Time for a Change?

Well, I'm not sure what brought this on....if I'm really serious about a new choppity-chop or just having a bad hair day. BUT...I'm thinking something crazy-drastic:

 

I, of course, haven't decided completely. Ryan says go for it, I'm just hesitant. Thoughts or opinions anyone??

One More Step Down

Today I had to take the 4 hour glucose test after I failed the first one by 4 points. The cut-off is 135 and I scored 139. So this morning at 6:30 Ryan and I headed to Springfield to have my blood taken 4 times. If you don't know what the second glucose test entails, you have to drink 10 oz of a drink that they try to make taste like soda, but without carbonation and it also has 100 grams of sugar in it. For someone who doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, that's a lot. For someone who has a huge sweet tooth that's a lot. I should have the results later this afternoon. I had to do the same thing with Emery, and the second test turned out negative. I'm hopeful this one will turn out the same way! So I guess not eating for 16+ hours tonight/today just puts me one step closer to having Ellie here!


Today when we got back from the test, Catherine had Emery's hair in a crazy-high ponytail. It is pretty cute even though when I asked her if she liked it she shook her head. Emery is going to be in shock tomorrow when Catherine has to go back to school. Something tells me this transition will be more difficult than when she left for school the first time when we were in Texas. Emery sure loves her Sissy!

On the Mend

Well, we are all feeling better. I am finally feeling pretty much 100% (minus the pregnancy part) and Emery is almost finished with her antibiotics and I can tell she is feeling better. Hopefully this will be the last round of sickness this winter. We have started washing our hands all the time....and Emery loves washing her hands, so it's a pretty easy task to accomplish. I've also been taking hand sanitizer to church with me and I use it after the grip-n-grin time. I'm not trying to be a jerk or judge cleanliness, I am just trying to avoid getting sick again!!

In other news, we have a few couples interested in our house in Chillicothe. We are praying one of them works out because we have found a great house here in MV that we would love to make an offer on. Built 2007, 3 beds plus an office/toy room/Catherine's room when she's home, 2 bathrooms, new carpet and paint, ceiling fans, lights in the closets...I could go on about all the things I like about this house. All we would need is a fridge and a fence. Did I mention the price is PERFECT right now?! After we went and looked at it, I had the urge to go through our house and get rid of more stuff. I don't know how much more I can pair down. We have pretty much gotten rid of  everything that is non-essential which is a great feeling. Everyone should try it now and again. It really was only prompted when our basement flooded and were forced to get rid of a bunch of ruined junk. And that's really what is was. Junk. We had totes on totes of stuff (mostly mine from my parent's house) and now I have ONE keepsake tote and mostly it is filled with stuff from high school and college; a few things are from my childhood. It is really helpful and easy to get rid of stuff when your husband is VERY non-materialistic and has practically nothing from his childhood. Not even yearbooks. He is my example daily.

News #3: we've picked a name for baby Mac #2: Ellie Louise.
I was continually asking Ryan if he was happy with this name and after the 23,703rd time he told me he loved it, I am satisfied that this is it. I don't care about keeping it a secret. Obviously. I am sooo ready for April. And in case you're wondering, yes, our plan is for no more babies after Ellie. As Ryan says, he's going to, "take care of that problem." Okay by me!!

News #4 D-Now is coming right along. Ryan is super excited this year and I think we're going to have a great turn-out and a great God-experience!
Speaking of D-Now, I am so looking forward to camp this year. We're branching out and going to Point 11 on Table Rock Lake. The students have been there before, but we haven't. I am so excited because it's an actual camp with cabins, and a lake and a blob, a ropes course and all the things that go along with an actual "wilderness" camp. I am really ready!
AND the good news for both D-Now and camp is that my parents are coming to watch our offspring so for the first time in 3 years I am going to be able to actually participate and get quality time in with the girls. Did I mention I'm super pumped?!

I can't really think of any more news right now. It's been a while since the last post and for once I finally felt like I had some things worth saying/typing.

Bye.

Yuck.

I've been sick since Christmas. I can't seem to shake it. Being pregnant is nice and all...you get an awesome human being out of it, but most of the time it is not fun. I would have loved to have popped 257 NyQuils last night, but no dice. I stuck with heading over to Casey's at 2 am when my ear ache got so bad I couldn't sleep. Thankfully it took the pain away, and it is still pain-free, I just wish it wasn't so clogged. I feel like i"m deaf in my left ear. The nasal congestion on top of it is so not fun along with the dry heaving in the middle of the night.


Emery seems like she doesn't feel so well this morning. I think we've done pretty well not sharing the bug, but her poor nose has started dripping and I've heard a sad mucus-y cough come from her. Poor baby. Hope the Tylenol works as well for her as it did for my ear!!

In other news, we LOVE Mt Vernon. It was a great move for us and our family. We love the small town and the people in it. Ryan has fit right in here and is really loving his job completely, I think, for the first time in 9 years. This is truly a really great church family.

We also have some good news on our house. I think it will be a rent-to-own situation, but that pays the mortgage and utilities. AND our nice remolded house won't be sitting empty! God has continual provided for us in this area! He is so good!

For free:

Christmas Time

I am really bad at keeping up with this.
I am a bad blogger.
I don't really care.

It's almost Christmas which is weird for me because it doesn't seem like it should be time yet. It's still fall in my mind; mostly due to the fact that we were in Texas until December and we really didn't get a fall, so I feel like it's not time for Christmas.

If you didn't know, (not like anyone reads this..) we are having another baby GIRL! I am so pumped because we have a ton of clothes and I really didn't want to put them in storage for who knows how long for my sister or sister in law. I've already hung up some of the tiny outfits...anxious much? Yes. I am 23 weeks and anxious. It's ok though. It's just a phase. In a few days I'll be over my anxiousness and be chill again....then it starts over. We are on the downhill side though. That's a plus. Another plus: this is the last baby, no joke.

Bye.

Getting Close to Half-Way

Well, we are 17 weeks pregnant and I am so ready to find out whether it's a boy or girl! I don't know how people can be surprised. That is totally not me. On the up side, this pregnancy has been tons better than the last. I've thrown up only twice and to make myself feel better, gained less weight so far. (Maybe it's because I didn't so such a great job of losing all of Emery's baby weight...)

I think Emery is excited for a baby and I think she will be an excellent big sister. She's always got something going on...right now she is carrying a broom and 5 gallon Lowe's bucket around the house. :) I really wish I knew what she was thinking about when she does things like that!!

In other news, we are very excited about what God has in store for us as a family! More on this later!!

Stuff We Don't Need

Lately, Ryan and I have been doing some downsizing. We've sold a bunch of our stuff, going through and donating other things. We are basically down to necessities. We talked about in Sunday School yesterday about how we go and serve in Nicaragua to these people who have absolutely nothing and we go, and serve and give them, in all reality, very little when our house is chalk full of stuff we don't need. How much better could we serve and relate if we had less "wants?" So last night after revisiting the conversation, we decided that when our kids are early teens we are going to start taking family trips there to build an entire house that we paid for ourselves. Our energy and money is going to the sweet people of Nicaragua. I am exciting! In the meantime, we'll continue to go and serve just without the kid.