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.

Grand - Friday

Well it is the first, non official day at Grand.

Mommy got up and went and help set up for Grand. She called us and said she was ready to go. So Stephanie, Mommy and I headed to lunch. We went to the Mud Hut, a local coffee shop. Talk about wonderful!!!

Then we hit the mall. We had fun shopping and I got a MAC makeover! Ever since Abra was here I have wanted to get MAC make up and I was able to get some more. I got 3 eye shadows and a compact. It was great.

Then we went back to the hotel and went swimming. Well some of us did. Mommy ended up napping on the pool chair after she was done swimming.

Then we went back and got cleaned up and headed to get SUSHI! Mommy and I have been dreaming of sushi. So we went. Stephanie went with us, she tried a piece but did not like it. She got terriaki. Mommy and I pigged out on sushi.

Then we went back to the hotel and called it a night.

Busy Busy Thursday

Well the girls and I packed up the van for Grand Assembly and headed to church. I started the last run of the news letter and got ready for VBS.

WE had our closing program, which went great. The puppet show was WONDERFUL! Catherine was so funny singing.

We left church and Catherine went with Pop's and Tony took Anna. And Mommy and I hit the road. We stopped and picked up Stephanie and we were Springfield bound. We made one stop to go potty and get gas. We made it to Springfield in like 3 hours and 15 minutes. It was wonderful!!!

We got our room and went to sleep!! HELLO GRAND!!

VBS Wed 6/22

Well today was like a normal day in the life of VBS. We have a good turn out and we had fun. We continued to work on our pupets...I hope it all goes well.

Tuesday = busy

Well we got up and got the girls ready and headed to church. Made a stop at Donut King for breakfast for the girls.

Went over the newsletter stuff at church and it went good.

Then we came home so I could finish the newsletter....2 hours later it was done!! Then I remembered I wanted to copy the article about the camp out and send it to Trish and Doni to read and well the file would not open. It blew chunks. As did the auto back up it makes. So needless to say I was mad!! So I finally bit the bullet and charges the $336 to my credit card for the new version of Corel Draw 12. It will be here by 10:30 am on Wed. So I typed all the articles in word so they can go ahead and be proofed.

Pop's came and got Catherine and they went ice skating. So Anna and I packed up and ran to Wal-mart to get the old changed and pick up more stuff for VBS.

Then it was off to church. We met Kristin who was going watch the girls while I went to my Dr. appointment. My Appointment was ok. I gained 3 pounds this month, which made me soo MAD. At home I showed I lost 2 pounds but I guess being fully dressed w/shoes and in the afternoon the Dr's scale showed different. My Blood pressure was 118 over 78 which is good, I figured it would be high with all the stress today. The babies heart rate was 140 and the fundus height was 26.

Raced back to church with a stop to get an outfit for Catherine, because I forgot shorts for her, since she was dressed in her warm clothes from ice skating. Once at church got Catherine changed and ate dinner.

Then it was BBS class time. Class went great!! I was so surprised how much the youth seemed to like making the sock puppets, I was scared they would think that it was dumb but they had a blast!

Long Monday

Well Monday was a long day!!

I ended with a young person over my house who was very upset about the person they are dating. So we talked for a long time and then headed to Church for VBS. We made a stop for Snow cones on the way. I feel so bad for this young person, I know that they have to learn for themselves and yet you just want to shake them and say "This is not the only person in the world". It breaks my heart to see them hurting and such.

Got Tony ready for VBS and then I was off to Rainbow.

We had Pledge's and my girls did sooooo good!!! They both had all their parts memorized, I was so happy. Sure beats last year when we had the State Pledge Sister who was no ready when we showed up at Grand Assembly.

Then the Pledge's went down and worked on their bags for Grand. I have the girls decorate their own bag for Grand and then I bring them home and fill them with lots of fun stuff and treats and give them back to them when we get to Grand.

Then it was Rainbow time. So I did a quick change into my formal and we were off and running. Initiation went wonderful, the best the girls have done in a LONG time. We Initiated one girl and it was all good. I did Religion and other then flipping some words around I did fine. Then we had elections and then Stephanie's outgoing. By the time people got done eating and we locked up it was 11 pm.

I know for sure I have a cold because my throat is hurting less and I am getting VERY congested.

Talk about a long day!!!!

Happy Monday!

Well it is Monday and the week is in full swing.

I finally have my part memorized for Grand!!!! It pause a lot still but I have it down, just have to polish it up so it can flow. Although the part is so bad I dunno if it will ever flow. LOL

I woke up this morning with my throat still hurting, but I am think it is a cold. Becuase my nose is stuffed up and running. Plus there are no bumps in my throat, and let's keep it that way!!

Today I have to:
-bake brownies for Pledge's
-prepare for Pledge's
-Get my formal ready for Rainbow
-Get stuff together for VBS
-Iron
-Got to church to help set up for VBS
-Go to Pledge's
-Go to Rainbow
-Iron
-Mop the kitchen floor
and more

Happy Father's Day

Well today is Father's Day. We got up and did our normal church thing. It went good.

Then we headed to Stephen's Apple Farm for lunch. Oh my gosh the food was to die for. The girls were very well behaved. Both Pops and Tony got cards and it was a great time.

Then we headed to the plant so I could look up some history info on the Assembly to make new history sheets for the Scrapebook. We found exactly what we wanted and I just have to update them when I type them.

We then came home and put Anna down for more of a nap. And I started updating the history and got it done. I found that there have been 140 Worthy Advisors since NKC started in 1951 and stuff like that.

Then it was VBS time. So we got the girls packed up and headed to church. Tony and I set up the youth room and got ready. We ate dinner at church, and met a very nice girl, Sara (with no H) and her mom. Then it was class time. We had 7 youth in our class which is wonderful, have to see if that continues. 2 of the youth come from no church and are talking about coming to ours!! 1 of the youth is from a cooperating church and 4 of the youth are from our church. See our VBS is done with three church as a group, this year our church is hosting.

After VBS Tony went to work to do a project that had to be done after hours (which is fine with us that is OVERTIME!). The girls and I came home. Anna was asleep so we put her right to bed. Catherine said she was not tired but she went ahead and took her shower and then climbed in her bed and went right to sleep - and she said she was not tired! Then I got busy on work. I got the July calendar ready for youth, got the newsletter as ready as it can be, and got stuff ready for pledges.

Finally Tony got home at 10 pm.

Oh after we came home from lunch my throat started hurting. NOT GOOD! My biggest fear is strep, becuase our neighboor's little girl who plays with Catherine has strep. I hope my throat stops hurting.

Saturday

Well we got up early and hit Indepence Center...I needed pantyhose. So we went and I found three pairs. Then we went to Gordmen's and I found more stuff for my Secrete Sister! Then we went to the hardwear store and hobby lobby and then to the grocery store.

Then we came home. I worked on getting some stuff done around the house and it was time to head to church. We had our Dream Team meeting and it was good. We have been working on the Vision statement for the church and we think we have it done. So now it goes on to Ad-Board and we shall see how it goes from there.

Then I ran to J.C. Penny's to get panties, I saw them on Friday but decided I want them so I went back. They are soo cool, so girly....so me. Then I went to the shoe departement again to look for more shoes, becuase they are on sale in the store but not if I order them on-line. So I got another pair of shoes and ordered a third. So I am finally all set for shoes!! See all of my dress shoes are pre-Catherine and most of them don't fit anymore, I went through and tried all my shoes on and if they were too small I threw them out.

