Exciting Times!

How many babies? 1

Due? April 12th, 2011

Age? 8 weeks

Heartbeat? 174 (so fast!!! but healthy!)

Length? .5 inches

Lil' Web has stubs! Look at those little arms and legs! He (general reference.... we don't know this) looks like a gummy bear! What a cutie :). The ball under him is the umbilical cord. How cool is that?!?! Hope he likes floating upside-down.

It blows my mind to think that God is paying attention to every chromosome and knitting that little gummy bear together inside me. What an unbelievable miracle! PRAISE GOD!!!

I was looking at the growth chart in the Dr.'s office today..... YIKES! That baby looks soooo big at 40 weeks! A little worried about pushing something like that out... especially after I saw Hubby's newborn pic. He was HUGE. Honestly, sumo-baby. I'll have to get a copy of that up here.

That's my exciting day! We'll hear the heartbeat in 2 weeks!!!

School has taken over my life, well that and...

Yes, school. Those kids are wonderful but man.... I've got nothing after a day at school! That could also be due to the fact that I'm pregnant. YEP! You heard right! I'm pregnant! And apparantly I'm having a very healthy pregnancy; I learned today that sickness means healthy.... so Lil' Web is doing well.

So that is my main excuse for not posting... that all I do now is sleep, eat and work. and sleep.

My apologies... blame the baby. :)

Good News/Bad News

Here it is, the first Good News Bad News post. Could be the one and only, but only time will tell. The age old question.... what do you want to hear first???? I'll do the good news first this time around.

GOOD NEWS!!!!

I got my ears pierced. Yes, I'm 26 and yes this is the first time. My motivation: the ever so cute earrings designed by beautiful Caroline; peer-pressure from my mother in law. Yup, you heard it here, first... nevermind the thugs at school, or the cool crowd. You need to watch out for those mother-in-laws, they'll get ya. So I am the proud new owner of 3mm silver balls stuck in my ears. If you know me, you may know that I have no earlobes. And yet.... these things don't look half bad.

BAD NEWS!!!!

Shoulder pads are back. A travesty, I know. It was an innocent discovery, one that someone should have prepared me for. There I was, searching the Dillards junior clearance racks and... the horror! A sleeveless shirt......WITH SHOULDER PADS! Ugh.... It's just too painful to talk about.

Thanks for joining me for Good News Bad News. My apologies for the lack of pictures and lack of posts for the last week. School's about to start, give me a break :)

Busy Weekend

We had a family reunion this weekend which kept us quite busy. Some of Aaron's cousins stayed with us and we had a blast! It's kind of sad to have an empty house now. I love being part of a family that gets together so often and has such rich relationships. It is quite a blessing to be included. Exactly at this moment I am sleep deprived and thinking of how I need to get going soon, so this will be a short post. But stories and photographs will follow eventually.

Perfection

Walking outside this morning to water the garden and watch the dogs play I was delighted to find the perfect time of day. A balmy 73 degrees with a cool breeze. Fabulous! Too bad it'll be gone in an hour, if it takes that long. Reflecting on this quick glimpse of a comfortable summer led me into these next thoughts.

Isn't it interesting how we imagine our "perfect circumstances"? I don't think reality quite ever matches those images. Mostly, I think, because God loves to blow our minds. This morning I've been traveling down an interesting path: considering going back to school. As I've mentioned before these thoughts come to me a couple times a year, but today I pursued it a little more. Not to say anything will come of it, but I'm finding that it is a desire in my heart.

If you had asked me when I was in 2nd grade what I'd be doing at age 26 (creeping up on 27), I would have told you that I'd be a vet, married and have kids... and cats. Well, I'm 1 for 4 and glad that the cats are dogs instead. My image of the "perfect" life has morphed so much through the years. I'm finding more and more that the perfect life has nothing to do with education, career, accomplishments or awards. The perfect life is one in-tune with God. I'm fighting to find God's pitch at this moment. I can say that I've made strides in that I'm actually searching for His pitch and realizing that that is the only goal worth desiring, but I'm still testing out the tunes to find His.

