Climber

Ladies and Gentleman we have a climber! Two weeks ago Annie realized that she could get up onto the couch by herself by throwing her leg up (to her ears) and lifting herself up. Its quite a funny thing to watch.
Yesterday I found Annie on the dining room table playing with the salt and pepper shakers! I am glad there wasn't much on the table because she had pulled the tablecloth off in the process!
I also found her on the entryway bench reaching for my keys on the hook.
This morning I found her in her toy basket and then standing in a baby jumper at church!
I told Joe at lunch that we were in trouble...

Then I put her down for a nap and was folding laundry and doing things on the computer all the while listening to her jabber in the monitor. About 45 min later I heard her grunting so I went up a few minuets later to change her diaper and upon arriving upstairs found her door open and her bed empty!!! My heart dropped into my toes until I rationally realized that I was just hearing her in the monitor! I called her name and out she ran from my room down the hall!
Kelly stopped at home at that moment so we put her back in her bed and asked her how she got out. She threw her leg up (to her ears) over the rail and lifted herself out of bed!!!

Now I know that she is not the first baby to learn to get out of bed, but come on! Have you seen how short and tiny this little thing is? Just yesterday I had someone ask me again if she could walk yet! She is not supposed to be able to do these things!

So after her getting out 2 more times I decided to pull out the old flannel baby sleeper that she zips into so that she cant get out of bed! She screamed her head off mad at me but quickly fell asleep :o)
Haha, outwitted by Mom (until she finds the zipper)!

Pigtails

Love!

Leaving to watch Daddy Coach a Basketball Tournament Game
the uniform and pom poms are a must have, what a great house to bring another girl into!

20 Weeks + House Update

Well for documentation purposes here is a picture of me at 20 weeks. I am still trying to wear my old comfy long sleeved shirt that I "adopted" from Joe when we were dating :o) Its getting just a little snug. At 20 weeks along with Annie I felt cute, people were still saying "you're pregnant?" when they saw me and it was spring time so I was wearing less sweatshirts, coats and sweaters that tend to hide pregnancy a little longer.
I don't feel cute at all this time, I miss the cute feeling. I just feel huge, fat and tired. I decided that my diet may have something to do with that and the fact that I am not making it to the gym nearly as often. I need to start eating better but I am in such a rut of wanting to eat crap all of the time! Nothing sounds good so I tend to eat potato chips until I am not hungry any more and then I have the "I need a coke" moment and it tops off the crappy feeling. So I have decided to just turn to the vegetable/fruit drawer or eat a small meal even if its not "lunch time" yet so that I dont eat half a bag of chocolate teddy grahams!

I also must update you all on the house story. I can't remember what I have posted so far so forgive me if I am repeating myself.
We accepted a contract on our house on a wednesday and on saturday we put in a bid on the house in Cold Spring that we really love. They countered and we accepted and signed a contract on sunday night! So in a matter of 2 weeks we had listed our house, sold our house and bought a new one! And that was just about 4 weeks after the Lord had put the idea into our heads!!!

We had an inspection on our house last friday and the report came back decent, just a small list of rather annoying things that my husband has to fix before closing.

The inspection on the Cold Spring house was this morning and Joe was present for the walk through in the end. He said it was much better than he had anticipated and that we will get a more complete idea when we get the report. Which should be in the next few days!

The most interesting/confusing/problematic part of the story is that we close on our house in the morning of Wednesday March 31st and we close on the Cold Spring house in the afternoon. We both give and get occupancy at closing. So we will have to pack everything up on Tuesday and spend the night with it sitting in the truck outside his moms house. Then we can move it all in on the 31st or 1st whichever makes more sense.

HOWEVER we are going to have a HVAC system installed as the new house does not have air conditioning and has base board heating. We are also going to lay new carpet and paint the entire thing! Here is the kicker.... 6 weeks ago we purchased tickets to Phoenix for a vacation with our friends! We leave on the second of April!!!!! Our plan is to simply store all of our things in the basement and in the Living Room and Dining Room because they have hard wood floors that we are not covering in carpet. We will HOPEFULLY have the HVAC installed while we are gone for the week, and when we get back we will work VERY hard stripping wallpaper and painting and then have carpet laid while we stay with Joe's family for the week!

