no baby

more stretch marks, an insanely itchy belly, a few sleepless nights, and still no baby! Tomorrow i'm 41 weeks, and will have an ultrasound and non-stress test. still not dilated at all as of tuesday.

Some pics

So when we were in Ohio last month, we had Sarah Newman take some family pictures. I just got the disc this week and wanted to post a few. The rest are at Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaylind/sets/72157608120191441/), in case you want to see them.


I was incredibly impressed with all her creative ideas and I love all the expressions of Violet that she caught. She also managed to get pictures of my dad smiling, which means she must be magic.



I know it's early, but these pictures have me excited to make our Christmas cards this year!

Love you girls -- hope you have great weekends!

4 Months!

Hi girls!

Only 4 more months until we meet in Frisco! I am getting very excited. Nick and I went up to the mountians two weekends ago, and found the house we are staying in. The pictures on our Wiki site show it perfectly. We are within walking distance from the free shuttle that can take you to Breckenridge, Copper, Dillion or Keystone. (Anyone up for some night skiing? Keystone is your place!) We are getting so excited!!!

I do have an offer for you all - if you would like to make another 25% payment over this next month, I can send that up to them. Nick and I were talking and realized with all this finiancial talk in the media, it is going to be benefical for us to begin to slowly set aside some money. :) Let me know if you want to do that... I'm keeping track of what each of us sends for the house.

Let's see... nothing else is going on in our lives. I've been on Fall Break last week and this, which has been wonderful. I have been working on our scrapbook this week and it is coming together nicely. I need more pictures from you all. If you could send me, or direct me to, a picture or two from each event since this summer.

I love reading about all that is happening in your lives! I love you lots and can't wait to see you.

Pictures of our trip to Beaver Creek (about 60 miles beyond Frisco)

Surgery Scheduled

Ok well, Katie had her appointment today with the plastic surgeon, who said that the hemangioma on her neck is a good candidate for removal. I was very impressed with everyone in his office, and they were all excellent with Katie. It was the first appointment for her hemangioma that hasn't resulted in screaming and tears. On the contrary, she was quite happy and everyone loved her (I have my suspicions that it was also attributed to Nathan being there...what is it about girls and their daddies?). Anyway, he was very good and will take it right off, and offered to take the other two on her torso off as well. Nathan and I are thinking about that, but don't want her to have even more scars. There is one other large-ish one on her clavical that we might do...mostly because the large ones are scarier with ulceration.

So they've scheduled her surgery for Nov 19. I'm a little bummed it's so close to Thanksgiving because I know she'll still be in pain, and she has to wear braces on her arms which prevent her from bending at the elbows so she doesn't mess with the dressing. I was hoping to have it done sooner than that, but it could be worse. At least it's not close to Christmas I suppose. She will be kept overnight. Definitely keep her in prayer that week. It is a serious surgery, as hemangiomas are blood-filled, but they do more now than they used to. So I'm anxious and nervous, and hate having my baby on the operating table again, but relieved at the thought that hopefully, by Christmas this nasty experience will only be a memory. So we're just praying and believing for the surgery to go well, minimal bleeding, and an easy recovery.

Gramma Ruth and a lump

Hey ladies, I have my 39.5 week appt today and they will "check" me, so stay tuned for if i'm dilated at all!
Wanted to keep you posted on a couple of things going on with us right now. First, my step-grandma, Gramma Ruth, went to be with Jesus on Saturday morning. She had been in the hospital on and off for a few months now... congestive heart falure, infection in the kidneys, and pneumonia. Her lungs could no longer work to breathe through the fluid in her lungs, and she did not want to be put on a respirator. So she went to be with Jesus and her husband with 3 (of 4) of her children at her side. the fammily is doing visitation and funeral stuff today and tommorrow, but i could not travel to be there being so close to my due date.
Second, I had an ultrasound done today on my right breast. A month and a half ago I discovered a lump, which my OBGYN has been watching. It didn't change at all, which ruled out the possibility of it being a milk duct. The ultrasound showed today that it is likely a Fibroadenoma, a kind of tumor. You can read up on it yourself, but long story short, they are 95% of the time NOT cancer. I meet with a breast surgeon on the 23rd (next thursday) to see about getting a biopsy done. Girls, at this point, would you just pray that I would keep my heart/mind/soul focused on Christ and not on the circumstance? I would greatly appreciate that!!! We have enough to think about right now!
girls, please do your monthly breast exams!

