My oldest turns 13 today! WOW!
The one thing he has been begging for since his 12th birthday was a Facebook account…I guess it’s time to set one up for him!
Happy Birthday Michael!
I had 2 little (and when I say little, we are talking 2 pounds each!) boys!
Happy Birthday Daniel!!
Happy Birthday Andrew!!
Today is my oldest’s birthday…12 years old!
Happy Birthday Michael!!
2008 has come and gone already. It sure seemed to go by quickly…sometimes a little too quickly!
January
The year started out with me beginning to work on Power Lab VBS (Ah Ha!). I was also homeschooling Michael. We were pretty on top of our schooling and things were going pretty smoothly at the time. I was also beginning to work in the K-1 Sunday School class room at church. That, wasn’t going as smoothly as I had wished.
February
VBS started to consume my thoughts. I was having dreams about not being ready, and just an overwhelming sense that I’ve bitten off more than I could chew. AKA…I wasn’t relying on God to help me, I was relying on my own strength to do it.
February also brought about Daniel & Andrew’s 3rd birthday as well as my 34th birthday.
Michael entered his first Science Fair and ended up with a Superior rating! I was proud, but knew full well that if he had applied himself earlier in the month, but he decided to wait until the last minute to do it. Then we hit a rough patch in our homeschooling…a bad one. Causing me to question my ability to teach him not to mention my basic parenting skills. But, through the Grace of God we got through it with help from some friends in our church.
March
March brought in a lot of saddness. My grandmother’s health begain to fail drastically. And a friend of mine lost her child in a horrible accident. My heart ached in ways I never knew it would. Things in me shined trhough as well. I didn’t realize how “in tune” I was to other’s saddness. Michael had a meeting with the staff from his online school and things turned out so much better than I had originally anticipated.
April
In April, I took a blogging break…school slipped behind and I had to push Michael to get as much done as possible a day! Spring seemed to bring out the worst in his schooling abilities and slowly we fell behind.
May
I won this Word Press blog…I’m ever so greatful to Lisa for hosting the giveaway that allowed me to win! 
The final push to get VBS was upon us. VBS was scheduled for the 2nd week of June. My grandmother passed away that month as well.
June
VBS week came and went without too much problems. Yes, there were a few bumps in the road, but overall things turned out GREAT! I was elated that things went as well as they did and relieved that it was all over with as well.
July
We celebrated Michael’s 11th birthday in July along with Kevin and I’s 14th wedding anniversary. In between those 2 events, we threw my mom and dad a 60th Birthday/40th Wedding Anniversary party. We were very impressed that we were able to pull it off! Mom and dad had only suspected that we were planning on all going out to eat together, not that we would have all of their friends and family at a hall waiting for their arrival! We even got one of their friends from High School to travel from Chicago to Ohio to celebrate with them as well!
We also got to see Extreme Makeover Home Edition in our town. My mother drove down the night before to stay overnight and we headed out to the new house to watch the bus move. That is a day that was HOT, but I wouldn’t have missed for the world. To see something like that is a once in a lifetime thing. Michael still claims to have High-Fived Ty!
August
We went for our 1 and only camping trip of the year. We had so much fun, and would love to go back to the Michigan Dunes again. Our church also had a Worship Night. Something changed in me that night and I have been forever changed!
September
School started right after Labor Day! We decided to send Michael back to public school since things weren’t working out the best for us at home. We are happy to report that he is doing wonderful in the public school!
We celebrated Noah’s 8th birthday in September. We also found out that an eight year old child, when given $20 in cash and not watched very closely at the grocery store (because mom and dad were busy ringing/bagging groceries), will spend the whole $20 on lottery tickets! And before you ask…YES it’s illegal for him to purchase them, but when they have a “vending machine” of lottery tickets just sitting over by the bubble gum machines, it’s just calling for a child to play with it! And he only wond $2!
October
In October, Kevin and I started going to a new Bible Study. I was elated that Kevin wanted to go to one since he has never really showed any interest in going before.
