Kate-isms

While we were having dinner the other night I was talking about how we had to teach Gabby to like different vegetables so that she would like a variety of vegetables as she got older.

Justin said, "When I get older I'll like more vegetables too."

Kate looked at him with all seriousness and said, "But you're already old."

Welcome baby Penelope!

My husband has some buddies from high school that have stayed in touch for years. Out of that group three of these fellows have gone on to have children. We all had our first round in 2004-2005. Three girls. In 2006-2007 we had our second round of children. Three girls. One of the families decided they were finished at that point. The next round is this year. And the first of these two babies was born today--another girl. Seven for seven. I guess if tradition holds we'll be welcoming bundle of pink #8 in November!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my husband and to my Daddy!

Here's what the girls and I made for Justin--even baby got to help a little.

Kids and Facebook

I was at a craft night sponsored at our church a couple of weeks ago. Some of us were chatting about Facebook. One of the ladies had a teenaged daughter that uses it and she asked what we thought about it.

I told her my opinion. My kids will not be allowed Facebook or any other networking access without me having access.

She seemed really taken aback. Then she said her daughter wouldn’t let her have access to even be her friend.

Then I really shocked her. I told her I would password protect the computer and not let her on it.

Is it drastic? Yes. But if my kid says, “No, you can’t see what I’m doing.” That tells me they are doing something they know I don’t approve of. I’m their mother, not their best friend. I will keep them safe, even if it makes me unpopular, even if they hate me for awhile. I can take it.

Why do I feel so strongly? I taught high school for several years. The things I saw were eye opening. There were truly good kids who got into things that their parents were completely unaware of. Then there were the kids who had their parents totally fleeced. Their parents had no idea that their little “angel” was in to all sorts of horrible things. Parties where awful things were happening, drinking and driving, not to mention the belligerence with which they treated their teachers.

Being able to see what my kids do on Facebook won’t keep them out of every bit of trouble, I’m not that naive, but perhaps it will help keep them safe from something.

Cottonwood

Doesn’t our grass look funny? This is the junk that falls out of our cottonwood tree. It makes a mess every where. The air conditioner has to be cleaned regularly and the cars are a mess too.

Justin wants to cut it down, but it’s a really big tree and it’s right next to our house. It also gives us shade, which I appreciate eleven months out of the year. Not so much in June!

My Anniversary Card(s)

Have you ever noticed that different people like to be loved in different ways? They tend to give love in the way they most like to be loved. It can be difficult. My husband likes to be respected. I like to tease—not always a good mix!

I like to give thoughtful little gifts and cards, and get them in return. Poor Justin doesn’t have a lot of luck with that sometimes. I’ve gotten better about not dropping hints, but really telling if there is something I want. We’re both happier that way. He’s on his own with the cards though.

Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t pick out a bad card. The problem is that he picked out the same card.

The exact same card.

Two years

In a

Row!

Being that cards mean a lot to me I keep them all. He didn’t believe it was the same card until I went upstairs and pulled it out, it even had the year on the back, where I had carefully recorded so I would always remember the year I got it.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget this one now though.

Ultrasound!

We had our ultrasound today. Baby was horribly uncooperative! He or she stayed with his back turned (no I don't know gender, but the he/she is getting daunting!). We got some great shots of the spine.

The kidneys were working, as where the stomach, and heart. We got a shot of the baby's foot too.

Kate had a great time. She decided that the baby is a boy. She's the only one who looked during the gender portion, so if anyone knows, it's her. You'll just have to take her word for it until November, unless your my mom. Then you get a security envelope with extra padding because the tech said she could read it when it was held up to the light!

There aren't any profile shots, because baby's back was turned, oh I mentioned that already? This is the best shot of the body and (back of the) head.

I go back in July and we'll try again. The scan was considered incomplete since the baby's face could not be seen.

Ten Years

I've been married for ten years today! That doesn't even seem possible! Some days it seems as though I've know Justin all my life and other days it seems like it was just yesterday that our courtship began.

The day of the wedding I got up early to go get my hair done. The three bridesmaids, my sister, a cousin, and a friend were asleep in my sister's room that morning. I passed on the Dixie Cream donuts sitting on the counter that morning as I walked out the door. I returned awhile later with my hair up, curled, and held in place by what must have been a half a bottle of hairspray.

We went to the church I grew up in (and where my parents and several of my aunts and uncles had been married), where I dressed in the gown and veil that my mother made for me. We took our pictures before the ceremony so we would be able to visit with our guests after the wedding. Justin and one of the groomsmen were late getting in because there had been a problem with one of the tuxes, but we were still finished in plenty of time for me to eat a half a turkey sandwich.

The bridesmaids made their way down the aisle without incident, but our flower girl, one of my cousins' daughters, stopped partway down the aisle at her aunt's pew and asked, "Why do I gots to do this?" She did eventually go on and I made my way down the aisle to my soon to be husband.

We exchanged our vows, lit the unity candle, and were pronounced husband and wife. We made our way out of the church and down to the fellowship hall where we planned to greet our guests, but no one came. We waited and waited, but we were still alone. We started back to the sanctuary and met the rest of the bridal party and found the source of the delay. Our flower girl decided she didn't have enough petals to make it back up the aisle, so she wasn't going to leave. My sister finally convinced her to go so everyone could leave!

