Pregnancy Cravings, and Sickness

                                    

Jennisa at A Little Mommy Talk has a question for the week and this week is describe your pregnancy cravings, sickness, etc...  So here I go with mine.

Sweet Pea: I had a very easy pregnancy with her, sure I felt sick but thank goodness I didn't have any morning sickness.  The things I craved more than anything were chocolate milkshakes-I'm talking everyday.  While I was pregnant with her I was working for Red Lobster and it got to the point I didn't have to ask the bartender to make me one.  Within 5 min. of me being there they would make one for-mmm delicious.  And I had to have ice cream, and not just any ice cream but Blue Bell's Candy Bar-which they don't make anymore grrr.  For the first 4 months I was pretty tired and always felt kind of run-down.  But overall pregnancy totally agreed with me, and I loved every minute of it.

Chunky Monkey:  No morning sickness with this one, however I do feel like I started showing a lot sooner with him.  I felt pretty tired for the first few months but overall I loved it.  As for cravings broccoli (weird but nutritious), and Mexican food.  I couldn't get enough chips, salsa, and queso.  As for sweets not so much, maybe like once a week or once every two weeks I would be craving some kind of sweet and when I did I went on sweet overload.

Oh and with both of them I had some major heartburn, which I didn't know what it was until I explained it to the dr.-go ahead and call me a dork it's cool.  She was born with a head full of hair, while he barely had any.  (You know what they say if you have bad heartburn then that means they have a lot of hair.)

Quiet Time

At the end of the Pastor's sermon he challenged everytime to write down a time where they will have quiet time with God everyday.  For a while now I've been feeling convicted about this because I haven't been faithful when it comes to doing this.  I guess you can say I've come up with reasons for why I don't have time; here are the reasons:

1. Taking care of the kiddos.


2. School Work


3. House Work


4. Feeling Tired Lazy

Now all these things ok except for number four are legitimate things that have kept me very busy, but I know that it's no excuse for not having my daily quiet time.  So last night I picked up the devotional I got last year for Mother's Day and I picked up where I left off, I also wrote in the journal that goes along with it and read a chapter in the Bible.  No matter how "busy" I am I plan on taking time out-whether day or night and having my quiet time.

So my last question is when do you have your quiet time, and do you use devotionals, read the Bible, or use something else when you do this?  I would love to hear everyone's answers.

Proverbs 23:18

For anyone who's wondering how I chose this verse to be my domain then you've come to the right place.  When I was pregnant with my DD1 my DH and I had a lot of things going on and none were pleasant.  We were at a financial roadblock and we didn't know how we were going to get out of it.  Thank the Lord that I have such awesome in-laws; they took us in with open and loving arms.  So here I am about 5 months pregnant and worrying about how we would ever get back on our feet.  Then one morning I had this dream, it was God telling me to look up Proverbs 23:18.  I have to admit that at this time in my life I wasn't reading my Bible everyday and I remember saying in my dream "I don't even know if there are even that many chapters."  Well God wasn't going to give up on me because I was to lazy to get out of bed; he kept telling me the same verse over and over again untill I finally got up and looked it up in the Bible.  So here it is "There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off."  Man I was totally blown away; I started crying because it was exactly what I needed to hear.  Never before had I heard or was trying to hear God literally speak to me, so this was amazing.  From that day on I have held on to that verse because I know no matter what happens in my life good or bad God has his hand on me and in the end everything will be ok.

Top Ten Reasons I Love Being Mama

Tracy at Rambling Thoughts of the Neverending Mind made her list of ten reasons being a mother is worth it, and asked if anyone else would like to share so here is my list.

1. I love how my little Sweet Pea will tell me a million times a day how much she loves me.


2. Every morning I go in to get my Chunky Monkey he always has a smile on his face and gives me a kiss.


3. I love watching my two play and laugh and giggle over the silliest things.


4. Anytime Sweet Pea sees that I'm sad she'll come over and give me the biggest hug and kiss and say that I'm the best Mama in the world.


5. Anytime Chunky Monkey has a boo-boo he'll come straight to me arms out saying Mama, and lets me hold him close.


6.  Whenever David and I come home from a date Sweet Pea runs up and hugs me telling me how much she missed me while I was gone and that she's so glad that I'm back.


7. Every night before she goes to sleep I get a ton of hugs and kisses, and then I tell her to dream with the angels, and she'll tell me "don't let the night time bugs bite."


8. My little Chunky Monkey will give me raspberries out of the blue and the more I laugh the more he laughs and continues doing it-slobber and all.


9. Still being able to hold my little girl in my arms and telling her how much I love her.


10. When my little guy wakes up in the middle of the night I lay on the couch with him and he just nuzzles his face in my neck with his hand on my face.

I thank God everyday that he gave two beautiful and sweet precious children.  I love them more than words can express, and I know how much they love me.  I would never turn the clock back to the time before I had children because they are the best thing that has ever happened in my life-right next to my hubby David.

Summer Blockbusters

The other day David got his Entertainment Weekly magazine in the mail, and let me say I'm so excited by the movies that are coming out this summer.  So here is the list of movies that I am uber excited to go and see.