Came home and we ate BBQ Ribs we had been cooking all afternoon. They were wonderful!!!

New Hair!

Well today was my hair cut or at least I thought it was a hair cut. My mom came to watch the girls while I went to get my hair cut. I got there and Jenn who does my hair said to me "now we are going to highlight our hair right". I looked at her and said "no not this time." Then she looked at me and said "No we are going to highlight your hair today". I said to her "no I think I will pass." Then she said to me "your mom paid for your hair to get highlight so we are going to highlight your hair, do you have time." I was floored to say the least. I said "I guess I have time, since my mom is watching the girls and so if she paid for it, she must plan on me being gone a while." So we highlight my hair.

I love the way my hair looks..it is soo light and easy to take care of, which is what I wanted.


After my hair I came home and we all left for our girls day out. First stop was lunch. We found a new place to eat!! It is a Malaysan resturaunt. OH IT WAS SOOO GOOD!!

We left there and hit the stores to find shoes! We went to DSW (no luck), Famouse Footwear (no luck), Jones Store (mommy found a pair), another Famouse Footwear (no luck), Payless (no luck), and then J.C. Penny (I found pair). So we finally found shoes!!!

We left there and went for snowcones, because after all it is snowcone season!

Then we came home and found Tony cutting the grass. What a productive and wonderful day.

Monday

Happy Happy Monday! Well this morning was funny...I woke up and jumped out of bed, thinking I over slept. But I was just fine. So I got my shower and started getting dressed, when Catherine woke up. She got ready and we got Anna ready and headed to church. Via a stop for donuts. I always take Catherine out for donuts or something if we have to be at church for a meeting, it is my treat since I am sure being at a meeting is not her idea of fun. And it is my way of saying Thank you for her being such a good girl and her getting ready so I won't be late.

We got to church and I went to our staff meeting. It is funny I have been soo stressed out about church the past few weeks that I was almost dreading this meeting, I figured it was either going to go great or it was going to be terrible. The past few meetings I have left thinking "what on earth am I doing working of a church". So needless to say I will be honest, I was not looking forward to this meeting. I was ready to go give my info and just sit and say nothing. As normal I had all my info typed up and ready to go, I do this so it is easier for me to have my stuff in order, and also because of Anna, it is hard to flip through papers with a 10 month old messing around. Other then being loud at times Anna did pretty good, she even fell one time and did not get made, which I was surprised. The meeting went good and when asked how the meeting was by someone (a person who is very down on the church right now) I said to them "honestly it was great." I think taking these past 2 weeks to only do what has to be done and taking a lot of family and me time is just want I needed. Although the youth room is getting messy because of it, but that is ok, I will make time to go clean it up one of these days. Seeing as we are moving I should just start packing it up is what I should do. hmmm maybe one evening or afternoon when the girls have Tony to watch them or something like that.

The girls and I came home, and we put sleepy Anna to bed. That was 11:30 pm and right now at 2:15 pm she is still sleeping. She was getting so tired while we were at church. She is a creature of habit and between 11-noon she is ready for a nap.

I made my eggs for UMW tonight, and you know what I only broke 1...count them 1 egg. Each time I try to make eggs I get better and better!

I will admit when it comes to the diet I am not doing so good today. I ate an apple fritter for breakfast and a decaf latte. But I have not eaten any lunch to make up for it, so that is good I guess.

I ordered a dress from Penny's so I hope it fits and gets here soon. The only other thing I need for Grand is shoes, none of my shoes fit right, they are all pre Catherine and my feet grew when I was preggy with Catherine. So this Friday I am off to find dress shoes for Grand. Also I have to get my part down for Grand. Good old Sister of Wifehood that is me! LOL

Sunday

Wow what a day. It was a Sunday as usually, well sorta. We woke up with exactly 30 minutes to get ready and out the door. That ment very fast showers, and getting the girls ready. We did it all in 35 minutes flat!

Church was good. The sermon was about Laughing, which is something we all need to do from time to time.

Then Catherine was supose to go with Pop's ice skating but she threw a royal fit. So we just came home at lunch and told her it was quiet time she HAD to take a nap. And boy did she, I went to check on her and she was out like a light and snoring away!

When she woke up she was in such a great mood!!

Pops and my mom came by to look at the Chimney and Pop's saw nothing wrong, so we have no idea why we have a leak, but we do.

Then it was time to head to church. We got to church and the youth started coming. We have 5 youth show up and we headed out to Indepence Center. We broke up into two groups. I had Kristin and Jennifer, and of course my two girls. WE went around looking in stores. Kristin found a really pretty top and she even found me socks that I had to get! They are bright pink with Monkey's on them. So the Sponkey Monkey still lives on. (Sponkey Monkey is my nick name from Youth '99 when I was hyper the entire trip and alway wide awake! There is even a sponkey monkey card in a frame on my desk at church). As 6 pm came the storms hit. We ended up running in the rain to the car and van. It is funny almost every time the youth want to go on a mall run it storms when it is time to leave. LOL

We got back to church and Kristin found she left the windows down on her car...so it was soaked. She got some towls and she headed home. I hope her car has had a chance to dry out.

The rest of us went the youth room and talked about the fact that this week is our lawn mowning week. So as of now we will cut the grass Thursday at 10 am unless it is raining, in which case we will cut it Saturday at 10 am.

The youth came up with a target game they love. So they played it for a while and we called it a night.

Busy busy Saturday - But a good one!

Oh my gosh I am soo tired and so worn out.

We left the house and went to three stores looking for dresses for me. NO LUCK.

Then we headed to Tony's Company's Summer party. The food was ok..it was Mexican bar..so I went as light as possible. Then we went and bowled. This was Catherine's first time bowling. She had so much fun. Then Catherine and Tony went and played laser tag. I dunno if she liked it that much or not, she said she did. Then Catherine and I played mini golf. Then it was time for the party to end.

So we left the Incred-A-Bowl and went to the Great Mall of the Great Plans to look for dresses. Second Store we went to we had luck! I tried on 6 dresses, 3 looked good, so we bought 2 of them. So at least I have something I can wear at Grand Assembly. I went to the Carter store and finally found Catherine some night gowns. She has decided she does not like to wear pj's she wants night gowns and I have been looking everywhere for them. Finally I had success!

From there we were going to head to the Greek Festival but both girls fell asleep in the van so we headed to the store to get milk and dinner and came home.

Needless to say we are all very tired and I am really sore from all the walking, but it is good for me.

Dress Shopping and Girls Day out

Well today was our Girls day out. My mom came over at about 10:30 am and I had cappuccino ready for her. We finished getting the girls ready and headed out on our shopping day. Goal to find clothes for Grand Assembly, this year you can not wear anything that has black, brown, or gray. I own two skirts one is gray and one is brown, I own three dresses that fit great, two have black and one is Navy. I have been trying on clothes I have right and left and coming up with very little that fit my fat body. A lot of my dresses are pre-Catherine and just don't fit right especially without my body suit on...and wearing my body suit is not an options at this point. So that is a our goal, along with picking up some stuff for the girls.

First stop Talbot's. Mommy was able to find one out fit that looks so wonderful and so youthful on her!

