Decisions, Decisions

Well, I finally came to a few decisions regarding the issues I had been contemplating. In case you don't remember, they were: pain relief during labor, vaccines, and TV watching (although this one obviously doesn't matter yet.)

In terms of pain relief during labor, I have read alot (in books and online) regarding the different choices that are out there. And I think I have reached a decision. My decision is....I know the suspense is killing you....I'm just going to have to wait and see, which I know isn't really a decision, but I am the type of person who likes to plan everything out. And if I take the time to plan everything out, I get mad when it doesn't happen the way I want it to. And since this is something I can't really force into happening any certain way, I decided it would be better for me NOT to plan it all out. Now, of course, I'll have a general plan of how I would LIKE it to happen, but I'm not going to be set on anything for sure. Natural: that's an option (although not one I am likely to take) Pain medication: that's an option. Epidural: that's an option. I'll just wait and see how things are going, and how I'm feeling and make a decision based on that. I feel comfortable with all of these as possibilities during labor.

As far as vaccines go, I've done alot of research concerning this as well, and let me tell you it is basically impossible to find any website online that isn't biased towards one thought process. There are those that think it is just stupid NOT TO vaccinate your kids (I'm more in agreement with this) and those that think it is just stupid TO vaccinate your kids, but nothing in the middle. Charles has also done some research, and although we are not opposed to possibly separating some vaccines into more than one shot rather than grouping them all together, we WILL definitely vaccinate our kids. We have decided that we will find a pediatrician that we trust and follow his recommendations concerning this topic.

And finally, TV watching. Over the last few weeks I have been amazed at how the 3 month old I keep during the day can actually watch TV. And while I'm sure she's just looking at the colors and pictures, it's starting an unhealthy habit in my opinion. Now, we aren't going to go to some extreme and throw out all our TVs or anything...how would I watch my shows? But I am thinking I'll try to avoid letting Caleb watch TV as much as possible when he is young, and once he gets older, limit the amount of TV he is allowed to watch, and monitor, very carefully, what he watches. It's crazy some of the stuff they show on TV these days, even on the "kid"stations.


Well, there you have it, the decisions that have been made so far.

Wordless Wednesday

Spring is here, and so is baseball.

The rattle is driving me crazy

What rattle, you may ask? The rattle that my car makes every time I drive. It started a few months ago when I accidentally ran up a slight curb when parking my car. You know what I'm talking about. It happens to us all, you pull up a little too far when parking and your front bumper scraps against the curb making a horrible crunching sound. Well on this particular day, I apparently hit the curb a little harder than normal because there is this big plastic piece underneath my car that is now slightly dragging on one side. No big deal, right? Well, occasionally since then, when accelerating there is this rattling sound that my car makes. It only happened every once in awhile, until...

The other night Charles and I were driving, actually, he was driving, let's just make that clear...HE was driving, not me. So we're driving down the highway at night, talking, when we hear this really loud noise and the car kind of swerves a bit.

"what the heck was that?" (thinking to myself that we just blew a tire)

"I think we just hit something." (my husband's response)

"of course we did, why did I let you drive?" (I didn't actually say that part out loud)
"is my car ok?"

"yeah I think it's fine" (as he decides to pull into a gas station to check it out)

We pull into a gas station, where they promptly turn off all the lights, so we can see nothing. On to the next gas station. The car was driving fine, so we figured it was no big deal, but we still wanted to check and make sure before we made our way home.

"what did you hit? I didn't see anything." (I'm still not convinced at this point that we hit
anything in the first place)

"I saw something, right before we hit it."

Great, so he saw something, that's helpful. Saw what? Are we talking a raccoon? a possum? a dog? a cat? a deer? I'm still trying to figure out what the heck we hit when we pull into the next gas station. Charles gets out and checks under the car. It's then that he notices the dangling piece of plastic hanging from underneath my car.

