He's Either Incredibly Smart or He's About to Get Fried...

Our cat, Lou, is obsessed with the fireplace.  But this is the first time I've actually seen him inside the fireplace when the fire was burning.  I did wonder what he expected me to do if his plan didn't work.

Happy Anniversary

It was this day 8 years ago that I married my college sweetheart.  So today, I want to tell Dear Husband that I love you so much.  The last 8 years have definitely been eventful with 3 babies, 3 graduate degrees, 3 places to live, changing churches, and adopting pets, but I'm so glad that I got to share these years with you.

I'm not one of those girls who periodically needs a "girls weekend."  I don't need social functions where I get dressed up.  I don't need "me" time away from the family.  And I don't need my own pursuits apart from you.  I just need to be with you. 

We do everything together.  We make decisions together.  We travel together.  We plan together.  You and I are perfect together.  And I'm so thankful to have married my best friend.  I love you!  Happy Anniversary!

3 Car Seats in a Row

I've heard many people say that once you have 3 children, you might as well have 4.  They typically support this statement by saying that once you have 3 children, you have to upgrade the cars and the house in order to "fit" the expanded family.  It's apparently at the 3 child point where most mothers bite the bullet and go for the (da da da dummmmm)--THE MINI VAN.

Maybe I'm an insecure snob, but I just don't see myself driving a mini van, ever.  I am well aware that they are practical and mom/child friendly, but I just don't want a mini van.  I have friends from all walks of life that rave and rave about their mini vans.  But I still don't want one.  So, when I found out that baby #3 was on the way, I was determined to find a way to fit my 4 year old, 2 year old, and infant in the back bench of my Dodge Charger. 

We bought the Charger when Baby #2 was born with the knowledge that it could be useful should we have Baby #3, because it is equipped with 3 car seat harnesses in the back.  Plus, the backseat is huge.  So I have to confess that I was floored when Dear Husband and I couldn't fit our booster, our front facing car seat, and our rear facing infant carrier across the back.  Thus began my mission to find the "solution" to the 3 car seat dilemma.  After all, it's a lot cheaper to buy an expensive car seat than a new car.

The rule of thumb for properly placing 3 car seats in a car is that they must all fit in the back without touching each other and with enough room for any child in a booster seat to buckle their own seat belt.  Thus, you've basically got to find the narrowest car seats on the market.  Unfortunately, as the genius government has forced cars to get smaller, the safety "idiots" have made car seats larger and have discontinued many narrow seats.  This means that mommies and daddies have to either get creative or look to our friends the "Europeans" for some help. 

To start my car seat project, I chose a Graco Snuggle ride infant carrier so that I could use the bases that I already purchased when my boys were babies.  So seat 1 that needs to go behind the front seat passenger is the infant Graco seat.  (I went ahead and purchased the entire travel system so that it was both "girly" and clean compared to my old travel system.)

 Graco Spree Travel System, Ariel

Next, I searched online for the narrowest front facing car seat I could find.  That's when I discovered the Evenflo Tribute.  It's 17 inches wide, available at Walmart, and priced very reasonably compared to some of the other 17 inch seats.  This seat fits nicely behind the driver's seat.


 Evenflo - Tribute 5 DLX Convertible Car Seat, Saturn

Lastly, I had to find the perfect booster seat for my 4 year old (who weighs enough to meet the 4 years/ 40 lbs requirement to safely ride in a booster seat).  Finding a narrow booster is easier said than done.  Mainly, because most boosters have arm rests that rub alongside the infant carrier base or the car seat.  While the armrests are removable from these seats, safety experts warn that if you have to remove the arm rests to make the seats work, then the booster seat doesn't really fit. 

After purchasing 2 narrow booster seats that still didn't fit in my car, I discovered every mommy's secret weapon.  First used in Europe, the Bubble Bum is a small inflatable booster seat that has finally been approved for use in the U.S.   This seat is awesome and affordable (thanks Amazon).  It's a sturdy and narrow booster seat that is small enough to fit in the back seat of a Porsche. And it fits perfectly in my Charger.

Bubble Bum Car Seat Booster

So I have officially solved the car seat crisis for mommies with sedans and 3 children of car seat age. None of my car seats touch.  My son can easily buckle his own seat belt.  We now have an inflatable booster that we can easily pack and travel with.  And the best part of the story is that Mommy is still driving her fun little Dodge Charger and is living happily ever after...  So much for the mini van and the need for 4 kids.

She's Here!

