Goodbye 1st Trimester!

Today I am officially out of the first trimester. I also go to see my OB today. Am I nervous? Uh YEAH! I always hate my appointments during the 1T. I have no reason to be nervous, but you just never know. Maybe something did happen to the baby and my body just isn't registering it yet. I've known plenty of women who went into an appointment thinking everything was fine and dandy and then boom, they can't find the heartbeat. You would think after having 3 beautiful, healthy children that the fears would go away. Not so much. My appointment isn't until 1:00 too so lots of time to think about it. At least I'm bringing the girls to a gym to play with some of their friends though. That will hopefully take my mind off of it.

My morning sickness has started going away which I am so thankful for. I still don't feel great for about 30 min in the morning and I'm still feeling bad later at night when I start getting really tired (about 9pm) but that is a walk in the park compared to how I've felt the last 8 weeks. I have so much cleaning to do in this apartment now though. It's been pretty neglected the last 8 weeks and I've been doing just enough to get by. Yesterday I got the kitchen scrubbed pretty good, except the fridge and the floors. Today I won't be able to get much done.

Granted I have pretty good motivation. I have family coming over next weekend for Elijah's first birthday. I'm trying to do a little bit each day. Our bathrooms need a major cleaning, floors need to be washed, fridge needs to be cleaned, things need to be dusted, food needs to be made. Ugh! Not sure if I'm feeling THAT much better yet.

Still waiting

It has been almost 4 months since the church we really want to go to contacted us to let us know their preaching position would be open. We are still no closer to finding out anything. He wrote us at the beginning of February and let Chris know that he would be contacting us soon as they wanted to set up a phone interview for this month or the beginning of next. After 3 weeks Chris finally emailed to let them know this week would work great as he is out of classes. He just wrote back to let him know that they aren't quite ready yet. I'm really really working on my patience as I know it is a weakness of mine but I just don't get it. How are they not even ready for a phone interview yet, after 4 months? The elder has said it will be just a quick call to just talk about basic doctrinal questions. I could understand more if they weren't ready for him to come up there yet to tryout. But not even ready for a phone interview? It's just so incredibly frustrating. It is so hard to be patient when I have thought about this place literally every day since they day he told us they would be hiring. It's just driving me nuts!

We are getting down to about 3 months until Chris graduates too. Time is ticking by and it is so scary to think about him not having a job by the time he graduates. I mean, come September we will be a family of 6. I don't even think it's legal to have 6 people living in a 2 bedroom apartment and if he doesn't have a job we can't afford to rent a house.

So yeah, just lots of emotions and restless nights. I am just ready to be done with it all ready. I'm just ready to know something instead of being in this limbo land. I know it will all fall into place. I do. Just sometimes the worries come through. And like I said above, right now it is just more about the frustration.

We know we have a huge advantage. We also know that as of right now Chris is the only applicant. And they haven't put the ad up anywhere besides their church page, and it isn't even on the first page, you have to click through some things. Just makes me want to scream JUST HIRE HIM ALL READY!!! lol

Patience, patience, patience, and trusting God. That's what it all boils down to.

Down to 1 car.

A few weeks ago, while we were getting some snow, Chris had to run to Wal-mart to pick up a few things. He just drives a little GEO Metro. As he was on his way home there was a firetruck going through the intersection, very slowly, and he didn't see it until it was too late. He was going less than 25 MPH because the roads were terrible but when he hit his brakes they locked up and he went skidding and ended up clipping the back end of the firetruck. Shouldn't have been a big deal at all but it tore the front-side of his car up. It definitely made me think about how much worse it could have been if he was going faster. The car is like a little tin box and if that little of an accident ripped the front end apart what would have happened in a slightly worse situation. Makes me shudder.



(if you look close, that is his front panel that is wrapped around the tire)

Oh, and he got a ticket for failure to control his vehicle. That's the part that really gets me. If the city would actually do their job and keep the major roads cleaned off it wouldn't have been an issue. He stopped in plenty of time, he just doesn't have anti-lock breaks and with the road conditions the way the were, it was really slick. Isn't there such a thing as a no-fault accident anymore or have our cities just become so greedy that they will write out a ticket for everything? I told Chris now I understood why they didn't clean the roads off right away. Personally I think they hope for accidents during this time so they CAN make money off of tickets.

Anyway. We have been down to 1 car for the last few weeks and boy does it stink! Not that I have really felt like going anywhere and not like the weather has been nice, but still when you have no other option but to stay home it's not so much fun. We called the Credit Union we have belong too for many many years, but they don't consider the income we bring in through the churches while Chris is at school to be verifiable income, and so they don't count it. Even though we have had loans through them pretty steadily for the last 6 years, and currently have our van payments through them, and I have never been late, they would not give us a loan. He was talking with one of his instructors who told him to try a certain place as he knew the guy and he would give us a loan. Chris went there yesterday and found a pretty decent little $2,000 car. Needless to say, he said the same thing about our income and wouldn't finance us. We would have only needed financing for $1,000 of it but it was a no-go. Once our taxes come in we would have the extra money, but Chris said the way the car was he doubted it would still be there even in just a few days. What a huge bummer! I hate being without a car, especially once the weather turns nice and we want to get out and about.