We then went to Coldwater Creek. I found two skirts, one looked TERRIBLE....talk about showing off my big butt, so that was a BIG FAT NO. The other skirt you wore with this polo. It all fit but it was not flattering in the least...made any roll I have show up just that much more. The sales lady was so nice, she was like "you really need a one piece dress, and we don't have any in the store. But she gave me three catalogs to take home and look at to see if I can find stuff to order.

Then we were Overland Park bound. As we left my mom said, what should be do for lunch. I looked at her and said we basically both said "GYROS!" So we headed to Mr. Gyros for lunch. Catherine loves Greek food as much as my mom and I do. It was so cool because my mom was looking at a picture as we left and she said "You have been there". See my biological dad was stationed in Athens, Greece when I was born. So I have been to all these places in Greece and Europe, I just don't remember them.

So then it was off to Oak Park Mall...via a detour because we were talking so much we missed the road we wanted (we wanted 95th street and we got to 110th before we realized our mistake). So first we hit J.C. Penny since we both have seen stuff on their web site we loved, but the selection in the store was TERRIBLE! So we went to kids department to look for a slip for Catherine. The smallest slip they had was size 6, she wears a size 4. So we looked at other clothes. Anna needed some tops to wear under jumpers (for some reason I have tons of 12 month jumpers for her). We found tops for Anna, a dress for Anna, and a shorts and top set for Catherine. Then the best part I found matching dresses for the girls. Ever since Anna was born I have wanted matching dresses for the girls, I have made two dresses so far for the, but for the first time I was able to buy matching dresses!!! The best part was it was all 50% off!!

So then we went down to Jones store.....via a stop at Lane Briant (crapola there too). Jones Store was just as bad as Penny's. Then we went to Norstroms and no luck there. But I did find a 1/2 slip for Catherine in a size 4!!!!! Then my mom and I went and looked at Mac make-up. I needed foundation and have been wanting to try Mac...so I DID!!

Then we went to a couple of other stores with only luck at Bath and Body Works, got girlie stuff!!

Then Anna took her first ride on a carousel with big sissy. They each road on a horse and I helped hold Anna up. She liked it I think...she was just looking around.

Then we got a drink and hit the road home.

The girls did really good for all the running and stuff.

So even though the goal of dresses was not accomplished we had a great day!

Final thought on dresses. The best ones I saw were size 14....well I wear between a size 20 and 22. I have decided that I need to back down to a smaller size. So no more caffeine, very low carbs etc. I was able to loose weight when I was preggy with Anna and I can do it again!

Silly contractors!!

Well with all the storms we found that our chimney is leaking again!! So I got on the phone with the contractors. FUN FUN.

It will be interesting to see if they show up and fix it and if so when.

Day at the plant

Today Catherine went with Pop's to look at items for an auction. They had a blast.

Anna and I went down to the plant at 2:30 pm to give an orientation, it went great!! The guy spoke English!!!!!

Then I had to finish filling out an accident form from 6/2 that was not done right. It is the first form for the year, which is WONDERFUL! The lady hit a button on a straightening fixture and left her finger on the part so the fixture closed up on her finger. All it did was bruise and she got a small cut from trying to pull her finger out while the fixture was on it. She even told me to put on the form, the reason for the accent "Being stupid." So after finishing her paperwork I had to fill out the OSHA paperwork so it is on file and everything. The best part is it does not go to work comp or anything. So I am happy about that.

Then I was asked to get a guy fork lift certified. So I got his handbook ready and gave it to his supervisor as well as his written and driving test papers. So we shall see.

Catherine and Pop's returned to the plant and we headed home.

I called Kristin on my way home and she met us at home. Tony fixed dinner and Kristin and I were going to work on crocheting, but she had to run to pick up stuff for college...so she left her crocheting her at the house.

Rainbow Monday

Well today was Rainbow Monday. After a normal day at home with the girls I got ready for Rainbow.

Rainbow was good but very long. First it was late starting...then they had to do balloting. But all went well.

Following the meeting the girls worked on figuring out what kind of cover they want on their scrapbook. They came up with a wonderful design, very detailed and intricate but wonderful. So they are going to come over on the 15th to put it together.

I took one of the Rainbow girls home on my way home. Stopped at Hy-Vee to get more milk, we are going through a gallon every 2 days now!! So I turned in our milk bottles and got two more. We are now buying Shatto milk and the biggest size they sell it in is 1/2 gallons. It is milk from cows who are not given hormones...you have never tasted such wonderful milk!

Happy Sunday - Busy Sunday

Well it was Sunday. The day started off weird at church, good but weird. I did the children's sermon and it went good, although the kids did not talk much, well all but Catherine, but she always talks.

From there we came home and I got ready for Rainbow.

Right before I was ready to head to Rainbow, Pop's called and said bring Catherine they were going Ice Skating. So her and I got in the van went to the Lodge via a stop at Starbucks to get coffee for my mom and I and chocolate milk for Catherine.

Got the Lodge for the Rainbow Girls to work on their scrapbook. They did 99% of it. It was good because one of the girls was there real early and we have not talked in ages and we got a chance to talk. She really opened up about stuff going on in her life and it was good.

Following scrapbook it was Parent's Day at the lodge. This was a presentation to the parents by all the youth organization. The Rainbow girls were up first, and we did the rose talk. It went good. Then the Job's did a song in sign language, which is like their trademark. Then the DeMolay did their flower talk. It was then 4:30 pm and I had to get over to church to get ready for youth group. So I missed the last few things that went on, oh darn!

Got set up for youth group and all was ready. People started coming and we went up to the sanctuary and watched a DVD thing on "Avoiding God, and what God wants". Then we went outside and played two games, then we came in and finished our bible study from the DVD. Then it was time to go. It is odd for things to take up the entire 2 hours and not drag and for now like the 3 time in a row we filled the time. I was very happy!!!

While at youth group the youth said they want to do a Mall run so that is what we will be doing next week.

More Ivy

Well Tony helped me hang the ivy I bought, and you know what it only goes about 1/2 way around the kitchen. So we all headed back to Old Time Pottery to get more ivy.

We got home and hung it up and it looks fabulous!!!

Girls day out

Well today was our girls day out. See my mom does not work on Friday so we have tried to get back into our girls day out. So I met my mom in Pleasant Valley and we headed to Independance.

We went to Old Time Pottery and had a blast. What a cool store!! I got grape English ivy to go in the kitchen. I am so excited.

From there we went to Toys R Us to look for paper dolls for Catherine. Well I found at least they do not carry them. But we found magnet dolls, like paper dolls but all made of magnets. So that is what we got. Then we hit a Piazzas looking for a Boostia purse, no luck. Then to Gordmen's, again no luck.

From there we headed to the plant to drop my mom off with Pop's who was working on a project for the farm. So we looked at his progress...then we headed home.

It was a great day!!!

