Anna's 1st B-day

Well today Anna turned 1. Catherine and my parents called this morning and sang Happy Birthday to her over the phone, since they are in Ohio right now.

Tony and I decided since she likes to swim we would take her swimming. So we all went to the local pool to go swimming. She had a blast. I have pictures of them but they are on the regular camera

Then we left and picked up her ice cream cake and came home. She was sound asleep when we got home, so we put her to bed and started on dinner.

Tony fried chicken for her and we cooked corn, both things she likes.

Then she got up ate dinner and it was time to open up gifts. She was so funny, she wanted to try to eat everything, even the birthday money she received.

Then it was cake time. Anna's cake was a clown cake and the first thing she did was tear the cone off the top of the clown's head (it was the hat).

Then she got her bath in her new bath tub seat, so she can sit up and we don't have to worry about her falling over. This will allow both girls to play in the tub better.

Over all I think she had a great birthday.

We took tons of pictures, you can go here to Birthday Pictures!

Here are just a few of them:

what a year

A year ago today I was getting up in the morning, although I had not slept. A year ago today I was making sure I had all my stuff done at home. A year ago today I was making sure the two girls who were watching Catherine were ready. I was making sure Catherine was ready to become a big sister.

A year ago today, we left the house and headed to wal-mart. We went into walmart and bought a pack of diapers, since we had not purchased any yet, since this was happening 3 1/2 weeks early. We also picked up an outfit I liked.

I made Tony go by the church so I could do some last minute printing for the youth. Could not have a baby and not have stuff ready for the church. LOL

Then it was off to the hospital. My c-section was scheduled for Noon and we were told to be there an hour early. So we got and the maternity floor was FULL. So we waited for 30 minutes to get check-ed in. They put us in a little prep room because all the rooms were full. There they did all their prep work including trying 5 times to get the IV in.

I was then taken down to the OR on the floor. They had me move over to the surgical table (something I did not do on my own with Catherine - they moved me) and then they gave me my spinal (something that happened in our room with Catherine). The Dr. who did it was wonderful it did not hurt at all (with Catherine it hurt!). I began to cry and the nurse thought I was in pain...but no I was just over whelmed with feelings, my baby was going to be here and I just did not know what to think, everything had happened SOOO fast.

Then it was time, Dr. Spell came in and Tony joined us. It was funny right before Tony came in the Anesthesiologist said to me "you may feel sick" I thought hmm dunno why never have before. Less then 2 seconds later I looked up and said "I am going to be sick" I began dry heaving, and that is when Tony came in. The Anesthesiologist gave Tony a little try to hold in case I threw up.

The c-section began and at 1:37 pm Anna Elizabeth Pierce was born. She weight 6 pounds 12.9 oz. and was 18.9 inches long. She had tons of hair and was beautiful.

We left the OR for a small recovery room right off the OR and once all was clear they moved all of us to the floor for all the c-sectioned mom's (it is an over flow floor of the maternity).


Then:






Now: (taken at her pre-birthday fun on 7/24/05)

A year ago today

A year ago today I was a nervous wreck. My life was in a spiral nose dive. The night before I got a phone call from my OB said that she received a letter from the Peri's office saying they recommend that the baby come out and come out now. So a year ago today I was told to go to the Peri's office for an amino. A youth came over to watch Catherine while Tony and I drove down to Overland park to have the amino.

A year ago today I remember laying there on the table being told that they were not sure they could even do the amino due to so little fluid. I remember them using the ultra sound probe over and over my tummy trying to find just one good size pocket of fluid to do the amino. I remember the Dr's words "I think this one might do, I will only try once and if it does not work we are not doing this." I remember closing my eyes, I did not want to watch, as Tony held my hand I remember feeling the needle hit my tummy and the pain of it all (yes it did hurt!). I remember them saying they think they got enough and telling me I could get up. I remember being sent to another room to be monitored to make sure I did not go into labor and make sure the baby was ok.

