But in case you didn’t see it there…we’re having another girl!

The doctor said she’s 90% sure.  But either way, we have suitable clothes, so if she happens to turn out to be a boy, we’re covered.

I’ll be honest, I was just a touch disappointed.  I did sort of want a boy.  But that is mostly because I am a girl, and I know how easy it is to screw girls up.  In many ways, boys are just easier.  But, I’ll just have to trust that we need her, and she needs us.  And by the time she’s born, I won’t care at all.  I know this because I felt the same way about Erin at the 20 week ultrasound…and I wouldn’t trade her with a boy for the world!

Other than gender, she looks perfectly healthy with a clear, well-formed heart.  And she’s measuring perfectly for her development stage.  So we are thrilled about that news, of course!

And that is the update as I know it.  Happy Friday!

It’s going to be a busy weekend…

Eric is taking tomorrow and Friday off.  Yippee!  

We have our 20 week ultrasound tomorrow.  My parents will be watchin’ the twins for us.  Maybe we’ll do something with them in the afternoon.

Our 6th anniversary is Saturday.  Not sure what we’re doing to celebrate yet, but hopefully it will involve getting out of the house without babies for a bit!

And the weather is supposed to be gorgeous for the rest of the holiday weekend.  Lovely!  Now if I only had a pool…

Happy Wednesday!

Here are a few of our new favorites:

Alex can now get on the couch by himself and play with “Daddy’s” remote.

Erin loves her Jingle Bunny (it usually lives in her crib).

Mommy loves sprouts!

I’ve been pretty up-and-down recently.  I’m sure pregnancy hormones are involved.  And the heat.  I don’t deal well with hot while pregnant (normally, I LOVE it).  Anyway, here’s some recaps…

• I was grumpy at the end of last week.  Annoyed at my husband (not his fault…I got over it).  Snappy at my sister (we made up).  But it was annoying me how easily set-off I was.  Glad I’m better this week!

• Saturday we spent in C-ville.  Eric helped my brother and dad hang new doors at my brother’s house (new front door, new french doors in back).  Mom and I hung with babies all day.  Good times.  
  • Except the part where Erin fell off an outdoor toy, landing on her head.  I saw her hit.  I seriously thought she’d broken her neck.  Scared me big time.
  • Thankfully, she seems fine.  Thankfully, babies are almost insanely flexible.  

• Sunday we hung out at home mostly.  We took the babies for a walk.  And I ran to WalMart while naps were (not) taken. 

• Sadly, I also backed over my new (to me) stroller on my way to WalMart.  Long story short, we don’t have much storage space in our garage left, and in the comings/goings of the weekend, it ended up behind the car.  Which I forgot.  Until I ran over it.  Broken wheels and a bent frame.  We may be able to salvage it for a while, but I think a new stroller will be necessary.  And I really liked that stroller.  I was REALLY bummed.

• Actually, it turned out I was really just emotionally wacked out yesterday.  I spent much of the afternoon just a second from tears.  I cried because I found stains in the laundry when it came out of the dryer.  I cried because Eric didn’t seem to care that I ran over my stroller.  I cried because I finally acknowledged how scared I was when Erin fell on Saturday.  I cried because I’d been so mean and grumpy to the people that I cared about.  I cried because I was lonely and empty and felt like a bad mommy and have felt really overwhelmed with mommy-stuff lately (so how can I handle another one in 4 months?!?), and just a lot of tears that apparently I needed to get out.  By the end of the day, I felt better.  After a good night’s sleep, I felt a lot better.

• And that brings us to today.  So far, my nephew came for a few hours this morning (his babysitter’s son had a fever) and my parents picked him up from my house to take him home.  My dad did some little repairs that may make the stroller usable again (not great, but usable).  We played outside before it got too hot.  The babies are taking an afternoon nap (here’s hoping it’s a long one!).  

• And best of all, I put Erin’s hair up in two little sprouts on her head this morning, and they look a.dor.a.ble.   Seriously.  I will try to get a picture because it is too cute.  

Happy Monday!

We’ve been playing:

We’ve Been Sick and Teething:

We’ve Been Learning New Things:

We’ve Been Doing A Lot of Reading Together:

We’ve Been Too Adorable!

(PS – If anyone has any ideas about what I can do to tame Erin’s hair, I’m open to suggestions!)

Happy Thursday!

I couldn’t think of any catchy titles for today’s post.  Sorry. 

The weekend was actually pretty good.  

Eric took Friday off to start a fix-it project.  It turned out that our back storm door had never been properly caulked, so for 12 years, water has been leaking down around it.  And with the extra snow that buried our back door last winter, the frame finally rotted.  So he took the door down and rebuilt everything to be waterproof, put up a new frame and rehung the door.  It turned out to be a two-day project with letting sealer/paint dry, but it was needing to be done.  And I think he felt really good to have finished a project like that, too. 

And best of all, it may help keep out the ants that typically come in through my back door area!!  

Sunday was pretty low-key.  Church, dinner, reading, naps.  I spoke, with 2 other ladies, to the middle school girls on Sunday night (see post from last week).  To all of you who commented on what you might share, you’ll be glad to know that pretty much all of those topics were covered!  I took a different route which seemed to have been well-recieved (go figure…God knew just what I was supposed to say! ).  I talked about HOW to take a step in our Journey toward Jesus.  And how important the Holy Spirit is. And I told funny stories.  I think it went well.  I hope God will use what I said.  And it was really refreshing for me to do something like that.  The standing-up-in-front-sharing-what-I’ve-learned is the only part of teaching that I really miss.  So it felt good to share.  

