Ready!

I finally finished Lilli's painting. I kept adding and covering and touching up until I finally just gave up and called it "finished!" Still not completely satisfied with it, but if I'm being honest I would have to say that I just don't care as much about the nursery as I did the first go around. When I was having Taelyn I felt like her nursery had to be perfect. I think because I didn't know what the joy of actually having the baby would be like and the room was something tangible that I could prepare for. However, this time around I know what to expect. And I have to say that I am much more excited about getting the actually baby out of her current living quarters and into our house!! The nursery has been in the back of my mind this entire pregnancy. She has bedding, a place to change/store diapers and clothing. And a glider rocker. We are set. And I am ready - physically and mentally! So... not as concerned with a Pottery Barn look-a-like for a nursery this time. This is a picture of the painting.

This weekend I am going on a women's retreat with my church. I am really excited about it. Hopefully getting away for a day and immersing myself in God's word and surrounding myself with His people will rejuvinate me! I am pretty worn out mentally and physically at this point.

Did I mention that tomorrow is my last day of teaching... not just for this school year... but for awhile. I will definitely return to teaching one day, but we are planning on me being a stay-at-home mom indefinitely at this point. So, after school tomorrow, not only do I get to turn my alarm off, I get to delete it! I am really excited about it. Unless we have a baby before then I have plans to attend the bible study at church that I used to go to when I was staying at home after Taelyn was born. I also plan to take Taelyn to preschool story time at the library. Oh, and hair cuts! I'm so excited to get my hair cut (not that I couldn't do this while teaching, but I've just been putting it off!).

Counting down the hours at this point until I return to my previous status of "stay-at-home mom!" So excited!!!

NOT A PAINTER

Okay, so I'm not a painter. I had fun doing it, but I'm not good at it. And I am big enough to admit that about myself. I posted a picture of Lillian's canvas (to hang above her bed) earlier this week. It looked too... solid... to me. Does that even make sense? The colors were too bright and the lines were too straight. There was just something I didn't like about it. So a few nights ago I decided to go through and add some white to it. I did what I have always done when I have attended classes at Easely Amused - I made it "whimsical" as the teachers there like to call it. In short - I messed it up. BADLY! See for yourself:

So last night I attempted to fix it. I wanted that stark white gone... so I went over a lot of it with brown. And continued to just make the thing worse. Now I wish I had never touched it and left it "solid." I liked it much better that way than how it looks now. Here is the current view:

 

I can't decide if I should just leave it alone and put it on the wall how it is, or if I should continue to mess with it in an attempt to end up with a decent finished product. I was thinking of taking some brown tonight and trying to make it less "whimsical" and more "solid." It seems like the more I add to it the worse it looks. I have several options at this point - #1: Say that Taelyn painted it. Or at least that it was a painting project that we did together (since, you know, she can't write or draw actual shapes - well, except a "T" and a circle). Or #2: Trash the whole thing and be out about $14 and a couple of hours of time. I really want to use the canvas since she needs something on the wall and I can't really pay anyone to paint anything for her room. So I need some help!

If you are a painter and have any advice for how to salvage this thing, please send it to me!! Please!!! Help!

Spring Break Recap

Ahhh... spring break. I already miss you! However, I have realized that I am not a good blogger when I am at home. That is what I've come to rely on my planning period at school for! I only have 2 weeks left of school before I start my maternity leave and my stay-at-home-mom-ness, so I guess I better learn to blog from home. I'm sure I'll quickly find a time that is good for blogging.

We didn't do much last week and it was wonderful! Taelyn stayed with my mom for 3 nights, giving me some time around the house to get things done. On Monday I did a lot of cleaning, laundry, painting and baby preparation! I got Lillian's canvas painted, but I think that I am not done with it. I am planning on adding some embellishments as soon as I get the time and energy. This is where we are so far, though.