Anna's frst accident :(

Well Anna had her first accident. Last night we ran to church so I could get my pay check. Then we went by Kristin's house to drop off a lap top bag we found for her new lap top. Then went to Hobby Lobby to tell her the bag was at her house, and for me to shop. LOL Well we got to Hobby Lobby and we were parked so close to this car I could barely get out. I got my big fat self out of the van and went to get Anna. I got her out and went to shut the sliding door and shut it right on her poor little foot and ankle. I dunno who cried more her or me. I just stood there next to a lap post balling and her balling. I kept telling her how sorry I was. (now I know what my mom felt like when she shut a car door on my foot in middle school). We ran into Hobby Lobby and did our thing and went home. On the way home Anna fell asleep so we put her to bed. She woke up about an hour latter screaming and her poor foot was sooo swollen. So we packed up and went to Children's Mercy Northland. They x-rayed her foot and all is well. Said she does have swelling but nothing is broken. That we can give her Tylenol if she appears to be in pain (they gave her some while we were there) and to put frozen peas on it if she will let us. So we came home and all crashed.

This morning her foot is bruised but she is moving and wiggling and standing on it so it must not hurt that bad. Man to I feel like the crappiest mother in the world though.

Memorial Day

Well today is Memorial Day...a day to remember those who have died and those who have given their lives for our country.

Went to the cemetery, a short walk from our house, like right down the block and put out new flowers for my Grandma and Grandpa Chester. They look good if I do say so myself.

My Mom, Pops, and BJ came over for a nice cook out. It was wonderful. We had soo much food. We gave Anna a deviled egg and she had it everywhere it was soooo funny.

My mom wanted to learn our to make Fun Fur Flip Flops so she brought overa pair of flip flops and fun fur over for me to show her....and I did. I dunno if she will finish them or not because she was getting so frustrated trying to make them. I figure if they are not done in a week or so, I will offer to finish them for her.


Happy 10 month Birthday Anna!!!!!

Sunday!!

Sunday was wonderful!!

Went to church......Sunday school only had two youth and three teachers...go figure. We started off just talking and visiting and then ended up talking about Revelations, so it was all good.

Then we went to worship, Anna was tired so I spent most of the service in the hall way walking with her trying to get her to go to sleep.

BJ came to church with my parents and it was sooooo good to see her again. BJ has known me since I was 4 months old. Which is when we moved to Maryland from Europe. She is named BJ because her name is Jeanette also and she use to be taller then me. She was Big Jeanette and I was Little Jeanette. It is funny because now I am taller then her.

We went to Mimi's for lunch...one of BJ's friends from Maryland who now lives in Iowa met us. It was soo cool, because we were all taking about how people from our old church in Maryland are doing.

Then we came home via the store...and got changed. We loaded up the van and picked up Kristin. We all went to the Liberty Memorial for the free tour and museum and such. Then we went to the Celebration at the Station. They had the KC Symphony playing and ended with fireworks. It was wonderful!!!!

We then came home and Tony worked on Kristin's new lap top getting all the software loaded that she needs for school on it.

I finally got home at 12:30 am after taking Kristin back home. What a long but wonderful day!!!

Why we do what we do

Sometimes you start to think...sometimes thinking can be a good thing...sometimes it can be a sad thing...sometimes it can be a very deep and personal thing...sometime it is just that...a thing.

• Have you ever had one of those days when you question why the heck you do what you do???
• When you wonder why you even got out of bed this morning???
• When you ask yourself what is the purpose of doing what you do???

I can honestly say today is one of those days.

Lord, please give me the strength to keep going. Help me to understand the reason to keep on doing the work I do. Please help my family through this crisis as we deal with issues that involve not only us but others as well. Amen.

NKC Graduation

Well tonight was NKC Graduation. I went and picked up Morgan and we had dinner then we got Marilyn and off we were. The graduation was wonderful, short and sweet. We saw lots of youth and former youth graduate.

As normal at the end we sing the Al-Ma-mater and I started to cry. Can't believe 11 years ago I was one of them. Man time has flown by and man am I old.

Happy 30th Birthday Tony!!

Well today is Tony's Birthday!! Tony woke up to the front of our house decorated in all black by Kristin (one of the youth). LOL I knew this was going to happen, but I never said a word to Tony. I made him get his picture by the balloons and such. I am not sure he was thrilled but it was funny.

I met Kristin after she got out of school and we went shopping for Tony's birthday. I got him a shirt (Catherine picked the color), a pair of pants, and a belt. Then we went to Gordmans so Kristin could look for jeans. Catherine ended up with some clothes too. And I finally found my secret sister some stuff!! It was like I hit the jack pot!

We then went to the Hallmark store and I got a 30th Birthday balloon and card for Tony...then off to church to help cook.

Tony came down and we gave him his presents.

After I came home I talked to Tony, I think he is down about being 30, and the fact that yet again he is having a birthday with really only his family (me and the girls). I wish I could do something to help him gain more physical friends here in KC, but alas I am in the same boat so I am not much help.

Saturday I am planning on taking him to dinner for his birthday. I invited Kristin to go, but she has family in town for her graduation, which is wonderful. My mom cancelled on Saturday becuase of her friend being in town....so it looks like once again it is just going to be a family thing. I am glad our family enjoys doing stuff but at the same time you want to cry when you start thinking about it.

The end of TNT for the spring of 2005

Well tonight was the final TNT for this season. We had a wonderful dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs as well as all kinds of side dishes. The children all went to the park and had a great time. Our "Happy Hookers" worked in the fellowship hall and had a blast as usual. It is both happy and sad time. Happy because now on Thursday's I don't have to be at church at 2 pm to help cook and I can do things I want to do with my family. And yet very sad because our little happy hookers has been so much fun. Such a wonderful bunch of ladies and I know I have learned so much from them.

This fall when TNT starts back up I would so love to see the youth program take off, I tried it this go around and we had two youth come twice I think it was. We had one youth come all the time but she wanted to be part of the happy hookers so that is what her and I did. The only problem will be how to balance starting up a youth TNT program this fall in September with having a baby in Oct. Guess I need to get my brain cells working and think about how I want to do this and who if anyone I can get to help with it.

19 week check up and ultra sound

Well today was the big day.

I met Tony at the peri's office for our 1/2 way ultra sound. Baby is soo cute. Spine looked good, kidneys were there, heart was pumping away. We got pictures of the head (profile shots) and of on arm. Based on the messurments they got I am 18 weeks and 7 days (1 day less then the OB)

Then it was time to go up the road to the OB. Got there, the office was backed up. So we waited about 30 minutes. Everything went good there. My weight was 230 (up one pound for a total of 4 pounds). The babies heart rate was in the 160's still. They did not measure my tummy because there is nothing to messure yet. I go back in a month.
(will scan the u/s pictures later)

The day of truth

Well in a few hours is the moment of truth. I go in today for my 1/2 way Ultra sound. I have to be at the perinotolgist at 2:30 pm and then I have my 19 week check-up at the OB at 3:30 pm. I am praying all goes well...and at the same time I am soo scared of getting bad news. I know I am going to be perinoid to hear what the fluid level is, since that is the issue we had with Anna. I also pray that everything is ok, becuase I dunno how I would face my parents if something was wrong.

So hear is to seeing baby #3.

Fake it??

Today I received an email talking about your attitude, your mood, etc. and how people judge a group or organization based on that. In other words if you work for a group and you are happy, loving, carring then it tells people that the group is doing good. However if you work for a group and you are cold, bitter, and grumpy it sends off another tone. Yes I agree with the author of the email in that you would rather be the first and not the latter. The part that got me was the closing statement to this part of the email "Not feeling warm, open, loving? FAKE IT!"