Yesterday, I took the babies to the zoo in the morning to see the new animals/exhibits.  I didn’t plan to stay long because (1) they would need lunch and naps and (2) rain was threatening to fall at any moment.  We saw the new polar bear exhibit…very neat!  And the baby otters.  And the baby manatees.  And because of the early time and the weather, the zoo was virtually empty.  SO nice!  We got to sit at the aquarium and watch fishies uninterrupted while eating a snack.  Fab.u.lous!    Of course, when we finished the indoor areas (the aquatic stuff), it had started to rain.  So we did get a little wet on the way back to the car.  But no one melted, and the babies took a 3-hour nap in the afternoon.  Nice!

Sadly, my house looks awful today.  But I think I have the energy to fix it up without over-stressing myself.  Now the only question is whether I have the motivation to do it!  We shall see…happy Tuesday!

Here’s a quick update of my life today:

• Erin (sort of) picked out her outfit for today.  First she grabbed a shirt from her drawer (pink), went the closet and came back with a dark pink fleecy jacket.  Then she came back with a purple dress.  Since it was the last thing she brought me, that’s what I put on her.  She seems to be enjoying it, too.
  • Keep in mind that picking out matching clothes was always my sister’s realm of expertise.  
  • I could be in real trouble here…

• I spent most of yesterday on the couch.  This makes for long, boring, sort of lonely days.  I need to find something productive to do since I’m running out of stuff to watch from my DVR (and there isn’t much good on TV during the day).
  • I did watch a move (Julie & Julia) which I really liked!  Of course, I’ve read both books on which the movie was based and already loved the characters…so that may have helped.  But it was really sweet…
  • And this morning, I did stumble across a fantastic website for free online courses from MIT (the real one!).  I may have to expand my mind or something!

• I must do some baby laundry today.  Erin has no pants left, and since Ohio refuses to warm up this spring, I am going to have to do something about that.  Hopefully, I can find a good balance between getting the clothes done and not stressing my body out.  We shall see…

• Last night, with some minor setbacks, we managed to make beef stir-fry for dinner.  With fresh veggies.  It was yummy!

Okay, I think that’s about all for this morning.  Happy Thursday!

I’ve been doing a lot of sitting this week.

After Eric was gone two weeks ago, and after all the laundry that I finished last week, my body decided it had had enough.

In the middle of the night on Saturday night, Eric took Erin downstairs to rock her (she was up from 11-3 am), and I tried to relax.  But while I was lying there, I felt a weird, hard cramp that took a few minutes to release.  Needless to say, that was NOT what I wanted to feel.  But since there was no other issues (bleeding, etc) and it didn’t happen again, I figured it was something to heed, but not worry about.

I did call my OB’s office on Monday just to make sure they also thought I was on the right track.  The nurse agreed.  She said I probably was developing an irritable uterus (had to look that one up!) and told me to start wearing my support belt, to drink lots of water, and to avoid over-doing (a huge feat if you know me at all!).  So that’s what I’ve been trying to do.

To be honest, I feel pretty lazy.  But I can tell how quickly my body fades, especially when I do a lot of bending.  This morning, I tidied the toy area while the babies ate breakfast, and in just that short time (10 minutes, maybe), my belly started tightening up.  I guess it’s going to take more than a day or two to undo the wear of the last couple of weeks, huh? 

Anyway, I’ve tried to do more productive “sitting” activities, like reading or crafting, when the babies are napping.  And I’ve done a lot more hanging out while they play.  But it is hard to see so much that needs done around my house, knowing that I really need to leave it un-done for a while longer.  

So that’s been the fun of this week.  Hope yours has been less exciting!  Happy Wednesday!

A friend from church has asked me to chat with her middle school small group about my Journey towards Jesus on Sunday.  The girls are 8th graders.  The setting is totally casual.  I just found out that I can be there.  And now I am beginning to really ponder what I will talk about.

So, if you were asked to talk about your Journey towards Jesus to middle school girls, what topic(s) would you talk about?

(Obviously, this is just a “what do you think” post…feel free to share stories or just ideas or nothing at all.  I’m just interested to see what pops into your minds when that title for a talk is given, to see how it compares to what has popped into mine, so far!)

I’m physically tired.  I’m mentally tired.  I’m emotionally tired.  This morning, I’m just tired.

But, it was a good weekend at the farm.  We saw the family.  Eric got to be a farmer on Saturday.  I watched an Anita Renfroe DVD (highlights from the last 10 years) which was SO funny.  If you get a chance to see her bit about mammograms…that was seriously funny.

So anyway, I think my body has finally decided I’ve been working it too hard.  Of course, the last two weeks were pretty long ones wherein I did a lot of hauling babies and stuff around my house (especially when Eric was gone).  And I’m now 18 weeks pregnant, so I’ve some energy back, but no stamina.  And the fatigue and muscle weakness is starting to hit full-force.  I think the semi-decent muscle tone I had before the twins were born was totally annihilated by that pregnancy.  And I didn’t have it back when I got pregnant this time.  So my back, my abs, my arms are all just wimping out on me. 

All of that to say, then, I guess I’m going to have to start being a couch-mama.  I’m definitely going to take it easy for the next few days for sure (good thing I got the laundry done last week!).  And hopefully, I’ll feel better soon.

And I’m going to enjoy this beautiful sunshine (even though it’s frigid outside today).  Happy Monday!