Yep, we are on the final countdown to BABY MADELINE DAY!! I will have my stitches removed in 13 days then she will come anytime after that. My doctor thinks she'll come within a day or two of the stitches being removed. We are all so excited but time has seemed to slow WAY down. The days are creeping by now that we are so desperatly trying to get to the 7th of August.

My doctor found out that there was a baby pool going on. He has asked me to inform those involved in the pool that he can be bribed for an induction by bringing him nice Cigars!  

We are just about done with Wrinkle in Time. I'm suprised at how well the boys like it. I was worried that they wouldn't care for it, ecspecially Christian who isn't into anything fantasy related but they have both really enjoyed the book. There was even only minimal moaning and eye rolling when I pulled out the study guide complete with worksheets!

We are also looking forward to our upcoming Olympics Unit Study. I think we are going to have such a blast with this. My only fear is that I will go into labor halfway through the study. We are due to start it the week my stitches come out. OH well. We'll just play it as it comes. There is Olympic excitement in our house right now. We followed the trials and are now ready to cheer on the USA teams as they compete. I love watching the diving competitions and gymnastics competitions. The boys are looking foward to track & field events.

I am also really looking foward to the start of the new Woman's Bible Study that I joined. It's a group of ladies, some homeschool, some don't from one of the Catholic churches here, St. Thomas Aquinas. They are called Joyful Hearts. We will be using the book Grace Filled Moments by Johnette Benkovic. I've visited several websites and found excellent reviews for this book. I can't wait to buy it and start reading. Our first meeting will be Sept 15th.

I"m also considering joining the Familia group as well. I need to get a few more details to make sure it won't conflict with anything but I've wanted to do that study for quite a while. My sister Tammy raves about it and I even "borrowed" her books from the 4 year study to read through. I also have signed up to become a sponsor for the RCIA program at our church. It's so rewarding to help someone through their journey to becoming Catholic.

I have come to the realization that I need to make time for my spiritual growth. I have been putting my husband and kid's needs, both physical, spiritual and emotional before mine and while that is never a bad thing, I need to carve out more time for me to grow in spirit and friendship and faith with other Catholic women. I"m really looking forward to this. I think this will help me relinquish more control to Chris. I look to him and respect him as the Head of our House but I am very guilty of being bossy, nagging and stubborn. I'm trying to fill my role as wife and mother and let him take the role he is asked to take as a father and husband. I think being around other woman and doing this will help. I pray that I can model my life after our most Holy Mother. I"m getting better but I'm still a very long way from where I should be.

Boy is that ever right! The past couple of weeks have been so busy! We spent week before last getting everything together, labled and packed for the boys camping trip. The list of stuff they had to bring was Amazing!!  Everything had to be marked with their name and their troop number. This was a Boy Scout trip to Lost Pines Scout Reservation in Bastrop, Texas. They were gone for a week and just came back yesterday. They haven't stopped talking about it yet! I think they had a blast. They did crafts, worked on merit badges, swam, hiked, fished and MORE! It was a bit pricey but Chris and I definatly think it was worth it. They are already looking forward to going back next year.

We also had a baby shower for Madeline on the 28th. That was such a great time!! I had friends and family come in that I hadn't seen in a long while. There was great food, fun games and awesome gifts. I"m still amazed at the creative talent of my friends. The homemade gifts were so cool. Now I'm busy writing Thank you notes to everyone.

After the baby shower, we loaded everything back up, went to the house, dropped it all off, visited with friends for a bit then headed over to my parents house. After a scrumptious dinner of BBQ ribs, we all headed to Grand Station Entertainment for a few hours of Laser Tag, Bowling and Glow in the Dark Mini Golf.

****NOTE**** The Pregnant Lady <----- ME, beat out everyone at Mini Golf!!!

That was the first time we had been there and it was really cool. For those of you that know me, know I'm supposed to be on bedrest but I got a temporary pass from my doctor for the weekend as long as I promised not to overdo it. It was SO good to get out of the house and just visit and have fun.

On top of all this, I've been busy putting all the baby gifts up, Chris finally figured out how to put the stroller / car seat together, and I've done about half the thank you cards. I even managed to keep sane while the boys were gone to camp. I was ready for them to come home the day after they left!! I got a lot of organization done for our upcoming school year. I have all their lesson plans ready to go, experiments and field trips lined up and even a few fun extras planned. All in all, it's been a busy couple of weeks.