After waiting 37 weeks and 3 days, our baby girl has finally arrived!  She was born on November 20 at 2:04 pm.  Weighing in at 7 lbs 3 oz, our baby girl has a head of black hair and she looks a whole lot like her big brother.  What a blessing to have this little one join us right in time for Thanksgiving!

I wish I could say that Baby G's birth was without drama, but births in our family are always a little crazy.  When I went to my OB for my 37 week appointment, I pretty much experienced deja vu when they told me that afternoon that I had preeclampsia and would need to be admitted to the hospital sometime in the next 24 hrs.  (This all happened with pregnancy #1.)  Anyway, I was admitted on Tuesday morning, started on my day's worth of Magnesium (can you say one permanent hot flash?), and Baby G was born a few hours later.  Thankfully, my blood pressure and labs were stable this time around, so Baby G and I were able to move to the Mother-Baby unit the next day.  That's when the craziness happened.

I got a phone call that evening from my mother informing me that my youngest son had somehow reached onto a shelf and had ingested someone's prescription medication.  Per my school nursing instincts, I requested that she call poison control and follow their advice.  Poison control then directed my mom to take my son to our local children's hospital for further care.  As a result, Dear Husband left the baby and me at our birth hospital and drove across town to spend the night at the children's hospital with our 2 year old.  Poor daddy got very little sleep as they monitored our little one all night long and had to restart his IV 3 times (thank you nurses for catching the infiltration and saving his arm!).  Anyway, on Thanksgiving morning, Dear Husband called and said that all was well and that he and our little guy had been discharged and were heading home. 

So as it turns out, we had lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  We didn't get to enjoy a big family dinner with turkey and stuffing.  And we didn't get to enjoy a day of relaxation and football like we had hoped.  What we did get was a reminder of how precious life is, how precious children are, and how wonderful it is to be a family of 5.  Watching my healthy 2 year old bounce off the walls of my hospital room on Thanksgiving afternoon while my 4 year old posed for pictures holding his baby sister was priceless.  

A Better Day

"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you unto myself, that where I am you may be also." John 14:3

I'm officially 37+ weeks pregnant at this point.  That means that I'm safely within the "full term" parameters and will be allowed to deliver Baby G should labor progress.  I say progress, because I've been having contractions for approximately 15 weeks now and am looking forward to seeing those contractions turn into real active labor.  Oh how the waiting is killing me.

Sometimes I just sit around and talk to Baby G about what fun she's missing on the outside.  I tell her about her brothers and how they're about to give me a coronary.  I tell her about her pink and green room with all the flowers and frills.  I tell her about the fun outfits, hair bows, and shoes that I've been collecting for her.  And I tell her how much fun it's going to be when we get to do girly things together.  Despite all of these conversations, as of right now, she seems to be content where she's at.

Thinking about how exciting it is to prepare for a new baby makes me think about the conversation that Jesus had with his disciples prior to his death when he told them.  "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you unto myself, that where I am you may be also." John 14:3. As is evident from their behavior prior to the crucifixion, the disciples had no concept of what Jesus meant by this verse.  They couldn't fathom the greatness of their home in heaven that Jesus had prepared for them, because they were too comfortable with their earthly home.  And yet, Jesus, knowing full well what the future had in store for his followers, repeatedly told them about the joy set before them in heaven.

It has occurred to me that I am too often "comfortable" with life on earth and, like the disciples, am not really getting Jesus' point.  Just like Baby G, I get comfortable knowing that my parent is there, yet I don't get to experience the joy of being in the glorious, physical presence of my Father.  Yes, God has given me an earthly existence with glimpses of Himself through His Word, His creation, and His Holy Spirit.  But in Heaven, I will finally get to see and be with my Creator.  It is there that I can fully enjoy Him.

At the latest, my doctor has promised that I will finally get to hold Baby G on November 30.  And when she's in our arms and can finally cuddle with her Daddy, I will not forget how glorious it will be to someday be in my heavenly Father's presence when He allows me to enter my eternal home.  Until then, let me not grow complacent and comfortable with my life on earth.

While meditating on John 14:3 this morning, I just wanted to sing this song as I contemplated the future that my Heavenly Father has prepared for me.  Oh what a day that will be!

My Very Own Curious George

I've heard that the Curious George type of child really does exist.  And now I believe what I've heard, because I have one.  My "middle child" is adorably sweet and charming, but he gets into EVERYTHING.  Whereas my oldest child is a thinker and has learned to follow rules extremely well, his little brother is a doer and likes to be a helper by doing things without being asked.  Unfortunately, his helpfulness usually results in a huge mess for Mommy to clean up.

