Oh and for those of you wondering...yes we are just giddy about all of this awesome hurricane/weather geaky stuff!!!! But I'll save those details for Mrs Woody, who gets just as silly giddy over it as I do!

We visited church #8 this morning. What happened to church #7 you ask? Well, it was ok and still is a possibility maybe, but it is over a 30 minute drive away and I am over 37 weeks pregnant....they don't mix so well right now. By the time we would get to service, then stay and "meet" everyone afterwards, get to somewhere to have lunch, wait for the Sunday crowds and make it home, it is almost 3 and I'm just not up to that. It would be different at Grace because it is home and my family would grab my kids the minute I came in the door and I could just relax and worship, not so up here, yet. So anyway, back to church #8. It is the church our doula goes to, and more importantly it is close. We quickly checked out the website and didn't see anything too alarming...somethings that told us for sure it wouldn't be our home church, but fine to visit. Ummmm, they didn't mention that they are very very very charistmatic!!! The music was rockin and that was nice for a change. Joshua and Leah were a bit confused by all of the dancing and such, thankfully we are back row joe's right now, so they coudln't see all of the dancin going on. The prophetic utterances and healings were a little much for us, but hey they prayed to turn Gustav away from N.O., so maybe the Lord will listen. Sermon was very fluffy and I think he read the scripture he said he was basing his sermon on, not sure that he ever got there, but he talked about reading it several times. So, all and all, not for us, but it was an entertaining Sunday morning for us. :-)

This afternoon we clean out the truck and rearrange car seats to include Pod's and scrub our bedroom and bathroom....all I'm sure in vain because it'll have to be redone before this kid gets here, but hey, I'm a planner. I'm really uncomfortable these days and my sleep has gotten to the rediculous point...and if one more medical professional asks me how I'm sleeping again, I think I'll tell them I don't have time because I'm training for the next gymnastics olympic trials or some other response that is just as rediculous as their question! I'm having lots of contractions, which is different from Joshua and Leah....so maybe that means my body will get this whole labor & DELIVERY figured out this time. Who knows. Maybe it is just fun torture for me. Ha!

We bought the world's biggest doo doo doo last weekend and got a free rug for our living room!


There is a huge air show right on Lake Eerie every Labor Day here. So, yesterday we went and met Robert for lunch on the water and watched the "big jets", as Leah screamed over and over, practice.

I think Leah has decided to potty train....guess she figured out that I was ignoring that fun little venture. She has poopied and tee teed in the potty every day this week. Sigh. Don't know that I have the energy for this, but I guess it must be done.

6 more days til Sarah gets here, I can't wait! I've been a bit more tired every day this week and I'm just ready for a break.

We have a big ole ton of stuff to do this weekend, but hopefully we will get the list knocked out and can relax some before Pod makes an appearance.

Baby Pinto has arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Corbin Frank was born this morning. YEA AMIE!!!!!!!!!

Edited to clarify that this is my sisters first baby. Ours is still snug as a bug...much to Mommy's discomfort! :-)

I just spent all morning going thru the crockpot website I linked to the other day. I have a list of to tries ready to go. That way, when I am meal planning each week, I can just list which ones to do, then Robert and/or Sarah (I'm guessing this will end up being a joint venture between the two of them) can pull up the website, cruise to that date and get the ingredients for the shopping list. Easy. I have my first recipe from there in the crock for tonight, since we have an OB appt this afternoon and then our Doula, Angie, will be over tonight. Although, it is kind of cheating since it is only Taco Soup, and I could make that without a recipe, and I don't think I really followed her recipe anyway, but she was my inspiration. Dinner has been completely prepared, on my part at least, since 10 AM! WHO HOO! And the kids loved getting to help dump everything in the pot, bonus points! In case you missed it, go check out her blog. She made a resolution to cook in her crockpot every day this year. Some good stuff over there. I think I am going to do some ribs next. I think it has been since 2002 since I"ve made ribs for us.

www.crockpot365.blogspot.com

Leah just went tee tee on the potty for the first time!!!!!!! YEA!!!!!!

Someone broke into our truck last night. Ok, we don't lock our vehicles, so I guess they didn't really "break" into it, just got into it. It was obviously young kids because they just went thru the console and glove box. Apparently they weren't impressed wi1th our sun glasses or phone chargers. They thought they were impressed with our cd's until in our neighbors yard, they realized that they were kids bible cd's and dumped quite a few of them.....oh and our owners manual. We are high class people after all! The kids and I walked the street some to see if they dumped any of our other stuff and foudn someone else's car charger on the side walk. I'll Robert around the whole block tonight to see if they find anything else. Guess I should call the police too, just to report it.