"oh that, it's been like that...I hit a curb a few months ago"

He isn't at all surprised, which I suppose could be an indication of my driving skills, although once again, I was not the driving during this little incident.

So I'm sitting in the car as Charles lays on the gross pavement at the gas station examining the underside of the car. It's at this point that I begin to notice a strange smell, not good strange, really bad strange. About that time Charles comes back to the car to inform me that we definitely hit something because there are pieces of whatever it was on "every piece of metal under the car on the right side". Wonderful, I now have pieces of, who knows what, under my car, which accounts for the strange smell I was referring to.

Charles then decides that it is utterly important to find out what exactly we hit, so we proceed to drive back down the highway looking for some sort of dead animal on the road, while I try to convince myself that the animal was already dead when we hit it. After a few minutes we spot it. Of course we can't really see it, it's dark, so Charles slows down as I peer out the window and tell him it's bigger than a raccoon, with a long tail. A dog maybe? I hope not.

On the drive home we discuss what kind of unfortunate animal we hit. I think it may have been a dog, although I'm still convinced it was dead when we hit it, but Charles is completely convinced it was a possum.

" A possum? It looked nothing like a possum. It was NOT a possum."

We go on with this argument for a good 5 minutes before I finally say,

"It was furry, not scaly. It was not a possum." ( I obviously have no clue what I'm talking
about)

We figured out that I apparently need some animal recognition skills, because the whole time we were talking about possums, I was picturing an armadillo in my head. Oops. Ok, so maybe it was a possum. Yeah, it was a possum. The smell was horrible so the next day I took my car and washed it. By washed it, I mean drove through some really big puddles that hopefully splashed everything off the bottom of my car.

Now back to the rattle. EVERY time I drive it rattles, not just occasionally anymore. I don't know if mister possum knocked something loose under there or just increased the problem I was already having. Either way, it's annoying! I need to take it to get looked at, although that's tough because I need a car to get to work, pick up kids from school, etc.

Hopefully it's no big deal and can be easily fixed.

I just realized how ridiculously long this post is, so if you've actually read the whole thing, I applaud you. If you just skipped down here to the bottom, then shame on you. Just kidding, I probably wouldn't read it either.

Take Me Back Tuesday

This "Take Me Back Tuesday" is focused on the kids that I have been nannying for over 3 years now. Only one more month of taking care of these kiddos. I'm going to miss seeing their cute faces every day, but once Caleb gets here I'll have another cute face to focus my attention on.

This cute guy was 2.5 years old when I started taking care of him.
Now he's 5.5, and in Jr. Kindergarten. He loves playing outside,
playing tee-ball and football, Star Wars and legos.

When I first started he called me "lamb" instead of Elaine,
which lasted for some time. He now says my name very clearly.
He's such a big boy.

If you couldn't tell from the pictures, this little man is a handful.
He was 9 months old when I started and is now about to turn 4.
He loves playing soccer, following big bro around, swimming, and being silly.

He, of course, couldn't talk yet when I started, but he calls me
"laine". He still has some trouble with saying the
letter "s", but I think it's adorable.

This cutie pie is the new addition to the family. She's almost 5
months old and I have gotten some amazing practice
and experience taking care of her
for the past few months.

She is all smiles, loves people, loves watching her big brothers,
and loves her bottles. She's the little princess of the bunch.

The Things They Say...

A conversation I had today with the 3 year old boy that I nanny for...


3 year old: Some days, I don't like school.

Me:You always like school,you love Ms. Robin. (his favorite teacher)

3YO: Not anymore.

Me: You don't love Ms. Robin anymore? Then who do you love?

3YO: Ms. Robin. I wish I could go to her house. ( he's said this many times before)

Me: I told you, you'll have to talk to her about that.

