Not Much To Say - Just Some Pictures

Some time ago, my digital camera died a sad death. It had been a very reliable and trusty camera, purchased for me by my mother approximately 5 years ago. I had publicly mourned the death of my Fuji Finepix and was recently contacted by my "real life" friend, PJAcademy. She had been GIVEN a digital camera that she didn't need and wanted to pass it along to me . . . . . . if I wanted it!! HA HA HA HA !!! Do I EVER?! So I get the camera. Its nicer than the one I had, well, because it was newer! I go buy some new batteries for it. I WORKS. All I needed was the USB cord to be able to download the pictures to my computer. Due to an unexpected refund on Elijah's winter coat (thank you, Mom) I was able to go purchase a card reader today to be able to download some of my pictures from my new, old camera, given to me, ever so graciously, by PJAcademy. Here we go - just cause I wanna brag!

This is Abigail looking pretty just because she can. Age 7.



Here we have Elijah, looking handsome and goofy, as usual. Age 4. He'll be 5 in December.



This is Lydia at bedtime after we realize she had her pajamas on inside out and she was stuck and MAD. (Please excuse her 1980's mullet. She has cut her own hair.) Age 3.



This is Hubby and Sunshine Sofie. (5 months) You might be able to imagine that I love this picture!




This is Miss Sweetness, AKA Phoebe.




And this is Thing 1 and Thing 2 together, holding hands and smiling. LOVE IT!

Speaking of Updates . . . . . . . . . .

I am convinced Sofie is going to crawl at any moment, literally. She is already skooching backwards all over the living room. And last night, she successfully skooched forward. Today, I'm sitting at the computer catching up on my cafemom, and she is up on her hands and knees rocking back and forth. I have FEAR!!! Once that child gets moving, there will be no stopping her!! This is so fun!! I can't believe how time is flying by!! Crawling at 5 months and before she is sitting up! What a maniac!


Now, while Sofie is working on crawling and being a "mover and shaker", Phoebe is pretty content to sit and observe the world. She can sit on her own but is still working on mastering sitting UP on her own. She still tends to prop herself a bit with her arms beside her but any day she'll be letting go and won't have such a round bottom.

My Favorite Picture From Lydia's Birthday

If you read my previous post about combining birthdays, I stated I would post some pictures "later". Well, welcome to "later"!!!! This was taken with my husband's camera phone which is really crummy but better than nothing. Miracle of all miracles, everyone was looking at the camera. Here is my happy brood!

Yep - I'm a Loser!! (In more ways than one!)

So I knew to start blogging would be a hit and miss thing with me! I've been "missing" for a while, I guess. Almost a year since I last posted. But to say our life has changed and that I've been a bit busy would be a gross understatement.

The twins were born May 28th. They are now almost 5 months old! Its taken me this long to figure things out and get things situated. We are finally settling into life and some seblence of a routine and I thought I might try blogging again. I'll be posting some pictures from their birth and since then. I can't post any more recent pictures because my digital camera finally died, so sad, so nothing within the last month or two.

I'm currently working on cutting out a doll pattern to hopefully make the girls some dolls. Not that they need any but I would like to see if I can do it.

OH!! And the biggest way I'm a loser . . . . . . . . I've lost 61 pounds since the twins were born! I have about 73-75 more to go! All kinds of weird issues there! I didn't think losing weight and going down 4 (or 8 - depending on how you look at it) would effect me mentally so much. Its a double edged sword. But more on that later.

So I'll get a family update posted here in the next day or two and I hope to start updating my blog several times a week.

Best to all!!

Family Update

I know. Its been ages since I updated last. As previously posted, I'm pregnant and I just haven't felt up to getting online and blogging so please forgive!!!! And since there are too many things to update, I'm going to condense everything into a family update instead of trying to post for different subjects.

First, we are ALL looking forward to Thanksgiving as we will be driving from Illinois to Ohio to visit my mom and dad. It has been years since my entire immediate family has been able to go to Ohio at all, let alone for a Holiday. We are all looking forward to it. Especially Daniel. He is ready to get away.

Daniel is doing well. Work had slowed down quite a bit but things have picked back up for the Holiday rush. BUT, things will slow back down dramatically once we get back from Ohio for Thanksgiving. I'm very intimidated for how things will go in December and January as that is our "slow" time and things have already been slow leading up to those months but we are praying the Lord will provide. BUT, to help supplement the situation, PRAISE THE LORD, Daniel has several basketball games scheduled. He started officiating volleyball and basketball this year and he is really enjoying it. I know he is enjoying the basketball more than the volleyball but both provide a nice supplemental income for minimal time involvement. As of right now he has 4 games scheduled for December and hoping for more. He is also considering applying for a driving position with a different company. I'm praying that will work out if it is the Lord's will for us.

