A New Snack?!?

Today I decided to introduce Play-doh to Brady. I thought that it would be fun and something new!

So, I brought his little table and chair in to the kitchen - I did not want to do it on a carpeted area! - took out a little ball of orange play-doh and I began to mush it with my fingers while explaining to him that this is a toy.

I broke the ball in half, gave half of it to him, and told him to try and mush it like Mommy was mushing it. So, he took the half circle of play-doh and began to put it in his mouth! I quickly said, "NO! It is not a snack!" and he started to cry! Poor little guy! He must have thought that it was a new food to eat! I asked him if he wanted a hug, he said yes, so I hugged him and explained that this was a toy, not a snack - and he said "ok". I asked him if he wanted to sit on mommy's lap and try to play with it again, and he said yes.

So, I started to show Brady how you can make the play-doh in to little balls. So, he took a little ball of play-doh, and put it in his mouth! I again said, "no!", the tears started, I got the doh out of his mouth, and gave him hugs.

It was a good first attempt, and we will try again tomorrow. Maybe I will be sure that he has a little snack first! :)

Another Chance For Pink!

I would LOVE to win a pink Dyson, and there is another chance for you to win too! Head over here and enter! The contest ends today - so, good luck to all!

Cutting Some Wood

A few days ago, I woke up and my throat was hurting. I was so concerned that I was getting sick. When I was telling my mom that my throat hurt a lot, and I was not sure why, my husband chimed in with, "You were snoring pretty loudly last night!" (my dad would refer to this as cutting some wood - b/c some people sound like a chainsaw - I hope that I don't sounds that bad!)

Oh, no!!! This happened last time when I was pregnant too! I really feel bad for my husband. I am hoping that it is not as bad as it was two years ago - he had to wear earplugs to bed! However, he still had some earplugs, so if it does get bad, I can still rest easily, knowing that he will get a good night's rest!

So, I have down the following to help myself to not snore as much:
1. we have our humidifier running upstairs now
2. I am sleeping on my side - and I have a pillow behind my back - I am hoping that this will serve as a reminder to myself to not roll on to my back
3. I told my husband to nudge me if I start to snore (and it wakes him up)

If you have any other suggestions, let me know!

Personality Test

I decided to take this personality test that a few of my friends did. I almost stopped taking it because I feel that the choices were one extreme or the other and it was hard for me to choose. So, I am not sure how accurate this is.

While taking it, I did realize that some of my answers did change compared to how I would have answered it a few years ago. So, there you have it for now. Maybe I will have to look up another one of these tests another time...not right now...I need to go start dinner!

Attitude Check

I have been asking the Lord to help me with my attitude. I have been praying that I would see others the way that He sees them, and that I would respond the way that He would in situations that arise in my life. This is not always easy, but I have found that the more that I seek Him and ask Him for help in this area, the more of a change that I am seeing in my life. I have recently been tested in this area, and I am happy to say that Jesus did help me to respond in a way that I believe that He would - and then I continued to ask Him for help in that situation. I know that He is still working on my heart, but it is good to see that He has been changing me, and that I am embracing His change.

I wanted to share the following with you. I feel that it was some good truth in it.

Attitude
By Charles Swindoll

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important that the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearances, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change out past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our ATTITUDES.”

My Orange Saga...

For the past few years, I have been trying to find a good tasting orange. You know, the kind that is sweet and juicy? Well, I have really had a hard time doing this. I found some one time at Giant, but the next time I bought some...not so tasty. I really appreciate their double your money back if it is not fresh! BUT...I would rather eat a delicious navel orange!

I just tried some at Giant again, but no tasty ones, and they went back to the store!

So, if you know where I can get a tasty orange - please let me know! I would really, really like to enjoy one! You can call it a craving, but it is a craving that I have had for quite some time! :)

It's Been 10 Years...Really!?!

I cannot believe that I graduated from college 10 years ago...and then again, I can believe it! This past Saturday, Dawson, Brady and I ventured to Messiah College to celebrate my 10 year reunion. I did not know what it was going to be like - and let me tell you, I enjoyed myself so much!