High today was 72 with a chilly breeze.

Random thoughts....cause let's face it, that is about all I have right now.
-Did you know we are going to have a baby? Just hit me on Saturday. This pregnancy has been such a rollercoaster in and of itself, it hadn't really hit me we will have a new baby soon. Cool.
-Did some last minute shopping for said baby on Saturday, hence the reason that I realized we were having a baby. Now we really do have to get these honey do's done. My house is not clean enough to labor in, much less have a new baby in.
-Olympics are over, YEA!!! We can finally get back to life around here, which will include above mentioned lists tackling and SLEEP! Praise God!
-We enjoyed the Olympics, but there were a few nights that were just down right boring. I mean really, whose idea was it to broadcast the marathons in their entirety...on prime time??????????? And I didn't feel like there was near enough coverage of the offbeat events. I like to see sports I've never heard of or know anything about. Keeps life interesting....
-Did anyone else notice how annoying the track and field people were. Really, they are already so full of themselves, why do they even need to be at the Olympics. I could have done without alot of them, even though I enjoyed watching some of the events. You just didn't see that in the other sports, for the most part.
-Ever feel like you are talking to yourself???? Well, that is how this blog feels right now. Just sayin.
-Check out this website. It has TONS of crockpot recipes, and reviews of how well they turn out. I am gearing up to get this going as our survival method for the next 6 months or so. http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ Even Robert can open cans and dump them in.
-Should start getting our raw milk this Saturday!!!! YEA!!!
-36ish weeks pg+ Pizza Hut Supreme Pizza = Really Bad Heartburn...note to self
-Joshua and Leah talk about Sarah getting here constantly. Every time they see a plane, they say, Sarah's plane....but now it has also become, Sarah's plane, then Mrs Velarde's plane, then Mr Velarde's plane, etc. Sounds good to me! And every time we pass the airport, which is pretty frequent, they ask if we are going to pick up Sarah. Apparently, in their world, Sarah is patiently sitting at the airport waiting for us to decide to get her. Poor Sarah! I bet she needs a shower by now. lol!

The Olympics need to be over now. I just can't stay up until 1 am every night when I'm this pregnant. NOT FUNCTIONING!!!! Is it nap time yet? These kids are driving me crazy!

Ob went as well as you could hope. Not perfect, but good. I think if we can just hold him off til about a week after my due date, then we are good. The closer we get to the due date, the worse he'll be.....however, we discussed alot of other issues and he was fine with whatever we want. Honestly, he and I both know that I"m not going to the hospital until the last possible moment and so most things are a moot point....he even said as much. So, I would say we are on the same page, but maybe not the exact same book mark. We have an "understanding", ;-). We are grateful to have him. Even he mentioned that just 4 years ago, he would have gotten filed on for not making a women try to VBAC. Crazies! We do feel quite blessed because God has answered our prayer for an OB that really could care less what we do.

And on a brighter note, here are some cute kiddo pics.


Leah playing the drums.

Robert and Kids "Searching"

Big Searching Find....Cicada Shell displayed on Leah's shirt

Quiet around here....kind of. Joshua is in a rebellion phase, glad it is hitting now and not when Pod gets here. So, I'm trying to be a consistent parent and helping him thru this. ;-)

Had our ultrasound yesterday. Everything was fine. By their stuff, the baby is measuring at 38 weeks, which is 2 weeks ahead of my original due date. I don't think that should be a big deal with Dr Gingo. My big appointment with him is tomorrow. Lots of discussions to have. Hopefully they'll go quickly and smoothly. Honestly, I'm just praying that he doesn't care that much and goes along with whatever we want.

Today is Amie's due date. Happy due date Pinto!!!! Now we can get ready to have a baby pinto!

We had a nice, uneventful weekend. Saturday we got up and took some oils and other YL stuff to a girl from a message board that I've joined here. She is having really really bad thrush issues, so I took her some oregano, melrose, Life 5 and Inner Defense. Hopefully she's feeling better today. I felt bad for her because she is on medicaid and the prescription that doctor gave her isn't working but she can't get approval to see someone else or even that same one again for three months. And people want us to have state health care???? NO THANK YOU!

We also went to have breakfast at Bob Evans. We have fallen in love with Bob Evans. It is a Cracker Barrel kind of place, but is local....at least started in Ohio, I think they are spread across the country now, but we had never eaten at one til here. We love it. Even Leah can spot a Bob Evans sign when we pass one. After breakfast, we came home and cheered on the Tomec's who are putting up a fence. Robert also got all of the empty boxes moved from the sun room to the atic over the garage....not a small feat! It was a nice, low key day.