On Tuesday, I didn't do much... and it was wonderful! I read a good bit, watched some tv, and stayed in comfy clothes all day long. It was a really nice day for me! Wednesday I met my mom to get Taelyn. We had a nice lunch together and then I headed home with my girl! I was glad to have her back home with us! Thursday and Friday, Taelyn and I basically just spent the days running errands, making good meals, playing with toys and trying to enjoy the beautiful weather outside as much as possible! On Friday morning I had a doctor's appointment and it's looking like we should be prepared for baby #2 at any time. I can truly say that I am ready! And I feel that her room and the house is prepared enough for her arrival! I go back to the doctor on Monday, so I'll keep you posted.

Saturday I went to a free sewing class at a local library. I was able to completely finish an apron during the length of the class. It was fun having someone look over my shoulder and give me pointers and suggestions while I was sewing. I think it increased my confidence level tremendously. So, last night we went to my in-laws and I started Taelyn a dress. It is only half-way finished at the moment, but in my mind the finished product looks adorable! I hope to finish it up in the next few nights and I'll post a picture of it! Hopefully the picture I post here will match the cute picture in my head. And I hope that it fits her correctly and that it doesn't fall apart in the first wash! My mother-in-law said that she has never seen someone just sit down and sew a dress without any sort of pattern. That's typically just how I do things though - I've never taken cake classes - I would just look at other people's cakes and think, "I can do that." Then I would go home and try it. So now I've gotten in the habit of paying attention to clothes that other children have on and seeing how they are sewn. And in my head I'm thinking, "I can do that." I guess we will see! Like I said - it may be all crooked when I actually get the dress on Taelyn!

Pregnancy: 8th Month Evaluation

Sigh. What to say about the 8th month of pregnancy? I feel like the life has been sucked out of me and all I can focus on is April 20. Oh - and my adorable daughter! She makes the third trimester blues all go away... but not the third trimester tiredness! Lately she has picked up a common phrase from me, "My back hurts." She uses this on a very regular basis (like maybe more regularly than I do.). Can't put away my toys... my back hurts. I don't want to go to Bonsai for dinner... because my back hurts. How do you explain to a 3 year old that back aches are reserved for the 8th and up months of pregnancy?

I worked up the energy last night to make Taelyn a birthday cake for her friends that she stays with when I am at school everyday. I decided to do a bear cake because, as you can tell from my blog, I've made plenty of those and knew it would be easy. Ha - nothing is easy when you are 8 months pregnant! I baked the little guy last night and the entire bear fell apart when I took him out of the pan. Well, his head was still intact, but the body crumbled. I knew that I didn't have the energy to rebake this guy so I just headed to Kroger and bought her some pink cupcakes. What a disappointment.

And I haven't done any sewing in over a week. I want to add straps to that grey shirred top that I posted a week or two ago, but I haven't brought myself to be able to do it yet. Maybe next week I'll get motivated to sew some more ... since it is Spring Break and all. I am so looking forward to next week. We aren't taking any trips this year, and I'm kind of excited about that. I would love to see the beach right now, but was a little nervous about being that far away from home. So... we will be home all week and hopefully I can do all of the last minute things to prepare for Lilli's arrival (did you notice the spelling?? That is what we decided on!).

I have some crafty things planned, so hopefully I will be able to find the energy to do them! The following items are on my to do list for next week:

-Paint Lillian a canvas for above her crib

-Possibly paint 3 small canvases for her room and 4 small canvases for Taelyn's room to go above the head of her bed. These are just hopeful... probably won't get to them.

-Sand and paint this old antique desk that we have had in storage awhile. I am planning on it being the home to my sewing machine.

-Cover Taelyn's monogram on the crib bumper with either Lillian's monogram or some sort of applique.

-Get Lillian's crib raised (this is actually a to do for my husband. My involvement will be nagging until it gets done.)

-REST... as much as possible!

Wish me luck!

Birthday with Yogi Bear

We are back from our weekend at Yogi Bear Campground and it was so much fun! It did end up raining pretty much all day on Saturday, but Taelyn still had the best time! We just put her in her rain jacket and boots and tried to enjoy the outside as much as possible! Her favorite part of the whole weekend was splashing in rain puddles! I am so glad that we decided to do a trip instead of spending money on a birthday party. I think she enjoyed this so much more.

Here is a recap from our weekend!


Friday night: Excited about her cake!!

When asked what she wanted for her birthday she would answer "candles and cake!" Well, being the stellar mom that I am forgot one of those two items... candles!! Scott improvised! We called this our "redneck birthday." Hope that doesn't offend!

