Our new Baby Girl!
Ben is Three!
Jena at 3 months
Our house in the spring

I hardly know how to write everything in this blog that has happened in the last five months. I guess I'll do a general overview and get into detail at a later time. It's high time I started blogging again.
We moved in October to a wonderful house on a wonderful street. I really like a lot of my neighbors and some even have kids around Ben's age. I'll post pictures later!

On December 12th, I had our little baby girl, Jenalyn. We call her Jena for short. She is a WONDERFUL baby and I'm loving almost every minute of being her Mommy. Ben is a really great big brother and hugs her all the time. She just watches him and watches him! Daddy is always kissin' on her as well. Poor thing gets no lovin' !

On January 14th, I had a Grand Mal seizure while visiting my mother in law's for a family gathering. Thank the Lord I wan't driving and I wasn't holding Jena. (I WAS holding her but felt so bad that I gave her to my hubby) Just before I went totally out I asked them to get Ben out and they did. The next thing I knew I was in the hospital. To make an even longer story a bit shorter, I had a reoccurance of a brain tumor that I'd had removed in 1997. And on Feb. 8th almost nine years to the day of my last surgery, I had it removed, sucesessfully, again. Jena was eight weeks old and was young enough not to miss me too bad but poor Ben took the brunt of it. Thank goodness I was only on the hospital from Wed. to Friday night. My recovery was half thee time and half the pain of last time. I do believe it was due to the overwhelming amount of prayer. God is good.
Now I just get MRI's every three months to keep an eye on it. The Dr. feels certain it will come back again, the bad thing being that it could come back in a part of the brain that is essential and it could come back as a more agressive type. After a lot of emotion about all of this I keep coming back to one thing. God is in control, and I can hang my hat (Future, kids, and husband) on that. Really, none of us knows the day or the hour of their death and mine is just more imminent and realistic. But what a way to live the life that you have left. I appreciate SO SO much more now and I'm becoming more focused on what is really important. My relationship with my creator, helping my children to develop one as well, and to live out a beautifully sucessful marriage with my best friend. We are all so blessed in so many ways. How blessed am I to live every day seeing those blessings??

Picture updates!

The first picture is me this past weekend 10/15/05 I'm now 7+ months along. Next picture is of Mike and Ben engrossed in coloring, (one of the times Ben told me to "goway"!)

New Goal

My new goal this past month was to blog at least once per week. It didn't quite happen! I can't believe its been 12 days since I blogged last!
We have been busy as bees around here. Packing and wrapping and marking! A yard sale this past weekend helped a lot. Mom came down and was a big help carrying down things from the attic.
God bless the ladies fom my women's bible study on Tuesday morning. A few Fridays ago I had a whole houseful of ladies here, 8 actually, plus a few kids. It was great fun and boy can they work! They got every single picture and "chatchke", wrapped and boxed and marked! It was wonderful and they were wonderful. They wouldn't let me lift a finger...except to tear off tape and hand it to them! THEN the next Friday 2 other ladies came as well, because they said they felt left out of the fun when they couldn't come the previous Friday. Fun??? I guess if you want to see it that way! It was fun for me...I loved having them here. One of the ladies walked in and said...."You look like you still LIVE here!!, What did they do last weekend? sit around and drink coffee?" (I thought that Iwas in pretty good shape till she opened my cupboards. She then proceeded to sit me down and have me go thru my desk and throw away while they boxed up my ENTIRE kitchen... Thank goodness I had run the dishwasher because I would have had no dishes for dinner! They just were such a huge help. I know I wouldn't have been able to do all of that by myself with the restrictions that the Dr. has placed on me.

Which, as an update...we'll be at 31 weeks tomorrow! We are so so happy about that.
The high risk Dr. that I've been seeing said that we'll really be over the hump at 34 weeks... if I may be so bold as to ask for your prayers! Secretly I'd love to get to the Monday after Thanksgiving, when they take out the stitch. It would be something to actually be "full term" and go to the hospital because of contractions. (although I can imagine somewhere along the 3rd or 4th push I'll be wishing that Jenna were as small as Ben at 4 lbs, 1 oz!)

*WARNING* typical parent comments ahead!