Sunday we visited church #7 again, but at their church this time. It is nice and somewhat like minded, so that is the first positive we've found. However, the preaching seems a bit inmature to us. Robert and I both felt that way. I think we will probably visit there some more to get a better feel for things. It hasn't bowled us over like Grace did the first time we visited there, but it is a nice shower in the desert we've been trudging thru. And honestly, we are getting close to the homebound stage of things for us anyway.

On a very very very happy note.....Sarah V is coming to stay with us for a long time to help!!!! You don't konw what relief that is for Robert and I. We both cried when Vince told us that he and Ruth were going to let her come. She's even going to come for a few weeks before the baby. That is soooo awesome, especially since Robert has a business trip and will be gone some of that time. It also means I can actually have some help finishing cleaning this house and I can get Joshua and Leah's closets cleared out and cataloged so I know what we are going to need for winter. That was something I had just assumed wasn't going to get done at all. The kids are sooo excited. Leah keeps walking into the guest room (that my wonderful husband got cleaned out and organised yesterday) and saying "Sarah, nice." Which is Leah-ease for I can't wait for Sarah to get here and see her nice clean room. Joshua seems to think that Sarah will be here tomorrow, no matter how many times I tell him it will be three weeks from now. Of course, with his behavior today, I don't know that he'll make it until she gets here!

I'm doing good. Uncomfortable, but not miserable. Ready not to be pregnant any more, but not really ready to take care of a newborn. I'll be 36 weeks on Wednesday, but some peoples dates, lol. I have an ultrasound tomorrow, then an ICAN meeting on Wed and then an OB appt on Thursday. Please pray for us to have favor with this OB. It seems that no other doors or options are open to us. Thursday will be our big talk on where he sees this birth going, and me asking alot of questions that OB's don't necessarily like asked. I just keep praying for God to give us his favor in this birth and to bless us with a safe vaginal delivery. Who knows? Maybe God's plan is for us to have surgery to have all of our babies, but if it is, I hope he makes that clear, like this baby turns transverse or something indisputable.

I do have to say that I"m pretty lonely right now. I miss my GCC girls. All of you. It never mattered what mood I was in, there was always a perfect ear that I could call at GCC. Although, I still have the phone and can call, it's hard not knowing if I will be interrupting life. There, I was part of your lives, and usually knew what most of you were up to, so I knew when it was ok to call. I have some of the AP girls here, that I could call, but I don't really want to. Like I said, they aren't the same, like minded sisters, bonded in Christ. Robert laughs at me because I hate talking to people at these new churches. I'm just not the fake conversation kind of girl, and so I just don't feel like putting the effort into talking to someone I may never see again. So today, with being lonely and Joshua being on a streak, I'm just blah!

Please also keep our house in Texas in your prayers. We were having 4-5 showings a week, and now we haven't had a single anything since July27th. Don't know what changed, but we've gotten NOTHING. We did lower the price too. Who knows? God has a buyer out there for us, we just think it would be really nice for them to come along soon.

My Mini Me

Robert has his, but I don't think it quite goes to the depths of Leah and I. Not only does the girl look like my Mini Me, but she is me. Right now, she is walking around the playroom, pushing her grocery cart, talking on her cell phone. Can't imagine where she's seen that before!

Still sooo tired. Wish I could still be a coffee addict. We were up until after 1 last night watching the women's gymnastics all around. I'm so glad that our girls beat the judges, since that was really their only close competition if it had been a level judging event. That little Chinese girl is going to be pretty good when she's actually old enough to compete. It makes me laugh that they say her age has been verified because her passport says her birthday is Jan 1, 1992....ummm, people, this is the Chinese government, they can change whatever they want. All the leaks from the government itself the past few years say she is only 14, HELLO! Anyway, what can the olympic committee do. I certainly don't think an international sports body has any right to question passports, sooo.....

Anyway, we are here. I'm waiting to hear from another midwife...the first one couldn't take me because a new policy at her hospital. You see, freaky, scary people like me are a threat to our world order! How dare we feel we have a right to do what we want with our bodies! I mean, I could walk into that hospital and ask to kill this baby, but HOW DARE I ask to birth it naturally!!!! Just a bit fed up with our over regulated world. I think I'll bust a blood vessel if Mr Socialism Himself gets elected president. He's probably regulate how many children we can have to start with. Grump!

The kids and I went to a park to play yesterday with some online friends. It was fun. Not exactly my crowd, but they were all nice enough. It was girls from the AP Cleveland message board I participate on. It's my link into the world of crunchies up here. It really really really made me miss my girl friends at home though. I'd much rather sit around chatting with Tammy, Rachelle, Ruth, Shannon, Angela and others about organics and our walk with the Lord. Most crunchies in the world aren't CHristian, and that is a much more important part of my life than my crunchiness, but hey it was a great park and we had a good time. And they had some really cute babies. Just a different world view than us.