What a HUGE bite! I think she liked it!

Opening Presents! Loves her Dora book.



A little scared of Yogi!!

Putt Putt

Playground

So cute in the rain jacket!!!

Taelyn loved splashing around in puddles!!

Making a craft in the activity center.

On the pier with Bebe

Playing in the arcade

Arcade... we realized quickly that she enjoyed playing without money in the machines as much as she did with!



Taelyn drinking coke! She gets coke on her birthday. She loved this!

Scared of Yogi!!!

My baby is turning THREE!

Taelyn at about 8 weeks! She was NOT happy about bathtime! She wasn't happy about most of her infancy!

Taelyn last weekend! Almost three and such a happy toddler! Definitely a "girly girl!"

My "baby" turns 3 next week. It's really difficult to wrap my mind around. Last year we did a birthday party at the church and had the bounce house and the Mickey Mouse theme and all of that. And I realized through all of this that Taelyn could have cared less. She just wanted to eat cake!! She didn't really play with any of the other kids. She wouldn't go near the bounce house because she was scared of it. So the 2nd birthday was definitely more for me than it was for her.

This year, being 8 months pregnant, I decided that I didn't really want to go to all of the trouble of a birthday party. I knew that the planning, and decorating, and baking and cooking would be exhausting for me. So Scott and I decided that we would take a trip for Taelyn's birthday this year. The amount of money that you put into a birthday party, even when trying to do it "low scale," is fairly substantial, so we decided to put that money towards something Taelyn would really enjoy and some fun memories that we could make as a family.

We started with New Orleans and planned to do the zoo and aquarium. However, my doctor scared me a little when she said that she was going to give me some numbers for  very specific hospitals and doctors - just in case something crazy happened with my pregnancy while down there. She was pretty adamant that you can't just deliver a baby anywhere in New Orleans!! I haven't had any scares of pre-term labor or any complications whatsoever, but just for the sake of playing it safe, we decided to stay a little closer to home.

A month or so ago, Scott got a coupon on groupon (haha) for a 2 night stay at Yogi Bear Campground in Pelahatchie. We decided that we would just go there for Taelyn's birthday weekend (don't judge) since it is only 30 or 40 minutes away. He called to book it, but groupon sold over 800 of those coupons, so of course, they were booked straight through June when the coupon expires. Except she did find one single cabin available for the weekend before Taelyn's birthday, which is this weekend, so we booked that one. So this weekend we will be heading to Pelahatchie to celebrate the third birthday! And the forecast is calling for 100% chance of rain all day Saturday. Fun times. I'm going to take some games and puzzles and we will just make the most of it and hope Taelyn enjoys her birthday celebration!!

She said she wanted a chocolate cake with white icing and candy all over it for her birthday, so that is exactly what I did. It is a simple cake, but exactly what she wants. I was going to do a candyland theme on the top of it, but decided just to make it easy since no one would be seeing the cake except us (and all of you guys since I am going to post a picture!!!).

I'll let you know how the weekend goes. Maybe the rain will let up a bit on Saturday so we can enjoy some outside time. I'm not getting my hopes up though! One question I do have for those of you that have done birthday parties before the actual birthday - Next week, when her actual birthday is here, how much attention do we give to it? I don't want to confuse her. And - we are doing the cake and presents and everything this weekend, so I don't want her to expect another "celebration" on her actual birthday. But I'm not sure that we should ignore it either. I need your advice, moms!!!

The Simple Life

It's such a trendy thing to talk about these days: Simplicity. It seems like I hear about this topic everytime I open a magazine or read blogs. And I will admit... I've bought into it. That was my New Year's resolution, to simplify my (our) life. Now is the quest to figure out exactly what this means to me and how to accomplish this. I guess I should have done all of that before making the resolution!