May 4-Spiderman 3  Ok this movie is going to be awesome.  I loved the first two and I know I will not be disappointed.  In this movie we have three new characters: Thomas Haden Church as Sandman, Topher Grace as Venom, and Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy.  There is even talk of making a Spiderman 4 but I guess we'll have to see how number 3 does but I know I won't be disappointed.

May 18-Shrek the ThirdI'm sure if you liked the first two the third will not be disappointing, and who doesn't like to see some princesses kick some butt :)  Since we have watched the first two we can't wait to take Sweet Pea to go and see it, oh and she love Puss n Boots, as for me I think Donkey is hilarious, but then again so is Mike Myers as Shrek.  Ok so basically I like all the people in it and the movie.

May 25-Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.  All I can say is that I love Capt. Jack Sparrow but probably not as much as my mil (since she has a poster of him on her fridge), even though I've been a huge fan of Johnny Depp since 21 Jumpstreet.  Ok enough about that, this is the last installment and from all the trailers I've seen it will prove to be an awesome movie with some sweet fighting scenes.  With two new characters: Chow Yun-Fat as Pirate Lord of Singapore, and Keith Richards as Captain Teague who might be Jack Sparrows dad.

June 22-Evan AlmightyFirst off I think Steve Carell is hilarious and I also thought Bruce Almighty was great.  So with that being said I think this will be just as funny if not more than the first one.  In case you haven't seen any trailers it's a comedy form of Noah's Ark.  With all the animals he wanted to use the movies budget was about $175 million-wow.

July 13-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix  Just to let y'all in on a big secret-ok it's no secret-I'm a HUGE Harry Potter fan.  I have all the books and I'm dying to read the last one, I also own the movies and have watched them to many times to count.  Now I don't go as far as the Star Trek, Star Wars, or the Lord of the Ring fans, but I am a big fan.  I have enjoyed all of the movies and like the books each movie just gets better.  So yes I will waiting in line about 1 hr or 1n1/2 hrs before the movie starts because I refuse, I mean refuse to sit in the front row like I had to last time-thanks hun.

Ok there are many more good movies that are coming out this summer but the ones I listed are the ones I'm definitely plan on seeing.  Let me know what you think and what movies you are looking forward to.  Have a great weekend!

Family Fridays

Liz at Monkey Kisses is starting a new blog carnival called Family Fridays where we write about something we've done with our family this week.  It can be anything-movies, games, cooking together, or playing outside.  So go on over to her blog if you want to join and sign Mr. Linky.  I'd like to hear what some of y'all do together as a family.

Ok so here is mine-Wednesday night we waited for David to get home and when he did we all piled on the bed to watch Shrek.  Chunky Monkey wasn't very interested in the movie, instead he was climbing all over us and just laughing.  We let him climb all over us and get out some of that energy since it was almost his bedtime.  Once he fell asleep the three of us watched the rest of the movie and it was so much fun.  It was so cute watching Sweet Pea's face while she was watching the movie.  Her whole face would light up and she would start laughing.  It was a lot of fun, and just nice to have all of us sit together.

Scary Movies

I used to love watching scary movies growing up, you name I've probably seen it.  But something happened when I was prego with Sweet Pea, I don't like watching them anymore.  Maybe it's because they are just way to gory and I don't like that.  Now I do like to watch suspense, but not blood and guts hanging out all over the place.  Take Halloween, scared me as a kid but it's not bloody. 

The reason I'm talking about this is because last night David begged and begged for me to watch a scary movie.  Oh and not just any scary movie, one of the 8 films to die for horror fest.  To David the bloody the better, umm no thanks.  Ok so after much pleading (he's been asking for a couple of weeks now) I finally give in.  As I'm typing this I still don't know why I agreed to watch this or any of the other ones he's begged me into watching. 

The name of the movie was Dark Ride, about a carnival that has a scary tunnel ride where some teens end up being killed-you know the norm.  The plot wasn't to bad, but I could done without the gore.  And thank goodness I didn't have any nightmares because I have a wild imagination and tend to scare the crap out of myself-go ahead and say big baby.  So what about y'all, do you like to watch scary movies or are you like me and can live without them?

4 Yr. Old Getting Tackled

Ok so I'm sure many of you have heard about the 4 yr. old who was tackled at college football game.  Apparently it was some kind of spring youth football game, so I'm guessing it was more like a scrimmage.   Anyways the little boy was walking on the sidelines when here comes the wide receiver trying to catch the pass, he didn't see the little boy and slammed into him.  I think all the boy ended up having was about 30 stitches, but at least his neurological exams were normal.  Here's the link for the story http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,268051,00.html

Ok so here's my question what parent in their right mind would let there toddler just walk along the sidelines of a football game.  I mean come on now lets have some common sense here; how many times have you watched a game and seen the players, coaches, or cheerleaders plowed into my the players on the field.  I don't care if they said it's ok, the field is no place for a child to be running around.  Why-because of what happened to that little boy.  Now please don't think I blame the player because I don't, and I would have been peeved if someone blamed him for it.  I just think the child shouldn't have been down there.  Ok off my soapbox-sorry.  Let me know what you think.

