Playing Catch-up!

Wow...I got really far behind posting! Sorry about that...I sat down several times to update the blog, and the site was having problems. I know I should probably switch to the new google version, but I'm trying to hold out until they get more of the kinks worked out of the Beta version. Anything with "Beta" attached to it usually means "we want you to find all the problems with this product and report them to us so we can fix them before we release the final version which will be a much more stable product than the beta" or at least that's what Brent tells me! So here are some of the posts that I've been meaning to update and am just getting around to it! One of my favorite pics is the one of Daniel on his scream machine striking a pose with his orange hat on backwards. My first thought when I saw the pic was, "there's still a bit of Chicago left in this boy whether he realizes it or not!"

I head to the doctor tomorrow for my 32 week visit. It's getting closer and closer...my friend, Marsel, reminded me that I'm in the 50's now in my countdown!!! And with the holidays here...I'll be hitting the doc's office every week before I know it! That's a great thought! This pregnant thing is getting really old, really fast!

You can dress them up and make them go to work, but when it's all said and done, there's a little boy in every guy that makes them love playing with a blowtorch!!! Although I must admit this was probably the only fun part of the project Brent's dad helped us with while they were visiting. Our holding tanks for our well were quite old and had begun to leak all over the floor of our laundry room. It sure does come in handy when there's a civil engineer in the family who's in charge of the water works for his area coming to visit for Thanksgiving when there's a project like this to be done!!! What a help it was to have his expertise and brawn to help Brent (since I still don't understand any of it even though Brent explained it all to me several times...I try, I really do try to think on the same level that Brent and his dad function at, but this pregnant home-school mom of a 4 and 7 year old brain just doesn't get it!!!) They replaced 2 huge ugly metal tanks with a bright shiny blue on that's less than half the size of one of the old ones and it's doing a better job than the 2 old ones combined! It all makes sense to Brent so I suppose that's all that matters! Brent and his dad are so much alike not only in the way he looks, but in the way they act...the more I talk with my mother-in-law, the more I realize that I'm looking at Brent in 20 years when I see his Dad! And at the risk of being too sappy for such a practical man like my father-in-law...I'm so thankful that Brent's got such a great example to follow! You can't begin to understand how much we appreciate all your help over the years! Take heart...the good news is...you'll be too old when it comes time for our roof to be replaced in 25 years!!!

What a great time we had with Grandma and Grandpa Griffin during their visit! Grandma was a huge help to me in the kitchen and playing with the kids...which Daniel and Hannah both loved very much! Coloring is one of Hannah's favorite pastimes so anytime she can find someone who's willing to color with her she's in hog-heaven! And they played so many games together, too! It was really nice, too, to have her help with fixing all the food for the crew...and the clean-up! She's always assigned to gravy duty...I watch her make it everytime, but just haven't gotten the hang of it yet! We've only been doing this for 8 years...I should be figuring it out soon enough, heh?!? Thanks for all your help and loving!

These are some of the greatest gifts ever!!! Grandma and Grandpa Griffin brought Daniel and Hannah's Christmas gifts with them when they came to visit for Thanksgiving. They bought each of them a Razor Scream Machine. It's a metal heavy-duty throwback to the big wheels we all played with as kids. It's adjustable so it should fit up to a 12 year old! Daniel's so excited that he can ride it without having to turn the front wheel around to keep his knees from hitting the handlebars! And it comes with a cool handbrake, just like a bike...it didn't take Daniel very long to figure out to spin out into a 180 everytime he stopped! And I do want to draw attention to Hannah...she's all girl...notice the pearls and ribbons on her gloves? It wasn't warm enough for her to be out without gloves, but it was too warm for her to wear her winter gloves, so her church gloves came out (and ended up being ruined in the process!) I thought it was a perfect testament to our Hannah...trying to keep up with Daniel by being rough and tumble, while wearing her pretty pink pearly gloves! That's my girl!