I've read some blogs about this topic and I know what I've decided simplicity does NOT look like for my family. One blog describes simplicity for them as being: living debt free, living close to nature, working from home, living green and without the use of harsh chemicals, cooking from scratch and on and on. Well, all of this kind of stresses me out a bit. It seems like work to me to try to live up to all of those standards - so this does not translate to simplicity for me. The definition of simplicity, according to Wikipedia (DO NOT tell my students that I have used Wikipedia - after all of my ranting to them about this not being an adequate source for research!!!) is, "the property of being simple. It usually relates to the burden which a thing puts on someone trying to explain or understand it. Something which is easy to understand or explain is simple, in contrast to something complicated."

The list that I've given above seems like just that to me - a burden. And to be honest... I like my house to smell like bleach when I clean. I know, I know... the environment. My children's health. I get it. But I want my towels to smell CLEAN. Really clean. Bleach clean. And during my first pregnancy I tried to use some green cleaner in my kitchen and bathrooms, but I have to be honest... It just didn't clean like I wanted it to. We eat in a kitchen and I want it clean. I want it to look clean and smell clean. And I want to know that those harsh chemicals are killing all of those little germies that like to hop onto our food!

Also, I do not like to cook to begin with. So the thought of cooking everything from scratch - doesn't feel simple. And isn't that what I'm going for?

So this is my question... how do you live simply? Especially in this culture with our excess of materialism and our excess of activities and busy-ness. But I think that is just it - what I'm trying to get away from. I don't want to feel like I NEED all of the latest trendy clothing or the latest gadgets. I don't want my kids to feel like they NEED every electronic known to man or every toy that the neighbor down the street has. I also don't want to have to attend some sort of practice or game 5 nights out of every week... which is the reason I started dwelling on this whole simplicity thing. I am watching all of these families around me live in their cars or at the field/court. Don't get me wrong, I think that children being involved in activities is a good thing. I think that it helps them establish that sense of competition and sportmanship and I think it teaches them good social skills. However, I truly feel like they should have limits. They are children. Let them choose one or two activities and then spend the rest of their time playing at home or in the yard. It bothers me to see kids having activities until 9 o'clock at night when they should be in bed.

So these are the questions that I'm having to ask myself as I look up ballet lessons and swimming lessons on the internet. Where do you draw the line? What do you allow children to be involved in when they want to do EVERY activity that the friend from school is doing? How do you keep things "SIMPLE?"

I don't have the answer to this question yet. But I'm determined to come up with what simplicity looks like for our family. Maybe that should have been my New Year's resolution this year - to come up with answers! I should have saved the actual "simplify" resolution for next year! Please comment if you have any insight on this topic! I would love to hear your thoughts.

Cakes, Crafts and Customs

No, I haven't made any cakes in the past few weeks, but one of our local news stations, WAPT, is having a cupcake challenge in a few weeks. On their website, in the weeks leading up to this event, they have a section called "Show us your cakes," where people can upload photos of cakes/cupcakes that they have made. I uploaded a few of my favorite cakes last night so I need you to go in and rate them on the webpage. You do have to create a profile, but it doesn't take long at all. Here is the webpage address that will take you directly to my cakes: Ctuminello11's Cakes on WAPT.

Okay, on to the crafts that I have completed lately. I have loved getting to know my sewing machine, although we have had our fair share of yelling matches. The first project that I completed is a blanket with tons of old t-shirts. I have had stacks and stacks of t-shirts in my closet for years. T-shirts from high school, college and beyond. T-shirts that I couldn't bring myself to get rid of. T-shirts that bring back tons of old memories - such as the night that my college friends and I were having a mud fight on campus and I got a large amount of mud in my eye, had to go to the hospital to get it flushed out, and then had to wear an eye patch for a week. My roommate taped an eye from a magazine on top of my eye patch and it was so freaky. More to her than me, because when I would sleep my eye patch eye would stare at her!! Yes, I had to smile when I got to that mud stained t-shirt and included it in the blanket! This was a good project to start sewing on. It was simply sewing squares and t-shirt material was really easy to sew on. It doesn't unravel on the edges, so you don't have to hem it at all. And it turned out HUGE. I have 36 -  14" squares on each side, making it the size of a queen size quilt. I don't have any pictures of it, but I'll take some and post soon.