Our First "Pet" or should it be mascot.....

This is our frog. Robert and the kids found him the first night they went "searching", and find him almost every night since. He'll be in a our flower bed, the Tomec's garden, our pool or other misc. places around the yard. It is always the BIG find of the night, so last night Joshua had to have a picture of our frog!

Soooo stinkin tired.....must get sleep......but MAN did you watch last night. I love me some olympics. I think watching Phelps out ahead of the whole pack a full body length almost the entire race was almost as fun as the relay.....almost, not quite. The mens gymnastics is making me mad. I know we had a bronze team and that is what we got, but when the Chinese can fall in a routine and still get 16's, somethin ain't right! I understand their start value is exponentially higher than some of ours, but you should actually have to perform the high value to get that start...and instant replay in gymnastics, PLEASE!

Midwife appointment today, not yesterday. I blame pregnancy brain!

We did the hospital tour of the hospital my current OB is at last night. Joshua and Leah stayed with the Tomec's, our beloved neighbors. They did fine, of course. Hospital is fine. Only thing that sounds fishy is the ped's take the babies to the nursery to do exams. That is what got us into so much trouble with Joshua, so we will fight that tooth and nail. Everything else sounded good. Pretty family friendly and sound like they really want to make your birth what you want it, instead of just what is convienent for the staff. However, I still hope we get to deliver at the other hospital with the midwife! We'll see what God has instore for us! He's got it all worked out already anyway.

Psalm 139 tells us so.
13For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

Joshua the cute boy

Had to post this before I forget.... Joshua is sooo cute. He is nesting for this baby. It cracks me up. He and Leah will be playing in the play room or one of their rooms, and he'll just stop out of the blue and say "Ok Leah, we have to clean this all up. We want to have a terrific surprise for the baby when she gets here. Won't that be a great surprise to have everything cleaned up."

Cracks me up every time.....and makes me wonder how I can harness this for the rest of his life. ;-) Let's just say that he is a little excited for this baby to get here. He got to feel Pod move the other day, and I think that really got him going. He still pretty much insists that this is a girl. Leah insists that it is a boy and its name is Bubba....we try to explain that she already has a Bubba and this one will have to at least be Baby Bubba, but she says no, "Bubba".

Have I mentioned that I LOVE the olympics!!!! For anyone that didn't stay up to see the mens 4x100 relay last night, you missed THE BEST RACE!!! IT was awesome!!! Of course, the fact that the French were doing so much smack talk before the race and then we came back and caught them at the wall, made it even better! I need toothpicks for my eyes from staying up late every night, but we just can't turn it off. Robert and I are addicts. We'll just catch up on sleep when the baby gets here, right? LOL!

Church #7 has us pretty optimistic. They are non denominational but are reformed. They call their worship, "intergenerational worship"....the pastor told Robert that they are moving towards family integrated. He actually just became reformed about three years ago, and he said it has been like turning the Titanic since with his church body, but they are getting there. They had a Worship in the Woods service yesterday. Basically, a GCC picnic, but they do worhsip at the park as well. So, you hear and smell the burgers cookin during service. It was fun! We will be going back next week! YEA! Oh, and they are about half homeschoolers! Robert and I were laughing about how we just seem to be able to find homeschoolers here. There aren't that many, but every church we've visited, that people actually talked to us, there have been homeschoolers.

Oh, and it was cold here yesterday. Thankfully we had checked the weather. I dressed the kids in long pants and shirts and brough jackets for them, thank goodness! Robert was in khakis and a long sleeve shirt and was cold the whole time. I wasn't but I have a built in potty bellied stove, as my neighbor so plainly pointed out one day, lol!

Today, I go meet a new midwife that delivers in the crunchier of teh hospitals up here. Hopefully she will take me, and I can get back to real prenatal care. I feel sorry for women that see OB's. They give you no care at all. It is sad! Try a midwife, you'll never go back!

I see absolutely nothing wrong with a pink purse and a Daniel Boone hat!

Coleman News

This morning, even with the olympics on, we went exploring. The Theme A Week photo group that I participate in has the theme of Architecture this week. Well, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame happens to be here in Cleveland and it was designed by I.M. Pei, so I knew I had to go get shots of it for this weeks theme. I'm not a big architecture lover, but I can appreciate genius when I see it. This building is AMAZING! I just walked around and around looking at it. Every little facet is so impressive. I can't wait to actually do the tour. So, I now demand that Puffin and Shana and anyone else that would go gah gah over the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame come to visit, PRONTO! Just check out my slide show to see that I mean business!

