weekend

Well, we have the flu now.  Maddy threw up just before bed. I was really worried about getting it before my appointment tomorrow which is very important I go....I have tons of questions and really need to get checked out.....Peter says we'll wait and see if she throws up during the night or the morning before my appointment to determine if he'll stay home with her... Just please pray that I don't get stuck bringing a sick child with to my appointment who would most likely throw up sometime during my trip to GF.

In other news: We have been working really hard lately with house stuff. It is all humongously fun, but overwhelming too because it's all basically at once. Last year we had some water damage to our ceiling and our carpet - so insurance will be helping pay for under half of the carpet and ceiling repair. We're picking out carpet and my dad came over to measure. About a month or two ago, we bought some bunk beds for the kids and a dresser. Today we got the dresser put together, but that also meant cleaning out closets, refolding, going through clothing, vacuuming, and we're still not done yet. It might take a while to put the bunk beds together but I am okay with doing things one step at a time. My goal this week is to get every unnecessary item out of the kids' room, separate all the toys that they don't play with much, and just declutter! It is so much work to keep up the house. I have to find a solution to the living room and the toy situation in there. They mostly play in their rooms or sometimes (very rarely) go upstairs, but I feel like they have enough rooms in the house to have toys in, so that might help with the mess in the house.

Thursday Kelsey came over after naps and we were all fighting over who could talk/play with her. It was so much fun. She took all of the photos in the previous post. Friday we got the pleasure of going to Grand Forks without kids while Kelsey babysat, which is so nice to be able to do once in a while. We talked with our kitchen planner for two hours and went through our cupboard layouts, stain, we talked about countertops, and the timeline. Tomorrow I have a doctors appointment so I will be able to go back there to see what the estimate is and if this is possible to get done before the baby is born. I'm not sure how this will go if I take Maddy so we'll see. We'll hopefully pick out some handles and other little things too. On Friday we picked out a sink, possible faucet, microwave, and possible back splash.  Possible carpet too. By the time we were at our last store, I nearly fainted again... I really don't know what the problem is but I think it has something to do with overheating.  From there, we went to Owens game which was also very fun. Here's some pictures of that:

the bump gets bigger

 So I guess you know how much I weigh. That's okay. Unfortunately I bet most of it is sweets and unhealthy drinks. It is funny how I spent the whole summer and part of winter eating very healthy, exercising regularly etc, and it totally stopped once the baby came. I think I was overdoing it and just got burnt out. It was almost a relief to be pregnant because then at least I had an excuse to take it easier. I was hoping to gain 25 pounds.... I think I've at least gained somewhere between 15-20 and I've got THREE MORE MONTHS TO GO! Hopefully my weight gain will slow down... though I know that is doubtful since the baby itself has to gain at least 6 more pounds!

Here are some other fun photos we took today...I was hoping to take more but we didn't have much light to work with and the kids really wanted to play with Kelsey (my sister) so this is what we got. Fun though!

Friday we are off to Grand Forks to work with our kitchen planner and hopefully finalize a couple of things soon so we can see how long it will take to make the cabinets. We still have a glimmer of hope but we'll see what she says once we submit everything. We are still praying for wisdom... time for bed before a busy day!

a good attitude

Yesterday was not a typical Monday. Though I am not at all blaming anyone for my lack of appointments, it is a known fact that once you become a stay at home mother, it is harder and harder to be able to take care of appointments for yourself. You have to work with other people's schedules and lots of times they conflict.  My hair was fried and my eyes were in bad shape so I begged my husband to find a time that I could get these two things taken care of. It just so happened to be in the same day! My hair appointment was at 9am, and my eye appointment was at 11. Both in opposite directions, I was able to stop at home for a quick 10 minutes and on to my next appointment.

It was so nice to have my hair worked on. The whole cut probably took 20-25 minutes (without washing) and after she was done she thought it'd be fun to curl it all! So we talked and laughed and after about a half hour I was shocked at how nice it looked. I can't ever get my hair to look that nice after curling it... and guess what... I STILL have curls after a whole day, and a nights worth of sleeping on them. So, I bought the hair spray and will try her style of curling soon.  My eye appointment also went well, and I am proud to say my icky contacts have been thrown in the garbage and replaced with new ones.

When I got home, I called the kitchen planner and she dissapointingly told me that production time for cabinets are now 8 weeks out. So, it is pretty much impossible to get them done before the baby is born. That is not what we wanted to hear, but at the same time our prayers are being answered and I am grateful. All along we've prayed every single night for several months regarding the kitchen project and our hope was that it would not at all be something that would be stressful or at the wrong time. We still feel like we should keep moving with plans so that when we figure out the best time we can get started, but for now we feel like we just need to wait. A kitchen remodel, a new baby, and planting all at the same time might put us over the edge and that is definitely not what we want.

