Abby's Surgery

This morning, Abby had her surgery to remove the piece of glass that was left under her scalp after her accident in August. For those of you who don't know, she feel into a window-well and broke the window with the back of her head. At the time of the accident, the ER doctor told us that he was sure that there was no glass left in the wound and stapled it shut.

A ridge began to form perpendicular to one of the original wounds. First the doctor said that it was just scar tissue forming, not to be concerned and he would see me in a month at her 2 year old check up. The ridge had not gone down and there seemed to be something poking out. The doctor looked at the wound with a lighted pair of microscopic goggles and saw something shiny, confirming it to be a piece of glass, but believed it to be about the size of a raisin. He referred us to a pediatric surgeon, because he was unable to remove the glass on in his own in the office.

The surgeon was able to measure the piece of glass in his office and recommended surgery to remove the glass; which he believed to be a sliver about an inch to an inch and a half in length. Based on her age and the possible incision that would be necessary to remove the glass completely, she would be placed under general anesthetic.

She did so well. Much better than mommy and daddy did. She got to ride a cool motorized car into the operating room and was handled by nurses and doctors that were especially suited and trained to handle children. She was smiling and giggling on her way there. Possible one of the hardest things that I have yet to handle was watching her go down the hallway to the operating room.

The actual surgery was very fast. The entire procedure took about 30 minutes. The surgeon only had to make a very slight incision at the edge of the piece of glass and was able to pull it out. It didn't require stitches or staples at all, but was able to be closed with some kind of special surgical tape. The piece of glass was just over an inch in length and about 1/4 of an inch thick.

We're thankful all is well and that this is all hopefully over. :)

Four Years Together

On December 27, 2004, Aaron and I were married. Looking back at where we were then, where we are now and how far we've come is an amazingly beautiful experience.

In that short period of time, we have welcomed three beautiful girls into our world and are blessed with each new addition to our family. We are excited to see who else will be joining us this next summer. :)

We have slowly remodeled our home and settled in. We have talked of plans to add on, but our real joy would be to find a nice place with a couple of acres that we can settle in for a more permanent amount of time. We enjoy talking about our future and the blessing that one day, hopefully, grandchildren will bring to us.

We have made job changes and school changes. We rejoice in all the blessings that God has given Aaron in his job, as well as salary raises with each new child. God is truly watching out for our little family.

Aaron and I have been richly, richly blessed in such a short span of time. We look forward with great anticipation to what God would have for us in the next four years. :)

Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas Day. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it was the best Christmas yet for our little family. This is the first year that Anna really remembers the things that we've taught her about Jesus and His birth. Both she and Abby have been singing, "Happy Birthday to Jesus." We have tried to stress the importance of putting Jesus first in our Christmas celebrations and hope that each of our children will see that and one day continue that in their own families.

I am putting this picture of Anna first, because it will explain later pictures of her. I do not know why, other than it is a toddler phase that we will someday grow out of (right??), but Anna has turned into something of a little stripper. She takes her jammies off right after she goes to bed and keeps taking her clothes off throughout the day; no matter what mommy does or says against it.

Charlotte, while perhaps to young to understand the spirit of Christmas, does understand toys and presents. Her new favorite thing is the hat from Uncle Justin's family. She has always enjoyed hats...which is the exact opposite of my other girls. I must say she does look dashing, doesn't she? :)

I think perhaps the girls favorite present from "Santa" would have to be the little play kitchenette. They have played with it like no other gift they've ever received. Abby, our designated "little mother" has spent hours already cooking food for all of us and feeding her baby.

Here, in the naked picture of Anna, she shows off her Cinderella and Aurora dolls. She loves these little things and will spend a frantic minute should she realize that she has set them down somewhere or can't remember where she put them.

Aaron and I also exchanged gifts with each other and various members of his family on the actual day of Christmas. I think Aaron's favorite gift from the girls and I was a lumberjack hat like his dad has. We also celebrated a lovely Christmas dinner with the Greenwood clan hosted by Kelly's mother.

With each year that passes for our little family that God has blessed us with, each celebration gets sweeter and more lovely. At this time of year and hopefully everyday, may we pause to thank God for the precious gift of His Son and the salvation He has offered to us and to the world.

Our family sincerely hopes that your families were all equally blessed this Christmas with the love of family and friends and the reminder of the real meaning of Christmas. :)

Children's Museum

Our girls always love the Children's Museum in Indianapolis and it was especiously fun this time because we got to have Daddy, Grandma Greenwood, Uncle Lee and Aunt Mary...plus all the Justin and Kelly Greenwood kids, too! Charlotte was such a good baby, and as all of us mother's of the one and under set know...a baby can easily make or break an outing.

This was really Charlotte's first time to explore the "Baby-Scape" and she loved it.
We always spend a little time before lunch at Playscape to wind the people down a little. The water and the sand areas are always the biggest hit.

We try to go at least once or twice a month (to make use of the membership) and the girls never get tired of it. This was the first time that the girls have been okay with going into the dinosaur exhibit. The loud noises and dinosaur "calls" tend to scare them too much, but once we got to the edges where you could play with the toy dinosaurs and see the dinosaur eggs, they didn't want to leave. Abby still talks about wanting to go to see the dinosaurs again. We'll probably go again in a couple of weeks. :)

My Random Post, Holiday Baking and Baby Kicks

I posted the name of the woman from my Random Post into the comments section of that post. I guess I should have done a bigger post for her, because I had all kinds of people messaging me or calling me saying enough is enough, when are you going to let me know who she is?! I think people were getting a little angry with me. Anyway...that's where the information is.

I've started my Holiday baking and will be doing that the next few afternoons and evenings until it's all done and then putting plates together on Saturday. Yeah! I love the holiday goodies. :)

I also starting feeling real baby kicks, not just the flutters, this week. It's pretty cool. I don't think they're strong enough yet for Aaron to feel, but he always especially likes when he can feel the baby moving, too.

I hope you all are having a wonderful week before Christmas and aren't getting stressed out, but enjoying this time with your families. :)

Random Post

Okay. This post may be really out there and totally random, but it's something I've been thinking about the last couple of days.

A couple of nights ago, while Aaron was doing some exercising in our bedroom, I sat down to relax a bit after putting the children to bed. I turned on the T.V. and did a little channel surfing. I stopped on a biography channel where they were interviewing a young woman. She seemed very well put together, beautiful and had a friendly smile. I didn't recognize the woman, but felt a connection with her, because at the moment I turned it on, she was talking about losing her mother to skin cancer, and broke down. (Her mother had died when this woman was two, after going into the doctor about a strange mole on her shoulder. It turned out to be malignant and she was dead two months later. For those of you who read this blog, you know I had my own scary mole situation a couple of months ago.)