3YO: I hope she don't got any dogs. They might eat me. (and then after a few seconds of th0ught)...I wish I could sleep with her. ( I just about died laughing)

See, he really wants to spend the night at Ms. Robins house and when he spends the night at his grandmothers, or aunts (the only people he's ever spent the night with) he sleeps with them in their bed. So to him it would be completely natural to sleep in Ms. Robins bed if he spent the night with her. Anyways, thought it was hilarious coming out of the mouth of a 3 year old, and thought I'd share.

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Here we go...

I most definitely DID NOT sit in the bathtub last

night with my laptop so that I could play

on the internet, while soaking in the tub.

I also DID NOT spend all day Thursday thinking that it was Friday, and even spend time talking with a friend on the phone about my weekend plans, until she finally said, "Ummm...you do realize that it's Thursday, right?"

I DID NOT start a load of laundry on Saturday

morning, and then decide that I didn't feel

like doing laundry, and I DID NOT just let it sit

wet in the washing machine for the rest of the

weekend, because I ALWAYS keep up with

laundry and would NEVER do such a thing.

ok, I think this is a pretty good start for my first "Not Me! Monday" and hope that you'll join in on the fun. It's ok, nobody's perfect!

Grains of Gratitude

It's time to take a minute and focus on some of the things I'm thankful for right now.

I'm thankful for the announcement made this
morning at church about the call of the
new senior paster. ( It's been awhile without one)

I'm thankful for the beautiful weather
we've been having the past couple of days.

I'm thankful that we've been able to
rest and relax this weekend.

And finally, I'm thankful for the peanut butter
ice cream I'm eating as I type this.
It's sooo good!

Take a minute to think about some of the things you are thankful for.

Wrapping Up the week

Once again, this week has gone by fast and has been pretty good. I just finished preparing to teach Sunday school in the morning for 2 year olds, which is ALWAYS entertaining. I try to keep the lesson as short as possible, but still their attention spans are like 5 seconds. Oh well, I know some of them are getting something out of it.

This week was work as usual, several easy days as a matter of fact, when kids had plans with their visiting aunt, or birthday parties. I had my doctors appointment on Wednesday, which went great. Doc said everything is looking good. Charles and I went to a baseball game on Thursday night and the weather was perfect so that was alot of fun.

And today we spent some time with my parents at their house, had a great dinner, and are just getting ready to head home and head to bed. Charles went hunting this morning, so he's been up since 4am, and is, I'm sure, exhausted.

Tomorrow starts the beginning of another week. Week 31 of pregnancy, which is always exciting. Another week of work, hanging out with my great husband, and getting ready for the little man. I feel like we have so much to do, and I don't like not knowing exactly how long we have. It could be 9 weeks, or it could be 5 weeks, or something in between. Hopefully we'll get everything done in time, I'm sure we will.

Random Picture Challenge

hosted by

Time for the random picture challenge once again.
2002 - my pictures don't go back that far
8th folder or July
25th picture

This is not from July or from 2002,
but it's the 8th folder and 25th picture.

This is one of the boys that I nanny for
when he was about 10 months old.

He's now almost 4, which is just crazy!
He's just as cute now as he was then.

Who knew choosing a carseat could be so hard?

It wasn't really that hard, but good grief, there were alot of options. Did we want an infant seat or a convertible seat? We chose an infant seat. What brand did we want? What style? What color? Even after making all these decisions we still couldn't decide between 2 seats.

We decided that an infant seat would be better at first so that we could get him in and out of the car easily, and then we read reviews to make sure our choices were all very safe. We took alot of them off of their bases and took turns seeing how they felt, how heavy they were, and how easily they snapped into their bases. Charles seemed to have some issues with the bases, but he'll get the hang of it. ( Only at Babies-R-Us can you walk around toting an empty car seat and not get strange looks.) Then we looked at the seat belts and how they worked. We felt them all to see which one would be more comfortable for Caleb, and not too hot feeling, since he's coming in the summer. I'm sure we spent way too much time in this decision making process, but oh well, I guess that's typical of first timers.