Big Day Today

We have a big day today. First, we are going to play at the mall with our "friend" this morning. Pretty exciting stuff, I tell ya.

Then we come home, do lunch and kids nappies. I frantically pick up and clean for the first visitor to our house. We get to meet our doula tonight!!!!!! So excited!

Then, the big event! The olympics opening ceremonies!! Hope NBC doesn't ruin it! Just let enjoy the splendor without the forced network gunk!

I don't know what the people that lived here before us did????!?!?! I know they had to of locked their dogs up in certain places, the tail tail signs of massive amounts of scratches and filth on the walls kind of gives it away. BUT, they must also have never washed theirs or theirs childrens hands AND walked rubbing down the walls constantly. I've never seen walls so dirty! I could give grace for the kitchen/dining room area. Maybe the baby just threw alot of food, but it is everywhere. The walls are just nasty. I started scrubbing them today, but it will be a long process since I have to stop when I get crampy and contractiony. But hey, it keeps me distracted from all of our junk that needs to be picked up and put away!

For anyone interested, Dr Phil is asking for opinions on homebirth. I'd love for the show to actually accurately portray the issues.

Last night, I got to go to a raw milk coop meeting. YEA! It was almost in Akron, which is just a tad farther than Cleveland for us. Akron is much prettier than Cleveland....kind of like The Woodlands compared to Houston. Anyway, I'm really excited. It will come out to about $4.60/gallon for raw milk here, as opposed to the $8/gallon we were paying in Texas. It is a herd share program, so we don't "buy" the milk, we pay boarding fees for our cow, lol! I can't wait for our first time to go do pick up because it is an Amish farmer. We will be on a 12 week rotation to go pick up the milk at the farm, very doable. We can also get organic beef, chicken, lamb, eggs and grains from them. Fun stuff!

Joshua's favorite thing right now is to go "searching" with Daddy after dinner. The three of them head off around our house and our neighbors gardens, searching. They find all kinds of fun stuff, like empty robins eggs, baby robin chicks, frogs, crickets, cycadas, bird feathers etc etc etc. They can't wait to come tell me what they find. So, we can knock off about an hour and half of the required 900 hours of schooling for the year every evening on science and math studies! Hmmm, now that I think about it, I can probably knock off another hour on Joshua's oral report! This homeschooling stuff is easy. lol!

Speaking of homeschooling, Joshua is doing quite well with his reading skills. I wouldn't say he is reading yet, but he does sound words out with us. It is pretty cool stuff.

My other big goal before Pod arrives was to have Leah potty trained......I decided it would be easier to keep her in diapers. :-)

I haven't talked about politics on here much lately, but it is on my mind alot. You see, this is union Blue country. Everything is rediculously over regulated, especially for a girl coming from Texas-land of the free! Going thru the medical system here is crazy, they assume they own me, my body, my child and anything else they can get their hands on.....AND they think I should be grateful for that. PLEASE! I bring all of this up today because the UberScary Barack Obama will be in our area today. Like, at a college we drove by to go to church on Sunday. Thankfully Robert gave me the warning, so I don't go out and get stuck in the mess. Our neighbors are nice conservatives like ourselves, so we get to sit out on the lawn and talk about the mess this area is in because of the liberal politicians in control....although that will be changing because about half of them came under indictment last week for ALL kinds of gross and illegal behavior. Robert and I registered to vote at the carnival a few weeks ago, but we are going to probably have to reregister. You see it was the Obama campaign signing people up and they asked if we had decided who we would vote for yet, and we said it wouldn't be Obama. We were under the weird delusion that ethically they would still have to register us, but our neighbor last night was saying he wouldn't count on that ever showing up. So, we are going to reregister. I pray that our votes here make a difference!

Today I scored a HUGE lot of girls 3t winter clothes. Leah is definitly set for pants for the winter, also got two really nice coats. Just focusing on shirts and jackets for her now. WHO HOO! I love Craigslist! Still watching for Joshua, but sadly, I think he is to the age where things don't last to pass on, but I'm determined to try and find as much for him resale as possible. There is a children's resale shop here that I haven't hit up yet, I was waiting for winter stuff to start coming out. Today, I heard that high school marching band beginning practice, so everyone should be gearing up for school soon, which means winter clothes! YEA!

We also got our webcam in and set up today. So, if anyone wants to chat on Skype, we'd love to have some interaction!! It is free.

Church #7 next week.

Some exciting news.....

