This week in Pictures

Our Team, our friend Tracie, Mom Willman, Eric, Chris and Me (implied) at the 10th Annual Ovar'Coming.



Chris gets ready for the Ovarian Cancer Walk. Grandma picked him up one of last year's t-shirts, which is about 8 sizes too big, but he didn't care. He's pretty excited.



Mommy and Chris, happily recovered at home. Note that he's eating an apple; he worked that thing, all by himself, all the way home.



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I kept forgetting to post pictures that don't have to do with Chris. Here's a few from this week.



A beautiful early morning view out our back window. Can you see the dew droplets on each blade of grass in the sun?



OK, not the best early morning view. But a really neat close-up on our back window just the same. Chris thought "Big Bug" was cool.



My neice Kaylee at the preschool playground. Her static-y hair cracks me up!



Mommy made applesauce. Chris couldn't even wait until it was done to eat some. He's eating boiled apples and water here. Turns out that's all I had to do to it, the apples had so much flavor just boiling the snot out of them was all they needed. I had not even sifted the skins out yet, but he didn't care. He kept askiing, "What are you doing mommy?" "Making applesauce." "I want apple-sau-sa!" Had to oblige.

Friday Fill Ins

1. Pumpkin related foods (Einstein's has pumpkin muffins and Au Bon Pain has pumpkin soup, YUM-O), Halloween (Should Chris be Mickey Mouse?), colorful leaves turning, fun family birthdays, jean and t-shirt weather, hopefully a picnic in Brown County are some of the things I'm most looking forward to in October.

2. Sometimes I feel I want to (boom boom) Run Away. I want to (boom boom) Get Away....(Softcell) I want a vacation. I want to go somewhere fun, where the greatest debate is beach or pool, or where are we eating for the next meal? Who am I kidding? I WANT TO GO TO DISNEYWORLD! We promised Chris (and ourselves) that once he's "fixed" we'll take him to Disneyworld (Dave Ramsey be damned!) and now that possibility is appearing on the horizon, I really can't wait.

3. I had this 2 year old boy that insisted on either riding me, or dropping to the ground when holding my hand, or just running off (really good at the running off), and he's very small, and very speedy, and I noticed those leash things look pretty handy. I swore I'd never put a leash on my child, and that's why there is a saying, "never say never"! Now I keep one in the diaper bag, and I used it for the first time at the Kids' Resale a couple weeks ago. It was really handy, though Chris objected highly.

4. When I'm down, I am really down. I try not to let my mind go to the dark places, but when they do, it's pretty hard to dig my way out. I've been having seriously disturbing dreams lately, that wake me at like 5 am and I can't get back to sleep. I had one the other day that really shook me up for hours. I dreamt I'd been mysteriously implanted with a plastic baby and was losing it. Very bad.

5. Church is where you'll find me most often. Eric signed us up for this class, Living Discipleship, jury's still out on whether I enjoy it or not, on Monday nights. I do not enjoy that it meets until 8:30 pm, it's a little late for both Chris and I. So, now we're there Sundays, Mondays, occasionally Wednesdays for choir, and Fridays for MOPS. It's our second home. I guess that's a good thing, kind of the way it should be. But running a close second seems to be Riley, 3 appointments this week, (but it's been a busy week).

6. A rainy day is good for sleeping. Duh. I think Chris may even agree with me on this, he seems to be content to sit at home and take good long naps on rainy days...ok, he has on the last two rainy days...Twice makes a habit, right?

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to Dad's birthday dinner at the Rathskeller with the Fam, which since I'm up at 6 unable to breathe or sleep I'm debating if I should still go, I'm 90% sure it's allergy related, and I LOVE the Rathskeller, but I just did the smart thing and backed out of MOPS for today (which I hated doing), am I responsible to not expose family too? Hmmmm.... tomorrow my plans include the Ovarian Cancer walk- Woo hoo! (DONATE PLEASE-see side link!). I hope that this bout of coughing I woke up with this morning is kind enough to subside so I can do it well, I really would like to beat my time for last year. Last year it was my first walk, and I was about 25 pounds heavier...but also now I'm preggers and can't breathe...it'll be interesting and Sunday, I want to put my husband to work around the house while I lay like broccoli and nap!