So if you dont have anything going on the week of April 11th and simply love to strip wallpaper or paint come on over because it will be a party!

I know I will want to die that week but the Lord has blessed us so much so far how could we not be excited about it???

Drumroll Please!!!!!!

Her little face was smooshed up against the placenta and she took the entire time to get her to move and open up her legs!

It's a GIRL!!! I am ridiculously excited! I feel a little guilty however because I know that my husband would like to have a boy someday and I wished and hoped and prayed that this would be a girl so I feel like its a girl because of me :o)

I know that it indeed is a girl because of me and I my wishing and hoping did not change what genetically happened at conception. But gosh I am sorry I have such dominant chromosomes :o)

All this time I was convinced it was a boy too... Oh well!

I also must add the conversation that Elly Beth and I had last night:
Me: "I am so excited I get to find out if this baby in my belly is a girl or a boy in the morning!"
Elly: "wellll Is it a boy baby?"
Me: "I dont know I have to wait till tomorrow to find out"
Elly: "but how will you know, you cant see inside your belly"
Me: "Well the hospital has a machine that can show you inside your belly"
Elly: Willlll it be wearing clothes, like if its a girl baby will it be wearing purple?"
Me: HA!! (wheels turning mind racing) "Ummmm nooo we will just look at its potty parts......."
Elly: "Oh!"
It was one of the most adorable EB moments ever!

So now I get to pick out a name which I LOVE to do and I don't have to waste time on trying to find a good boy name. You see I was putting off 50% of the arguments and crazy looks that would have happened between Joe and I by not talking about it till we knew the sex!

The arrow is pointing to the girl parts :o)

Pathetic Pregnancy Addictions

I am exhausted! I have no other way of putting it. I have no humorous lead in, no cute short story to sum up the shear tiredness that is me. The nice things about it is that I am a huge bum and so I don't commit to a lot of things. Also the snow has been an excuse to not go out. I have been trying to get a few things done a day so that when I sit on my couch trying to decide between perusing blogs and Internet scrabble vs watching TV I at least feel a little bit better about myself because the dishes are done!
I have good days and bad days, today is a bad day, I woke up tired! My baby is being nice so far (knock on wood) and is taking a long nap. So I have been able to get a few things done as well as lay on the couch mindlessly with no one to chaise.
I do have one slight guilt factor but honestly I am too "whatever" to even care. I think I am the only person on earth who becomes addicted to full sugar, non diet, rot your teeth out, caffeine addiction Coke during pregnancy! I really, really, really like it! I need it! I must have it. I can't decide if its the sugar, caffeine or carbonation that I crave. I tell myself that its the caffeine but honestly I think that its the mixture of all three all wrapped up in what my husband would call "sweet heavenly nectar" (only to him that means mountain dew...YUCK!)
Anyway I honestly am good with one glass a day so I don't worry about it. I am sure its not good for me or this child I am housing and I think its hilarious when my newly delivered patients at the hospital practically drag their epiduralized bodies to the vending machine for the Pepsi that they haven't had in 9 months! I just laugh and shake my head at my sad addicted self.
So as I sit here in a messy living room eating corn chips and drinking Coke and thinking about things that I should be getting done I thank the Lord that I have nothing but time to lay here and feel this small wonder go crazy all doped up on caffeine in my belly!

Today

I'm sorry the realtor is coming at WHAT time you say?!? I suppose I had better clean this up!
A small amount of reality has come back to my home, last night I made dinner for the first time in a week. My husbands reply "Are you sure you want me to eat red sauce on this nice tablecloth?".

While Annie was eating lunch today she pointed at the camera and said "baby" which is the same thing she says when she sees the computer because there are always cute babies to look at on them! She has also learned to say "cheese" so I snapped a few so she could see the baby :o)

Wisdom, Blessings...Trust?

