Friday, May 30, 2008

A Few Pregnant Thoughts

Questions I've been pondering lately:

1. Is it possible to throw up in a Whataburger bag while driving down the freeway at 60 mph?

2. Does it make me a bad mother that I sometimes let the baby eat leftover peas off the kitchen floor? And carrots?

3. If after 4 girls in a row, we finally get another son, will I be tempted to put a hair bow in his hair just out of curiosity?

4. If I do have a son and attempt #3, will my husband go totally nuts all over my sorry tail?

5. Is it bad manners to smack strangers who say to my baby girl, " Hey, big guy"?

6. If what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, then why am I still such a baby when it comes to morning sickness?

7. Will the couch have a permanent indentation of my body after this baby is born?

8. Did Claire actually die on LOST, or what?

9. Is it right to lock force children outside after hundreds of dollars have just been spent on a new, stellar swing set and pool when they whine things like, "it's too hot out there"?

10. Can I really have ALL of my Christmas shopping done before this baby's due date of December 10th?

11. Could this baby actually be a boy?

Just the thoughts of a crazy, nauseated pregnant woman. So, what have y'all been pondering these days?

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

A Swingin' Good Time

My, oh my, what a weekend.

Monk and I have been wanting to buy our girls a quality swing set for a while now. We've debated and pondered on how much to spend and what style we wanted and so on and so forth for a good long time. We've looked at Sam's and Costco and all the other places from which one can buy a swing set. We just couldn't decide what we wanted to do.

We are nothing if not a decisive bunch around here.

Well, a few months ago, our good friend from church informed us that he designed and built wooden swing sets. For fun. As in, he liked doing it. This information thoroughly intrigued and amazed us non-handy folk and we became giddy with excitement. Our friend and Monk talked it through and it was decided upon that our new, veritable wonderland would be built over Memorial Day weekend.

That was this past weekend. Guess what I'm fixin' to show you???

This would be our old swing set. I'm sure if the city had seen it they might have condemned it. It was never even completely put together. It was suggested that we should keep it and make it punishment for disobedient children. You know, if they disobey then they can only play on the old dilapidated swing set. I'm kidding, people.















And now, without further adieu..............


Aint' it AWESOME!!















The Rock (our friend who built it) and his lovely wife, LizardBreath (my real life friend...and I don't have many of those you know, with us being so weird and all) spent the whole day on Saturday and Monday at our house. Rock sweated and toiled, along with Monk and The Boy on only one of the the hottest days of the year thus far. But them stinky, sweaty guys did such a great job!

LB and I spent the hot days in the air conditioned house preparing food to feed the hungry crew and corralling all of the children, which by the way can be a pretty sweaty job itself (there are 9 between us). Since I was feeling my usual nauseated self, LB even cleaned and organized my built-in bookshelves in our living room. She has our books organized according to subject and genre and such. (Sigh) I thank the good Lord for giving me such organized friends.

Sweet Sis, just a swangin'









Liver Pie and The Professor gazing down from the tower. The professor informed me that he was the Prince with his Princess. Whoa, boy.










LizardBreath's sweet Princess KittyKat










My Boy, putting the old girl down gently. Not me... the old swing set.









Even Fat Otis found a new perch. Stupid cat.










What a great weekend! Our girls our thrilled! Monk and I are thrilled! Shewt! Even the cat is thrilled! But most of all we thank God for great friends so willing to give of their time and talents to bless us beyond belief!

And as an added bonus...we no longer look like rednecks!!

Okay. Sort of.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Music to My Ears

Thumpa, thumpa, thumpa, thumpa.

That was the sound I heard today while at the midwife's. It doesn't matter that I've heard it 5 times before. It doesn't get old. Ever. It's the sound of life. The sound of another miracle that God has so graciously granted me. The sound that says, "I'm here Momma! I'm still cookin', but I'm here".

Frankly, I really needed to hear that sound today. More than y'all could ever know. It reassures me that all of this nausea is for a wonderful reason. It cheers me on to say, "this is worth it"!

It reminds me once again, that God is Sovereign.

And that, my friends, is enough.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

She's 10 Months and I'm 10 Weeks

Time is flying. It seems to do that after 35.

The Hopester is now 10 months old. I was going to say, "it seems like yesterday I was pregnant with her". It wasn't yesterday, but it was just last year and I'm pregnant again which is probably why I feel all sentimental.

That and I'm hormonal.

She is getting so big so fast that I just want to yell, "Hey! Stop the ride! I don't want to miss anything!". This is mostly because I realize that she isn't technically going to be the baby much longer. When the little Corn Nut is born she will not even be 17 months old yet! She will still be a baby and then I will just say I have two babies. 'Cause I will.

Have mercy.

(shhhh...a very unflattering picture of The Madgirl)

She now says the dog's name, Pepper. Except hers sounds like "Bop-uh", but it is most definitely her version of Pepper. It's quite cute and I believe she is quite talented. She also likes to "honk" your nose. Madgirl taught her this little trick(thank-you my darling teenager). But if you're not careful she will pert near put one of her chubby little fingers all the way up it, leading to a significant loss of flesh, possible bleeding and profuse eye watering.

G'head, ask me how I know.