After making my blanket I have tons of leftover t-shirt scraps so I've been trying to practice my sewing on that. I made Taelyn a tiered skirt and then attached a shirred top to it. I don't like the two together though so I think I'm going to take the top off and do something else with it. I can't decide if I want to leave the skirt a skirt or make it a dress. The skirt has a lot of seams and doesn't look great if you are looking closely! But it taught me how to gather and make ruffles. And I loved shirring the top. Supposedly, Brother sewing machines can't shirr, but mine shirred like a charm. I didn't have any problems at all. I actually had less problems with the shirring than I did with sewing with regular thread. (How many times can I use the word shirr in 3 sentences. It's kind of an awkward word!). My lower thread tends to "birdsnest," according to google. I think it is a problem with my tension, but I can't figure out where it needs to be. It may be that the machine is just cheap. I am looking at new machines since I actually enjoy sewing!

So, I am definitely going to take the shirred top off of the skirt and add some sleeves to it. I may just leave it a little shirred top. Or I may attach it to something else that looks better. I'll let you know once I decide! It's nice working with scrap material because when it turns out looking badly you don't feel like you've wasted a lot of money!
Last night I wanted to do something quick with some tie-dyed t-shirt material from one of my high school t-shirts. I wanted to do a comfy little play skirt for Taelyn to bum around the house in. I was able to make it quickly before dinner. It isn't fantastic... it would probably help if I would attempt to use a pattern, but I haven't tried that yet. I tend to envision things in my head and then just go for it. Doesn't usually turn out like I hope, but at least I'm increasing my sewing skills, huh?

I have a picture of her wearing it (and she LOVED it!), but she doesn't have a shirt on in the picture. I don't want to exploit my child on the internet, so I decided not to post that one! I'll put her back in it with a shirt so that you can see it on!

On a different note, Scott is back in the country (hence the "customs" portion of the title)! I'll post more on their trip in the next few days once I've managed to drag all of the stories out of him! He doesn't volunteer information willingly, so it is a process!

Haiti Update

I talked to Scott last night and their mission team made it to Haiti safely! They arrived with all of their luggage and were already at the compound where they will be staying when I talked to him. Scott had been outside playing soccer with some Haitians, teenagers and adults, and said he was already worn out!! He sounded as happy as he could be... but if you know Scott, you know that doing anything athletic as a ministry tool is right up his alley!

Please pray for the mission team as they begin their dental clinics today. Pray that they all stay in good health and that God will work through them and in them over the next few days. Also pray for Taelyn if you think about it. She is having a hard time understanding. She cried the entire time we were getting ready yesterday morning and everytime I asked her why she was crying she would answer, "My daddy is in Haiti." It was so sad!! She has been really into the story of Jonah lately, so I used that to explain to her that daddy was doing God's work and making God really proud of him. Last night every time she would get upset about something she would cry and say, "I want my daddy." I think that she is concerned that he is in Haiti and not coming back, although I've reassured her countless times that he will be home next week. I did wake her up to talk to him when he called last night and she was really happy about that. Getting ready was much easier this morning, so hopefully she is beginning to feel a little better about it. Your prayers would be appreciated though!

Scott said that he would text me today and let me know how things are going and he will call again tomorrow... so I will give you an update when I get one!

Thanks for your prayers!

TumiRufflers

Soooo... for years and years now I've wanted to learn to sew. I inherited a sewing machine from my grandmother about a year ago, but honestly the thing has terrified me. Every time I would get motivated and take the cover off, I would sit staring at the machine in a trance, not really knowing what to touch, being scared silly of breaking something until eventually I would just put the cover back on it and swear to myself I would learn "one day." Last weekend Scott was cleaning out our storage room and he moved the sewing machine to the center of our garage. I was outside playing with Taelyn and it kept calling my name, "Casey... I need some attention!" Finally I lugged it inside and put it on our kitchen table. That night after Taelyn went to bed I, once again, removed the cover of the machine.

The sewing machine was already thread (threaded??) from when I received it, but I decided that maybe rethreading the entire machine would help me learn the parts easier. Equipped with the user manual (terrible) and you tube, I rethread (rethreaded??) the sewing machine. It was so hard! And it took me about an hour and a half just to thread. However, I do feel like this helped me to not be so scared of it. After that I sewed about 5 stitches (crooked) but it was a little loud and I didn't want to risk waking Taelyn up. 