The Wall

Let me first say that I love movies and I love just about every genre of movies.  David on the other hand is obsessed with movies.  He has a calendar with the dates of when his favorite movies are coming out, you know every Tuesday is when they release them.  Sometimes I'm surprised that he doesn't stalk the trucks at Best Buy.  So what's the point to my story-- Yes this is THE WALL!  The first six rows are filled with dvd's and the last two are filled with cd's.  And this isn't all of the dvd's because we have another cabinet with about 30 kid movies.  Anyways the reason I'm bringing this up is because last night David came home with two movies, because you know Best Buy was having a sale that he just couldn't help himself.  He bought Night At The Museum and The Royal Tenenbaums (The Criterion Collection).  Yes I know many of you could care less what kind of collection it is but he does. 

Now I thought I was bad about having to buy something but David takes the cake on not being able to control spending urges.  Since having kids I've been able to control how much and often I buy things.  David on the other hand has greatly improved but he still can't resist a sale.

Oh now don't think his obsession stops at dvd's but that is only half of what he like to "collect."  His other "hobby" is buying cd's, and not just any regular cd but movie scores.  Ok so remember the last two rows on the wall, here is the other bookcase , these are all movie scores.  He also has a big box full of scores that he is selling so he can buy the expensive and rare ones.  But I can't get mad at him because I knew about this obsession when we first got together, however, there are times when it drives me crazy.  Sometimes he acts like it's the end of the world when he can't buy something.  Oh and for his birthday, and holidays can you guess what he wants-yep that's right movies or cd's, and if you're not sure which ones he wants then he'll gladly accept cash so he can go and buy them.

Alright I think I've ranted enough about the wall, soon I'll probably post my favorite movies so y'all can get to know me better.  Thanks for hanging in there with me through this post.  Have a great day because it's Hump Day.

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

I can't believe my little Princess is four today.  It really seems as if it was only yesterday when I held her in my arms for the very first time.  Sweet Pea I just want you to know that I love you very much and that I always will.  I love watching you play make-believe, dancing around the room, and singing to your favorite songs.  But what I love more than anything are all of the hugs and kisses you give me, and how you will tell me at least one hundred times a day that you love me.  I'm so thankful that God gave me such a beautiful, loving, sweet, intelligent little Princess like you.  There is a part of me that wishes you could stay little forever, but there is the other part that gets excited about all the things we do now and will do as you get older.  You know getting our hair done, manicures, movies, shopping, oh the list goes on and on. 

So to start off our day I made pancakes for breakfast because those are her fave, and then sometime today I plan on making brownies so we have those for dessert and sing happy birthday again to her.  As for the rest of the day we'll be inside because it's raining and is supposed to all day.  But later on today I'll be taking her to ballet and she loves going so at least we'll be able to get out of the house.

                                                               

Sweet Pea's Party

We decided to brave the weather and head on out to Kemah to hope for the best, and you know what the weather was awesome.  I'm talking clear skies and nice breezed the entire day.  But first I have to tell about the ride there-Chunky Monkey decided to take only a 30 min. nap in the car, and then for the next oh I don't know 2 hrs cried.  You can imagine how our nerves were by the time we got there-shot!!!  Oh and don't think I didn't try to calm him by giving him wagon wheels, drinks, and toys.  You name it I tried it but the more we tried to do the more he whined and cried.

Finally got to the restaurant and I was so happy to see my mom, sister, and my nephew (Chunk).  I decided to call him this because at 10 months I know he weighs more than my Monkey and he looks just as old as him too.  But he's definitely cuter than Chunk from The Goonies (love that movie).  We put the boys next to each other but my little man was being anti-social, still in his bad mood.  Ok so lunch was good and so was the cake

Now it was time to open presents, and man she has become a pro at tearing open gifts.  As soon as she would open the boxes and look at the gifts she would say "ok next present."  I know pretty rude.  But at least she said thank you to everyone for coming to her party and for her presents.  Oh I almost forgot to tell you what she wished for-for everyone to be in her family.  How sweet and her wish came true because well it was a family affair anyway.

Off to the rides-we got the kids an armband so they could ride all the kiddie rides there little hearts could desire.  Sweet Pea loved it and enjoyed all of the rides, Chunk had a great time laughing and smiling, and Chunky Monkey was just kind of there occasionally giving us a smile.  He was not having a great day, like you couldn't tell.  Afterwards we went to this splash area where there is water shooting up from the ground.   I brought her swim suit and Mimi was going to change her right there (with us a shield), well David didn't like that idea at all and told us to take her to a bathroom.  Ok well as soon as he says that Sweet Pea already has her pants off and is trying to take off her shirt.  We all couldn't help but laugh about it, ok well all but David-another grouch.  *I think David and Chunky Monkey woke up on the wrong side of the bed.*

We then had one more stop before heading home and that was to Galveston.  First we went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory-yummmmy  chocolate.  You better believe I got more than one thing to try.  And then we  headed to the beach to walk on the sand and she played in the water for a little bit. 

Finally after a long, fun, and exhausting day we headed back home and went straight to bed because we were all soooo tired.  Hopefully y'all had a fun weekend too.  Have a happy Monday!

David's First Poopy Diaper

You're probably wondering why a title like this is under Special Memories, by the end of the story you will understand.

Sweet Pea was probably two months old and David had yet to change a poopy diaper.  Once again I was complaining about it saying he needed to just suck it up and do it, and thankfully his mom said the same thing.  So between the two of us we backed him into the corner and he reluctantly said ok. 