We also walked, for the first time, in the JDRF Walk for a Cure for my Niece. We were so proud of her, she ended up getting 2 awards…one for the amount of money raised and the other for the T-Shirt design!
November
We celebrated Kevin’s 38th birthday. How? Well, I went to a Arbone party and he watched football…now that’s love!
We had our traditional weekend after Thanksgiving shopping adventure. My parents’ took Michael, Noah, Daniel, & Andrew for the weekend (it ended up my parents had Daniel & Andrew and my sister had Michael & Noah). We always enjoy that weekend away from the boys. It’s nice to pretend we are childless…even if it’s just for the weekend! But we are always so excited when they return.
December
We spent most of the month either running from Christmas Program to Christmas Program or from Christmas to Christmas. However this year it seemed to be a little less travel than usual. We only spent 1 night up at my parent’s house and we actually had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home for the first time in a long time!
For 2009, I’m sure there will be new things that God shows us along the way, new challenges to overcome and new friends to meet, but I trust that God will be joining us along this journey and we will rest in the knowledge of Him.
Today is my wonderful hubby’s birthday! He’s 38…
Happy Birthday Kevin!! I love you!
For Noah’s birthday, he got $20 in cash from his Grandma and Grandpa. Usually when our children get money, we take it so that it gets spent wisely…you know on toys that we approve of or just a small amount of candy, not something that would rot his teeth completely out.
He was given this card with the $20in it at Dave & Buster’s and apparently stuffed the money into his wallet.
Fast forward to Sunday afternoon when we do our usual grocery shopping. Kevin and I were at the check-outs and Michael and Noah were hanging out around those little vending machines…the ones you get toys out of for a quarter.
Do you know what is beside those vending machines? A machine that sells lottery tickets. I’m sure you can see where this is going.
We get out to the car and are loading up and I see this lottery ticket in the car…
Me: “Where did you get this lottery ticket?” I assumed they picked up a scratched up one off the floor.
Michael & Noah: “From the machine” As if it was no big deal.
Me: “Where did you get the money to buy this?”
Noah: “From Grandma and Grandpa”
Me: “She gave you dollar bills?” Again, assuming that they only bought 1 each.
Michael: “No, Noah put the $20 bill into the machine”
**gasping** My children who are 11 and 8 purchased $20 worth of lottery tickets!!
Guess how much they won?
$2! What a great investment!! I’m so proud! Can you hear the sarcasm?
At 3:30 am…8 years ago, I woke up to go to the bathroom, then realized I was having contractions. They weren’t bad or anything and I have been having Braxton Hicks for months, so I figured it was more ofthe same!
I sat on the rocker for a little while (my mom was visiting us, she had flown out to CO a week prior hoping to be there when I went into labor). Mom woke up and asked me if I was in labor, I told her I wasn’t sure, that they really didn’t hurt. She decided to time them. They were coming at a steady 7 minutes apart.
Around 6 am, I woke Kevin up to let him know that my contractions were 7 minutes apart and weren’t going away. He called work and left a message for them and laid back down for a little while before getting himself into the shower. At this time, my mom decided that she was going to jump into the shower so that she would be ready to go when the time came.
I called the doctor at 8 am to let her know that I thought I might be in labor. The doctor called back and asked me what number baby I was having. After telling her that it was my second, she informed me that I should get my butt to the hospital.
Now, if you read how long I was in labor with Michael, you would know that I was in the mindset that I was going to be in labor for quite sometime and that I would be sent home from the hospital more than once.
After getting off the phone with the doctor, I decided I would take a shower…after all, I needed to shave my legs! I ended up having 4 contractions in the shower while shaving…I knew right then that it was time to go!
Off to the hospital we went. The trip there took us a whole wopping 5 minutes…we lived close to the hospital.
We walk onto the labor and delivery floor (9 am) and the nursing staff looks at me and asks “Can I help you?” I told them that I was in labor…and the looks on their faces, I thought for sure that as soon as they checked me that we would be heading back home.