Being home with Ben is SUCH a blessing. I see it more and more everyday, its those little things they say that you miss when you are away from them. . Yesterday I think he said, probably, seven things that were just hilarious. I have to get these things written down. (of course, I think that its always funnier to the parents...bear with me! I just need to get these down so I don't forget)
Just about his first question when he gets his bearings in the morning is, "Go ousside?". So, if I want to get his attention all I have to say is don't you want to go outside? Then he's right there, letting me take off his PJs and changing him, getting clothes, socks and shoes on. When he's ready its like the Belmont..."He's OFF AND RUNNING!" As he was headed out the door I could hear him say to our dog Dixie, who was already out, "don't worry, I'll come with you!" It was so sweet....
Then when we were outside together he wanted me to mow the grass. Since I'm over 7 months pregnant and on limited activity, I just told him that Mommy can't because the Dr. told her not to. He just looked inquiringly up at me and said, "Mommy too big!?" I had to chuckle! And wonder.....
When Mike is home with us on the weekends/evenings its all about DADDY! They might be reading a book or playing with trucks and if I come into the room and Mike starts talking to me, Ben will say to Daddy, "Don't say that!" and say to me "No, goway!" (While waving his hand at me)
It makes me glad that Ben is getting so close with Mike. I know that relationship will be very valuable once Jenna is born!
He is pretty good at saying "thank you and your welcome" I usually don't even remind him! It always impresses me. He is usually pretty fond of saying, "I need dat now!!" if I'm using something he wants. When did my little baby get so vocal?

Uh-oh, I found two big boo-boos

Ben was at his Nana's house for the day and discovered that he had two boo-boos that were needing some band-aids. Nana told me all about it when I went to pick up Ben. We both were supressing laughter as he listened in to the terrible saga. I had to snap a picture before I put him in the tub! He was still a little worried that evening and told Daddy all about it. Kids never fail to make you laugh at the most unexpected moments! Gotta love 'em!

I got tagged!

OK Elaine...you tagged me, so here it is!


5 Things I plan (Lord willing) to do before I die:

1) Own a horse again.
2) Live in Lake Tahoe with my husband someday.
3) Assuming we are blessed with them, be able to enjoy our grandchildren...see things come full circle.
4) Have a vacation on a dude ranch with my family.
5) Be totally comfortable with my own body (and be my goal weight! He he!)

5 things I can do:

1) ARC Weld (It might not be pretty but it sticks!)
2) Wire a GFP outlet correctly
3) Get a BIG splinter out of my son's foot (Ok it took two days to get up the nerve..but we did it! He was a "brave boy!")
4) Get violets to flower
5) Take a 5 minute shower (thanks to being raised in a house with only one bathroom and 7 people, it's just not enjoyable to hear "HURRY UUUP!" every 2 minutes!)

5 Things I cannot do:

1) Back a trailer attached to a truck or car, proficiently.
2) Enjoy sewing.
3) Take the place of my son when he's undergoing a medical test or procedure.
4) Fold a fitted sheet.
5) Understand why people are purposly mean.

5 Things that attract me to the opposite sex

1) Compassion
2) Love and fear of God
3) Strong work ethic
4) Vulnerability
5) Honesty

5Things I say most often

1) OH MAN!
2) Let's see....
3) Oh my gosh!
4) Good gracious
5) You have got to be kidding me...

5 Celebrity crushes

1) Chiefs Quarterback, Trent Green
2) Jason Taylor, Plays for the Dolphins
3) Sam Elliot
4) Kevin Costner
5) Alan Jackson

5 people I want to do this

1) My friend, Laurie
2) My friend, Vigdis
3) My Mom
4) My sister Chris
5) My sister Carol

Katrina Really Packed a Wallop!

Good morning Everyone. I wish it was good for the people impacted by this awful hurricane. As I watched Good Morning America, my heart just was wrenched for the poor folks down there. I found a Christian Disiaster Relief Organization online and thought I would at least put the page on my blog. If any of you feels the need to donate to them, God Bless you! They also have a list of supplies that you could box up and mail to them. It seems like such a small thing compared to how these people have been impacted. http://www.cdresponse.org/cdrhome.html

I hope you all have a good holiday weekend. Its hard to believe that summer is really coming to a close. I do love fall though!

