Date Confirmed Today

My OB's nurse called this morning and my induction date and time was confirmed today! I go in at 6:15am (yawwwwn) on Thursday morning the 30th. I went in with Emma at that time when I was induced with her and she was here by 12:20pm-only 6 hours. Or, actually closer to 5 since they had to get me ready and "hook me up" and all that. So I'm HOPING this one will get here even earlier than that; but if not at least by that time! :)

Nathan comes home tomorrow night from his two week trip to Tulsa. As I was talking to him on the phone tonight and spanking the bottoms of two quarrelling, screaming little girls he said in a pitiful voice "Don't worry, I'll give you a day to yourself when I get home." A DAY?! DARN TOOTIN' YOU'LL GIVE ME A DAY! I MAY NOT BE BACK ALL WEEKEND! A day! Humph!!

MEN! Don't even get me started! I'd better just get off of here right now. ;-)
Later...

OUCH!! Will I Ever Get Used to this Huge Belly?

You are NOT going to believe what I did to myself today!! Well, most of you who know me are not going to be surprised, but anyway...
This afternoon, I decided that I needed to sterilize a few bottles, pump, things like that just so they'll be ready if I need them next week when Addison gets here. I am standing there in front of the huge pot of boiling bottles and things, and all of a sudden something in the pot shifted and splashed boiling water out ONTO MY BELLY!! Right in the front beside my now outie belly button! AHHHHH!

I guess I was standing too close, I don't know. It hurt SO BADLY!!! The skin there was already sensitive from being stretched so thin! I have FIVE burn blisters next to my belly button now! F-I-V-E!!!!

It hurt so much for my shirt to touch it that I had to tuck my shirt tail up under my bra to hold it up off of the blisters while I walked around with aloe vera gel smeared all over the front of my belly. Such a pretty sight, I tell ya!

It is SO time for this to be over...it has become a danger to me now! :o

We Have a Date!

Went to my weekly doctor appt today...if I've not gone into labor by next Thursday, the 30th, he will induce me on that day. Or, we're hoping for that day...he can't call to schedule it until this coming Thursday. I told him that I would really like to do it that day but I wasn't opposed to the 31st, Halloween, either. I told him that my aunt was born on Halloween and she turned out to be fairly normal. ;-) I love you Laura!

So I have a light at the end of the 9 month tunnel now. I'm so done with this being pregnant junk! It was fun for a long while but not anymore. I can barely move now and when I do move I have braxton hicks contractions so strong that I can barely breathe, let alone walk! And don't even get me started on the heartburn and reflux! I have to sleep sitting nearly upright every night. ...did I say "sleep?" I mean, doze for a couple of hours between potty, tums and water breaks. If the wives tale about heartburn and a baby's hair is so, this one is going to be born with flowing locks! But I'm sure she'll be like my other two and lose it all within a few weeks and I'll be KY gluing little bows on her bald head. :) Can't wait!!

My girls are so excited...we're counting down the days now...9 days till Nana gets here and 10 days till Addison gets here. I'm anxious to see how Emma is going to react to the new baby. She's been the baby for 3 1/2 years now. I think she'll probably just be indifferent to her. ~Look at her or want to hold her when she feels like it but go on about her "business" most of the time. I think Taylor is going to be really good with her...like her second little mommy. Which I'll have to watch closely...she told me the other day that when the baby wakes up in the mornings, I can just stay in bed and she'll get up and get her out of her crib and take her downstairs and fix her a bottle. Sounds great in theory!

Taylor and Emma have really been looking at my belly a lot lately and rubbing on it as they pass by. One day Emma was singing "She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes..." and she walked by me and put her hands on my belly and kept singing only she sang "She'll be comin' round the belly when she comes!" ha! Tonight, Taylor was getting into the shower and I was handing her the shampoo and she said "Man, Mama, your belly sure is getting fat!" I just stopped and looked at her and she quickly said "I mean, full of baby! Not fat!!" We both just started laughing. I really wish I had been writing down all that they've said to me over the last few months. Of course I've forgotten all the funny or sweet things they've said. I'm pretty sure the "comin' round the belly" thing I won't have trouble remembering.