I told Chris though that I was thankful it was his car he got in an accident in and not the van. Had it been the van we really would have been in trouble. So, while inconvenient and takes a bit getting used to, I feel very blessed that 1) no one was hurt and 2) it wasn't the van.

It is kind of sad though. He bought that car for just $600 about 4 years ago and we never had any major problems with it. When something had to be replaced the parts were always cheap. It will be going to a good home though. He is giving it to his nephew so he can work on it as time goes on and eventually be able to drive it.

New Layout

Thanks for the heads up on my layout! It worked just fine on my PC but when I checked on the Mac it was completely messed up.

The downside to changing templates? It completely wiped out my blog list. =( I was able to go threw and find some of them, some of them I have saved, but I just always went to my blog list and didn't save them all to my computer. I know there are a few I am missing but I can't find them anywhere. So...if you were once on my blog list and now are not, please let me know so I can re-add you!

I seriously need to update the pictures of the kiddos on the side, and I noticed I haven't updated Eli's growing stats in, well, a long time. Details, details, details. Someday I will have the time.

On the job front

Well we had quite the surprise email when we got home from traveling on Sunday afternoon. There was an email from one of the elders at the place we really want to go to saying they are ready to talk with Chris sometime this month or the beginning of next month. I had just talked with him last week and he said they really hadn't gotten much further in being ready to interview. Since it has all ready been 3 months, I was expecting it to take at least another month or two. It was so great to hear that we are finally going to be moving forward on this and have some plan for an interview. Just to know one way or another on if he gets it will be so much better than this limbo we have been in.

AND we also just found out they also have a house for the preacher. We didn't know that before so that is a huge plus! Fingers crossed we will get the phone interview scheduled soon!

Looking back

I took this picture for a card I was making for Chris for Father's Day in 2008. He still has it hanging up on his wall in front of the computer. Above the picture it has Forever Your Little Girls. Chris told me awhile ago what the picture and caption means to him and ever since when I look at it it makes me tear up. He said it makes him think that even as they walk away, into life, they will always be his little girls. When I took it I just thought it was cute and he put a beautiful meaning into.

Laundry Detergent

Can I just say that I am so thankful that I discovered the world of homemade laundry detergent. I can't even put a cost on how much money this has saved us. We were spending a TON just in detergent. I do, on average, 4 loads of laundry A DAY. Especially during the winter when we wear more sweats since they take up so much room. And I was surprised at how well it really does work. I have been making about 5 bottles of liquid detergent at a time and it costs me less than a dollar total. I've just about used up all that I have made right now and so next time I am going to try to make my own powder detergent and see how well that works.

I just love being able to save some money especially when it is on something so simple to make!

Sick and tired

I'm tired of being sick and sick of being tired. Sigh. It has been a rough 4 weeks and I shudder to think I still have 3+ more weeks of this.

My house is a disaster. I do what is absolutely necessary each day but don't have the energy beyond that. The exhaustion hits me like a bag of bricks. And of course Elijah and the girls are on completely opposite napping schedules since Eli still has 2 naps a day. So...that means no naps and no resting for me.

Yesterday was especially rough. I woke up throwing up and felt terrible the rest of the day. Today has been better, though I still don't feel great.

And I hate throwing up.

I just can't wait until I am done with the 1T and I hopefully will no longer be sick.

Breaking friendships -definitely not on the fun list

I have been friends with this guy for the better part of 16 years. We met when we were freshman in high school and stayed in touch even after I moved to Texas just a few months later. He is one of the only people I have stayed in touch with. We just talk on the phone from time to time and drop notes here and there. We don't usually see each other though. I use to work out with his mom and keep in touch with his twin brother and his older sister. When he got out of the marines and was in the same town I was, I would go over to his parents house from time to time for game night. I never thought anything about it.

He just told me the other day that he just found out his wife had been cheating on him for some time. I had a feeling from the last time I talked to him though when he was saying she was going out at night a lot. In this same letter, in one sentence, made a comment about us that was completely inappropriate and made me really uncomfortable. I still haven't wrote him back, though I really need to, to address it. I got it on Saturday night, kept it to myself just to let it all soak in and try to figure out what I needed to do, and then on Sunday I shared this note with Chris. I felt it was something he needed to see. I then talked to him about what I thought was best, and he agreed. Though he did say he may not have meant it like I took it and to double check. I've known him for 16 years though. I 99.9% sure what he meant was was he wrote. And I told Chris I don't and won't feel comfortable at all in keeping our friendship up with what he shared with me.

I still have to figure out how to write it explain it all to him though. I'm shocked and hurt. 16 years is a long time to have to end a friendship.