I have been thinking a lot about wisdom since that is what Proverbs talks about and its what I am studying therefore going over on a daily basis. I am excited about wisdom, I am grateful that I have a Savior that choose me to gain wisdom. In Proverbs wisdom is personified as a female. She calls from her house, she calls from the city gates and from the tops of the hills to the people to come and gain knowledge and understanding. However at the same time there is the "woman of folly" who also calls out from her house and the city gates and the tops of the hills. Only her message is deceivingly wrong and leads to sin and death! And they are both there! And they are both calling! Its like the little angel and devil cartoons sitting on your shoulders talking into your ears only you cant tell which one is good and which is bad UNLESS you have the knowledge of the Lord!! Praise God that he sent His Son to die for my sins and choose me to have knowledge!

I am also overwhelmed by His provision to me and His numerous blessings. Being the topic that Pastor Brad has been preaching on lately it is consistently on my mind as well. After he preached on how we should respond to the disaster in Haiti, the summary I took away was: Don't question God, He allows things to happen that aren't always good. Thank him for the blessings when you receive them and don't question Him when you receive pain. If you are a child of God then you can get through whatever trials he gives you and still praise His name knowing that this life is temporary and that you will be in Heaven with Him someday.
However through this message I have also realized that though He has chosen to bless me greatly, He doesn't have to! He could choose any instance to be the hardship that I have to go through. He could give me a valley at any time.
In my times of pondering wisdom and thanking Him for blessing me with the ability to think, decide, and act according to His opening the doors of opportunity, I automatically think that blessings will be the reward or end result. However I am painfully aware that He could choose to grow me with some trials that in the END turns out to be a blessing in my life.

So now I am going to ask you my dear readers. Now what do I do with all of that? Is the answer simply to trust?
I am obviously thinking about the current major decision to sell this and buy a new house because lets be honest when I am not thinking about wisdom and blessings I am thinking about buying a house!!! And here is my current predicament... We pray for wisdom, we use the wisdom that we have been taught along the way. We honor God in staying within budget and not getting greedy, we lay out to Him the desires of our hearts, we ask for elderly godly advice. We do our research and trust those who have more wisdom than we do on certain subjects. We thank God for his timing and provision of this wonderful house thus far. We are honest in our end of the business part of the deal. And in the end we expect a blessing! Is that wrong? Will God say yes sell your house and then choose to try us by us not finding another one to live in? We have the short term covered, Joe's sister has graciously offered to let us live with them if we have the need for a little while. I see that as a blessing so that we don't have to worry about having a roof over our heads and we also don't have to waste His money on two mortgages etc...

So as I type all of these worries out I wonder, is my next lesson that I need to study and ponder a lesson on trust?

Love you,

I Am Housewife Hear Me Roar

I get thrills out of checking things off a to do list, this is not news to anyone around here. I frequently find my status updates and blogs listing the things that I accomplished in one day just to take credit for it, though you my friendly reader probably did just as much at your home with more children underfoot than I have! However the past few days have been such a blur of cleaning, scrubbing, boxing, organizing, fluffing and sprucing that I cant even remember what all I have done. However if you were to step foot in my house right now (remove your shoes please...jk) you would find shiny surfaces, missing dust bunnies who claim this address as their residence, lines in the carpet, and a smell that makes you think cleanliness rather than poopy baby bottom masked by Lavender room mist :o) I have yet to make more than a bottle in my kitchen in the past 2 days and I am trying to figure out how I am going to live in a balance of being show ready and dwelling in this abode for however long the Lord has in mind for us. I am sure I will slowly slide back into some sort of normalcy however for right now I am trying to gingerly lay on my couch so as to not squash the cushions that I spent time so lovingly fluffing last night... go ahead and laugh at me I am :o)
I will share one story from this morning just for records sake.
I saved sweeping and mopping for this morning so that everything would be lovely for our 8:45 showing. Joe and I were up at 6:45 with the first showing jitters and not willing to hit the snooze for fear that we wouldn't get enough done. I mopped and started to open all the blinds, as requested by my realtor. My mom told me not to wash the windows, she said that with all I had to do please don't worry about the windows. I decided that was worthy advice and so I only washed the 2 places that had Annie drool on them from watching for her Daddy. So at 7:00 this morning when I opened a blind that hadn't been open in 6 months I found that a bird had pooped through the screen and onto the window. Well of course I couldn't just leave it, and I couldn't just wash one out of the 3 dining room windows. So I began washing, I finished up with the poopy one and when I folded in the huge convenient window to wash it the whole thing broke off in my hands!!! It of course fell and left huge gashes in the window sill just after my husband finished touch up painting until 2 last night!! I went upstairs in an angry huff to tell my husband and he calmly replied..."I will fix it"... and he did... just like that! I couldn't believe that a HUGE window broke off in my hands as I was trying to just finish up a few minor details! Oh well!