The next night I moved the sewing machine to my bedroom so that I could get some practice in! Following the user manual, I sewed a straight stitch until I figured out how to keep my straight stitch actually STRAIGHT. Then I sewed a zig zag stitch. I had some fabric scraps and some old t-shirts that I was practicing on.

I'm really excited about this venture. There are a couple of blogs that I read on a regular basis that are about sewing and refashioning children's clothing. Lindsay is the one that came up with the cute term "TumiRufflers." She said that if I end up blogging about my projects then that is what I have to call it! I'll keep you posted on my progress... or lack thereof!

If you are a seamstress (are men called "seamers?"), please feel free to leave pointers or ideas of practice projects!! Any advice would be appreciated!

Stroller Cake and Weekend Recap

Here is the other cake that I did last weekend (2 weekends ago? I've lost track of time.) It was another stroller cake with the paisley pattern from the brown and blue one I did a while back. The colors of the baby shower were pale pink and white, so the paisley was done with those two colors. The cake was french vanilla and the icing was buttercream. Once again... I have a picture but it isn't very good. It's a little dark because it was taken with my cell phone. You get the idea ;)

Just realized that it was 2 weekends ago that I did this cake. Last weekend Scott and I went to Birmingham for a wedding... without Taelyn! It was a fun getaway for us to take before the baby comes. The wedding was awesome! The rehearsal dinner and reception were both so much fun. The only bad part was having to wear maternity pantyhose! Why do they make those terrible things? If it wouldn't have been snowing outside I would have just avoided it!

The highlight of the trip was getting to spend the day with one of my best friends in this world! Lindsay booked us massages (my first prenatal massage!), then we spent the day shopping and eating! Perfect day, in my opinion!! We ate lunch at this fantastic place called "Flip burger boutique." It was quite swanky! My favorite part was the crazy liquid Nitrogen milkshakes that they serve. I was nervous about these being pregnant, but it was explained to me that they spray this liquid nitrogen on top of the milkshake because it is very cold and makes the milkshake really cold. Then you let it all evaporate before you drink it. I don't know if the liquid nitrogen made a difference or not, but the flavors were fabulous! Lindsay and I shared a Nutella and burnt marshmallow milkshake and a Krispy Kreme milkshake. Those of you who know me well know that I named my dog "Doughnut" because Krispy Kreme's are my favorite food. Pair that with ice cream and I am in heaven!!!

Not sure how my cake post turned into a "what I did last weekend" post, but there it is! If you ever get a chance to eat at a "Flip Burger," do it!

First Birthday Owl Cake

Last weekend I was able to do a cake for one of my best friends in this world! Kelsey's little girl turned 1 on January 31 (which I cannot believe!!!), and she had a fun birthday party for her! She sent me the invite, and we decided to make the cake match the invite. I absolutely LOVE matching cakes to invitations - it just makes it so unique and individual. This is the invite that Kelsey's incredibly talented, graphic designer husband made for the party.

We decided to do a two-tiered cake with a smash cake. The bottom tier was butter cake (Kelsey's favorite, I think), but I mixed in a little french vanilla (shhh... don't tell Kels!) and the top tier was strawberry. It was covered in buttercream with all buttercream accents. The smash cake was french vanilla covered in buttercream.

I tried to match the owl from the invite on the top of the cake. A "1" went on the side of the top tier and then "Elizabeth" was piped on the side of the bottom tier in an attempt at the same font used on the invite. After I had those major accents, I added some fancy, schmancy scrollies around the sides that matched the 4-corners of the invite. I thought it turned out precious. Here are some different angles of the cake.

For the smash cake we decided to have it shaped like a "1" and then just put some of those same scrollies on the sides of it. I wanted them to continue onto the edges of the top of the one just a little bit. This "1" turned out exactly how I envisioned it in my head, which almost never happens! I was really pleased with it.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Elizabeth! I love you and your mommy so much! Have a great 2nd year! Can't wait to watch you grow!