I remember coming home, scared and just walking around the house in a daze. I remember being down stairs with Tony, Catherine was asleep and we were playing the xbox just trying to relax as best we could. I remember the phone ringing. Looked at the caller ID and it said it was my OB. I remember answering the phone, it was about 8:30 pm and she said to me "the amino came back that the lungs are ok, so we will do your c-section at 1 pm tomorrow."

I remember crying, scared and not sleeping that night. I remember both the joy of knowing this roller coaster for the last 4 weeks was about to end and at the same time being so scared because I did not know what to expect....was my baby ok, was it healthy....just had to make it through the night so I could find out the next afternoon.

I remember telling Tony at 4 am, you know what....we have never gone and bought diapers yet, since we thought we had 3-4 more weeks to go.

A year ago today my family was preparing to grow.

New Book

Well I started a new book last night. I have now dove into: "It Takes A Family". I am almost done with the first chapter and it is wonderful thus far. Really makes you think. I may start like a book review of this book, not sure yet, let me finish chapter 1 and I will decide.

Stressed beyond belief

I have not written about what is going on at church, since it is all in the middle of going on and since to be honest, up to this point I am still being left in the dark about what is going on. It is funny you would think people would be open and talk to you when there are issues, but I guess my thinking is wrong.

I know this much, I am being called on the carpet for something, but I don't know what. I know there was a meeting about me, but again I don't know what about. I have just been told "there is a serious issue with you and we are meeting about you."

I always thought if people have a problem with you they would talk with you. After all the bible says in Mathew Chapter 18:

A Brother Who Sins Against You 15"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

I would think a church would follow the directions given in the bible. But for almost a week now I have been kept in the dark.

I am to report to church Friday for a meeting with my boss and the chair of SPPR. I was asked to bring a list of my strength and weakness to the meeting. That is all I have been told.

Needless to say this whole thing as me soo stressed. Thank gosh when I have my peri appointment they did not check my blood pressure, because I checked it at home and it is high (which anyone who knows me, knows I h normally have really low blood pressure. I am to the point were I can't even eat right, I have zero appetite and today was the worse, I can't keep anything down my stomach is in such knots.

Needless to say I HATE THIS.

I never thought working for a church would be like this, I never thought a church would treat is employees the way I feel I am being treated. I always thought the house of God was better then the business world. I guess my thoughts were wrong, I guess I am learning the hard way. I will honestly say I have been hurt by the church before but I think right now this takes the cake. What stinks even more is I can't really talk to anyone about my feelings, because frankly I am so in the dark about what is going on.

Day 3 of Catherine's vacation

Well my mom just called and I talked to Catherine. They are still at Purdue. They were suppose to meet a lady my mom use to work with last night for dinner, but a bad storm came through so they did not do that.

Catherine told me all about her dinner last night, she had salad with chicken and a roll. And the restaurant they ate at had peanuts and you dropped the shells on the floor. She thought that was the neatest thing.

They had been swimming this morning and Catherine told me how neat the pool was, it was 4 foot deep so she could walk around and is nice and warm.

I think today they were going to go on the Purdue campus and look for the other lady my mom use to work with and then they will be on the road again. They are having such a great time.

Day 2 of Catherine's vacation

Well I talked to my parents this morning. Said Catherine is having a blast. She got up and watched the space shuttle launch. They had breakfast, and then took pictures of Catherine out side the hotel. Catherine told them she had never been in a hotel before, which is kinda true. She has when she was 7 months old she went to Grand Assembly, but she does not remember that. So she just thinks hotels are the neatest thing. They went swimming at the hotel and also in the Jacuzzi tub in their hotel room.

They went to see President Lincoln's home today and other Lincoln stuff. And they are on their way towards Indiana.

27 week and 6 day ultra sound

Well we had our level 2 ultra sound today to check on the baby since I am measuring 6 weeks ahead. The Perinatalogist I saw was one I saw when I was pregnant with Anna. He is the one that caused me to have Anna c-sectioned early. The ultra sound went good. The baby is currently breech, which I figured. The baby is way up high, which we already knew. The heart was pumping away and we saw all four chambers. The fluid level looked good, he said, although he did not measure it. We saw one foot; he did not hunt for the other foot, because we don’t want to know gender, so as the peri put it “I am not going to look for the other foot, because I don’t want to see what is in between.” The baby measures about 2 weeks ahead by size and weighs about 2 pounds 15 oz right now. The peri’s only concern is do I have Gestational Diabetes, which as far as I know I passed my glucose test. The OB’s office said they only call if you have an issue with your test. So I called my OB's office and they called me back. They said my test came back in the normal range, and that it was 123.