Taking Care of Business

It has been a busy couple of days, but it feels good to get things taken care of. This weekend we were supposed to attend a birthday party in Lancaster PA, but decided that we had better stay home and get stuff taken care of in the house. (a much more BORING option! ) Monday was the house inspection here and we're waiting to find out what the new owners might want changed. Tomorrow, our township will be inspecting so that we can get a certificate of occupancy. There was a whole list of things that they will be looking for. Only two concern us, I think. One is GFI outlets and the other is a metal dryer vent instead of a plastic one. So on Sunday, while Mike was riding his motorcross bike, Ben and I went to Panera Bread for lunch and to Lowes to get supplies. I got three GFI outlets and replaced them in our kitchen. Apparently you have to have these Ground Fault Interrupter outlets within 6 feet of any water source. Gotta get that kitchen up to code! It wasn't too hard, but not as easy as I thought it would be. Especially because I had a bit of a handicap, without wire strippers...but we made it work! I guess I should weld that one pipe that had a leak in our crawl space, too..... JUST KIDDING! But seriously though folks...We did have to get an HVAC person in here this morning because of a leak in our air conditioning system. How did moving get so expensive? The movers (don't want to think about how much THAT will be!), $500 to test our buried oil tank, $120 to fix the leak, $80 for parts at Lowe's, $400 to get the inspection at the new house and $75 for the inspection for the C of O, and I believe we've just touched the surface! Oh well, this is what you gotta do, I guess, and two months from now it'll all be a distant memory. Then it'll be onward to our new place! Yay!

Friday is our 5 year anniversary. I said to Mike, on Sunday, that maybe we could do something Thursday night since he's flying out on Friday, like get his Mom to take Ben? He just calmly said..."Don't worry about it. I got it ALL taken care of!" OH BOY!!! I'll fill you all in on Friday or Saturday! (with MOST of the details!)

Today is MY glucose test with the lovely orange drink. I know it will be nothing compared to what my frind Elaine had to go through last week with a 6 hour test and *8* blood draws. Poor dear! But a blood draw nonetheless. I usually do some secret pushups in the bathroom before they draw to make things go a little more smoothly. Better to just get it done and over with...since I've been told that I'm a "hard stick". Sounds like a nickname that I might have aquired in prison or something. Hmm, I like it, has a cool, tough ring to it!! "you try that again and you'll have to talk to my girl "hardstick!!"

Well, I had my blogger post page up for hours yesterday. I got interrupted and never got back to it! I did sit in front of the blank screen for about two minutes though, if that counts for anything!
Our big news is that we did sell our house! By the time the people saw it, and we got to the real estate office to accept the offer and sign on the dotted line, our house was sold in a little over a week! I was shocked! It wasn't the woman that I'd spoken of before, it's a young engaged couple that will be moving in! We're excited for them.
That's just the way Mike and I did it. We put in an offer on our house a few months before we got married and closed a month before the big day! It was SO EXCITING to drive up here after the wedding. I'll never forget that feeling of looking over at Mike, knowing that I wouldn't have to leave him again!!
When we were dating, Mike lived here in Jersey and I lived in Maryland. Every weekend we drove to see each other, especially when we were engaged. Some of the time I would bring my black lab, Dixie, on the Cape May, (NJ)-Lewes, (DE). Ferry and Mike would be waiting on the other side. That 45 minute boat ride was extra long on Fridays and the drive to the ferry was way too short on Sundays. Or at least it seemed that way!
Its hard to believe that our 5th wedding anniversary is coming up. It will be good to celebrate, even though Mike is flying out for his yearly business trip to Europe that day. It will be a sad and happy day too. I'm thinking maybe we'll just do dinner out. I imagine we'll have a lot on our plates with moving and such.

Yes, we did put in an offer on a house and it was accepted! So both contracts are in atty. review. With the speed that our house sold and the way we found the house we offered on, it only has to be from God. Only God can put that timing together the way that He does! Just a FEW examples...
We had already put in a bid for another house in a neighborhood that we just LOVED! 2 houses were for sale there. One was ok, the other was pretty nice, but had three bedrooms...not awful, of course...but we figured we could make it work and maybe put a room in the basement eventully. We were TRYING to make it work. EVERYTHING in the house seemed to be grey. The walls, the floor (Grey formica tile and grey carpet) except there were black appliances in the kitchen and etc. It was a nice house though and generally we liked it a lot. We figured we were being picky and unappreciative of the opportunity if we didn't at least make an offer.....So we did, and were supposed to find out Sunday night or Monday morning if they accepted it.