Then to round our week off, we found out that Christian is Insulin resistant and is in the beginning stages of Type 2 diabetes. We had been worried about his weight because the diets we had tried for him just weren't working. I spoke with my Endocrinologist and he told me to bring him in for testing. We did and the test results show that his blood sugar / glucose is way off and that could be what is keeping his weight up even though he is eating healthy. He put him on Metformin and he also gets to join Me on a nice diabetic diet! He's not to happy but even he admits that he will be happier when he can get some of the weight off. Luckily diabetic foods have come a long way and we have so many choices now so he shouldn't have to suffer to much!

On another note, our weekly doctor's visit went well. Madeline is growing like a weed. She's moving and kicking around like crazy. She has finally turned head down and is at +2 Station. The doctor said that since she has started to drop down in the pelvis, he doesn't think she's going to flip again so she should stay that way and be ready for a safe and healthy birth. My stitches should come out in 3 or 4 weeks then I can go anytime after that!! The countdown has begun and I can't wait. I finally have my bags packed, the car seat is loaded and ready to go, I've made arrangements for the pets to be taken care of, and the kids to be taken care of. Now all I have to do is hurry up and wait for her to get here!!!

Just thought I'd share a quick picture of my ever expanding belly. I've gained 18 pounds total for the pregnancy which is really good. Although from the size of my stomach, I'm suprised I'm able to stand upright! She's carrying all in front!!

Well we had our regular weekly doctor's visit on Thursday and our 3D ultrasound today. Thought I would give ya'll a quick update. I am 30 weeks now and doing good. Bedrest is still as boring as ever but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel now. Dr. Price thinks she's between 3 1/2 and 4 pounds right now. We are still on target to remove the stitches in about 6 of 7 weeks and I can deliver anytime after that. He did say that my cervix will begin to dialate almost immediatly after the stitches are removed but I will probably only dialate up to a 3 or 4 and stay there until actual labor starts or my water breaks. I"m getting SO excited now.

We only got a couple of decent shots of her at the 3D ultrasound since she was being stubborn and kept flipping around to face my back. The ultrasound tech was laughing though because she had her legs up above her head and kept sticking the umbilical cord in her mouth. I suppose she really is a gymnast! We were able to get a decent black / white shot of her face and a color shot of her feet. We have more good shots on the actual dvd video but she kept moving her face before the tech could click the button to take the picture! (Chris says she's stubborn and camera shy just like her momma!) We were able to confirm that she is totally 100% a little girl, so tell Kyra to get ready to hand over that crown!

This is of her face glancing over to the camera

This is of her little feet

We are all so anxious now! I"m trying to keep the boys busy and their friends have been over a lot. They leave for scout camp on the 29th so I know they are really looking forward to that. I had high hopes of starting Wrinkle in Time by now but with their friends in and out, me not feeling good for a week, we just haven't started. We do plan on reading it once they return from scout camp. I don't know what I"m going to do with a full week without kids. I think I may talk Chris into taking me to his parents house in town everyday on his way to work so I can lay on their couch and watch mindless television! (we don't have cable and only get 2 channels out here in the sticks).

If I can figure out how to take still frames from the dvd video of her ultrasound, I'll post some better pics!!

After hard work, a few setbacks and 3 weeks later than I wanted it....Madeline's nursery is finally done. Her crib has been sanded and repainted. Her bedding was ordered and arrived (It's SO cute!!)  and everything was assembled and put in it's proper place last night. She even has a custom diaperbag with matching travel diaper wipe case. I even went overboard with her hairbows..she has one to match just about every outfit she has..they come complete with matching pacifier holders as well and I had time to make 3 bow holders! Yes....this is what you do when your on bedrest..you make bows and paci holders and spend countless hours daydreaming about how the nursery should be put together!! I thought I would share some pictures of the final outcome. I really love how her nursery turned out. It's cozy, cheerful and quiet. Everyone pitched in..my parents, Chris and the boys. I simply sat back and "supervised" since I wasn't allowed to do anything....Oh wait, I did tie the bumper on the crib! Now I just need to have our precious little girl to put in the nursery. 65 more days to go..not that I"M counting or anything!

This is her room looking in from the door.

This is her crib..newly painted with the mobile. The hearts on the wall are little coat holders that I painted.

This is her bedding set. It's called Gracie's Garden and is so adorable! It has hearts, butterflies, flowers and ladybugs on it.

This is her diaperbag that I had her name put on. BTW..the diaper bag, travel wipe case, 9 pc bedding set and the crib mobile were all bought on Ebay!! That's another thing one does while on bedrest..become an Ebay addict!

And finally..her bows and bow holders. It's so fun to have a little girl!!!! There are 46 bows total and I made another 12 yesterday for my best friend Kristi who found out she's having a little girl too!