Haiti

My husband is going to Haiti with a group from our church at the end of this month. There are several dentists going, and the main goal of the trip is to establish relationships and provide the Haitians dental care. God has really laid Haiti on my heart over the past 4 or 5 months and I truly wish I could go on this trip. However, I think my doctor may frown on me being almost 8 months pregnant in Haiti.

It is so discouraging to me how little Haiti has recovered from the terrible earthquake that happened almost 13 months ago. It seems that they will never recover because of the turmoil that their country is in. There are so many people living in tents with absolutely no way to ever work their way into a better situation. And now with the cholera outbreak due to no means of having clean water. Discouraging. However, what is encouraging is the way that God's people are stepping up to help. I have heard of so many organizations recently that are raising money and going to build wells to help alleviate this water crisis. It is also encouraging to see the number of God's people who have heeded the call to move their families to Haiti in order to make a difference in that country. Two of the blogs that I've started reading about Haiti are written by families that have accepted that call. Their faith is humbling to me. My excuse is always that I have small children. It is amazing to see these families with multiple children going anyway - despite the fear of disease, danger, etc. I will repeat it: Their faith is humbling to me. These are the blog links if you'd like to see how these people are making a difference: www.allthingshendrick.blogspot.com and www.livesayhaiti.blogspot.com .  Both of these families are working to open the "Harbor House" in Haiti (I think Port au Prince), which is going to be a home for teen moms. They will live there, go to school, and learn how to care for their children. It is amazing what these families are doing and I have truly been blessed by them and have enjoyed following their progress.

I think it was last October or November when my pastor, Stan Buckley, first talked about the crisis in Haiti in church one Sunday morning. Sadly enough, before that Sunday I was pretty much oblivious to the terrible condition of that country. Stan had just gotten back from Port au Prince, Haiti with two other members of our church and he was passionate about what we could do to help this country. His message focused on how it seems impossible that anything could help... BUT GOD... and he talked about how God can make a difference in this country in this seemingly impossible situation. Not only did he detail the conditions that they had just returned from, but he had a plan in place for how we, as a church, could help. They had already met with a few key people: some who knew how to build a very sturdy, cheap house that would last in Haitian conditions. Another person who was an expert on growing food in poor agricultural conditions. And in this service, Stan was able to explain how we could begin building communities in Haiti. These communities are going to include somewhere between 30 and 40 houses, a church, a school, a medical/dental clinic, and agricultural plots so that the Haitians can get on the track of growing their own food. You can see a brochure for the community here: http://www.fbcj.org/Documents/HaitiFlyer.pdf. If you would like to watch Stan's sermon from that Sunday, it is here: http://www.fbcj.org/Video-2010-10-17.html.

Since that Sunday, our church has been raising money and preparing for this trip. We have even gotten our preschool involved. We built little house piggy banks out of cardstock to send home with all of our preschoolers. Taelyn gets so excited every time she finds some change lying around the house that she can put in her "Haiti house." Scott (my husband) will be going on the initial preparation trip at the end of February, so like I said, they won't be doing any building of the community. They will be establishing relationships and providing dental care for people. The first of the building trips will be March 6. Our church will continue to go and help establish these communities indefinitely at this point. If you would like to read more about this project or see a picture of what the completed houses will look like, you can check out this longer publication about the project: http://www.fbcj.org/Documents/FirstInAllTheWorld-Fall2010/flippingbook.swf. If you would like to get involved in this project to help Haiti, either by donating money or by going, you can check out this page about Project Haiti:  http://www.fbcj.org/Missions-Haiti.html. It should have any information that you need, or a contact person who can give you information.

Mainly what I ask from you at this point is your prayers. Prayers for everyone that will be traveling to this country to make a difference and prayers that a difference will be made. Prayers that God will work in the lives of Haitians through those going as well as in the lives of those going. Prayers to keep the teams free from disease and harm. But especially that God's love will be made known and accepted by the people of Haiti.

Random thoughts on 2nd Pregnancy

I did do cakes this weekend, but once again I only got pictures with my cell phone, so I am trying to get some better ones from the actual party/shower before I post them. If I don't have them in a few days I'll just post the cell phone pics. Both turned out cute!

In the meantime, I have some random thoughts on pregnancy... namely, the second pregnancy.

