The Decorating Done!

We have completely decorated for Christmas! We have our lights outside, and they look great and the tree is up and all the nick nacks are on the tables! It actually went up easier than it seems it ever has. It probably helped that Jim had the tree put together when I got home. Things look great and very festive.

I did have to run out to Wal-Mart to get some ornament hangers. We had thrown all of ours away last year b/c they were really showing their wear. I also wanted to get some of the sparkly, glittery, stick things to stick all in the tree to had a little more glam! As I was going to the store I was stopped at an intersection by a funeral procession. Whenever I encounter this situation I try to say a prayer for the family that is dealing with the loss of a loved one and I did that today, but it turned into a much deeper thought and prayer. As I watched that line of cars go by I thought of all the families that are now preparing for the holidays after having lost a loved one. From experience I can say that the first holiday season after losing someone is especially difficult. The people I have lost are still greatly missed each holiday season and every day for that matter, but that first year is hard. I know so many people that have lost someone this year. Even my own brother-in-law lost his grandmother just on Monday and they will be spending the Thanksgiving holidays having a funeral. I say all this to ask all of you to please remember those who have lost loved ones this year. We should lift them up in an extra special way during this next month of all the holiday gatherings. I know that this today has reminded me that I need to be in prayer for all of them. And if you are one of these people who has lost someone and you are reading this, then please know that I am thinking of you and your family right now.

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends! Remember to be thankful for how we are all so richly blessed by our GREAT GOD!!

Thanksgiving at School

Well this is Drew dressed as an Indian. He actually brought this home from school on Friday. Today at school they had their "Thanksgiving Feast", which consisted of mac n cheese and chicken nuggets. I guess to a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds that is indeed a feast! He has a pilgrim hat and vest that he wore today for the feast but I did not get a pic of that one. He had a good day today and tomorrow will be just a fun day. He even gets to take a toy to play with tomorrow.

We had a great visit this weekend in Batesville with Jim's family. It was nice to be there over night and not have to rush back home. We had a very relaxing Sunday yesterday, just hanging out together at his mother's home. We also got to spend some extra time with Jim's sister and her husband and daughter. It had been quite a while since we had seen them so we really enjoyed the time with them. We will be spending another night down there at Christmas and hopefully Jim's brother and his family will be able to stay too. It is nice to all be together and it has been several years since we all spent the night down there at once. It is crowded, but worth it to be together!!

Lastly for this post I give you the picture below. This is Drew's "I am Thankful for" sheet from school. His thing to be thankful for is the baby!! It made me want to cry. He drew this picture, it is him and the baby and the baby's toys. He is so very excited to be a big brother. I just hope that excitement will be just as great when the new baby is actually on the outside!

12 Weeks Today!

Well today I am 12 weeks pregnant. I am excited to get to this point. I am starting to feel pretty normal now. My energy level has definitely gotten better. Just since Friday I have had much more energy. I have been getting up earlier this week than I have in the last 2 months! This has been wonderful because I have had a much more meaningful quiet time with the Lord the past 4 mornings due to more time. I am starting to feel the "fluttering" feeling of the baby moving. I know it is kinda early for that but I did some research online and it says that often women will feel things much more quickly the second time due to knowing more of what they are looking for in that feeling. I can only feel it at night when I am laying down on my side and being totally still. I believe this baby is very active. Just from the 2 ultrasounds I have had and the feelings I am having, this baby likes to move! That is wonderful though. This first trimester has gone by quickly and yet it seems like May is so far away. I know it will pass more quickly than I realize and that when May arrives I will be shocked that the time has come already.

In the mean time I am very ready to get in the "Holiday Spirit"! I am already listening to my Christmas music at work! We will be decorating the house next week while we are off for Thanksgiving. I am ready to have the tree up and all the little decor items all over the house. I really want to have Jim put lights outside this year. We did this 2 years ago and I do not believe we got them up last year. But I am going to work on that!! The main reason I want the lights out front is b/c the window in the front of the house is not a good location for the Christmas tree, so it is not able to be seen through the window from outside. I love seeing peoples tree from the windows and until we moved to this house I always did that with ours. But, you don't buy a house based on where your Christmas tree is going to be! So I convinced Jim a couple of years ago that we should decorate the tree outside the window in place of my actual Christmas tree being there! I had even bought more lights last year so that we could decorate the bushes and all. So that is what I am hoping for. I need to get a big star to put over the window so it will look like it is on the tree!!

I will post pictures next week after we get all the decorating done! We will be going to Batesville this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving with Jim's family. I should have some good pics of all of that too. Bye for now!