We do have several ultra sound pictures from today, but Tony took them to work, so when he gets home we will scan them and I will post them.

We have lift off

Well we sat here on the couch and watched it. We saw the space shuttle Discovery take off. It was such a wonderful thing to see. For the next 12 days, 7 humans are up in space at the care of NASA and God. May we keep these wonderful people in our prayers. That they have a great and educational experience. That they are able to return safe and sound. God Bless them.

Someone to talk to

Have you ever had one of those days when you wish you had someone you could talk to. It is funny it use to be there were people out there, people of God that you could talk to when things were on your mind, or things were bothing you. I mean physical people. Were did they all go??? I have found that at least in my current life, there is no one. I have my family and that is it. I love my family to death, don't get me wrong, but sometimes you want someone you can sit down and talk to about life, issues, everything.

Maybe someday I will find that again. Who knows..well I know who knows...God knows...just have to wait for God to show me those people.

Anna's 1st Birthday - started

Because of my parents and Catherine being on vacation when Anna's birthday comes this Saturday. Last night my parents had dinner at their house and gave Anna her presents. Here are the pictures:

Day 1 of Catherine on Vacation

Well today is Day 1 of Catherine on vacation. She is gone on vacation with my parents and will be gone for the next 2 weeks, which to me seems REALLY weird. I have never been separated that long from her nor her from me. I think our record of not seeing each other is 4 days straight.

They were leaving today to head to Illinois to see Judy and Becky. Then they will be heading to Ohio, then on to Washington DC and finally into Baltimore before coming home. I hope they have a great and safe trip. Like I said it seems so weird to me for them to be gone.

Oh today is Pop's real birthday. Happy 60th Birthday Pops! Speaking of which I think now would be a good time to call him and sing to him...he needs to hear my melodic voice (LOL)

Weird Sunday

I dunno any other word to describe Sunday other then Weird. Well I know other words but I think Weird sums it up best.


Sunday Night we went up to my parents house and went over the horses and cats and picked up Peabody.

It felt so weird leaving Catherine up there for what is going to be 2 weeks. Talk about a weird feeling.

Birthday Dinner

Well tonight we had Pop's birthday dinner. It was great and a suprise to him, he knew we were doing something but did not know exactly what. So we went to Straud's with Russ and Gretta, Martha and Gary, Mal and Rita, Mom and Pop, Tony, Anna, Catherine and I. It was a wonderful time.

Fed-Ex makes no sense!!!

At the plant we ordered yellow colorant. It was ordered and sent to us via Fed-Ex. Well it left Minnesota on 18th....arrived in Kansas City the night of the 19th....was put on a truck to come to the plant on the 20th and never arrived.....we called....they said they put it on the wrong truck....so it was sent out for delivery on the 21st.....at 2 pm still no show....so I called....they said it was on a truck and would be at our place by 6 pm, they said all deliveries are to be done between 8 am and 6 pm. Well Pop's stayed at the plant till 6:30 pm and still no show.....so I called them again last night.....the lady I got this time said that she is not sure what happened, because it showed it was still on the truck...so she put me on hold, said she was calling the Lenexa hub (the place it would come out of) and told them it had to be on steps by 10 am on the 22nd....since we are closing for shut down till 8-8-05.

So this morning it shows once again it is out on a truck for delivery...we shall see if it shows up today or not. WHAT A PAIN IN THE BUTT!!!