Dawson was awesome and watched Brady while I was talking and catching up with my friends - some of whom I have not seen for 5 years!

I enjoyed seeing my friends and roommates - and it was fun to see everyone's kids! In 2006, 4 out of the 5 of us that roomed together for the last 2 years of college, had a child! That was pretty amazing. Now, three of us are prego again and due in 2008. I guess it is that time of our lives! I had some really great conversations and I found out that my friend - I will call her Sweet Pea - and her family have moved to the Boston area! Now when we go to visit the great grandparents, I will be able to see them also! Sweet Pea and family used to live in CA, so I am very excited that they have moved to the East Coast. I just have to say that she looks amazing!

It was also fun to see my friend (roommate sophomore year) "Gertie's" brand new baby - who was only one month old! Can I just tell you that Gertie looks amazing!!! I would LOVE to look like she does after one month of giving birth - you go girl!

I enjoyed seeing all of my friends/roomies - a few of them live in the general area, and now I have to plan to get together with them - hopefully before the baby is born, but we will have to see!

Another fun activity that we did was to visit the Oakes Museum at Messiah College. It is an awesome place to see "stuffed" animals - Brady LOVED it! They have full sized animals such as: giraffe, elephant, zebra, hippo, bears, goats, foxes, wildcats, and a squirrel, turtle, rabbit, and many more animals. I highly suggest visiting it!

The evening was topped off with a double date with my sister and Simms. Dawson was given tickets to a Hershey Bears hockey game. We had great seats, they won and we were on a double date - so much fun!

Poop!

This morning, when I went to get Brady out of his crib, I smelled that familiar poopy smell. He does not always have a poopy diaper waiting for me to change in the morning, but lately he has. Not a big deal - I change one or two of those a day...maybe three if I am "lucky"! Thankfully, Dawson will help out with these when he is home - he is the greatest!

Anyway, Brady was looking out the window, waiting for the big yellow bus to drive up, collect the kids, and drive off - the bus stop is across the street from us. He LOVES to watch the buses and trucks drive by! I noticed that he was looking at his fingers, so I took a look at them and noticed that he had a few hangnails. Then, he was looking at them again, so I took a better look at his fingers...and then...I saw it! There was a light coating of poop on his hand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YUCK!!!!

So, I quickly grabbed a wipe and wiped it off his hand! I could not believe it! Then, I realized that I better look in his crib - on his blankets - on his animals - oh no! Can you believe it - there was NO POOP on the blankets or on the animals (although I washed all of them anyway!). So, I kept looking, and then I saw it - a little on one of the slats of the crib, some on the bumper pad, and a good amount smeared on the crib sheet. Oh gross!

So, I had to strip the bed and get things into the laundry - I had a mountain of his clothes to wash anyway, so not too much of a big deal!

Then I started reflecting on what must have happened...Brady must have been aware that something had come out of his butt and into his diaper (will he be ready for potty training soon! That would be cool!), and so he wanted to see what it was, got poop on his hand (oh gross - but also feel bad for the little guy), and then wanted it off his hand! I am still so amazed and thankful that there was no poop on the rest of his body - how did he manage that! Also, it was not all over the place! I have heard horror poop stories, and by no means am I trying to compete - I really never want to! This is just fine for me! The only problem that I had was trying to get the smell of poop off of his hand. I washed and scrubbed his hands and fingers at least five times, but I would STILL SMELL the poop! I have no idea why! I think that it finally came off. I just do not understand why the smell was lingering - if any of you moms have a better way to get the smell off of a 21 month-old fingers, please pass that info along!

So, I realized that I need to change the type of PJ's that he is wearing - he will be put into a light sleeper that zips up (will he be able to unzip it?!?), or the top and bottom that snaps at the waist. Hopefully, that will help to prevent further poop incidents and stories to tell!

Loving and Praying For Your Enemies

A month or so ago, I decided that I wanted to read the gospels in some type of chronological order - so, initially, I started to try and do it myself - but that was really hard to do! I was talking with my mom about it and she said that she had a chronological Bible that she could let me borrow! It is a Bible that has put the Old and New Testament in - you guessed it - chronological order! It was an answer to my prayers! (I actually knew that she had one, but had initially forgotten about it!)

