Nehemiah

This past week has been quite the week! Last Thursday we came home and at about 5:30 we had a pipe burst and flood our finished basement! It was absolutely horrible and very scary. Poor Chad couldn't figure out how to turn the water off and we had water pouring in our home for about 35 minutes. I rushed the boys upstairs right away and started dragging whatever I could upstairs. We have our media room, playoom, office, bathroom, and bar downstairs and as you can imagine I was in shock that this was all happening. I have to tell you though through this whole experience God has truly taught me so much! The plumber we finally got ahold of to come to our home drove 30 minutes to our home to help. Even though he doesn't normally do emergency calls he said he couldn't not help. God was there! I spoke with our homeowner's insurance company that night and they stated as long as the pipe was frozen they would cover everything. I was thankful but nervous they would fight us on where or not the pipe actually froze. I know I should have faith and be calm, but i'm wasn't and being the control freak that I often am I was a wreck. So much so that I hardly slept much all weekend and thought I was going to get sick on numerous occasions yesterday morning before the adjuster came. Well he came around 10:30 and spent 1 hour and a half assesing everything and then went to his car to write up the estimate. What was supposed to take 20 minutes took and hour...and of course I was a mess the whole time wondering if it was going to turn out ok or now. And while I was sitting on my couch praying the Holy Spirit led me to Nehemiah chapter 1 and I was blessed by it!!! Specifically the last part of the chapter, "Give your servant succes today by granting him favor in the presence on this man" and you know what He did. The adjuster came in and gave me a three page report itemizing what they were going to cover and a check for everything including all repairs...and we were blessed. I know for a fact that we will spend less than half what they gave us to repair everything completely and I was brought to me knees once again by God's faithfulness and my lack of trust. The amazing part if God knows my weaknesses and still loves me unconditionally and continues to teach me through all things. I stand in awe once again at the God we serve. So that was Thurs- Today. My birthday was yesterday and turned out to be ok. Chad knew I needed to get out of the house and took me to a movie/dinner and we had a wonderful time. I am so blessed to be married to my best friend...truly I couldn't even begin to imagine my life without him.

So now i'm sitting at my computer and know I need to get up in 3 three hours to get ready to go into the office early and of course am wide awake. It's been nice though in that I got some extra studying done for my last final, paid some bills, and got caught up with some friends. Now i'm just praying that sleep will come and I can rest a bit before my busy day begins. We have also been pounded with a ton of snow and below zero temps..not fun! Well i'm glad tomorrow (today) is my last day of work before Christmas. I'm so looking forward to the time off with family/friends! It will be so fun to experience Christmas with the boys this year. I'll make sure to post pics. Have a great morning! I've been craving the sugar free blueberry muffins and a decaf latter from the coffee shop that I love and will be making a pit stop there before work today for sure! :)

A hair cut and seven dozen cookies...

Well my insomnia finally caught up with me. :) Today was a good day overall. My friend Amy came over with her two kids after work and her oldest and my two boys played in their playroom and had a ball! Her youngest is 5 months and napped a big part of the time they were here. And after dinner Amy cut/colored my hair! PTL...I was so overdue for a cut/color, that I was starting to look scary with all of my gray coming out. And now I feel so much better,except my hair is thick and takes forever to do. They left at 8:30 and I still had 7 dozen cookies to make for tomorrow's cookie exchange. Yep I'm exhausted and barely keeping my eyes open as I type but excited with all that was accomplished today. Now i'm off to crash! Night:)

Insomnia

So I have been blesses with the gift of insomnia for a couple of years now and honestly most days I am blessed by it. Today I woke up at 4:00, cleaned up the mess I made in the kitchen last night, had breakfast, spent some time in the Word, and am not catching up on some blog time all before I "normally" wake up, not to mention I can enjoy the quiet time talking with God. I just love it. Now i'm sure I will not be saying the same thing at 2:00 this afternoon when I feel like taking a nap in my office...lol. Today we are having a Christmas potluck at my office and I am so looking forward to it. I made lemon bars and a bugle dip to go with bugles which I love!!! I definately need to get a work out in tomorrow. This afternoon my dear friend Amy and her two kids are coming over for a playdate and I'm really looking forward to some girl time. She's also going to do my hair yeah! The grays are showing and I start to look like Cruella de Vil when they come out. So much so that my boss commented on my gray hair in the middle of a meeting with him the other day. Gotta love people sometime! :) Well Chad's alarm went off which means I need to start getting ready for work. We got quite a bit of snow yesterday so it will be interesting to see how the roads are today.

