IT'S A GIRL!!

The doc says these are girl parts. This is the only time you'll see genitals on my blog. You have my word.

Check out these long legs...definitely our child.

We'll name her "birdman"
...or "skeletor"

Or we could just call her "skeletor birdman"

"I see you lookin' at me!"

Wish'd I couldda jumped bail, too.

Check out my sister's blog, http://thepioneerslovemaynard.blogspot.com . Kacy is cRRrraAzZy.

Yeah, that's what we do for fun in the country.

Hope you can find calf 129. or whatever # it was.

Oh yeah, and I'm really jealous Kacy. Bummer I couldn't jump bail with ya'll. I'm pretty sure my preggo belly wouldn't have liked that very much. Last time I was pregnant I rode horseback. But...I probably won't be doing that this time either. And last time, I also rode the jetski, went tubing and bungee jumped (okay, not really on the bungee jump), but I'm pretty sure I won't be doing those things this time either. I will be camping at 8 months pregnant though. Wish me luck. I can see myself backing out of that trip.

17 weeks down, 5 months to go.

I'm officially 17 weeks pregnant and my ever-growing belly seems to be expanding at an alarming rate...at least to me anyway. I had my 4 month dr. appt. and everything seems to be okay after my "scare." I think I'm starting to feel a little back to normal...accept for my brain. Good thing I have a 4 year old to remind me where we are going, where I left my purse and what day it is. My energy seems to be picking up but the headaches have become overwhelming and relentless. My nausea comes every once in awhile and that can be controlled with my Zofran, but I will still have a no-warning up-chuck or dry-heaving session. Let me tell ya, driving 70 mph down the highway is NOT the time to start throwing up. Pulling over on Kellogg to get out and throw up on the side of the road is quite embarrassing. I've just accepted the fact that I will be sick the whole pregnancy. There will be good days and bad days. For now it's just day by day. I change my clothes 14 times before going somewhere...it's hard to try and look cute and happy and when you don't feel that way, and it totally sucks to do everything in cotton pants and a sweatshirt. I don't want to be a frump; but for now, I really don't care. This too shall pass.

The flip side: In one more week we have our sonogram to find out if we are having a boy or girl. We are praying for a healthy baby. Girl or boy it doesn't matter; although I would love for Jason to have a boy because I don't think we will have anymore. Pushing 30, my body is telling me I better be done. If I had a full time job during this pregnancy I would have had to quit, no doubt.
Jason needs a boy for boy reasons. He has a very special relationship with River and there's nothing compared to the daddy-daughter relationship they have. They hold a special place in each other's hearts that can never tapped into. River like to fish, go on 4-wheeler rides and run outside the second he's heard coming down the road. She runs out the door and starts cheering "daddy, daddy, daddy," as he pulls up the drive and has her special duties she helps him with while he's unloading for the day. She gets to push the dump-bed buttons to dump the grass. She gets to play on the trailer while he's putting up the mowers. During this time she tells him all about her day and what it entailed. When the mowers and trailers are all taken care of for the night, they jump hills and go exploring on the 4-wheeler. She's just like her father, it can 40 degrees outside and neither one of them have jackets or coats. There's too much fun to have to stop and put a coat on, geez. Riv's other side is dress-up, Barbies, and pretend. Jason just can't connect with that, and I guess you can't expect a man with beaten, split, grease stained hands to understand why Barbie doesn't play war games. A boy could bring out that side of him...and I sure could use a break on Barbie's.

But a healthy baby is most important. Our friends had a baby 2 years ago with spina-bifida and it really hit home that it CAN happen to you. Whatever God's plan is will be fine with us because it's His plan.

Well, I'm off to watch the pre-school parade. I'll stand as the pregnant frump amongst the other mom's with their make-up, colored and trendy hair styles and designer name brand clothes and hold in my gags as best as possible. I'll show them one day, you just wait un-pregnant, beautiful other moms!

Bah Humbug

Happy Belated Easter. Mine was cold.

Hannah Montana was a great movie; not at all what I thought it was going to be like. We will probably end up with the movie and the soundtrack. Really was cute.

and that's all for today.

Tehehe, like totally!!

On Friday I'm taking my girls to see the new Hannah Montana movie...or will it be Miley Cyrus? Hmmmm.....

