Tree River

Poison...James 3:8 (part IV)

2011-09-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, again. Since I had to look back at my blog posts to see when the last time this happened and for med dosages, I thought it would be a good time to update the blog. Eh. We do still have some meds on hand from the last episode a few years ago, but we're contemplating what to do when they run out. Our vet is (surprise!) out of town for the weekend. The Man just got in touch with someone at the hospital who agreed to give him the needed meds, so he is off to get those.

So, update on us: New dog was added to our family the end of June. Weird story since I wasn't even looking to add another responsibility to our full-to-overflowing plates, but I clicked on a link late on a Friday afternoon, and then surfed, and somehow ended up on Petfinder.com. I punched in our zip just for kicks and a dog showed up that I knew needed a home. Any home. Not ours, because, of course, we didn't need another dog. I sent out a plea on facebook for someone to go get the dog. The Man thought it looked like a good dog and told me it was up to me if we got it.
First thing the following Monday morning I called the pound to get more information on the dog. Tuesday afternoon the kids and I went up there just to look. I took the Dog along, too, just in case I wanted to see how they got along. I still wasn't thrilled about getting another pet, but this puppy needed a home.

The lady at the pound said he was a stray that had been there 2 months! She said everyone that came to see him said he was too big, but he was a sweetheart that needed a home. He was a bit bigger than I'd anticipated. I was agreeable to taking him for a trial and the lady said she would waive the adoption fee since she wanted him to get out of the pound.

Since we got him for "free," it didn't hurt quite so bad to stop on our way home to buy a crate, dog dish, leash, collar, and harness. I told myself that even if we didn't end up keeping him, the Dog's 15 year old crate needed to be replaced anyway, so it would be too much of a waste.

The Man laughed at me when we got home. He seemed to recall me telling him in the not so distant past that I didn't want a big dog. OK, so this dog is pretty big. He tipped the scales at nearly 90 pounds. But he is a sweetheart...that runs like a horse...and should have been named something like "Houdini." Instead we named him Painter. No special reason other than it was a name that nobody especially hated, and when he wags his tail (often) he looks like a black dog that dipped his tail in some white paint and spattered it around. J also mentioned something about the amount of drool that comes out of his mouth, but that's kind of gross.

The vet has no clue as to what breed of dog he is. He was advertised as McNab x Hound, but the vet, we, and everyone else agrees that he doesn't have hound in him. The vet said he definitely isn't Chihuahua (hee-hee). The vet guessed that maybe he was McNab x Pyrenees. Possible, but he has short hair. The vet guessed he is probably between 2-3 years old.

I was hoping that he and the Dog would be pals. The Dog is nearly 8 years old, and with all of his poisonings, I don't want to think about his lifespan. The Dog tolerates Painter, but he was quite offended that we didn't ask his opinion before we brought him home. The Dog stayed under the van moping for the first two days after we brought Painter home.

So, a little over a week after we brought Painter home, we left on a 3-week trip. I know...getting a new dog right before a long trip was NOT one of my smarter moments. I marveled at my own stupidity. He did have an excellent dog-sitter while we were gone, and I know he was better off than being caged (or worse!) while we were gone. I don't know how much longer the pound would have kept him!

Our 3-week trip involved leaving home at 7 pm on a Thursday night, driving straight through to arrive in Walla Walla for an 8 am appointment at the college, visiting friends and the Whitman Mission, taking M & J to summer camp, visiting The Man's aunt and uncle, camping in Idaho, back to pick up M & J, camping under the stars in Montana, Little Big Horn, Crazy Horse, Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug, Andrews University in Michigan (and visits with Grandma & Grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends), Indiana (another Grandma, Grandpa, aunt, uncles, cousins, and friends), more family in Kentucky, college visit in Tennessee and then we were ready to go home! We left Tennessee on Wednesday morning and drove straight through to the Grand Canyon. We arrived there about 3 pm on Thursday, left at 5, slept about 2 hours at some dinky rest stop between Las Vegas and Reno, and arrived home about 2 pm on Friday. Whew. That last paragraph deserves several blog posts of its own, but considering my blogging habits lately, that will have to do!

Life is too crazy right now to even sort out more blog posts.

I took this video of S yesterday. I dare you to watch it and not smile.

A strong wind...Job 8:2

2011-05-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of overseeing an SAT practice session for M, so I have a few minutes and a few pictures to blog!

We've had beautiful weather the past few days. The boys and Sacagawea have enjoyed relaxing in their hammocks. Three hammocks. One hammock stand. Sometimes they have hung up all 3 at the same time, but usually it is just one or two at a time.

Yesterday I was outside soaking up some sunshine and talking to S when a huge gust of wind whipped through our yard. Someone's hammock, which wasn't connected to the stand, got caught up in the wind. I thought it was pretty cool. S didn't. He might have thought it was cool if it had been J's or Sacagawea's, but it wasn't.

Fortunately The Man was at home, otherwise S would have had to wait for another gust of wind to loosen his hammock from the tree.

That tree definitely isn't strong enough to climb.This tree is strong enough, and S and J decided they wanted a tree house.

Originally, I heard that Sacagawea wouldn't be allowed, but since I saw her carrying boards up the hill yesterday while J & S nailed, I think she has struck a deal. I heard that even G and Baby S were up there yesterday with The Man, so I'm pretty sure it is safe.

We (not me) tilled the entire garden area (~150' x 150') a few weeks ago. So far we've planted potatoes, peas (actually planted a few weeks prior), onions, spinach, radishes, and turnips. Strawberry plants were put in yesterday.

We tried planting strawberries a few years ago, but something ate all the plants. The day The Man and boys tilled the garden, the Dog eradicated about a dozen moles from the garden area. We also just purchased one of these to try to get rid of more of the bigger rodents quickly. Hopefully it will be worth it and we'll get more than a dozen potatoes this year!

G and Sacagawea helped me plant some seeds and we have lots of baby seedlings soaking up sun during the day. We'll continue to have frosts through the beginning of next month so we'll be doing the daily seedling transport for a few more weeks.
Don't you just love his giraffe hat? It was made/given to him last winter by a friend and he adores it!

Here is a "just because" picture I took a few weeks ago. Have a great day!

Seventh month...Leviticus 23:39

2011-04-29T20:47:00.000-07:00

I came to make this post and realized I had a few unpublished posts waiting to be "touched up" before I posted them. Obviously that didn't happen, so I published them tonight as-is. Check the previous posts if you want to see what little I had time to write about the past few months.

7 month stats for Baby S...13 1/4 pounds and 25 inches long. Please don't be too hard on this mom of six who neglected to do 6 month stats. Baby S really gets around now with her rolling, scooting, and even some up-on-the-knees crawling. She started eating solid food on Sacagawea's birthday, April 12.

G is talking! He's says "Mama" and "Dad-DEE" and all sorts of other lovely words. He actually has a very broad vocabulary, but it is hard for most people to understand him because he tends to leave off the beginning consonant sounds. I even have him on video calling his baby sister "Eew-ie." That should be worth something someday!

Sacagawea turned 9 years old and three days later M turned 17. Seventeen? Yes. Wow. I'm starting to think I'm getting old. Seventeen. We were in the store yesterday and I heard a song on the loudspeaker. "That's an old song," I told him. "I remember it from when I was a kid."

"So," he replied, "are you saying you're old?" Ummmm...

We're all working to get an actual garden in this year. Lots of seedlings are started and the garden area is tilled.

Going to go to bed now...I've got to sleep while the babies are sleeping!

Remember how short my time is...Psalm 89:47

2011-03-04T19:51:00.000-08:00

5 month stats for Baby S...24 1/4" long and 12 lbs, 4 ozs.

G has enjoyed using his potty chair the past few weeks.

Too tired tonight to write more, but I wanted to get these milestones posted!

Small thing...I Chronicles 17:17

2011-02-04T20:07:00.000-08:00

4 month stats for Baby S: 11 lbs, 12 ozs. and 23 1/2" long. She rolls easily from front to back and occasionally from back to front. She sleeps all night (usually about 11 hours) in her crib at night. She is such a good little girl.

G went to his very first non-daddy doctor appointment a few weeks ago. His height and weight is consistent with his siblings at his age. I don't remember right now his stats (bad mommy moment), but they were in the 5th percentile. Actually, I think M was off the bottom of the charts at that age. The doctor said we were already doing everything that could be done for G's allergies and eczema, so we'll just keep doing what we're doing.

I was sick for most of January and I'm still dealing with a lingering case of conjunctivitis. Fortunately it didn't seem to be the contagious type. I'm very slowly starting to feel normal again.

Last weekend we made our very first road trip as a family of 8. Whew! The baby and all the rest did well on the 6 hour trip to visit Weimar College. That is one of many that M is interested in attending in a few years. It turned into a wonderful surprise reunion getting reacquainted with friends and family from all over the country.

S has taken up trench digging. Instead of digging random trenches all over the property, I gave him permission to dig trenches within the garden area. He and J started pulling apart old pallets today to construct a compost bin. After a bit of discussion they started researching worm compost bins. I've offered to donate the Rubbermaid containers if they'll do the rest.

This past week has been unpacking, enjoying the sunshine in our part of the country, and yet another trip to the big city for music lessons for M. The highlight of my week was finding FIVE 100% cotton shirts for The Man at the Goodwill. Not only were they in colors/styles that he will wear, but they all fit. It is the small things that make me happy!

Three months...2 Samuel 6:11

2011-01-04T21:21:00.000-08:00

I was a bit late getting Baby S on the scales for her 3-month weigh-in. Tonight before her bath I remembered! She weighs just a hair under 11 pounds and is 22 1/2" long. This was up from the 10 pounds and 21 1/4" that she measured at 2 months.

Guess what else I did tonight? I went and got the box that had been sitting on my dresser since before her birth. I opened the box and removed the baby book! After finding a pen, I sat down and filled in all the information I had available (the book has places to fill in weekly weights until six weeks...that didn't happen!) and looked over the rest. Why is that exciting? Because even though all the children have baby books, I'm sure at least one of them is still blank, and the others are sorely lacking information.

I usually record important milestones on the calendars and I've kept all of those so I do have records. I just need to sort through those dates and fill in the baby books.

End of the year...Exodus 23:15

2010-12-31T21:13:00.000-08:00

No more apologies for not writing more here. When I'm at the computer I usually only have one free hand to type, which doesn't make for effective blogging. The Man has taken Baby S to be changed and put to bed. As soon as she's asleep, I'll put myself to bed, so hopefully this will be a short post!

I suppose it is trite to say that I don't know where this past year has gone...but I'm not even sure what happened to yesterday. Twenty-ten has been a very eventful year for our family. I hope that 2011 brings more time to enjoy the everyday pleasures.

I'll try to give an update since my last post. All of these items are very deserving of their own separate posts, but that's not going to happen...

M: Got the results for the PSAT he took in November.
> > BRAG ALERT < <
He scored in the 99th percentile of juniors who took the test. That was his very first standardized, non-mommy given test. I've always known he was a smart kid, but it is nice to get some valid confirmation of that. I was quite relieved that I haven't totally ruined him academically by homeschooling him.

J: Almost as tall as me now. He's been told he can no longer wear my garden shoes to make quick runs outside since he's been stretching them out.

S: Backyard Ballistics was finally available to be checked out from the library. There are PVC weapons in the entryway and I found two potatoes under his bed when I vacuumed today.

A: The Man made her a loom for Christmas so she's learning the fine art of weaving. She LOVES singing and rocking her baby sister to sleep.

G: Cute, cute, cute. And he knows it. Very smart kid, but he still isn't talking. He got a Candy Land game for Christmas so we could "teach" him his colors. He beat me yesterday. I guess he already knew his colors! He absolutely adores his baby sister. Unfortunately he hasn't learned the difference between sharing a doll with her and whacking her on the head with a doll. "Gentle!"

Baby S: Smiling, giggling, cooing, and sleeping well through the night. She is a very sweet and happy baby. I can't believe that she is quickly outgrowing clothes that were swallowing her up a few short weeks ago. She had her first bite of real food yesterday. She was sitting on my lap next to G's high chair. While my head was turned G stuck his spoon into her mouth. Wild rice soup seems to agree with her!

The Man: Over the course of a few weeks, he replaced some rotten boards on our bridge so we had to drive through our pasture to get to the road. He still has a bit more to do, but it is functional.

The creek started flowing again on Christmas. It has been rather wet the past month. A bit of snow is still on the ground outside and it has been getting down into the teens the past few nights. Brrrr.

I still hear Baby S, but I'm yawning and ready to go to bed anyway. May you have a blessed and happy new year!

Found him in the temple...Luke 2:46

2010-11-20T16:53:00.000-08:00

We have often joked that now that we have more than 2.34 kids, we have to count to make sure we have them all with us. For some reason adding kid #6 seems to have made that a necessity.

This past week I took all six kids to the big mall in the big city. Whether that makes me brave or insane is still up for debate, but we spent 2-3 hours there. There are quite a few new stores since we were last there about a year ago, so we spent a lot of time perusing the new shops. As we wandered out of one store and down to the next store I looked over the children and realized that one was missing. Sacagawea wasn't with us! I remembered that she had been looking at the antique dolls so J ran back to the store to find her. She had just realized that we weren't with her, so she was starting to look for us in the store. Fortunately J found her before she realized we were lost!

Whew!

Today, as many Sabbaths, we were the last to leave church. M had been sent to the van to warm it up while I strapped Baby S in her car seat. The rest of the older kids got on their coats and headed out the door while I helped G get on his coat. Then I looked down the hallway and saw The Man's coat hanging on the rack. I went to retrieve it for him while he gathered up the rest of his things. I had my bag and J came back to the church to carry the car seat to the van. The Man locked the church door and we got in the van. M had only driven us a few feet when Sacagawea announced that we didn't have G with us. Oops. The Man went back to the church and found G playing contentedly in the Cradle Roll room. He hadn't had a chance to miss us.

I was stunned that we almost left a child behind, but I guess I'm not the first. Jesus' parents left Him in the temple for 3 days. I guess 3 minutes isn't too terrible! Hopefully that will be the last time!

Drive...2 Kings 4:24

2010-11-19T19:58:00.000-08:00

This week M got to take his official drive test. He passed. He now has his driver's license. I'm not quite sure how that happened since I'm certainly not old enough to be the mother of a...oh, I guess I am. The Man thinks it is exciting because now he can send M to do stuff like get loads of wood by himself.

In case you are wondering, yes, it can still drive on the open road. In fact, it will be M's official vehicle since it was much cheaper to add him to our insurance that way.

First month...Exodus 12:18

2010-10-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

Happy 1-month day to Baby S! Tonight she weighed in at 8 lbs. and was 20" long. She is such a happy, contented baby. Eating and sleeping are her main hobbies, but she is trying to give us some smiles. She is not in any danger of being neglected. She usually naps in someone's arms, but I actually put her in her little bed two times this week for a nap. Both times G demanded to know where she was. He watches out for her just in case no one else is!

~~We just took a bunch of pictures this evening, but they are currently being transferred to another computer. I'll add some later.~~Done!

Two full years...Genesis 41:1

2010-10-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, G!
~~(sorry, pics are being uploaded on another computer...I'll add them later)~~Done!
G turned TWO on the 25th! His big brothers and sister are trying to teach him to hold up two fingers, but he holds them all up.

Since we had meetings at church on Monday night, we didn't get around to actually "celebrating" his birthday until Tuesday night. He didn't seem to mind since it just extended his birthday an extra day.

We had this gluten-free coconut flour apple cake. Everyone enjoyed it. Not exactly the best we'd ever tasted, but as gluten-free recipes go, this one was very good. I think the texture would have been better with real eggs, but since that is also one of G's allergies, we used egg-replacer.

G got his very own big-boy bed for his birthday. The Man and boys are making it.
So far it is just a wooden box to hold the mattress. After he learns to stay on the mattress at night, the legs will be added. He LOVES it. It's a good thing since Baby S will be needing the crib in another month or so.

Let brotherly love continue...Hebrews 13:1

2010-10-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

We snapped a few pictures of Baby S after her ~~bath~~ hair appointment tonight. Having a baby with something more than peach fuzz on the head is new territory for me.
It was really hard to get these pictures. It was!
G just kept getting in the way.
He thinks Sissy S needs lots and lots of kisses. I suppose she does.

Tomorrow we're venturing to the big cities for M's music lesson (postponed from last week) and groceries. I'm a bit apprehensive. It's been a long time since I've ventured into Costco with a newborn and toddler.

Happy...Psalm 144:15

2010-10-04T20:52:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post to let y'all know we are doing well! Baby S is sleeping and eating as she should be. G continues to kiss her every chance he gets. Everyone else impatiently waits to hold her. I get to hold her whenever I feel like it since I control the food supply!