Abigail is thoroughly enjoying school. She has some struggle with not arguing with her teacher and being too bossy with her friends but she is having fun! I keep telling Daniel, "I would be bossy, too, if everybody obeyed me like her friends obey her!!!" We are trying to impress upon her that nobody ENJOYS being told what to do and that eventually her friends aren't going to want to play with her anymore but I think she might have to learn this life lesson the hard way. She was also struggling a bit with reading but we have doubled our homework time and the extra work is really paying off. She is so excited and is doing much better!!!!!

Elijah is still our stubborn soul of the family but he is coming along. Unfortunately, I think he is transitioning out of nap time which means no nap for Mommy!!! He really misses Abigail while she is at school. She is his buddy. He is still just as affectionate as ever and I love it on the rare occasions that he will sit still long enough to let mom love on him. He crawls into bed and lays down with me almost every morning and has finally learned to lie still so that I can go back to sleep if needed. He has also started asking questions about salvation. He isn't quite 4 so it is very early but it is always encouraging that they are showing some sort of interest in spiritual matters at any age.

Miss Lydia, age 2 and family comedian, is just as ornery as ever!!! She is a whiner and we're working on it!!!! She has very definite opinions about EVERYTHING and wants to control EVERY situation. I think life is going to get tougher for Lydia as she finds out that we truly don't have control of most things in our lives!! Hopefully she'll learn how to surrender that control over to God because its His whether she acknowledges it or not. Anyway, she is completely potty trained but now just can't be bothered with actually putting her pee pee in the potty so we are working on reminding her that going in her underwear is not acceptable. Miss Lydia is also a little cuddle bug and is constantly saying "Mommy, hold me". I think she will have a difficult time adjusting to the new babies.

That's right. I said BABIES. We are having twins. He saw 2 sacs on the ultrasound that confirmed we had not truly miscarried. The ultrasound following that, we were able to see both babies, see one heartbeat and hear BOTH heartbeats. The ultrasound following THAT one, we were able to see both heartbeats. There is just nothing like that. The doctor told me that the babies were developing so well that I could go 4 weeks between appointments this time, I had been going every 2 weeks, so I don't have another appointment until December 9th. We are going to take Abigail with us to that appointment so she can see the babies on the ultrasound.

I'm very intimidated by this whole "twin" thing and I'm afraid I could wax eloquently about all my fears if I allowed myself. I'm working on exercising great mind control so that I'm not constantly worrying about EVERYTHING that can go wrong and all the things that need to be worked out. I still can't wrap my brain around the fact that we are going to need 2 of everything OR that when I come home from the hospital that I'm going to have to take care of 2 newborns along with the other 3 children. I was already intimidated at the thought of having one baby but now 2?! Our biggest prayer request is housing. We are currently in a 2 bedroom apartment and things are already very tight. We were going to make do with a 4th child but a 5th child? In one room? I don't know. We really need a house. It doesn't have to be a fancy house but we desperately need a third bedroom. Plus, with the banking situation and the economy right now . . . . . . . . .

We need a miracle!

Our Week - Deep Sigh

Weeeeell, it has been an interesting week here so far. I'm ready for the week to be over so we don't get hit by "bad thing" number 3#!! You know bad things ALWAYS happen in threes!!!!

Daniel had a volleyball game he was going to referee this past Tuesday. So, long story short, he took the van to work with him. So, he is driving probably 75 MPH up the highway when the van just slips out of gear. No warning. No nothing. Mind you, our van is only 4 years old and has less than 60,000 miles. So he has to pull over to the side of the highway and we are anticipating the mechanic to tell us today that we are going to have to purchase a new transmission. Very discouraging as we are just getting back on our feet financially. Daniel was a horrid crabby mess and I had to be the "reasonable" one which is frustrating.

But you know what? I'm not worried. We don't have the option to borrow money and we don't have the money to pay to fix it but I am confident it will work out. Daniel and I are doing our part right now and I just feel like I'm sitting here just eagerly anticipating seeing how God is going to take care of it. There is such freedom in knowing you are handling your finances according to Biblical standards. I'm almost excited to see how this is all going to fall out. I'm praying for God to take care of it. He knows what is going on with us, how we are trying to honor Him, and I have the faith of a mustard see that He will take care of it! (help mine unbelief! LOL)

So, I get another crabby call from Daniel yesterday. He received a traffic ticket while working yesterday. YIPPY SKIPPY!!! So that is another $75 we have to come up with in 2 weeks. BUT, again, God is in control and I have no doubt our faith is being tested right now.

I am praying that my faith and Daniel's faith will be strengthened by these things and that Daniel will see the power of God in this. ( ME TOO!)

Praise the Lord for He is Good - ALL THE TIME!