The day followed with several games of Old Maid; Kate always seemed to win, leaving Peter and I battling over who was going to pick the Old Maid from each others hand. We all were having so much fun. During the time Peter was left at home with the kids until he went to work at 1, he washed 3 loads of laundry, folded and hung 2, cleaned up the kitchen (loaded dishes, washed pots and pans) emptied all the garbage in the house, called a few people, made lunch and probably many other things. Needless to say he wasn't surprised at what happy mood I was in. Later in the night in our devotion time we talked about attitude and how it affects our family. He admitted when I walked in the door it was really nice to see a happy attitude. So nice to 'sort of' switch roles for the morning with me being away and him at home. We talked about our struggles with each others attitude and ways we can help one another out. So, my goal for today... a good attitude.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus

Philippians 2:5

new week

This weekend has been pretty lazy for us. It has been so weird feeling so tired all the time. For instance, today after my nap, I went to the couch, and almost fell asleep again. I think Peter was shocked as he told me... "you must be tired". I've been doing what I can to catch up on daily chores yet at the same time feeling totally worthless as nothing 'extra' gets done. Oh well I guess... it is just a season. I have also been really bad at drinking pop. I mean, really good at it. The last two days I have had two bottles of pop. I've shared with Peter of course but I've had most of it! Friday night I had a sprite at the basketball game; Saturday night I had a root beer on our way back from getting groceries! I've really got to stop this habit.

I keep imagining what my life will be like once the kitchen remodel happens (if it does). I feel like it will be a total disaster on my hormones. I dont know how many days/weeks we will be out of a kitchen sink, real dishes, meals of course.... I am beginning to plan what meals I can freeze, make effortlessly in the crock pot, and eat out. It will also be tricky timing to get carpenters, electricians and plumbers here at the same time so that it does not drag on. I think it would be a whole lot easier if our soffiting weren't coming out.  I probably spelled that wrong.  We have to still purchase a table, lighting, microwave, back splash, decide on paint color, and we're even not sure about cabinet color/stain because of a miscommunication.  So this is all very up in the air, but I hope we can meet regularly now with our kitchen planner to get some of these things off our list! We'll do a kitchen for sure, just might have to be after the baby is born. And after farming. And deer hunting. yikes.

wisdom

We are back from our trip to Minneapolis. Of course I was extremely sad to leave the girls especially since we get away usually once a year for a weekend to ourselves. I'm just not used to leaving them for such a long time. Once we got on the road though, I was just fine and I knew they would have lots of fun. Peter admitted this might have been the best trip to the cities yet.... for me it is not quite true just because of the added body stress from pregnancy but all in all, we got to most of the stores we wanted and rather quickly! I didn't spend a lot of time looking at clothing since nothing fits, so we were in and out of stores basically just to browse. After numerous HOURS of cleaning out cabinets, shelves, closets, etc, I told myself I was not going to buy something I didn't think I would use or impulse buy. I also prayed a lot, which might sound silly to some but - God was so faithful. I knew what I was supposed to buy and it made it tons easier. I felt like I was making good and wise choices and everything I had searched for on pinterest or on the internet, I found a pretty close replica of what I had imagined in my mind. I love using pinterest because I usually know what I want, I just can't explain it well- I need visuals to help me explain. So I search for a certain thing on pinterest or on the internet until I find it, and then I pin it to help me explain to others, such as our kitchen planner. It's been so helpful.

It was so good to get back to our house. Especially. My. Bed. I missed it so much. I have stayed at a lot of hotels in the past few months, and especially the last couple years, and the best one I always want to go back to is Sofitel. I just love their beds.  The hotel itself isn't a hotel that we'd spend a lot of time at because it's primarily a business hotel, but the beds are so nice!!  We stayed at the Hilton Marquette downtown, and it was such a good location for us. We walked out of our hotel into a mall and access to skylines that brought us to Macy's, Target, and other stores. It also brought us to The Melting Pot and Hell's Kitchen, which are restaurants we both enjoyed. It had an executive lounge that we got free upgrade to (photo to your left) that served a nice breakfast, appetizers from 5-7, and juice, treats, and pop at night. To us we wouldn't have paid to get it- so it was nice that it was free.  The beds were normal... sleepable for a pregnancy gal, definitely better than most. The first night we slept horrible because we had coffee too late in the afternoon and sirens kept us up; the second night we both slept like a rock, and the third night we slept good but had trouble falling asleep due to again, coffee at 4:30. Shame on us!

Today was a slow day putting everything back that I could, washing sheets & clothes, and of course entertaining Maddy. I hardly got a thing done. I spent the morning coloring, reading, playing ABCs with her and making lunch. That is just fine with me! With Peter's help tonight after they went to bed, we got the place cleaned up and the dishwasher started. We also enjoyed a nice fire and played Go Fish with the kids. So, that is my weekend for ya.... we are really starting to get serious about the kitchen. Just an hour ago we were sent a timeline of all things that needed to get done for installation. It is really fun, overwhelming, and nerve-wracking all at the same time!  I just hope we can get it all done in our timeline... we certainly don't need to have a baby, going through a kitchen renovation and possible planting.  Wisdom Lord, wisdom! I know He will provide!