Off to feed her again before I go to bed...perhaps we'll get another 5 hour stretch of sleep tonight!

A daughter...Genesis 30:21

2010-10-01T11:27:00.000-07:00

She is here! Baby Girl S arrived on Wednesday, September 29, at 10:49 a.m.

She weighed 7 lbs., 5 ozs. and was 19 1/4" long.

The first visit by brothers and sister. Sister was definitely the most excited. Big brother G was in awe.
Getting ready for first bath. Baby S has more hair than all the other children had put together!
She didn't care for the bath, but she loved having her hair styled afterward!
All ready to go home!
Just details below...

I had been having mild contractions for the past month. None of them were major, but they were annoying. I was hoping that they were doing a good enough job so that I would have an easy labor. I was also hoping that the pushing stage wouldn't be quite as rushed as it was with G. He came a bit too quickly!

I woke up at 1 a.m. on Wednesday with an intermittent backache. Hmmm. There weren't any real contractions, but the baby was squirming and I just couldn't get back to sleep. About 2:30 I got up to take a shower, hoping that would calm things down a bit. I got back in bed about 3:00 and tried to go back to sleep. No, the backaches kept coming. At 4:00 The Man's alarm went off. At that point I told him I was having backaches and I thought I might be starting labor.

At about 5:00 he checked and said I was about 3-3.5 cm dilated, which was a definite change from my appointment the week before when I was only 2.5 cm. He said the baby still seemed pretty high.

I started having a few "real" contractions after that, but they were irregular and 10-15 minutes apart. After 6:00 I got up and started getting ready to go. I had an 8:30 ob appointment scheduled, but I was thinking about going straight to the hospital. The contractions started becoming more irregular after I got up, so I decided we should just go to the doctor's office. The Man checked again and said the baby had come down lower, but I was still less than 4 cm. Rather than leaving The Man at home with the kids (he had the morning off), we decided he should probably go with me, along with my hospital bag.

I had a few contractions on the way over the mountain, but they were still over 10 minutes apart. When we arrived at the doctor's office I told the nurse I thought I might be in labor, but I wasn't sure. I had lost a pound since my appointment the week before (bringing my total weight gain since my first appointment at 30 weeks to 0), but I wasn't surprised since all I ate for breakfast was 1/2 an English muffin and a few ounces of juice with my antibiotic (I started getting a sore throat so we assumed I was getting the same strep throat the rest of the family had).

The doctor came in the room and did all the measurements and listened to the heart beat. Then she did the internal exam. After informing me that I was 6 cm. dilated, 100% effaced, and the baby was at +2 station, she told me to go to the hospital "NOW...and don't stop for breakfast on the way!" Oh, I guess I WAS in labor. By the time I got out of the room, she was on the phone with the hospital telling them to get a room ready. By the time I made it to the parking lot, she was running out to her car.

We got to the hospital and I declined a curbside drop-off. After parking the van I had a contraction while The Man was getting the bags. Did I want a wheelchair? No, I had just had a contractions and it was only take a few minutes to walk to L&D.

When we arrived at L&D I saw my doctor was already there getting the cart ready. The nursing supervisor was also there getting things ready. At that point we found out that the L&D had been closed and they opened it just for ME! It is a small hospital and the department shuts down when there aren't any patients.

Not only was this the first time I had the same doctor & hospital for 2 pregnancies, but I also had the same room and nurse as when G was born. After nearly two years, G's birth is still the talk of the OB department!

My doctor parked herself beside my bed and waited...and waited...she wasn't going to miss the birth!

By the time I got settled there at the hospital, I was stunned when my doctor said I was 8 cm. The two strong contractions weren't that strong. I shrugged. "I'm just not feeling strong contractions." She looked at the monitor and informed me I was having very strong contractions about 3 minutes apart. Hmmm. I was puzzled. I was only feeling about every 3rd contraction. The Man told me not to complain!

A bit later she checked again and said I was 9 cm. I still wasn't feeling like I was ready to give birth. After some (ouch) manipulation to move that last cm., she told me to go ahead and push. She broke my water at that point and had me push through the next few contractions.

Baby S arrived less than 2 hours after we entered the hospital. I was surprised it was so quick, but I think my doctor was surprised I was so slow! At any rate, she is a very healthy little girl. After I held her for a few minutes they decided she wasn't crying well enough, so she got a bit of oxygen while we waited for the placenta.

I sent The Man back home then to have lunch with the kids. He came back with the kids for a few hours in the afternoon so they could all get acquainted. After they left, we had our dinner and Baby S and I went to sleep about 10 p.m. I was tired after being awake since 1:00 a.m., but I still woke up every hour to check on her. At 1:00 a.m. she was wide awake, squirming around. Baby dozed with me in my bed for the rest of the night.

The Man arrived the next morning right after my doctor left. We ate breakfast together and waited for the pediatrician, hearing test (which had to be done twice due to malfunctioning equipment), and paperwork. We finally got to leave after 11 a.m.

Last night Baby S got to snuggle with The Man at 1 a.m. while I slept.

Waiting...Proverbs 8:34

2010-09-22T20:49:00.000-07:00

I was hoping all the posting I did during the month of July would give me the momentum to keep blogging. Oh, well...I had good intentions!

Baby is growing just fine. Hopefully we will get to meet baby soon. The doctor says any day (hour?) now.

The kids are all doing ok. J and S had sore throats and fevers last week, but seem to be all better now. The Man came down with the sore throat and fever within the past few days and even stayed home from work today (rare occurrence). Tonight he did a strep test which was positive. I'm praying the rest of us stay well.

M is now a few weeks into his junior year of high school. Pre-calculus and Chemistry are the new courses for the year in addition to the standard English, History, PE, Music, and Spanish. He spent a few hours this week with a missionary from Costa Rica to practice his Spanish dialogue and vocabulary. We need to get him over to the local high school soon to sign up for the PSAT coming up next month.

We are still easing into all the subjects for the 3 middle kids. We are trying to work on a routine that enables all the kids to get the varied help from me, the very pregnant mama, while keeping G out of all the "fun" stuff the older kids get to do.

J is in eighth grade this year. S is in fifth grade and claims he loves school more than any of the other kids do. Sacagawea is in 3rd grade and doing very well despite the fact that she has so much more work this year than in years past.

G has tins of cars, animals, blocks, and puzzles that had been in storage. These "new" toys are keeping him quite occupied while the others do their school work.This is the first time we have had a single toddler while trying to full-time homeschool everyone else. It is a new learning adventure for all of us.

Given my most recent blogging history, this is likely to be my last post as a mother of 5! I will try to get pictures up of #6 as soon as possible. They will probably appear over on facebook before here, and we've already promised grandparents that they get a call before info goes on facebook!

I'm trying to decide whether to go to bed now or stay up timing contractions...how's that for a cliff-hanger?

Deliver me out of the mire...Psalm 69:14

2010-08-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

The county fair started last Wednesday and ended yesterday. For the fifth year in a row, our church staffed a booth at the fair. I always look forward to the fair starting, praying that we won't have the VeggieTales nearby. By Sunday, I'm glad it is almost over! So, that's where I've been the past week. As in the past few years, Grandma came to stay with kids while The Man and I were busy with the fair.

Yesterday morning after breakfast it was discovered the kitchen sink was clogged. Despite using drain opener, many tools, and a plumber's snake, it is still clogged. This morning The Man crawled under the house and discovered the clean-out pipe. He said he should be able to clean that out tonight.

While The Man was under the house I was in the bathroom with some improvised dishpans in the bathtub washing up all the dishes from yesterday. Those were put away right after breakfast and another load was washed (yes, we're using paper plates, but we still generate lots of dishes!). Then I tackled the stove top, kitchen counters, and sink. When those were clean (no easy feat without running water in the kitchen), I boxed up all the stuff from under the sink that was scattered on the floor and put that on the counter. Then, I mopped the floor in front of the sink so the kitchen looks a lot less scary and actually resembles a kitchen!

A sign is on the bathroom door reminding the children to use one of the other toilets in the house since I have a slight issue with them using a toilet with dishes drying a few feet away. Hopefully the kitchen will be put back together within the next day or so. I AM thankful that this happened on the last day of the fair instead of the first!

For school, M is finishing up a few things from last year. What needs to be ordered for this next school year has been decided and the orders will actually be placed in the next week or so. I'm tentatively planning on starting after Labor Day weekend.

J almost has the entryway back in order, Sacagawea is cleaning out the toy box in the living room, and I'm ready to go rescue some laundry from the dryer. The schoolroom was in the midst of a major overhaul when the fair started and it really needs to be finished this week. I have some green beans and peaches begging to be frozen, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow in hopes of having running water in the kitchen. Ahhh...don't be shocked if you don't see another update soon!

Poison of a serpent...Psalm 58:4

2010-08-10T05:46:00.000-07:00

Although I did complete July with 31 blog posts, I certainly didn't continue the momentum through August! There has been way too much going on to actually sit down and blog, but here are some pics that M took of our adventures over the past week.

Warning: Pictures of a dead snake below. If you don't care to see pictures of the snake OR the dissection, just click away now. :)

Last Tuesday M announced that there was a rattlesnake outside his bedroom. He had been looking out the window and saw it slithering in the dirt near the retaining wall just behind our house. Too close! This is the second one (that we know of!) we've had near the house. J ran to the garden to get the hoes and The Man got the gun. I was impressed that The Man only fired three shots and the snake had four holes in it. The Man was dismayed that he didn't kill it with the first shot. We think the first shot (while the snake was moving) just shot off the rattles. We (not including me!) had to look around a bit to find them. There were at least nine rattles on this snake! The third shot was in the head, and other than the residual movements...it was dead. After removing what little was left of the head/fangs, The Man found a large glass jar in which to put the body. He put that into a cooler with some jugs of ice until he could get around to skinning it.

That time finally came on Sunday morning. We (again, not me!) started the process in the front yard. Pretty snake! Too bad it had to get so close to the house and my babies! Even G helped out with the process. The children finally had enough of the flies and other creatures that wished to watch and bother, so they came inside and let The Man carry on with his project. After The Man separated the skin from the rest of the innards, he came inside also...with the skin. He did ask where he should finish cleaning the skin. I told him wherever he could easily clean and disinfect the mess! He chose the bathroom counter. Ick. Ick, ick, ick. When he was done, he said he finally figured out a good reason for the "his and her" sinks in the master bathroom. I didn't complain when he rinsed the skin in "his" sink. Other than my house smelling like my high school zoology class (minus the formaldehyde) for most of the day, it wasn't that bad of a process. The skin is now hanging on the back porch.

The Man has his glycerin solution ready to tan it. I'm not sure what his plans for it beyond that are, but at least that snake won't be biting my kids or dog!

I will try to check in and blog more regularly, there just hasn't been a lot of extra time. No time? Hmmm...killing a snake, storing a snake, skinning a snake, and tanning the skin were not in our plans for the past week, but it is hard to predict those teaching/learning moments and work them into the schedule ahead of time.

What is it? Exodus 16:15

2010-08-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

It's a...

baby. That's about all I could tell from the photos. My doctor and The Man pointed out a few things to me. I could tell the heart was beating. I have no idea what the picture above shows.

This picture is of the baby's face and hand. I think it will be a lot cuter in person.

I'm told the next 2 pics show the gender with a 99% probability. The legs stayed firmly together so we couldn't see for sure if there was something extra. (Just to clarify, we think that is it, but there may be a 1% chance there is something we can't see).

Sacagawea says she would rather wait to find out the gender than to be told one thing now and find out the doctor was wrong. So, we haven't officially told the boys anything, although M knows. J thinks it looks like a girl and S thinks it looks like a boy. We'll probably tell them soon. So, you may post your comments regarding gender here, but try not to say anything to Sacagawea in person!

He is a new creature...2 Corinthians 5:17

2010-07-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we went down to river with Grandma and Grandpa. While some went off in search of some nature, I let it come to me.
If you look carefully, there is an itty-bitty fish swimming there in my hands (brown, horizontal line above my palm on the left side of the photo). I scooped it up while sitting on the bank of the river. This was actually the second one I caught. The Man didn't grab my phone to take a picture before the first got away.

While sitting in the same spot, I turned over a rock and found this...
We haven't identified it yet, but it is some sort of chrysalis. It was wiggling a bit, so we know it is alive. It is here at home in a jar with us now so we can see its final transformation. This reminds me of the text from this post title:

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

If I had a better camera than my phone, you might be able to tell that The Man is holding a magnifying glass. I smelled smoke!

I was sitting in the shade of this bridge, thankful that these swallow nests were unoccupied.
Bird nests above the head can make a big mess!

G enjoyed getting his feet wet again. Two times in one week! He spent most of the afternoon throwing rocks into the water.

The younger kids enjoyed swimming in the river, pretending to be beavers.

Although we have seen beaver in this river before, the only beaver sighting today happened to be a stump in the water.

Two are better than one...Ecclesiastes 4:9

2010-07-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

Warning: If you are of the camp that believes certain animals are more important than food for a family, just click away from this post. Thank you.

For those of you that have not had the pleasure of meeting a California ground squirrel, you haven't missed much! They are pests. Extreme pests! Just imagine that they are like their cousins, the rats, with bushier tails. They dig under the building foundations and try to destroy whatever else they can. We have to tread carefully out in the field to avoid the burrows.

The Dog usually takes care of the ground squirrels around our property, however he doesn't have ready access to our fenced garden area. The squirrels were "taking care" of our garden this spring until we started keeping a live trap on the compost pile within the fenced garden area. About 2-3 times a day the Dog alerts us to a squirrel in the trap. The trap is moved to an open area and opened, then the Dog does the rest.

This morning the Dog started barking so the boys went to move the trap. There was not one, but two squirrels in the trap. This has happened before, but it is a very rare occurrence. The Dog had to have some help dispatching of those two.

Later in the afternoon the Dog started barking again. This time I needed a picture!
Yes, the Dog is drooling. There were another two!
The second is hard to see in the shadow of the door, but there are two in that trap. It turned into an interesting object lesson for the kids. If you are going to do something that will get you into trouble, it doesn't necessarily help to do it with a friend...well, it may help the predator!

Eat of the fruit...Joshua 5:12

2010-07-29T22:17:00.001-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa arrived today and I was able to catch up on my blogging for the week while they played a rousing game of Monopoly with the kids. Here are some pics that I promised of my cupboards.

These are the apricots. J cut the cardboard for me so the jars are more stable in this shelf-less cupboard.
Here are some more. (Sorry, I'm still using my cell phone for pics...no flash).

Here are the jars of apricot and blueberry jam.

The tofu boxes have been moved from those shelves to make room for the blackberry jam I made this morning.

Note: Just because a jar seems to have the same diameter as other jars, don't assume the rings will fit. The "Skippy" jar on the right doesn't work with canning rings!

I had to hold the lid in place during the inversion process! It seems to have sealed just fine, but I won't be using that particular jar again for any preserving in the future!

Hail...Exodus 9:18

2010-07-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

Our very first harvest of the summer crop of zucchini! If blossoms are any indication, we'll have plenty to share!

We are very thankful for this little squash since Monday night we had a hail storm. Other than a few tomato cages that got knocked over, our garden fared pretty well. Just a few miles from us, some gardens were destroyed by golf ball-sized hail.

The river...Deuteronomy 1:7

2010-07-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

We went down to The Man's brother's house and had a fun day with the family. After lunch we went down to the river so the big and little kids could swim. I sat by the river and watched with G for a little while. Then I went back up the bank and searched the van for some bags.

These had caught my eye, and I thought they looked like they belonged in some jam jars!

Yum!

I'm usually the one that stays home with the very little ones while The Man goes berry picking, so I had to prove that I actually picked some berries.

But I think The Man picked the most.

After we'd picked enough for either a berry pie or a batch of jam, we went back down to the river to cool off and wash our hands.

G enjoyed hanging out with Grandma and splashing his toes in the river.

A very fun day was had by all!

These are the numbers...2 Chronicles 17:14

2010-07-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Since I'm behind a few days and am going to try to catch up today, I'll be posting under the day of the activity...hope I don't confuse anyone!

Today I went up to the city to the hospital for the 3-hour glucose tolerance test. Three hours without the kids with nothing I had to do except walk into the lab four times. Cool. During my first hour "break," I went out to the van and gathered up all the trash that had accumulated since the last time I'd had the time and inclination to do that. I found an empty cardboard box in the back of the van in which I placed all the items that needed to go into the house. It looked so much better then!

During my second hour, I took the van over to the car wash to use the vacuum to clean the de-cluttered floor and upholstery. This was the first time I had taken this van to the car wash for vacuuming. I was surprised that I had to use two cycles with the vacuum. I could clean our old van easily on one cycle. Then I went to the ~~dump~~ landfill to empty 3 cans of trash. Finally, I went and filled the tank with gas.