Emma still thinks that I need to be the "Lady with the Lost Dog" for Halloween. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about...here is a picture of the costume:

Nice, huh?!! I let her look at a newspaper insert of a hundred costumes and this is the one she notices! ~naturally! Like I could actually WALK in those heels!! ;-) Luckily I'll still be in the hospital with Addison on Halloween. I REALLY despise Halloween! Luckily this year, our Wal-Mart didn't put the life-sized dead guy lifting off his head in the front doorway of the store! It was a nightmare last year trying to get Emma through the doors and past him every time I had to go grocery shopping!

Nathan will probably have to do the "trick-or-treating" thing with them this year by himself, unless Mom helps him out. Or, I'm hoping, since they got to go to Boo at the Zoo with the Chiuchiolos and are going to our church's fall festival this Saturday, we can tell them that was their trick or treating time and now we'll pass out candy to those kids who come to our door. In the past years, Taylor has preferred passing out candy here at home rather than going door to door in our neighborhood. One year, when we ran out of candy and I told her we'd have to turn off our porch light and stop, she grabbed her candy bucket and wanted to give out the candy that she'd collected. I let her, AFTER, I picked out all of the chocolate and Nerds, of course!

Well, I need to get off of here...I feel a bedtime snack urge coming on! :) Got to take advantage of those while I still have an excuse! :)

Addison's Nursery

Since I posted pictures on here of Taylor's & Emma's room a while back, I decided I'd better show you Addison's nursery too! She was feeling a little left out... :)

Her bag is all packed and her "coming home" outfit is ready to go! The little dress is a smocked, hand-me-down dress. Either my Granny or my Aunt Donna made it and smocked it. Depending on which of my cousins it was made for, it could be somewhere around 25 years old! It still looks brand new...and there's no telling how many of my cousins have worn it and passed it down!

Read on below for my next post...you got TWO today!!

Ending one chapter, starting another...

An update on Nathan's job...
In my last post, last Friday, I told you that he had received an offer letter from Brunswick (the boat company that he used to work for) and was waiting on Baker Hughes (the Mississippi company) to get back to him about what their thoughts were after hearing about the situation with selling our house. On Monday of this week, he had to have his offer letter signed and faxed into Brunswick by 2:00pm if he was going to accept it and take the job with them.

All morning and afternoon we were waiting to hear from Baker Hughes to see what they had to offer, if anything. Naturally by 1:00pm we were very anxious and poor Nathan was just pacing waiting for the phone to ring. At 1:45 he said, "that's it, I'm faxing this letter in to Brunswick and taking that job. I'm ready for this to be over with!" I said "No, wait just 15 more minutes and fax it in at 2:00 just like you originally planned." He sat back down and we started talking about how Baker Hughes most likely would call back and say something like "We're really sorry but we don't have the resources to do anything for you right now...good luck to you...see ya!"

At 1:50pm, Mike, a VP from Baker Hughes calls! 1:50, I tell you!!! God's not working on the virtue of patience in us or anything!! So Mike tells Nathan how much they respect the way he has handled the situation and that he has shown so much integrity and honesty with them through all of it and that's the reason they want him working for them. (Praise the LORD that He gave Nathan the grace they needed to see in him!) He told him that they will let him continue to live here in FL for as long as he needs to and they will give him a couple of accounts to manage down here. Also, he will still be in charge of the MS, AL and FL panhandle territory as well but he won't be expected to travel up there weekly; he is to fly up there for a few days and travel the area as he sees the need to. No pressure to be up there on a regular basis! (WHAT A BLESSING!)

Nathan was supposed to be in Tulsa this coming Monday to start a two week training course for them. So he asked Mike about that and was wondering what he needed to do to prepare for that training. Mike said to him "You know what, you have a new baby coming in just a few weeks. You don't need to be away from home right now. We're not going to worry about starting your week & two week long trainings in Tulsa and Houston until things settle down at your house. Maybe you can start the trainings in late November." That was the next "hurdle" we were facing...Nathan being gone the entire last two weeks of my pregnancy and then having to leave again a week after bringing the baby home. God took care of it!!

He will have to fly out to Tulsa for just a day or two here in the next couple of weeks but it won't be any big deal...not like the two week trip would have been.

So, he has officially taken the Baker Hughes job. We are so thrilled and relieved to have passed through this little chapter in our life! It has been truly amazing to see God work in our situation from day one! We have been so blessed in the midst of all the turmoil. And we both feel like we've received the best of both worlds so to speak. We were both excited about the possibility of getting to move closer to AR and our families but at the same time we were both really hating to leave everything we have here too. Now, we can stay here longer but we still have the hope that when we're able to sell our house we can move up there to MS.