For those wondering what I will do if she has no hair to put the bows on...never fear.. I took a white knee high panty hose..sewed the ends together to form a circle then covered that with two loops of white ribbon. Now I cause use that as a headband and attach the bows to the ribbon loops.

It feels so final now. Her room is put together and done. Now it feels like we are at the end of this long journey. I just can't wait to hold her in my arms, to sit in her room and feed her or just stare at her while she sleeps.

We will have a 4-D ultrasound done on Friday. I will post pics once we get home from that!! I am so excited to see who she looks like. Parker looked so much like Chris and Dustin so I wonder if she will look like them too or if she will look more like me! Isn't the miracle of a child so amazing??

This weekend we as a family experienced a mixture of emotions. This past saturday, June 7th, marked a series of events for us. This day was the 1 year anniversary of the death of our beloved baby boy, Parker. He was a son, brother, nephew, grandson and cousin. While he was only with us a very short time, he lived 5 minutes after birth to be exact, he was loved so very much. He continues to bless our lives daily. Chris and I realized how wonderful it was to be his parents. The fact that God chose us is such an honor. I look at his picture on our bedroom wall everyday and just thank God that we had those special minutes with him. While we mourn his death, we also were able to celebrate his life and what he means to us all. We also celebrated other life this weekend. It was my nephew, Cameron's 9th birthday on the 7th of June as well. We called and talked to him and he was so excited to get a new trampoline and journal. My other nephew, Alex, is also celebrating his 16th birthday on the 9th. This year their birthday's were a huge change from last year. Parker was born and passed on Cameron's birthday and we buried him on Alex's birthday.

Another celebration of life we had was that Christian's cat, Maggie, gave birth to 4 kittens on Saturday as well. In fact the kittens were born in the same hour that Parker had been born the previous year. Christian was the one that made that connection. Christian was such a wonderful help to Maggie and I as he stayed in the room right next to her birthing box, helping me keep the kittens warm while she continued to labor and deliver. It was a wonderful experience for him, however not one I would like again! We will be getting her fixed asap. She snuck out of the house and was gone for a couple of days. She came back pregnant!

It's amazing what can happen in a year. This time last year, had you asked, my life was over. I was in such a massive state of despair and deppresion. We had tried to concieve for 7 years when we finally discovered we were pregnant with Parker, only to loose him so quickly. I experienced such a range of emotions, pain, hurt, anger, fear, you name it..I had it. I was confused and upset with God. It wasn't until I finally went out to the cemetary by myself and really talked to God and to Parker, that I was finally able to understand His purpose and begin to heal. I feel stronger in my faith since that talk. I fell in love with my husband all over again. He was my rock during that time. I had always been the strong, anchor in our family but when I just couldn't handle it, he took over. He held me for hours while I cried. He took care of our house and kids when I just couldn't even get out of bed. I came to love and respect him so much more during that time. We have a newfound relationship now because of those difficult days. His faith grew right along with mine.

We are now celebrating a new life together. That of our daughter Madeline, who will be joining us in 2 months. It is because of the discoveries made after Parker's death, that have made this pregnancy last. It has come with it's own set of difficulties and challenges but God is with us and He is watching over us and Madeline. I know Parker is looking down on us and smiling. I feel we have made him proud and I do look forward to the day that we can see him again. I love you my special angel.

Mother's Day we had a rather big shock. It is our Sunday tradition to go visit Parker's grave after Mass. We do this as a family..many times my parents coming with us. It was very important that we go on Mother's Day..not only to visit our litle boy's grave but also to water his grave. Some wonderful friends, Tommy and Tanya Tharp, were kind enough to lay sod down on Parker's grave so it looks nicer. It had been just dirt and didn't look good. Well we have been watering it often so that the roots take hold and had plans to water it on Mother's Day as we drove out to the cemetery. Well we get to the cemetery and I commented that his flowers had fallen down. As we got closer to his grave we realized that indeed the flowers were on the ground because his gravestone had been run over by something!!! The granite vase was completely broken in half and shattered..the gravestone itself was turned about 30 degrees and had come unsealed and part of the ear on the hand carved granite lamb was broken off. Talk about upset!! Chris was fit to be tied and I was upset that I had to find our son's grave like that on Mother's Day. Well, we took pictures and calmed ourselves down as well as we could and went to my parents to enjoy a Mother's Day lunch. I called the church office on Monday and asked to have someone from the cemetery board contact me. Mr. Zemanek (who is very nice) called not to long after that. He was at the cemetery at Parker's grave and was upset himself. He contacted the maintenance supervisor and come to find out, one of the maintenance guys hit his gravestone with a riding lawnmower and then the supervisor failed to contact Mr. Zemanek or us. The cemetery has agreed to pay to have everything fixed so it all worked out in the end. I am still a little upset that we weren't notified, however Chris reminded me that I'm not supposed to get myself all worked up so I'm trying to be grateful that the damage wasn't worse and that it is all being taken care of. Here are some pictures of the damage. I will be happy when they can get it all fixed.

