Countdown to Baby!

The Last Day of the Church Year

Brought on by reading a wonderful sermon by Pastor Petersen
http://www.redeemer-fortwayne.org/displaySermon.php?sermon=403

Oh how I take my children for granted! Every morning Eli wakes up bright and cheerful and I always try to make him go back to sleep because I’m still tired. Why is it so hard to get up even when I see his smiling face? He’s so adorable in the morning. He likes to play with Matthew and I while we are trying to sleep in. He crawls all over and makes cute faces as he slobbers everywhere. I really should savor it while he’s still cute. He’s already starting to turn into a whining toddler. But I guess that the more whiney he gets, the cuter he gets.

October

I'm feeling better lately. Just the past few days I haven't felt so sick. It was really never that bad, but it sure didn't feel good. Some days are better than others. I especially feel good when I go for a walk. Just moving about in the cool air is so refreshing. Plus, Eli loves to be outside, he's always so good.

So, I'm 9 weeks pregnant now, and I'm really excited about having another baby. It never ceases to shock me when I see pictures of a baby at this stage and read about how much they have already grown! Although, I do feel like I've been pregnant forever. Those of you that have children know that this is very very bad. I'm not suppose to feel like this at only 9 weeks! Maybe my body is making up for last time. With Eli things just seemed to go so fast, but perhaps that's all in retrospect.

Matthew and I met with a midwife in Des Moines last Wednesday. We really like her a lot and will be scheduling a first appointment soon. However, I'm so sad that we can't have the midwife we had with Eli (she's in IN). We were planning to, but we were also planning to wait until we were back in Indiana to get pregnant. God really likes to throw our useless plans out the window, doesn't he?

Eli was a bat for his first Halloween. We only went to a few people's houses. Just people from the church. Since our house isn't on the street we didn't get many trick or treaters, only some kids from church. It was kind of a bummer, but now we have lots and lots of chocolate!

We had two good friends visit us last month. Jenny came to visit for a whole long weekend. It was so good to have her here. We hadn't seen each other since February, and I'm terrible at keeping in contact with people, even my closest friends. Last weekend Dustin visited. Just for Friday night to have drinks with Matthew. (I ate ice cream since I can't have alcohol.) I miss all my friends a lot. Those in Indiana and those from college. Everyone is so scattered around the country now. I guess there are still a lot in the midwest, but still, it's not like we're free to travel much. Plus, traveling isn't free!

I love my beautiful children!

Monday and Tuesday we went to the New Worker Conference for Iowa District West. We had a really good time. We even got to see some of our friends from seminary that are serving as new vicars and pastors. The different lectures they had were pretty boring with the exception of a few. Eli saved me from having to sit through them- he was "noisy" and has to be taken outside. So he and I played on the swings and sat down by the lake. (The conference was at Camp Okoboji.)

On our way home Tuesday, we stopped by my Grandma's house to tell her our good news. She wasn't too excited about it. For the first few hours we were there she went on and on about how perfect Eli is and what a blessing children are and then when we told her about our "surprise" she felt the need to tell us how hard it's going to be with two children and they're so close together...blah blah. Matthew's mom kind of had the same reaction, only she said that I should have been taking birth control pills if I didn't want to get pregnant. Yeah, sure, because I want to screw up my hormones, gain more weight, and keep any fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine wall! I just don't get why they said those things. Did they just want me to feel quilty? I mean, there's nothing I can do about it. I can't go back in time and be more careful and there's no way I would have an abortion.

However, I am so blessed that I do have people that are very supportive and excited for us. My parents and Matthew's dad for starters, all of our friends, I even have a friend that is jealous of me! Children are a blessing no matter how or when they are conceived. Even if the timing does not feel right for the parents or conception took place in a bad situation, that child is created by God.

2 is company

I really wanted to be working on losing weight this year, but I guess that God had a different plan for me. I know that I don't have to give up exercise or a good diet. Actually, I need to keep those up. I am following the book "Body for Life" by Bill Phillips, but I don't think that I've been as faithful as I should be. I think that I have lost some fat, and it's been replaced with muscle and that's why it isn't really showing on the scale. My pants are getting loose, and I had to punch another hole in my belt. Well, my pants probably won't be getting any bigger on me. In a few more months I'll have to dig out the box that has only been put away for about 10 months. This was totally unplanned. I was really down about it yesterday, but I'm much more excited about it today. It is a good thing and a real blessing. I just wasn't prepared for it, yet. (We were going to wait until next summer.) It's really our own fault. We weren't as careful as we should have been. (I was just beginning to chart my cycles again.) Eli will be about 18 months old when this one comes along. I guess that's a good age difference. Plus, my sister is due April 6. It will be fun to have this to share with each other.

If you didn't already guess, I'm pregnant- due end of May-early June. (June 4)

Lentils, Cops, TP, and Birthdays

I did something really stupid Thursday. I was going to make lentils for dinner, but I needed to get a few things from the grocery store. So, since lentils take awhile to cook I thought, "I'll put them on the stove now and run to the store." Yeah, that was a big mistake. I'm lucky that there wasn't a fire. Have you ever seen burnt lentils? They look like Barbie charcoal, but they smell really bad. Our house still smells like smoke, especially when the AC runs. I feel like I spray the air freshener every 10 minutes.