But SSHHHH! don't tell them, it's a secret!

Oh yeah, and don't laugh at me....I'll be watching it too. Only because they are too young to go by themselves (okay, okay, and, I'm dying to know which identity she chooses to be for the rest of her life because, ya know, it's really hard to figure out if you want to go through the rest of your life looking like a plastic diva in a wig or be totally cute and cool.) I'm sure they'll be too young to go by themselves until they're like, 25.

Redneck chicks are cool. I wouldn't quite call us hillbillies, 'cause we still have all of our teeth.

Nae is my best friend. She finally got on blogspot instead of myspace, facebook, blogspot, copying and pasting one post to several different places and then e-mailing the rest of the world. Way to go! If you check out her blog, Nae's Place you can see why we get along so well. We only get together about once every other month...if we're lucky. Our friendship is probably different than most. It's definitely one of those God things. He knew what he was doing, and just in case we were going to miss it, He made it clear we wouldn't. Here's the scoop.

2001: there's a girl in my spanish class. we're obviously the only one's who have common sense in the whole classroom. On the first day we are wearing the same type of boots, hoodies, both have red bandanas on, and on break we go out to our vehicles. We both notice each other, but don't say anything. I go to my Geo Storm. She walks to her Geo Storm. *weird*....in class we sit in opposite diagnal corners in the classroom. We make sure we have an eye on each other throughout the next couple of weeks. Ya know, just to see what the other is doin'. Then we have something in class we have to work on together, so we obviously hit each other up as a partner. And from then on, we've totally hit it off. We continue to find very blatent similarities and really wierd things that we have in common.

I grew up in Japan, she grew up in Papa New Guinea.
We both grew up in very religious upbringing.
We both ran from "religious" type stuff, only to grow up get common sense about the whole thing.
We both have raised dogs.
We both have traveled....A WHOLE FREAKIN' LOT.
We both have come back to the country-girl at heart that we really are.
We both have redneck (and might I add sexy) husbands.
We both love to camp.
We both love to fish. (Although I think Janae is a way better fisherman than me.)
We both have 2 big dogs.
We both have 2 children.
We both love guns.
We both get along better with the guys than with the girls. Whichis why we click so well.
After not talking over a Christmas break in college, we both came back to school and had both gotten rid of our Storm's and purchased Ford Explorer's. *so weird*.
She texts or calls or e-mails at the most random times right when God has laid her on my heart and vice versa.
We both have so many other things like this but there's just too many to remember after 8 years.

We have tele-communication with each other.
We teach our children about firearms, hunting, wildlife, and manners.
Our children can cast a fishin' line better that most fishermen.
Our children will grow up thinking they are cousins. I'm aunt Kendra, and she's aunt Janae.
When we hang out, we are true hillbillies at heart.

One time we thought we were storm chasers. Only to get hailed on in a major way. I guess to do that kind of stuff you need some kind of knowledge or training. It was quite the adrenaline rush though...which is what we lived for. But we have kids now.

We've never been camping, together. *hint hint* Nae!

We'll go to the ends of the earth to find a good fishin' hole or a horse to ride.

Nae's cool. I love her.

Oh yeah, the first time we ever hung out at her aunt's house, her great dane ate my face off. Literally. I saw dog tonsils up close and personal and I think I bloodstained her bathroom. But luckily, I have great healing elements in my skin. (even though I had a bacteria breakout infection for like a year after that in my forehead. hehe.) But no hard feelings. So, Nae, aren't we overdo for an Atwoods visit soon?

Title? There is no title for this post....after thinking about it for 5 minutes and coming up nil, I figured it didn't need a title.

2 Fridays ago: Head to grandma's...need to relax.

the following Saturday: Drive the 2 hour drive home with baby-to-come in a very uncomfortable spot. I get a phone call from a YoungLives girl who needs me to take her 9 month old, teething, sick daughter over night. I agree, but won't be able to take baby back until 5 o'clock the next day..Sunday.

Saturday night: Teething baby wakes up in the middle of the night, I go to get her and feel a "gush" of something come from a place where it shouldn't when your pregnant, I thought I pee'd myself until the next morning when I found blood everywhere.