Saturday night, as I was trying to fall asleep, something just didn't feel right. I felt like we were settling....I know that when God is working he even cares about the little things, like me dreading having to paint all those walls with our little baby and Ben. And not having the extra bedroom we were hoping for. (I decided not to say anything to Mike just yet and didn't complain about the walls or floors, because all of that can be changed eventually) Oddly enough, on Sunday morning as we were driving to church, Mike said, "You know, I just have this feeling that we should keep looking. I know its sounds wierd because we do like that house, but I feel like we are settling."......Can you believe it? I had to laugh! It was amazing that we were both feeling the same way! So after church we drove back down to look at that house again and IN THAT SAME NEIGHBORHOOD, was an open house, for sale by owner..that had never been there before, even with all the times we'd been through there! So we went to look at it and it was PERFECT....down to not having to do a thing as far as decorating, painting etc. a two car garage, a basement, four bedrooms and my personal want....Washer and dryer on the 2nd floor! When I saw that, I knew.... We put in our offer with them right on the spot and they accepted.
There is so much more, but not enough time to type. I'm so relieved that we can move in, I can have the baby and not have to worry about the house. Just enjoy the holidays and and our new little girl! We'll see. I pray everything goes through as scheduled, especially with the baby!

Baby cookin' Pancakes?

I had to share a laugh that Ben gave me a day or so ago.
I was eating lunch with him. Me at the table and Ben at his highchair beside me, munching on a hotdog. I asked him where the baby was and he pointed to my belly. Then he said, "I see baby?" I had to think for a minute and then said well, she's not ready to come out yet. You know how Mommy cooks food for you on the stove or in the microwave, and you can't eat it till its done cooking? Well, the baby isn't done cooking yet! I was quite proud of my explanation till he exclaimed, "Baby cooking p-peaks (pancakes)?? Baby need dis!!" as he handed me his fork! He is such a smart little guy...it never crossed my mind that my explanation could be construed that way!
Now everytime we talk about the baby he says, "baby cook p-peaks?" I can imagine he'll expect a full breakfast when she's born!!

Ok I'm much better now!

Hi all! I feel better now. When I realized that I had lost my big long blog (just at the point of spellchecking!) I said, "OH NOOOO" and Ben came running in to see what happpened. He said "What daaaat?" I explained that Mommy spent a long time typing and now its all gone! He simply said, "I sorry Mommy, I sorry" and walked out. I had to chuckle. I felt much better. He such a sweetie!
This past weekend was pretty busy. We had 3 couples on Friday night, a woman and her son on Saturday morning, a woman and her daughter on Monday and another couple today. We've had three offers, 2 lowballs and one that was our asking price (the woman and her son from Saturday, she was just so happy that our house was for sale. She said she'd been driving our neighborhood for a month hoping one would come up for sale. Who woulda guessed?) She wants it so bad that she's gone for a bridge loan until her house sells. Guess we'll have to see. We secretly hope she gets the house because she's so sweet! Meanwhile we've been going back and forth with offers and counter offers with one other couple.
We looked at 2 houses in Manchester last night. (about 10 min. south of us in the same county but a WHOLE other tax area....MUCH better taxes! We can get twice the house for the same taxes. Of course we loved them both and our agent warned us about looking before our house sold, but its hard not to! Now we can't do a thing but wait to see if our house sells before the ones we like, do. Oh well. I know that God has this whole thing worked out! (and it will in His time.)

Mike and I spent the afternoon on Sunday in our pool and puttering around the back yard, me watering plants and him, changing the oil in our quad and something else with his bike. At one point, Ben was asleep (Yes, the monitor was in earshot but only for my relaxation purposes) I was lying on a floating lounge in the pool and Mike was messing with the bikes. We were just talking abut different stuff. About how blessed we've been to have this house and how much we'll miss the pool. It was such a nice reprieve from our busy weekend! I had to say a silent prayer of thanks!

Ugh!

I'm going to go sulk now. I just typed out a whole long blog and I lost it all. Ugh! I'll be back later on today with renewed energy, hopefully!

Gardening IS one of my favorite past-times, right?