We finally narrowed it down to 2 different brands. One a little more expensive than the other but both seemed very safe, comfortable, easy to use, and not too heavy. Then we had to choose which color we liked the best. Did we want one that could be used for all of our kids or one that looked like it belonged to a little boy?

We decided we didn't want one that was too neutral (black or grey) and instead chose one that is kind of orangy-red and grey, and one that is red and brown. I think it would work fine for a boy or a girl so we'll have the option of using it again for other kids. But ultimately we never chose between the two. The trip wasn't wasted though, we now have 2 options rather than 200 options.

Charles' "grandparents" ( they aren't actually his grandparents, but might as well be) want to give us a gift card to buy a carseat with, so I think we will wait and see how much the gift card is for and pick a car seat based on that. We really liked both of them, so I don't think either of us will really care either way.

Here's what our two choices look like:

In looking at the pictures, I think I really like the top one better, but we'll see.

Prayer Updated

I talked to my husband and did a little research of my own and I think I understand prayer a little better than I did yesterday.

We are commanded to pray so we should, and prayer has several purposes. Prayer can help us to align our thoughts and desires with Gods will, but it also lets God know what our thoughts and desires are. He cares about us and He cares what we want. Prayer can change things. Does it always? No, but God can hear our prayers and because of them do things differently. There are examples throughout Scripture of just this happening. It says that God did or did not do something because of the prayers of His children. He loves us and wants us to be happy but that doesn't mean He will just give us everything we want.

There are times when what we want does not fit in with Gods perfect plan for us and we may not get the answer we want regardless of our prayers, but God loves us just the same and He knows what is best for us.

I still have a hard time fitting this together with my beliefs on the sovereignty of God, but some things we will not understand completely until we get to heaven and although that frustrates me sometimes, I just need to trust in God and know that He will always do what is best for me.

Posted with LifeCast

Prayer

One of the blogs I follow had a really long post today about prayer and the purpose of prayer. Her son is very sick and just went through major surgery and people all over the country have been praying for their family and she posted in response to some comments of the purpose of prayer. This is something I've often thought about so I thought I'd get some thoughts out here on my blog.

As someone who believes that everything is a part of God's sovereign plan, why pray? What good does it do? If God already has planned what will happen, will He change His mind if you pray enough for something different? Can He change His mind? If He knows what is best for us then why not just let Him do what He wants and trust that it is what was supposed to happen? Can prayer actually change the outcome of our circumstances or does it just change how we look at things?

These are tough questions, and I'm not sure I have the answers to all of them. I've struggled with these issues at several points in my life. First and foremost, we are commanded by God to pray, and that in and of itself is enough of a reason for me, but I'd really like more concrete answers to these questions.

Matthew 21:22 "And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (ESV)

Does this really mean that if we have faith, anything we pray for will happen??

James 5:16 "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." (ESV)
1 Thessalonians 5:17 "Pray without ceasing." (ESV)

Obviously, prayer is a very powerful thing, but does it actually change things?
There are examples all throughout Scripture that talk about God doing specific things because of the prayers of His people. For example: 1 Chronicles 5:20 " And when they prevailed over them, the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hands, for they cried out to God in the battle, and he granted their urgent plea because they trusted in him." Would the outcome have been the same regardless of prayer or did the prayers cause the outcome?

I'm really not sure how to answer these questions, so my conclusion is to talk to my husband. As the spiritual leader of our home he understands more than I do about Scripture in general and though we've talked about it before, I feel like maybe I need a refresher on these issues.

I'll post again once I have a clearer understanding on why we really pray, and what it really does. In the meantime, I'll keep praying.

Wordless Wednesday

Take Me Back Tuesday

I'm going to take you back almost 4 years,
to August of 2005, our honeymoon.



We went to Destin, Florida and had such a
great time. The weather was perfect, and the
water was beautiful.

My cute husband likes to be silly
sometimes :)

We went to a place called the Gulfarium
and saw all kinds of fish and dolphins, and
caught this cute guy doing a little trick.

