things...

So I thought I'd ramble on here for a while tonight...

1. Matthew could care less about the potty now. If you ask him if he wants to sit on it now, he has a complete meltdown "No Mommmmma!" BUT if *you* are on it .... he needs "Mafew's turn" ugh. So either it's no flippin way or it's a joke. Truthfully I thought it was too early anyhow, so I'm going to stop asking him about it. We'll see if he asks me on his own again or if it's tabled for the time being. Anyhow, that was pretty short lived, huh?! haha

2. Baby news-- this child KICKS a lot. With Matthew, at this point in the pregnancy I hadn't even felt him at all yet. In fact not for another 2 or 3 weeks I think. But this one is miss or mr. ACTIVE. Jamie said the other night that he was actually woken up by our Manna kicking him. Since I sleep like the dead I didn't wake up and find it funny. We have the next appt Tuesday September 9th. I can't believe how far we are already. It's just surreal sometimes. I'm half way through 22 weeks. Oh, and I'm out there. WHEW. It seems like this belly has just popped over night. I have to turn sideways now to do the laundry, otherwise I'm shoving the belly into the washing machine which is painful. bah.

3. I feel the need to talk about my dad. ...Tomorrow will be a week on radiation. Two weeks ago, after three scans, active cancer cells were found around his surgery site. The good news is that no new sites were found. No tumor was found. If it is in the tissue surrounding the surgery site, then the docs are pretty hopeful that the radiation will for sure knock the rest of it out. This came as a shock to all us. After the surgery last October he had good PSA counts (where they test your blood for the cancer levels) at 0.05. Anything under a 4 is considered good, so this was excellent news. Then what caused all the concern and additional testing and scans recently is becuase a routine PSA count testing showed his levels at 1.2. From 0.05 to go to 1.2 in a 3 month span is a little scary. That means there was something in there and it was growing/spreading... SO. The positive is that the docs are being proactive. This didn't sit around for another three months to be tested later and compared with. My mom has said that there is a pannel of docs looking over his files and all that. And every five days of radiation a doc meets with him and discusses the side effects/any effects and such. -- Oh and the radiation will last every day for the next 8 weeks.

Please keep him and my mom in your prayers and thoughts. I'm praising God knowing that HE is the ultimate healer and asking for the cancer to be removed from my dad's body. It's hard to think we're doing this again around the same time as things began firming up last year. BUT I know that God is good and HE is faithful and just. I just wish I knew all the why's sometimes. Huh?

Anyhow that's it for now. Thanks for listening to my ramblings. Cheers.

Just cute

I just couldn't help myself. I took a bunch of new pictures of Matthew playing recently and this one makes me smile. It's like he's smiling right at you. ( I love his chin. )

Potty update

Ha! This is a joke. For the most part it's kind of a non-event. But he keeps asking to sit on there. I seriously think because he gets a square of toilet paper for doing so. But since Sunday morning, we have had no other actual "going" in the potty and he's sat on it at least 2-3 times a day. Oh well.

What's funny is when he gets off and says "Okay Mommy's turn" like we're just going to keep taking turns, sharing the potty. Ha. Oh well. Maybe pull ups are NOT in our immediate future after all.

Matthew the Big Boy!

Well folks, I'm not sure for how much longer my first born baby will stay a baby... He sat on the big potty three times yesterday with no eventful happenings happening. However, this morning he sat on there and did potty in the potty!

I was not planning on potty training this early, but he's taking the initiative himself, and told me he wanted to sit on the potty. So I guess I can't squash that! We'll see how this goes. We may be in the market for some pull-ups soon.

Nothing else really new or fabulous to report on, just a little mommy moment of excitement and a tiny twinge of sadness as baby becomes boy.

(lowfat/ww) Crockpot recipes

Okay so I seem to be on a recipe kick lately, but my best friend's mom sent this out that she found and I have to store it! Here's a list of crockpot recipes that are low fat and already have the points figured out! Enjoy!

http://saksfamily.no-ip.com/crockpot.html

recipes

Looking for new recipes?

Jamie found this whole foods site that has over 100 easy recipes. We're going to try some of them I'm sure. Enjoy.

http://www.whfoods.com/recipestoc.php#recipes

MO vacation pics

Here are some highlights from the July trip to Missouri-- sorry it took so long...

Helen trip and belly

I know I still need to update pictures from our big trip to Missouri (and that's next for sure), but Jamie and I took our own mini get-a-way, the first one ever since Matthew's been born! So I thought I'd update those pictures. My computer still hates me currently, but I'm using Jamie's laptop because I'm impatient and can't wait on my computer! haha

So, here's our mini trip this past weekend to Helen, GA. BEAUTIFUL. If you ever get the chance to go, take it. It's a quaint little town, set back in storybook type olden days with a German/Austrian feel to it (very Sound of Music). We enjoyed window shopping, candy tasting, the local bakery, an international cafe, the night life was fun-- listened to a patio guitarist Saturday night, very nice... it was just fun. Besides the local town life, we also did a tubing adventure. I tuckered out long before Jamie and he was sore the next day from having to help my raft and his! But overall it was pretty neat. Lastly, we also took in the Anna Ruby Falls. Quite the hike to see it, but very worthwhile. Each day we walked our legs off and we completely enjoyed the time alone.


Besides just our trip while I'm here I'll go ahead and publish the most recent "belly shot." This is at 19 weeks. Can't believe I'm nearly half way. I just can't believe it. While it isn't soaring by, it's hard to imagine it's been this long already. It's really amazing. Truly a miracle. We have our ultrasound scheduled for next Friday and as long as the baby IS shy, we're still planning to NOT find out who's in there. I just don't want to peak into this miracle more than I need to. God will reveal who is in there in His perfect time. I am so anxious to find out if we're having a child on the Lord's birthday or not! Whew. That would be what I want to know more than the gender! Will I be in the hospital on Christmas?! Anyhow, there's a baby in there, no doubt about that anymore.

Baby update

We had a check up on Friday and I heard the heart beat again loud and strong. Nothing really new to report, still growing! One more week and we're half way! Can you believe it?

In two weeks we're having our big ultrasound, though we've opted not to find out what this baby's gender is. Do you have a vote?? I'm keeping a tally. Let me know yours.

Sorry no pictures still from the MO trip-- our computer currently hates me and I'm using Jamie's laptop for this posting. Hopefully soon.