I experienced such a beautiful moment in my life yesterday. As some of you know I have been placed on bedrest for the duration of my pregnancy (approx 3 mnts). I get to have weekly visits to the doctor for ultrasounds but other than that I'm stuck in my house with a laptop..2 rowdy boys and a cat that is upset because he can no longer fit on my lap to snuggle.

Chris and the boys woke up on Sunday to go to mass. I however, laid in bed and watched the morning news program. Feeling a little upset that I could not go I said goodbye as they left. When they arrived a couple of hours later (yes a couple...our family likes to visit after mass with friends and they went to check on Parker's grave....another story) They had brought back the Blessed Eucharist for me to recieve. Our priest, Msgr. McCaffrey, found out that I was on bedrest and took Chris and the boys back to the sacristy and gave them the prayers to read to me and the Body to take. I was so happy. It brought tears to my eyes as my two boys and my husband sat next to me on the bed and read the daily readings and prayed the prayers with me then presented me with the Eucharist. How blessed am I to have a family that is willing to do that. I'm so proud of how far my husband and our boys have come in their faith. It is such a blessing to see them and myself grow daily. I will look forward to the day I can walk into our parish with our new baby daughter in our hands.

We are at that point of the year. The boys have finished all but 4 subjects (math, english, spelling and religion). We have 2 weeks of spelling left, 3 of english, 2 of religion and 4 of math. They can see the light at the end of the tunnel, thus the reason they are finding it so hard to sit still and finish their assignments. I feel for them, honestly. I'm excited that we have just about successfully finished our first year of homeschooling with minimal tears, shouting and tantrums......the boys were good too!

It doesn't seem like a year ago that my sister Tammy so lovingly helped me talk myself into thinking I could do this. It doesn't seem like a year has passed since I sat on my bed, curriculum magazines and website links strung all over the place...calling Tammy in a panic because I was overwhelmed. I must say, I'm proud of the boys and of myself. I'm also proud of my dear, dear husband. We had a few rough patches and needless to say this second half has been pretty boring with me stuck in the house. We had to cancel all of our field trips and fun classes, but the boys were understanding. They know that once their sister gets here, we will be making up our field trips big time!

I'm looking forward to the summer. We have some fun Unit Studies planned. My doctor has given me the A-OK to go float in the pool so I"m sure we will be spending mass amounts of time there. I'm happy that the boys will be out and about with their friends...or vice versa... their friends will be here..constantly...the entire summer....WAIT..maybe that isn't a good thing. I'm supposed to be resting right? haha

We have taken a page from my sister Tammy and family friend Mrs. Christine and have started a book club with some friends for the summer. This should be exciting. The boys...including Christian, are looking forward to reading and discussing. I was amazed that Christian was so keen on this idea. I immediatly started emailing friends..once I picked myself up off the floor from the shock. Trust me, those that know us, know Christian would rather lay down in traffic than actually read a book for entertaiment! Maybe all those prayers to every Saint I could possibly think of helped!!!

On a final note..I wanted to share the item I found today while browsing. As homeschoolers, it's hard to have a yearbook but this is one way to fix that. I am ordering two (one for each boy) and will do one for each year.  What a fun way to chronicle your year! Also, the website www.rainbowresource.com has AMAZING prices on their books. They have an awesome section of classical books, organizers, toys, you name it!

Here is the direct link for the personal yearbook http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/My+Personal+Yearbook/039061/1210108428-1491735

for that nice stimulus check to get here! That is what we are using to buy all of our books for the 08-09 school year. I am so excited about ordering the books then surrounding myself with them and reading each one and working up lesson plans. The smell of them...OH how I love books! Even the boys are rather excited to see their new books for the year. They had a big hand in helping me put together thier curriculum and it has sparked an excitement in them as well. We have some really fun experiments planned, some fun arts / crafts and the boys are so excited about Zoology that they are bouncing off the walls. I was downloading some worksheets, quizzes and homework sheets to go along with Zoology last night. I was showing the boys some of the stuff we would be doing and they were ready to start. (big change from last month where they didn't want to learn about birds and bugs haha) We are going to be doing cricket races, bat sonar experiment, bug collection, eating like bats for a day..etc.