The Bible is broken down so that you can read through the Bible in one year. While reading in the Bible, I have found that I don't always read through a whole day's worth of scripture, but I read a passage and have found that I am meditating on it more - I figure for me, at this point in my life - the quality of reading is worth more than quantity.

So, today I was reading in Matthew 5:21-48 and the Lord was definitely speaking to me. It was about not holding on to anger - to go and reconcile with your brother before presenting an offering to the Lord. One thing that I struggled with a little bit was - well, what if they do not accept what you are saying and they are choosing to not forgive you, believe you, etc. I felt that the Lord was then speaking to me and telling me that it is the posture of my heart that counts. Later on in that chapter, the Lord tells us that we are to pray for our enemies - and I felt that the Lord was asking me - are you praying for people that are not so nice to you? If they choose not to forgive you, you still need to forgive them and then pray for them.

I was convicted. I have to admit that I have not been praying for a specific situation on a daily basis, but instead I chose to not think about it. Well, that is NOT what the Lord has told us to do. So, I now need to listen to the Lord and PRAY! There is power in prayer and I need to grab a hold of that in this situation.

I have really been enjoying reading the gospels - It is neat (for lack of a better word) to read the words that Jesus spoke - and what He is still speaking into my life.

Update on the Ultrasound

My Saturday ultrasound went really well. It was really cool to see our little boy again - and the tech assured us that he was still a boy and that "nothing fell off". Well, that is always good to hear! My placenta has moved up, so I do not have to be concerned about having placenta previa - PTL!!!

On a funny note - when our little boy came into view on the monitor, the tech said to Brady - "there is your little brother," and Brady's response was "uh oh" - it made us laugh! I don't think that Brady really understands that there will soon be a little baby brother in the house, but we have been praying that they will be close knit to each other and not just brothers, but also best friends.

Contractions

Yesterday, I had an appointment with one of the midwives in the practice that I go to. I was explaining an aching feeling that I sometimes have in the pelvic area - I just figured it was because of the weight above that area! She told me that I am probably having Braxton Hicks contractions - and when I have one, it is causing things to push down and hence the achy feeling that I have at times! She also told me the the Braxton Hicks can actually occur more often in the second (or third or fourth, etc) pregnancy - I have not looked all of this up yet, but it is news to me!

I was like - really? So, today I have been a little more aware of things going on in my body. It is very infrequent, but I have noticed a VERY MILD contraction a few minutes ago - and the funny thing is that I have felt this sensation every once in a while, but I thought to myself - maybe that is a ligament stretching. I believe that I was wrong about that!

Anyway, I remember having feelings like this in the first pregnancy, but I did not realize that it was one of these Braxton Hicks contractions! I am just glad that I do not have them often (especially being only 28.5 weeks pregnant!)! I probably have one or two a day - I really do not know, that is just a guess!

So, that is the main pregnancy update!

Oh, I got the results in from my glucose test - I was at 112 and they want us to be 130 or below - so, that was good news! I also had my rhogam shot yesterday - that was not very exciting, but important to have (if you are negative blood type). Tomorrow is another ultrasound to be sure that the placenta has moved away from the cervix - so, it will be cool to see our little guy again - and it will be an interesting time since Brady will be along with us tomorrow! Hopefully, he will think that it is cool too!

Walk For Life

This year, our family decided to join the Pregnancy Center where I volunteer, in their annual fundraiser - Walk For Life. We raised over $250 - and there is still one pledge that is being mailed to us. We were very excited to help the center in this way.

When we first arrived for the 2 mile walk, my big toe on my right foot was bothering me a little bit. My hunny prayed for me, and it did not bother me while I was walking! PTL!

Before the walk started, we registered and had some pancakes, sausage, juice and milk that was provided for us. We were given a balloon, and what it said on it was so perfect for our family, "I love babies. Born and unborn" - that was so cool! We had a couple of people take photos of our family - since we had a toddler with us and I am pregnant with our second, and the balloon described our family, etc. It was pretty cool.