Update: well at 10:30 am still no box. So I called the fed-ex 1-800 # and got some guy. He told me it was on a truck and we would have it by 6 pm. I told him this was not acceptable as the box was to be on our door by 10am. He told me they make no guarantees and said that the issue was it has been going to the wrong hubs. I told him that was not acceptable still and I wanted to talk to someone higher up. He said "well what do you want me to do about it...you want to talk to the KC Terminal" I said that would be wonderful. So he connected me to the KC terminal. The gentlemen I talked to was very nice. He looked it up, said it was on Johns truck were it was suppose to be and were it was yesterday. He said the reason it was not delivered on the 20th was the sender had the wrong zip code so it went on the wrong truck. HELLO WE HAVE ORDERED FROM THE SAME COMPANY FOR YEARS!! WHY WOULD THEY HAVE IT WRONG ALL THE SUDDEN. He then put me on hold and talk to John, who said he forgot about the package needing to be there by 10 am and said he was 15 minutes away from dropping it off. So that is were we left it. I got the name and direct # to the KC Terminal so if I had issues I could call them back. I then called the plant and told them that if it did not show up in 30 minutes to call me.

Update: well the box arrived. It was destroyed beyond recognition. So we refused it and called the colorant company. They are sending us 100 pounds of colorant (we only ordered 50 pounds) and said it would be on our door on Aug. 8th and that they would not send it via Fed-ex to us.

So we shall see.

Happy Early Birthday at the Plant

Today we celebrated Pop's 60th birthday at the Plant. Today was the last day the plant was running before Summer Shut-down. Each summer for 2 weeks the plant shuts down so everyone gets their summer vacation at the same time. It is done because it is easier to do that then to have people in and out during the summer.

So today we had a dinner at the plant. My mom cooked a Ham, Baked Potato, Cinnamon Apples, salad, and rolls. I made a German Chocolate Cake (from scratch). My mom also brought donuts in. All foods Pop's loves. It was a very nice time.

New Picture

There I made a new sigi picture for the boards I chat on:

Study Shows Number of U.S. Divorces is Down Dramatically

I found this article and thought I would share it:

(AgapePress) A report being released this week shows America's divorce numbers seem to be going down.

However, one of the key reasons for that decline is one that many Christians will find troubling.The report is called "The State of Our Unions 2005" and is put together by New Jersey's Rutgers University using U.S. Census Bureau statistics and other data.

The report shows the U.S. divorce rate is now 17.7 percent per 1,000 married women, compared to 22.6 percent in 1980. But the authors of the report indicate this drop probably has little to do with more stable marriages. Instead, they say it can be attributed mostly to a huge jump in the number of couples cohabitating without benefit of marriage.

In fact, the report says the U.S. marriage rate has plummeted 50 percent since 1970.

Meanwhile, it would seem that, as one of the report's authors, David Popenoe, noted recently in an interview with USA Today, "Co-habitation is here to stay."

And that is not good news, he added, especially not for children. Popenoe says as society shifts from marriage to co-habitation, family instability only increases.

You know the idea of the divorce rate coming down it great! However if the fact that it is because people are Co-habitating that is terrible. So really do we know if it is down or not. The sad part is I had a young person at my church tell me a while back that someone in leadership at the church said to them "Sometimes it is good live with a person before you marry them." My mouth about dropped when they told me this. I pray that it was just a misunderstanding. How sad it would be if the church begins to support co-habitation....what a sad day that would be.

27 week check-up

Well today was my 27 week check-up. I also had my glucose test.

Well my weight went up 2 pounds, which is good to them, bad to me. Of course I want a low weight gain if any at all but hey all is well there.

My blood pressure was 90 over 76 talk about low.

The babies heart rate was in the 150's and sounded good.

My fundus messured 33.....which is not so good. I am 27 weeks and basically messuring a uturus height of a person who is 33 weeks. So now we have to have an ultra sound on 7-26-05 to make sure all is ok. The lady who made the appointment said she bets I have to much aminoic fluid this time. With Anna I had to low fluid.

My c-section date has been set. This baby is set to be born on Friday, 10-14-05 at 7:30 am. As long as I run into no issues and don't go into labor that is the magical day.

The Smurfs coming to a theater near you!!!

OH my gosh.....I woke up this morning with a IM from Tony with this wonderful link!!