Wow! I'm TIRED! Two nights ago we met with the realtor and signed the papers to list our house. It was a dose of reality! We've got some things to do! Yesterday I had a surge of energy and sanded and painted the mailbox and park bench, trimmed all the bushes in the front yard, planted a few flowers, and got Ben's haircut. After Mike got home from work and unloaded the mulch and topsoil for me I planted some evergreens around our back deck. (meanwhile Mike was putting away and organizing the big stuff in the back yard) We were both filthy and stinky at the end of the day!
(Ps the picture is of Ben a year ago, my little gardening helper! )
And here I sit, filthy and stinky again! (Yes I did get a shower last night!) This morning Ben and I got out before it got too hot (but it didn't end up that way! It's steamy out there!) and I trimmed some of the bushes and trees in the back yard and mulched those evergreens. This afternoon the realtor comes to take some pictures and I want it to be DONE and now I finally am! I think the shower is screaming at me (especially because Ben is down for his nap)
By the way, if you've read some previous blogs, you'd see that we're still having trouble with Ben sleeping all night. He just gets up, we go in and put him back in his bed, and this might happen three to four times a night. Last night he slept all night till 5:45am. I think I could handle that on a daily basis! Its not that early considering that I milked cows for two years college and one summer worked at an Angus farm that I had to be at the farm by 6 am. ( I think I was a bit daft in the head ~wink~) Now if Ben could just guarantee me those hours of sleep every night...ha ha!

Things are speeding up around here!

Well, suddenly things have started to pick up around here. Mike and I sat down last week and had a serious conversation about how small our house will seem with another baby. I think I'm willing to deal with it, but Mike had a good point when he said how much harder it would be to move once the baby is born. What if we decide a month later that, oops, we need a lot more space! I won't be much help, especially those first few months of no sleep! SO we went to some open houses this weekend and talked to a few realtors and its possible that our house will be on the market by the end of the week!! WHOA! things are moving fast! We meet with our realtor tonight to sign the papers and etc. This is definitly a new experience for me. The closest I've come to this type of thing is a garage sale..."come on, you know you want that futon!!" I want to set up our camera in a closet or something to see what people say about our house. That way I can say, "oh yes that couple is really nice, I think they'll appreciate our house!" Of course it probably will come down to the green, you and I know that!
Its amazing how one minute you are thinking, Oh how nice, we have almost every weekend in August at home! (First time all summer!), and the next its, boy we don't have enough weekends in August to get the house ready to sell! It is an exciting time as well, so I know it will go quick. Mike leaves the beginning of September for his yearly trip to Europe for work. It would be nice to wrap it all up in a month! (Ha ha!) I know that if this is where God wants us then it will happen in His timing. I do trust in that! My thoughts are of my friend Elaine who has her house for sale, has 3 boys and they are looking at buying property in North Carolina. Makes me feel that our task is much much less daunting! Thanks for your inspiration Laney!

Listo (L) and Dixie (R) 

Ben and Mike, the day we drove Trail Ridge road in Rocky Mountain National Park. We were over 12,000 ft above sea level. 

Ben and Mike behind our cabin, during our vacation in CO. 

A mental step back

Today I got up at 6:30 am, got a shower, got Ben dressed and was out the door by 7:15. Without Ben of course. Do you really think I could get ready that fast with a child in tow? I think not! My wonderful husband is dropping him off at my mother-in law's while I drive up to North Jersey (somewhere) to drop off a display. All I know is that I went past Rutgers and kept going about another 1/2 hour. I'm the chair for the NJ Soil and Water Conservation Society's display comittee. Whoa! Exciting and heady stuff for this stay-at-home Mom! (Ha!)

It was quite exciting (and tempting) at first. Listening to our local Christian staton, enjoying a quiet car, having some alone-time (a precious commodity among stay-at-homers), and then.......I hit traffic. About 45 minutes of stop-and-go. Before I knew it, "COME ON!" and "WOULD YOU MOVE OVER SO I CAN PASS!!" was escaping this mouth that had been singing praise songs only moments before. I had to take a mental step back and assess the situation. I think God was shaking his head at me at me at that moment saying, "You see! What makes you think that you know what is best for your life?? I've kept you at home to protect you and Ben, so he can have a happy healthy Mom at home!" I'm glad HE's directing my path and not me!