During my third hour, I stayed in the hospital since it was starting to get hot outside. I was planning on going straight home afterward to eat, but the lady was adamant that I eat something before I headed back over the hill. OK, on to Taco Bell.

On the way over there, I remembered that I hadn't reset the trip odometer. It had been a long time since I'd completely filled the tank with gas, and I always try to reset the odometer with a full tank. As I was doing so, I noticed the main odometer read 100,099. Oh, wow! Things like this are too exciting!

As I was in the turn lane waiting to go into Taco Bell, I got this picture...

It's a good thing I snapped the photo then. By the time I was waiting in the drive-through lane, the odometer had already turned...
Wouldn't it be cool if all odometers gave you a binary reading? Then my poor van would only have 37 miles on it. Fasting plus 4 vials of blood can make my brain think of pretty strange things!

Home...2 Corinthians 5:6

2010-07-25T21:51:00.001-07:00

M is home. He had a very uneventful trip home. Yay! We just got home from picking him up at the airport and getting groceries. We stepped out of the van and S exclaimed, "It feels like Indiana!" Yes, it had rained while we were gone and it was very hot, humid, and muggy when we got home. Now that I have my official photographer and my cell phone/camera back, I may be able to post some new pictures soon!

Frogs...Exodus 8:2

2010-07-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

I'm missing M. He should be flying home from camp on Sunday. Even though we've sent a few emails to the camp for him, we haven't heard anything from him. That's just what we expected, but it has still been hard! We are glad, though, that no news is probably been good news since we've heard of several campers that were extremely ill. Since we haven't been contacted, he is probably fine. Hopefully his flights home will be a lot more non-eventful than his trip up there!

I've been looking through some of his pictures that he has taken and I thought I'd share these with you. Enjoy!

The End!

Look...again...I Kings 18:43

2010-07-23T21:11:00.001-07:00

I apologize to those of you who were repeatedly checking in here all day today to find out if we are going to have a boy, girl, or both. We're still not sure, but we're fairly certain it won't be both!

The midwife, bless her heart, wasn't accustomed to using the brand new ultrasound machine. Although she usually does "first" ultrasounds for women, she hadn't done a "first" that was so large on this new machine. After trying repeatedly to figure out how to measure the head circumference, she went to get the doctor to show her how.

The doctor came in the room. "Oh! Hi! Congratulations! You are...so pregnant!" That was about the extent of my lecture from her for waiting so long for my first appointment. We'll see if I get more in two weeks when my appointment is with her!

After showing the midwife how to obtain the measurements and chatting with The Man a bit about his new practice, she left the room. The midwife got back to measuring the head, abdomen, femur, and (one other thing I can't remember...I'll have to ask The Man later). The estimated due dates for all those measurements were averaged together to come up with a due date that EXACTLY matched my due date based on LMP. She was stunned. She said it rarely comes out so exact this far along. I was also amazed. Based on other factors, I was putting my due date at least a week later. Oh, well!

Oops. The midwife then realized that she had failed to print any of the pictures! So, she had to go back and remeasure everything and take pictures for the chart. This time the due date came out about a week later, closer to what I was expecting. I'm not sure exactly when, but we should have a new baby by the first week or so of October.

During this time, the timer went off indicating it was time for the nurse to come in and get blood for my glucose tolerance test. In all the back and forth with the blood draw and other stuff, the ultrasound machine was turned off and put away. Ack! I didn't even get a picture! And we didn't get to find out the gender.

I'm trying not to pout too much about it since it is probably my own fault. We were there over an hour and a half as it was. The waiting room that was empty when we got there was packed when we left. I think my appointment of trying to cram 20+ weeks of OB appointments into one really backed things up!

But, everything seems to be fairly healthy with the baby and me...that's what is important. I did flunk my one hour GTT (as with the three previous pregnancies). I didn't flunk it as badly as I did last time (148 vs. 215 last time), so I'm fairly confident that the 3 hour GTT I'll take bright and early Monday morning at the hospital will be passed as it has been all the other times.

The babe...Luke 1:41

2010-07-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't had many updates on the current pregnancy. There really isn't an excuse other than I haven't gotten around to making an OB appointment. The longer I waited, the more I knew I'd get a lecture from my doctor when I finally went. Since things have been progressing normally, I really haven't felt an urgent need to go.

I called yesterday morning and made my first appointment. For some reason the receptionist thought I should go in today. I'll be seeing the midwife instead of the doctor. Perhaps I won't get quite as big of a lecture as I was dreading. I'll try to give an update later today after the appointment.

Yes, if possible, we will try to find out the gender of the baby if we do an ultrasound. I thought about waiting to find out as we did with G, but I am SO ready to get rid of some of the baby clothes from my house. Leave your boy/girl/both guesses in the comments!

Fruit...Leviticus 19:25

2010-07-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

Tuesday evening I made 3 batches of blueberry jam. Wednesday morning I made 3 more batches. In the afternoon I made 2 additional and final batches. All the Sure-Jell is gone and we've used an obscene amount of sugar this summer. We just emptied the last of the 3rd 25lb. bag of the summer into the sugar container. Let's see...75 lbs. / 7+ people. Ick. And the year is barely half over.

There are 89 jars of jam (blueberry and apricot) in the cupboard. I used miscellaneous hand-me-down jars for the blueberry jam. I'm not sure some of them were actual "canning" jars, but the lids and rings fit. Since I use the inversion method for jams, I wasn't worried about breakage. There are several 10oz. jars and some really cute short pint jars. Hopefully they will provide the kids with their weekly PB&J fix this winter.

We still have 20+ lbs. of blueberries in the refrigerator, so those will probably be frozen for eating this winter.

I know we'll be doing sugar-free applesauce from culls this fall, but I don't know what else is on the list for fruit preservation.

Our garden is coming along. We may get some zucchini to eat this week. It was reported to me that something has been eating the tops off the cucumbers. Another planting of black beans went into the garden this week. It is a bit late to guarantee a crop, but if the frost holds off, it will be worth it.

Sorry...Psalm 38:18

2010-07-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

For the few of you that have been faithfully following my July blog challenge, I apologize for missing not one, but two days. Sorry. Real life kind of took over on Tuesday and I didn't have internet yesterday afternoon. I'll play catch up later today (maybe). I have to go get G up now for breakfast.

A brother...Proverbs 18:24

2010-07-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my Big Brother! Of course, I don't remember the day you were born, but I do remember you had really cool birthday parties when we were little where everyone got to play outside.

I suppose you helped take pretty good care of me when I was little...except the time you ~~abandoned me~~ told me to stay put in the middle of the academy campus at camp meeting. I wandered around crying until someone picked me up and carried me into the gym and I saw Mom and Dad. Did you get in trouble for that?

And then there was the time you played barber. Mom wasn't too happy that you chopped off my hair. At least you didn't use me as a patient when you played doctor. Mr. Hippity Hop just wasn't the same after you poked him with a pin.

I'm having fun reminiscing, but I think I'll stop before I inspire you to start blogging.

Hope you have a great day turning 42!

Before the camp...Exodus 14:19

2010-07-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

M left this morning for camp. This is his very first time away from home without either parent for more than a sleepover at a friend's house.

I was so happy to finally see that M's flight had left the airport that The Man took him to early this morning! They left just after 6 am to get to the airport in plenty of time for his 9:20 am flight. The flight was delayed just over 5 hours! M called from Portland and said that the delay was caused by a malfunction of one of the "triple redundant" parts. It took that long to repair the part and return it to triple redundancy. As long as he made it there safely, I'm not going to complain!

He called again from Portland right before he went to get something to eat for supper. I told him to call again before his next flight took off. He didn't, but since the cell phone was turned off and my online source said the flight actually took off, I just needed to assume that he made it on the flight!

He did make it safely to Spokane. He said he forgot to call until the flight attendant said to turn off the cell phones. Tomorrow he hopes to receive his checked piece of luggage. I hope he's thankful his mother had him pack a change of clothes and his toiletries in his carry-on luggage (at least the other campers can be thankful if he's not)!

I am thankful...

That I insisted on him taking my cell phone with him.

That he was (very) capable of getting his connecting flight changed and notifying the camp staff.

And yes, I was very thankful that we/he had to deal with that before. Even though I was fretting this morning and afternoon thinking about my son dealing with it all on his own, I think our previous experiences helped prepare him for this adventure. Ha. I don't think it really bothered him. Even though I let him know that we had free minutes on our cell plan today and he could call and talk to us any or all of the time he was stuck there at the airport, he didn't call to chat. Of course, I really didn't give him a chance to call us since I called him as soon as I noticed each flight status change online.

I'm sure he will have a great week at camp. If you click on the camp link above, that page will allow you to listen to the nightly programs.

Cell phones, flight trackers, live streaming of meetings...and blogs to share the story. What did we do before technology?

He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out...Psalm 105:41

2010-07-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

After church and potluck last week we headed for the mountains and the water! The water was kind of cold, but it was enjoyed by the humans and canines on such a hot day! The waterfalls created such a nice, cool mist. G even found a puddle on a rock that was warm enough for him to have fun splashing.

Here is a little butterfly that stayed with us for awhile.
It even let G pet it!

Eat the herb of the field...Genesis 3:18

2010-07-16T19:08:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I mentioned that J took some interesting items to the church potluck last weekend. Can anyone identify these ~~weeds~~ specimens from our garden?

The first is purslane and the second is lambsquarters. They are definitely an aquired taste, in my opinion. Lambsquarters would make a pretty decent spinach substitute, and my internet research shows that some people actually prefer it to spinach. I think everyone at potluck at least gave them a try. It didn't hurt that those were the only things remotely resembling salad that showed up last week...and there was plenty of salad dressing. Ranch dressing covers a multitude of peculiar tastes! There was even a hint that there might be more wild edibles that show up to future potlucks!

Here are some of the other things growing in our garden that everyone should recognize...

Zucchini just starting to blossom:

Peppers:
(Sorry, M just informed me I should have rotated that photo. Oops! I think I need glasses, but that's a whole 'nother post!)

And an actual tomato:
I picked what I think was the last of our sugar snap peas last night. It was getting dark, so I'm not sure I got them all. I was astonished that they were still tender. We have had temperatures near or over 100 for about a week.

This morning when I got up it was 67 outside and 78 inside. I opened a few more windows and a few minutes later the temp outside was 69 and 76 inside! When I noticed the inside temp had crept back up to 77, I shut the house completely down. All the windows and shades were closed and I made sure the lights were off unless absolutely necessary. By mid-afternoon the outside thermometer said 102, but it was only 82 inside. We've opened up the house again now that it has cooled off for the evening.

And they built...Exodus 1:11

2010-07-15T21:39:00.000-07:00

The Food Pyramid...Tree River Edition:
The oldest child started it.

Hold fast...Job 27:6

2010-07-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

We went to the city today to pick up S's new retainer and to get impressions made for J's next retainer (some molars coming in made his old one unusable). I was surprised to see S's...it looks just like this one. Out of all the choices, he wanted one just like J had. Awwwww. J was still getting his impressions made when S joined me back in the waiting room. I asked why he had chosen J's watermelon design.

"It was the only food design, but it doesn't taste like watermelon," he said with a hint of disappointment in his voice. Somehow with all the conversations he'd overheard of other people talking to J about his retainer, he had gotten the idea that it actually tasted like watermelon.

J said he had picked out a glow in the dark retainer. I don't even want to think about it!

A time to sew...Ecclesiastes 3:7

2010-07-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

Nothing new to add to the preservation report today! I started out the morning by having The Man drag some boxes* out of the garage. After riffling through them, I had several possibilities for the projects for the day. M had requested a case in which to carry his tiny Bible. Sacagawea desperately needed something new and summery to wear. I brought my heap of fabric inside and the kids chose their favorites.

Bible Case 1.0 is now completed.
Before it was even finished we had come up with many upgrades we wish to add, so M is going to use it for a few weeks then we'll make another with all the adjustments.
It was done by 11:00 a.m. and then I started on a skirt for Sacagawea. I used this pattern, which I had used a few years ago. After measuring Sacagawea, figuring out the piece dimensions, and cutting out the fabric, the rest went together pretty fast considering all the help I had. I did learn to turn off the sewing machine when I wasn't in direct control of the foot pedal. G found it too fascinating!

The skirt was completed just a bit ago and Sacagawea is currently twirling for M and the camera. G is joining her. He knows how much fun it is to spin oneself dizzy!

*Boxes full of supplies for "someday" when I have the time. I think I finally figured out that I'll never have more time than now!

Sorry this post is late getting up! The pictures were just uploaded this morning (7/14). Hope the pics were worth the wait!

Hot...Exodus 16:21

2010-07-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

Preserving report:
More blueberries went in the freezer today. I bagged up 26 more quarts!

Weather:
Hot.

Kids:
Mowing the lawn (S & J), riding bikes, and packing for a week at camp (M). M, S, & J also are working on keeping the unwanted weeds out of the garden.

Me:
Pregnant. Hot. Tired.

I haven't yet turned on the air conditioner this summer, but we did bring home one of our "on permanent loan to the church" fans last weekend. It is blowing on me right now. Usually we open up all the doors and windows when it starts to cool off in the evening, but it was still too hot when we left for a church business meeting this evening. We didn't return home until after 9 pm and it was like an oven in the house. It is cooling off nicely and I may be able to sleep comfortably tonight. Good night!

Fruit...Genesis 1:11

2010-07-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

The apricots are gone! I made 3 more batches of jam (27 c.--some in pints, some in 8 oz. jars) and froze one more quart. We picked up lots and lots of blueberries this afternoon. So far 30 qts. have gone in the freezer and a lot in our tummies for supper. Since I was too busy bagging them up for freezing, I didn't get any pictures tonight. You'll have to travel back a few years and see these pictures. They look about the same!

Our garden is doing reasonably well, considering we were still getting frosts the end of May and beginning of June. You will NOT believe what J harvested from the garden to take to potluck yesterday at church...oh, I need to go to bed now. We'll save that exciting revelation for another blog post. I'm afraid I'll run out of blog-worthy material before this July marathon is over!

Flower of the field...Psalm 103:15

2010-07-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here is what M has been working on for his botany project. There are a lot of blank spaces that he'll come back later and fill in, but for now, it is just an online place to store pictures of the flowers and other plants he identifies. He has several more that he just hasn't added to the blog yet, so keep checking back!

Teeth...Deuteronomy 32:24

2010-07-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

Guess what? S got his braces off today. Exciting news, isn't it? I just realized that I never told you folks in blogland that he got them on in the first place. I've been such a slacker with my blogging! He and M both got braces the same day. It's been over a year. I would tell you the exact date, but I'm too tired to go in the other room and retrieve my appointment book to find the date. Somewhere I have some "before" pics, but I'm just too tired tonight to go to the other computer and dig find them. Another time! Anyway, here are his pictures from today...and then I'm going to put my tired self to bed!

Before he left for his appointment...
A few minutes ago when I told M to go get an after picture...
He has to go back in next week for his retainer. Hopefully his will be more useful than J's was while waiting for phase 2 of his treatment. J had to quit wearing his last summer when some of his molars came in. Today the orthodontist decided he needs another one to keep what he has in place. We're still waiting on the rest of his molars before starting phase 2 for him. Good night!

Twenty years...Genesis 31:41

2010-07-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Happy 20th Anniversary to us! On 7-8-90 we got married. We've now officially spent over half of our lives married.

A few months ago someone got me thinking about marriage certificates. Hmm. I had the fancy one in the little folder that was given to us when we applied for the marriage license, but I couldn't remember getting an official copy after the wedding. I checked the county website and it stated that a copy would be sent within 2 weeks after it was received. Hmmmm. What if...? Maybe we weren't legally married after all.

"Now you tell us!" stated M in disbelief. The children quickly agreed that we would have to have another wedding if we weren't married. And soon. Before baby #6 arrived!

I called the county and found out what I would have to do to get a few copies and sent in my letter and $4 in cash. Then I waited and wondered. I had already checked and none of the states we'd lived in were common law states. This could be interesting.

I told The Man that if the county didn't have record of our marriage, I wanted to go to Vegas and get married in an Elvis chapel. He said no. I think he thought I was kidding. I was. Sort of. I think it would have been hilarious to have him wear a pair of blue suede shoes.

He wore his white tennis shoes at our reception.

Fortunately, the county did have record of our marriage and I have the two official copies tucked away in the safe with all the other important records. No Vegas wedding for me! It is just as well. I couldn't decide whether we would have our 2nd wedding on 7-8-10 (on our anniversary) or 8-9-10 (to appeal to my sense of numerical order).