good week

Hey girls! I'm glad to hear everyone seems to be good. Steph, I'm happy that you're procedure went well and that they found out was wrong and that it wasn't too serious. =) Although I'm very sorry about the diet changes you're having to make. Cutting out chocolate, caffeine, and tomatoes would just about kill me. I'm also so happy for you that you got into school and will be kicking off a great new educational adventure. I'm jealous, I love school. =) 

So things have been great for us this week. Josh has been on vacation and it's been wonderful. I had forgotten what it's like to have a husband who is rested enough to stay awake with me in the evening and watch a movie or talk or whatever. Josh is usually so exhausted that he gets home from work at 8 or 9pm and is alseep on the couch by 9:30pm at the latest (or studying, which still means I can't talk to him or bug him). He's gotten a couple things done around the house that needed to be done and we've done some fun stuff with the kids. We went to Cosi Science Center on Wednesday and watched a 3D movie called "Fly me to the Moon." About 3 little flies who hitch a ride to the moon with Apollo 11. The kids liked it and Lilah sat there the whole time trying to catch the flies or touch the space ship. It was funny. Then we went to the Sesame Street "Learn about the Body" exhibit. It was fun until seth got attacked be some crazy kid who clawed his face. They kind of got into a traffic jam going into a toy thing and the other boy clawed Seth's face. Seth was bleeding and has some pretty serious scratches on the side of his face and eye lids. It was crazy. We had to take him to the bathroom to disinfect his face since they were pretty deep finger nail scratches. Anyways, it was a fun day other than that. =) Today we went to the Zoo and it was an absoluetly gorgeous day for the zoo. The kids had a lot of fun and are now supposed to be sleeping (I emphasize the words "supposed to be.") Josh and I get to go on a date night tonight while his mom babysits and then tomorrow is a harvest festival that I think the kids will enjoy. That's abut it for us. It's been a nice week and I'm already dreading next week when Josh has to go back to work. I also posted some pictures of my belly since you asked for them, Kim. It's good you did because I think I would have forgotten to take any belly pics with this kid if you hadn't. You really do start to neglect your children more as you have more of them. =) I also posted a picture of Seth's face. It actually looks a lot better now (in the picture) than it did before. It was pretty bad on Wednesday. People were stopping and asking us about it then. He looked like we'd beat him. Anyways, hope you girls are good. Have a great weekend!

Results

So, everything seemed to go pretty well with the testing on Wednesday. They found out that I have a hiatal hernia, which is pretty good news considering the other possibilities. They also took biopsies of the tissue in my espophogus, stomach and colon. They said the tissue in the colon looked pretty healthy and they just took biopsies to "make sure" and to have a baseline for future colonoscopies. Now I shouldn't have to get another until I'm 35.

The hiatal hernia I have is basically part of my stomach that has come up above my diaphragm instead of the whole thing staying below it. Basically, what I can do is take my Prilosec OTC, and stick to a regimented diet that excludes any caffeine, chocolate, alchohol and even tomatoes, in addition to some others. They said that I can slowly reintroduce these things into my diet in order to see what upsets it.

So anesthesia is a funny thing. Here's a quick story of my experience with it. :-)

I was quietly laying in the scary room with all the monitors hooked up to me and I was patiently waiting for someone to come in and start the dreaded procedure. Finally, after about 25 minutes, the doctor poked his head in and said, "Ok, we're going to give you the medicine to make you go to sleep now." That was it. A few seconds later a nice looking nurse came in, didn't say a word to me, and injected something into the IV coming out of my arm. After a few seconds I realize I was getting a little fuzzy and it became more of an effort to blink. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again and the same nurse was right there. There were about 4 other people in the room at this time and they seemed very loud. I asked the nurse, "are you sure you gave me the medicine? I'm not going to sleep." She giggled and said, "Yes, honey. You're all done now. We're going to get you back into the recovery room." And that was it. I was done.

There are a few more stories of me not remembering things and repeating things two or sometimes three times that gave us a few laughs.
So that was my experience. Part of it, anyway.

And then I got a call that I got into school. And that made my week. I can finally feel some things coming together.
Ok, that's it. :-)

What a wonderful way to spend a day...