This last week of Thanksgiving/Rifle Season (don't the two always go together?!?) was absolutely beautiful weather for us! Most of the days were in the 50's! We couldn't bear to keep the kiddos inside when this was probably the last chance to play out in the "warm" weather. So I did the unthinkable...I bought my kids safety orange hats! They loved them, too! I was still a bit uneasy with them being outside, but gave in since they were having so much fun! We have 4 acres of land that is surrounded by hundreds of acres of wooded land that is used for hunting, so I do have to say that my concerns about stray bullets were not completely unfounded! I do have to admit it was a strange experience to look out from my front porch and see a big ol' deer hanging from our nieghbor's tree! Just another reminder that we're not anywhere near Chicago anymore!

Where in the World are We??? Yet Again!!!

Brent and I were watching TV last night and caught just a snippet of the lead story on our local news channel. Well...as local as Green Bay...there's not really a news channel for just our area! But we caught enough of it to hear , "600,000 hunters head to northern Wisconsin..." Brent and I just looked at each other and laughed...600,000!!! That's a lot of hunters...no wonder it's not safe for our children to play outside! We were out of town last year during the week of rifle season so we didn't see what really went on...but let me tell you! We've not seen this much traffic on our little roads ever! We'd love to have any of you come for a visit, but I would highly recommend choosing another week to visit!

Not your normal school for sure!!!

This announcement was sent out to all the students at Northland today...just a statement about the area we live in! Definitely not something you'd see being announced at Bob Jones or Pensacola!!! You know it's bad when they cancel the public schools the week of deer hunting season because attendance would be so low and it's not safe to stand around outside waiting for the bus! We can't let our kids play outside during this week without wearing safety orange! Our neighbor actually had a bullet hit her roof the first year we moved in!!! (no...it wasn't Brent practicing!) Safety orange and camouflage, here we come! But for all the quirky things...I love it around here!!!

TO: ALL STUDENTS
FROM: SECURITY

The gun deer season will be open from Saturday, Nov. 18, through Sunday, Nov. 26. All areas on Northland property outside of the main campus and all surrounding property owned by Northland Board members will be strictly off-limits to students during this time.
The rifle range will be available and supervised to sight in rifles during the week before hunting season. Students must sign up at the Safety/Security office for a time slot. The rifle range is off-limits to students at all times except for those time slots that are scheduled.

Well...

I only have a quick minute, but hope to post a picture of my ultrasound soon...

Everything went really well yesterday at my ultrasound. There's only one baby (thankfully!!!) and it is definitely (no doubt about it!) a girl! While she's a big baby, she's not huge...so everything stays the same. She's the 84th percentile right now and the doc said he doesn't get concerned until the 90th percentile. Because of my history of big babies (a 10#5oz and 8#11oz-er) and my height...he figures this is normal for me. I was hoping to shave a couple of weeks off my due date, but we're still on for Jan 28th--and he doesn't see a reason to induce--so I may get my "I Love Lucy" moment after all--"Honey...I think you should wake up" or "Honey...I think it's time to come home from work" or "HONEY!!! IT'S TIME!!!"

I do have to say it was so sweet to be able to see our little munchky on the monitor...she was pursing her little lips and moving all around...I'm really hoping the holidays make this time go fast!!! I can't wait to hold her in my arms...and let Brent have a chance to hold her, too!

Excuse the grin...check out that belly!!!

You'll have to excuse the cheesy grin (is there ever anything but a cheesy grin on my face?!?)
and check out how big I'm getting!!! I still chuckle every time I catch a glimpse of myself in a reflection somewhere...and I'm still startled by this big ol' belly...and I still have 2+ months to go!!! Is it any wonder the doctor thinks I'm having a big baby?!?

I'm getting bigger and bigger, but closer and closer!!!

Yahoo!!! I'm already 25% of the way through my 100 day countdown until D-Day!!! And I may be farther than that if the Doc decides to set an induction date earlier than my due date! And I do have to say that these last 25 days have flown by! With the holidays so quickly upon us, I have a feeling I'm going to be letting Brent have a chance to hold this baby before I know it!!!