Sunday Morning: Bleeding stops. Call the nurse on call...twice. and wait....all day. At 5pm take baby back to her mom and head to my dad's to take him to his surgery apt. at 7 am. on Monday morning. 11pm Sunday, wake up with massive headache and a ridiculous amount of blood....and I still haven't heard from the doctor.

7am Monday: Take dad for a preventative routine surgery (nothing major), wait for him to come out of a local anesthesia and take him to get lunch.....still haven't heard from dr.'s office so I call again, leave 3rd message. Bleeding stops from night before. I get dad back home.

Noon Monday: Dr.'s office calls and says "you need to get to the Wesley E.R as soon as possible.
12:30 Monday: Arrive at Wesley.
2pm Monday: Go up to desk and ask how much longer....they can't tell me.
3pm Monday: Go to desk again, and ask again....they still can't tell me.
4pm Monday: Girl come into ER with a tootheache...waits 20 min. and goes to see the dr., right behind her a girl come in, has scratches on her arm from a fight, waits 30 min. then goes back to see dr. I go up to the desk and ask if that's more important than a possible dead fetus inside of my body and they tell me there's nothing they can do about it. Are you **&%$&#@* kidding me? Jason gets mad, calls insurance co. to see if we're covered at a different hospital's ER...insurance co. can't beleive what they're hearing and tell us to go somewhere else. We go to hospital in Andover.

5pm Monday: Get to Andover hospital, get a room, get a gown, an IV, they draw blood, and get a sono going. Blood work looked okay, sono looked even better, but said i'm at risk so that means bedrest until next apt. Was out of that hospital within an hour.

Get home from hospital Monday night and see roof shingles all over back yard. Great. Then, Jason tells me the brakes on his work truck went out completely and the only thing that got him home were his trailer brakes and downshifting. Great, that's even better.

Tuesday: J finds out it's probably going to cost around $1000 to get his truck taken care of, and decideds since the insurance deductible is also $1000 that he's just going to nail the shingles back on until an even bigger storm comes along and takes more roof, or worse, the whole thing. His buddy calls and says he can do the truck for around $600. We pray for extra work he can do to pay for this stuff. Then, God sends a winter storm. THANK YOU GOD! HE ANSWERS FAST!

Friday: Weatherman forcasts all the ice and snow, and J will be working all through the night and all through the next day to make money that wouldn't have been there. Then....where we live gets 2 in. of ice, then rain, then snow, then my power goes out....for 4 days. I get my food outside (so it doesn't spoil in the warm refrigerator and heck, it's like....30 degrees outside right?)
Head to in-laws.
Sunday: still no power, and the temperature rises to 70 degrees. What?!? Hurry home, put food in coolers with snow and ice that hasn't melted off the deck yet.

***All this being done with the simplest, slightest, slowest movements considering I'm supposed to be resting. The mental frustration at this point is overwhelming and I reach the point of exhaustion.****

Monday: Temp. is warm enough to go home. I sit on my butt with feet up all day (I did that all weekend at my in-laws too...) waiting for electricity. Monday evening the power kicks on, this time to stay.....but the furnace doesn't. OH NO!

Tuesday morning: Furnace is obviously broken, overnight temp. is going to be in the 30's so I call Heating company....they can't come until Wednesday. Whatever! At this point I'm a total pioneer. Oddly enough, I go to the store and they are sold out of all the fake fire logs. Imagine that. Just my luck. I actually expected them to be though. We didn't have real firewood, and if we went to chop some it would be too wet anyways. Oh well, just one more night.

Wednesday: Heating company comes. Looks at furnace for about 5 minutes, flips a hidden switch and TA-DA, furnace kicks on.

God is good. I'm so thankful that my "problems" are so small. They could be so much bigger. I'm so thankful these things are all I had to deal with. It could have been a tragic accident, a fire could have taken my home, a family member could have been diagnosed with cancer, my husband could have lost his job, I could have lost my baby, my daughter could have been gravely ill, any other crisis could have occured.....I know the Lord will see us through things, but I'm thankful HE chose to only give me this week of curveballs with a purpose of testing my faith in Him, my Trust in Him, and my patience. Thank you God for your grace, an undeserving, just-enough grace. Thank you for such a simple life. thank you Lord.