FAKE IT???
Are we as members of a church supose to fake how we are feeling? Is it wrong if I am grumpy to pretend I am happy and joyfull? It is funny because I have talked to others about this topic, about being real..about not hiding how you feel. Most people I have talked to say you should be real as to how you feel, if you are sad admit it, if you are upset admit it....but I guess for some groups that is not the correct thing to do.

It is funny because personal I hide how I feel a lot around people. Even if I am every down and depressed I will put a smile on my face and act like nothing is going on...and I guess according to the author of the email I got, that is the right thing to do.

Although when I think about it, even Jesus showed his feelings, it is said "Jesus wept" Jesus was sad and he did not hid that fact, but I guess in the eyes of some we are supose to hide.

So welcome to the world of wearing a mask and hiding your feelings...even though I thought I would work on not wearing a mask I guess in some places those mask must be worn.

Nurse Nettie at your service

Well Anna seems to either have a bug or something, poor girl is hot hot hot, and cranky and tired. So I just keep cuddling with her and getting her to drink and on motrim. Poor thing.

Swing set Cont..

I took pictures today of the girls on their new swing set!!!
We replaced one of the big girl swings with a baby swing for Anna

Friday

Oh my gosh I was soo productive today!! I got another dish cloth made and some more scrunchies. I finished ironing all my clothes...I mean ALL of them!! All that is left is Tony's basket.

We went to visit Angela a friend who had surgery. She was doing pretty good. She is set to go home Saturday and I hope she does ok at home. I have told her that if she needs anything let me know, since I am home all day and such. I hope and pray her family helps her and her recover goes well.

Tony went to see Star Wars III. I stayed home with the girls. I was afraid if I went, and sat still that long in a dark room I would go to sleep, so I told him to go and have a great time. I guess 1/2 way to the theater he almost turned around and came home. He was soo sad about the fact that he was alone and such. I think it hit him hard something I have felt and talked about a lot, that we have no friends our own age. Later that night we talked about it some. I mean Tony is here in KC with zero of his family, with none of his friends from school. As he put it "he was friends with the nerds in school and he does not even have nerds to be friends with now." I just wish I knew what to do to fix this, but I dunno if there is a fix. I mean I have friends like with church and such and Rainbow...but they are all either a lot older then me or a lot younger then me. I mean I can talk to people, but I don't "hang out" with people. I live in my house with my girls and my husband. I do stuff with my mom from time to time, and I love that, but it is not the same. It is not the same as like when I was in college and you had people around you your age an you just did stuff. But if you get down to it, since I got out of high school I don't talk to anyone from high school.....went to college knew tons of people, did stuff with about a dozen or so people.....now of that bunch I talk to only one, Abra, and she now lives in Florida. So if I feel this lonely and disconnected from people my age, I can only image how much worse it is for Tony. It is funny because at our church there are maybe 3 or 4 couples our age, 2 of them have kids, and yet none of us do anything together. It is like we don't fit in with anyone, I dunno if it is just us that feel that way or if others do too. I have noticed even of those couples at church, one of them has not been around in at least a month. The other couple are newlyweds and getting use to the married life, and the other couple, only he comes to church. Our Tony and I that weird that we are not like other people our ages? I know we live a "different" life then a lot of people our age, we don't drink to speak of, we don't do the club/bar seen. But we are like any other person our age, trying to make it in this world, trying to pay the bills and still enjoy life.

Oh well I dunno if I have the solution to this issue, if there even is one, but it is one I wish I did.

Thursday - Next to last TNT

Well tonight was the next to last TNT night. The UMW circle I am a part of was in-charge of cooking dinner, I was there, but I was not much help. Pam and I ended up sitting in the youth room working on projects while the food was in the oven. Pam is making this really cool rug out of fabric strips...I was soo impressed. I was just chasing Anna around 99% of the time. Tony came and picked up Anna and I went down to try to help Pam with dinner, but again most of it was done so I went back to the youth room and printed some crocheting patterns for the group.

Ate dinner with Trish, Nelson, Erin, and Andy...it was nice. Our table spent most of the time talking about the whole finger in food stories and such.

Then it was time to work on crocheting! Bert helped me read a pattern I found...it was funny because we did about 2 or 3 rows and realized that the picture on the page is not what the instruction make, but it turned out cool.

I came home and finished my dish cloth....you know I really like making the dish cloths...they are soooo easy.

Came home and watched the season ender to ER....oh my gosh I love that show!!!

Swing Set

Well tonight Tony, Anna and I went and got a bite to eat, Catherine is up in Kearney with my parents. After dinner we went to Toys R Us and bought a swing set for the back yard. When we got home we started putting it together. We worked till 9 pm with flashlights. LOL We ended up moving to the garage to finish the slide then back outside with flashlights to put it on the set.

After we went to bed, Tony could not sleep so he went back to the garage and kept working on the swing set toys, and work till 1 am. He got all but one done, because it is missing a part.

Here is the picture of what the swing set looks like (this is the one from the manufactures web site)

Hello Tuesday!

Well today was Tuesday....a day that can either be nice and smooth or very crazy. I think over all it was a nice a smooth day.

I got up with Tony and threw Catherine into the shower since she never got a bath last night. So we got ready and dressed and hair done. While Catherine ate breakfast I packed up the van. Then her and I got Anna ready for the day.

We headed to the plant, because Catherine was going trucking with Grandpi. Anna and I headed to church for what I thought would be a long morning. Well we met and went over the newsletter. I had about 5 articles that would be coming to me, but was told it would be late, because of other stuff. That was cool....so I thought about it and decided to come home while and get some stuff done and wait for the articles at home.

So Anna and I came home. I picked up the house. I have almost found the counter where I had youth stuff piled high!! Some how I had taken the north east counter in the kitchen and made it a youth paperwork dumping ground...but you can see the counter!!!!!

Anna then took a nap and I ate lunch, ended up getting so tired I laid on the couch and fell asleep for 2 hours!! I knew I was tired but not that tired. Tony commented that I seem run down so maybe that is why I feel so tired. Someone on a board said that maybe I am not getting enough Protein but that is all I eat..so who knows.

Went to Stephen Ministry tonight. We had continuing ed and it was good. Andy did a talk about pastoral care and how Stephen Ministry works in with it. I think we all walked away with a better understanding at least I did.

It is funny today I checked my board and there was a post from a friend of mine. She was like "oh I forgot you are preggy how are things going". So I post back that things are going fine...it is funny because other then being sore at times I don't even feel preggy....I think a lot of it has to so with not feeling the baby move yet. And since my normal clothes still fit and still big on me I don't think about it. I dunno if it a good thing or not...it is like I know I am preggy but yet I don't feel it....and so it is like it is not real. Guess with time it will become more real.

Oh something else I learned tonight, I guess more people read my blog then I relize....I know people read it, but since people never comment you think no one is reading it. But tonight I was told "oh people read it they come to be about it" I dunno if that is a good thing or a bad thing....but it is life.

Vision

It is funny because I know I personaly get tired of hearing about vision statements and mission statements and such. I also know how bad our youth program needs one. When I brought it to the attention of some of the youth, one of them who has been helping the church with their vision statement rolled her eyes it was funny. Somehow someway I need to get the youth to think more about why they come to youth group...what youth group is...etc.

