & playground padlock), Kroger plus card, 2 library cards for me, 1 library card for Travis, CVS card, Disney keychain with an "S" on it that my friend Jen gave me many moons ago. :)

Soup
What is the most spontaneous thing you've ever done?

Get engaged - six weeks after we started tentatively dating. For me, HUGELY spontaneous.

Salad
Who is the best cook in your family?

Depends on the dish. For example: grilling, my Dad. Coconut creme pie and cookie sheet cake, my maternal grandmother and my Mom. Homemade pizza, me.

Main Course
If you were to write a "how-to" book, what would the title be?

Ummmm, I don't know. I don't feel like I'm much of an expert in any area. :-)

Dessert
Name a recent fad you've tried.

I don't know that I've tried anything recently. I'm so un-hip, if I did, I probably didn't even know it!

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From Cheri

How many hours of sleep do you get in a day?
Right now, I'm averaging probably 8 hours a night - in bed by 11 p.m. and up around 6:30 or 7 a.m. My FAVORITE routine is to go to bed at 10 and up at 6 or so before Noelle gets up but that hasn't been happening lately.

How often do you bath your baby/kids?
Usually just once or twice a week. Now that she is outside more, I have run her through the shower. Noelle has eczema on her legs and the Dr. has suggested no more than two baths a week so we have lots of little sponge baths. :)

How often do you do laundry? How many loads a week?
Right now, I can managed most of the laundry by doing about 4 loads on Monday and then 2-3 loads on Thursday or Friday. It's not unusual for Noelle to go through 3-4 outfits a day with being outside, messy meals and diaper issues (don't get me started on the diapers I bought recently - I'm going back to Pampers!!)

How often do you and your husband get out of the house for a date?
Ummmmmm. I had to look on my calendar - January 7th was the last one. We watch movies after Noelle goes to bed some - maybe go out to eat every 2-3 months. We're already looking forward to Star Wars III coming out - big date night for sure then! :)

How often do you grocery shop?
I was doing once a month shopping with weekly runs for eggs, milk, etc., but I've gone to every two weeks now. I try and keep more produce and fruit around and you just can't buy that only doing majoy shopping once a month - it gets naaaaaasssssttttyyy.

How often do you go out to eat?
As a family, not often - maybe once every 2-3 months. I do have a standing lunch date with my Mom and my sister every Tuesday. Every few months I'll go out to dinner with girlfriends to celebrate a birthday or because we all need out of the house . . . but that's about it.

How many diapers a day do you go through?
Eight-ish.

How often do you clean your house?
Basic cleaning a little bit every day and every 2-3 weeks have a big Saturday clean out/throw away/overhaul day.

What are your favorite household cleaning products?
Whatever cleans the best in the least amount of time! :-) Love lysol wipes for the bathroom and a regular old broom for basic sweeping in the kitchen.

How often do you watch television?
Hardly ever. Sometimes we watch Law & Order on Wednesday night, but it's not set in stone.

How often do you have alone time?
During Noelle's afternoon nap, I have about 1 1/2 hours to get stuff done or rest and then I have from 8:30 p.m. until I go to bed to be "alone" (hanging out with husband, reading, relaxing, etc.) Enough that I shouldn't complain if I'm not managing my time wisely! :-)

So Surprising!

You Are a One Piece! Surprise! You're not a bikini at all ... and chances are you don't wear one in real life. You're a tad on the modest side, but your modestly is not going to keep you from summer fun. You know that the right one piece can be as sexy - or even sexier - than a bikini. What Kind of Bikini Are You? Take This Quiz :-) Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.

*sigh*

Noelle is getting so big. She says Daddy all the time now. It's so precious. She calls for him and says it to get his attention now. (She says Mama a bunch now, too, but it's just really cute when she calls for her Daddy). :-) This morning we were playing and I was stacking some of her blocks and they would fall over. She watched me do it once or twice and then she took over playing with them.

She has several new words popping out: chair, "hoh" (help), "eeee" (eat). I'm so glad she can now say "eat." She can tell me when she's hungry - I love it. Her teething seems to be going a little better - she's really not ever that fussy. I just hate it when she wakes up at night just whimpering in her sleep. Last night she woke up as we were getting in bed around midnight so I took and rocked her for about 5 minutes and she went right back down. I've been giving her a little Motrin and some Triaminic for the perpetually runny nose and I that's has helped her sleep better. She took a couple big naps yesterday so I think we're starting to kick it. She even went down for a bit this morning which is good - even if she just naps for about an hour it will make a huge difference.

We have stuff poking up in the garden! Travis spotted it last night - it looks like some of my green onions are through the soil. Pictures will be taken but not today - it's rainy and bleah outside. At the moment I have a chicken stewing on the stove and the house smells so yummy. I'm going to freeze the meat and the broth for some recipes and then I need to cook a 2nd chicken later this afternoon. It's so much cheaper for us to buy whole chickens and me stew them instead of buying either the boneless/skinless to stew or buying it canned. We do buy some of the boneless/skinless, but I can make them last a lot longer if I don't waste them on chicken salad and stuff. Plus, you get such great flavor from the stewed chicken.