On the cooler side of things, I witnessed a criminal on the run. Someone had gotten in a wreck up at the gas station and ran down the street and hit by the church. When Matthew and I were cleaning up the TP from the church steps I saw him run out and down the sidewalk. Then a cop drove by and asked me if I saw a man in a ball cap and white T-shirt run by, and I told the cop where he had run to. There were cops and fire trucks all over circling the block. I don't know if they caught the guy.

Now, about the toilet paper on the church steps. Stupid, stupid, stupid kids! TP-ing happens a lot around homecoming weekend. Why would someone want to TP the church? Makes no sense to me.

Well, we have to be off to a birthday party. It'll be the first one Eli gets to go to with people his age there. The next one will probably be his own!

Open House

We're having an open house this Saturday for all the people at the church. I've been trying to make up a list of appetizers I'd like to serve-I can't think of anything very inventive, just the usual little smokies and vegetable tray type stuff. Any suggestions? I also need to clean the house. That's the hard part. Eli does take up a lot of my time and he's deathly afraid of the vacuum.

Handbell practice was tonight. We are doing some pretty nice hymns but also some really silly songs like "Shine Jesus Shine". Oh well, I need to have some music to participate in, and I'm not going to be in the "Praise Him" chorus. I'd rather play aweful songs without the words rather than with the words.

P.S. I have an ear infection and it really hurts.

Weight-no loss or gain

I have writer's block for the moment. I wanted to write something about my weight loss, but I really haven't lost anything. I do notice a slight difference in the way that I look, but, unless the scale is wrong, I haven't lost a single pound. I've been working out and following a good eating plan for a month! I guess that I'll just have to work harder. I really need this to happen. I'm tired of being the fat one in the family. Plus, now I have a son that I need to keep up with. I don't want to be a fat mommy either. Praise be to God that I have an incredibly loving husband that doesn't care what I look like, but I know that he wants me to be healthy and happy. So, please say a little prayer for me tonight. I really need God's help right now.

Blogging

Blogging is a funny sort of thing. Typing your thoughts out and then sending them off into space for anyone to read-Not that anyone reads mine. But hopefully that will change soon. I just now put the address on my email signature and it might be posted on the Lutheran Blog Dirctory. I'm not sure why anyone would be reading my rambling. I've never been much of a writer or intelectual, but maybe I'll learn a thing or two doing this.

I have have done quite a bit of reading blogs today. Most were from a list on Redeemer-Fort Wayne's website and others were links from those blogs. I knew only a handfull of the people, some people I had only heard of in this small Lutheran world, but most of them I didn't know at all. However, I didn't find some very interesting things to read. Almost all the blogs were of the theological nature, but my favorites were just a hodgepodge of thoughts and ideas, some theological, some poetic, and others just plain silly.

OK, I can no longer type in coherent sentences since it is so late for me. Matthew is donating (selling) plasma tomorrow so we can buy gasoline. Sad isn't it?

Beautiful Boy!

Ah, Motherhood.

I’ve been really irritated today. I think that it’s just motherhood catching up with me. I love Eli so much, but it is so hard to be patient with him. He doesn’t understand what “no” means, and the only time I get things done is when he’s sleeping. Ok, so maybe I’m exaggerating, but it sure feels like that sometimes. There are times when I’ll set him down so I can do something, and he screams like he’s in pain. That scream of his just makes the hair on my neck stand up.

Iowa!

Finally getting back on track. We are in Iowa now and all settled in. Boone is such a lovely town...once you get used to all the trains!

Matthew is really enjoying himself. He and Pastor are a perfect student-teacher fit. Eli is doing great and growing like a weed! He crawls everywhere and pulls himself up on everything. I've been home a lot- keeping the house clean and taking care of Eli. I get out to do the shopping and take an occasional trip to the library.

My family is coming this weekend to visit. I can hardly wait to them. It's only going to be for 2 nights but at least it's something. I really miss them all terribly. After spending two months with them I really got used to being there and having all those babysitters. :)

I'm working out 6 days a week now and trying to eat like I should. I still need to plan meals ahead more to keep myself from being bad. My weight has always been a problem and I need to take care of it now before I begin to have serious health problems. I'll post updates every so often. Current weight: 236 Dress size: 22 That's really hard to write down.

Soon to be a Vicar's Wife

Matthew will soon be a Vicar and that means that I'll be a Vicar's wife. I'm pretty surprised at myself that I'm not terrified about living up to the congregation's expectations. Maybe I'm just too excited about being in a new place surrounded by new people. Plus, I have the whole cute baby thing on my side. We've sent the church some pictures and they are already mesmerized by little Eli. Actually, I'm probably the most excited about being settled somewhere. For the past three months we've been squished into a 600 sq. ft. apartment. Now most everything is in a box or scattered about. I really hate having such a mess; It stresses me out. I'll be really glad to put it all into storage and live with mom for two months. It will probably be my last "vacation" ever.