Sunday night

Youth was interesting last night. We only had 4 youth show up...(1 was at home recovering from surgery, 1 was stuck at home doing yard work for his dad, and 2 I dunno what happen to them). So with a small group we walked down to Wendy's and got free frosties...which was fun because it was yummy and FREE. Then we came back to church. Prior to youth one of the girls and I went to Dollar General and got stuff to make health kits that they take to Annual conference. So we put together our four health kits. Then we talked about the Summer schedule and about their surveys they filled out. It is funny because all of the youth said the amount of stuff we do is perfect (not to little or too much) and they all want to keep going during the summer. Which is funny because if that is the case I would expect to see more of them there more regularly. We talked about the fact that it has been suggested we back off or shut down during the summer and all four of them said "NO WAY".

We also talked about plans for when we move up stairs this summer and get our own space. They started thinking of ideas for how they want to paint and decorate their new space. (I think it was good because it got them excited).

We also talked about making changes to the leadership of the youth and going to more of a youth leadership team and not an elected president type system. (This is because the youth president has been MIA since Dec. and has no plans on coming back - she would rather be with her boyfriend - plus again she has no parental support for being in youth).

Well then I went to our church board meeting. It was over in like an hour, which was WONDERFUL! They basically talked about the construction or lack there of. I presented our health kits for Annual Conference.

A very very sad day

Today is a very sad day. This morning a school bus heading to Ridgeview Elementary school somehow went through an SUV and a car, became air born and landing on its side. The bus was caring 53 students and the driver. As of now they do not know why it happened. The driver of the SUV and the car were both killed and if you see pictures you know why.

Dear Lord,
Please protect those who have been effect by this terrible tragedy.

Mother's Day

Today has been a good day here. I woke up to Catherine in our bed snuggled next to me, at 3 am. She was sounds asleep so I moved her to the middle and went back to sleep. Later on we all got up and Catherine went and got a stuff animal she got from the garage sale and gave it to me for Mother's day. WE got ready for church and Catherine told Tony that they had to make a special breakfast for me. SO they made egg sandwiches.

We went to church and all was well. I gave out the youth survey forms for the summer. Tony ended up working on our SP computer the entire morning because his hard drive went out. So he got the hard drive backed up and once the SP gets a new hard drive Tony will hook it up and put all the data back.

When church was over we waited for my dad to practice with a mens singing group. Then we all headed to Lunch. At lunch my mom and I each got our presents. I gave my mom a bottle of perfume she has wanted and a card. Catherine got me a pink mug and white sweater (which I have wanted to wear with dresses and such).

Catherine then went ice skating with my dad and we came home. After skating Catherine then came home.

Tony made dinner for me tonight and then we went to a visitation for a church member who passed this week. Then Tony took me out for ice cream.

So today has been a wonderful day!!

Nurse Nettie at your service

Well I am nurse Nettie again today. At least this time I did not get sick. Yesterday I woke up and started throwing up. Durning the night Tony started burning up, his temp ranged from 101 to 103. Finally about 4 am it broke but even now he is starting to burn up again. I hope he get's better. So I am playing Nurse today. I am good at being the nurse.

I am not hurting as much today so that is good. I can walk normal again!!!

I have my prayers down pat for Saturday. I can not wait till Saturday, I am going to cry so much. My dad and Stephanie are getting Grand Cross and I am soo happy for them!!!

Frustration and Over doing it

Man I am soo PISSED right now. Tonight was the night the youth group was suppose to price stuff for the garage sale. I had a few youth tell me they would not be there...I had 1 that I was unsure of...and 3 that said they would be there. You know how many showed up? Can you take a wild guess....ZERO...Nada...Zip...Zilch. So I had to move all the boxes in the youth room alone. Then Tony got off work and him and I filled a truck and the van with more boxes and stuff from a church member and unloaded it all alone. Nothing is priced because of this.

And now to top it off I hurt so bad...my gut is killing me and it hurts to walk. I am soo upset that this has happened. I can not believe that a fundraiser for the youth, all to benefit the youth and no one is helping.

I sure hope they show up Saturday. Although I have decided if none of them show up I am going to take the money raised and donate a chunk of it to other ministry areas of the church. Because the items are donated to the church to benefit the youth program, but if the youth are not willing to work for their money then why should they keep it.

Dear Lord,
Please help protect this baby, even when I over do it. Also please help me from being so angry at these young people. Amen.

National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer. A day we are suppose to make sure and pray for our Nation and all things going around the world.

Today I lift up these prayers:
* For all those who are being persecuted for the belief in God and Jesus.
* For those who are stressed, troubled, or hurting
* For those who health is not what it should be, for those dealing with disease and illness.
* For those who are in school, and dealing with "making the grade".
* For those who help run our nation and other nations, that they will look to God for guidance and direction.
* For those who are hurting in any way.
* For the young people in our world who are hurting and troubled.
* For all those who don't seem to see God's wonderful face and grace.

(I am sure I will end up adding more)

A picture is worth a thousand words

A picture is worth a thousand words.

May 2, 2005: A U.S. soldier comforts a child fatally wounded in a car bomb blast in Mosul.

Conservative Methodist

I was blog reading and came across a young man's question of is there conservative Methodist out there. It is funny because I know several...but I have to admit there are not too many around me.

I think we as United Methodist need to get back to our roots back to what the Bible says. We need to stop trying to reinterpret the Bible and try to make the bible fit our current society.

It is time we make society see the truth in the Bible...to cause Society to stop walking around in sin and acting like nuts and help society to find the way, the truth, and the light through the scriptures!!!

More thoughts on Beth and homosexuality in Church Leadership

I have been chatting a lot with people about all of what is going on in the UMC...and some points have been made that I want to post about.


As said from a dear friend of mine Carl (whose Youth hoody I wear with pride). (Not his exact words but the over all thought) If you don't even want to deal with the homosexuality issue what about the adultery issue, the having sex outside of marriage. Hello that is a big no no in the bible. Beth as admitted to being in a sexual relationship with another person. So does that mean you would want a pastor who is single with a live in girl friend. I don't think that would go over so well, and you know people would jump on the bandwagon
to stop him...but it is ok for a girl to sleep with a girl outside of marriage?? If we are going to get rid of that commandant why not get ride of all of them.

Appeals Committee reverses church trial

Well well well...lookie here: Appeals committee reverses church trial verdict in Stroud case. What to say. I don't care if she is a lesbian or not she is a child of God and she is allowed in church. I do however have a problem with her being a pastor. Amm...well lets just see the Book of Disciple. This is what is says

Regarding the ministry of the ordained
¶304.3
While persons set apart by the Church for ordained ministry are subject to all the frailties of the human condition and the pressures of society, they are required to maintain the highest standards of holy living in the world. The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals1 are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.21. "Self-avowed practicing homosexual" is understood to mean that a person openly acknowledges to a bishop, district superintendent, district committee of ordained ministry, board of ordained ministry, or clergy session that the person is a practicing homosexual. See Judicial Council Decisions 702, 708, 722, 725, 764, 844.2. See Judicial Council Decisions 984, 985.

Hmm what is soo unclear about this....it says that a person who is a practicing homosexual will not be ordained as a minister or appointed to serve in the UMC...what is soo unclear about this????

I find it most remarkable that this lady was in seminary becoming a minster when she was/became/discovered (whatever term you want to use) that she was homosexual. And she has stated that she knows the UMC stance on Homosexuals and being clergy..and yet she continued on to become a UMC pastor. I guess my thought is: she knew the rules and yet she continued to do something in violation of these rules. Why did she not go on to become a pastor of a domination or church that allows practicing homosexuals as pastors???