Hey ladies! It sounds like you all have a lot going on! It's so fun that everyone has been posting - its awesome to be able to feel a little more connected. Kim, you have done a great job updating our sacred site. :-)

So, as most of you know, I have been having stomach troubles again, similar to what I had in college, but it is now affecting my lower digestive tract as well. SO! Fun times for me, I am heading into the hospital tomorrow morning for a upper endoscopy and a colonoscopy. The doctors obviously have the "better safe than sorry" attitude because of my mom's colon cancer, so they decided to just go in and check out what's going on in there. Part of me hopes they find something, part of me doesn't. I would really like some answers, but I don't want it to be anything bad. And let me tell you, it better be worth it. :-) I don't know if anyone knows what the process is for colonoscopies, but it's horrible. Basically, you're drinking super-ultra-nasty laxatives for the whole 1/2 day before and spend the whole evening on the toilet. Sounds like a great way to spend the night, huh? But on the bright side, I'm almost done with my first Jane Austen book (Persuasion) and I'm really proud of myself. :-) It's not the easiest reading, so I feel a little smarter. Lol.

Anyway, onto more pleasant topics...I finally got my financial aid all set for school, which was my biggest concern. Yay! I am so excited to start back, even though I haven't been officially accepted yet. (hold on - gotta drink more nasty stuff...) I am hoping to get the acceptance letter in the mail this week since our orientation/registration is October 27th.

The other thing we're looking forward to is purchasing our tickets for Colorado! We've found a great deal on Southwest, but we have to wait until this Friday to purchase them, so let's hope the rates are still there!

OH! And we went to Branson, Missouri with some friends this past weekend and had a GREAT time. We stayed at a beautiful resort, which is what I enjoyed the most. It is in the Ozarks right on a huge lake. We did a little canoeing and hiking, mini golf and more hiking. It was gorgeous. As soon as I get pictures up, I'll post them on flickr or something. Ok...well that's enough of my rambling...Love you girls! Jen - I am anxiously awaiting your call/text about Megumi!

Da da dum...

So I think it's pretty much finished. I have a few tweaks I'd like to finish up here and there, but that will probably just be an ongoing process. This has been a lot of fun. I got to search back through all our old photos -- I found a bunch I had forgotten about and man did that bring back some memories. :) I'd love to scan in some of our old college photos to add at some point, but we don't have a scanner, so I guess I really can't.

We just got back from a weekend in San Diego. We went to an air show on Saturday, which was a lot of fun but very loud. And today we went to the Wild Animal Park. It was awesome. I know Violet won't remember anything, but she really seemed to enjoy it -- especially the petting zoo part. And okay, I loved the petting zoo too.

Anyway, let me know in the comments if there are any other websites I can add to our links area. I'm sure I'm missing some, and I'd love to include everything that's connected to our lives.

Also, if anything shows up weird on your computers, let me know that too. I haven't had a chance to test the new design on other browsers or computers or anything.

Jen, we'll be waiting anxiously for the call or text. Any day now!
Liz, keep us posted about Katie's appointments this week. We're praying for all of you.
Julie, you should post some pics of this supposedly huge belly. :) I hope we can make it back to Ohio to see Isaac when he's still a newborn. We're hoping to fit a trip in before the Sapphires ski trip.

Love you and miss you all!

Twenty Nine

Hi girls,
yeah, i made it to age twenty nine!
Julie and Kim, thank you both so much for the good tips for labor and packing! I have my labor bag all packed but have yet to finish the overnight bag for recovery.
Julie, I love what you wrote about starting your gym workouts after baby comes to take advantage of the time without kids... I, too plan on doing that very same thing! Gyms with child care... what a great idea! I can't imagine why a gym would not have child care, really.
I finally have a mother's line on the top half of my belly. And just to even things out on the bottom half, Megumi has blessed me with many late stretch marks.
Kim, love the new blog layout!
well, hopefully you'll hear from me soon!

nice website Kim!