We will also be buying a new washing machine. My washing machine went out a month and a half ago and it's no fun going to the laundry mat or my mother in laws. I thank my mother in law for letting us take over her house to do laundry and school for a day a week but I would much rather be at my house and able to throw in a couple of loads a day and be able to relax. That and I know we will need a new one before little Miss Madeline makes her debut.

Last we will be buying a stroller / car seat combo and some accessories to go in madeline's room to match her bedding set. The rest of that check will go sit in our savings account until something else around our house decides to break!  I do have to say though that I want to buy the books more than anything!!

First of all I would like to shout a big WOOOOHOOOO for the fact that we now have high speed internet again. That was torture being on dial up for 4 months!!

Everything is going wonderfully here. Everyone has been going stir crazy with me on bed rest but it's going by faster than we thought. God granted me the gift of blindness...I'm now blind to the way my husband and children clean the house! I've given up getting huffy because it's not done my way. I figure once this baby gets here, I"ll give the house a proper cleaning.

We had some wonderful news this last week (although Kyra, my niece, didn't take it to well). We were ecstatic to find out that we are expecting a little GIRL!! Her name is Madeline Paige. I immediatly started crying during the ultrasound. Chris sort of went pale and said something about having to get a second job hehe. The boys could be heard cheering throughout the doctors office I"m sure. This was ecspecially exciting to my side of the family. There hasn't been a girl in the family for almost 21 years. My niece Kyra will be 21 in November. She was the last girl. God saw fit to give my sister, Tammy, and I a total of 7 boys between us. Now we have another little girl on the way. My mom and sister Nancy both started yelling and the first thing out of my sister Tammy's mouth (she's Kyra's mom) was "Oh, Kyra is going to love that bit of news." Sure enough, 2 days later my niece Kyra calls from Japan where she is stationed. The first thing she says is: "They have to be wrong, it's a boy. I'm not ready to be thrown from my pedestal." I laughed and explained that she will always be the queen, and Madeline will be the princess. Kyra will need to train her!" Secretly, I think Kyra is excited too. I'm now busy shopping online and trying my best to oversee her room being put together. Come to think of it...between myself and Madeline, maybe Chris will have to get a second job haha!

The boys have been busy with baseball. This is always a crazy time in our lives. Because of the boys age difference of 2 years, they are always on seperate teams. That being said, their games almost always end up on the same day at the same time on opposite sides of town or in some cases not even in the same town (they are both on tournament teams and travel). This has proven somewhat of a challenge since I'm on bedrest and now Chris is stuck being the taxi. Thankfully, grandparents have stepped in to help. I did get premission from my doctor to go to a few games as long as I promised to sit down and not get to excited (obviously he's never seen me at a baseball game. I'm all about cheering the entire time.) Oh well, I'm trying my best to follow his instructions. I was suprised to learn that I am allowed to go swimming. Well not really swim but more along the lines of floating. The pool opened last week so the boys and I are looking forward to taking some trips over there to relax. Given I don't get harpooned at some point due to the fact that my stomach is huge now and my bathing suit is black / white, I"m sure I"ll enjoy my floating.

I have also been busy putting together our curriculum and field trips for next year. That has kept me happily occupied during the day. Some of the books we will be using this year include:

Homeschool Family Fitness

A Catholic Garden of Puzzles

A Year with God

The Old World & America

Bible History

Writing Step by Step

Apologia, Exploring Creation with Zoology I : Flying Creatures of the 5th Day (we will be getting the experiment kit from Creation Sensation along with some fun extras)

Prima Latina (our beginning Latin program)

and Saxon Algebra 1/2 (pre algebra for Dustin) and Saxon Math 7/6 for Christian

We are doing the basic English, Religion, Health and Spelling from Seton for grades 6 and 7 too. I'm still looking for a good reading program. The boys were not happy with Seton's reading so I'm still hunting for something they might like. I"m also considering just making up my own curriculum for them. I thought about getting books they like (letting them pick them out at 1/2 price books) and then finding some Unit Studies to go with them. Some titles I'm considering are: Swiss Family Robinson, Where the Red Fern Grows, Chronicles of Narnia, etc... If anyone knows of any other titles or of a good reading program please let me know!

Some of our field trips include: Texas A&M Vet School Tour, Texas A&M Wildlife & Fisheries Tour, Renaissance Festival Homeschool Day, Texas A&M Entemology dept., Civil War Re-enactment (loved it so much last year, we are going again!), NASA Homeschool Day, Houston Children's Museum, Brazos Valley Musem of Natural History, Houston Zoo. We look to have a fun filled exciting year!