Lots of questions...

After childbirth class tonight, I have alot of questions so I'm going to be doing some research over the next few weeks to make an educated decision. We talked about all the hospital stuff tonight and all the options or pain control/relief during labor.

I HATE needles.

So the very idea of having an epidural is hard for me to swallow. I'm just not sure if I can do it. There are other IV medications for pain relief, although I'm sure they are not nearly as effective as an epidural. I'm going to have to look into all my options and pick what's best for me.

It's going to be hard for me to make a decision based on my own research and not on what other people think I should do, but I'm going to try and do it.

**************************************************************

I also have some questions about some parenting issues. One is not so important right now, but will be eventually. And the second is more urgent.

1. I feel like Charles and I watch WAY too much TV as it is
and I've seen the kids I nanny for sit in front of the TV for
hours and I know it's not good for them, so the decision we need
to make is how much TV will Caleb be allowed to watch, it any, and
how will we monitor it.

2. vaccines - there are so many vaccines these days for these little
babies, and I am not at all against vaccines, don't get me wrong,
but I feel like before I just have my 2 month get 3 different shots
containing 7 or 8 different vaccines, I feel like I need to be more
educated on the subject in general.

So that is my plan, research pain control/relief for during labor, contemplate and discuss with Charles TV watching for our kids in general, and research vaccines ( what's in them? what do they do? are they all necessary? ) That should keep me busy for a few weeks.

Grains of Gratitude

I'm thankful for my sweet husband
who just spent 2 hours helping me clean the house.

I'm thankful that our little man
is still growing healthy and strong.

I'm thankful for the
rainy,
relaxing
afternoon.

Wrapping Up the Week

Well it's time to wrap up the week.
It's been a good one.

My ultrasound yesterday and my baby shower today were great.
I received so many wonderful gifts, I think this little man is gonna have everything he needs.

I always feel like my weeks are going by
slowly at the beginning (Monday, Tuesday)
but then they fly by, which is good.

I am now officially 30 weeks pregnant.
Seems like just yesterday I was at 10 weeks.

It's getting late and time for some sleep,
cause it's early church for me in the morning!

Random Picture Challenge

This is going to be rather difficult for me considering I don't have many pictures saved on my computer, but I'll do my best.

Hosted by 4littlemen.blogspot.com
we're posting April 2008 or 13th folder
42nd or 4th picture

This picture was taken several years ago
at the fair with some friends of ours.

Just seeing this picture makes me think...
fried candy bars.

If you've never had one, you are missing out,
and I know how horrible they must be for me,
but I don't care :)

4D ultrasound

Technology these days is amazing. I would say we have a pretty good idea of what Caleb will look like after today. We had our 4D ultrasound and got some great pictures and a DVD of the whole thing. I'll put some of the DVD on here once I figure out how, but for now....here's the little man!

He kept his little hands up
by his face the whole time.

She's Just Too Cute

the little girl I keep during the day...

just too cute, isn't she?

I'm getting great experience with her...

although she is so easy,

I'm sure I'm getting spoiled.

I'm gonna miss this cutie pie

when I quit working in a few weeks.

Thursday's Thoughts

Today I'm thinking about how to structure this blog. I don't want it to turn into a "here's what I did today" kind of blog, although I'm fine with that occasionally. Charles came up with "Thursday's Thoughts", where I will just blog about whatever I happen to be thinking about at the time, and I'm going to try and come up with, or find online, something for every, or almost every, day of the week. I'll still post other random stuff if I feel like it, but this will help me post every day. I've seen "Wordless Wednesday" on several other blogs which I think I might try, although I'll have to get into the habit of taking more pictures for that one. It's ok, I need to take more pictures anyways. So that's what I thinking about for today.