First, my awesome amazing husband got our garage completely emptied, cleaned and organised, so as soon as our landlord gets us a replacement remote, I can start parking in a garage...for the first time in my life. I feel so fancy! Ya'll just don't understand what a HUGE undertaking this was! The day we unloaded the moving truck here, it started raining and hailing on us and so everything left got thrown into the garage.....and hadn't moved since. I really feel like we might be totally settled in by the time that Pod gets here. Which with the weird shake up at our doctors appointment this week could be any time between the end of August and the end of September. Don't they know that due date drama is not good for a pg Mama.....even in this great weather?

Also, we found a pretty acceptable Mexican food restaurant tonight for dinner. Not authetic Tex Mex, of course, but good enough to fix a craving here and there...... we'll see if we still feel the same way tomorrow, LOL!!!

My thoughts exactly....and all of you pg friends out there too, I suspect.

http://toddleddredge.com/the-usual-blather/maternity-fashion-if-toddled-dredge-wrote-fashion-friday

McDonald's was fun....food was gross. The playplace was HUGE. The room it was in was the same size as the rest of the restaurant and the play structure was 2 stories high! The other family told us that some of them are three stories. Apparently, that is your only play option in the winter. The kids had a BLAST! I wish I would have taken the camera because Joshua and Leah's faces were priceless. Leah is a DAREDEVIL. She went straight to the top and came flying down the big slide all flipping around and almost landed on her head and loved every second of it. After Leah did it a couple of times, Joshua decided he woudl try it. Eventually it was the two of them constantly running the loop to the big slide. The climb up steps were too big for Leah, so Joshua would climb up one then pull her up and so on all the way to the top. It was too cute. The other families children weren't real interested in playing with J and L but that is ok, they had a ton of fun!

Family was really nice and might be a play group option, but we will still be looking for a church. I asked if they were reformed and the pastor explained that they aren't affliated with a particular group of baptists, I knew then we were in trouble. Robert finally got him around to theology and he was chatting along after Robert asked about predestination and his wife goes....isn't that called Calvinism or something, and he quickly pointed out that they were definitly not Calvinist, in an appalled kind of way. Little did he know that he had two very Calvinistic people sitting listening, it was kind of funny. We talked about alot of other things also. Told them alot about Grace, he seemed interested after looking at the website. Robert and I both walked away thinking that church #5 could be a fall back church in the end, but isn't the end of our search at this point. So, today Robert will come home and announce church #6. Who hoo.

Please pray that God would graciously allow us to have a vaginal birth. We had a little hiccup at our OB appointment today.

8 Days and Counting.....

Until the Olympics begin. I don't care about all of the political hype and boycotting, I'm excited! I love the olympics. Always have!

We have a doula now, which is a good thing since there is a chance that Robert will have to stay with the kids when I have the baby. She's a Christian and I'm excited! She also gave us a lead on a great pediatrician!!!! YEA!!!!!!

Tomorrow is a big day. We have TWO things scheduled. Count them, 1 2 IN ONE DAY! Can you believe it? LOL. I have an OB appt at noon. Then, for dinner we are meeting the pastors family from church #5. They chose to meet for dinner at McDonald's. ACK! Robert and I had to seriously talk about whether to go or not. I don't think our children have ever eaten at McDonald's. Joshua has had it before thanks to lovely Mrs "I am ready to be a grandmommy" Woody. So, I will be super charging our breakfast and lunch with lots of veggies, Greens First and Ningxia Red, since we will get no nutritional value from dinner. That being said, the kids are going to love it! The pastor has a 4 year old and 2 year old also, so hopefully it will be a great play time for everyone. We are praying that the Lord guides us to the body He has for us. So, we are really hoping He shows us what is His priority list for our next church.

Earthquake

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/29/earthquake.ca/index.html

There was an earthquake in LA today. Specifically, the center was about 1/2 mile from where our rent house was. There is a fault line running thru the hills right down the road from where we lived. Crazy huh. This is the biggest one since right after Joshua was born. I remember laying in bed beside Joshua and the bed started shaking like someone was trying to wake me up. It wasn't scary at all, just kind of surreal that the whole room was shaking. That one, however, was centered much further away. I can't imagine what that old little rent house did when this one went off.

Our camera battery is back home and so camera action will be back soon!

We had a nice weekend. Nothing real exciting. On Saturday, we went and had Leah's 2 year pics done. She was perfect! Seriously, all of the photographers kept coming in because they couldn't believe they had a 2 year old that was so cooperative. We were a bit in shock too. She posed exactly the way they put her and then gave them the cheesiest cheesier smiles you've ever seen. Then we all went on a hunt for a sweater for me. I bought this really cute maternity dress, but it is sleeveless. We don't do sleeveless,but I thought it woudl be easy to find one of those cute little half sweater thingys to go with it. Not so much. We found one that might work ok at Penney's but it was $50. We may still end up going back for it, haven't decided yet. It is kind of cool up here, so sweaters stay out on the racks year around. They are pulling summer stuff and bringing winter now too.