After being checked and told “You’re 6 cm and your bag is buldging”, I figured it was time to settle into the fact that I wasn’t leaving the hospital anytime soon. I think this fact threw all of us for a loop…including the nurse, she said it like she was so surprised! We got all settled in, an epidural, and Michael was taken to a friend’s house (he wasn’t doing too well at the hospital, and my mom wanted I wanted my mom to be in the room with me).
My labor pains weren’t “strong” enough, so I was given some piticin to help that (I was peaking at 25 on my own, with piticin, I was peaking at 125…thank God for that epidural, I didn’t feel that!!).
Right as I was beginning to push, the doctor stopped focusing on me and started talking to Kevin. Apparently, he was turning white…she instructed him to sit down and the nurse ran and got him some juice and crackers. That’s all I needed was for him to faint!
By 12:45, Noah arrived. I was surprised at how quickly went this time around. He was only 2 days overdue.
So, today, we celebrate Noah’s 8th birthday! How, well, he’s at school. My parents are coming down this afternoon (the boys have no idea) and then tomorrow we are going to Dave & Buster’s!
Happy Birthday Noah!!
Dad’s home from the hospital! He got home yesterday!! Thanks to everyone who was praying for him. He still has a lot of things to figure out (insurance, retirement, disability, etc.). He still has some pain in his feet, but not nearly as much, his kidneys are working properly again.
Hurricane Ike hit Ohio! Sounds funny, yes? Well, we got a huge wind storm out of it (no rain, just wind) and it knocked out the power on Sunday afternoon. We got power back last night (Monday). The boys have been off of school for 2 days and they don’t have school again on Wednesday. Kevin’s shop that he works in is out of power too.
We drove around Monday to see all the trees down. There were many power lines down too.
Tonight we invited a family over for supper, they are still without power.
Noah is going to turn 8 on Friday! Wow…time sure flies!
I guess they call this a “dump” post (or something like that).
After laboring all night and meeting the doctor for the 1st time, the doctor checked me. He looked at me and said, we can get this baby out, I’ll pull, while you push. Out came the “vacuum extractor” and I mustered all the energy I had left…I delivered a healthy 8 pounds 7 3/4 ounce baby boy! He was 21 inches long!
He was healthy…I was exhausted and hungry and very, VERY sore!
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My baby is 11 years old today! We are out celebrating his birthday at Dave & Busters! Oh I bet we are having so much fun!
Happy Birthday Michael!
After being sent home for the 2nd time and waiting for my mom and sister to arrive at the hospital to give them the bad news (remember, they drove 1 hour just to get to the hospital), they decided that they were going to just stay at our house.
My sister had her daughter 7 months prior to this day, so she decided to step in and help me to time those contractions. They were 5 minutes apart for about an hour or 2…then they would move to 7-8 minutes apart!
We got up in the morning…I say “we” but actually, I only got 1 hour of sleep since the pains were strong enough to keep me awake…so now I’ve been up since Thursday morning…and haven’t eaten anything since Thursday afternoon! I’m cranky, and hungry, and in labor!
After taking a shower, and everyone else got up, we took a walk, allowing Kevin to sleep a bit longer (he was tired from being awake with me most of the night…what a sweetheart!)…then played cards…and just hung out most of the day.
At 6 pm, the labor was so intense, I was starting to lose it. My sister began timing the contractions again and low and behold they were staying at 5 minutes apart. We called the hospital, only to be told that my doctor was on vacation and they would have the doctor on call return my call. When he called, I got the “I was never told that he had a patient in labor!”…like this is my fault! He should have told him because I had been into the hospital 2 times the night before! He told me to come on in and be checked out.
I got there, they checked me…my water broke! I was staying! And if I thought those contractions were hard before…I was in for a shock of my life realizing how intense they were when my water broke!
They got me a room and a couple of shots to “take the edge off” (they didn’t work) until the anesthesiologist could come up and administer the epidural.
I labored all night with Kevin, my mom, and his mom (yes, my wonderful husband invited his mom into my room…NOT me!) sleeping around the room!
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