The Beginnings of a Baby Room

Yesterday we spent the entire day cleaning out the once "Spare Room" and transforming it into the "Baby Room". I know some of you are thinking that I am a bit early for this, but for those of you who know me well you realize that Saturdays at home with not place to go are very few and far between, so we seized the opportunity! I am very pleased with the results. It took the bulk of the day to get the items that were in this room transferred to new homes. But once we got past that we were able to get the items from the attic, thoroughly clean everything because it was all NASTY, and get it all set up. In the midst of it all Drew wanted to "Help one another". This is what he says to us when he wants to help. Apparently they talked about his for a week at school and learned a song titled Help One Another, so he will sing that and tell us that we have to help one another. He did help us for the most part. I was glad he was so interested and not upset by all of this stuff coming down and being part of the house. He is still very excited over the baby. I did have my first sign that he does not quite get this whole baby thing last week. He told me in the car on the way home from work/school one day that I was going to be there baby's grandma. I immediately corrected him, I mean come on I am not that old yet!! I probably kinda laughed at him and explained that I would be the baby's momma and that daddy would be the baby's daddy. This was followed by a stunned silence. I realized this was the first time he had understood that the baby would be sharing us with him. I talked about it a little bit and ask him if he understood and he said yes, but nothing else. So I just let it go for now. I know that it will be a big adjustment for him to learn to share us with another person. He will be over 5 years old when the baby arrives and he has been the baby up till now. He still is my baby and will always be, even when he is 30 and has baby's of his own, and now I am going to cry thinking about him growing up. I better close at that before I am a mess! Keep praying for us through this journey, it is exciting and challenging all at the same time, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else!

Dr visit #2 down, only about 10 more to go!!

Well as you can see I had another ultrasound done yesterday. All was good and the baby is 5x bigger now than 4 weeks ago. VERY active! Baby would hardly be still long enough for the tech to get the heart beat! The heartbeat was good and strong at 178bpm and is measuring at 4.5 centimeters now. So now the size of a very large peanut! When baby was still I could actually see the profile of the face, nose and all! Amazing how all that is there so early on. All was good and on track though. I definitely now have a "baby bump" although most of my cloths do cover it up. I told the dr it just seemed like things were happening too quickly and her response was that because I have had one baby before everything will just stretch faster, so oh well! I had not gained any weight which I was very proud of. So I return for visit #3 on Dec 9. It will be the January visit that we will have the next ultrasound and will hopefully find out whether baby is boy or girl!

God's Beautiful Landscape

 

 

I don't know about the rest of ya'll, but I love the colors of fall!! I love when the weather turns colder and I can begin to wear my warm, snuggly clothes. I love coming home from work and putting on a pair of flannel pants and a soft long sleeve shirt and my fuzzy warm slippers! I just love fall and winter for that matter.

I feel very priviledged that I get to take a rather pituresque drive in to work each day. I take all secondary roads in my route to work and because of this I have been able to enjoy all the rich fall colors that are blossoming all around us. There have been several mornings and afternoons that started off kinda rough and then getting to enjoy creation has brightened up my mood. The pictures I gave you here just really do not do justice to all the gorgeous trees that I am seeing each day. Many of the areas of road I am on have just a canopy of tree limbs over them and all are decked out in these beautiful colors. I took these pictures last week and already in just a few days I can see the changes coming. Many of these leaves have now fallen and winter is fast approaching. I look out at all the glory that is our creation and it is so awesome and so undeniable that there is a God out there! Only He could come up with this kind of majesty!

So this blog is a message from me to all of you who actually read what I write to say, stop and take a look around you. Enjoy the beauty God has given us and thank Him for it!

The Truth about the Election

First let me say that I am so glad that today is election day because I a sick and tired of watching all the campaign ads! I want to look at some of these politicians and tell them the old saying, if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all! But this is the nature of our election process and the politics that surround it.

I left bright and early this morning to observe my right to vote. Drew and I arrived at my polling location at 6:45am. The line was at least 200-300 deep when I got in it. I ended up being there until after 8am this morning. I thought that was pretty good. Drew was so good the entire time. I was extremely proud of him. I tried to let him know exactly what I was doing and why. As much as you can explain this sort of thing to a 4 year old. As we were leaving the polling location he saw a young lady holding a sign for one of the candidates. He ask me what she was doing. I told him she was trying to get people to vote for her candidate. He then got a little curious and wanted to know if I voted for the people on the signs. I told him that yes, I had voted for many different people. I then told him that it is very important that people vote because our votes decide who will be our leaders. His response to this was "Jesus?". I was so proud to hear that come out of his mouth at the first thought of who our "LEADER" is. I said, "Yes, Jesus is really our only leader isn't He." Drew then says, "Yes, Jesus and God." Well I think that about covers it people, God is ultimately our leader, not Obama or McCain. The One and Only True God is in control of all of this and all those who will be elected to positions today. And you know what...HE already knows who it is going to be! So I will not be all stressing out as I watch the returns come in tonight, I will rest easy knowing the Jesus Christ will still be on His throne tomorrow, no matter who is our next president!