I really enjoyed my first pregnancy. Yes, I was tired (so I thought), but it was nice to be able to come home and hit the couch and rest after a full day of teaching. I went to bed when I wanted to, on the weekends I slept in. It was wonderful having 9 full months to mentally prepare for becoming a mother and I needed every second of those 9 months (probably needed a little longer! I was no where near as mentally prepared as I should have been).

Then comes the second pregnancy. NOT. FUN. The exhaustion is about the same, but then you have to add to that the boundless energy of a two year old. I come home from teaching all day long and I play with my little girl - who goes NON-STOP until she passes out at night! I just hit my third trimester and I've all but given up on having a clean house... the vacuum is just too heavy to push around! I try to cook two or three times a week, but that is all that I can promise my very forgiving family! I'm due April 20, and in "pregnancy years" every month seems like a year. I know that April isn't too long from now, but it seems forever away. Sweet friends keep trying to remind me how much easier being pregnant is than actually having the non-sleeping, constantly nursing newborn in your home - and I remember how difficult it was. However, I am still ready for April to be here. At this point I would rather be a sleep deprived zombie and be holding that precious little girl in my arms than to feel like I've run a marathon after giving my two year old a bath at night. You can come back to this blog in late April and there very well may be a post wishing for pregnancy because at least I was getting my sleep at night! But as of right now - I'm ready for pregnancy to be over!!

Not to mention that I failed my 1-hour glucose test and had to take the 3-hour glucose test a week and a half ago. I will say that it went much better than I thought it was going to. My problem is that I google everything. Retroverted uterus in the first trimester - I google it to learn that 3% of women who have retroverted uteruses (uteri?) can have miscarriages up to week 20 in the pregnancy - so of course, then I am freaking out that I could be in that tiny percentage of women. My doctor has encouraged me to stay away from google, but we have a long standing relationship and I keep running back no matter how many times he hurts or scares me. So - before my 3 hour glucose test I google it to find out what to expect. And boy did my good friend, google, have me expecting the worst! So for all you women out there who have to do this test you should know - it isn't really that bad. I read all about women throwing up, passing out, getting overheated, and on and on and on. None of this happened to me even though I was expecting it after everything I read. Yes, you can't eat or drink anything past 7pm the night before. But I'll admit this - I ate a large dinner in an effort to curve my hunger until 11am the next day when my test would be over - but I got VERY sick that night. So everything I ate was gone. I worried that I would be absolutely starving by the end of my test the next day, but I was fine. I went in, they took my blood, I drank the glucose solution and that seemed to get me through the 3 hours. I was definitely hungry when I left, but nothing that was making me nauseated or light headed. Also, I read that the glucose solution you have to drink for the 3-hour test is twice as much as the 1-hour and twice as sugary as the 1-hour. Not true! They gave me the exact same little bottle of orange glucola that I had to drink before the 1-hour test. And despite what I read, I didn't have to drink the solution every time I went back to have blood drawn. That was definitely a nice surprise! Now, having blood drawn 4 times in 3 hours isn't fun (I have the bruises still on my arms to prove it), but it really wasn't terrible. And I passed my test with completely normal numbers. So, I've continued to enjoy the ice cream and kit kats that I enjoyed before my glucose test! Thanks goodness - I need them to help me through this pregnancy that feels like it will never end.

Have I complained enough this post? Sorry, about that. I know that no one comes to this blog to read about me complaining about pregnancy. I am so incredibly thankful that God is blessing us with another child. I am happy as I can be to be pregnant with a healthy baby and I need to just be grateful. So now that I've gotten all of my complaining out to the blog world I am going to attempt to just enjoy my last few months of pregnancy and remember that my exhaustion is going to only get worse when I'm not getting 8+ hours of sleep at night! I just think I'm tired now, right?!

My verse to live by: "Do everything without complaining...so that you may...shine like stars in the universe..." Philippians 2:14-15.

On a different baby note - Baby's name is going to be Lillian Noel. Lillian is my grandmother's name. We are going to call her Lillian, but we are going to call her a shortened version as well. So how should we spell the shortened version? I need your opinion!! I want to keep the double L's, so our options are Lilly, Lilli or Lillie. Tell me your favorite!!