So what do you think this crazy is doing while poor Sweet Pea is in a diaper of poop-looking for gloves!  Can you believe that?!?  And let me tell you he searched every and I mean every drawer in the house and all he could come up with were plastic sandwich bags.  You should of seen him walking into the room with plastic sandwich bags on his hands, his mom and I had a good laugh. 

Anyways he asks me to stand there and hold her legs while he wipes.  Well I'm sure you can guess how well those bags worked-that's right they didn't.  Needless to say he had poop on his hands because of the flimsy bags on his hands.  Go ahead and laugh because we sure did and I'm laughing about it right now.  I told him to move over and I finished up.  That was the first and last time he tried changing a diaper with any sort of makeshift gloves, BUT not the last time he's ever changed a poopy diaper.

Getting Things Done

I can't believe it but I actually got quite a bit accomplished today.  First off I finished reading this book for class and took a test on it this morning.  And to make my morning better it was my last test for this semester-yeaaaaah!  Can you tell that I'm happy.  I did some laundry today, ok one load but who cares I actually did some.  I also wrapped Sweet Pea's presents for her party this weekend.  Oh and I also did the dishes.  Don't ask me what got into me.  There is only one wrinkle in our plan-the party.  Are plans are to be outside and stuff but it might rain so who knows.  Hopefull you all had a great day.  :)

Round 2

Now for the story about my Chunky Monkey.  To start off this little was planned.  I quit my job in Feb. 2005 and then two months later we found out I was pregnant.  I know can you believe it, ok well I can because I think David and I are a couple of fertile myrtles.  Well this time around I wanted to break the news in an exciting way so I waited until Mother's Day.  My mom came in to town and his parents were with us so we all had lunch together.  Ok so what I did was get a card for the both of them and wrote at the bottom that I was pregnant and had them read it at the same time.  They both screamed and then cried. 

Fast forward oh I don't know four months to when David and I found out what we were going to have.  I'll never forget when she said it looks like you're going to have a boy.  "What! Are you serious?!?"  Yep that's right we were going to have a little boy; I started crying and David just stood there shocked unable to say anything.  He honestly thought that we would have another girl. 

So you better believe I called everyone and told them the good news and of course I started shopping for baby clothes.  Ok let me just say that little boy clothes are not nearly as fun picking out as little girl clothes.  Plus my husband has to put in his two cents because he's a man.  I mean really there just isn't a lot to choose from: dogs, dinosaurs, cars, sports.  Yeah I think that about sums it up.

Once again this little guy decided to hold out until one day before his due date too.  Instead of having cramps I remember waking up at around 4 a.m. to go to the bathroom and noticed I was leaking.  I probably got up about two more times until it hit-umm hello idiot your water is breaking.  You would think I would have a better clue the second time around-but in my defense it was 4 in the morning.  So I went and woke up his parents so they could watch Sweet Pea for us, grabbed my stuff and can you believe I was standing there leaking waiting on David.  I'm mean he's up there making sure he has cd's or something I don't know but I do know that I was ready to go. 

The car ride was much more calmer, no screaming or anything.  I called my mom and sister and my mom said she would be here asap.  We get to the hospital and David lets me out so I can check in while he parks the car.  Now this may seem gross but having your water constantly leak was the grossest thing ever, and very uncomfortable.  I asked if I could go to the bathroom and the lady said no that I had to wait until I was upstairs.  Great well then can we please hurry this up because it looks like I'm peeing on myself and I feel disgusting.  Finally here comes the wheelchair to take me to my room.

I get up there and everything is going great, well it was.  As I was laying there it turned out the my Chunky Monkey's heartbeat would drop.  They had me turn on my side and then my back but his heart rate would drop again.  They called my Dr. and she came in and checked to make sure the cord wasn't wrapped around his head.  At this point you would think that I would be freaking out but it was the opposite, I was absolutely calm, I just knew that everything would be ok.  Anyways I was making sure I got an epidural this time around and the Dr. said I needed one anyway in case they would have to do an emergency c-section.  

As for the epidural, it wasn't really that painful.  It did hurt but more of like a bad bruise that someone keeps poking.  After that I felt great, no nausea, no side effects, nothing.  I took a little nap and then by 11 a.m. it was time to push.  Before I get into that my mom was there but sister couldn't make it, as for my mil umm she decided to run a couple of errands and when she got there it was time to push-crazy lady.  So before I do one practice push David is standing in the corner, I ask him if he wants to come and he does but he's acting really weird.  Ok back to the push, I do it and then the nurse says that his heart rate has dropped again.  My mom is freaking out which is now making me nervous but the Dr. comes in and we go ahead.  After three pushes my little Chunky Monkey came into the world.  And as soon as I heard his cry I started crying.  My mil asked me "why are you crying?"  Because I was so happy to finally see him and hold him in my arms.  He looked like an angel.  

David cuts the cord and holds him and looks like a very proud papa.  As they are cleaning him off I ask him what's wrong and he said he was just really nervous about him because of his heart rate dropping that he was starting to feel sick.  Poor guy, he didn't want me to see how upset he was.  Then he walks to the incubator to see him and as they're cleaning him off I hear David laughing because my little monkey peed on the nurse.  Afterwards David took him to the nursery and stayed there to get all of the info.