OK now I know we all make mistakes...heck I have made tons of them, some of which I still to this day have never forgiven myself for making...but I have also stopped those actions when I realized they were wrong. I also have tried to live up to what is right, even though like all people I fall short A LOT! I guess my deal is.....why keep doing something you know is wrong...that would be like me being a youth director and coming home and doing drugs...hello it is wrong and I know it is wrong. (By the way I do not do drugs...the only drugs that go into my body are my prenatal vitamins when I remember to take them).


So I guess that is my issues with this whole thing. Call me closed minded, call me conservative, call me whatever you want...I just feel people should follow the rules and try to do what is right, something I feel she is not doing.

What a day

Well today was Sunday...normally a busy day and for sure today was a very busy day.

We had our Annual Taco Bar which went over wonderfully raised over $400!! We also revealed our shaving contest results. Cameron lost his hair and Andy lost his beard. We raised over $100 with this. And then we did our Cake Auction and raised about $100 with it. So over all we will have close to $600 in our bank account!!

Then it was off to Rainbow for Scrapbook. Three girls showed up and we got a lot done.

Then we rushed home to get ready for our neighborhood party, 2 years since the tornado. Well we got our food ready, rush out the door only to fine they canceled the part because of the wind and cool temps. So we came back home.

Anna's 9 month pictures

What age will you die?

You Will Die at Age 79

79 You're pretty average when it comes to how you live... And how you'll die as well.

What Age Will You Die?

How Normal are you???

You Are 65% Normal (Really Normal)

Otherwise known as the normal amount of normal You're like most people most of the time But you've got those quirks that make you endearing You're unique, yes... but not frighteningly so!

How Normal Are You?

Which American City Fits you best???

American Cities That Best Fit You:

60% Chicago

60% New York City

55% Philadelphia

45% Austin

45% Boston

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

What personality disorder are you??

What Personality Disorder Are You?

You May Be a Bit Schizotypal ...

A bit odd and socially isolated. You couldn't care less of what others think. And some of your beliefs are a little weird. Like that time you thought you were Jesus.

What gender is your brain???

Your Brain is 73.33% Female, 26.67% Male

Your brain leans female You think with your heart, not your head Sweet and considerate, you are a giver But you're tough enough not to let anyone take advantage of you!

What Gender Is Your Brain?

My Liguistic Profile

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

10% Midwestern

10% Upper Midwestern

10% Yankee

5% Dixie

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Anna's 9 month check-up

Well today was Dr. day. Anna had her 9 month check-up.

So we get there and the nurse weighs Anna and she weighed in at 15 pounds 14 oz. So that puts her in the 5th percentile for weight. Then we measured her head and it was 17 inches (which is the 25%)...and then we measured her length which is 28 inches long (the 75% ). So basically she is like her big sissy, tall and skinny. No wonder if you want to you can put her in a 0-3 month out fit and it fits around her, just short.

She did not need any shorts which was good.

We go back on Aug 1st for her one year check-up.


The Dr. said Catherine probably has a virus and just to keep giving her Tylenol which is what I did this morning. She is still running a temp of 100.3 this morning, but says her head is not hurting (which is what she complained about last night).

14 week check-up

Well today was our 14 week (almost 15 week check-up). My check up was at 4:20 and I was back in the car leaving at 4:33 pm. Talk about fast.

I got in and sign in, and within 1 minute I was back in the back. First thing was my normal weight check. I gained 1 pound. Which made me very very mad. I guess I should not be so mad, but I am. I wanted to stay the same or even loose some. So we will try harder next visit. So my total weight gain is 4 pounds.

The nurse checked my blood pressure which was 130 over 76. She processed to go off on me, about how high it is. About how it has been steadily climbing over the past few visits (124 over 72, 112 over 72, and 102 over 72). She asked me if I have cut out all salt and caffeine. I told her no one has given me any dietary restrictions. I also told her I never salt anything and I am lucky if I get one caffeine drink a week if even then. She then told me that I need to turn in this baby's Dr's name by the next visit. I told her look in my charts, it is the same Dr. as my other two children. She then told me "I am just doing my job." Keep in mind I am talking to her in all smiles and as happy as can be.

So in walks the Dr. He said to me "So what questions do you have?" To which I have none. He then said "I see you are having a tubal ligation with this one" I said "You betcha" he then said "Are you sure" I told him that I did not want any more surprises and we are done. Then he says let's check the babies heart rate. So he gets the Doppler finds the heart beat, and said "sounds good". He did not even have the Doppler there long enough to get a count. I asked him what the heart rate was, and he said "It was good."

I go back on May 24Th and I should hear back from the office tomorrow about my 20 week ultra sound date and time (that office was already closed for the day).

What blinkie are you???

You are into the "love revolution" scene
thus you are a "love revolution"
blinkie! Easy enough.


What blinkie are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

What a wonderful night!!

Oh my gosh last night was soo wonderful. Tony came home with a dozen red roses and a Kim Anders balloon...I love Kim Anders!!

My mom came over to watch the girls and we were off. We hit traffic getting to Overland Park but we made it in time. Got our tickets at the box office and then were escorted to our table. I knew we had a table with another couple. Turns out they were from Omaha and were celebrating their 24th wedding anniversary...so that was cool.

The food was out of this world!! First they brought you a mixed green salad with creamy buttermilk dressing or poppyseed vinaigrette, I did the Poppyseed and on my gosh it was to die for! Then you went do the buffet and it had: Haricot verts (green beans with red peppers), Asian stir fried vegetables, baked ziti, roasted red potatoes, chorizo rice, polenta, baron of pork, tortilla crusted catfish, grilled chicken spedini, and smoked beef shoulder tender. Oh my gosh I took a little bit of everything!! Then they came around and took our dessert order to bring during the intermission. We both ordered the same thing....it was called "Chocolate with your clothes on" it was a double layered chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese filling between the layers, and then covered in a chocolate ganouse, and served with frozen chocolate wiped cream and warm caramel sauce. Oh my it too was to die for. I ate the whole thing and felt so sick after wards but it was soo worth it!! Reminded me alot of Valentine's day last year when Tony took me out to a seafood restaurant on the plaza and we got our dessert to go.

The play was out of this world. It take place on a bart train in San Fransisco and it only has the two lead players...so it is a two person play..and it was wonderful!!!! Other then coming home VERY full, almost too full. It was a wonderful dream night!!

5 years ago

5 years ago tomorrow was the greatest day of my life. 5 years ago tomorrow I road to the church with my parents. 5 years ago tomorrow we pulled up to church and saw Tony standing in the church yard stairing up a bird in a tree. 5 years ago tomorrow I met Abra at church and we went into the nursery and I got dressed. 5 years ago tomorrow I walked down the isal. 5 years ago I stode in front of God, my parents, the youth, and friends. 5 years ago tomorrow I said "I do" to the man of my dreams. 5 years ago we were married.

Man it does not seem like 5 years have gone by....seems like only yesterday we were dating. Seems like only yesterday we were sitting at dinner and Tony proposed to me.

Look how much has happened in 5 years:
We have had two children, and have a third on the way.

We have lived in 2 apartments and 2 houses.