When we sat down to eat, I started to get a little emotional. The whole event really had an impact on me. We are pro-life and we were doing something about it - not just talking about it or debating it. It is so important to me that we raise our children with strong Christian beliefs. It is also important to me that we don't just talk the talk but we also walk it too - I feel that this is one way that we are doing it. So, the pregnancy hormones probably got to me a little bit and my eyes filled with tears as I thought about the impact that this fundraiser will have on many people's lives - both the babies and the families too.

The walk was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to doing it again next year - either with two strollers or a double one! I hope to see you there!

Digital Camera Contest

Would you love to win a digital camera - in pink? Well hop over to 5 Minutes for Mom and enter to win - one of these days I hope to win one of these contests! :)

Tomato Sauce Recipe

I have a lot of plum tomatoes. Does anyone out there make their own tomato sauce? I would love to have a tried and true recipe! Thanks!

"Lah Loo"

Brady's vocabulary has BURST in the past month. He is saying all sorts of words and has actually said a few phrases too!

When he woke up from his nap last Saturday, I said to him, "Let's look for Daddy." I knew that he was outside cleaning the cars, but I figured that I would make it into a little game for Brady. So, I told Brady to say "Daddy, where are you?" I only expected him to say "Daddy!" To my surprise, he said, "Daddy, are oo?" I was shocked and so proud of him with his first "sentence."

Well, yesterday I was trying to teach him to say "I love you!" His cute response was "Lah loo." I loved it.

At dinner tonight, he was in his highchair and turned to me and we had this little conversation:

Brady: "Mommy."

Me: "Yes, Sweetie?"

Brady: (Smiling) "Lah loo!"

Me: (melting) "I love you too!"

It was so sweet - the first time that he said those words completely on his own - and he knows what is means. I was a "puddle."

He then turned to Daddy, and said the same thing to him - we just love our little guy to pieces!

Any Day Now?

This morning, my sister and I were running a few errands together (I am car-less for a couple of days - another reason why I love my sis so much! She is there for me when I need a little helping hand!).

Anyway, I had to go to the post office to buy stamps and to make sure that I had the correct amount of postage on a card/photos that I was sending to Great Nanny. As I was paying for the postage, the clerk asked me the question:

"Any day now?"

I had not idea what she was talking about at first...then I realized that she was referring to my pregnant belly! I said to her, "Oh, are you referring to my due date? It is January 2nd."

She kind of looked stunned and said "January?"

I confirmed that I did in fact say January, smiled and went on my way.

I was so puzzled.

I go into my sister's car and told her what happened and said - "I don't think that I look that pregnant - do I?"

She of course said "No, I think that you look great"

I agree - I think that I look great too - maybe the clerk needs her eyes checked, or at least learn how to ask the question a little better - something like "When are you due?"

Happy Birthday To My Sis!

Today, is my sister, TCC's, birthday! So, when you get a chance, pop on over here and wish her a happy birthday! She has a really cool post about things that she is celebrating today. She is such a thinker, and I love this about her.

So, here are things that I love about my sis (in no particular order):

1. She loves unconditionally - I have benefited from this many times! Especially when I was going through some tough times in my life and my walk with the Lord. She always loved me and never judged me.

2. She lives so close to me! I cannot imagine living far away from her!

3. We have a lot of similarities - we love the Lord, enjoy scrapping (although she is faster than I am at it!), we are involved in the same church, we desire to be organized, we love family, and there are many more things!

4. We are different: She analyzes things more that I do, she is older (hee hee hee!), I am taller, and she has more wave to her hair (which is opposite of when we were little - pregnancy did that to her! I have been praying for more wave in my hair, but have not seen it too much yet!)

5. I love her heart.

6. She has done a lot of things "first" - marriage and children - and I have been able to benefit from learning a lot from her!

7. My "little" (in height) sis has also passed on many clothes and other items for our sons and we have been so grateful for that. She is a blessing. She also passed on her maternity clothes too!

8. I am so thankful that she is my best friend! Not everyone has a best friend and a sister all wrapped into one person, and I am VERY THANKFUL for that!

I love you TCC - have a wonderful day! We will celebrate!

Love, Promises