I love you, The Man! Thank you for putting up with me all these years...even if you wouldn't wear a pair of blue suede shoes.

The wheel...Isaiah 28:28

2010-07-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

I was just looking at the pictures on my cell phone and decided to transfer these pictures from April and tell the story that goes along with them.

One Thursday we went up to the big city for M's music lessons. We got a rocky start as we were leaving the driveway and I noticed the turn signal sound sounded a bit odd. After a quick check it was discovered that the front left turn signal was not working.* I decided to drive the rest of the way since M still has his permit. When necessary, I rolled the window down and used hand signals, but we were able to get up to the city without further incident. We ran our grocery errands and then went and dropped M off at his piano lesson. As the rest of the children and I were leaving to visit the library, the ABS light came on.** According to the manual, that meant the brakes were still working, we just didn't have ABS capability. OK, I could deal with that as long as nothing else went wrong...

When we arrived back at M's piano lesson to pick him up, I got out of the van to go inside. Hisssssssssss. I walked around the van to verify that I was hearing what I was afraid I was hearing. (sigh) I did a closer inspection and saw a nail sticking out of the tread of the tire. I put my finger on the nail and the hissing stopped. I removed my finger and the hissing started again.

"Hey, boys! Would you like to change a tire?"

They've watched and helped change many more tires than I have. I got out the manual and read the instructions just to make sure they were doing it right.

This is where I'll say I'm thankful for my big boys who actually don't mind getting dirty.
By the time the boys got the tire lowered and released from the underside of the van, M's piano lesson was over and he and his teacher came outside to see what we were doing. Since we figured it would take us several more minutes (at least) to jack up the van, take off the damaged tire, and put on the spare, M's piano teacher graciously offered to drive him over to his violin lesson.

We got all the lug nuts loosened and the van jacked up by the time the piano teacher returned. None of us could budge the tire. Even the piano teacher gave it a tug before her next lesson. I walked across the street where two men were mowing the lawn for the university. They came over and tried to remove the tire. Then they insisted it was the wrong type of rim and it should have never been put on in the first place! Ugh.

I called the tire store chain where we purchased the tires. They said they would be happy to come over and remove the tire...for $80. Since we do have roadside assistance with our auto insurance (which we know to be very, very slow from experience), I didn't want to pay money for them to do it. The man suggested we hit the tire with a hammer to loosen it.

I finally got a call back from The Man. He said what the two men from the university had told me was ridiculous and just do what the tire store man said to do: Hit it!

So, I got the handle from the jack apparatus and started banging on the tire from under the van. Yes! I was finally able to pull the tire loose. Yay! The boys helped me lift the tire down and then they put on the spare. We made it over to pick up M just as his 1-hour violin lesson was ended. Whew.

The tire store fixed the tire for free, although we never put it on the van. It was late enough in the year that we went ahead and took off the studded snow tires and the regular tires went back on. M and J helped change those tires!

*Even though I bought a new bulb the same day, it took us a day or two to get around to trying to change it. Due to some creative auto repairs by the previous owner, it was determined that it was going to take a long, involved process to simply change that particular bulb. It spontaneously started working a few weeks later. Perhaps it was just a loose wire.

**Again, probably just a loose wire as it works fine most of the time now.

Fruit was sweet...Song of Solomon 2:3

2010-07-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of people enjoy 3+ day weekends, but it just throws my whole week off. All day today I'll have to keep reminding myself it is Tuesday, not Monday. I like routines. Breaking up my routines tends to just confuse me.

So, I'm sunburned on the lower half of my legs from the afternoon on the lake. It really doesn't look too terrible, and I'm not sure why it is so painful. I know I'm not the only one who got sunburned last weekend. Commiserate with me and I'll think of you when I wake up in the middle of the night to reapply aloe vera gel.

On a positive note :) I added 9 more jars of jam to our apricot preserving count for the year. So far we have 111 qts. canned, approx. 20 qts. frozen, 4 qts. dried, and as of last night, 27 c. of jam. I'll have to get a picture of the cupboard. It is nice and pretty with sparkly orange jars! We still have 2 1/2 boxes of apricots in the refrigerator that we'll freeze and eat fresh. I may try to get another batch of jam done, also.

We would like to at least get some pears, peaches, and blueberries to preserve this summer. This fall (about the time the baby is due) we'll be trying to get as many (free) apples as possible for apple sauce. We ran out last year. I think we have enough jars, but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed thinking about where we'll store everything. Right now, the empty jars are in the garage, but I think it gets too cold out there in the winter. I'll have to talk to The Man about possibly storing them in boxes in the well house since we keep a heat lamp on out there to keep the pipes from freezing.

Maybe instead of trying to dig to the Indian Ocean, I can talk the kids into digging a cellar in the hillside. Hmmmm.

The other side of the lake...Luke 8:22

2010-07-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July! We took the Dog and the canoe up to the lake for a picnic.

Somehow the Dog's cable got left in the truck so the kids decided to tie the Dog up to a bush with some baling twine. Yes, he is a very good Dog and didn't fuss much while we were eating. After lunch the canoe was taken to the lake and all the humans went for a ride or swim in the lake. After traveling across the lake and back, G and I went to check on the Dog. He met us on the way to the picnic site with a 1' piece of baling twine tied to his collar. Oops. None of the other picnickers (with their unleashed dogs) said anything to me as G and I dragged him back to the picnic site, so I am optimistic that he didn't make a nuisance out of himself while we were on the lake. After I retrieved the rest of the baling twine and the camera, we went back down to the lake and waited for the boaters. Here they are with the camera zoomed all the way. They are standing on the opposite side of the lake. The lake is only about 25 acres in size, so it was a nice one to paddle around. The rest of the family waiting (notice the baling twine on the Dog). Almost back... After returning home from the lake for supper, we went up to the city for the fireworks show. M got to attempt his first fireworks photos. That was our 4th. How was yours?

Liberty...Galatians 5:1

2010-07-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." ~Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

It was quite a week at our church. Last Tuesday evening a sweet couple made a public commitment to one another in marriage.
Yesterday they made a public commitment to their Lord and Savior through baptism.

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Galatians 5:1

Hope you have a happy 4th of July. Remember those that have lived and died for your freedom!

The lizard...Leviticus 11:30

2010-07-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Most pictures that I'll be posting will be from M's camera or my phone since my camera won't turn on anymore. This is one that M took on Thursday. We think it is an Oregon Alligator Lizard. It is the first time we have seen one like it around here. It was released soon after The Man returned from the office. G liked it a lot better after it was put into the cage.
You'll have to turn your head sideways to view that one. I just realized it isn't rotated properly. The lizard is standing up against the side of the cage.

It was probably about 12 inches long from nose to tail.
Here it is with a Susan B. dollar for comparison just before it was moved to the cage.

What interesting creatures have you found lately?

They have spoken against me with a lying tongue...Psalm 109:2

2010-07-02T11:43:00.000-07:00

Just in case anyone is wondering why we would leave all five kids at home by themselves, I don't really have a good answer. Up until a few weeks prior, I had never done such a thing, except for a quick trip to the store or post office. Even though M is very capable of handling things now that he is 16, I had never really had a reason before. The day after Memorial Day I was called for jury duty. I decided to go and serve my time, but due to miscommunications and other reasons, the court sent everyone home until the next Tuesday. However, the night before we found out the case was canceled and I didn't have to go back.

The following week after that, The Man had to go to court. He was going to be on the other side of the jury box. When we first found out over two years ago that he was being sued for malpractice, it didn't occur to me that I would go to court also...and two years ago I probably wouldn't have. After talking it over, we decided if the kids could stay home while I went to jury duty, they could probably handle it while I went to court with The Man.

The first week, our church was doing VBS. Since M was being counted on to play the piano for that, we decided that I would go ahead and take the kids to VBS in the mornings and just go up to court in the afternoons. The lawyer told us on Monday evening that they expected jury selection to take place Tuesday morning with opening statements in the afternoon, there would be no court on Wednesday due to state budget cuts, testimony on Thursday, and maybe a verdict on Friday. Great expectations!

What really happened: Jury selection all day Tuesday and Thursday morning. I arrived at the court house on Thursday afternoon to find out that there were major juror issues. The judge ended up canceling court in the afternoon due to an undisclosed emergency. By the time I arrived in court on Friday afternoon, the jury had been sorted out and the lawyers gave their opening statements. The plaintiffs also started their case.

The next week (last week) I spent all day with The Man in court. I'll just say here that the judge had a nice chair. The jurors had nice chairs. The plaintiffs, defendants, lawyers, bailiff, court reporter, and clerk all had nice comfy-looking chairs. The wooden benches that the rest of us observers had were not comfortable. Pregnant women should not spend all day sitting on wooden benches. Just so you know. Next time (ha!) I'll at least take a cushion.

Although it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience, I am fascinated by the judicial process. Watching (but not talking to!) the jurors, the banter that went on when the jurors were not present, the reactions of the jurors to different things that were done or said...that part I liked. I didn't like sitting there trying not to stand up and yell, "Liar, liar, pants on fire!" The nice, legal way of saying that same thing? "Objection, Your Honor! Misstatement of the evidence!" A "Sustained" means the judge happens to agree. Fascinating.

The Man's new favorite phrase is "Assumes facts not in evidence." That one was also heard quite a bit through the trial. I have a feeling I'll be hearing it a lot from now on.

By Tuesday afternoon all the witnesses had said what they were going to say. Wednesday morning the jury instructions were ironed out and the plaintiffs' lawyer gave his closing statement. After lunch The Man's lawyer gave his closing statement and then the other lawyer got to say a few more things. Then, finally, the case was in the hands of the 12 jurors. Were they paying attention? Could they see through all the testimony that the plaintiffs didn't have a good case? Through the case we had prayed that all would be to the glory of God, no matter the outcome. Of course, we had our hopes as to which way we preferred the verdict to be.

We left the court house and went for a walk to buy J's birthday gift (his birthday had been the day before). As we approached the store, the lawyer called and said the jury had a question. We went back to the court house to hear the question. The reporter said it would take her until the following morning to locate the parts of testimony the jurors wanted to hear again. The judge gave instructions for them to keep deliberating.

We left the court house again, but this time I forgot to turn my cell phone on as we left the court room. We made it to the store, bought the gift, and as we were leaving the store, I remembered to turn on my phone. At that point I got the message about Sacagawea's bleeding head. I called and talked to the kids as we drove up to a park near the court house to wait. As I was still on the phone with the kids, the lawyer called The Man again. The jury had a verdict.

We went back to the court house to hear the verdict: Not negligent. Since only 9 of the 12 had to agree on a verdict in a civil case, the fact that they didn't have an answer to their question wasn't a big issue.

That was it. I was telling The Man later that it was very anti-climatic after all the stress and angst of the last few years. Oh, well, I'll take it over the alternative. I have a lot more thoughts on the situation, but those will have to wait for another time as this post is far too long.

OK, post #2 for July is now done! Post #3 is all set up and should post automatically in the morning. I'm on a roll! Is anyone else joining me?

Wound the head...Psalm 68:21

2010-07-01T15:51:00.000-07:00

I've been challenged to write a blog post every day for the month of July. Ha ha ha hee hee hee ho ho ho...well, it just might be possible if I catch up on all those bloggable (does that have one g or two?) moments I was too busy to blog about the past few ~~months~~ years. Anyway, here is post #1!

I don't have any pictures to show you of the latest news at our home since Sacagawea made me promise not to blog the pictures I took of the gash in her head. Apparently she (1) knows that mom likes to post pictures of wounds and (2) had the foresight to forbid such a posting even though I hadn't blogged in a loooong time. Maybe if I catch up and post about her birthday she'll let me show you the pictures!

The Man and I were both up in the city and the 5 children were left home alone. S, the only child up until that point that had received stitches, was somehow involved in the wounding. Exactly how is still up for debate, but playing around in the living room resulted in Sacagawea hitting her head on a bookshelf. By the time I returned the voice mail M left on my cellphone (less than 5 minutes after he called), the bleeding had stopped.

When The Man and I arrived home he briefly checked her head, saw that it wasn't bleeding, and we got ready for the midweek church service in our home. After everyone left, The Man did a more thorough exam and cleaning of her head and discovered that the 1"-1 1/2" gash on the back of her head went all the way down to the bone. The Man said the good thing about that was he could actually stick his finger in and make sure there wasn't a fractured skull. Ewwww. I hope he was kidding.

I parted the hair and clipped it out of the way so The Man could sew it up. I wasn't much help beyond that except for checking her shot records to make sure her Tetanus was up to date.

Since the 5 stitches were put in a week ago last night, The Man said he would probably take them out this Saturday night. Hopefully Sacagawea has learned that jumping on S's back isn't always a good idea.

p.s. She was a VERY brave girl!

Check back tomorrow to see if I actually make it to post #2!

Shall thirst again...John 4:13

2010-05-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

G is almost 19 months old now. He still isn't inclined to speak other than a few choice words. I call it "Fifth Child Syndrome." Another friend has referred to it as "Little Prince Syndrome." Why speak when so many people will do or get whatever you want in answer to a point or a grunt?

S has been consistent with using some sign language with G, and G uses those signs quite frequently...sort of. The sign for water is 3 fingers touched to the lip or cheek. However, whenever G wants water, he smacks himself upside the head. It reminds me of the old "could've had a V8" commercials. He doesn't do it only when he wants someone else to get him water. Sometimes he will be sitting by himself on the couch looking at a book. He'll smack himself on the head, look around, spy his sippy cup on the floor, and get down to get himself a drink. I think that is just his way of talking to himself!

Here is a short video M took the other night while we were waiting for The Man to run an errand in the hospital. S is egging him on to try to get him to "say" water, hence all the giggles.

He will also make the sign when he wants to wash his hands or when he sees a lot of water, like at a water fall. Those times he will smack his head with BOTH hands.

****
Everything else is going ok, just busy! I'll try to post a pregnancy update later.

Sixteen years old...2 Kings 15:2

2010-04-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad it is Friday, but I don't get to wind down yet. Today is M's 16th birthday!

Happy Birthday, M!

I asked what kind of cake he wanted and he replied that he didn't care. I interpreted that as him saying, "I don't care as long as I don't have to make it." You'll be happy to know that I actually made it the other night and the layers are in the freezer. I'll pull them out in a bit and make the frosting so it will be all ready for lunch. He has requested curried rice and veggies.

Tomorrow is the monthly potluck at church at which Sacagawea likes having her birthday cake. This year we are doing M@rtha Stew@rt-inspired butterfly cupcakes. They'll fall somewhere between these and these. Maybe. The comments on MS said to dip the pretzels to keep them from being soggy if made the day before. Yesterday at the grocery store I looked at the bag of pretzels and the bag of melting chocolate. Then I looked at the yogurt-covered pretzels in the bulk bin. Then I looked back at the bag of pretzels and the chocolate. Ha. That was an easy choice for a tired, pregnant woman to make. The bag of pretzels and chocolate were returned to the shelf and we're going with the ready-dipped pretzels. The actual strawberry cupcakes were made and stuck in the freezer a few days ago, so we'll decorate those this afternoon.

Although Sacagawea has put in the order for her cake on Monday, her actual 8th birthday, we'll see how much cake we still have around the house at that point.

And for the geeks out there like me...next Thursday M will be exactly twice as old as Sacagawea. She's catching up with him!

It was infinite...Nahum 3:9

2010-03-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

It has been a few years since we began celebrating Pi Day...hey, any reason to celebrate is good!

This morning got off to a slow start due to the dreaded springing forward of the time (Boo! Hiss!). Since I didn't have to endure it growing up in Indiana, I grudgingly reset the clocks two times a year now. Please, someone, make it stop!

After lunch, some friends came over and took all the boys up on the hill across from our house to do a bit of rock climbing while Sacagawea and I went up to the city to attend a school play. When we got home, the climbers still hadn't returned, so we quickly made a blackberry pi/e. It was done by the time we all finished supper. It was yummy with some homemade coconut milk ice cream!

We ended Pi Day by singing hymns 314, 159, and 265 for our evening worship. Yes, we are geeks!

Eat and be full...Deuteronomy 11:15

2010-03-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

The Man was quite shocked to see me standing in the kitchen making 4 different recipes on Wednesday. He was used to coming home and finding me on the couch the past few weeks, as I haven't been feeling too well. I suddenly got a burst of energy and a craving for a lot of different foods, so I managed to fill the freezer. I hope to be able to eat some of it, but everything has smelled and tasted funny to me lately.

More often than not, our recipes have been leaning towards gluten-free since both G and J are on a gf diet now. I wanted something else. I wanted bread, homemade gluten, and gluten roast. Those are divided up and in the freezer for when I want a bit of gluten for my meal. I also made some gf oat burgers for J (G is allergic to oats) to have when the others are eating garden burgers.