They then went into the promo for the next segment where some "evangelical" pastor said that this woman was going to hell and that may she never have children so that they don't know the pain of having this woman as a mother. They then flashed her name on the screen. I now knew who she was. This puts me at an advantage to you. Before I reveal the woman's name, let me ask you a couple of questions.

Do you believe that anyone has the right to tell anyone else, no matter who they are or how they chose to live their lives, that they are going to Hell? Certainly not! I heard a sermon once about the five surprises of Hell, and I think it could also be done for Heaven. One of the surprises was about who else was there. You know, I don't know this woman's heart or that pastor's, but I do feel that I have a pretty good relationship with my Savior and he said, "Judge not, lest you be judged." There is another verse that says we are all unclean things and all of our good works are as filthy rags. I kind of think the same thing about our "bad" works. God does not put some big scale up there and judge you based on your good and bad works. Man judges by the outward appearance, but God sees the heart.

This woman also struggles with infertility. She has tried for years to get pregnant. She wants to live for her mother through the birth of a child. She wants to give her mother a gift of being able to care for her children as her own mother wanted to do. Like I said above, people have said that they hope she is never able to bring children into this world. This woman is healthy, well-off, intelligent, clean and sober, caring and funny. Do we have the right to tell any woman that she shouldn't have children? Again, I say, NO! If we okay it, to take away such a deeply personal right...the right to bear children...what comes next? If we were to regulate who could have children, would we then regulate how many children we could have, or even the age we could have children or receive assistance in having children? That is a slippery slope that I do not want to contribute to or think anyone I know would want to contribute to. I rejoiced when I saw on her Wikipedia profile that she recently had a successful IVF treatment and is expecting twins early 2009. To me this woman is human and deserves that right and that experience.

After writing this, I don't know if I should tell you yet, who the woman is. I would be interested in a dialogue about our feelings for any woman, not based on who she is or what she has done. I'll update it on Monday with the name of the woman.

Our Engagement Anniversary

Four Years ago today Aaron got down on one knee in my parent's dining room and asked me to marry him. We then shared our first kiss. We were married just over two weeks later and have grown in love, through good times and bad. The story of our courtship to me was a beautiful story of finding the persons that God had had in mind when we were created. I love you, Aaron and look forward to many, many more years with you. :)

Remember When-Alan Jackson

Remember when I was young so were you
time stood still love was all we knew
You were the first, so was I
made love and then you cried
Remember when

Remember when we vowed the vows walked the walk
Gave our hearts, made the start, it was hard
lived and learned, life threw curves
There was joy, there was hurt
Remember when

Remember when old ones died new were born
life was changed, disassembled, rearranged
We came together, fell apart
broke each other's hearts
Remember when

Remember when the sound of little feet was the music
We danced to week to week
Brought back the love, we found trust
Vowed we'd never give it up
Remember when

Remember when thirty seemed so old
Now lookin' back, it's just a steppin' stone
To where we are, where we've been
Said we'd do it all again
Remember when

Remember when we said when we turned gray
When the children grow up and move away
We won't be sad, we'll be glad
For all the life we've had
And we'll remember when

Remember when
Remember when

Morning Sickness and I'M HUNGRY

I have been cautiously optimistic this week that the morning sickness may be fading out a bit. Over the weekend I wasn't getting sick right before supper and Monday was my last day that I've thrown up. I'm still having some nausea, but I am doing my darnedest to control it and gritting my teeth about it. Another good sign is that yesterday I had an appetite. This was not just any normal appetite return either. It was a crazy, hormonal, "FEED ME NOW" appetite return. I can only attribute it to the fact that the pregnancy is moving along and I'm entering a new phase...aka the second trimester. WooHoo!!

My Children

We're making some advances on the potty training front. It's kind of exciting...there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I won't be changing diapers until they're 22. Yeah!! :)

Abby and her Head

I took Abby for a consult this morning with a pediatric surgeon down at Peyton Manning's Children's Hospital. While we already knew that there was a piece of glass that was just under the scalp, we weren't certain as to how big the glass might be or what would be involved in removing it. The surgeon after doing his own probing and measuring estimates the "shard" to be between 1 and 1 1/2 inches in length. He recommends it would be in our best interest to, of course, remove the glass. He said that it would be fine until one day it shifted, she laid on it differently and it cracked.

The only problem I have with this is that it would require Abby to be put under general anesthetic with a breathing tube inserted. Right now, the surgery is scheduled for December 29th early in the morning. I'll probably do a consult call with our family doctor to get his opinion on this as well.

I'm just really nervous about this, as I'm sure any parent is at the thought of their child being put under, but I also want this to be taken care of and not cause her any more pain.

Thanksgiving

I still cannot get this layout to work the way I want it, so you're getting a slew of pictures here first from our day of Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for and more than anything else the return of our brother, Bill. He has a long way to go, but he is whole and alive.

Aurora, Justin and Kelly's youngest daughter.
Kelly's mother, Mary Kay, holding Perry, Justin and Kelly's youngest child.

Abby and Anna. Anna was being a tad possessive with the coloring book.

Aaron. :)

Aaron's Grandmother Greenwood. How fortunate my girls are to be able to have a close relationship and know their great-grandmother.

Whitney, Justin and Kelly's oldest.

Mary, Aaron's only sister and youngest sibling. She really pulled Thanksgiving together.

Aurora again, just because. :)

Abby. :) "Did you say there was pie?"

Justin and Kelly. Justin is next in the sibling order after Aaron.

Aaron's dad, Bob, with Whitney.

Spencer. Justin and Kelly's oldest son. We spent quite a lot of time together. He was telling me all about some cool new computer game. :)

A group shot.

The kid's table.

Afton, David-Bob's brother, Mary, Whitney and Bob.

Our current babies, heading up the table, both very much enjoyed their Thanksgiving meal.

Thanksgiving was such a nice day. The food all turned out(I was so nervous about the turkey being dry, overcooked or undercooked, but it turned out really well) and there was plenty. This year we only celebrated with Aaron's family; next year we'll do mine. Making dinner was a group effort that was a lot of fun to see come together and as the Greenwood clan continues to grow this will probably be more and more what happens. I hope all of you had great days spent with those you love. We sadly were missing "Ganma" who spent Thanksgiving with Aaron's brother, Bill and his family at Walter Reed. We're very much looking forward to Aaron's other brother, Robert's wedding in the Spring. That will be the next time that hopefully the whole clan will be able to get together since summer of 2005.

We hope you all had wonderful days with your family and are returning back safely to your own homes.

