The Past Three Weeks in a Nut Shell...a Really Big Nut Shell

Hey all! It's been like three weeks since my last post, some of you already know that and I've heard from you about it too. Sorry! Been a little busy around here and when it's not been busy, I've been napping. You understand: third trimester, sleepy, LARGE, uncomfortable, heartburn. When I do find a comfortable spot or position I can't help but fall asleep. Especially if my other two girls are sleeping. I napped today for a while and then later this afternoon, we were on our way home from playing at the park with the girls and I yawned and could've fallen asleep again! It was quiet in the van, the girls were watching a movie and I was sitting very still. That's pretty much all it takes. Stillness, quiet, zzz*snore*zzz.

So, a lot has gone on in these past three weeks. Where do I even start? I guess I could start with Addison. I went for a 3-D ultrasound three weeks ago last Friday. She was 27 weeks. It was really neat except that she wouldn't really cooperate with us. She was turned into my spine and hid most of her face for the entire hour. I had to roll from one side to the other (no easy task at this size) and I had to get up and walk around for a little while to try to get her to turn over for us. She refused. Finally at the end of my hour she turned over to face us but put her hand up in front of her face as if to say "Bye! Leave me alone now, please!" Taylor and Emma enjoyed getting to see her, however Emma got tired of her pretty quickly and was ready to go home. I also got a DVD of the entire hour set to music. It was neat to watch her wiggling and moving as I was feeling it at the same time. One time I felt her stretch from one side of my tummy to the other and when we were watching it, she stretched her head back so far that I thought she was going to lay it onto her back! It was so weird...like she has a double jointed neck! She also kept opening & closing her mouth (drinking, is what the nurse said...sounds pretty gross) and she would stick out her tongue.

Here are a few of the better shots that we got of her. -and of course, the goodbye wave shot.

Profile

Another Profile in 3D (Her hand is up on her chin.)

Waving Goodbye

After leaving the ultrasound clinic, we headed up to Georgia for Nathan to attend a job interview. That job hasn't really worked out. He's had several leads and is waiting on phone screening interviews from a couple of places. He is still working at the Air Force base just about every day. His orders to work there continue through the month of September. We are trying not to be anxious or worried about it. We know that God has a job planned for him and we're just trying to be patient and wait to see what it might be. We've been blessed so far to have the Air Force for income and insurance. Keep praying for him that the right job will come along soon and that God will give him the wisdom and discernment he needs to know it is the right one.

Last week a man that works in the same building as Nathan, someone he has met but doesn't know very well, asked to talk to him. This man told Nathan that he had been on his mind lately, he had been thinking about Nathan's job situation and had prayed for him. He said that he woke up thinking about Nathan and felt God saying to him that he needed to tell Nathan not to be worried about the job search so much but rather be thanking him for his future job because it is already in the works. As this man was telling Nathan this, he also told him that it was the weirdest feeling that he had and that it made his hair stand on end. I think Nathan was pretty much speechless but thanked him for telling him that and told him that he would start thanking God for his future job instead of praying so hard for something to come up and thinking/worrying so much about it.

Mom and Dad drove down and got here on Thursday of the next week. They brought Nathan an extra vehicle that they had for him to drive. We were so thankful for that. He had been fortunate to have found a buddy that lives close to us who also works at the base and he offered him a ride to the base everyday. But he still needed a vehicle of his own to drive. We enjoyed having them here for the weekend. Of course, the weekend went by way too fast and none of us were ready for them to leave.

(Pictures of Nana with the girls...BEFORE the weeping and wailing started...the day they flew back home.)

Last year about this time, Taylor had begged to get her ears pierced. I finally gave in and one Saturday we went to the mall, stood in line to have them done and then just before it was her turn, I backed out. I just couldn't do it! I kept looking at her little baby ear lobes and I couldn't bring myself to put holes in them. Of course, she was furious with me. I told her that maybe when her Nana came back for a visit, she could take her and have it done. Wouldn't you know it, one of the first things out of her mouth when Nana got here was "Hey, now that you're here, you can take me to get my ears peered!" (That's not a typo...she can not remember 'pierced' so she says peered.) I was floored that she remembered that! We'd not talked about it in months! So on Saturday, Nana, the girls and I all went 'back to school' shopping. Taylor needed a few things to start school, which included earrings. I tried to pretend that it wasn't going to happen the whole day as we shopped. I even forgot to bring my camera...something I was kicking myself for later, being that it would've made THE cutest scrapbook page ever! I didn't even have my cell phone to use to take pictures. So you'll just have to imagine the scene in your head as I describe it. We went to the Merle Norman store in the mall and I told the lady at the counter that we'd like to have Taylor's ears pierced. -I added an "I think" to my request and apparently by the sick look on my face she could see my apprehension. So she began talking to me about it, asking me after every few sentences, "Now, Mom, are you sure you're okay?" I'm sure Taylor was about to go into fits waiting and hearing her ask me if I was sure...she knew that I was NOT for sure but rather conned into this by a six year old. Finally she began talking to Taylor, explaining the "Very Important Responsibilities" that go with having your ears pierced and taking care of them. She spent what seemed like an eternity stressing the importance to her of caring for her ears and not touching them without washing her hands first. FINALLY, the moment came. Both women readied themselves on either side of her, Nana stood in front of her holding her hands as I watched hesitantly over Nana's shoulder. They were almost ready when I noticed Taylor's face turned from flushed to ghostly white. She asked nervously "Are you about to do it?" They told her not yet, they were just lining up their guns and they'd let her know when they were going to do it. One more second and they gave the warning and 'click' it was done. It's a good thing they did it fast, because I felt sure Taylor would have passed out had she waited any longer. One of the guns got hung in one ear, the back of the earring wasn't going on right. That scared her a little so she started to tear up but just as fast as she did, the lady got it off and they immediately began pouring cleaning solution onto her ears to soothe the heat. All in all, it was a good experience. I didn't cry, though I wanted to. I actually liked the way they looked in her ears. I didn't feel like they made her look too grown up as had been my initial fear. They're cute. She has done a great job caring for them. Just about every night and morning, she reminds me that we need to "doctor" them and she brings the solution and cotton balls to me. It's really not been as big of an effort as I had feared. Here is a picture of her new earrings. This is also the picture I took of her on her first day of 1st grade. (sob...sob...) So, the next event would be Taylor's first day of first grade. She was so nervous the night before. More nervous this year than even last year. I think it was mostly because she knew that none of her classmates from last year were in her class this year. She has a whole new group of friends to make this year. She woke me up that Monday morning at 4 am saying she couldn't sleep because she was worried about school. This made it so much harder on me leaving her this year than last year. I gave lots of assurances and hugs and she did fine. Her teacher this year is very sweet and loving so that helped too. Here are a few more pictures of her on her first morning.