I think The Man is glad I can make my own food again. He was trying to cater to me, but between the time I would request some food and he actually brought it to me, I would sometimes change my mind. Fortunately, he's dealt with that a few times before, so he didn't take it too personally.

Today The Man brought home a little machine from the office and we got to hear the whoosh-whoosh-whoosh of our newest family member. He (if G gets a baby brother) or she (if Sacagawea gets a baby sister) should be here around the beginning of October. We are so blessed!

Beast of the field...Genesis 2:20

2010-02-25T20:30:00.001-08:00

Can you stand two posts in one day? Since all of the kids just went to bed, I have a moment to report some very sad news. Just before S got in bed he checked on Gerald the Gerbil and found that he died sometime today. Tomorrow morning we'll have a nice burial for him out in the field where he belongs. The little rodent will be missed by most of us. G never was too keen on watching him roll around the living room in his ball.

We've only had him a little over a year, and most sites say the lifespan is 2-4 years. However, the lifespan can be decreased by obesity caused by a diet high in sunflower seeds. Yep, that was Gerald's favorite part of the food dish. Also, gerbils kept alone don't typically live as long. Maybe next time we'll get 2 gerbils. Did I say that out loud?

Faith comes by hearing...Romans 10:17

2010-02-25T18:04:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to let you know about a fun resource we came across. Faith Comes by Hearing has hundreds of audio Bibles for free download or online listening. They have several English versions from KJV to dramatized versions (and M did laugh quite a bit at the wise men's accents). Almost any language we could think of was there. Russian? Yes. Burmese? Yes. Especially for the Dr. Rabbit fans, there is also Karen. If you are interested in developing an ear for a certain language, this is great since you can easily follow along in English.

*****
Since today marks not only G's 16th month, but also my nephew O's 4th birthday, I'll take this opportunity to say Happy Birthday to the boys! They both keep getting more and more handsome.

Family...Esther 9:28

2010-01-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

Thought I should do a quick update of our family. We've been crazy-busy...really. You probably wouldn't believe half the stuff I could tell you, so I'll just hit the believable items.

G will be 15 months tomorrow. He is continuing to grow and develop as he ought. He's not saying many words except "Hot!" (complete with the spread-legged stance with outstretched arm toward the word stove), "dog," and the sign for "milk." He definitely understands what we say and can follow simple commands. He loves playing with Benjamin and Rachel, the dolls formerly known as Shue and Da, and all of Sacagawea's play dishes. She thinks that G is almost as good as a baby sister since he likes playing with all her stuff.

Sacagawea is my eager learner. She is days ahead and her school work. She is already planning the type of cake she wants for her birthday in April.

S celebrated Gerald's belated-birthday last week. Yep. Crazy stuff around here. He enjoys talking to relatives on the webcam. He is always checking to see who is available for him to call, and trying to do the math to figure out what time it is in their time zone.

J keeps checking the thermometer to tell us how many tenths of a degree the temperature is falling. He is hoping the intermittent snow and rain we're having this morning changes to just snow and we'll get some of that 20-40" of snow that we were promised by the weatherman last week.

M is continuing to improve his driving skills. I'm eager for him to be able to drive without me putting a death grip on the passenger door handle. I'm contemplating how much it would cost for us to have brakes installed on the passenger side of the van, especially since we'll have to do this a few more times after M. Speaking of the van, we are one of those families now. Yes, it is white (most of the time).

We just started another Depression Recovery Seminar at church. Another health series is due to start immediately after that.

That's about it for the believable stuff! Give us a call if you need to know the rest! I will make an effort to update here more often. Since I've gotten out of the daily/weekly habit, it's been hard to discipline myself to jump back in regularly.

O forest and every tree...Isaiah 44:23

2009-12-15T11:50:00.000-08:00

We had another busy day last Sunday! We left the house at 8 am to drive down some roads and up to the mountains. Then, we found this road...
No tire tracks! Since it had been a day or two since the last snow, we knew we were the only ones up in these mountains. At least the only humans...
Baby bear tracks!
We also saw tracks from fox, gray squirrel, mouse, and deer.

What a beautiful morning with the sunshine above the fog...
We finally found the area The Man remembered finding a tree before, and we walked up the hill to look around. This is it!
I went back down to get a not-sleeping-anymore-G from the vehicle. We took this picture. I feel like I should reveal the epiphany I received, but, it is just a picture.
The kids enjoyed a few rides while The Man loaded the tree.
The drive down the mountain was a bit more slippery, so we (The Man) stopped to install some chains.
(Think of that as an artistic photo and not that I was too lazy and cold to roll down the window and turn around to take the pic. OK? Thanks.) Yes, he is just wearing a t-shirt. He shed the other layers because I had the heat cranked up all the way because I was cold.

The Dog also enjoyed the morning. (Again, artistic photo.)

We got home, changed clothes, changed tires (The Man put the studded tires on the van), and loaded the family for a trip over the other mountains to M's piano recital (video on Faceb*ok or you can email me for a Y*uTube link).

Back home again to put up the tree and decorate. We've been having camera and internet issues, so I didn't get around to taking this picture until just now.
Wow, that picture really makes it look sad! It does look better in the evening with lights on and star straight, and maybe it could use a bit more popcorn, but it is what it is. I'm just thrilled that it isn't too tall or too wide!

The train sets were given to the kids 1 1/2 years ago by a church member a few weeks before he died of cancer. Last summer I packed them away and told the kids that instead of sitting on their shelves collecting dust, we would get them out and set them up at Christmas. The big and little kids had so much fun setting it all up around the tree. G definitely had that sparkle in his eyes--just like a kid at Christmas!

There are no breakable ornaments on the bottom part of the tree so it is G-friendly. He's not left alone in the room anyway because of the wood stove, but he does love the sparkly ornaments.

Merry Christmas to you all! We wish God's blessings on you through this season and throughout the new year.

Give thanks...Psalm 92:1

2009-11-15T19:17:00.000-08:00

"Mommy, is there a way I can cool this up?" inquired Sacagawea last Friday. Apparently the just-made almond milk was too warm for her. I told her that things are cooled down and warmed up.

"But it can be cool up in the mountains," explained M.

"And it can be warm down in the valley, " added J.

I have such helpful boys! They are such quick thinkers...someday I may appreciate it more!

Speaking of appreciation, Sacagawea handed me this note last Friday...

"You aer the best mommy teacher. I Love you."

We will work on spelling later.

Every bitter thing is sweet...Psalm 27:7

2009-10-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

All ready for church!

I know, it is pretty pathetic that this is only my 12th blog post of the year when last October I had 13 posts the entire month. What can I say? I'm a busy woman and I'd much rather spend my "spare" time staring at that wonderful face above than blogging! Ok, here is an October update on G with vain promises that I'll catch up on the other exciting stuff later...

This past week has been spent trying to find a suitable recipe to make a birthday cake for G. Yes, next Sunday the little guy has his birthday. It is not easy to find gluten-free, egg-free, soy-free, oat-free, nut-free, whatever-else-he's-allergic-to-free recipes. Then I complicate that matter by trying to find a recipe for (1) a cake that (2) sounds like it tastes like we would want to eat it, and (3) is made with ingredients I can actually buy. Ha! I have a bag of xanthan gum sitting in the refrigerator just waiting for the sorghum flour that is supposed to arrive with the co-op order tomorrow (that's something I never dreamed I would say). Then I can experiment some more with some interesting recipes I found on the 'net. Wheeeeee.

I tried this one on Sunday made with Ener-G Egg Replacer. It was sort of ok, but I'm not a huge fan of bittersweet chocolate. Personally, I would try semi-sweet chocolate if I made it again. I'm not sure if it would have been different with real eggs, but this was very dense, like fudge. I'll hang on to the recipe, but I don't think it will make the cut for G's birthday cake. I'm not sure I could properly stick a candle in it!

Speaking of bittersweet...part of me is sad my baby is growing up. I'm not quite done enjoying the baby stage! He is walking and running all over the house, climbing everywhere, and doing his best to keep up with the older kids. He loves "reading" his books just like the olders. I love that he is growing and developing as he should, but I do savor the times (now fewer) that he just snuggles in my arms and goes to sleep.

He is learning by example what to do and when. Within the past few weeks we realized that he is clasping his own hands together to pray before meals. Last Sunday I took him and Sacagawea with me to a women's brunch. When the prayer was said before the meal, he clasped his hands together and held them together for several minutes until I got my food and put some cut-up grapes on the tray. He knew the food would get there eventually!

He is a very good eater. He loves the food he is allowed to have.

Slurping up some spaghetti squash

He's not saying a lot of real words, but he does babble quite a bit. He says "this" whenever he picks up a new item. By his mannerisms and actions, I'm convinced he is asking, "What's this?" He definitely knows his own name.

I'm still processing the whole allergy situation. I'm slowly finding out enough to make me pray even harder that he outgrows it...soon! Bathing is a challenge. He loves the tub so much, but we limit his time in the water due to his sensitive skin.

Marks on his shoulders from scratching himself

Scratching those ankles!

I am so very thankful that despite his obvious discomfort at times, he truly is a happy baby with a wonderful disposition.

Belly laughs for Mama

Showing off all his teeth

He is a joy and we all feel so blessed to be a part of his family.

All 5 playing together with the Duplo blocks we got out for G.

Poison (again)...James 3:8

2009-09-19T23:22:00.000-07:00

I've started posts a few times to update y'all on school, but something always interrupts before I hit "Publish." The kids are all tucked in bed now and The Man is on his way home from the hospital with more meds for the Dog, so I have a few minutes now. What? More meds for the Dog? Yes. Again. Grrrr. Of course the vet is out of town, but we still know people. Hopefully the meds he brings home in addition to the stuff we've already given him that was left over from last year will fix him up soon.

School is going okay, I think. M is busy from the time he gets up in the morning until he goes to bed at night. At least it should keep him out of trouble. Those of you that know M personally know that he is the one least likely to get into trouble in the first place. He is doing a lot more this year and we're still not quite sure how all the classes will work out, but we'll keep going a week or two at a time.

J is in 7th this year. He decided he wanted to switch back to Saxon Math this year (from Teaching Textbooks) and is in Algebra 1/2 (pre-algebra). So far he is doing well, although the novelty of the new school year has definitely worn off now. You may read into that statement what you will, but that's all I'm saying about that.

S is in 4th grade. Fortunately he is still an eager learner and can pretty much direct himself with his work.

Sacagawea is enjoying 2nd grade, although she is realizing that it isn't as easy as 1st grade! She still has plenty of time to play with G.

G is into and onto everything. Crawling is still quicker than walking, but he loves to climb! We have to be careful to push the kitchen chairs back under the table all the way, or he climbs right on up.

I hear The Man driving back in, so I need to go help administer more meds!

Wild by nature...Romans 11:24

2009-08-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

Hi! Did you miss us? The past few weeks have been very full. Last weekend we were backpacking (I'm uploading pictures to Facebook right now). G turned 10 months old last week. Yesterday G decided to do more than move one foot and took an actual step. Today I noticed that his first top tooth is starting to push through to join the 2 he has on the bottom. There. Now G's babyblog has been updated!

Our summer is winding to a close. Tomorrow we are starting school! It was supposed to happen last Monday, but life wouldn't allow it. We're still waiting for some books to arrive, but we have enough to start.

We've spent the last two weeks sorting out a schedule for M (10th grade). We've settled on a tentative schedule that we'll try for 2 weeks. After that, parents and student may feel the need to adjust some things.

I spent 2 hours this afternoon making sure everything was in order for the other 3 school-aged children. It wasn't, but a quick on-line order took care of that. If only all our problems could be solved so easily.

We're praying for a very non-eventful first day of school. I'm sure you'll hear about it if it's not.

Just a few pictures of our summer...

This is The Man helping me remove a garter snake from a canning jar. I happened to be carrying the empty jar into the house when the snake was discovered in the grass. I caught it myself. Yes, I did. I really did. I even held it. I don't know why I did such a thing, but I think that I might have enjoyed it.
Sacagawea picked up this preying mantis while she was playing outside.
The Man and J built this raft while they were on a special father-son backpacking trip in July.
G loves books just as much as his siblings. This is M reading G one of M's very favorite books (ok, it was his favorite a dozen years ago)...

"No more pictures, Mom! I want to go to bed!"
Good night!

Began to make excuse...Luke 14:18

2009-08-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

I almost stole my last post title for this one...we have been busy...but four months? Yes, it has been nearly four months since my last post. Dreadful. Terrible. I am ashamed. I am so, so, so sorry. Please forgive me.

I really don't have any good excuses, other than my limited computer time has been spent over on Facebook. Most of that is while I'm feeding G, so I really can't type a blog post. I should be doing something else right now, so I'm just going to give really quick updates. Ready?

G: The sweetest baby. Really. He is so intense, and smart, also. No, I'm not biased a bit. Since I've last posted, he started rolling, crawling, got his 2 bottom teeth, standing on his own, and any day now he will start walking. Whew.

We are still waiting for the remainder of his second round of blood tests we had done for allergy testing. He's had a rash for several months, and after ruling out all other factors, we had the blood testing. It turns out he is allergic to a lot of the things that I eat. So, until he quits using me for his main source of nutrition, I'm not eating: soy, wheat, gluten, oats, eggs, cashews, almonds, and peanuts. That's a small list, but I quickly discovered that those items are in almost everything I (used to) eat.

I can have rice, corn, apples, oranges, potatoes, tomatoes, yeast, and cow's milk (although I'm slightly allergic to that!), and black beans. We just found out today about the black beans and we are still waiting for the results for other beans, seeds, and nuts.

Sacajawea has lost her two front teeth and has them mostly grown back in now. She has taken up crochet and will be happy to make a hat for you if you send her the size of your head. Color and style will be her choice!

S is thrilled that we actually TOLD him to dig in the front yard. We've spent the last 6 years telling him not to dig in the yard since he has 50+ other acres in which to dig! He helped dig out around some pipes that needed replacing. He also got braces in April.

J's mouth is now metal-free (for now), including his retainer, since some other teeth grew in. We'll re-evaluate his situation in six months.

The biggest news of our summer is that J made the decision to be baptized. The Man baptized him in the same pond in which M was baptized on July 11 surrounded by friends and family. It was a very special day as G was dedicated the same day.

M is growing taller. He's still working doing lawn care for the same place he worked last summer. I can't believe he'll be in 10th grade this year. We are in the midst of ordering all of our books for the new school year.

The Dog is now living outside. He got sent to the back porch when I was painting the inside of the house. Since then, G's blood test also showed he was allergic to dogs, so...sorry, Dog!

We're in the middle of Financial Peace University at our church. The county fair starts next week and our church will once again have a booth there.

I really hope to get photos up of our summer, but the battery in my camera is dead right now. Hope you all have had a good summer, thanks for being patient waiting for an update from us!

Busy here and there...I Kings 20:40

2009-04-09T00:16:00.000-07:00

As busy as a beaver. That's us! Only 15 minutes into April 9 and I've already learned my "new thing" for the day. I finally had the urge to figure out how to get a picture off my cell phone and on to the computer. This is a picture of Sacagawea examining a beaver fall at the nature center last week. Beavers are such industrious critters. I bet they wouldn't wait until a week before the deadline to start on their taxes. I just ~~finished~~ got ours "done enough" to drop them off at the CPA's tomorrow for review. I still need to round up a few more receipts and verify a few of the numbers. I'm seriously contemplating filing an extension for the very first time. I simply have too many other things to do during the next week.

~~Tomorrow~~Today is M's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, M!!!) and we are going here after S's ortho appointment. Sunday is Sacagawea's birthday. Monday we go up to the big city for M's music lessons (we were just there ~~today~~ yesterday) and I really don't know what is happening after that. Hmmm.

And then there is this blog which I've been rather neglectful of lately. I've sooo much to update here. Since my tax returns are printing, I think I'll go to bed. Only a few more hours until I need to get up to restart my day!

*If anyone can tell me the trick to get my cell phone's memory card out of the USB adapter, I'd be grateful. It doesn't want to slide out as easily as it slid in.

To every thing there is a season...Ecclesiates 3:1

2009-03-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

We're busily getting ready for The Man, M and J to leave for a church mission project in Chile. This is the first time the boys will have used their passports for international travel, and they sure are excited. M bought a camera yesterday so they will bring back lots of pictures.

Out of all the exciting things they could be excited about, the conversation yesterday was all about the seasons. It will be winter when they leave here. They will arrive in Chile (in the southern hemisphere) in the summer. A few days later it will become fall, and then when they fly back here it will be spring. They will experience all four seasons in a span of 2 weeks. It doesn't take much to excite homeschoolers!