Well that is about it for us. I"m 21 weeks pregnant now. It was a huge relief to get past the point where we lost our son last year. I feel like I can breathe now and actually enjoy this pregnancy. We are working our way to 34 weeks where at that time, my stitches will be removed and we can begin the countdown till little Madeline makes her grand apperance. I ask for your continued prayers for our family. This has been a huge change but we are doing ok. I know Chris and the boys will be glad when I can get back to my "mom" duties though.

We have had a few scares the past week. Last Saturday I started having problems with bleeding. After a 10 hour stay in the ER, we found out it was a hemmorage in the uterus and that the baby was just fine. I went to see my doctor on Monday and he wasn't happy with the way the cervix was looking and sent me to a Perinatal specialist in Austin on Thursday. My doctor wants to stitch up the cervix but the placenta was resting right on top. Well we got the all clear to do the surgery from the doctor in Austin so my doctor is getting it all scheduled, hopefully for next week. This will mean bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy (6 months). I'm ok with that but it means that Chris and the boys will be picking up all the daily chores / errands that I always do. I feel bad for them since all you ladies know, us mom's never stop during the day. They dont seem to heartbroken about the extra work though.

Just pray that the surgery goes well, that my doctor, William Price, is well rested and alert and the baby is ok. I'm just going to use this time of "baking the baby" (as my sis Tammy calls it haha) to relax, read and finish crocheting the blanket.

Needless to say, school hasn't been going on much this week but as I told the boys, once the surgery is over, we can always do school from the bed instead of the school room haha. They were kinda bummed about that. I think they thought school was ending really early for them!!!

I hope you all have a very blessed and safe week.

First of all, my apologies for not updating my blog in a while and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!!!! Life has been full of chaos since the holidays. I have so much to update you all about.

Our first big news is WE ARE EXPECTING!!! We found out at my sister, Tammy's house on Christmas Eve. Talk about a huge suprise. Most of you know we lost a beautiful baby boy this past June. It had taken us 7 years to concieve him and we were all devestated. I think his passing was a way of alerting us to a number of problems I had. Thankfully, the doctors were able to help and we were told that we could start trying in October of last year. They told us it could take up to a year to concieve so imagine our suprise when we got pregnant the 2nd month! I am now 12 weeks along and are feeling wonderful. The baby looks very healthy and everything is going well. I am diabetic so that has presented it's own little challenge but I have some great doctors and they are taking very good care of me. I ask you all for your prayers. I feel so blessed that God has chosen me to carry this child but at the same time, I'm terrified of loosing this child like I lost Parker. I have offered my fears up to God and asked him to calm my heart and soul. This pregnancy will not be without complications I know. In a few weeks they will be putting sutures in the cervix. Apparently I have an imcompetent cervix, however our doctor said it is common and an easy procedure. Chris and I just look forward to the day we can hold this precious child in our arms!

Our other big news is we are finally all moved into our new house and we love it! The boys new some kids in the neighborhood so they had instant friends. We have become the local hangout too. I have the local boys eating dinner with us at least 2-3 times a week! We are the only ones in the neighborhood with a Wii and Guitar Hero 3 so everyone gathers to play. I"m oddly comforted by the noise of all the boys (I could do without the smell of sweaty feet though). Chris and I feel so blessed that God led us to this area. The boys are having a blast and I love the quiet and laid back feel of living in the country. It was very strange to know just a couple of years ago, I was a diehard city girl and would have hated living in the country. It's funny to see how much your life and your thinking changes. Just last week, Chris and I were sitting on the front porch watching the kids play flag football in the field across the street. It was such a relaxing time.

Well, I suppose that is the meat of our big news. I hope you all had a great holiday and are enjoying your new year!!

The 12 Days of Homeschool
To the tune of "Twelve Days of Christmas.

On the first day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Can you homeschool legally?"

On the second day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the third day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the fourth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the fifth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "YOU ARE SO STRANGE! What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the sixth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "How long will you homeschool, YOU ARE S0 STRANGE, what about P.E. , do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the seventh day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you homeschool legally?"

On the eighth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, what about P.E. do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you homeschool legally?"

On the ninth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "They'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E. do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you homeschool legally?"