Kim, I love the new website look. You're doing a great job on it! =) Liz, we've been praying for Katie and her hemangioma situation. Jen, we're so happy Chris is doing well and hope that you are as comfortable as possible for your last couple weeks of pregnancy. You asked for ideas of things to pack for the hospital... Take some munchies. You get meals, but I found that I had the munchies a lot with all the nursing. Take your nursing pads, nursing bras, and Lansinoh cream (believe me you'll need them if you start breastfeeding right away). Take a nursing cover of some kind. You will probably have lots of visitors and it can be really hard to coordinate nursing times when you actually have privacy. I also recommend taking your own pack of super absorbancy, overnight sized maxi pads. The hospital might provide you with plenty. But when I had Seth they only provided normal sized pads and I needed something with better coverage. Not to be gross or freak you out, but the bleeding following childbirth can be pretty intense for the first few days. Those are the biggies I think. Take your focus object for the labor and delivery to help with the pain. I'm sure you learned all about that in your childbirth class and it really does help. You'll do great! I hope the rest of you are doing well. Everything is same old thing here. Josh has been working quite a bit, as usual. He had a killer day yesterday where he started at 6am and then got stuck in surgery all day. He didn't get home until 9:30pm. His last surgery of the day was 6 hours long, so he was pretty sore and exhausted from standing that long. Altogether, he was stuck in the O.R. for 12 hours yesterday. yuk! I can't even imagine having to stand statue still under hot lights in full surgical garb for that long. I think I'd be done after an hour. =) Anyways, on a bright note Josh has a week of vacation next week. So that will be awesome. We're looking forward to doing some fun stuff with the kids around the Columbus area. And getting some things done around the house before baby #3 comes along. By the way, I think we've decided to name him Isaac Jase. I've just always liked the name, Isaac (means laughter). And Jase means Healer. So that's kind of our way of passing down something special to him in honor of his papa and Josh, and even my brother, Ben. Daniel likes to remind us that he is a healer of souls (he's the theology major brother). So, healing has kind of been the ministry/heritage of the men in my family. So, everything is good. We are pretty excited because we got a gym membership for a really good price last week. Josh has been using it. I won't start mine until january after the baby is born and I'm off restrictions. I certainly won't be working out right now as I'm barely waddling my way around the house, let alone excercising. I'm getting pretty huge and uncomfortable. I've finally hit that point where I can't really roll myself over in bed anymore. I can't reach my feet and am saving up for my one pedicure right before the baby comes (so that when my legs are in the stirrups and my heels are in the doctor's face, my feet will at least be cute.) If the baby kicks me wrong, I pee my pants and I have finally gotten stretch marks around my belly button. The third one has done me in. I will need my gym membership after this baby arrives because my "given birth to 3 babies" body is starting to fall apart. Not that I even need that as motivation to work out. The only motivation I need to go workout is that I get to take my 3 little monsters with me and drop them off in the kids program for 2 whole, glorious, child-free hours. I will workout and take a shower without any children screaming at me or each other. It will be heaven! So that's it for us. Just trying to keep up with Seth and Lilah and get things ready so that there will be no extra stress when Isaac finally arrives. I miss you girls and hope you're all doing great. Love ya!

Update

It's looking good already Kim! I'm glad some of us are technologically savvy. I think I do ok, but I'm definitely not into making things on the web look pretty. That's what my husband is for:) Although his current work has him just writing the code, but he's still pretty good on the design.

Ok well, I'm giving an update on Katie, and asking for continued prayer. The last week has been a nightmare with this hemangioma. It is till infected, despite the antibiotics. I had to take her into the pediatrician on Saturday (while I was supposed to be at a shower), where they did a culture and gave her another antibiotic. So now she's on two (neither of which has worked), and she's got tummy aches and aweful diarrhea from the antibiotics stripping her system (I've had to take her off all solid foods). So we were into the pediatrician again today (because the dermatologist wouldn't get me in before my next appt), where they said the culture was skewed because of the first antiobiotic, so they cut out one oral antibiotic and put her on a topical one. (sigh) One more thing to rub on her neck, which is painful. The good thing is that the pediatrician told me to call the dermatologist again and to make them get me in because he said so.

So we go in on Tuesday to see the dermatologist, and will see what he says. Everyone has a different opinion. The peds don't really like any of the options, but this waiting and seeing method isn't working too well at this point. And the more she ulcerates, the more scarring there will be down the road. And the more infections, the more she will become resistent to antibiotics. So my opinion is to do something. We will see. Anyway, continue to pray for poor little Katie who's little body all out of whack, and for wisdom with the dermatologist (and anyone he refers us to), and for wisdom for Nathana and I as we make this decision of a possible surgery for our baby. And also for sanity and peace for me, because I'm running on E these days.