Fourth month...2 Chronicles 27:7

2009-02-26T08:36:00.000-08:00

Picture taken 2/6/09

G turned four months old yesterday! He weighs about 13 pounds and is 25 inches long. We all enjoy hearing his belly laughs. On the rare occasions that nobody is holding him, he rolls easily from front to back. He will roll from his back to his side, but his cries of frustration usually bring someone to scoop him up at that point. He enjoys sticking his little puppy dog teether in his mouth and he loves looking at board books. He even turns the pages by himself (so says big sister). Night feedings are anywhere from 3-6 hours apart, but he immediately goes back to sleep in his own little bed.

I haven't been on the computer much the past few weeks which is why I haven't been blogging. I do have several things to blog about: bobcat, fender bender, yet another new pet, rope, ShareHim meetings we're right in the middle of, and much more. Maybe I'll have time to catch up on postings when The Man, M, and J go to Chile next month.

Melt with fervent heat...2 Peter 3:10

2009-02-06T21:10:00.000-08:00

Hmmm...what shall I blog about? How about recent conversations heard in our house?

Sacagewea asked, "Can rocks melt?"

I replied, "Yes."

M added, "All the elements will melt with a fervent heat."

J said to Sacagewea, "Even you would melt if there was no oxygen and it got hot enough."

M concluded, "If there was no oxygen, melting would not be our biggest concern."

Nope, not much to blog about.

Happy is he...Psalm 146:5

2009-01-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

G is 12 weeks old now and weighs just over 11 pounds. If Mom or Dad is busy, he has 4 older siblings to care for every need...whether it be a clean diaper, a burp, or simply a shoulder upon which to fall asleep.

He even gets daily private concerts. Here he is with M practicing the left hand part of Bach's Invention No. 4 in d minor.
G enjoys the violin also, except he doesn't get held during those concerts.

I shall be safe...Psalm 119:117

2009-01-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

S bought an add-on for the gerbil cage and an exercise ball for Gerald when we were up in the big city yesterday.
We thought this was the safest way to introduce Gerald to The Dog since The Dog likes disposing of Gerald's distant cousins. The Dog sniffed around the ball for a bit then he tried to pounce on it.
We think it is best if Gerald's future exercise sessions take place while The Dog is outside. Gerald agrees!

Change...Leviticus 27:33

2009-01-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

I don't think this revelation is truly blogworthy, but some folks seemed rather surprised by it, so here goes. G is now wearing cloth diapers. M wore them when he was a baby whenever we were at home. J, S and A wore them occasionally, mostly when the disposable stash was getting low and it didn't look like we would be able to make it to the store.
Since the nearest place to buy diapers is over the mountain (which isn't too far except in a snow storm), I decided that G would predominantly be in cloth diapers. I'm not a glutton for punishment, so I decided to wait until now when all of our holiday travels were over. Also, since the diaper bag stays in the vehicle for the most part, we'll do disposables when we venture out.

I still have all the cloth diapers I used with M and the others, so the only thing I needed was a few covers to replace some of the ones I had. Time isn't kind to elastic. I'm also using disposable at night until we get the new covers. Our old ones aren't reliable enough for long-term use.

I ordered this product * late Tuesday afternoon. I threw in another item so I would qualify for free shipping. Wow. It was sitting on my table Wednesday evening. That is blogworthy considering where we live. I don't think we have ever had a package delivered the next day without paying massive shipping charges. It took The Man less than five minutes to install it on our toilet. Why didn't they have these things when M was a baby? Please don't tell me they did and I just didn't know about it. I'll cry. No more dunking diapers for me!

G hasn't complained a bit about the switch to cloth. I think they make him look like a Weeble.

*This wasn't meant to be a commercial, but I do have a code that can save you $10 off any purchase of $49 or more. E mail me for details if you're interested.

Beast of the field...Genesis 2:20

2009-01-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

I'll go ahead and state the obvious, just to get it out of the way.

I'm crazy.

There. I said it.

S has had birthday and Christmas money burning a hole in his pocket. A few weeks ago he announced that he wanted a new pet. At the library he checked out books on hamsters and turtles. Hamsters? As in, rodents? No way. I had been there and done that.

The Man and I have been up in the middle of the night trying to catch an escaped white mouse (who had been given to M) before it found one of the mouse traps intended for wild mice who found their way inside our house. In that same house, I clubbed a stunned rat to death so it wouldn't crawl off and die in the wall. Actually paying money for a rodent to live in a house with us? That would be wrong. Very wrong. Rodents need to live outside in the fields.

Thus, I tried steering S away from the hamsters and encouraged the turtle. After all, we still had the fish aquarium where Tails and Scales lived. We did a bit of research on prices and concluded that he had enough money for the turtle, heater, and other supplies he would need. He also stated he was willing to commit to this particular pet for the next 50 years, should it live that long.

Yesterday while we were up in the city for M's music lessons we stopped at the pet supply store. It was then that we discovered that the pet supply store was actually an empty building. Poor S. He had his heart set on bringing home a turtle. I hadn't planned on making a trip up to the big city yesterday, but we went anyway.

Since G was sleeping, just S and I went into Petsmart. We found the reptiles. Eek. The cheapest turtle was $99, and the other one was $199. That was a lot more than he had available. Hmmm...the rodents were a lot cheaper. J came in at that point and said G had woken up. I went out to the van to feed G and sent M and Sacagawea in to stay with J and S and look at the rodents.

I suggested that S name his new gerbil Turtle. The kids thought that was one of the silliest things they had ever heard. S chose Gerald.
S thinks he looks like the best pet ever. Notice the soap dish in the background. I thought it was prudent for them to be acquainted in the bathroom just in case Gerald decided to try to escape.

Gerald slept at the top of the cage last night. This morning he has explored around the rest of the cage and now seems right at home. Since S had so much money left over, he is already planning which add-ons for the cage he'll buy on the next trip to the big city.

I wait all the day...Psalm 25:5

2008-12-31T17:10:00.000-08:00

Hello! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We went to New York for Christmas. We are home now.

Here is the long saga:

On the afternoon of December 22, while I was busy with last-minute packing, S came and told me that Sacagawea had just gotten sick all over the couch. Packing ceased while I simultaneously took the slipcover off the couch and threw it into the washing machine, put Sacagawea in the tub for a scrubbing and hair-washing, and gave orders for everyone to take a dose of charcoal.

After The Man came home from work, we loaded up the van and set out for the airport 4 hours away. We even packed a bucket for Sacagawea to use in case she needed it. She did.

Our flight wasn't until 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, but with unpredictable weather, we wanted to get over the local mountain passes while they were still passable without chains. We arrived at a rest area just north of the airport about 1 a.m. After a few hours of fitful sleep at the rest area, we went to the airport. S got out of the van and threw up. After careful questioning it was determined that he was the only one that didn't get a dose of charcoal. Fortunately, there was no more throwing up after that.

We were kept on the ground for awhile due to extreme weather conditions in Chicago. We had nearly a 2-hour scheduled layover there so I wasn't concerned. G enjoyed his first flight.
When we arrived at Chicago O'Hare we discovered that our flight to New York was one of the hundreds that had been canceled. Canceled...as in, it's not happening. Deep breath. Ok, I'd done this before. We could handle it.

I approached a lady at a counter and asked her to point me in the direction of where to go. She did and we all set off to stand in a looooong line. A few minutes later the same lady came by and took me out of line to a kiosk where she entered our information to get us waitlisted for the next flight. I went back to where The Man and children were in line. Soon another lady came and told me that I was welcome to sit on bench behind the information booth with some of the children while The Man was in line. That was wonderful.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much that could be worked out for us, so we made our way to the terminal and gate of the next flight, and the next, and the next, and the next. By 1 a.m. the next morning we had actual tickets for Christmas morning and we were on the waitlist for the 6 a.m. flight Christmas Eve.

The most frustrating thing about our experience was not knowing until right before the doors closed after boarding whether or not we could get on the plane. We literally had to be ready with coats on and carry-on luggage ready by the door for each and every flight. It was tiring for all of us except G. G didn't get put down the entire time we were at the airport. We had tried to gate-check his carseat, but the agent said we couldn't. It was checked all the way to New York.

M used his "free time" well. While waiting for the 11 p.m. flight, which didn't leave until after midnight, he got out his violin. J was enlisted to hold the hymn book, and M played Christmas carols for the fellow passengers that were waiting.
Considering it was after 10 p.m. at night, I was impressed that other passengers appreciated his playing to the tune of $28.84 tossed into his violin case. J was excited that M gave him $5 for holding the book.

After the flight left after midnight, the terminal quieted down. I took G to the bathroom for a bath. The kids stretched out on the seats to sleep and The Man and I took turns staying awake.

About 4 a.m. we roused the children and made our way to the terminal of the 6 a.m. flight. At that point I had the brilliant idea of getting a cart on which to put all of carry-on luggage. It was the best $1 we spent at the airport.

We didn't make that flight, although we were offered 4 seats. Nor did we get on the next flight. When we arrived at the gate for the 2:30 p.m. flight (24 hours after we were supposed to leave), the agent pulled us aside and told us there would be some folks that wouldn't make the flight due to misconnects. Chances were good that we would all make it on the next flight, but we should be willing to split up if only 4 seats were available. Ugh. There were only 4 confirmed seats available, but there were also 2 other seats availble at the end of boarding, so we all left O'Hare together. Sort of.

After we were in the air, it occured to me that I knew The Man was on board, I knew Sacagawea and G were on board, and I was pretty certain I saw the other boys go down the jetway, but I had no idea where the other boys were sitting. Between sleep deprivation and the last-second boarding, I can easily see how those "Child Left at Airport" headlines occur. The Man later assured me that he knew we were all on board before we left the gate. Whew.

We finally made it to New York! However, all of those "Don't you dare ask us about your luggage because it is already at your final destination" (I'm paraphrasing) recorded annoucements that were played over and over and over and over and over again at O'Hare were not true! So, after waiting around for the bag lady (heh) to go borrow some car seats from another airline because all of theirs were nasty (her words) and giving the address where our luggage could be delivered the next day, we were out of the airport.

I missed supper because I fell asleep on the couch while feeding G. The rest of the week was wonderful, but kind of a blur. I didn't feel like I was caught up on my sleep until we were ready to go home.

The kids loved meeting some of their cousins for the first time and had lots of fun playing. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but you can find some here. Sacagawea especially enjoyed playing with Play-do. Grandma gave them some tin pie plates and they made many pied pies.

Sacagawea was also introduced to the American Girl catalog. The girls brought me a sheet of paper with a bunch of numbers carefully printed on it. "These are the item numbers of what Sacagawea wants. And those numbers are the ones you have to dial to order."

Yesterday we got up early and were back at the airport along with a goodie bags full of food so we wouldn't have to pay exorbinate airport prices and tissues for our headcolds (THANK YOU!). Uneventful. Wonderful!

When we got to our gate in Chicago the agents were begging people to take a later flight in exchange for free tickets. I was told that they had overbooked the flight by 34 seats! They were offering first class tickets on a later flight. No thanks. We weren't the least bit interested. Any other time and it might have been tempting, but we all wanted to get out of O'Hare as quickly as possible.

The next flight was ok, except the altitude changes coupled with my cold did a number on my ears. I wasn't able to hear properly again until we were driving up in the mountains near home.

We made it home just after 7 p.m. last night. I still have a cold. Most of the luggage has been unpacked and I need to go fold some laundry.

We hope you all have a wonderful New Year! Given our year of flights, we aren't planning on traveling through Chicago O'Hare next year!

A horse...1 Kings 10:29

2008-12-11T09:08:00.000-08:00

Many things have been added to our daily lives that weren't on the agenda. There haven't been enough hours in the day to do everything we have wanted to do...never mind all the stuff that we didn't want to do.

I've been reminded by more than one person that I need to get started on our Christmas letter. Is it December already? I suppose it is. I was contemplating what kind of photo we would include in our letter this year. Peaches the Wonder Horse has been an integral part of our Christmas photos since she joined our family over 3 years ago.

Christmas 2005

Unfortunately, Peaches won't join in on the picture this year. On Monday afternoon M found her on her side by the barn. She tried valiantly to get up, but her old stiff legs wouldn't cooperate. She was bleeding a bit from her mouth where she had broken some of her front teeth (probably in her fall). We already knew that she was close to 30 and probably wouldn't make it through the winter, but still, we weren't quite prepared to deal with situation.

I called The Man at work and asked him to make the call to the vet. Guess what? Our vet was out of town. The vet that was filling in for him was also out of town. Rather than having a vet come over from the city, the Man decided he would do the deed himself. So, after a day of trying to help people get better, The Man came home and spent another half-hour saying good-bye to Peaches while trying to see if there was any way we could help her to comfortably live longer. There wasn't.

We all shed some tears for the dear, faithful, patient horse. We feel privileged that we were able to own her the past few years. She will be missed!

News...Proverbs 25:25

2008-11-18T10:11:00.000-08:00

We are doing fine, but we all haven't quite mastered the art of multitasking. Between feedings, diaper changes, and much needed rest periods, blogging hasn't been a priority.

At one week, G's weight was back up to 7 lbs., 8 ozs. At two weeks he was 7 lbs., 14 ozs., and last Saturday he weighed 8 lbs. 4 ozs. We did take him to the hospital a week ago on Sunday to have his bilirubin checked. It was over 15 with the scan and blood test. Very high, but not high enough to start treatment. His color has improved tremendously. I may stop by and have him scanned again today while we are up in the city just to see how far it has come down. (The preceding paragraph is more for my own information than yours...this may the closest thing G will have for a baby book!)

Night times are pretty good with G usually going down between 10-11 and waking up at 2-3 a.m. and again at 5-6. Last night he went down at about 11 and didn't wake up until 5:30.

This is a photo I took this morning of S and G. Obviously some of us are learning to multitask...
G is awake again and wanting to eat. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas (just in case I don't get back here before then!) and a Happy New Year!

A cake...Numbers 15:20

2008-11-06T13:09:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, S!

He's nine years old today! We won't be celebrating until tomorrow and the weekend. He still hasn't figured out exactly what kind of cake he wants. His last suggestion was a 2-layer strawberry and chocolate cake with "I Am 9" written on it. He better make up his mind soon!

That shall reign over you...1 Samuel 8:11

2008-11-04T13:04:00.000-08:00

The kids and I went to the polls this morning. Don't worry, ACORN hasn't corrupted our little valley. All the kids got stickers just for showing up with me. [For those that are concerned, G's sticker was on him just long enough for the picture.] They have "voted" in every election since they've been born. Here is an Electoral College map for the young ones to color.

I wasn't thrilled with any of the choices, but since The Man's campaign never got off the ground, I had to go with what was there. I am glad that election day is finally here, and I pray that we are all able to survive the next four years, no matter who takes office.

The Man won't be able to go to the polls until he gets off of work this afternoon. He starts a new job today. Yes, another one! Hopefully this will allow him to cut back or discontinue his overnight/weekend work in the ER.

Last night was a good night for G (and for me). I think the time change helped us out a bit. He went to bed about 10:30 p.m. and didn't wake up again until about 3:00. After eating and going back to sleep, he slept until about 8:00 this morning. He's been either eating or awake most of the morning and just now went down for a nap. I hope we finally have his days and nights switched around to where they should be.

For I know...Jeremiah 29:11

2008-11-04T10:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday I caught up with The Man again in age. I didn't take a picture of my birthday cake. See the previous post, imagine about half the cake gone, and then you'll have a pretty good idea what my cake looked like!

Yesterday also marked the 20th anniversary of the day I first remember meeting The Man. He claims he met me several weeks prior, but since I don't remember, I don't think it counts. After several rounds of "If I had told you that day that 20 years later we would..." it was agreed that it was probably a good thing that our future wasn't all revealed to us at that point!

Face to face...1 Corinthians 13:12

2008-11-02T19:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to The Man!

I pulled out his baby pictures. Does this one above look familiar? It looks almost exactly like this one of Baby G that I posted last week.
G's cheeks are chubbier. If I'm not careful, they just might fall off from being kissed so much.

S and Sacagawea made The Man a birthday cake. They decorated it all by themselves. We didn't have enough candles so they improvised with 3 on one side and 8 on the other.

And his son...Judges 6:11

2008-10-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

For those that didn't see The Man's comment on Friday's update...
It is a boy! We are all thrilled. Baby G was born on his due date, Saturday, October 25, at 9:57 a.m. (my apologies to those I have told the wrong time...blame sleep deprivation). He was 7 lbs., 9.8 ozs., and 19 1/2" long. We praise the Lord for this perfectly healthy baby and his safe arrival.

Some of you may wish to just skip ahead and look at the pictures. If you are the sort to want to know all the labor details, read on.