He's given me so many passions in my heart, it's quite the challenge to find the one He is calling me to. In hindsight, I would have done college a little differently, to make some passions a little more feasible in my life today. But I have to remember that everything that I've done has been God's plan and I have to trust Him in that. Still, the "what ifs" don't always stay away.

So today, in my life I hope that God will shed some light on His plans for me. I'm excited to serve and desiring to grow, but need to tune in a little more to the Holy Spirit. I need to find contentment in my circumstances. Not to say that I need to settle, but I need to be overjoyed where God has me today. So I'll be working on that. Prayers much appreciated!

All this from a balmy 73 degree morning. Maybe I should cut back on the coffee!

The End of an Era

Anyone who attended Taylor University will tell you to avoid Anatomy and Physiology. Many people took that class off campus through another university. Why? Dr. B.

Dr. Tim Burkholder was renown across campus as a HARD professor. I went into my 2 semesters of A&P with dread and fear. And I learned why Dr. B. was so feared. He actually makes you learn and apply material without spoon-feeding you. I held this against him for those 2 semesters, wishing that I was not up studying for 7 hours at Handy Andy the night before a test (honestly, if I had been a better student I probably could have avoided some of that).

But now that I am past A&P (and passed), I look back with great fondness. Dr. B. was one of a few profs who really got me to think and work. He was a wonderful man and cared for his students and treated them as college students should be treated, as intellectuals to be challenged.

I read this morning in the Taylor Magazine that Dr. B. is retiring his post. I began to tear up at that thought. No one will be able to fill those shoes quite to the extent that he did. 40 years of striking fear into prospective students hearts and winning them over in the end. What an incredible legacy. I am proud to have been his student and ever thankful for the challenges he placed in front of me.

So here's to Dr. B., a Taylor legacy and wonderfully challenging educator.

I feel...sick

What a beautiful day to be sick. Ok, not really. I always feel that it's wrong to get sick in the summer. And with it being 106+out I feel like any germ should be baked out of me. Well, heat, you missed one. I've been so proud of myself for not getting sick this summer (which is silly because how much control do I have over that, really). And now into the final stretch I'm feeling crummy. I blame the antibiotics. The antibiotics that won't let me take my vitamins within 2 hours of taking them... which means the vitamins don't get taken. So thank you very much, antibiotics. I'm going to go lie down now and try to feel better for Grandpa's 94th birthday dinner.

*I must be sick with how much I am talking to inanimate objects in this post.... delirious maybe?

2 weeks left of "freedom"

The countdown is on - 2 weeks until school begins. I remember counting down to summer like it was last week. I'm excited to go back to school. This used to be my favorite time of year! School supply shopping was/is like a holiday for me. Even though I'm no longer a student I try to go to Office Max and peruse the isles looking at what I would buy if I was a student. Sometimes I buy some new awesome pens or pencils. Or a new notebook. Remember when Trapper Keepers were the coolest? Or Lisa Frank folders, pens, and such? Oh those were the days! I remember the first time I was supposed to buy a Ti-81 calculator... it was like a mini-computer! And we could play games on it! (oh how those games would be mocked by today's technological advancements).

Aw yes, back to school. Even though I am no longer a student I look forward to going back and seeing the kiddos. Marveling at how much they've grown in a summer and (hopefully) matured. Meeting the new 4th graders and seeing the excitement they have to be there. (An excitement that is lost somewhere between 6th and 12th grade).

I'm sure that by the time another May comes around I will be in full summer countdown mode again, but for now I'm looking forward to the school year. Every now and then I play with the idea of going back to school to get my teaching degree. That time has come again also. Initially, that's what I majored in at college (first 2 out of 5 majors I tried). The only reason I didn't pursue it was because of the stories I heard about student teaching experiences. Looking back, that was a fairly foolish reason to not pursue it, but hindsight is 20/20.

So with these last two week of so called "freedom" (for me it is 2 weeks of not getting a steady paycheck, and a little too much time on my hands), I'm thinking of the kids who are getting new backpacks, the coolest pencil holders, awesome erasers and crazy pens and pencils. And I'm a little jealous.