Cruising and No More Yucky Cells

Charlotte is officially cruising. She's edging along furniture and even did a handoff from the ottoman to the coffee table. Pretty exciting! She's my youngest to start doing this so far...at not quite 10 months. I predict she'll be walking before her first birthday.

For those who have been praying about my "skin issues" I got my results this morning when I had my stitches removed. They removed all of the mutating cells the first time and my second biopsy was clean. Yeah! Praise God! (From whom all blessings flow.) I will have to go back in six months to do another check and then after that it should be every year. Thank you for your prayers and your thoughts. :)

I had a great time last night at The Cheesecake Factory. I just wasn't in the cheesecake mood...I was really in the mood for steak, but settled on fries. I also brought my dear husband home a piece of their chocolate peanut butter cookie dough cheesecake. He's had a hard past week and needed a little pick me up.

Remember me tomorrow as I cook the turkey and I will also send prayers your way. Here's wishes for a happy day and yummy food. Happy Thanksgiving!

Standing Up and Falling Down

My have had an "interesting" last few days. We celebrated Aaron's birthday on Wednesday...35 years now. Charlotte started pulling herself up to a standing position...which by itself has created a bit of strain on her and the mommy. While I am glad for her new abilities and it promises of wonderful new things to come, it's difficult right now because she can't seem to get down once she's gotten up. It's almost like she's frozen in place. This will happen during nap time and in the middle of the night. Thankfully, she is getting better at pulling herself up and looks a little less like someones been beating her. Well, at least until she does actually start to walk.

Wednesday afternoon I took Abby in for her two year check up. She's doing everything and more that you should be doing at 2 years old. She is by far the best baby at the doctor's office so far. Anna starts crying as soon as we go back in the office while Abby has always been such a good little soldier through all the poking and prodding they do.

The ridge that Abby had on the back of her head has finally been identified and will soon be fixed. Because the injury was caused by hitting her head on a window, we were naturally concerned that there would be glass in one of the wounds. I stood over the attending ER doctor like a hawk while he checked each section to make certain there was no glass and he assured me that there wasn't and stapled the wounds closed. A couple of months later there was a ridge and ultimately something poky feeling at the end of it. Surprise, surprise...we've got a piece of glass about the size of a raisin in poor Abby's head. The ridge was caused from where the glass entered and tunneled through trying to get out. We'll be going to a pediatric surgeon on December 2nd for a consult and possible removal of the glass, so we'll keep you posted.

I've been doing a lot of baking here the last few days as well. Aaron wanted an apple pie on his actual birthday since we would be celebrating with family during the weekend. I've made probably 20 apple pies in my life thus far and each has been with a different recipe. I've yet to find one that I really like...my sister does make a good apple pie now that I think about it...Hmmm. Note to Amy: send me your apple pie recipe.

I also made Aaron a spice cake with cream cheese frosting for the party with his family. I hope he likes it because he's not gonna have any Sarah help eating it. Cream cheese frosting...yuck!

I made Monkey Bread on Saturday morning which was a big hit. I will only make this maybe two or three times a year because it is so rich and so sweet, but Aaron especially likes it because it reminds him of a Hungarian Nut Roll that his mother made when he was growing up.

Over the weekend we also came down with colds. All three of the girls are snotting green and slightly wheezy sounding, but probably just from their stuffy noses. No fevers or anything and they do seem to be doing better today, so hopefully they'll be gone soon.

Aaron had to work all weekend which was a bummer. It would be nicer if we had more space, because I don't know how he got anything done with all these children making all the noise that they make just walking down the hallway even. I'm glad that he'll have Thursday and Friday off.

I'm also looking forward to going out with some friends a couple of times this week. If my kiddos don't get more sicky or transfer it to the mama, I'm planning on going to The Cheesecake Factory tomorrow night with a small group of MOPS mommies. Then Friday, maybe, going out and doing a little shopping with a friend. Yeah!

I'm supposed to get my stitches out on Wednesday and then of course Thanksgiving! Not a terribly busy week in the life of a mom, but we're looking forward to it. Hope you all will have great holidays with your peeps and stay safe if you're traveling. :)

Laundry Soap

A couple of weeks ago I ran out of laundry soap and instead of going out and buying another gigantisauras box of soap from the store, I decided to try making my own. I did a bit of research into stain lifters, laundry boosters and the cost associated with it and jumped forward. Overall, we were very pleased with the results and will keep on making it. Here is the recipe that we used and the information that came with it.

16 cups water
1 Bar of Fels Naptha Bar Soap
1 Cup Washing Soda
1 1/2 Cups Borax

"Use Stainless Steel or Enamel Pan. Bring water to boil and turn off heat. Grate up soap bar with cheese grater, add to water and stir until dissolved. (I used the stainless steel and it dissolved and set up much faster than my mom's did in the enamel pan.) Stir in Washing Soda and Borax. Stir every 30 minutes until it becomes thick. Completely cool and pour in a storage container.

*Use 1/2 cup per load.
*OK for front loaders.
*Stirring is very important.

You can use Ivory Soap or any other brand you like. The Fels Naptha is all I have tried as it is for stain treatment on clothes in the bar form. It is a fairly large bar of soap and my mom said her friend made the batch using only 1/2 a bar and it worked great. I am going to try 1/2 bar Fels Naptha and 1/2 bar of Ivory in my next batch. This will save even more money."

I read other people were making the same recipe and added an extra gallon of water to it and it worked fine. It does make a very thick gel soap.

My Brother-in-Law Bill

For those of you who don't already know, Aaron's brother, Bill, serving in Mosul, Iraq, was severely wounded when a uniformed Iraqi officer fired into a crowd of soldiers. Two men were killed and six were wounded. He is now here in the states at Walter Reed Hospital in DC. Bill was shot at least five times and sustained multiple injuries. He will have 12 weeks minimum rehabilitation time and has already gone through many surgeries. We thank God that Bill is alive and ask you to pray for his healing on all levels. His wife and parents are out there with him.

I'm pasting the latest update from Bob (Aaron's Dad) below.