Wordless Wednesday

A bit in advance, but Wednesday looks to be a busy day. Please leave caption.

My neice

It's been a while since I tooted the horn of my neice, Annie, who just turned the big 8 weeks old, and got her first round of shots. Poor baby. It's funny though, Lisa and I were chatting last night, about how we both see so much of the other one in our children, but we don't see ourselves. I see Lisa in Christopher all the time, especially when he's swollen from sleep, like when he was in his butterball phase (Lisa is blessed with a narrow form now, but she was a butterball early on) or his little triangular nostrils. I used to raz Lisa about these all the time. I certainly don't have dainty upside down triangle shaped nostrils (there is little here that's dainty, especially of late)...but she does...and Chris does. Lisa sent me this picture, saying she swears that she sees a dimple that I have on my right cheek, on Annie's. Actually, I do see a hint of dimpleness.



Anyway, she told me a nickname they've been calling Annie, and I just had to right it down because I laughed so hard, that when I was retelling Eric, I literally cried.

Princess Squawks-a-lot from the Kick-a-poo Tribe.

Wisdom from Veggie Tales

When life hands you a lemon....
just have some more root beer.

Friday Fill Ins

1. There is no need for me to gripe about being pregnant, if you were to ask me how I'm feeling. Blessed. Very Blessed.

2. Where in the heck did Christopher's Pooh sunglasses go? They were just here yesterday, I swear. He's not going to do well if we don't find them.

3. Pray is all I managed to do. Often I'm at a loss at what to do in certain situations, and when I feel most helpless, I often come to prayer as a last resort, but I'm getting better at floundering less and just jumping into prayer. Because really Prayer is a very active thing to do. That, and maybe make a casserole or brownies.

4. Prospects for a job for Alexandra would be much appreciated. It's high on the prayer list too.

5. God's Word is the message. Yesterday, I just opened up my Bible seeking some strength and support, and it plopped open in Jeremiah 30, which told of God giving word for his people to settle down, plant some crops, have families, and basically, hang tight, because he will be smoting their enemies, and then he'll come get them. It was comforting, but just for good measure, I had to flip to Jeremiah 29:11, which right now is my favorite passage. Someone sent me a card when Chris was born and we had just come home that had that passage in it, and it gave me a lot of comfort. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

6. Simplicity and tranquility are myths.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to some mindless reality escaping TV watching, tomorrow my plans include at this point, Chris and I are likely going to be going to Marion to see Grandma Willman, who's health is not so good: CHF and some internal bleeding of unknown origin, Please Pray, and Sunday, I want to not go anywhere, and stay in my jammies all day, but that's unrealistic, as the choir is singing at the 8 o'clock service! I'll settle for a nice long post-church nap.

Yeah God!

Infertility sucks. If you've ever watched a loved one fight the battle, it's pretty crappy. If you've fought it, well, you know,...it sucks. It took us 4 years to get pregnant with Christopher, finally we had to reboot the system, and that seemed to work. This one only took a year, rebooting included. However, this post is not all about me, it's my chance to give a shout out to the one to whom all Praise is Due. God's timing for such things is so Divine. Yeah God! My heart has been singing His praise for days and I just have to share.

I wonder if He's up there smiling at us, so proud, just like when we are proud when our toddler says our name; He's up there, thinking, Oh, my children, how sweet, they just split the atom. God is so great that amongst his many blessings, he gives us modern medicine to aid in so many great things including the fight against infertility, as well his his loving support during the fight. He Is the Greatest Father. He shows us how wondrous his power and his love, and in something so simple as a new baby, who doesn't have to do a thing but just lay there, yet there is so much miraculous work behind her simply being that it just boggles the mind. It's like Life is God's Little Victory.

What an especially great miracle it is then when someone who fought this fight comes home with a beautiful healthy baby. For me, it is one of my highest Joys, and I just have to Shout his Praise moreso when it's someone I've personally been praying for during the whole process. I got to hold one of these little miracles yesterday, and it just brought tears to my eyes. Tears of joy for how great God is, blessing this family, bringing them this little beautiful angel. Babies in and of themselves are miracles, but when you toss in there the added difficulty for the little Blessing to even get here, after so much heartache, well, then I really must kick my praise up a notch.

YEAH GOD!