On a quite and positive side note, we were at the neurologist yesterday for a check-up on her head (which went great and we don't need another MRI, which is fabulous because that means no unnecessary anesthesia...just another ultrasound), and while sitting in the waiting room there was a baby boy a bit older than Katie who was wearing a helmet. I don't know what what wrong with this adorable little boy (he seemed a bit delayed in motor skills), but I can't imagine it's a good thing if you're wearing a helmet and sitting in a neurologist's office. So that put things into perspective for me, and God always does when I'm freaking out. It can always be worse, and although difficult, Katie's medical problems are not life threatening at this point, and she is a smart little girl who is developing normally and will be able to live a great little life. And God always shows you there are those with bigger problems who you should be praying for instead of thinking about your own problems.

New design

I'm kind of working on a new layout for the blog. So things might look a little funk-a-delic for a few days.

Just FYI...

:)

Worth reading

Hi girls, I know we don't usually just post links, but this article is kind of amazing.

http://www.zenmoments.org/the-cab-ride-ill-never-forget/

If you get a chance, it's worth the read.

Love you all!

A Fib

Thank you lovely ladies who prayed for us today. Here's the low down on what happened!
10:30PM - chris woke me up and asked me to check his pulse. It was clearly irregular to me, and i was half asleep. I started to pray but Chris didn't let me finish. He got up and said "Meggie needs a daddy, let's go to the ER!" OK!
They discovered very quickly that chris' blood pressure and heart rate were too high for comfort, and diagnosed him immediately with Atrial Fibrillation - where instead of the top part of the heart having a definate pulse, it flutters. It causes the heart to work overtime (creating a high heart rate), and produces a very funny looking EKG. At the ER, they decided he would have to be transferred to their sister-hospital, about 5 minutes away, in order to be treated in a cardiac unit. they started some meds there while they registered him and found a bed at the other hospital.
3:00AM - after the meds, benadryl (we hada scare of an allergic reaction to the meds at first), and something else to calm him down, we began the transport to Trinity West campus, a hospital not far from our home in Rock Island.
4:00AM - after argueing with Chris for the last 4 hours, I finally submitted (though after 4 hours, can you really call it submission??) to Chris' wishes and headed home. He was admitted into the hospital and in his room at this point.
7:00AM - I woke up, made the necessary calls for prayer warriors, parents, and work places, showered (i think, anyway), and headed back to the hospital. Chris' parents were my first call and they both beat me to the hospital this morning.
12:00noon - I again, lost the battle to stay awake and headed home for a rest.
1:30PM - I had slept for about an hour and a half when Chris called me to tell me the doctor we had been waiting for, finally arrived to review Chris' case. As soon as he walked into Chris' room, the nurse at the heart-monitoring station yelled in "He's in normal sinus!" BAM, just like that, his heart re-set and started beating normally once again. I called everyone with the updates and we were told Chris may come home in a few hours. yea!
4:00PM - I arrived back at the hospital.
4:15PM - The results from a blood test were back (negative for whatever they were testing for) and Chris was told he was going home. yea!
4:20PM (I kid not... 5 minutes later!) - the nurse walked Chris, myself, and his parents out of the hospital.
We will have a follow up appointment with this A-fib specialist in 4-5 months. But very soon, chris will be completing a sleep study. One of the reasons A-fib can occur is from sleep apnea. that's the first thing they want to rule out. other reasons include: binge drinking (not our lifestyle), smoking (again, not us!), eating too large of a meal (ok, we all do this sometimes), or having an old heart i guess. For now, we were told that Chris can do whatever he feels like doing, which is sleeping and resting this evening. and of course, loose some weight, which we were both planning on doing in about 3 weeks or so anyway ;) His diet just starts now, and mine gets to wait.
So, for now, we are all home, healthy, and safe. Despite all the stress I had these last 24 hours, megumi seems to be doing very well. She's still kicking me, sticking out her butt, and having regular aerobic exercise sessions :) Hopefully next hospital visit will be for me, and will be a much more joyous occasion. thanks so much for praying today. I could feel all day that we were being held up in prayer, and i cannot tell you enough how much that helped get me through. We love you all.