I have to admit as a child I was a BIG smurf fan. I had smurf everything and even Catherine knows who the smurfs are because she found a smurf puppet of mine. Well guess what!!!
The Smurfs are hitting the big screen!!

So I know were the girls and I are going in a few years....to see the SMURFS!!!

La la la la la la la la la (trying to sing like a smurf!)

Tuesday of fun

Well today is Tuesday and I am keeping busy.

Started our morning by heading to church to meet for our newsletter. It was funny becuase one person who meets with us totally forgot about it, something I am always afraid of doing. At least I am not alone in forgetting stuff sometimes.

Then the girls and I came home and I spend the next 3 hours putting the newsletter together and as of now it is done! I am missing at most of 3 articles and those are not even articles garenteed to be received. So we shall see.

Anna is so funny, she wants to be up and on the go and having fun but yet if she falls for something it hurts so bad becuase of her sun burn. Her face looks soooo nasty to say the least. I keep putting aloe on it hopeing it will help.

So now I am off to pick up the house and enjoy the quiet of both girls napping. Well Anna is asleep and Catherine is laying down for quiet time.

I have to go back to church tonight for Stephen Ministry...it is funny becuase I want to go and at the same time I just want to stay home and sleep. Could it be because I am still behind on sleep from the youth trip??? LOL Oh well.

Oh it is funny the other day I was doing my time sheet (on time no less!!) and I ended up with like 73 1/2 hours becuase of the camp out. So those few weeks I did very few hours and was trying to us up some of my PTO time....well I just earned it all back. And to think one of the things I was suppose to do this year at church was use PTO time and take time off (last year I carried over 53 hours)...well at this rate I am not sure I will accomplish my goal. The minute I think hey things are going great I can sit back and relax for a few minutes, are the days I come up with tons to do. Like working on Medication policies and such now. LOL talk about crazy.

why???

WHY????

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting weak?

Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there is not enough?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle?

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?

Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

Whose idea was it to put an "S" in the word "lisp"?

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end you first try?

How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?

When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes for doing so, why do we say, "It's all right?" Well, it isn't all right so why don't we say, "That hurt, you stupid idiot?"

Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch somethingthat's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?

In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

How come you never hear father-in -law jokes?

If at first you don't succeed, shouldn't you try doing it like your wife told you to do it?

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends, if they're okay, then it's you.

Youth Campout

Well the youth camp out has come and gone.

We met at 1 pm on Thursday, July 14th and headed to Crow's Creek in Smithville, Missouri. We set up our tents and made our home. In total 6 youth stayed the entire time, 1 youth came up Saturday before work, 3 adults stayed the entire time, 5 adults came from Friday on, 2 adults came up on Saturday night, and 2 adults came up on Sunday, oh and how could I forget we had 5 young kids there too!

We had a great time with your normal things going on. The girls were boy crazy as normal....trying to find cute boys. The guys were silly as ever just trying to see who was the baddest of the bad.

This year a lady from our church was nice enough to join us for our campout and brought her boat. She took the youth and others out on her boat and took them tubing. It was great. I am waiting to get my pictures back so I can post them.

Our spiritual theme was "Our Spiritual Gifts". Over all it went pretty good, although I, being brain dead, left the lesson plan book at church so I had to wing it based on what I remembered. I remembered most of the stuff we were going to do and we did it! We talked about the best gift you have ever received, some were physical things, some were things people have done for you, some were things on a spiritual level. The youth really I think started making the connections. We talked about how one of the things you have received are gifts from God...and how you can use those gifts for the body of Christ. How we are all part of the one body....and how we have to work as one body to spread the word of God. We ended the weekend by drawing or writing a spiritual gift on a rock and throwing it into the lake. A rock when thrown into a lake will produce ripples....just like your spiritual gifts will touch other people's lives.

The only personal issues I had was Anna got fried, she is soo sun burned her nose and face and arms blistered up. I burned my lower lip of all things....and I swelled something terrible. I mean I could not move my ankles at all.

I will say I am glad to be home, sleeping on the ground did not agree with my body this time...I could not sleep I was in so much discomfort.