Saying Hello to her teacher, Mrs. Majoy, and getting a hug

Sitting at her desk, ready for the day. (Probably wishing Mom would STOP with the camera!)

That was on Monday...this was Tuesday:

This would be our driveway and street out in front of our house (I am taking this photo from inside of the garage, as it was still pouring out. You can see how close the water was to coming in our garage!) Tropical Storm Fay...just a rinky dink tropical storm, not even a full blown hurricane dropped in for a visit and decided to sit and stay for a while...dumping 20+ inches of rain on us in a matter of a couple of days. School was canceled that day and remained closed for the rest of the week. We were not able to leave our house until Friday afternoon because the water was so deep in the streets of our neighborhood, it would've flooded our vehicle. You can only imagine how nuts we all four were by Friday! Just after noon, Nathan ventured out and down the street to wade in and see if he thought we could get out. He came back with the good news that we could and then said "I think I'll run up to McDonald's and get us some lunch." I said "OHHH, no! You're NOT going alone! GIRLS! GET IN THE CAR WE'RE GETTIN' OUT OF HERE!" I've never seen them get in that car and buckled so fast...utterly delighted to be getting out of the house. Emma had started in on Wednesday saying (whining) "Mama, can't we pweese jus go some-wayah?!" It was miserable. But, it could've been so much worse. When the rains finally stopped and the water began receding we felt so fortunate and blessed not to have gotten any water in our house. Many of our neighbor's homes were flooded. The amount of water was just unreal. I've never seen or experienced anything like it. We had FISH!! swimming in our driveway! Here are just a couple more pictures that I took of our front yard.

Nathan carried all of the furniture that he could upstairs and the rest we stacked on paint cans from the garage and we put our stuff in plastic bins so that if the water came in it wouldn't damage it. By this time we were beginning to panic. It was still raining and the weather reports said it wasn't stopping any time soon. Luckily, they were wrong and it did stop not long after we'd gotten everything as secure as we could get it.

So this past week, Taylor had her second first day of school and Emma got to start preschool as well. Things are finally back to normal and the water is all gone. We're beginning to get settled into our routine now. The girls are both loving school and were excited to get started back.

Emma's first day of preschool.

MOPS is getting ready to start up for me as well. I'm really excited about this year...my friend Cindy and I are the coordinators this year (scary that someone entrusted that to us! ha!) We had our steering committee retreat Friday night at our mentor mom's house. We had a lot of fun. Our group of moms who will be planning and running our meetings with us are wonderful and our mentor mom is just the greatest! Most of them are new and didn't know one another very well but they all hit it off at the retreat and everyone seemed to have a really good time getting to know one another. We barely got through everything we needed to do because of the conversations going on and new friendships being made. It's going to be a lot of fun this year.

I started attending a new bible study on Tuesday mornings. It's a "Beth Moore" study...I just LOVE her studies! I am nearly finished with the first week and it is so good! I always learn so much from her. This study is about faith and believing God, not just believing in Him. Very appropriate for me right now considering all that is going on in my little world.

I go back to the doctor on Tuesday for a check up on little Addison. I started my "every two weeks" visits now. I have about 10 weeks left until my due date. At my last appointment I discussed with my doc about inducing me. I really, really, REALLY need for mom to be here with me when she comes. Because of her work schedule, my due date is not a good time of the month for her to take off and be here for a week. So I asked my doctor about inducing me a week early. He was fine with it as long as everything is going well at my 36 week exam. Everything is going well so far. I've been eating Tums like candy every day and night. I have heartburn and reflux so badly right now! She is really active too and I've never felt kicks and pushes so strongly before. She is a little hoss! When she pushes, kicks or turns it nearly takes my breath away because it is so hard and strong. And you can see my tummy shift and jerk. Nathan is just amazed when I lay down at night and he can see my tummy jerking from side to side or see a round lump bulge out on one side. Lately she's had a sharp extremity poking the top of tummy. Today in church I kept having to put my hand on top of my tummy and push her down and little because it hurts. It feels like a heel, knee or elbow steadily poking me. You can feel the sharp little round curve of whatever it is. I'm trying to enjoy all the movements and kicks and just savor every moment since this will be (WILL BE, I SAY!) the last baby I have.

Well, it's nearly midnight and I can't believe I've stayed awake this long! Hope you have a great holiday tomorrow! Pray for those people in the path of Hurricane Gustav and also pray that Tropical Storm Hanna will stay away from us.