"Dear Family,We are on our third day at Walter Reed. The Washington, DC area hotels are booked for some convention, or perhaps due to the upcoming inauguration -- in any event, they have put us up in the Navy Lodge at Bethesda Naval Base, which is not too far away, but a bit inconvenient, even though we have been provided free shuttle service.Bill was in surgery most of the day yesterday. It turns out that a lot of the information we got from the Army early on was incomplete or just plain wrong. As we reported earlier, Bill was shot at least 5 times. We don't know how many shots hit his body armor. According the surgeon who operated on Bill yesterday, the shot to his right leg shattered his femur about 4 inches above the knee. They implanted a titanium bar inside the two halves of the bone, and secured it with screws. New bone tissue will grow around this rod, which will remain in his leg for life. He has a huge and deep open wound on the front of his thigh, which will not be closed up for some time. They have installed a WoundVAC device (vacuum assisted closure) to keep the would clean and free of infection until the healing process begins. Eventually they will sew it up. He took another shot in his right hip that fractured his pelvis. That fracture does not require surgery, but it will take a while before it can bear weight.Then there was another shot in his left hip that hit his other femur just under the hip joint - they call it the femoral neck. This is actually the most serious fracture, because sometimes, if not treated correctly, the knob at the top of the bone will die. They pulled out the temporary steel pins that were installed at the field hospital, and replaced them with three stainless steel screws. He won't be able to bear weight on this for at least 12 weeks, and possibly as long as 5 months. A woundVac is also implanted in this wound.Yet another shot, in his right hip fractured his pelvis. This will require no particular treatment. There is a fragment of bullet metal near this fracture will remain there.He took a shot through his right arm near the elbow, but fortunately, it did not hit any bone and inflicted only minor nerve damage, from which he should fully recover. Another bullet hit his left him, pretty well shattering his middle finger. Yesterday, they undid the stitches and bone setting that had been done in the field, and more or less rebuilt it. They said they were going to call in a hand specialist.In addition to the stapled 10" incision running from his sternum to just below his navel, he also has two huge incisions on his right shin - one in back and the other in front, each about 10" long. Nobody seems to know why. He may have been hit there too, but no information on this came from theatre. He also suffered a "spinous process fracture" to his lower back. It should be okay.Bill will be an impatient here for probably a month, or so, and then will require many months of therapy to get him back up on his feet. That may happen here, in Texas, or perhaps somewhere in the Midwest.All in all, I am very much impressed with the quality of care he is receiving here, and they are treating us like a million bucks. We are confident he will come through fine -- he's got a great attitude, and is otherwise in great physical condition.Thank-you all, for your prayers, thoughts, and best wishes. I will keep you posted as I have opportunities to get on-line. As it is, my access is limited -- no wireless, or public connections are available. Rob. I have limited internet access here. Please forward this message to your brothers, and sisters-in-law. I have Mary's and Grandma's address committed to memory. - Bob"

Back to Blogging

I know I've been off of here for a couple of weeks and I have no better excuse than computers seem to be making me vomit. But, it's also the couch, the kitchen, the laundry and my children's toys. I can't seem to escape it. Hopefully, now that I'm almost out of my first trimester things will get easier. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Also on the baby front, we had our first OB appt last week and were able to hear the heartbeat after a few tries and it sounded really good. I'm always a little nervous until I hear the heartbeat that first time. Really, I'm always a little nervous in the back of my mind until the baby is born. Okay, maybe until they are about six months old...Shoot, I'm always a little nervous about my babies.

Speaking of my babies...Charlotte is starting to pull herself up on things and falling down. She has a nice little bruise on her forehead. She is also adding to her technological advancements and is able to spin the dial on the stereo speaker box thingy. This is now her new favorite thing to do.

Abby turned two last week and this morning I looking at her and realized she had a neck. Not just any neck...a little girl neck. She's still a bit on the short side, but she's definitely growing up. SOB SOB. She is also speaking more clearly. Abby took forever to say anything and then she would just babble non-stop and now she has conversations with anyone who is willing to listen. It's actually pretty neat. She'll have her two year old check-up tomorrow and also a check on her head. We'll keep you posted.

Anna has grown as well. She is now tall enough for the clothes that she has been wearing for the last six months. No more rolling up of the cuffs. She is officially average in height. Yeah! I always wanted to be average in height. Oh, well. But, something exciting on that front...my OB's office wanted to measure my height and I was 5'3". Can I just say...YEAH!! For the last ten years, I have thought myself to be 5'2" and to hear that I am a WHOLE inch taller is so cool. It may mean nothing to any of you tall people out there, but to me its nice. :)

Aaron has been working hard and helped me clean up our room over the weekend. Very nice of him. Aaron's 35th birthday is also tomorrow..."Happy Birthday, my loafer." Send him a note if you think about it.

I'm also starting a writing class tonight that I'm pretty excited about. We'll see how it goes.

We're going to get more regular on this again, so look for more updates soon.

The Election

I cannot possible tell you how happy I am that it is all over and decided. Politics have strained us and angered us so much lately...we just really need a break from it all, and the three months until the inauguration might help us out. :)

Most of the people who know me, know I wouldn't, couldn't vote for Obama, even though I was confident that he would be elected. I am not excited about "Change," but fearful about what those changes might be. I worry about the rights that I hold dear and my ability to hold on to them for both my family and myself.

These things I know...I know that God is ultimately still on the thrown and that He is the one who sets up leaders and takes them down. He has given to us a spirit of peace and not of fear.

I would just encourage you to be watchful and leave you with a couple of quotes by Edmund Burke that people often pull out for such occasions as these. :)

"The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts."

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

A House for the Pooch and Carving Pumpkins

Here we have the beautiful Molly-dog surveying her domain while lounging on the stoop(My idear...Aaron wasn't going to put one on. How can you not have a stoop. I mean really? A dogs gotta be able to survey, right?) of her lovely new dog house, handcrafted by Aaron.

It took several evenings and a few weekends, many trips to the hardware store, but now it's complete and Molly has her new heavily insulated doghouse to protect her from the elements. It was Aaron's first doghouse, but I must say it is a spectacular effort. He even had some leftover house paint for it, so it matches our house, too. :)

Ooooohhhh!!! Sssooooo Ssspppooookkkyy! Here are our Halloween pumpkins for this year...there are only two, because the Halloween rules strictly state that one must be walking before one gets one's first pumpkin. So, next year, Charlotte. Aaron and I got all the seeds out and I cleaned the seeds while Aaron carved the faces into the pumpkins. This is my first year to toast the seeds on my own and I think they were okay...even though Abby is the only one that wanted to eat any and she's just sucking the ummy stuff off the outside. Oh, well. Fun thing I noticed this year...Aaron calls the cut out stem thing-y a hat and I call it a top. Hmmm. Wonder what our girls will call them. Maybe top hats?

My Pack Rat and My Keys

Another sign that Abby is just like me...she too is a pack rat. Oh, I am much better than I used to be mind you. Waaaaaay better. But, I suppose it was the various pieces of chip bags that my mother found in my room that eventually led her to believe that I had a problem. "But, they're so pretty! Please, Mommy, don't throw them away!"