I've updated my books list recently - fyi. I'm going to try and cut back on fiction (specifically Christian) a bit. I've been binging on it while I've been sick and Noelle's been sick and that's never good for me. God so convicts me when I read too much Christian fiction. I don't know if anyone else struggles with this, but I start to read these good Christian fiction books and romance novels and then I find fault with everything my husband says and does and how I respond to him. The characters in so many of those books are WAY to perfect. The man always knows when flowers are needed and is the perfect husband - down the best massage and mushy card that he slips his wife/girlfriend. And the woman always has the right Godly counsel to give another woman in her time of need, while solving whatever mystery/love triangle/problem contained in those 350 pages or so and looks good doing it. (And she gets the guy in the end). < /soap box > Anyway, they mess with my mind. Not that it needs any help... :-)

We're going to get out in about 20 minutes to meet my Mom and sister for lunch today at Jason's Deli. I love lunch there because I can get soup and salad. Very Weight Watcher friendly. We have to run by Lifeway, too, and pick up Bible study books for the ladies' group at church and the Bible for our one high school graduate this year. The women are doing When Godly People Do Ungodly Things by Beth Moore in the Fall. (Why am I ordering the books so early? I needed to get one for the woman that is leading it and I went ahead and just ordered them all so I won't have to worry about them being in stock later.) :-) I did this study last spring with some of our youth girls and it was eye-opening for me. Satan is the master at deceiving and luring believers into patterns of destructive sin and you CAN guard yourself against him. I cannot handle sin on my own - there is no way humanly possible to do that - it will beat me ever time. But there is a DIVINE way to beat sin - Jesus Christ. Can I get an Amen?! :-)

As requested...

by Leann, here are some pictures of my garden as of Sunday evening. I'm hoping my little plants are okay because we had a cold weather weekend here.

From the front - it's 6 ft x 12 ft.

Here's one of my little cherry tomato plants that we started inside - hope the little guy is doing okay...

My big tomato plant, which was started for me by a precious octogenarian at my church who knows much more about gardening that I do.

Noelle is cutting teeth like crazy so it's been one short night after another around here - she just wakes up whimpering because her teeth hurt and seems to do better when I'm rocking her. Last night I was luckily able to get her back to bed after only about 20 minutes, but it just makes me a little draggy in the morning.

Planning on a regular newsy post tomorrow. :-)

Noelle was up at 1:15 a.m. this morning and stayed awake until 6:30 a.m.

There has been a definate lack of sleeping around here.

Managed to feed her breakfast at 6 a.m. and down for a morning nap around 6:30 - slept for 3 hours.

I slept for 2 hours. :-)

Am feeling behind, behind, behind.

Need to go water my garden, but it's hot outside.

Don't like hot.

And I get sun-poisoning if outside too long.

Did I mention we planted a garden? It's small - 6 feet by 12 feet.

I've planted cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, sugar snap peas, eggplant, cucumber, green onions and maybe something else. I can't remember.

Oh, yes. Leaf lettuce.

It's mostly an experiment this year - we aren't expecting to have much come up since it's our first try. :-)

Tonight it's music team at church.

Tomorrow night friends come over for dinner - hamburgers on the grill!

Pray for my friend Cheryl please. She's hurting. :-(

Any my friend Nattie - she's sick.

There are so many more . . . I'm tired of the hurting.

Off to water outside and then rest a bit.

Fairly productive day today around the house. In our big room that we live in I have a table covered with my scrapbook supplies. For months it's been a disaster. I've cleaned it up when I have needed to work on it or when we've had company coming over, but otherwise, it's been my piling spot. That has been bugging me like crazy! And I have needed a serious chunk of time to tackle it and make it useable again. On Saturday, I was inside while Noelle was napping and thought that I would work on my scrapbooks for a bit. It just wasn't fun. My pages were boring and stupid and I couldn't get into it. I told Travis that I thought I was a little burnt out on my scrapbooks and needed to just put all of it away for a bit. And I really wanted to have the table clear so I could spread out my Bible study material on it - up and out of sight of tiny hands. So yesterday I started tackling the table. I put away everything that was on the table. I sorted random pictures and got them back in order. I put a bunch of pictures in regular albums just so that Noelle can be looking at them and they aren't in a box gathering dust. (I'll go back and scrapbook them, but at least they are out where we can enjoy them!) While N. napped this afternoon, I finished cleaning. My desk was clear and useable again. Like I said, I thought I was burnt out on my scrapbooks, but once was desk was clear and useable again, I was in the mood to work! I made two (simple) pages this afternoon - basically mounting two 8 x 10's that I want in her baby book instead of leaving them to gather more dust. Amazing when you have a clean surface to work off of how much more productive you can be.

Kinda like my relationship with the Lord. If I'm covered in gunk and sin and yuck and I try to make my self presentable and useable for him - it isn't going to work. He's just going to shake his head at me and say, "some other time, you're not ready for me." I need to be ever-ready for him to use me - just like it is so much better when my table is ever-ready for me to use it. Just by spending a few hours on it, I was able to work on my Bible study lesson for tomorrow and work on Noelle's baby book. Surely the same applies to my relationship with the Lord, just by spending some time cleaning up myself - praying, reading the Word, studying, and listening, I can be so much more useable to him than the dirty, messy state I normally present myself to Him and present myself for service thinking "I'll catch up on the clean up later." You know what? It doesn't ever get clean if you just leave it - the dirt just piles up and the stuff piles up and you have MORE to sort through when you find you aren't getting anything done.

Major parallels for me here with my God-walk. Who knew I could learn something so profound cleaning house today! God is good. :-)