We have servived a tornado knocking our house down (thank the Lord we were not moved in yet).

We have have 5 different vicheals.....Sold the bonvile right after we got married and got the Kia, a semi hit the black Tracier and totaled it...then we ended up with the "hoopy" car the White Tracier......it died and we got our mini van.

Tony has had 3 different jobs, Snow Tech, MTC, and currently at Spencer Fane.

I have taught school for two year, then stopped to be a mom.

I became a youth director.

We have made 3 trips to Tennessee and 1 trip to Florida to see Tony's family.

To this day my Step mom has yet to meet any of my family. I have seen his dad and step mom 2 times, and his mom and step dad 5 times.



Man how time does fly by....but I thank the Lord for the wonderful ride.

Tuesday Fun

Well today has been interesting. The lawn company was to be out at 11 am to turn our system on and check it. Well they finally showed up at 1 pm...and the guy was soo slow and soo slow and soo slow!!! (do you get my point!!)

Then off to church we went. Worked on the church newsletter.

Tony met me and we got Arby's for dinner.

Then it was Stephen Ministry....I filled in as the facilitator for our group. I was soo nervous, but I think I did ok. I hope I did ok.

Wonderful Monday Night

Well Monday night was Rainbow. We announced our Grand Cross Designates....and low and behold my Pop's is getting Grand Cross. I had no clue...we never talked about it when we picked the designates, so this was planned without me knowing. It was all I could do to keep from crying. Also the day will be soo need, May 7th, because I am the Chaplain, my mom is the Keeper of the Door, and we are not telling him, so it will be a surprise for him.

Today is also Stephanie's 21st Birthday. She has been planning on going out for drinks after Rainbow, but everyone canceled. So I told her, we had to do something. So after Rainbow I took her out for Mexican at a restaurant she choose, and she got her Strawberry Daiquiri. I just felt so bad for her, it is a big deal to turn 21 and yet everyone was leaving her hanging. So even though it was her ideal birthday I do hope she has a good time.

"They will know we are Christians by our LOVE"

I realize they say the Pope is uncounsiose....but they are showing video of people in Vatican City in the Square singing hymns and praises...can you image being in a room dying and have the world singing praises to God because of you.

Then I see people on TV in Poland sining....and it is funny because I can't speak polish...don't know polish but I can tell you what they are singing in the video feed...they were singing "And they know we are Christian's by our love...by our love..." and it got me to thinking......won't it be wonderful if something like this can help bring the world closer together so the world really knows we are Christians and we love one another.
Gosh I dunno if it because I am preggy or what but I can't stop crying.

Out of the mouths of Children....Spirituality

I have to tell you something cute.

I was sitting on my bed feeding Anna her bottle and watching Fox News. Catherine was in the living room watching cartoons. Well she came in and asked me what I was watching. So I explained to her what the Catholic Church is (in 4 year old terms - told her, you know we go to a Methodist Church well there is another type of Christian Church called the Catholic Church). Then I told her how there is this guy called the Pope, his name is John Paul II. That he is in charge of all the Catholic Churches around the world. She said oh so he is like Pastor Andy at our church. I said yes, but he is over all the Catholic Churches not just one little church. She responded, oh so he is a very special person. I told her yes he is. I then told her he is an old man, older then mommy, and grandmi and even grandpi...that he is 84 years old. She said oh he is an old old man then. Yep I told her. Then I went on to tell her, when people get old, sometimes they get really sick and sometimes when they get sick they pass away they die. She said oh but that is when they go to Heaven to be with God. I told her yes, when he dies we will go to heaven with God. I told her what I was watching is here The Pope lives, that they will close those windows (was showing her the lit up windows on the TV) and that tells people he has Gone with God. Her response was....well hold on...and she grabbed our phone....she says we need to call him. I tried to tell her we can't call him, I don't know his phone number, plus when people are sick they don't like to normally talk on the phone. She then said...well we need to call the people that are there with him and tell them to give him some medicine so he can be healthy again. So we went on to talk about how sometimes you can't get medicine to make you healthy, that sometimes you are sick because your body wants to allow you to go to heaven. So then she said, well we should pray that God is ready for him, because if the Pope is going to heaven then they better be ready for him.

With that I just had to give her a big hug, and it was all I could do to keep from crying. So together we prayed for the Pope and for all those who are Catholic here and around the world.

Just had to share that with you.....out of the mouths of children....you can really see God.

11 week Check-up

OK today was my 11 weekish Dr. visit (I am 10 weeks and 6 days). I got to see Dr. Spell (My favorite OB!).

My blood pressure was 124 over 72 (normal for me!)

My weight was 228. I gained 3 pounds in the past two weeks – which I will be honest I hate, time to cut back on the carbs again!

We hear the Heart Beat!! It was in the 160’s.

So I got back in 4 weeks.

Easter 2005

Easter 2005

Sunday, March 27, 2005

This year the girls has matching Easter Dresses.

The day was so nice (it was over 60 degrees outside),
so following lunch we went to the park

Catherine and Grandpi playing on the park toys

In the afternoon at home
Catherine went for an Easter Egg Hunt in our yard

Methodist Squirrels

There were four country churches in a small Alabama town:

The Presbyterian church,

the Baptist church,

the Methodist church

and the Catholic Church.

Each church was overrun with pesky squirrels.

One day, the Presbyterian church called a meeting to decide what to do about the squirrels. After much prayer and consideration they determined that the squirrels were predestined to be there and they shouldn't interfere with God's divine will.

In the Baptist church the squirrels had taken up habitation in the baptistery. The deacons met and decided to put a large plywood cover on the baptistery and flood it. The squirrels escaped somehow and there were twice as any there the next week.

The Catholic group got together and decided that they were not in a position to harm any of God's creation. So, they humanely trapped the squirrels and set them free a few miles outside of town. Three days later, the squirrels were back.

But -- the Methodist church came up with the best and most effective solution. They baptized the squirrels and registered them as members of the church. Now they only see them on Christmas and Easter.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday was March 21, 2005

Waving Palms at church


Following the church service the kids has their Easter Egg Hunt

Overall Catherine has a wonderful day!

2nd Dr. Appointment!!

Well today was my 2nd Dr. Appointment. I did not gain any weight!!!! I would love this preggy to go like Anna and not gain weight and even lose weight if possible! My blood pressure was 112 over 68 which is great.

Ok U/S report. The baby has grown soo big. The baby messured 8 weeks and 6 days, so I am offical due on 10/19/05. The heart was beating away!! We found brain tissue and arm and leg buds. The yoke sac is still there, which proves I am under 10 weeks (average age it goes away) which means the placenta is not taken completely over yet.

Here are the pictures!!

Crawling Pictures

We finally got pictures of Anna crawling!!

We have teeth!!

Anna cut her first two teeth!! She cut the first one on Tuesday, March 1st and the 2nd bottom on Thursday, March 3rd. She is growing up soo fast!!!!

We are crawling!!!

Today I was sitting on the floor with Anna and Catherine...and Anna got up on all floor and started crawling!!

I ran to the bed room and woke up Tony, who was sleeping, he has the flu, and told him.

SO now we have a girl on the move!!

First U/S Pictures

OK Here is our first U/S pictures. Like I said because the baby is so small and hard to find on u/s I have to go back for another u/s in two weeks to set an offical due date...but as of now my due date is 10/16/05.