Abby is just a baby pack rat. She has two locations in which she stores her "stuff." One is the right cabinet in my bench...only in the right, because Mama stores her "stuff" in the left. Hey, I'm better, but it's a process. Don't judge me! The other location is the cabinets in the TV stand. Usually if anything is missing, that's where it will be. Anna's shoes that were missing for three days turned up there.

Well, now we are missing my set of keys. House key, car key, various shopping tags and other things I may or may not use on a daily basis. I searched the normal spots. I only keep them in one or two spots...okay...three or four. Okay, maybe I do lay them down wherever when I walk in the door. Yes, I'm a mess. Don't judge me!

I searched in Abby's normal spots and while I did find the cake server, I have yet to find the keys. I'm hoping they turn up soon. Please. That would be nice. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to clean the house in a deeper fashion than I am normally want to do. That, to me, is almost a fate worse than death. I like all women, I think, when there is no one but them around, find it soothing to organize and clean, but children and a husband around always seem to put me completely out of the cleaning mood. Hmmm.

Anyway, pray that I can find the keys after I clean our bathroom, but before the garage. :)

Busy, Busy

We here in the Greenwood home have been pretty busy the last few days, but thankfully, to make it a little easier, Aaron had Wednesday through Friday off. Tuesday Charlotte and I continued on our "merry" way with some colds that thankfully didn't really seem to hit the others too badly. Charlotte, finally, over this past weekend, became a little closer to her normal giggly, wonderful, baby self. You know, this is such a case in point for not knowing how good something is until it's gone. Charlotte is such a wonderful baby normally, but when she doesn't feel good, she completely changes into whine-y, angry, mutant baby.

Speaking of Charlotte, she had her nine month well baby check on Thursday. She weighed in at almost 22 pounds and 28 inches long. She's following the older girls on weight, and looks to be following Abby into the land of the petite...my gift to them along with the curly hair. :)

Those of you who were wondering how my second round with the dermatologist went...They removed more flesh from one of the areas of concern and are sending it in for more testing. For those of you I haven't told about my skin "issues" it's nothing to really be worried about. I had a couple of patches of skin that were looking like they were changing and I felt the need to get it checked out. Thankfully, I did it when I did, because they definitely were "changing." The cells that they removed were mutating, precancerous cells...mutating into what would have become malignant melanoma. Lesson to learn here...know your body and own your medical care. Hopefully, that's the end of that story.

There is a lot more to tell about our busy week and some great pictures to post. Stay Tuned. :)

Feeling Good and Saving Money

I am now eight weeks pregnant and the "beginning bloat" seems to be leaving. If you've had children before you know what I'm talking about. It's similar to menstrual bloating, but about 100, thousand, million times worse...okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but it's worse. It's especially worse when you've got the morning sickness crap to go along with it. (Note to self: STOP saying "crap." Anna says it when she's upset..."Oh, Crap!")

There is a lot going on in the baby making department. This week, we're growing hands and feet...so fingers and toes. How exciting is that? Just based on where I am in the pregnancy, I can guess about what's happening to the baby. Also at eight weeks, I am 20% done with this pregnancy. I like that figure better than saying I'm eight weeks or 2 months pregnant. 20% done. Yeah!!

A note to people who might be wondering about the IUPUI thing...I found out Saturday that I was accepted. We're just waiting to hear about how my credits transferred and what all I need to do to finish my degree. So, that's exciting!

We're also looking to shave off some of our expenses so that we can pay off and pay down some of our expenses. We're doing small things that will add up in the long run. One thing that we started doing this weekend, and I don't know why we weren't doing it already, was giving up wipes at home. My mother didn't use wipes for the kids in our house and it really hadn't occurred to me how much we were using and how expensive they are. I figured out that we were using about a box (8 count refill box) or more of wipes per month...which works out to about 150 dollars a year.

It may not seem like a lot, but it adds up in the end and its a lot of extra waste. I mean...how often do I just grab a handful of wipes to clean up a mess, wipe a nose or to clean off a sneaker. Honestly...these are all things that I could be doing with reusable cloths. Which is what we're switching to. I was able to buy 24 soft-ish washcloths for 5 dollars. This may just be in the experiment stage for now, but I think this is something that we could switch to. Anyway, it's a first step.

There are other things that are on the horizon for us...changes that we'll be making to make certain that we're living more frugally...not just to save ourselves money, but ultimately as an example to our children and to enable us to be more giving to others.

Any ideas that you have to pass on to cut expenses or things that have helped you to be live frugally with what God has blessed you with would be great to learn. :)

Well...

Perhaps my "worst pregnancy day ever" was not just morning sickness, but compounded by a stomach virus which, unfortunately my children picked up. Charlotte was fussy last night, but we thought that she was just being baby fussy or perhaps getting some teeth. Anyway, we were awakened early to crying and vomiting. Abby doesn't seem to be touched by it yet and is acting pretty normally, so we'll see.

Anna has the bucket with her that I was moving around with me on Wednesday. She's took a nice nap this morning and I hope to get her to take another one this afternoon.

Needless to say, our plans for tonight and this weekend will have to be cancelled, but we hope to reschedule. Pray for us that this all passes quickly and that Abby and Aaron aren't affected.

Whoa.

Yesterday was a rough one. Perhaps one of the roughest pregnancy days yet. Every smell was awful. Even morning toast. Thankfully, my dear hubby came home early and I was able to take it easy for the remainder of the day. I skipped my normal Wednesday workout, but I'm sure my workout buddies appreciated my not puking on them. :)

I'm feeling much better today. Which is good, because I need to prepare for a ladies night in at my house tomorrow. I have to go grocery shopping and at least clean the bathroom in the hall today. I'm pretty sure I know what I'll be making and I'll post some of the recipes HERE on my recipe blog.

Aaron and I are also having a night away on Saturday, thank you, Mary Jo, and I've got some things to plan for that.

Update on the family...Charlotte is becoming more expert with her crawling, which makes her the youngest full on crawler we've had yet, but certainly not as daring as her older sister Abby. We'll see. For those of you who were worried about Abby's head...the ridge does seem to be going down...which follows the doctor's diagnosis of it just being a scar/hematoma that needed more time to heal from her accident this Summer. Anna has recently fallen in love with all things "Sleeping Beauty." I think she's even more enamored with it because she has a cousin named Aurora, too. Aaron's been working hard at both work and home. He's been so helpful around the house and doing more than his fair share of chores during this morning sickness period that we're going through. He's made some progress on Molly's doghouse that we hope to have completely finished before too much longer. As for Molly, she has completely changed from the little pup she was and is now a large fluff ball. It's amazing how smart she is, already mastering the basic commands, but she, being so smart, hates the leash. We're working on it though and hopefully, she'll begin to enjoy some walks.