A quick note of interest...I woke up Sunday morning at 3:30 with contractions!!! I had 5 of them...very painful, too, I might add...back to back with only about 15 seconds in between each one. It's amazing the thoughts that can quickly go through one's head in that short of time! Thoughts of...NICU in Green Bay, remember to grab church clothes for the kids, yahoo...we get the tax break after all... :-) But they stopped when I sat up so just a round of Braxton Hicks...I forgot how painful contractions are!!!

First Snow!!!

Well...it's finally happened...knew it would sooner or later, but unfortunately it's sooner than later! We had about 8 inches of snow this last Friday...It was beautiful for sure, but crazy to drive in. Daniel was in the Fall Play on campus so we had to go out in it to get him there...a normal 20 minute drive took about an hour! And of course, I didn't get any pictures, and now it's starting to melt so it's not half as pretty! I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to get more pics this winter! If you check out Tricia Fipps' blog...there's a link on the right side of my page here, she's got some great pictures of the snow...and some really cute kids! :-)

Wednesday's the big Ultrasound day! Can't wait to try to see again if it's a Sarah or a Joshua...and how big the baby is! And of course, it's always good to see that there's just one baby! :-) I'll be sure to clue you all in...I have a feeling the Doc will start talking about setting a date to be induced...I may not get my "I Love Lucy" moment after all...but if it means not giving birth to an 11 pounder...I'll probably be okay :-)

Yipppeee!!!

I called my doctor today to see how I fared on my glucose tolerance test. I was expecting to have to go in for the 3 hour test since I did with both of my other pregnancies...but I was really happy to find out that everything was just fine! And my blood counts were fine...even my iron. I guess I'm tired because I'm pregant...go figure! The nurse even said I must be eating right and living really healthy...if she only knew!!! I was so excited after I hung up the phone, I celebrated by eating a hostess cupcake! I'll show her healthy! :-) Less than a week til we get to see our little munchky on the ultrasound screen! Yahoo!!!

It's a real live tea party!!!

We're having so much fun with Grandpa and Grandma Kelley visiting us! It was really quiet this morning, so I went wandering through the house trying to figure out what was going on...this is what I found! The kids were having a "real live tea party" with Grandma...Grandpa was the server making sure the kids has enough "tea" (which was really lemonade since neither of them like tea!) They were thrilled to be using Hannah's dishes with real food. They had special little delicasies, too, to go with the tea...cheezits and cheese popcorn! They invited me to join them for a special tea party tomorrow afternoon at 3:00pm! They even made a formal invitation for me! Really too cute! I might break out the china for tomorrow's tea party and make it special...we'll see how I'm feeling after church! I've been so tired lately! I'm guessing my iron is low...could it be since I've not taken my prenatals for quite some time now!?! I know, I know...but I just forget! :-)

My view of eternity refreshed!

I received news today that a friend of mine passed away from cancer. I've been reminded over and over again as of late how fleeting this earth is and how eternal heaven is. I know that's not a profound statement by any means, but it's been driven home again today in my thinking as I grasp the understanding that this dear lady is walking with Christ in a completely different way today. How precious it will be to see our Savior face to face and to fully understand the wonder of His love when we get to go to heaven. Oh that I would live with that thought more and more each day. What a privilege it is to know that we will someday get to go to heaven. That's really what our earthly life is to be about...investing for that one day when we can see our Lord! But how distracted I often become with the cares of this world!

One a completley different note, I had a doctor's appointment this morning. I was talking with the doctor about how big I am getting. He was very reassuring (much unlike the "stupid polish doctor man" I had in Chicago--who was a very good doctor, but had the bedisde manner of a bedpan!!!) and simply said that most women feel that way around this time in their pregnancy. But as he measured me, he agreed that I am getting bigger than most and ordered an ultrasound to see how big the baby is! It's exactly that same as it was with Hannah. We were not completely sure with her first ultrasound that she was a girl and ended up with a second ultrasound due to my size that confirmed that she was indeed a girl! So we're hoping that on Nov 15 we'll be able to confirm whether or not we are having a girl! If you remember, at 20 weeks we were only about 85-90% sure that she was a girl!