A Big Day

Today was my first OB appt since we found out we are expecting again. Let me start off with saying that I didn't get any sleep last night! I think I was up almost every 30 minutes and was up at 5:00 busy cl eaning the kitchen and doing laundry just to keep my mind off of my appt. I know that our baby's life is in God's hand but it's the unknown that is always hard to deal with. Well I finally made it to my appt at 8:30 and the appt began. I absolutely love my ob and told her right off the bat that I wanted to be induced again and asked what her vacation looked like for the summer...:) Finally at the end of my appt I had an ultrasound and there was our baby. So beautiful! I could see the baby's heart beating and it was moving it's little arms around. I am measuring 91/2 weeks which is almost two weeks farther along than I calculated, but the baby looks great. My due date is July 16th and I'm so looking forward to having the summer off with the kids. Now if I can just get past the nausea stage I will be happy. We haven't told anyone yet and I can't wait to tell our family at Christmas. I am going to get a frame for each of our parents which three picture spot and put one of Noah, one of Ky, and a copy of the ultrasound in the last spot.... I can't wait to see their reactions. Ann Taylor Loft has been one of my favorite places to ordeor maternity clothes. I have received awesome coupons from them and today received another box of clothes... 2 pairs of pants that were originally $74 for $17...can't beat that and I love the quality!! I also got this adorable shirt.

Besides baby...things are going great! I have one final down and one more to go. I'm going to Schaumberg on Friday with one of my girlfriends and can't wait. I love the Cheesecake Factory and can't wait to have a slice. This weekend Noah is singing in his first Christmas program, Kylan's godfather is coming up from IL to bring the boys' Christmas gifts and say hi, Sunday's my birthday and Chad and I are going out for dinner to one of my favorite restaurants. OH and my sister in law is coming home on Sat. from the Dominican Republic where she is a missionary. I can't believe that next week is Christmas! I can't believe how quick it has come up and I will be sad when it is over. It's been exciting to share the story of Jesus's birth with our boys and I love talking to them about Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. It is my desire that our sons grow up to love Jesus and accept Him as their savior. I pray for them and their walk with Him daily and look forward to watching them grow. I feel blessed to be a mother.

Christmas is Coming!

My mom, Michelle, My sister Jess, and I

The boys and I making hershey kiss cookies:)...Noah had a case of bedhead..love it!:)

Smiling for mom before church. He's getting so big!

Mr. Man

My little men

I just love Christmas and all that comes with it. I love making memories with family and carrying on traditions that I did with my mom when we were little. One of my favorites is making Christmas cookies and icing them. This weekend we did just that. I invited my friend Michelle, my mom, and one of my sisters Jess over to make cookies with the boys and I. Chad is content just eating them:) We spent a good five hours making cookies and had a wonderful time. The boys enjoyed sampling everything.

We have had a lot of snow today! Winter is definately here and in full swing. Chad just finished shoveling and I'm waiting my meatballs to cook and will be starting the sauce and noodles shortly. That's right it's another spaghetti and meatball night but this time I have a whole box of spaghetti! I've been craving crescents which goes so well with spaghetti and meatballs:)

Please pray for me. I have my genetics exam on Thursday and am so nervous. I just don't feel very confident about this subject and really hope to do decent on the exam to pull up my final grade in this class. I keep praying that God will help me retain information as i'm studying. I'm also praying for energy as i'm so drained by the time I get home from work and get dinner done that I can barely stay awake for anything more than two hours and my friends I need to get at least a good three hours in tonight so that tomorrow evening is spent just reviewing.

I went to the hospital yesterday and gave my first round of blood for the tests they run for your initial OB appt. My first appt is next Tuesday and I keep praying that it goes alright. Well that's all for now... oh and here are a few pics I thought you would enjoy. God Bless!

Making Lefse

The company I work gives each worker a volunteer day to use every year. Today I am using mine to make lefse at a local church and all of the proceeds to Echo. I'm so excited!!! Several co-workers and I are going to meet at the church at 8:00 and start the day. I've never made lefse before but i'm really excited. It's also been nice to be able to get up and putz around this morning before getting ready to go. Well i'm off and will update you all my experience this afternoon!

A Spaghetti Tuesday

I'm struggling with morning sickness all day these days and the nausea is driving me crazy, but at the same time a blessing. I lost my second baby (in between Noah and Kylan) and since then I'm always very nervous about getting through the first trimester and thankful every day that I have symptoms that I'm pregnant. My first OB appt is on the 16 and she will do an ultrasound then which will make me feel so much better! I had class tonight and then was going to go right to the gym for spinning with my friend Jill but just couldn't handle it. So I went home and decided on making spaghetti with turkey meatballs. I still can't handle the smell of chicken and am seeking as many new recipes as possible that involve ground turkey or pasta as that is all I can really handle right now. I feel really bad for Chad and the boys because they all love chicken, but seriously just smelling it makes me sick right now. I truly hope I'll get over it soon as up until now I love chicken and cook with it weekly. Anyhow I put my meatballs in the oven and went to boil my noodles when I realized I only had a quarter box of spaghetti noodles...so I ended up adding penne and rigatoni noodles to the mix as well. It still turned out good but the hodge podge mixture of noodles gave my husband a good laugh. Oh well... I'm not sitting with the boys while they are watching The Land Before Time for the hundredth time:) We were all going to venture out to Target (one of my favorite places) to get Noah snow pants...but decided against it as I am so pooped! Otherwise it has been a wonderful day! The week is flying and I am taking a volunteer day on Thursday to make lefse at a local church where the proceeds go to Echo. I've never made lefse before but am really looking forward to it!! Friday I am going to see a hockey game between University of Alaska Anchorage (my home team) and the Wisconsin Badgers (where I currently live) and can't wait. Did I mention I need to continue to cram for my genetics final next week? Pray for me please!!!