On the tenth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "What about graduation, they'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the eleventh day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "I could never do that, what about graduation, they'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the twelfth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Can they go to college, I could never do that, what about graduation, they'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the thirteenth day of homeschool I thoughtfully replied: "They Can go to college, yes you can do this, they can have graduation, we don't like the prom, we do it cuz we like it, they are missing nothing, we'll homeschool forever, WE ARE NOT STRANGE!, We give them P.E., and we give them tests, they are socialized, AND WE HOMESCHOOL LEGALLY!

On the fourteenth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "How can I get started, why didn't you tell me, where do I buy curriculum, when is the next conference, WILL PEOPLE THINK WE'RE STRANGE? I think we can do this, if you will help us, can we join P.E. and we'll homeschool legally."

This weather is absolutly crazy! I just can't wrap my head around a muggy Christmas. Oh how I want it to be cold, hot chocolate weather!! I want it to be snuggle in bed and don't get out of your pajamas cold but alas, it is warm and muggy. The boys and Chris marched in the Christmas parade and got SUN BURNED!! In the middle of December. Is it just me or is anyone else confused about this. I guess the thought never occured to me to put sun screen on the guys in December! OOPS!! We went out to Santa's Wonderland last night to take a hayride through the lights and it was odd seeing all these Christmas lights and singing carols on the hayride dressed in shorts and a tank top.

I promise I didn't get on today to just complain. God has a reason for the weather and I have faith that he will let it get cold eventually in his own time. Perhaps I should pray for patience today. We did have a great time out at Santa's Wonderland. I have posted some pics of the lights. Mind you, these lights are the reason Chris won't do lights at our house anymore. He helped hang the over 2.5 MILLION Christmas lights out here. Starting in August and running till they opened on Nov 16th. I tried to explain that he had already done 2.5 million lights..another couple of thousand wouldn't kill him but he failed to see it my way!

Chris is loving his new job. He's working at Texas A&M University in the College of Medicine. He's their Tech Geek or something ( I think he has a fancier title but it slips my mind at the moment). I do know that he has his own office with a great view of the city and he told me I could decorate his office. Poor man doesn't realize you should never say that to a woman. I"m trying to keep in mind it's a manly office so I can't put flowers and angels everywhere. The boys think dad needs a plasma tv in his office. He agrees...our checking account doesn't. Any suggestions ya'll can offer would be great. Other than a picture of dogs playing poker I don't know what to put in there.

Well I have a kitchen that is calling my name to be cleaned. I wish you all a happy Advent Season and here's to hoping it gets cold soon! Enjoy the pics from Santa's Wonderland!!

I was tagged not once but twice for this. It sounds like something fun to do. I was tagged by my sister over at:Tammy's Blog and by my friend Christine at: Christine's Blog

7 Weird Things about Me!!

1. I have a massive pet peeve about putting shoes on a bed. It's absolutly disgusting. I don't know where someone's nasty shoes have been walking or what they have been stepping in and I dont' want to roll around in that at night.

2. I have a mild case of OCD. I can't stand to see things out of place. I stack all my dishes color coordinated then by size. I alphabatize the dvd's and cd's. I color coordinate my closet as well. Everything has a specific place and is very organized and clean. If it gets put out of place I have to stop what I'm doing and go fix it or I can't concentrate. (My husband says I'm one step away from opening / closing doors 5 times before I can go outside haha)

3. I am a germ-a-phobic. Seriously. I can't use public restrooms. I carry Purell in my purse at all times and am constantly cleaning my hands. I just counted and we have 8 large bottles of Purell in our house. One in each room and one in each car too so 10 total. I have been known to be sick to my stomach if forced to use a public restroom. A lot of times I will clean my hands without realizing it. I will completely coat the handles of a shopping cart with purell and clean with a napkin before I will touch it. It's emberassing but hey, there are worse phobias right??

4. Like my sister, I don't like bridges. I break out into a cold sweat and have to close my eyes. My husband and kids don't help as when we do go over they start screaming that we are going to crash! (Lovely family I know but in our family, that is entirely normal behavior)

5. I don't have the patience many people think I do. I hide my irritation very well. I am very patient with children (even my own amazingly) but when it comes to other people, ecspecially people with less than average intelligence I have been known to show my Irish temper. I always feel bad but I just can't help it.

6. Those of you that know me may not find this weird but I am extremely stubborn and opinionated. I will say exactly how I feel at any time and love to be right! (I'm a girl though so that's kinda normal I think). I love to hear other peoples opinions and respect them if they differ but I will always share mine. It's an annyoing habit my hubby tells me.(hehe only because he's not usually right)

7. Unlike my friend Christine, I can't STAND to be barefoot. I live in flip flops. They are my shoe choice. I have been known to go outside in 15 degree weather (yes it got that cold in texas once or twice) in long johns, sweater, jeans, jacket, hat, scarf, gloves and FLIP FLOPS!! My feet never get cold. It's very strange.