New Prayer Request

Yes, you're not going crazy, we have yet another prayer request for Katie. I think you're all aware that she has the birth mark on her neck called a hemangioma. Well, about a week ago, two spots on it started to scab up and bleed. Hemangiomas can ulcerate, or bleed, so I was not surprised when this happened. It didn't seem to be too worriesome at first, and I had her pediatrician look at it, who referred me to a dermatologist. Well, now it's infected and her neck has broken out in a rash (not sure if the rash is related?). Anyway, she's on an antibiotic now, and I've been taught how to care for it while it's ulcerating. But it's a killer for me, because she screams when I wash it, or put ointment on it, and it's so hard to do something that you know causes your child pain, even though they need it.

So we're now faced with what to do about this. The appointment was good and confirmed a few things I had researched. This could ulcerate again in the future, so there are two possibilities. The first is to inject steroids into her neck, which I'm going to research some more, but I know oral steroids come with many problematic side effects, esp. for babies. I really don't want to do that. The other option is to have it surgically removed (Julie, you can tell Josh laser isn't an option for us because I guess it only affects the top 1-2 mm of the skin, and hers is a deep hemangioma). The dermatologist does know of someone he could refer me to. After meeting with him today and doing a lot of thinking, I think this is really the best option for us. She has a follow-up in 2 weeks, and at that time I'm going to push to be given the name of a surgeon. I'm nervous about it because it is the most extreme choice, but I just can't continue to deal with this over and over, and then decide to remove it. Plus, the more it bleeds, the more scarring it will leave. I hate the idea of surgery and recovery, and she's at such a difficult age to deal with it, but I think it would be best. The other thing is,we're really hoping to get it done before we have to change insurance Dec 1.

So if you could please keep this in prayer for us, we would greatly appreciate it. Just prayer for Katie as this is healing, and that the infection would go away quickly. And also for favor with the doctor when we go back. He didn't seem opposed to going that route, but of course they like to be as conservative as possible. But on the other hand, I've been conservative for 6 months, and now it's getting to be too much I think. Also, if we do have surgery, that God could just expedite the process so we could get it done in November.

I really appreciate the support in the past, and it's good to know we've got prayer cover for Katie.

Also, keep the updates coming. Jen, we're all waiting to see pics of little Megumi once she arrives.

37

hello and good morning beautiful ladies!
Wow, hearing Angie talk about plane tickets makes me feel really out of sorts. It just doesn't seem like our Colorado reunion is that close! I suppose nothing in my mind really exists past October 19th. We have not purchased plane tickets yet simply because we are waiting for some frequent flyer miles to finish piling up before doing so... Chris flies to Denver non-stop quite a bit to see his partner, so we may be able to get out there without paying cash for our tickets. wouldn't that be nice!
So I have made my final Wal-Mart shopping list for things to pack for the hospital. Any of you moms who have been through it have any suggestions on what to bring?
better yet, any of you ladies tried doing this whole birthing thing without the assistance of drugs and have any advice for me!? i know, i know, i must be insane!
nothing going on here except waiting for little Megumi to come meet us. I'll be sure to text at least one of you as we go to the hospital, hopefully prior to the 19th of October :)
Miss you all, and truely wish you were surrounding me now as i get ready for this adventure. sure would be nice to have 6 extra aunts to help out around here :)

I guess we are committed...

So I started tracking the flights to Denver a couple of weeks again and found a good deal today. I got both Aaron and I's tickets for $438 and was ecstatic to see them under $300. I was expecting to pay more than $600 for our tickets, so when i saw the price today I couldn't put it off. So yea... We'll be there, not sure if we will be skiing or doing anything that costs money - but we will be there. :)

Update on the house... Things have been going very smooth and we are working on getting the last bits of paperwork in to finalize everything. Settlement is 10/27 and we plan on doing the painting and other stuff that week and then move in 11/1-2. I feel like God has been carrying us through this whole process and we are so looking forward to moving into the house He has just for us. Once we get in and settle I'll be sure to post some pictures. I can't wait!

See you all in Denver in just a few months!
Love you tons!