I will leave you with the aforementioned closet divine. The picture doesn't do it justice, but yes Momma I do dream about closets if they are the Martha Stewart kind!

I am off to bed... I am housewife hear me snore!

Stream of Consciousness

This morning I made it to the gym which is a HUGE accomplishment for me these days as I have been so stinkin' busy. I had a lovely work out and it felt good!

We headed over to Big Lots (love!) to pick up some wicker baskets that I had seen a few weeks ago praying that they were still there. They did have them although they were NOT Big Lots prices I still got 4 of them because I figured that I would have spent that amount elsewhere and they are super cute! I will take a picture of Annie's now Martha Stewart/Southern Living magazine cover closet! It is the closet I have always dreamed of!

The laundry in the basement was semi tackled as was the storage space in the attic thanks to my husband who lastnight took a truckload of stuff out of the attic to his sisters basement to store. I also cleaned out our coat closet which the contents of are now on the Dining Room table :o( There was a LOT of crap that I had no idea was in there!

We are no longer "that house" as the Christmas decorations have been taken down outside just in time for the Sibcy Cline Photographer to come Thursday!

After showering and a snack that Annie politely refused we chilled in the living room for a while. Earlier Annie had gotten out two brand new identical decks of cards and spread them around the room so as I was sorting them and talking to Kara on the phone I smelled a stinketh coming from my child. A few min. later when I went to chase her from going up the stairs I found that she had leaked out of her diaper and pants and it was in her socks!! So I took her immediately to the bathtub and stripped her down and gave her the second bath in an hour! Upon returning downstairs I found a HUGE puddle of poo in the corner of the living room where all of her toys are! So I had to wash toys and scrub her playhouse, wash doll clothes and mop the floor! It was the most disgusting thing I have ever done! I am really scared that she has the bug that has been going around everyone including my family however she ate a little bit for dinner and she is sleeping soundly so only time will tell....

Now after dinner and a Jeopardy College Championship break I am off to do some more organizing!!

But before I do I think I will share what I learned in my bible study this morning.
I am studying Proverbs and it was talking about the teaching that your parents have instilled in you and the wisdom that you gain from studying the word and the blessings that it will have in your life, a light, a guide etc. The study asked me to compare where it said "wisdom" and where it mentioned "heart" and how they relate. My conclusion was that you make decisions from your heart and if you store wisdom and the commandments and teachings from your mother and father in your heart then you can be confident in your decision making. Along with asking for guidance from the Lord you can trust that he will aid you in your effort to make the right decisions. I put off making important decisions because I am afraid I will make the wrong one or that someone else will think that I am making a bad decision. I think that unless I hear something audibly from the Lord that he hasn't given me a clear answer (darn I have never heard him audibly!) and that I am shooting in the dark with my decisions. This study was such an encouragement to me. I feel so very blessed to be a child of Christ and able to have his guidance. I am overwhelmed by the blessing He has given me in my parents and the Godly wisdom that they have instilled in me. I feel like I can now make confident educated decisions in life without feeling like I am making them all on my own hoping that it was the right thing to do!

I have really been praying that this whole house thing would be the Lords will and that he will make our path straight (although it may be difficult and uphill :). I really want to honor the Lord in our decisions of which house to buy or possibly build and the process of selling ours. I feel confident in the Lord so far and pray that I will continue to have the confidence of his hand guiding our search.

Love you all,