Made it to the Middle of the Week

Well it's the middle of the week, yea!! It's gone pretty fast this week. A couple of pretty easy days at work helped out with that. Only a couple more days and it'll be the weekend and a big weekend for us. We have our 4D ultrasound on Friday and I have my first baby shower on Saturday. Only 10 more weeks and little man will be here.

My Day

(at my nannying job)
-changing diapers
- fixing bottles
-story time at the library
-carpool
-peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
-more diapers
-more bottles
-play time
-rest time


(at my house)
-fix dinner
-laundry
-dishes
-relax (finally)
-bed

And do it all over again tomorrow. It may seem boring, or tedious but I have a feeling my life isn't going to change much once Caleb gets here and I quit working. I'm perfectly happy with that.

Posted with LifeCast

Childbirth Class

So, tonight was the night that I have been worried about for the last month or so, tonight we watched 'THE VIDEO!!!." I mean, I am really making an effort to take this class seriously. Just tonight I answered a question that Elaine was surprised I remembered from last week. I know that this is important to both me and Elaine, but at the end of the day there are certain parts of the delivery process that I don't want to see with my wife, that I love. I absolutely, in no way, shape or form was looking forward to watching some lady that I didn't even know delivering her baby!

And after all that worrying and eating a small dinner so that I wouldn't toss it watching the video, it was not bad at all. Really there was only one shot that would have disturbed me but honestly all I saw was the baby, the rest was kind of background. Now, don't get me wrong, this does not mean that I can't wait to watch Elaine, not much has changed there. My plan is still to stay comfortably up by Elaine's head and help in any little way that I can.

One of my concerns was confirmed tonight when one of the dads in the video said he felt 'helpless' when it came to helping his wife. I guess I am just trying to figure out how to be helpful without being annoying or 'too much.' Anyway, it is getting kind of crazy to think about how close the time is getting to him arriving! I am pumped and can't wait to see the little man!

piles of laundry

I have so much laundry to do I don't even know where to start. I do such a good job getting all caught up and then I get behind again. I probably have enough to take the rest of the day, but with my job I don't have the rest of the day. I have the baby with me now, she's asleep, thankfully. And I have 45 minutes till I have to go pick up one of the boys from school. Hopefully I'll make it back home by 5ish so that I can have an hour or so to get some more done before our childbirth class tonight.

I may be completely crazy but I really feel like once the little man gets here, and I quit working my life will get so much easier. I know for alot of people quitting their job and staying home with a baby is a huge adjustment, but I've been taking care of little ones for over 3 years now, it'll just drop from 3 little ones, to my 1 little man, which I think will be much easier. At least I'll be able to be home during the day which will help me so much getting stuff done around here.

uh....there's the dryer, gotta go fold that load before it gets wrinkled.

Happy Easter

Look there! The Christ, our Brother, comes resplendent from the gallows tree and what he brings in his hurt hands is life on life for you and me.

Good Jesus Christ inside his pain looked down Golgotha’s stony slope and let the blood flow from his flesh to fill the springs of living hope.

Good Jesus Christ, our Brother, died in darkest hurt upon the tree to offer us the worlds of light that live inside the Trinity.

Joy! Joy! Joy to the heart all in this good day’s dawning!

My Sweet Hubby

I just wanted to take a few minutes to talk about my sweet husband. Now don't get me wrong, he's not perfect, not at all, but he is wonderful. He has tried so hard since I've been pregnant to make things easier for me. He has been helping around the house more, and trying to ignore my crazy mood swings, without taking it personally, which I know must be hard. I know he loves me, even when we fight about stupid stuff and I know he's just as excited about Caleb as I am. We've been married for 3 and a half years and I've loved every minute of it. My worst days with him are better than any days without him.

Photo Friday

the two sweet boys I nanny for...

A New Beginning...

Well we've done it. We are officially blogging now. I thought it would be an easy way to keep up with our life. What's going on with us, pictures and all that other blog stuff. Let's see if I can actually keep it up to date and if Charles contributes at all...