A Time For Every Season....

Snow! Swords! Motorcycle & Helicopter with Remote! We had a  wonderful Christmas!

2009 will go down in our family history as the year of overwhelming blessing. It was the year that after much hard work, prayer, patience, & petitioning some family goals were finally brought to fruition - like John being hired as a full time teacher! John is enjoying his middle school, special education students immensely and could not imagine a better job. He is also mentoring low-income students before school and will be an assistant football coach next year. Yes, laugh, John as a football coach, I laughed for days! John truly loves teaching and engaging the students minds with fun and creative insights. In celebration of God’s gracious blessing, this summer John will be going with a team from our church to Mexico (July) on a construction project. John spent the month of October getting ready for the 3 rd annual Home Makeover and had so much fun; he thought he would take his God gifted skills international. John also continues his small carpentry/handym...

It isn't news to those that live with me, but I've finally come to realize that this pregnancy has brought impatience and a total grouch like behavior. I'm not sure what comes over me, but simple little things like not being able to find the kids shoes set me off. I find myself always thinking, "If only they would....." "... do what I say." "... listen the first time." "... remember to put their things away." "... stop playing Rudolf over and over again." "... remember what I told them." "...stop whining." So, last night as I was sitting totally frustrated with Drew because he wasn't working very hard on learning his memory verse; God hit me over the head with an epiphany on how short tempered I really was becoming. Little silly things that I'd never even worry about were setting me off. I had traded the unimportant for battles and frustration that weren't necessary. My mostly kind w...

I had my doctor's appointment today, it went much better than I expected. Little Abby is nice and snug, I haven't dropped yet and when the doc checked me she said I "wasn't yet a centimeter dilated," which means all those nasty contractions aren't doing much to progress labor. My blood pressure was high (135/94), but I'm not spilling protein which is really good. My BP has been running around those numbers the past few days, so I wasn't shocked, plus the pressure went down once I laid on my side. They did run more blood work, just to make sure my body isn't reacting too much to the high pressures. I didn't gain anything these past two weeks; which is actually a good thing. I cut out as much salt as I could, so I didn't expect much weight gain. It also means I'm not retaining much water - which is shocking since I'm drinking a small pond each day. In total I've gained 20 pounds! That is a nice record, since I gained 65 with Drew ...

Drew and I went on a mommy date last Saturday, Drew insisted that I had to wear a dress since you can't dance in pants! I braved a dress, boots, and pantyhose just for him! I'll forget about the rash all over my legs and how cold I was most of the night, it was all worth it! First we went out for icecream and then into FortWorth for a special date with the Nutcracker Ballet. Drew loved it, he sat very still, asked questions quietly, and was quite concerned with the nasty rats who were picking on poor Clara. He smiled from ear to ear all evening! What a lot of fun we had together!

 

So much has gone on the last few weeks, it seems like Christmas has arrived early - in more ways that one! First, John woke me this morning with a kiss and the news that our yard was a winter wonderland. When the boys woke, they went out and explored the white backyard. Then came in for some cocoa and oatmeal. It was a wonderful morning - I love snow and was very sad that we didn't get any last year. Drew loved the snow, Gabe loved it only until he fell in the snow and got wet - that was the end of his great adventure. Other fun, exciting, Christmas like news is that we hired a wonderful lady as a sitter/nanny to come play with the boys on Wednesday's while I work. John and I have been praying for months about the various characteristics that we wanted for a nanny/sitter. Honestly, I thought we'd have to settle for something less, but we kept on praying and God provided a wonderful woman that was everything we'd prayed for - - plus more! Merry Christmas to me! M...