On Friday evening the contractions started back up much more seriously. By 10:00 p.m. The Man and I were loading up the rest of our stuff and were on the way to the hospital. By 11:00 I was hooked up to the monitors. The first contraction showed the baby's heart rate went way down following the contraction. It took a minute for it to come back up. I wasn't too concerned, but the nurse was. She made me lie down, put oxygen on me and called the doctor. The doctor came and observed a few contractions and said that everything looked just fine.

I was let off the monitor and given permission to move about as I pleased. The Man inflated and filled the pool that we brought. The hospital does have a physical therapy tub that the women can use during labor, but it is down the hall from the OB department. I received permission from my doctor and the nursing staff to bring my own pool to have in my room so I wouldn't have to be traipsing up and down the hallway while in labor. A few hours later I got in the pool and was able to doze for a while.

About 6:00 a.m. my doctor checked and said I was only 3.5-4 cm. The contractions had lessened considerably. She offered to let me go home or give me Cytotech to stimulate the labor. I wasn't excited about either of those options. Actually, since I hadn't had any real sleep since 2:30 Friday morning, I wasn't very excited about anything at that point.

After discussing it with The Man, I decided that I wanted to go the route that I did when A's labor stalled. I asked to have my water broken.

About 6:40, my doctor broke my water and put me back on the monitor. It didn't take long for the contractions to pick back up. I was 4.5 cm. when I was let off the monitor and I got back in the water.

After an hour they wanted to monitor me again. The contractions were very intense at that point. I asked The Man to get me a basin in case I needed to throw up. I did. I was somewhat surprised since I'd never gotten sick during my previous labors.

About 8:30 when they got me out of the water to monitor me again, I was about 6.5 cm. The doctor only monitored me through one contraction. I got sick again during that contraction so she let me get back in the pool right away, telling The Man to be sure and get her when I had the urge to push so she could get me out of the water and check me. She had already told me that we couldn't do a water birth!

The contractions got very intense even while I was the pool. I was beginning to wonder why I wasn't handling this labor as well as I had my previous labors. The contractions started coming fast and furious and I wasn't having very much fun!

Then I told The Man that I did need to push. He went out to the nurse's station to get the doctor. They came back in the room and she started to check my dilation, but noticed the baby was crowning. She told me to go ahead and push (which I was already doing), and during that one contraction, Baby G was born.

I held him for a minute while the nurse suctioned him and the cord was clamped and cut. It was then that we noticed the approximately 2 1/2 ft. cord had a true knot. That must have happened during his late night gymnastics last summer.

We got out of the pool, and the rest of the day was rather pleasant. He had a bit of bruising on his face due to his very rapid entrance, but there wasn't time for any head molding. He has dark hair, unlike his siblings who were all bald or blond.
First official bath at 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning...
At home Sunday night...
He reminds me the most of J. I need to pull out all the kids' baby pictures and compare.
We've had many "discussions" today about whose turn it is to hold him. I usually win. He likes to cuddle, eat, and sleep.
The Man is taking the week off from work. We're all going to try to get some rest now!

Ready...Genesis 18:6

2008-10-24T16:38:00.001-07:00

This post is dedicated to the lady that has checked my blog no less than EIGHT times today. Just what were you doing up at 4:30 this morning? I know that I was having contractions. Not huge big ones, but enough to move me beyond 3 cm.

I made up a list of all the stuff the kids were supposed to do today in case I wasn't here. Even though I was here, I just had them follow the list anyway. The house is now fairly well picked up, school work is done, and the kids are enjoying a video before supper. Now I need to make another list of what they are to do tomorrow in case we aren't here.

I do think it will happen tonight. Just because.

P.S. I just realized that this month I've had more blog posts than any other in the history of this blog. Of course most of them were to simply inform you of a non-event. :-)

The same things...Acts 15:27

2008-10-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

I had my visit with the FNP yesterday. She is as anxious for me to have the baby as my doctor is. After assuring her that I am patient enough to wait until my due date (although I wouldn't be upset if baby decided to come early) or beyond, I made an appointment with my OB for next Wednesday. Although I fully expect to cancel that appointment, if I do make it there, we will discuss other options at that time since nobody likes to let pregnant ladies go beyond 41 weeks these days.

So, one way or another, I will have this baby by a week from tomorrow. Aren't you all glad that there is a definite end in sight? The FNP said I'm at least 3 cm. now, so progress is happening. I fully expect the baby to arrive Saturday on the due date. I think The Man is making sure that it happens then since, as far as I am aware, he hasn't lined up anyone to preach for him that day!

Sacagawea lost one of her front top teeth the other day. She had been wanting it out for quite a while since it was so hard for her to eat with the wiggly tooth there. We had wondered if her tooth or my baby would come out first. She won! I think she would have preferred for me to win that one.

P.S. The Man says he doesn't see a need to post an entire blog post when the baby comes, but he will leave a comment in my most recent post if need be.

In due season...Galatians 6:9

2008-10-21T11:14:00.000-07:00

It was a long and tiring day yesterday, but now my pantry is stocked, my refrigerators are full, and we don't have to take M to another music lesson until next Wednesday! I slept like a log last night and didn't get up until about 8 this morning. Whew!

Less than 24 hours after posting an update you folks started bugging me for another. I do have a life, you know! ;) I seem to be the only one not concerned that I haven't had this baby yet. It isn't even my due date!

With M (for those of you that are just itching for a birth story, click on links), based on dates and an early ultrasound, I was given due dates of either April 8 or 10. I went into labor on the evening of the 8th and he was born on the evening of the 9th (Saturday).

J ~ I was given a due date of May 30 based on dates. A few months later the sizes weren't matching up so an ultrasound was scheduled. Based on that ultrasound, I was given an approximate due date of June 25. My water broke on the afternoon of June 21 and I went into labor the morning of the 22nd. J was born about 6 hours later (Sunday).

S ~ based on dates I was given a due date of November 10. The ultrasound wasn't too far off, so the original due date was kept. He arrived on the morning of the 6th (Saturday).

A ~ due date of April 12, which was when she arrived (Friday).

Although a few of them arrived prior to their official due dates, none of them have gone past. With the exception of Sacagawea who arrived on her due date, the others were born on the weekend. Since my due date falls on this Saturday, I'm truly not going to get excited until then. If this one happens to arrive before then, great. If not, we'll deal with that concern the following Wednesday at my OB appointment. Yes, I am that patient! The baby will arrive exactly when he or she is good and ready!

Oh, by the way, my bags are packed and in the van. That is why you haven't seen any pictures lately. If I'm inclined to take some pictures, I have to get the camera out of the van, take the pictures, make sure the battery is charged, then return the camera to the van.

I still need to school The Man in the art of blogging. He should be able to find a computer somewhere in the hospital (if we don't take ours) to update y'all when the event occurs. Grandparents' phone numbers are in our cell phones so they will get official calls before a blog post!

Not yet...Genesis 15:16

2008-10-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

We did make it up to the hospital yesterday to see The Man's assistant's new baby. The attempted induction for a VBAC turned into an early morning c-section. Mom and 8 lb. baby boy are both doing well.

We went to visit the other man who had surgery on Friday, but were very surprised that he had already gone home!

This morning we are headed up to the big city for shopping and music lessons. There is a special group music lesson this afternoon that M's piano teacher wanted him to attend, so we switched days this week. We won't be back until after 7:00 tonight. A long, long day!

A friend...Proverbs 17:17

2008-10-19T06:23:00.000-07:00

Last night my 14-year old niece introduced me to Facebook. Over the past few months I have had some friends and family ask me if I had an account, so I thought I'd go ahead and give it a go.

I don't have time to randomly guess which people I know have accounts, so if you do, and you'd like to add us as a friend...

Our first name: Tree
Our last name: River
Clever, huh?

I may even put some actual pictures over there.

(This is my sneaky way of saying I didn't have the baby last night without posting a pregnancy update!)

Reasons...Job 32:11

2008-10-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

I know some funny people. Last Wednesday night I was awake for quite awhile with some pretty heavy contractions. I told The Man that if the baby was going to come early it would be on Wednesday night due to my somewhat strenuous excursion to the big city on Wednesday. Nope. Nothing significant happened.

On Thursday afternoon a friend stopped by with a newer infant car seat for us. She said she had prayed the night before that I wouldn't have my baby yet because the cover she had washed was still air drying. Ahhh. So that's why baby didn't come!

Today I see that Ann has been hoping that baby news waits on her keyboard!

Carseat? Check.
Ann has her keyboard? Check.
I think we're ready for a baby!

In addition to The Man's brother's family, we also had another couple for lunch today. The Man and his brother knew the man from the church they went to as youth. We were surprised when we first visited our current church to learn that he had re-married a lady here. We've enjoyed having them in our church the past five years, and we're sad that they have sold their house and are moving to Washington to be closer to her family. We all had a wonderful time singing after lunch as our sister-in-law played the piano, our niece played the violin, and M played the organ (given to us by this couple).

The couple went home, and everybody else (except me!) headed for a walk behind our property in the National Forest. A few minutes after they left, it occurred to me that I could hear the water running in the bathroom. Uh-oh. I shut off the water, grabbed some towels, and called The Man on his cell phone. I knew he couldn't have gotten very far. He ran back to the house and took care of the puddles over behind the toilet that I couldn't bend over to reach. I am so glad that I stayed behind, otherwise we all would have returned to a major flood!

We may head up to the hospital later this afternoon, evening, or perhaps tomorrow. The Man's assistant's wife was actually induced this morning, so we would like to go see that baby. Also, we found out that The Man's 2nd cousin and family are up here because his father had surgery yesterday. We want to get up to the hospital to see all of them also. Perhaps I may even need to go to the hospital to have this baby!

Patient waiting...2 Thessalonians 3:5

2008-10-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

Here is another quick update to let everyone know we are still patiently waiting. The doctor's appointment on Thursday was fairly non-eventful except that things are slowly progressing as they should. My doctor offered to induce me if I wished, especially since she's heard rumors that we didn't make it to the hospital for S's birth. My doctor is on call this weekend, next weekend (my due date) and the following weekend, so at least she will be the doctor present when the baby is born.

I did get a lecture from the nurse since I haven't gained any weight over the last three weeks. I really haven't had much of an appetite lately. Even if I did, I'm not sure if there is any more room in there for additional food.

The Man's brother and family are coming up tomorrow for church. The Man thought he should have someone else lined up to preach just in case we have somewhere else we need to be.

Nothing new...Ecclesiastes 1:9

2008-10-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

I am completely appalled at the amount of sawdust in my house. Apparently installing a sliding glass door is a very messy undertaking! This morning M went out to the shop to get the shop vac for me. It is one of those items that came with the house, and it is not the greatest machine, but I would rather suck up the sawdust and nails with that than my good vacuum. I'll still need to go over the living room again with the real vacuum, but this will be a good start. I have to round up another extension cord before I finish that project.

I am managing to get a good sleep about every other night. Last night was not one of the good nights. I got to bed about 11:00, woke up at 12:30 and didn't get back to sleep until after 5:00 a.m. There weren't any heavy contractions or unnecessary baby movements (child has been behaving wonderfully), but I had terrible heartburn most of the night. I keep a bottle of antacids on my bedside table and I usually take a dose once or twice at night. This morning it occurred to me that I really have no idea how many I took last night! I've never worried about O.D.ing on antacids before, but I'll need to watch that more closely.

Tomorrow The Man has to work all day so I'll be taking the kids to M's piano lesson in the morning, then a trip to the big city for a Costco and grocery run, then back to M's violin lesson, and then home. The Man informed me over the weekend that M's violin lesson was switched from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. this week. That wasn't going to work because I had an OB appointment scheduled at 3:45. I called Monday to reschedule my OB appointment for Thursday. A few hours later M's violin teacher called to say that we could do the violin lesson at the regular time. Eh. I had already started my Costco list, and since we wouldn't otherwise have time to make the trip, we're keeping the 3:30 lesson time. This (hopefully) will be the last chance I have to do a trip to Costco and the grocery store with cheap prices (but we have to bag everything ourselves) before the baby is born.

So, don't be concerned if you don't hear from me tomorrow since we'll be gone all day. Don't expect to hear from me Thursday either. Friday will be busy also since The Man is planning on working all day (his assistant's wife may be induced that day--they didn't coordinate their wives' due dates very well!). The weekend isn't looking too good for an update...

I will try to let y'all know if and when ;) the baby does arrive, but no news means no news!

Wait patiently...Psalm 37:7

2008-10-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

Still waiting! We all are getting anxious to meet the new little one. Even The Man has started nesting.

Last week The Man assembled the little bed for the baby. I found this neat bed online, but I didn't think this particular design would work with our bed (not to mention that I found the cost exorbitant for the few months it would be in use). I sent the link to my dad with all the changes that I wanted made. Last summer he designed and cut out all the pieces and sent it back with us when we visited. For the past 4 months,the pieces have been patiently waiting in the corner of the bedroom. Now it is assembled and installed on my side of the bed, just waiting for the baby! I would like to prime and paint it first, but The Man thinks it looks great as it is. I may get it done, but it is not a priority right now.

This morning The Man attached the supports that fit snugly under our bed frame to keep the baby bed from tipping or moving away from our bed. He also attached a top to some drawers in our bathroom...now we have an official changing table!

Yesterday The Man cleaned out the chimney so we are using our wood stove for heat now. He also installed the new sliding glass door that we purchased. I really wanted it done so that I wouldn't have to be the one to open the door for the kids when they bring in wood. Yesterday was the first perfect day that we've* had for the job. The frosts that we've had have killed off most of the bugs and and it wasn't too chilly during the day to have an 8-foot opening in our living room. He still has a bit of trim work to finish up, but I'm really liking the new door!

Last night a church member brought a few bushels of apples for us. The Man and children are excited about making some apple sauce this afternoon. I better go start washing some jars!

*I did give my opinion a few times, and even helped steady the door during installation, but I left the hard work to The Man and boys.

Such water...shall be unclean...Leviticus 11:34

2008-10-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Don't assume anything, especially when you hear water splashing in the bathroom. After a minute I finally went in to tell whichever child was in there to quit playing in the water. HA! No child was there, but water was running over the edge of the toilet bowl and there was 3 inches of water behind the toilet on the "low side" of the bathroom. It is times like this that I'm thankful the floors in our old house slope a bit!

I immediately shut off the water to the toilet and yelled for someone to bring me towels and the mop. I would have gotten them myself, but my socks were wet from getting over near the toilet to shut off the water. M brought me two towels. NO! TOWELS! LOTS OF THEM!!! You would think they would learn that when I yell for towels AND a mop, that mama needs more than two measly towels.

I got all the water sopped and mopped up off the floor. That bathroom is officially out of order until The Man gets up from his nap (tonight he is working his last shift in the ER until after the baby is born). I cleaned up the mess so I'll let him make sure it won't happen again.

This is not exactly my idea of nesting, but at least that bathroom floor will be nice and clean!

A deep sleep...Genesis 15:12

2008-10-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

I'm very pleased to report that I went to bed at 8:30 p.m. last night. Despite the contractions I was feeling in my back, I didn't have too much trouble drifting off to sleep. Sometime during the night I woke up and turned over to my other side. Just before 8:00 a.m. The Man came back into the bedroom to get ready for work. That was when I woke up for the day. Ahhhh. I'm so glad that this baby is taking the concerns I expressed yesterday seriously. He or she is now happily wiggling about. I think the rest was good for the baby also.

My OB appointment yesterday (actually, it was with the FNP) went well. Blood pressure, weight, movement, size, and position were proclaimed perfect. 2 cm., just a lip of the cervix left, and baby's head at +2 for those that actually follow such statistics. Basically, that just means that things are progressing as they should be.

I've got to go do some more school with the kids. Then we may even go clean the bathrooms I didn't get to do this morning.

Rise up early...Exodus 8:20

2008-10-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

These pictures were still hanging out on our computer, so I'll put them here. The Man took the children to the balloon fair a few weeks ago. I stayed home and ~~rested~~ went to the gym, fed the horse, fed the chickens, fed the dog, and cleaned the house.

******

M E M O

Date: October 8, 2008
To: Baby
From: Mother
Subject: Sleeping Arrangements

It has come to my attention that there are lots of other things you would rather do than sleep. At this point in your life, your non-sleeping activities have mainly consisted of rolling, kicking, and punching. That is fine. Actually, it is exactly what is expected of you, and you may continue for the duration of your time within the womb.

However, repeated abuse of these other activities at times in which your mother is supposed to be sleeping (as in the few weeks before you make your out-of-the-womb debut) is not appreciated and will be met with dire consequences. When these activities are alternated with whatever it is you do to make the uterus contract, it makes for a long and sleepless night for me, your mother. 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m. is not a sufficient night's sleep for me. No longer will I lie in bed quietly until 3:00 a.m. waiting for you to settle down. I will get up earlier to call your bluff (some people refer to it as "nesting"). Yes, the kitchen floor DID need to be mopped. I'm so sorry if it disturbed YOUR sleep.