That's just a short update on all of us. I hope to post over the weekend with pictures and such about tomorrow night

A Beating Heart

Last week, I received a gift. I believe I received it when I did for a reason. I wasn't feeling very well and was laying down. I felt almost a jolt in my stomach and then a thump-thump where I was laying on my belly. The thump-thump continued and I just laid there marveling for a long time. I don't know if you've figured it out, but I believe that it was my babies heart beginning to beat. Needless to say, it was a remarkable feeling and one that I'll cherish, but I'm especially thankful for the timing.

I sort of lurk on a young mother's forum and last Wednesday a woman posted that her boyfriend left her. She went on to say that she caught him cheating, they already had one child together and that she was almost 7 weeks pregnant. She shared a very sad story about how she was the primary caregiver for her child and now the only one contributing financially. She ended by saying that she couldn't possibly support another child alone, but that she wasn't going to ask the man back into her life, he didn't know about the new baby, and was going to abort her child. She later posted that she had had the "procedure" and that other than feeling hollow, she was fine.

I ached over this and was probably thinking about it when I was given a new pouring of love for my own baby. I praised God for his creation of this baby and all babies. I know that everything happens for a reason. Someday, that woman's story and the conversation it started in that forum may go on to touch another life and perhaps even stop another senseless death. God is the ultimate giver and taker of life. He is still on the throne.

Blah.

Sorry I missed posting on Friday. It's not that I haven't had things to talk about...Abortion, Patrick Henry's crazy wife, over medicating our children...these are all things that have touched me since Wednesday. But, unfortunately, something else has touched me especially hard since Wednesday as well. Morning sickness and I are likethis with each other right now. I am on the verge of getting sick on you at this very moment. I am especially sensitive to eggs and beef...Aaron, bless his heart, made eggs for breakfast...and I, fool that I am, made Swiss steak for dinner.

And yet, I am starving. I feel the need to eat right now while I am holding down dinner. I am also cutting out caffeine. Yes, this does include my cokes. Argh!

So, stay with me and we'll get through this together. I'll try to keep my dry heaves to myself and keep mentions of vomit brief. You can do your part and try not to laugh at my prego brain or the fact that I've put my daughter's shoes on the wrong feet every single time I've put them on her this week.

I'm going to try to keep up my normal posting days, but there may be days when I just have to skip, because a nap seems more important. I know we'll get through this. Yes, I already said that, but I think if I say something often enough I can make myself believe it. :)

Charlotte is Crawling and Finding Trouble

Charlotte is now crawling more than she is rolling; her last reliable form of travel...her first, of course, being the mama. :) She is proving to be more capable, at her young age, of finding trouble than either of her sisters were. Yesterday alone, she discovered the basket of diapers, the wipe box and how to open it and also the DVD player and, get this, how to OPEN IT! She has been pushing the open button over and over. This is now her new favorite toy.

I think the crawling stage of the game is probably the most difficult of the baby training months. She now has to learn what is off limits and the babies most hated word. "NO!" :)

Contemplating my Joy and my Pregnancy Hormones

"Joy is the best makeup."~Anne Lamott

Hormones have been driving me, and everyone around me I'm sure, crazy for the last couple of weeks. I'm angry and then weepy at the drop of a hat. I'm tired and then pulsing with energy. I'm starving and then dying of hunger. Well, I guess that's not so very different, but you get the point.

Whether or not it seems like it, my life has never been so full of joy. I have everything I could ever possibly want or desire. My children and husband are healthy and happy.

There have been times when I went through bouts of depression. Who doesn't? Someone once told me that happiness, like any emotion, is a choice. But, I don't really think that these hormonal emotion changes are things I can choose to experience or not. They are direct results of the new little life growing inside of me and there really is not much I can do about them, but apologize. So again, to all those out there that I have offended already, I'm sorry. To those I haven't seen in the last couple of weeks, I apologize in advance, because, dude, I know it's coming your way, too. :)

Winter Days

This was in yesterday's paper and it reminded me that too soon we would once again be homebound and STUCK INSIDE because of the weather. We'll have to find activities to keep the kiddos entertained or they will drive the mama crazy!

We'll paint, make cookies, play with blocks and playdough. Which reminds me, I need to get a good recipe for making our own playdough again. Thankfully, Abby and Anna are playing more together and keeping each other entertained and this in turn keeps Charlotte entertained. She loves to watch her sisters. I can hardly wait until next summer when they'll all three be running around with each other. :)

C.S. Lewis and Bibliophilia

I am slowly working my way through "Surprised by Joy" by C.S. Lewis. It's not that I'm not finding it interesting or well-written, but it requires so much "real" attention that I cannot just casually read it. So ,eventually, I'll finish it and move on to another book in my stack. Next is "James and the Giant Peach." :)

A short side note, when I read C.S. Lewis...I just discovered this...the narrator in my head is Anthony Hopkins. Which could be another reason that it's taking so long...Anthony Hopkins is a slow reader. :) Why would Anthony Hopkins be the narrator? Well, quite simply because he played C.S. Lewis in Shadowlands...great movie by the way if you haven't seen it.

The last chapter I just completed in "Surprised by Joy," Lewis speaks about a couple of things that he learned from a friend he had as a boy. One of these things is a respect for the body of a book.

"One other thing that Arthur taught me was to love the bodies of books. I had always respected them. My brother and I might cut stepladders without scruple; to have thumb-marked or dog's-eared a book would have filled us with shame. But Arthur did not merely respect, he was enamored; and soon, I too. The set up of the page, the feel and smell of the paper, the differing sounds that different papers make as you turn the leaves, became sensuous delights. This revealed to me a flaw in Kirk (a headmaster, aka Knock). How often have I shuddered when he took a new classical text of mine in his gardener's hands, bent back the boards till they creaked, and left his sign on every page.

"Yes, I remember," said my father. "That was old Knock's one fault."

"A bad one," said I.

"An all but unforgivable one," said my father. "

I have always had a respect for books themselves...Unless you are truly a book lover you do not know the pleasure that can be given when one touches a book and hears that first crack of the binding and that clean paper smell. A bibliophile...A lover of books.

This person is often a collector of books; regardless of their topic. I have several beautiful old books that I purchased at book sales simply because of the cover of the book or the texture of the paper. It's almost as though it were an addiction, an illness at the very least. My personal book collection was well over a thousand volumes right before I married Aaron. Sadly, there was simply no way to keep them all and many were sold or donated. But, over the course of our marriage I know our collection will grow. Hopefully, our children will respect and cherish them as much as we do and they will be passed on.