I look at my little Chunky Monkey now and I can't believe that he's already 15 months old.  It seems that my life has been on fast forward since my little girl was born and all I want to do is just slow it down a bit to enjoy all of the moments.

Looking For A Cake

Do y'all remember about a week ago me talking about Sweet Pea wanting The Backyardigans for her party?  Ok well since that post I haven't really made that big of an effort to find the pieces for the cake or anyone to scan it for me--I know bad mom.  Well today among my errands I wrote a note to myself to find something for her cake. 

Let me just back up my story; after going to the post office I headed to Toys R Us in search of these toys.  Ok well actually I had a toy that I needed to return from Chunky Monkey's birthday which was in December.  And do you know what they said I couldn't return/exchange the toy because it had been past the 90-day period.  Are you serious?!?  I honestly forgot it was in the backseat of my car.  Anyways I went ahead and looked around to see if they had anything I could use, and of course they didn't. 

Next was good ole Wal-Mart.  After looking down every toy aisle they had I found the exact same stuff that was at Toy R Us-ahhh how aggravating.  Alright now for plan B: Have Sweet Pea pick out a whole new theme.  Ok so at first she wasn't to excited about having to choose something else but with a little help from her Mimi we finally came to a decision.  Her new party theme is Tinkerbell.  Just to let you know I feel terrible that I couldn't come up with a Backyardigan cake.  Believe me when I say that this morning I called every store I know to see if I brought a picture of them if they could scan it on the cake and every single one said no because of the copyright laws.

And since I felt bad I decided to treat us all to McDonalds-the last thing I needed today but who cares.

A Beautiful Day

So after about a week of cold and rainy weather it's finally beautiful outside.  Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous, I'm talking a nice cool breeze and the sun shining.  Which was perfect because yesterday we had our service outside with a picnic afterwards.  My kiddos had a blast, Sweet Pea stayed in the jumper the entire time, and my little Chunky Monkey walked around like he owned the place.

I also want to give a shout out to my sister because yesterday was her 22nd birthday.  So here is goes HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS-I LOVE YOU!!!  I can't wait to see you on Sunday, we are going to have sooo much fun.             

Supermodel

I don't know about any of you ladies but there are days when I just fell like blah.  Could it be because I like to spend my days in pajamas?  Umm maybe.  Well not today ladies, today I'm ditching the pajama pants and the ponytail, that's right today I'm going glam.  I've straightend my hair and I've put on a little make-up, oh and think later on today I'm going to re-paint my toenails.  Now what brought all this on, well lets just say that sometimes I get into a rut.  There are many and I mean many days when I don't do anything about my appearance, you know I get the lazies.  Now don't get me wrong when I go out I put on make-up and do my hair.  However when I'm home all day I don't normally put any effort.  Oh and the song I downloaded had a little something to do with it.  Some of you may remember this song and some of you may not have ever heard of it-either way it's a song that will get you dancing.  Here's a funny little metal picture for you; this morning as I was getting ready I was dancing to this song and I looked like Cameron Diaz in Charlie's Angels.  You know the part where she's in her room dancing in her undies and a t-shirt-yep that was me this morning.  And you know what it was fun.  

My First Go-Round

Mommy Dearest at http://campclan.blogspot.com/ is starting a writing project called Moments in Motherhood; so here is part one to mine.

I'll never forget the day David and I found out I was pregnant with our little Princess.  We were both shocked, scared, and excited all at the same time.  We weren't financially ready to bring a baby into the world but then again who really is?  The next nine months changed who I would be for the rest of my life.  Not only was I changing physically, but I was changing emotionally, and spiritually.  Every time I looked in the mirror or went to the Dr. for checkups I couldn't believe that I was carrying a little life inside me.  God is so awesome the way he has made us that it still amazes me.  As I was getting closer to that nine month mark I started to worry if I would be a good mother, and how painful childbirth would be, especially after the child birth class David and I took.  Just one look at those larger than life salad tongs they call forceps and I was thinking there is no way I can do this.  Oh and the look on David's face was priceless-kind of like I'm glad it's you and not me-nice huh.

Alright so the whole month of April my sister stayed with me and I will be forever thankful to her for keeping me company all that time.  Anyways her and my mom just knew that she would be born on the 15th since that's my sister and my grandmothers birthday.  Well she wasn't, as a matter of fact this little one decided to hang out untill one day before her actual due date.

That morning I wasn't able to relax because I felt like I was have menstrual cramps, so I called my mom.  What do you think she said--"Don't you read any of the stuff they give you, those are called contractions!"  Well excuse me this is my first go-round.  Alright so I called the Dr. office and they said to go to the hospital to get checked out.  Now I had to call David to come home so he could pick us up and take us.  Go to the hospital walked around for about an hour and then they say well you are contracting but you're not dilating so why don't you go home and relax.

And that's exactly what I did, by the time I got home (20 min drive), I took about a 20 min nap and then that's when all the fun started.  I remember waking up thinking "oh crap did I just pee on myself."  I felt around on the bed and thankfully no; went to the bathroom and realized after everything that I didn't pee in the potty, instead that is where my water broke.  So after I go potty the pain hits me like a truck.  I'm talking doubled over in pain feeling like I just been stabbed or something.  Here I am sitting on the potty and yelling for my sister.  She comes in totally freaking out asking me what's wrong I say I don't know just go call mom.  My sis helps me to my room, tells David what is going on (he was in the bathroom this whole time).  My mom of course knows what's going on, she tells my sister this is it and to take me to the hospital.  Here I am crying and pleading for David to hurry up and get there, I've got one foot on the dashboard and the other on the floor trying to remember my breathing.

