HaPPy HaLLoWeen!

camera blues

The past couple of weeks I have been so lonely without my trusty sidekick.  My camera is my journal, my therapy and key to the girl's baby book.  I document everything with my camera and I should not be disappointed that it lasted for six years.  However, I have only put a small fraction away towards a new one.  For months, I have wanted a point and shoot to keep in my purse for outings to the park, homeless outreachess, etc. etc.  So, when we started shopping to replace my SLR (minimum $1000) I tried to make the grown up decision and not dip into our personal savings (knowing I am going to be without paycheck for at least 2 months).  Tonight, when we went to look at the actual camera and I saw my dream SLR sitting there calling my name I actually cried (have grace I am 35 weeks preggo!) I hope and pray it will do the job, it got rave reviews.  I have 2 jobs booked before Christmas, so I am hoping from them I can garner some more business to get my dream guy soon.  So, I have decided to not register at Babies R Us and just register at the online camera store.

Happy Birthday Granny!

Wish we were there to take you to Hunan's.
Happy Birthday!
We love you!

rachel ray magazine

I recently subscribed to Everyday with Rachel Ray.  I actually got a free subscription through a blog I follow.  This past month, I decided I was going to try a new recipe every day and found almost all of them in her September issue.  One afternoon I sat down with my magazine, tablet and pen and planned the entire month of grocery shopping out of her magazine.  We enjoyed it so much, well today is my day to plan November.  I actually lost weight this month - only 1/2 pound, but at 8 months preggo that is kind of cool (dr. was ok with it too).  We had meals including Shepherd's Pie, Minestrone Soup, Cheese steak Kebabs, Bacon-Cantaloupe Wraps, & Picatta-style Tilapia. For the most part all recipes came from Rachel Ray, I ended up making a couple of meals that are RFF faves; LE insisted on and dumplings one Sunday after church, we had tortilla soup one night.  Ben loved that we had more meals as opposed to one-dish wonders, which is usually the norm.   She has a section for 30-minute meals from her show, $10 bucks or less meals (for family of 4), and one week of meals planned including grocery shopping.  The website has a lot of great ideas too.

in need of prayer

I am a stubborn person, I have no problem denying it.  And I hate to ask, but I really could use prayers. 
I am having a lot of back pain, it is just pregnancy.  It is bad I know b/c even my girls prayers tonight were, "please help Mommy's back not hurt and help her to not be tired".  I cannot just sit around for the next 5 1/2 weeks.  I am taking care of myself and I may push too hard, but I am not doing anything crazy.  I would appreciate your prayers for energy and the pain in my back to let up.  The dr. said he would write the orders for physical therapy, but that seems so unnecessary.  I know God can provide the relief.  I also could use prayers for sleep at night.  It is so hard to get comfortable sleeping on my side.  It is just not fun waking up hurting and tired.  Thanks I appreciate it.

N is for nest?

In the process of loosing my camera, I also lost some pictures of the girls building a nest. We have been learning about animal homes and LE decided she wanted to build a bird house. I wanted to post pics after the girls had a chance to "decorate" it.

senior moment

I have come to the conclusion that working with seniors can be more entertaining than working with preschoolers.  I have a new client at the gym male, 72 years old, widower, retired Army, green Beret, paratrooper, broken nearly every bone in his body and recovering from a major heart attack.  I learned all of this within the first 6 minutes of meeting him.  He was so awesome to work with and so fun to listen to his stories.  However, my favorite part was when we were walking to get on the treadmills.  Super model in her tiny shorts and sports bra was running on the treadmill, he says, "Holy Cow, God bless, can we work on that one?"  My response - "um, no, we will be working over here" on the last treadmill in the row, thank you very much.

T is for turtle

We are really enjoying the curriculum we picked out for the girls.  Now that we are in the swing of it, we have adapted some things and I have become more comfortable with adding/taking away knowing what it is the girls are really in need of.  Every day there is a special activity and in the beginning I was trying to figure out how to manage it so Bella would not have to repeat it next year, given we will probably be using the same curriculum.  Since then, we have discovered she is more advanced in her letter/sounds than we first thought.  Within the first week, she was able to recognize all of the letters and now she knows most of the sounds.  She is even writing her letters now.  We will continue on this path for the time being of doing a modified kinder curriculum for her, and a more advanced kinder curriculum for LE. 
LE read her first book yesterday.  It was about turtles.  I was blown away with her ability to figure out the words.   This is her journal entry for the week.  Once upon a time there was Turtle.  He was walking slow to the pond.
*On a side note, became frustrated this week with the world's political correctness.  One of our favorite tv shows is Super Why.  I never have to preview the shows and I know the girls are actually walking away with something other than 30 minutes of babysitting.  We were able to record the episode The Tortoise and the Hare.  This week our Bible theme is I don't quit, I persevere.  I could not find the book at the library, so thought we would watch the Super Why episode instead.  Yes, except they completely changed the plot of the story!  The hare does fall asleep, but wakes up in time to catch the tortoise and they cross the line together, b/c in the real world we cannot have winners and losers.  We all must be equal.  Needless to say, making another trip to the library today to see if we can find the true story of the Tortoise and the Hare.

3rd trimester update

Not sure when I will have any more pics to post, so thought I would update you on me... I do not do pregnancy well, thus the very minimal updates on what's going on with me.  I am 4'10", so being 25-30 pounds heavier and carrying it all in my midsection does not equate happy thoughts or happy blogposts.

• I am 6 weeks, 3 days away from my due date, and I am still working.  I teach class two days a week and I consult four days a week. 
• I have put on 25 pounds and it is all in my middle area, chest to hips, that is all the details on that one.
• I have not slept through the night in weeks, multiple potty trips and the inability to fall back asleep have made the nights my least fave part of the day.
• I crave chocolate, anything chocolate.
• My back and hips are the worst.  I know he has not dropped yet, but my hips and my lower back are taking a beating.
• There is a large pile of stuff at the bottom of the stairs waiting to be carried up each night b/c I hate climbing the stairs.
• He has hiccups 5-6 times a day, mainly at night.  Do infants have hiccups that often I cannot remember?
• I go to the dr. every other Friday now.
• I am measuring 28 weeks, but doc says that it is just a primitive tool they use, so why use it?
• Ben and the girls are awesome.  I know the girls are starting to think this will never end, but they are getting better about me having to rest more often and not being able to pick them up.

Pumpkin Patch

What a difference a year makes, and I am sure I will be saying that next year too. We met Mimi, my brothers, and sis-in-laws Friday afternoon at a nearby Pumpkin Patch. The purpose was to get some fall photos of the cousins. Thankfully there was 5 cameras b/c my loyal, trusty companion decided to break today. I went to view some of my photos, and they were black. I got a few to choose from, but hoping one of the other cameras captured some memories for me.