For example, the boys aren't supposed to mess with Mommy's cleaning supplies or Lysol wipes.  But a few weeks ago, my 2nd child decided he would "help" mommy by cleaning the refrigerator.  Unfortunately, he just coated everything in my fridge with a layer of carpet cleaning solution--the brand that I happen to be allergic to.  As a result, we had to clean out and throw away almost everything being refrigerated AND Mommy's arms broke out into a painful itchy rash. Ugh!

This same child is very fascinated by the baby things that Mommy has purchased and organized for his new baby sister.  One day, I actually found this boy crying inside the crib with his chocolate milk.  To this day, I have no idea how he managed to climb inside the crib.  On another day, he took it upon himself to change the diaper on one of his sister's dolls (the same doll that I played with 28 years ago).  When I went into the nursery, he had the doll and all of my baby supplies laid out on a big cardboard box.  And of course, he had covered the doll in baby lotion.

The older he gets, the more discoveries my little guy seems to make.  I probably have hundreds of stories I could tell about things he has "innocently" done around our house.  Sadly, it just occurred to me that I haven't done a very good job actually documenting his little interventions.

That said, last week I made a discovery that made me laugh and laugh.  While I was sitting at my desk, my little guy was busy turning himself into a monster with Mommy's make-up (see below).  Thank goodness he got into the box of eye shadow that I was about ready to throw away.

Every day is a brand new adventure with my little guy--kind of like watching a new episode of his favorite show, Curious George.  But you know what?  I wouldn't trade the headaches and the crazy hours I spend cleaning up after him for anything.  It's all part being a Mom!

It's a Surprise!

I should have known something was up when Dear Husband called to see how I was feeling on Wednesday afternoon.  Don't get me wrong, he regularly calls me to say "hi" but he doesn't usually call me at my hair appointments to ask how I'm feeling.  Anyway, since Baby G "dropped" on Tuesday, I was feeling a lot better on Wednesday.  Until the contractions started.  So I called him back an hour later to inform him that my contractions had started back up and were every 15 minutes apart.  He told me to pack a bag and agreed to meet me at church 3 hrs later.  This seemed like an odd response, but I was a little too distracted to argue.

Anyway, I eventually made it to our Wednesday Bible study at church and was running late thanks to the fact that my youngest child took a really long nap.  I noticed that my pastor's wife was waiting for me in the toddler drop-off room, but since she has a toddler I didn't think much of it.  But when we headed upstairs, I was in for a big surprise!

Our sweet friends at church threw me a surprise baby shower!  There was food, an amazing homemade cake, a fancy diaper cake, balloons (despite a local helium shortage), paper flowers, and a box full of goodies and gift cards.  It was so much fun and really special to get to enjoy the experience with Dear Husband who has never experienced a baby shower.  We were overwhelmed by the kindness of our church family.

It's amazing to think that it was about this time a year ago that we were given an ultimatum by our former church leadership--either plan on helping the church move to west Texas or find a new church.  I remember being in shock and being depressed during the entire holiday season wondering if we would ever find a new church "home," let alone find new church friends whom we could trust. 

Wednesday night was a great reminder that God can use those bad experiences in our lives to lead us to a new place for ministry and fellowship.  I'm so thankful for our new church family.  Baby G already has so many people who love and care about her.  It's really exciting to bring a new life into this world knowing that she's surrounded by all this love!

Tomorrow we're at 36 weeks!  It won't be long now...

I Offended the Dog

The other day, I made the executive decision that our dog was no longer sleeping on the bottom bunk bed with my youngest son at night.  This decision was necessary, because every morning I kept finding chewed up toys or trash in the boys' room.  Plus, almost every stuffed animal in their room is now missing an ear or a nose.  I figured that if the dog couldn't control himself, he would just have to spend his nights alone.  I didn't have a clue at the time that this decision would have such a detrimental effect on the dog.

Before I went to bed the other night, this is what I found:

My dog was cuddled up asleep with a Dole monkey.  Our oldest son refuses to sleep without his Dole monkey, so we purchased a few back-up monkeys just in case we ever needed them, and somehow the dog managed to commandeer a monkey for himself.  This is just so pitiful.

Since the puppy couldn't sleep with his boys, I guess he chose the next best thing.  And for some reason, the dog's monkey still has all ears and appendages intact!

To "Friend" or "Follow": Why I Don't Do Most Social Media

"The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever." I John 2:17

For those of you who know me, I don't tweet or do twitter or Facebook or post or whatever they call it these days.  I know that I'm missing out on the "it" trends when I refuse to embrace some of these new communication tools, but I have well thought-out reasons for abstaining from the Twitter/Facebook realm. 