Finally get to the hospital and the nurses are doing a shift change and one says "Now sweetie why couldn't of you started labor here."  Oh geez I don't know, I thought this way would be more fun.  I'm not going to lie I didn't take labor like a champ, I cried, screamed, and begged for it to be over.  Did I mention earlier that I didn't want to do this naturally?  I planned to have an epidural so I wouldn't have to feel all that pain.  My mom stayed because she said she took one look at David and my sister and said they looked like a deer in headlights.  *My mom hates the site of blood.* 

I'll never forget the look on my Dr. face when she told me I couldn't have an epidural because I had dilated to fast.  She genuinely looked sad for me.  After she told me I cried, and no not the same cry, think more of a little girl who has lost her favorite doll.  I looked at David and said this isn't how I had it planned, this isn't the way it's supposed to be.  Go on and laugh it's ok because I laugh about now : )

I remember telling David he better be happy because I'm never going through this again-umm I'll be writing part 2 in about a day or two.  My mom and the nurse laughed saying that everybody says that but at the time I meant it.  Ok so here it is I got to the hospital at 6 p.m. and my little Sweet Pea was born at 9 p.m.  It took me about four pushes and she was out.  I finally stopped crying because the pain of labor was instantly gone and as I look up I see David, my sister, and my mom crying.  Oh I wish I had a camera but at least I have the memory.  David cut the cord and they handed her to me and I couldn't believe that I was finally getting to hold her and see her.  They  cleaned her up and gave her to David and he started crying again-that moment is burned into my mind.  It was so sweet and tender that it made me cry out of happiness.

I knew I could do anything if I just put my mind to it but I honestly didn't think I could give birth naturally.  Thankfully I had my family there with me encouraging me every step of the way.  I would never take back all of the pain I felt because it only lasted for a moment.  What lasts a lifetime are the nine months I carried her inside of me feeling her move around, and then getting to look upon that sweet little angelic face for the first time are moments I will never forget for as long as I live.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me-man that is so true.

Ringlets

How many women out there remember having their hair in pink spongy curlers?  As for me I remember only a couple of times my mom did that to (major tomboy), however, I remember my sister having her hair curled often.  My little Sweet Pea has naturally curly hair but my mil thought it would be neat to see what her hair would look like with those curlers.  So she put them in her hair and then we went out to go do our "fun project."

After cleaning up the yard we all came in took, showered, and got dress since we had church last night.  Well I could start to see my sweet little girl not acting so sweet since she did not have a nap today.  I ask her to go get something upstairs and she's saying "no I don't want to."  After getting on to her she grudgingly walks upstairs and I hear her say "you know Jesus said..."  The rest I couldn't hear but you better believe I wanted to know the rest of the comment as did my mil.  So when she comes back down I ask her "what did Jesus say?"  She replies "Jesus said that you shouldn't fuss at me all the time."  WHAT!!  Ok I'll be honest I had to try and not laugh at what she said.  Then I said "Did you know that Jesus also said to listen to your mommy and daddy?"  She just kind of looked at me and surprisingly didn't have anything else to say.

Now back to the hair-it's finally time to take out the curlers and OMG her hair looked just like Shirley Temple.  I'm talking a head full of ringlets, she looked so cute-UGH and can you believe I forgot to take a picture of her!!  I'll just have to make sure that I take one the next time her hair is fixed like that.

A Fun Project?

My mil came home yesterday and said "go and put on a tank top and some shorts because I have a fun project for us to do."  I'm thinking cool maybe were going to paint or something.  Alright so I go upstairs and put a movie on for Sweet Pea and the other is already taking a nap.  I go outside to see what this fun project is and it wasn't what I expected.  Her so called "fun project" was cleaning up the yard-I should have known and I think deep down I had a feeling but I was being hopeful.  I'm talking scrubbing out gunk out of the fountain, draining the pool, and cleaning out the flower bed.  I'm not going to complain about it because it was such a beautiful day yesterday; it was a little warm but there was a nice breeze.  We got pretty much everything accomplished and the yard looks pretty darn good if I do say so.

Easter Weekend

Well I've been pretty busy this week and I finally have a chance to write about our weekend.  First of all I can't believe how cold it was, I'm talking we had sleet and for here in Texas in April that's a pretty big thing.  But I have to say that it was pretty cool and Sweet Pea and I enjoyed it.

Ok so Saturday morning I had to take Sweet Pea up to church so she could do the Easter Lily practice.  Needless to say she was the star, or at least she thought she was.  This girl had question after question, I mean after a while you couldn't help but laugh about it.  But the funny thing was when the Pastor asked if any of the kids would be shy standing on stage afterwards so the congregation could clap for them.  Sure enough my little diva raised her hand and said "no not me Pastor Randy."  Of course she wouldn't be embarrassed; as a matter of fact I'm expecting her to decide she wants to do a solo.