MS 150

OK, friends. It’s been a while. It’s been so good to hear your updates. Liz – Katie is getting SO big and she looks so great. What a miracle she is! Ang, you know I am totally thrilled for you and the new house adventure. You’ll have to keep me posted on that. I hope you and Aaron had great birthdays! I’ve got some stuff I need to send to you…
Jen, I am glad to hear your shower went well. I know we all wish we could have been there. Julie, I hope you’re doing well with baby #3! And keeping your sanity! Kim, I so enjoy your blogging and the pics you post on Flickr. I have been meaning to shoot an email back to you for a LONG time. Jamie – I hope the school year is going by without a hitch! Thanks again for all the planning you’re doing for our next reunion. I can’t tell you how excited I am for it! :-)

We’ve been busy, as usual, lately. I think you guys all knew that we were training for the MS 150 bike ride, so that took a lot of our free time. We finally had the ride this weekend, and it was really fun, albeit miserable at the same time. We got to ride through Ike, then a tropical storm, on Saturday. I only rode 70 miles that day, but Shawn did the whole 82. It was pouring for the last 3 hours and water was squishing out of my shoes with every pedal (and my padded shorts). We got to the recreation center that we were staying at, showered, dried off (yay!), then we had to head back outside to get food. It was all under tents, but the ground was so saturated that it was a swamp. After I ate the food that was soggy and cold, I decided that I didn’t want to do the next day. We weren’t sure if Ike was still going to be on us, or if we would get any sleep in the cold gym that we were sleeping in, and my emotions just couldn’t take it any more. We called some pretty dedicated friend of ours and they drove over to pick me up and take me home. Shawn is my hero, because he stayed and did another 65 miles on top of the 82 from the day before. Sunday was beautiful, but windy, which apparently made it 10 times more difficult than the day before. Shawn was out of commission for the rest of the day. :-) He did the WHOLE thing. I’m so proud of him. As soon as I get some pictures from the photographer, I will post them. I would do it again, crazy as it sounds. Next year, though, I’ll be in the middle of my internship, so I don’t think I’ll have time to train, but I plan on volunteering in the support staff. It was a great benefit and so fun (if I hadn’t been miserable, I probably would have really enjoyed it.) Lol.

So that was our weekend. We both took Monday off, and I really enjoyed having a day with little or nothing to do. Now it’s back to the grindstone – I’m at work all week. I have a baby shower that I’m throwing at work on Friday, so I’m preparing for that. I have my grad school interview on the 29th, so I’m preparing for that, too (if that’s possible). I’m also dealing with some stomach issues again and I’m seeing a specialist on Thursday. I think we’ll be deciding if I need further testing or not. We’ll see how that goes – I’m trying not to focus on it. Those are the big things, and of course the little things are still filling up our time, but I don’t feel as stressed at the moment as I did before. So, that’s me venting and sharing a little. Hope I didn’t bore you to tears! As much as I don’t write anything on here, I check it ALL the time. :-) I love you, my Sapphires!

Getting ready for fall...

So that's what we're doing around here. We spent a lot of time this summer working on our landscaping, which was a complete mess before. So now Nathan is trying to finish up some jobs before he packs it in for colder weather. It's nice to actually have grass now instead of weeds and some decent plants. Bella likes going potty and playing in the grass now too:)

Along with colder weather, I'm stocking up on warmer clothes for Katie, who seems to be growing all the time. I can't believe how heavy she's getting. When did she make that transition from being a little newborn baby to being a big, active baby? She's doing well. I spend much of this month going to countless doctor's appointments for her because she's due for routine checkups with all her specialists, and a few tests as well. I'm expecting everything to go well. She is becoming more active all the time, and I can really tell I'm going to be exhausted once she becomes mobile. Thank God for naptimes. And while her dexterity is lacking still, everything she gets in her hands finds its way right to her little mouth! I've been keeping up with her baby website if you want to see any pics.

Not too much else going on. We are looking forward to the fun stuff fall brings (and the newness of doing it with Katie), and going out to visit Nathan's family in October. The picture I included was taken Labor Day weekend when we went up north and stayed in a cottage. Katie really liked standing and sitting in the waves from the lakes. It was a nice relaxing weekend and a great way to end the summer:( But, I do have to say, the summer ending is not quite as sad for me as it used to be now that I'm not going back to work. While I miss it a little, I hear it's been a really rough start to the year with some tough kids, so I'm happy being home with my Katie-Bug.

Ok well, I've enjoyed the recent updates from everyone else. Keep them coming. Ang, keep us posted on the house. Jen, hang in there these last few weeks. Sleep, rest, and enjoy quiet times with Chris while you still can. And Julie, you keep us posted on baby progress too, and send pics of Lilah's b-day.