Nothing is impossible with God. Through all of this, we've learned to stay on our knees in prayer, have faith and trust in Him that everything will work out according to His perfect plan and believe Him. 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.' Jeremiah 29:11 (NASB)

So now, I'm happy to say "The END" to this chapter of postings about Nathan's job. I guess the new chapter starting in a few weeks will be about baby Addison coming and how we all are adjusting-and of course, lots of pictures!! I'm not leaving you hanging between now and then...God-willing I'll still be posting. I'm sure there will be lots to talk about between now and then! ;-)

As you've probably already noticed, I've added a few things to my blog. I just love playing around with things on here! Hope you like the changes and additions! Be sure to see the new "Perspectives of Taylor & Emma" section. I'll be posting things that they say in that column. -this section is liable to take over my entire blog!! -especially when Addison gets here! I'll leave it to your imagination. I guess it could be worse, we could be having a boy! And "boy" would there be lots of dreaded explanations there! ;-) Thank God for small favors! :) No offense to you mothers of boys...you have my utmost respect!!

Another addition to the 30's club...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!

Today you officially join the 30's club!
Don't fret about feeling old, this is just the beginning and there's nothing you can do about it.
When I turned 30, a good friend told me "You have officially ARRIVED!" Arrived at what, I'm not quite sure yet...arrived at the salon for a gray covering color treatment maybe; arrived at the gym to do extra reps to get take off these 30 years of "baggage" that don't seem to melt off anymore, possibly...or maybe arrived at the plastic surgeons office for a botox injection.

Anyway, your very welcome for the encouragement this morning! ;-) However, being a man, you probably don't need encouragement about your age and you probably don't care that you've aged because aging on males tends to enhance their appearance while doing the exact opposite to most females. So unfair...but this is YOUR DAY, not mine to moan. Hope you have a great birthday today! I love you!

Wow...that's about all I can say to title this post

I hadn't realized that I've not written anything on here since Sept. 10th! A lot has been going on around here in the past few weeks, mostly all pertaining to Nathan's job situation...here we go! :)

Nathan was offered the job in Laurel, Mississippi a couple weeks ago. He has accepted it and is supposed to start on Oct. 13th with trainings. It is a good offer and we were looking forward to being 10 hours closer to our family! Although at the same time we were really heartbroken to leave our friends and church family here. We just wanted God's will in the situation most of all. And at this time, we felt this is what he wanted us to do.

So we started the process of getting our house ready to put on the market. Since 2005, when we moved here and bought our house, the value of our home has decreased by an astronomical amount. You wouldn't believe it if I told you what it appraised for then and what it will sell for now. It's truly mind boggling! We had two different realtors come to visit us last week and both had about the same news for us..."It's not good!" So Nathan spoke with our mortgage holder to discuss with them our options when we sell...also NOT GOOD! They basically told him that he'd have to quit paying his mortgage payment and let the house go into foreclosure or do something similar which also affects your credit and is not good but isn't quite as bad on your history as a foreclosure. So needless to say, we've been just a little stressed about this but at the same time, we've been trusting God that He will work it out for us. We know that He sent this job opportunity to Nathan for a reason and so we were just putting our faith in Him to work out all these other seemingly hopeless details. We've been literally on our knees for a week straight asking Him to help us out with this situation!

"Ask and ye shall receive..."

So far, this catches you up to this past Tuesday. On Tuesday night about 8:00 Nathan got a call from the president of another company with another job offer. Ironically, it's the same company that just laid him off! Dumbfounded? Us too! Brunswick owns Mercury, the engine company that Nathan used to work for but they also own a boat company too that sells boats. The man he spoke with is the president of the boat side of the company. Anyway, he offered Nathan a job, same salary and benefits that he had before and his territory that he would cover is here in Florida. We wouldn't have to sell our house and move.

So we've been asking ourselves and God, is this how He is answering our prayers? By sending Nathan another opportunity that lets us stay in our house longer? -or is it to give Nathan peace about letting the MS people know what's going on with our house and possibly offer options to help in some way. (He now knows that he has another job option if they can't offer him any options...he knows that now he doesn't HAVE to take their job and move so it gives him a little leverage in the situation.)