We chatted with our friends and family and cut the cake. We went outside to get a few pictures in the prayer garden and when we returned many people had already left--perhaps we should have waited to cut the cake!

We left in my sister's car (mine was hidden so we wouldn't have to clean it before we left) amid a shower of rice. It wasn't until we were halfway to Cuimberland Falls that I realized the only thing I had to eat was the bite of cake that Justin had shoved in my mouth.

Happy tenth anniversary Justin!

Ten Things to Protect our Marriage

Tomorrow will be our tenth wedding anniversary, so I thought I'd give ten things we've done to help our marriage in the past ten years...

1. We bought two tubes of toothpaste. It doesn't really cost extra to have two tubes and then we don't start and end our day with an annoyance that the other person squeezes the tube the "wrong" way.

2. We discuss all big purchases. We have joint accounts and we don't buy much of anything other than groceries without discussing it.

3. We do little things for each other--Justin makes me coffee in the morning; I keep his clothes clean.

4. We share childcare responsibilities to a reasonable extent--I'm home during the day, so I get the night shift, but he helps in the evenings with watching them and baths.

5. We both have some jobs that we routinely do around the house. There's no question that he takes out the trash or that I do the grocery shopping.

6. We discuss our girls' discipline, so that we agree and the kids don't divide us. Instead we show a united front.

7. We trust each other completely and never give the other person reason to question. We are transparent about where we are, who we're with, and we are rarely apart aside from work.

8. Divorce is not an option. We believe that our vows, including "To death do us part," is unbreakable. If things ever got horrid we could separate, but we would never file for divorce, therefore never freeing us to remarry.

9. We agreed early on to never let our parents in on real disagreements. Your parents will (almost) always be on your side and it's much harder for them to forgive than it is for you, since you love your spouse.

10. We base our marriage in Christianity.

We've had plenty of rough patches in ten years, but I am thankful to God for my husband and the father of my children!

Grace

We've been teaching Kate to pray since she was a little bity girl. There's a book we wore out called "Prayer for a Child" that we read with her almost every night for her first year and a half. She's been saying our dinner grace for over a year now. She started with a memorized grace that we taught her, but now she's learning to create her own prayers of Thanksgiving. She's been thanking God for the food on our table and for the events of her day that have brought her joy. Lately we've heard, "Thank you for the opportunity to play." and "Thank you that I got to do what I want." Childish prayers to be sure, but I am so pleased that my little gal is able to pray to her Heavenly Father.

Of course, Gabby likes to get in on the action to. She'll say, "God" at the beginning and babble her own little prayer. I can't wait to hear what she's thankful for too.

I am thankful for two little girls who are learning how to pray and a three year old who uses the word oppurtunity correctly in a sentence.

It's a Boy!

Our friends Matt and Ann had a bouncing baby boy this week. Josiah is the first boy any of our friends have had. We have been surrounded by little girls in pink for years, not a blessed boy in the bunch.

We were able to go and visit the family of three at the hospital this week. It was nice little sneak peak of what may be to come in a few months for us. The girls loved him so much. Kate just loved to peak in at hi and I let her touch the blanket near his feet. She was more quiet than usual and was looking at all the medical equipment, wondering what all of it did. Gabby thought he looked like a great toy. She kept asking to "hold," "hug," and even "carry" him. She was also quite disappointed that Miss Ann couldn't hold her. She wanted so badly to get into bed with her.

The girls getting a glimpse of Josiah.
Gabby is wearing her backpack/leash in case we had trouble with her getting into the equipment, but she did so well we took it off and let her go without.

Crash

Well, we had a computer crash. As in the stuff on the shelf above the computer fell and crashed into it. Yikes. I ended up with a few bruises and there's a nice little dent in the laptop now. The computer can't find the hard drive at the moment. We're hoping that the things on it will be recoverable. If not we will have lost a few pictures and a few the lab experiments I had typed up for Justin's lab manual that hadn't been backed up. So now we're using our old computer. I'm thankful that it works, even if it does overheat fairly frequently. It's wonderful to have something that works for now.

Bless You

Today Gabby said, "Bless you!" when I sneezed. So sweet.

Go Away All Day Sickness!

We keep inching towards the half way point of this pregnancy. I read that the nausea that has hit me so hard should be gone, but it wasn't. My midwife assured me that it's usually gone at 16 weeks, but it still isn't.

I took medication for it for several weeks. One of the side effects is drowsiness. I didn't realize how tired it made me until I went off of it at 16 weeks. What a difference. I can think again! I thought it was just normal pregnancy tiredness, but I suppose that it was that mixed in with the medicine, which did make my nausea more livable, though it was not entirely gone.

Now that I'm off the medication and still sick I have to decide how to handle the rest of this pregnancy, since the nausea is not following what it's "supposed to do." I could ask for more medication and continue to walk in the haze that's surrounded me lately or I can live with the yuckies.

I noticed that unlike normal morning sickness I don't get sick when I haven't eaten. I got sick when I did eat. Unfortunately fasting is not really an option right now--though that would take care of the problem for me. I've started trying to figure out if certain foods are contributing to the queasies. So far it looks like meat and most dairy as well as high fat foods like some crackers are the worst offenders. Maybe baby will be a health food junkie and decided it's time to start those healthy eating habits now. It's going to be a long summer without any ice cream around here!