We are scouring Craig's List for little things we need to pick up, like an area rug for our living room. Right now it is wood laminate kind of stuff and our furniture slides around every time you sit down. Joshua lvoes pushing the furniture around, but it is starting to annoy me. We are alos looking for a snow blower, lol! Everyone says they are cheaper right now, and hey, we love cheaper! I'm also, of course, watching the childrens clothes liek a hawk to start snatching up winter clothes. We've yet to score anything on Craigs list here, hope our luck changes soon.

We visited church #5 yesterday. #5 is the best we've been to so far. Robert needs to talk to the pastor for sure. He is young and enthusiatic and seems very intent on serving the Lord. We do have some questions though. We don't konw if they are reformed or not. They are having a bible prophecies seminar next weekend, and we don't know what they mean by that. They had a long discussion about getting a new temporary building so they could start a youth program on Wednesday nights yuck. But we enjoyed the service. They sing hymns but it wasn't the funeral durge ones we've suffered thru the last few weeks. We'll see. This is the first one we are considering even following up on at all. OH, and it was 80% blue hairs, but that doesn't really bother us so much. It seems like we may be catching them in a transition, just looking at the pastor compared to the congregation.

I'm thinking of all of ya'll in TExas. I saw the high in Dallas today is supposed to be 107, so glad I'm not there! The weather here is still great. We've maxed out one day at 86 but usually it is low 80's or mid 70's. Mild humidity at best. Nice!

Third Times a Charm

Well, it has taken me three pregnancies, but I finally have a stretch mark. Big ole ugly one right above my belly button. There was something else too that is new this time but apparently I've had too many brain cells leached off of me to remember.

on with your lives citizens!

We Have A Friend!

Ok, at least we had a playdate with someone and it was really fun. We met one homeschooling family at the 4th of July party we went to. Today we met the Mom, Emily and daughter, Whitney 7, at the mall to play and chat. It was really fun, like we were real people or something, lol. Emily and I got to sit and chat and the kids ran around crazy, like they hadn't seen people in 40 years. Joshua was so excited. He wanted to hold Mrs. Wilson's hand to walk thru the mall....he misses all of you GCC extra Mommies! We played and talked homeschooling and healthy living and husbands jobs. So fun. She told me there is a Scholastic Warehouse right here in Strongsville that has teacher sales pretty regularly, so I'll get to score some great buys there once I get signed up. I know you Homeschooling Mommies are jealous! I think we are going to meet again next week. YEA!

Now the big thing for the rest of this week is to wait for our meat. We ordered our first order of beef from www.paidom.com and now we are just waiting for it to get here. I CANNOT wait to eat some yummy organic steaks again! I've missed my Paidom beef! We are pretty good on chicken here. They have some Amish raised chickens that are almost as good as organic, so we can do that from the store. We just haven't been able to find good organic beef yet. We ordered from Paidom when we lived in CA too. If you haven't checked them out yet, you should. Alan is great to work with and so awesome about the way he runs his ranch, as well as the way he watches over the butchering process of his cows.

Saturday we are doing Leah's 2 year old portraits. Got find something to do with her hair, it is CRAZY!

OB appointment went fine today. They haven't received my U/S report from last week yet, so I have to go back next week, yuck. Another yuck, Ohio requires you to be tested for gonerea and chlymidia, no opting out. Honestly, if it were the beginning of my pg, I would have fought it, but at this point, whatever. It just ticks me off the state/government thinks they have any say over what I do to my body. And waht a waste of money! I know for a fact I have no STD's, so why does it make any fiscal sense to keep doing useless stupid test. BLAH! Anyway, so while they were at it today, he went ahead and did my group B strep test as well. I've always been negative before, and this time I took YL Inner Defense for a week leading up to the test, just to make sure. Just one more battle that I woudl rather not have to fight.

Anyway, on to positives....a cute kiddo story.
Our family memory verse two weeks ago was Joshua 3:7. Yesterday at lunch, we were practicing. Joshua quoted it for me and then Leah repeats it after me. When we finished, I said "Joshua 3:7" and she diligently said "Bubba 3:7". I about died trying not to cackly hysterically out loud!!!

Happies for Today

This blog has had mean in tears laughing so hard. Warning...there are some cuss words, so not kid friendly.
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Also, our friends the Greens have some great news on their adoption blog.
http://tobefruitfulandmultiply.blogspot.com/

Please support homeschooling in Ohio.