So, the first thing he did on Wednesday morning was to call the "Brunswick" man back and ask that the offer be sent to him in writing before he calls and tells the MS people anything. They had the offer emailed to him to sign by that afternoon. He called and spoke with the MS people and told them the situation with selling our house. He was worried about calling them and about what they might say. We prayed that they would be understanding about it all. They were very nice about it and told him that they would never ask him to sell his house and move under those conditions. They told him they wanted to talk about it and see what they could come up with for him. Just the answer we were hoping for. Now, he is just waiting to hear back from them to see what they might offer him. We are still praying that God will continue to work in the situation but more than that we are praising Him and thanking Him for what he has done with everything already.

As of right now, we pretty much have our minds made up on staying here and Nathan taking the Brunswick job. Even though job security is much greater with the other company and even though it's a possibility that we may be in this same situation a year from now (no job), considering the economy and it's a recreational industry, at least it will give us time to work on getting out from under this house and hopefully the market will rebound somewhat as well or the government will get something in place to help people out in this situation. But we're still waiting to hear back from MS and we're not closed to that possibility yet.

No matter what happens, we know that God is good and he "works all things to the good of those that love him." We just have to keep praying, believing Him and watching what He does for us. It has been amazing to see Him work over the past few weeks! And how perfect His timing has been...not always what we think is perfect while we're in the middle of it but after coming through it we can fully appreciate it. So that's what is going on with all of that!

Another blessing...on Monday I had my (now weekly) doctor's appointment. Emma went with me. It was an "exam" day (Ugh!!!) so I was a little concerned about what she would do or say since she had to be in the room with me. Luckily, my doctor was talented enough to carry on a complete conversation with her the whole time he was "examining" and I don't think she ever knew what was going on. Or at least she didn't mention it to me. Now, there's no telling what her preschool teachers heard the next day, but as long as I don't know about it, I can still greet them with my dignity in tact. Ignorance is bliss sometimes.

While in the doctor's office I told him that I had noticed a significant decrease in the baby's movement the day before and that morning. I had hardly felt her move at all on Sunday. He hooked me to a fetal heart & movement monitor and after 20 minutes he came to check the read out and he said that her heart rate and movement were pretty "flat" (there weren't enough "peaks" on the graph, it was just a straight line) and that he wanted to check it again and if it was not better, he was sending me to the hospital.

Emma in the mean time is letting everyone know that she is "Weady to go home! Wite now, Mama! Take dat sting off of you and wets go home!" All the while laying half way out of her chair and turning her body upside down and around again. I am laying there trying to quiet her down, all the while praying that everything was okay with Addison and planning out in my head what I was going to do with Emma if he did send me to the hospital.

He came to check to print out again and there were more "peaks" on the graph. He said she must have "woken up" now but for me to keep a close eye on it and if she stops moving again, to come back in as soon as I notice it. She seems to be doing better and is moving a little more now. Please say a prayer for her too that she is okay and growing and developing normally.

Whew...you thought you were clicking on here to read some humorous, witty comments about the Holland household! Instead you were bombarded with some heavy "junk"!! ;-) Well, here's something to lighten the mood a little before you go...

Tonight the girls were supposed to be cleaning their room up before they went to bed. You've heard me speak before about Emma's aversion to cleaning up...she's still afflicted! And now, when she and Taylor have to clean up something together, it wears on Taylor's nerves and she starts to act up and whine. By the time they finished, I was yelling and not pleasant at all...to say the least. I had HAD IT with both of them by this point and I can't even remember everything that I swore to take away from them for giving me such a hard time tonight. The last thing I took away was them getting to go to a movie tomorrow night-something they've been looking forward to all week. I told them they'd have to "EARN IT BACK!!" So, I am tucking Emma in her bed, not so gently, kissing her goodnight with a snarl still on my face, and she smiles at me and in a soft sweet voice says "Mama, you ahh so sweet and so nice. I tink you ahh bein so nice tonight." ha! It took all that I had to keep the snarl on my face until I could get out of their room and laugh.

When I've had a night like tonight, I always look forward to going into their room later after they're asleep and pulling the covers up around them and giving them another kiss before going to bed. Sometimes they're so much sweeter when they're sleeping...and quiet...and still...and not whining, not defying...just lying there off in dreamland. It fills my "love tank" back up and I can go to bed peacefully and then get up and do it all again tomorrow.