Now I come to Sunday morning-my original plan was to get to church at least 30 min. early because I knew it would be crowded.  So what time do you think we got there--10 min!!!  And do you want to know why, my darling hubby was moving as slow as molasses.  I love him but sometimes he's harder to get out the door then our two kids.  Luckily I was able to get a seat near the aisle so I could take a couple pictures of my Sweet Pea.  Let me say she did a great job, she was the first one out and went to the right place and everything.  The only thing was that she looked so serious-I'm sure it had to do with it being a packed house.  Oh and in-case you were wondering there was no solo.

After church we all went home and had a big lunch and then we hid the Easter eggs while the kids were in the room with their Grumps.  We had to hide the eggs in the living room since the ground was wet but it was all good.  Sweet Pea had a blast looking for eggs, Chunky Monkey would pick up a couple but had fun opening them up to get the candy inside.  While all of this is going on I'm trying to take pictures, and let me tell you how hard that was.  First of all I couldn't get one good picture of my Chunky Monkeys face because he would look away right when it flashed.  Then Grumps wanted a pic of me with the kids and their Easter baskets and Sweet Pea decided she didn't want to take any pictures.  So Grumps said "You're going to sit there and you're going to smile and act like you're happy."  Man we were all laughing; I don't know about any of you but I remember being told that as a kid.  Ahhh the memories.

The Backyardigans

I'm sure many of you know about this show; it's on Nick Jr. and Noggin.  I like this show almost as much as my kiddos do.  What I love about it is that every show they are make-believing that they are on some kind of adventure and they are always dancing and singing songs.  Now I don't know about any of y'all but I was playing make-believe; it could have to do that I was an only child for six years.  OK now here's the down-low on the characters: Tyrone-Moose, Tasha-Hippo, Pablo-Penguin, Uniqua-there's some debate here she's either an ant or ladybug, and Austin-Kangaroo.

Next question-why am I writing about this?  Answer-Sweet Pea's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks and I haven't been able to find a cake.  As for party supplies that's been pretty easy because I've found it online and my sister found some at a Party City.  However, when it comes to the cake nobody has it, and I mean no one.  I've looked at Wal-Mart and our other grocery stores and have come up empty.  I just don't get it, I know this show has gained popularity and I know it has to be more popular than shows like Thomas the Tank Engine, and Blue's Clues, and yet I haven't found one.  Before you say it I know there are cake pans but I'm not that good at decorating and I know it would come out looking like crap.  As for little toys to put on top I only have 3 out of the 5 characters.  Maybe y'all have seen these surprise eggs at Wal-Mart; well they only had Pablo, Tyrone, and Uniqua.  If anyone has any ideas I'll take them, until then my search continues as to what I'm going to do and I'll keep you posted as to what the end result is.

Scrapers

I have had an interesting couple of days.  First last night, here I am checking stuff on my blog and guess what I see on my blog status page-a box that says incoming links.  So I read what the link says and it seems harmless it says love and then yesterdays date, I click on it and it takes me to an inappropriate site.  Now I'm thinking how in the world is this linked to my site so I click on the title to take me to the home page and there I see my entry for Do you have the keys?  Oh I'm sure you can guess how mad I was.  I couldn't believe it here I am talking about my family, and faith and all of sudden my entry ends up on a site like that.  Ok I'll say it I was totally freaking out, and I looked everywhere for an e-mail address to kindly tell this person to take my link off of their site.  I e-mailed wordpress and this is what they said "It is something Google found. Only you see it. You can safely ignore it."  Oh yes thank you I'm glad I can "safely ignore it."  Anyway a guy on the wordpress forum gave me an e-mail address to abuse@hostway.com so I sent them a short e-mail saying I don't want them linking to my site.  We'll see how it all goes, apparently these people are called scrappers.  Enough about all that and thanks for letting me vent.

Now on to some happier stuff.  Today a lady at my church started a bible study on Revelations, and man is it awesome.  I'm talking she has the book of Revelations broken down verse by verse and I just know that it's going to be such an awesome lesson.  Not only that but I love being around other Christian women learning more about God and all that he has planned out for us.  I know this lesson will be a great blessing to me.  As for the rest of the day just running some errands and then I came home and took a nice nap-ahhh I love taking naps.

Do you have the keys?

OMG y'all will not believe what happened to me Saturday.  OK well DH and I decided to go to the skating rink to see his Grandma who just got out of surgery. *His Aunt owns the rink and his Grandma and Mom work there on the weekends.*  So we get the kids ready and are heading out the door; he's ahead of me with both of the kids and before I lock the door I ask twice, I repeat twice if he had the keys.  His answer both times is yes; so I lock the door and as I reach the car he tells me he doesn't have the keys.  What?!?  At first I think he's joking, but of course he's not.  And do you think I have my keys in my huge purse-nope I took them out before I walked out the door.

Now the real fun begins because DH and I are walking around the house checking every window and door.  Meanwhile the kids are sitting in the car and the oldest is wondering why we haven't left yet.  Luckily I had my phone to see if my mil had a spare key or what time her or my fil was getting off of work.  We tried everything we could think of to unlock the door, you know credit card, bobby pin.  Yeah none of those things worked.  Here we are for about an hour trying to see what we can do with out breaking a window and we had nothing.  So we broke our kitchen window, but get this it was a double pane window and neither one of us knew that.  Can you believe that we had to break two windows.  I am the lucky one who gets to crawl through and then he and I had the pleasure of cleaning up the mess afterwards.  But the evening got better because we ended up going to the rink anyway and we all had a really good time.