A little quote to share that kind of summed up my attitude about books in college. "If I have a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes." Erasmus.

What's in a Name?

Here are some name ideas, and the meanings, that we're throwing around for the new baby. Any input would be appreciated.

We've pretty much had the boy name picked out for a while, so there are fewer choices there:

Aaron-mountain of strength
Thomas-twin
Timothy-God's honor

We wouldn't call the baby Aaron, but he would go by his middle name.

Girls names, we've narrowed down to two, but there are a few names that we also like very much by themselves:

Rebecca-to bind
Lynne-pretty

Emily-industrious, striving
Louise-renowned fighter (go figure)

Juliet-youthful, God's child
Isabel-God's promise
Ada, Adele-noble

Our Oldest Girl Turns Three

Anna Katherine Greenwood was born 3 years ago today; at 5:26am to be precise. With 28 hours of labor, after my water broke, she was stubborn even then. Her stubbornness may be one of her defining characteristics and the one that most closely ties her to her father. She is the child that made us parents in every stretch of the word.

We both had already made it through the worst of college studies with sleepless nights, but it was Anna who first showed us what real sleeplessness was like. We didn't know babies could cry so much or require so much. The first night she slept through, I remember waking up with a start and thinking, surely something has happened to her. We celebrated by making biscuits and gravy. :) Never have I been so concerned about someones sleep or breathing. We'd tip-toe in just to check to make certain she was still breathing. She was such a precious gift, so other-worldly, so fragile. I knew there was nothing I had done to deserve her and sometimes I felt that she was a dream that could just disappear.

I remember the times that I would hold her long after she had fallen asleep and I myself should have been in bed. Her little lashes against her cheek, the lace-y network of veins across her eyelids. The small birthmark just outside the corner of her left eye. Her cheeks, so full that they almost folded in on her lips. The little ears with the dent in the lobes. The wisps of red-tinted hair that would eventually grow into her long blond curls.

Our first-born is three and I can't believe how fast the time has gone. She has grown into a child that loves books and learning. She is ever watchful and likes to mimic her mama in many things; from talking on the phone to laundry and cooking...she even has her own notebook to "write" in with lines of scribble. Her tender spirit shows her to be caring of others outside of herself. Her laugh is full and makes me laugh. She has brought a fullness to our lives and is the perfect big sister. She is the one that God had planned for our family since before we were a family. I thank Him for her and can't imagine life without her.

Happy third birthday, Anna!

Some New Fangled Hamburgers

We tried a new burger recipe last night to use up some Feta cheese that was beyond good. I made a post about it on my recipe blog for those of you who'd appreciate the recipe.

Pregnant and Sneaking Chocolate Cake

Well, if you didn't already figure it out from Friday's picture...we're pregnant. The official due date would be June 8th. Another baby. Boy or Girl, either would be a blessing. We're very excited and already planning ahead for next summer. There is, of course, the possibility that we would still be here when the baby is born, so we'll have to figure out the logistics of that. I know we could do it, but hopefully we won't have to.

I've started having more pregnancy symptoms. Nausea and cravings. Yesterday, Aaron made breakfast, eggs with some sausage. Argh! I don't think anything ever smelled so bad. I'm sure it was lovely, but it sent my stomach turning.

With the nausea also comes the cravings. The sibs and Kelly went out last night for some dessert; Robert's back in town. My angel of a husband brought home some chocolate cake...that sounds so small compared to what it was. You can't just call it "chocolate cake." For this was the mother of all chocolate cakes with fudge icing and chocolate chips and chunks. My goodness. Mmmm. Anyway, I couldn't eat it last night because it was so late when Aaron came back with it. I shoot, you know I could have inhaled that thing, but I knew I'd regret it later, so I used my will power to wait until today.

Well, all morning it was calling to me, "Saaarrrraaahhhh. Saaarraahh. Come to the fridge. Oh, yes. Open the take out box. Mmmm. Don't I look nummy?" I couldn't eat it this morning, because like all children, my children have super sonic hearing when it comes to Mommy eating anything wonderful and gooey that they aren't sharing in. There was no sneaking bites, but I still feel slightly sinful, because I ate it while I sat in the dark, in the dining room while Anna was napping on the couch 10 feet away. Mmmm. Somehow it tasted better. :)

News!

Starting a Recipe Blog

My friend, Lori, has a recipe blog that she co-writes with her sister and mother. They all submit recipes to it from time to time. I think this might be a colorful way to blog with pictures even of some of our favorite, time-tested family recipes. So, family...if this is something you'd be interested in...let me know and I'll add you in as a writer.

The url is: whatsonyourtable.blogspot.com

I've been playing around with it for a little bit and think I've got it set up, so feel free to check it out. :)

Experimenting with Some New Layouts

You may notice some "subtile" changes here on the blog. :) I'm experimenting with some new layouts from a free service until I find one that I really like. So, it may be different every time you see it for a while. :)

We're Back!

Here are some pictures and captions first in no particular order...I'm still having trouble figuring out the picture uploader, so this post isn't very organized. :)

Poor Abby spiked a temperature of 103 while we were there and the only thing that really made her feel better was mama. This made me feel nice even though Abby didn't feel good, becasue she is such a daddy's girl. Thankfully, with the help of tylenol and a cool bath she seemed to be back to her old self by the next day.
Anna didn't get even a smidgen of sickness while we were there...nothing really slowed her down at all. Although, all the girls slept really well. The second their heads hit the pillows...out.

My sister, Amy...the oldest of our brood. She likes to refer to herself as "OCD": Obsessive Cleaning Disorder. It is amazing to me how immaculent her home was...how organized, clean and clutter-free. Growing up with her, it used to annoy me to no end, but now I admire her for her capabilities as a wife and mother, handling each of the hurdles that have come her way, calmly and with Grace...capital "G" because I know that it comes from God. It's one of her many gifts.

Alexis and Raegan...both of them are "hams." Every time I took the camera out, they were ready to have their picture taken. :)

Anna, all "dolled-up."

This picture has an interesting story behind it...I'm not sure where they got the idea, but Raegan played the part of the manacurist and was giving pedicures. She even put on the little gloves. Here Raegan is doing Anna's pedicure for her night on the town to look nice with her peep-toe pumps. Of course with five girls they had lots of dress up stuff that Anna loved.

Here we have the "big kids" eating lunch together. Feeding time was always a production.

Abby and Ashleigh. They're only six weeks apart and are SO much alike it was scary. They even scream alike...although, and I'm sure Amy would agree with me, Ashleigh's screams are at an octave that Abby has yet to manage. Here they are bathing together, after finding trouble together...I think this time was dirt from the garden. :)

The twins, Ryley and Sydney or Sydney and Ryley. I have no idea which one is which. They were confirmed as identical this summer and although Amy says she can tell them apart, I certainly have no idea how. It must be one of those mommy super-powers of hers.