She is so close to walking it is scary. I'm sure that the sheer size of her cheeks, and I do mean both sets, are what is keeping her from completing the deed. Why is it that as parents we spend such a large portion of time encouraging this developmental step and once it is accomplished we spend greater portions of time regretting it?




And as for me, I am 10 weeks along now. I am a quarter of the way done. Woo-hoo!

Part of the reason I haven't been blogging is because I've been so productive lately. Here, I'll show you....

Here I am lying down while taking cover during a tornado warning. The washer makes a mighty fine back rest if I do say so myself.










Once again, lying down and attempting to look happy.










And yet one more time in the prone position. Is it me or do I look like I'm trying not to vomit? What is it with my family taking pictures of me on the couch?









As y'all can see, I've been plenty busy. There is a distinct pattern here in case you hadn't noticed.

At any rate, that's the update for today. Now I must go back to lying on the couch being productive.

Y'all take care now and prepare yourselves for my next rousing post. I'm sure you're just flinching with excitement, huh?

Monday, May 12, 2008

Oh....I Have a Blog?

Yes I know, I know....I'm a blogging schmuck.

I can't blame just the morning sickness either. I've found a nice homeopathic that is helping nicely in that area. Not great, but definitely better. I'm planning on doing a post on it....when I get around to it.

For those of you that read my monotonous diatribe, please bear with me a little longer. I'm in somewhat of a funk right now. I have things I'd like to post about, but just not feelin' it at the moment. A little down and a little lot hormonal would be a good description.

Let me tell you, I'm a regular party.

Monday, May 05, 2008

He Hoes, He Hoes, It's Off To Work He Goes....and Another Gardening Update

My man workin' his way with the dirt









So, he worked by the sweat of his brow. Profusely sweating. And panting. Letting us both know he really needs to work out a little more. Or a lot. But my man did it! He whooped that garden into shape. He did, however, scare me enough that I went and got Boy to come help "whoop" things along. And he demonstrated the dominion mandate quite well, I thought.

The family who hoes together......um....flows rows glows SOWS together.









I will no longer call people sissies who wear gloves while gardening. My sister, who is a nurse and Master Gardener (I kid you not) informed me of all the little nasties I could acquire by putting my bare, naked hands into the soil. So, from now on.......I'm gloved.










Me in a not so attractive pose, wearing my Longhorns hat to cover up my not so attractive hair. I look like some sad, toad reject. But I'm wearing some kickin' orange gardening clogs, don't ya think?









Gotta learn'em young how to love the dirt.









And now for a Garden Update.

Good News:

- We already have our Bibb lettuce sprouting!! Woo-hoo for garden salads and BLT's!
- We already have pickling cucumber sprouting! Woo-hoo for future pickles!
- Everything seems to be growing quite nicely.

Bad News:
- The stupid birds keep messin' in the garden.
- We have yet to see nary a carrot sprout. I'm not an experienced enough gardener to know if this is because it is a root vegetable. Must investigate.
- 3 of our 4 tomato plants have tomato blight. Blast the blight! My sister T, the nurse and Master Gardener (I kid you not), has informed me that I will need to dig them up and replace them with new, non-blighted plants. That or they would require chemicals to treat. And since we are of the anti-chemical mindset....guess what? We gotta ditch the plants.

Not so bad. Not great, but not terrible. Things we can work with and deal with effectively. Not like the Tomato Bug Infestation of 2006 that annihilated our bumper crop of tomatoes. Now that? That was sad.

Now, if I could just convince our cat, Fat Otis, that this giant plot of dug up soil is not a personal litter box created just for him, we'd really be in business.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Look What I Found in My Back Yard

Two of the most beautiful flowers I have ever laid eyes upon.

Friday, May 02, 2008

Meet "The Philistine"...But We'll Just Call Him Phil

Phil is our new (to us) Suburban. He is a rather stellar dude if I do say so myself. And even the color I wanted!














Freshly purchased last night, we (and the children) have been struttin' around like peacocks. Okay, I'm doing most of my strutting from the horizontal position on the couch, but I look good doin' it. Monk and I were giving each other knuckles all night last because we were so proud of our new purchase.

It's been a long time coming for us to get a new vehicle. Our 2000 Ford Windstar has 167,000 miles on it, but has basically been falling apart since about 90,000 miles. Transmissions going out BEFORE 100,000 miles is never a good thing. This has meant BIG BUCKS for the last 5 years.

To put it mildly, if cars had souls, I can honestly say ours would be in hell.

We've been looking for weeks and frankly, had a few swiped out from under us, but not this one. Nope, this one is ours! Woo-hoo! It's a 2004, has low miles and has a few perks we were very happy to have....like a DVD player! The only thing it didn't have was leather seats, which is much easier to clean child vomit (or pregnant woman vomit) from, than say cloth. You win some, you lose some. I'll take what we got.

Sis and Liv were so excited last night that they asked if we could sleep in the new ride. This is disturbing to me on so many different levels that I don't even know where to begin. I can definitely say "Phil" is certainly cleaner than my house right now, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Anyway, that's our exciting news for the day. Join us in welcoming "Phil" to the family, won't you?

By the way, does anyone know if it's legal to torch your old car and dance The Happy Dance around it, celebrating it's demise? Just curious.