Motivation for 2 Corinthians Essay

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I'm taking classes online.  Anyway I'm almost done with this semester but man am I having trouble motivating myself.  I have two classes to finish and the one giving me trouble is my Acts/Corinthians class.  Here it is my last essay exam and I'm at a writers roadblock-its on 2 Corinthians.  Now y'all may think this is crazy because the essays are all open book and we can use outside sources-so how can I be having any problems?  Well it's easy just because I have books in-front doesn't make answering the questions any easier, you have to put in a lot of thought to what you write and the information you put in.  Plus with each essay there are 4 questions and each one should be about 2 pages long.  I think I'm ready for summer vacation; I was going to take classes this summer but I probably won't have the money too and David thinks I should take a little break.  Last semester I took 12 hrs. and this semester 15 hrs.  And let me tell you it's been a lot and I mean a lot of work.  But the good thing is that in the end it will have all paid off because I will have a degree doing something that I feel I was called to do.

Anyways I just had to vent some of my frustration because I've been looking at these essay questions since last week and I'm finally done with three of them and only have one more left.  So please send some motivation my way because I really need it.  Like I said after this I just have one class left that has two tests and them I'm done for the semester-yay!!!  But I think for today I'm not going to put the essay aside since I finished questions 2 and 3 and just work on it again tomorrow.  Maybe then I'll be more refreshed.

Holy Week

Come Easter Sunday there will be lots of preparations from what we are going to where to putting together our children's Easter baskets.  I for one will getting ready and making sure I have everything that I need.  But while we are getting ready lets not forget to remind ourselves and our children what Easter really means.  Let's remind our children that there is so much more to Easter than hunting for eggs and eating chocolate bunnies.   

Here are some passages to look through this week while we are thinking about the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross.  

                                                                       

• Luke 19:28-47-Triumphant Entry, Jesus Weeps Over Jerusalem, and Jesus Goes to the Temple


• Luke 22-The Plot Against Jesus through Jesus Before Pilate and Herod


• Luke 23:26-55-The Crucifixion, Death, and Burial


• Luke 24-The Resurrection

Dear Heavenly Father I humbly come to you in thanks for sending your son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.  You gave your life up so that our sins could be forgiven; words cannot express what it means to me to have you as my Lord and Savior.

He's Back to Work

As of today DH is now off vacation and back to work, as for me I'm back to keeping the natives under control until he gets home.  This may sound bad but I'm glad he's back to work and here's why:  I have a few tests left to work on and with one computer it's hard, and I didn't get much done with him here because I wanted to spend all of my time with him.  Other than those two reasons I wish he was here; it was so nice having him home and helping me out with the kids and just spending time with him.

I just hope his first day back is a good one and that everything goes well.  I remember when I was working that everytime I had to go back after vacation I always dreaded it.  Just something about having to go back to the realities of life.  As for my job now I don't want a vacation from it, sure there are times when I would like to have one day to myself just doing whatever, but when that happens I'm calling DH asking him what the kids are doing.

Tell me if this has ever happened to you.  So a few days ago I asked him to let me sleep in-I USED to love to sleep in.  Of course he doesn't have a problem with it and can you guess what happened?  No he didn't decide to sleep in,  I couldn't stay asleep.  Can you believe that I hear him and the kids and I'm just laying there in bed thinking the one day I want to sleep in I'm pretty much wide awake.  UGH-I hate that.  Even though I wasn't tired I just layed in bed relaxing and thinking and luckily I fell back to sleep.

You Are Worthy

"Worthy,worthy, You are worthy, Worthy is the Lord"

Thank you Heavenly Father for loving us so much that you sent your son Jesus down to die for our sins.  He gave his life for us and in turn Lord with your help and guidance I want to live my life everyday for you. 

I have been a Christian for awhile now and yet I still let Satan bog me down with the mistakes of my past.  No matter how times I've asked God to forgive me, I still let Satan allow that guilt to creep back in to my mind.  Even though I know that when we truly are sorry for our sins and ask for His forgivness He wipes the slate clean for us-He forgives and then forgets.  I don't know about any of you but I wish I could do the same; there are things in my past that I am far from being proud of, so then why can't I let go.  Plain and simple; Satan loves guilt-he feeds off it.  So today before Communion I asked God to help me let go off all the guilt and shame that I have felt for so long.  I realize now further in my walk that I shouldn't ask to forget my sins and I don't want to.  I think by forgetting them all together I wouldn't be able to give advice to someone who really needs it.  All the things I've been through in my life have been for a reason, I have grown so much in my walk and believe me there is still plenty of room for me to continue growing.

So THANK YOU LORD for never giving up on me and forgiving me when I could not yet forgive myself.  Thank you for your love and mercy, and for helping to grow and to use the mistakes of my past to help someone else in need.  Father I give my life to you, I surrender it all to you, I'm ready to do your will-whatevery it may be.  I know that right now in my life you have called me to ministry and without putting ALL of my trust and faith in you I will not be the servant that you have called me to be so...

"Here I am take me, take me, as an offering.  Here I am giving, every heartbeat for your glory, take me."

In Jesus name...Amen