As you guys know, we plan on homeschooling our children. This is very important to us! Please take a moment and look over this link about help that is needed right now. It doesn't take very long to send a short letter of support for the homeschoolers here.

http://ohiohsalert.org/

We had a good family weekend. Saturday we got up and unpacked the rest of the living room. That means that we really only have the office to figure out and the garage. We have to get the garage organised so I can park in there this winter. Getting three kids in and out of the car in the snow would not be fun in the least!

We finished up chores and headed out for errands. Target and Heinen's and then the long awaited trip to the carnival. Joshua was beside himself. We got the kids little ride bands for unlimited rides and went after it. Thankfully they had picnic tables all over so I could sit down alot. The kids rode and rode and I just sat being sad not to have my camera. Joshua got to ride the kids rollercoaster and his face was PRICELESS! He loved every second of it. They both rode the mini ferris wheel, which was too cute too. Robert rode the Dizzy Dragons with them and taught them how to get the dragon spinning super fast until you get almost sick. There were some other rides they did over and over as well, including a carousel. It was so fun. We came home for naps and then headed back up for more rides. The kids got to share and ice cream with Daddy and we all had so much fun. It was a really great family day.

Sunday we visited church #4. It was ok. Just ok. We'll try again next week. It is always Robert surprise on Friday to tell what church we are going to visit on Sunday.

We have an OB appt this week. And we might get to meet up with the homeschooling family that we met on the 4th!

Oh yeah.....

And, my sweet husband indulged a pregnancy craving for me tonight and took us to Longhorn steak house. I ate everything they put in front of me, YUMMMM! RED MEAT!!!

On the bad news side of the board, we can't find the charger or extra battery for our camera, so no pics to come until they are no longer MIA. I'm sure they are, come on....say it with me..... "IN A BOX SOMEWHERE"

Busy week.

We had Leah's birthday on Tuesday. I can't believe she is 2 already, where has the time gone....oh yeah, could be moving and gestating and lactating etc etc etc. She was excited to all day tell us "Lele Dirbay, 1-2" holding up 1 or 5 fingers. One time she got just two fingers up, we were so proud of her.

Wednesday she woke up and told me "Lele dirbay, 1-2" and was not very happy when I told her that no it wasn't her birthday any more, it was Sara's. That afternoon, we went to the Strongsville Homecoming Parade. Yes, these weirdos have homecoming that isn't part of football. It was Joshua and Leah's first parade and they had a BLAST! It lasted about an hour and a half, LONG! They both had bags and were soooo cute scrambling to pick up candy for their bags. They didn't realize everyone else ate the candy later, they just thought the game was picking it up! Daddy took the candy to work this morning, but Joshua and Leah got to play with their necklaces, frisbees and fire hats. It was really really fun. Pretty warm, but we had to laugh. Everyone kept mentioning what a scorcher we are having. Yesterday it hit 90 and today was supposed to max out at 92, a real killer! We don't even have the humidity to make it yucky hot. So, we just smile and enjoy a good chuckle!

Today, Leah woke up and asked me if it was her "derbay" and I said no. She smiled and said "Tantain derbay!" She's so cute. We had an ultrasound appointment today. Everyone kept asking why I hadn't had one before now, like I had committed a cardinal sin. And, everyone, the u/s tech and two doctors, commented on how stubborn our baby is. He/she was flipped over so they couldn't see his face and couldn't get many decent shots of his organs. Oh well. I told them that was about par for my children. I think they expected me to be stressed by it, but of course I'm not. Size and all of that looked good for age, blah blah blah. No major abnormalities, that they could tell, of course they emphasized that part. We see our OB again next week.

This weekend we are going to try and beat this heat, lol! I think we are going to catch a break on Sunday and a front will come thru and get us back in the upper 70's where we should be. *big roll eyes here** Saturday we are going to try and get some carnival time in before the teenagers take over. Robert heard at work that right after the parade, when we left, there was a big fight between a bunch of teen boys and it became a real mob scene. Glad we were long gone!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PLANTAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Bitty!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEAH!!!!!!!

Two years ago today, we got to meet Sweet, Little Spitfire Leah Katheryn! None of our lives have been the same since. She is awesome! She has her Daddy and Big Brother wrapped around her little finger. Robert and I never really wanted any girls and would still be ok with just our one, but man, we couldn't live without our one. She is so spunky. People are just drawn to her personality. We pray that she comes to know Jesus' saving grace early in life and serves Him every day of her life....that she will keep herself pure and holy for her spouse and that she will grow in grace and beauty daily.

We love our Leah!

Fireflies