I don't Tweet because I'm not into pithy one-liners.  In fact, when I am short and to-the-point, I'm often criticized as being too blunt.  So in my own opinion, since I can't be inspirational in a sentence or two, then Twitter is not the appropriate media for me.  That said, it's not appropriate for most people.  I mean, have you read other people's tweets?  Last week I perused tweets from many of my fellow church friends, and I was bored.  Like I care that you went running this morning or had a bagel for breakfast.  Here's my take on Twitter: if you can't be inspiring or encouraging in a phrase or two, then shut it down.  For those of you who are pithy geniuses, please continue to enlighten us...

As for Facebook, I have lots of reasons for not joining Facebook nation.  For starters, it's a privacy issue.  Yes, I am aware that I post information about myself regularly on my blog for all to see, but I have a little more control over what is on my blog.  I'm very intentional when I make posts, so there's plenty about my life that you'll never see on these pages.  Plus, the conversations that I have on my blog are very minimal.  Secondly, I don't have time for Facebook.  I don't need more emails rolling through my in-boxes.  I don't need to have to deal with gossip and fodder from high school "friends."  And I don't really have time to be distracted by other peoples' pages or walls or whatever they call it.

The other night, I watched The Social Network on cable (thank you FX and TNT for editing out the bad language or scenes from popular movies).  Anyway, as I watched the movie, I can honestly say that I am relieved that I have not joined Facebook.  The intent of the website is for people to get into other peoples' business.  And the guys behind it clearly did not have the best interests of anybody but themselves at heart.  They knew that Facebook would be a hit, and they knew that they could sucker people into "following" the Facebook trend so that they could make money.  And now the whole world is trending and "friending" each other.

Sometimes abstaining from the "it" trends has huge advantages.  I can honestly say that I feel slightly disengaged from worldly chatter because I'm not always in the know.  And I'm not obsessed with social media (as were all the people at church who moaned and groaned about their 21 day "unplugged" challenge when they gave up Facebook), thus it's one worldly thing that is a non-issue in my life.

I'm posting this purely to inform you why I do not engage in all the new social network trends. (I get funny looks from people all the time when I say I'm not on Facebook!!)  I don't care if you use all forms of social media, but my life is easier and less distracting because I don't.  For those of you who do utilize these tools, I just have to ask: Do your "Friends" and "Followers" know that you love Jesus as a result of what you post?  If yes, keep it up.  But if you're not sharing Jesus with these tools and are purely participating in this media out of personal or political motives, please reconsider how and why you're "connecting" with others online. 

Remember that the world is passing away, and our time on earth is short.  We've been called to share Jesus with others.  So please use your tools and time wisely to encourage others and to share the Good News of the One who has saved you!  If that is your goal, then Friending and Following might just be for you.

Where's My Glow?

It's been awhile since I've shared a pregnancy update.  I guess I figured that no one would care to read about my aches and pains and ailments. But surprisingly, people keep asking me to my face how I feel.  I still haven't figured out the best way to respond to that question, because I really just assume that they're being nice.  I'm not sure if anyone wants to know the REAL truth.

Last week I told my pastor (whose wife is 6 months pregnant) that I was day-to-day.  Yesterday I told someone, "well, I'm feeling great today."  But honestly, I think it's safe to say that overall, physically speaking, I'm miserable.  I've had most pregnancy "symptoms" that you will read about in a textbook.  From numbness in my fingers to morning sickness (yes, still!) to contractions that have me doubled over in pain to constant congestion I'm pretty much just enduring these last few weeks.  And I apparently look like I could give birth any minute, because you should see the surprised expressions I get from people when I tell them that I'm actually due in December.  Thank goodness that this isn't my first rodeo.  In about 5-6 weeks, Baby G should be in my arms and my body should be doing it's job to revert to my "normal" state. 

Recently, Dear Husband and I re-watched the movie What to Expect When You're Expecting.  I have to be honest that the first time I watched it, the movie seemed strange and disjointed since it followed so many characters.  But now that I'm pregnant and can totally relate to Elizabeth Banks' character, it's a pretty funny movie.  I love the message it sends--even though we think we know what to expect when we're expecting, the "expecting" experience is an individual and unpredictable experience for every future mommy and daddy.  And we don't all get our glow while being pregnant. 

I have to remind myself of that fact every day.  Because when I see other extremely pregnant women who only have a little "bump," or when I see pregnant women out running, or when I see pregnancy photography of women who really do glow, it's kind of depressing.  I definitely don't have a glow yet.  But I'm confident that the little girl growing inside of me will be my glow very soon.