I think this might be the only picture of all of the girls together.

We're newly back from spending just over a week with my sister's family in Arkansas. It was a new kind of experience for all of us. From the above picture, you can tell that my sister, Amy, has five girls. So, there were EIGHT girls, FOUR AND UNDER in one house. Surprisingly, I think it went very well. Charlotte and the twins, Sydney and Ryley were in the nursery together in a crib and pack-n-play. Amy's older girls, Alexis, Raegan and Ashleigh, already share a bedroom, and Aaron, Me, Anna and Abby shared what is usually the playroom.

Getting there was an adventure all on it's own. We decided that it would be easier on everyone if we drove through the night, so we left around 7:30pm on Friday(the 19th). The girls did really pretty well. Aaron and I took turns driving; each of us drove about half of the 615 miles it took to get there. We arrived just after 4am (Their time) on Saturday, and waited until almost five before waking our hosts. How thoughtful of us, huh? :) We ended up leaving Arkansas mid-day so that we would have Sunday to sort of rest up before the beginning of another work-week. Out of both times leaving, I think I prefer driving through the night. Even though we did seem to pick up a stomach bug that had some vomiting on the way home.

All the cousins were able to spend so much time together and were so tuckered out, I think it may take a week for them to fully recover. :) Amy and I were also able to spend some one on one time together preparing for the yard sale that they had while we were there. I think they made over 500 dollars on their sale getting rid of a great deal of stuff. We also attended a ladies luncheon "of sorts." If nothing else it was extremely enjoyable to listen to the musicality of the southern accent. :) Aaron and Drew even managed to squeeze in a little talk time and even had a "man-date" with Aaron advising on the purchase of a new PC which he got to spend an afternoon putting together. Amy kindly also arranged for two babysitters so that we could have an adults only night out.

Aaron and I were able to enjoy some quiet times on our own as well. Aaron got some writing done and we both were able to do some leisurly reading.

Overall, it was a great vacation and I think we could handle all the kiddos in our house the next time they come up here. We could work it out. Anyways, I think I've just about got my sister to agree to come up here and help me purge for our Spring garage sale before we begin the process of moving.

It was such a wonderful week and reminded me how much I miss my sister and her family and can't hardly wait until they live closer. I'm crossing my fingers for Kentucky. :)

Starting Vacation...Off to Arkansas!

After our morning I MOPS, I feverishly packed and cleaned for the two sweet hours of naptime. I have now packed everything. Aaron is "napping." I say "napping" because while he has been "napping" he has eaten a chicken burrito, gone to the bathroom twice, gotten water twice, laid down for about 15 minutes and checked his email. I think he's as excited as I am. Like a kid on Christmas Eve.

Hopefully, the driving goes well and we should arrive at my sister's home sometime early tomorrow morning. I can't wait!

Due to vacation there may be fewer posts, but who knows. I'll update when I can. Bye for now!

A Mommy Super-Power

I am often amazed at the wonders of the human body and mind and the capabilities of both. Last night, I was in a wonderfully deep sleep. I don't know exactly what it was, but at one point during the night, somebody called out/ cried out...whatever. Immediately all the mommy radars went into effect and I leaped from my bed. With speed and leaping skills that would have been impressive by anyone's standards, I found myself standing in the hallway outside my girl's rooms...my quiet girl's rooms I might add.

I am amazed because in my sleep I imagined a child was crying and was immediately awake and alert. Not only that, but in my rush I did not once stumble on my way to their room. Even though our bedroom is an obstacle course right now because of all the packing I'm doing. I think that God has given these special gifts to mothers; the ability to be instantly alert and athletic simultaneously. I'm not so certain that fathers possess this gift, or if they do perhaps they don't cultivate it enough to realize it's existence. :)

Getting Ready to Go

Getting ready to go anywhere with three small children is an adventure. You have to think through every possible situation that could go wrong and plan accordingly. So can you imagine how you must plan and plan and pack and pack for a 10 day, 10 hour drive, trip to Arkansas? Whoosh. I could just pack all of their stuff...every toy, book and piece of clothing they own. I think that would be quicker. Oh, and on top of that...two of my children are beginning potty training. Should I pack the potty chair for emergency stops in the car? Hmmm.

I must remember the double stroller and the umbrella stroller. What about the exersaucer? Hmmm. Will 45 diapers be enough for each child? What about 4 packages of wipes? The good thing is that we'll be staying with my sister, who has a washer and dryer and extra diapers and wipes should we run out. Plus, since we're going to the "land of Wal-mart," diapers and wipes won't be that far away.

I should call Dad and see if they have anything that they're planning on shipping down to Arkansas so I can save them some postage...43 cents for a stamp...goodness. Mom's sending a box with us. Hope I don't forget it.

What did they do in the days of covered wagons? Do you think that the mamas back then worried about things the way that mamas of today worry about them? Worried about entertaining their children so that they didn't cry the whole way? I'm talking about the mamas and the chilen's. What if they ran out of clean nappies before they got to a creek bed that would work to clean 'em up. Gosh...I can't even imagine.

Pray for me as I pack up our family over the next couple of days. Pray that I won't forget anything and that we'll be in good spirits and cooperative with each other. We'll be leaving around bedtime on Friday night; hoping that driving through the night will give us the best chance for having friendly babies for such a long drive.

My "Actor's Studio" Interview Questions

I think I'm pretty normal girl-y in my fascination with creative types and those who work in the performing arts fields. There is a pretty well-known program on BRAVO where the host, James Lipton, interviews actors from all genres. After his interview he asks these same questions. After yesterdays post, I thought it'd be fun to answer them for you all and if you wanted, you could answer them, too, in the comment box.

What is your favorite word? Ignominious, superfluous and hyperbole

What is your least favorite word? Stupid

What turns you on? Laughter

What turns you off? Chewing on fingernails or dead skin. Uckies.

What sound or noise do you love? Laughter from my children...Mama.

What sound or noise do you hate? Screeching of any kind...nails on chalkboard, rubbing on a balloon, the sound Styrofoam makes when it's handled.

What profession other than yours would you like to attempt? Actor, Lawyer, Writer or Research Scientist.

What profession would you most not want to participate in? Doctor or the guys that pumps the sewage.

What is your favorite curse word? I've kind of made my own...She-ite.

If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? Here's your key to your house...sorry, but I'm afraid you're going to have to share with one, Aaron Greenwood. :)