These are the weird facts about me. I am tagging:

Christine www.homeschoolblogger.com/fabfive

Tammy www.homeschoolblogger.com/mom45angels

Denise http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/boogaloo/

AzMomma http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/azmommaof6/

Christian http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/baseballfanintexas

A couple of weekends ago, I was lucky enough to find myself with a whole weekend to myself. Chris had taken the boys on a cub / boy scout camping trip. I thought I would share some of the scrapbook pages I did.

Here is Dustin's baseball page from last season. Notice he's Yankee's and all the embellishments are Yankee's as well. (sorry about my camera strap getting in the way)

Here is last year's daycare confetti egg smash! (man I miss my daycare kids)

Finally, here is a 2 page layout I did of Christian in the bluebonnets

I am hoping to do some more pages but we'll see how my time goes. It's starting to get busy. Good news is we are ahead a bit in school so we are taking all of December off. No school work just lots of work on learning more about Advent.

We started out last week on a quiet note. The boys got their work done with little to no argument. Life was good. Then Wednesday comes. This is our go non-stop day. We have errands to run, lunch with Chris, Spanish lessons and CCD. At CCD they had a family mass. This is an opportunity to attend a mass catered to children. It was so sad to see these kids (some as young as 1st grade) dropped off by their parents. The parents wouldn't even stay to attend mass with their children. For many, it seemed like this was one of the few times they had even been to church. Our diocese has passed a rule that children must have two years prior religious education before being allowed to participate in 1st Communion, Confirmation or in the hispanic culture, they must take 2 consecutive years in order to have a Quiensenera. While I applaud this and think it is a wonderful idea, it also means children are being taken out of obligation to reach a goal, rather than out of love of learning about our Savior Jesus Christ. I pray for these families, that they will find the Love of Christ.

Thursday was an answer to a prayer. After much prayer and frustration, Chris began looking for another job about a month ago. He has long since been miserable at his job but was toughing it out in order to provide for his family. I have wanted to move back to Houston for a long time so he started looking in the Houston area. He also sent one resume out to Texas A&M here locally but wasn't hopeful since he has been trying to get a job at A&M for almost 8 years now. Well, on Thursday, Chris recieved a call from a job in Houston AND a the job at Texas A&M. They were both wanting to offer him a position. He asked if he could pray and think about it. I was so excited at the thought of moving back to Houston. I've really been very, very unhappy living here and was looking forward to the change and getting back to friends and family. It seems, though that God wants us to stay here. After reviewing the two offers, Texas A&M was offering him better hours, better benefits, higher wages and the chance for promotions and frequent raises. It just felt like taking the job here was what God wanted us to do. I must admit I was disappointed and a little upset. God softened my heart though when we told our friends and family here that we were not moving. There was such an outpouring of joy. Turns out they didn't want us to move and were upset that we might have moved. I really felt ashamed at my behavior then. It didn't matter how much I disliked living in this town, having friends and family like we have is such a blessing it makes my petty dislikes seem childish. We are so blessed to have friends and family in both cities. I must admit though, there is a tiny part of me that is glad I don't have to leave my homeschool group. We have made the most amazing friends!

We are still left with the problem of not having anywhere to live. Our lease is up Dec. 31st in our current house. It was sold and the new owners are moving in the week after our lease is up so there isn't the option to stay month to month until we find something. I had been putting off looking for a house because I wasn't sure what town we would be moving to (he had put out for jobs in Houston, Austin, Dallas and here). Now that I know where we will be I have begun looking for a house. The only catch is that I'm moving us away from the city. I have realized it's the college students and areas of town within our budget that I don't like. Because we live in a college town the rent for a 3 bedroom in a decent part of town is starting at $1500 a month. This is because they can get 3-4 students in there to split the bills. This leaves struggling families like ours out in the dust. The parts of town that are in our price range are riddled with crime, drugs and gang activity. I cannot in good faith keep my family in those areas of town. Ecspecially with me being home all day by myself with 2 boys. To change this, we have started looking for houses outside in the country that are in our price range. I want to live where it's quiet, I don't have drunk college students throwing up on my front yard, the boys can run around and explore or ride bikes. I want my kids to be kids and not have to worry about the neighbors around them. Please pray for us. We are asking God to guide us to the right house. I'm worried that we are running out of time and will end up having to put our belongings into storage and either move in with my parents or with friends or the shelter. I've been asking God to take my worry and stress and show us the way. I know he will guide us!