Tomorrow morning we can clean the bathrooms if you so desire. I'm sure the rest of the family would enjoy fresh homemade biscuits every morning (they gave me heartburn). Last, but not least, we could be at the gym when they open tomorrow morning also. That leisurely mile on the treadmill certainly kept you kicking and the uterus contracting. Oh, that "whump, whump" you felt was my legs hitting my abdomen while cycling. Either settle down, come on out, or learn to deal with it.

I love you.

Mom

*****

I did get a few minutes of dozing done between contractions after The Man and boys left for M's music lessons. Sacagawea and I will head up to the city after lunch to do a bit of shopping and go to my OB appointment.

Here are a few pictures from the baby shower at the church last Saturday night. We now have pretty much all that we need except newborn-sized diapers. We'll remedy that today.
Our baby and the almost 1 year old that just moved in with his grandma were the recipients of the gifts.

M took all of these pictures. Almost all of the family pictures were "headless." Maybe I should explain to him that I can crop them on the computer for the blog.A knitted blanket and little blue cap.
A pink and white crocheted blanket...with an assurance that a blue and white blanket is all ready for a trade in case Sacagawea doesn't get her wish of a baby sister.

Many, many other gifts plus a nursery monitor as a group gift from the church...
I think it is time for another nap.

The money...2 Chronicles 34:17

2008-09-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

I'm doing much better today. I ended up sleeping on the couch again last night because it was just so much more comfortable. I am going to try the bed tonight. The Man is working overnight in the ER so I won't have to worry about keeping him awake with my tossing and turning...I'll let his patients do that!

I spent most of the afternoon updating Quicken with all of our credit card transactions since...well...basically since I got pregnant. The Man took over paying the bills around that time. I continued to reconcile the bank statements (not promptly, but I did do it), but the credit card statement was just looked over to make sure all the charges were legitimate, the bill was paid, and the statement was filed. Since we do like to keep up on how much we actually spend on certain things, and since I anticipate being quite a bit busier between now and the end of the year, I finally got around to catching up on that chore today. I could only do one month at a time since it hurt my back to sit in the chair at the computer desk (that made me realize why I spend most of my computer time with the laptop on the couch), but they are all caught up now.

We started using Quicken years and years ago (remember back before Windows?). We were forced to upgrade in January of 2000 due to a Y2K date problem. That has served us sufficiently the past 8 years, but it is so old that we can't link with our online bank accounts, credit card, TurboTax, etc. We are now considering upgrading to the newest Home & Business version.

What do you use for financial budgeting & tracking? Just your bank? Quicken? Some other program? Mattress & envelopes (which I'm beginning to think is the safest way to go)? Please tell me about what you use and why it works for you.

Could not sleep...Esther 6:1

2008-09-27T03:21:00.000-07:00

I went to bed at about 9:00 last night. I slept well until about 11:30 when I woke up with an intermittent backache. I stayed in bed for a half hour, then I got up and took a hot shower. That seemed to help some, but I still couldn't get to sleep. After tossing and turning for over an hour, I moved to the couch. I've been here for over an hour. I'm a bit more comfortable, but I don't think sleep will come anytime soon, so I thought I might as well update the blog!

The baby seems to be fine. He or she (I'm trying to quit referring to the baby as "It") is still very active. Sometimes the head is down, sometimes up, sometimes the baby is sideways. Hopefully a favorable position will be settled on soon. We have less than a month to go as long as this baby is as prompt as the siblings were! We are still working on names.

On Tuesday there was a surprise party for The Man's assistant. He became a US citizen last week! We had a lot of fun and about 100 people from the valley showed up to congratulate him. It was quite a feat to have a surprise party when nearly the whole town knew about it!

The Man has changed his work schedule so he is off on Wednesdays when we drive up north for M's music lessons. M has his piano lessons in the morning, then we go to the library, eat lunch, and M's violin lesson is in the early afternoon. Once or twice I've ventured on up to the big city to do some shopping either before or after the lessons, but I've decided that it makes for too hectic of a day while I'm pregnant. Now that The Man is going with us (or I can stay at home), I can fit a nap in the schedule. It is a lot easier to nap when I'm not the one driving ;) !

Last week was the first time The Man was able to go to the library up there with us. We were able to get a card because of the reciprocal arrangement they have with neighboring counties. That is pretty cool considering it is in the next state! The library is a lot bigger than our local county library, and I'm excited that they actually have most of the books that I search for.

The kids get quite a bit of their schooling done on the drive up the lessons (one hour from our house to the piano studio) and I'm able to help the younger kids with most of the rest of it during M's 1-hour piano lesson. Anything they don't complete is worked on instead of playing in the park after lunch. That's been incentive enough for them to complete all of their work promptly! They look at their library books during M's violin lesson.

Yesterday was busy with a lot of cooking and cleaning. I tried doing mostly supervising, but sometimes if I want something done a certain way, I just have to do it myself. I think the vacuuming I did is why my back is bothering me this morning.

I'm going to try to go back to bed now. It is only 2 1/2 hours until I'm supposed to get up!

All pleasant pictures...Isaiah 2:16

2008-09-21T07:32:00.000-07:00

Update at bottom!

Two weeks since my last post? No wonder folks are calling to see if I'm ok. We're just fine. Busy. Tired. Fine.
We did our school pictures last Tuesday. We made it to the top of the hill behind the house, down in the dry creek bed, and several places in between. I took just under 300 pictures. About 50 of my favorites (nice, silly, and a few Sacagawea may be embarrassed about in a few years) have been uploaded online (quite a feat, since it took nearly all day on Friday with our dial-up). Click on the link above on the right to send me an email if you would like to see them.

UPDATE: It seems the email with the link is ending up in some junk email folders. Try this: http://tinyurl.com/treeriversmith EXCEPT, take "smith" out of that url and enter our real last name!

Pain...Psalm 48:6

2008-09-05T17:58:00.000-07:00

OK, so it is no longer a boring pregnancy! I spent 3 hours in the hospital this morning getting poked, prodded, monitored, and scanned. By noon, baby and I were proclaimed "probably just fine."

Pain. If the pain had occurred at any time other than during pregnancy, or any place other than my abdomen, I would have just tried to ignore it for a few days. When asked to rate my pain on a scale of 1-10, I told the nurse that it wasn't quite the severity, but the unusualness given the fact that I'm pregnant and had no idea what was causing the pain. The Man insisted on getting a wheelchair to take me to the OB department in the hospital, but he allowed me to shuffle out on my own two feet.

My OB said she thinks the pain is caused by the fibroid she found lurking in my uterus during my first ultrasound. Up until now, it hasn't caused any problems. The ultrasound (No! I didn't ask and they didn't tell...we still don't know if it is a boy or a girl!) and blood work didn't indicate any problem with the baby, placenta, or my appendix, and The Man told them not to bother looking for my gall bladder that was removed over 5 years ago :) even though my doctor wanted them to look at that also.

So, there you have it! I'm still in pain, and I've developed an old lady walk as I shuffle around the house. As long as it doesn't get any worse, I'll just deal with it for the next seven weeks since everything else seems to be completely fine and normal.

Home...Genesis 43:16

2008-09-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

He is home! They were able to get through customs, etc. in Dallas quickly (they all had just carry on baggage) so they were able to get on stand-by for an earlier flight to SFO. Since they were 2 hours ahead of schedule, I requested that the folks he was traveling with drop him off at my doctor's office up in the city. They arrived just after I finished my appointment (good visit, another 1/2 lb. weight gain, no lecture). I dawdled in the parking lot because I knew they would be arriving soon. The kids were all surprised!

The Man loaded up his stuff in the back of the pickup and drove us all home. Fortunately, I had prewarned him over the phone that the camper shell no longer had a door attached. It had been slightly damaged long ago when it was off the pickup and a wind storm was unkind to it. It was still functional, but while The Man was gone, I noticed the door was slipping down slightly. Yesterday while going up over our local mountain pass on the way to the big city for M's violin lesson, I glanced in the rearview mirror and was surprised at how clear the view was. Yikes! The door was gone! I pulled off the road as soon as I could and went to investigate. The camper shell door frame was still attached to the shell, but only at the very bottom, and the frame was bent so the door was leaning over to the inside of the truck.

I lowered the tailgate and had M and J crawl up in the bed. With a bit of coaxing, they were able to completely remove the frame and door and lay in down in the truck bed. Whew! I don't know if it can be repaired, but I'm so glad it didn't fly out and damage someone else's vehicle (or worse)!

The Man took several pictures during his trip to Chile. I'll have to have him do a guest blog post so he can explain them all!

Return....Genesis 31:3

2008-09-02T22:54:00.000-07:00

He's on his way home! We think! One of the sites says his plane never took off, but another says it took off on time. We're being optimistic! We tried calling him this afternoon via the Chilean contact's cell phone about 5 hours before his flight, but he had already been dropped off at the airport.

Busy, busy day scheduled for tomorrow. We're going up to the big city for M's violin lesson (his piano teacher is taking the week off). We'll run some errands while we're up there and we need to be back to our local city by 4:00 for my OB appointment. I think I'll be getting another lecture...not a good one! Back home for supper, then to church for the midweek service, and then home again to tuck the kids in bed. The Man might be home by that time. I hope so!

Take the box...2 Kings 9:3

2008-08-31T20:48:00.000-07:00

I'm tired! No nap today. After breakfast we went to church and retrieved some items we forgot yesterday and then we went and got M. On the way home we stopped by the store to pick up a few items, including some ice cream. It was not all for me, I had ulterior motives. We then came home and ate leftovers from yesterday and some ice cream.

Once the kids were nice and happy I took them to The Garage...which has become a dumping ground for all things. I had them set up a lawn chair out in the sun for me (it was kind of chilly today) and I sat and directed. First, the children emptied the front of the garage of all things that have prevented me, in my current, enlarged state, from venturing to the back of the garage. I've actually been concerned about getting stuck between piles of boxes! Next, each and every plastic storage tote had evidence of spiders and rodents removed from it, was opened, and the contents were compared with the outside label. Those are all now stacked in a reasonable manner on one side of the garage.

We did find the boxes containing newborn-sized boy and girl clothes, so those are on the front porch waiting for me to wash them so they will be nice and fresh for the new baby. The other boxes of larger-sized clothing were stacked in "boy" and "girl" stacks so they'll be readily accessible when/if needed. I just recalled that I do have some boxes of girl clothes in my closet and Sacagawea's closet, so we'll deal with those tomorrow.

After I swept the garage and M re-stacked all the boxes, the younger kids proclaimed the garage completely clean (ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha....). Too bad I don't have the camera, or I could show you some before/after pictures. I guess you'll just have to take their word for it!

Next, M and I put the canoe back in the garage (I'm still perplexed as to why/how it ended up in the garage in the first place rather than back in the barn, but in case there is a really good reason, back in the garage it went) and he neatly stacked all the paint cans, etc. that were in the driveway back in the garage. The driveway in now clear of all items that were taken out of the garage, I was able to shut the garage door, AND I can get out the door from the utility room to the garage. In addition to getting into the garage, I can walk comfortably around the canoe, and safely walk to the back of the garage to the freezer.

We do have a few boxes of items on the front porch that I think can go in the dumpster, but I'll let The Man make the decision on those when he returns. Is there really any reason to keep the old motherboard from the computer we upgraded over 8 years ago? I don't think so, especially since we bought a new computer 6 years ago. Is there any reason to keep operating system and software disks from that old computer, other than nostalgia?

We got an email from The Man this morning letting us know that it is ok to call him, but he can't call us. So, we all got to talk to him again tonight. And, since he is able to check the blog, I'll ask him...

What was the canoe doing in the garage?

The weasel...Leviticus 11:29

2008-08-30T19:50:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago as we were coming home, we noticed two animals frolicking in the driveway. The Man identified them as weasels. Most of us had never seen weasels in real life before, so that was exciting. We think that our pair are long-tailed weasels.

A few weeks later when M's nightly egg collection dropped off to nearly nothing, we suspected the weasels. After some encouragement, he started making frequent trips to the hen house during the day. Sure enough, the first day of frequent trips produced 11 eggs.

Since M has more important things to do than make hourly trips to the hen house, the other children are often sent and come back with tales of weasels in the nesting boxes eating the eggs. Our field guide states that weasels are beneficial animals. If they really are as great at taking care of rodents as the experts say, we would love to have them on our property. We certainly don't mind sacrificing a few eggs now and then to help control the ground squirrel population.

M went home with some friends after church today, so S went to gather the eggs when we got home. We were all surprised when he came back with seven since we had been gone for nearly five hours (potluck today at church). After my nap :) I sent J out to check for some more eggs. He came back with the report of the hen/weasel fight in the hen house and a punctured egg in the nesting box. Both creatures were ruffled, but the weasel ran off when J entered the hen house.

Now what do we do? We do have a small live trap that we could set under the hen house tonight baited with eggs...but then what? So far, they haven't actually harmed any of chickens. Of course, it is a holiday weekend, so I can't get any advice from fish & game until Tuesday. By that time, I might as well wait for The Man to return on Wednesday.

I'm pretty sure that our hen house, which is up on blocks with a wood floor, is weasel-proof at night when the doors are closed. Those hens have shown that they can be mean when they need to be during the day. I guess we will try to wait it out unless the weasels prove they are after more than just our eggs!

Return unto his own family...Leviticus 25:41

2008-08-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

The Man is gone. He left about 4:30 yesterday afternoon to drive to the airport with a couple from our church. They spent the night in the airport city and this afternoon they started on their journey. Right now they are probably* somewhere over the Pacific Ocean on their way to Chile. They are doing a "site visit" to get ready for the church mission project next February. The other man promised he would make sure The Man got back safely. He better.

After they left, the kids and I left the empty house and went to the local farmers' market. Yum! We have such a short growing season at our elevation so it is nice to at least see some of the potential of our area. We left with some melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, currants, and corn. From there, we went to the church and worked on organizing some of the materials left over from the fair booth. Soon it was time for the mid-week service. We received a lot of squash and some lemon cucumbers from one of our members.

Sacagawea & S usually color left-over children's bulletins or draw during the mid-week service. Last night Sacagawea traced her hand and wrote, "I love Mom and the Man" in it. I didn't realize she paid that much attention to this blog!

You may just be seeing more posts from me this week while The Man is gone. He took the camera with him, so I won't have the pressure of trying to upload pictures via our dial-up! I still have a lot of catch-up posts brewing, so I'll try to get them posted this week!

*I just tried tracking the flight on flightstats.com, but because it is an international flight, they can't track it. If anyone knows of an international friendly site, please let me know before next week!
Update: I should have G**gled a few minutes ago. I found the flight map on flytecomm.com. He IS currently over the Pacific traveling at a ground speed of 534 mph. The kids were happy to see that the flight status is "In Flight." Only another 6 1/2 hours to go!

In the eighth month...Zechariah 1:1

2008-08-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

A few have been asking, so here is a pregnancy update...still nice and boring! I went in for my 30 1/2 week appointment on Wednesday. I have 9 weeks and 2 days (give or take) until we get to meet the little one. The other 4 arrived on their due dates or a few days early, so I don't know what I'll do if this one decides to hold out on us.

I did get a lecture from my OB last month for my excessive weight gain. I got another lecture on Wednesday from the FNP because I'd gained too little. The last time I saw multiple providers with a pregnancy was with M, and I got the conflicting lectures then also. Oh, well! Overall, my weight gain stands at a healthy 19 1/2 lbs. The baby seems to be measuring just fine also.

The FNP told me that last month the baby was breech (the OB never said anything to me, but she noted it on my chart). On Wednesday the FNP said it seemed transverse. I think this child is preparing for the Olympics, because it certainly likes moving around quite a bit, especially at night as I'm trying to get comfortable in bed. The Man laughs at the "Pregnancy Palace" that I build with all the pillows in the bed trying to support anything that needs supporting. By 36 weeks, we hope he or she settles down into the proper position.

S and Sacagawea love sitting up next to me so they can feel the baby kick them. Funny...they often get upset if any of the other siblings even touch them. We shall see how they feel about a younger sibling kicking them in a few years.

We're still discussing baby names. As a rule, I refuse to tell anyone what names we are considering until after the birth. It makes it a bit harder for people to say how much they hate the name if there is a cute baby gazing up at them! I will say that The Man and I haven't found any that we both agree on yet. The Man said his biggest fear is that we won't get a tax break for this baby, because we won't have a SS#, because we won't have a birth certificate, because we can't agree on a name! I think he was kidding.