It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas every where we go........   The bridge in the picture may be compared to the Bridge in my profile shot...to see how much snow we have.   It snowed all night last night.  And there's supposedly more on the way.    The roads were so bad last night Rob averaged 30 miles an hour on his way home....and had to stop at my parents at 11:20 at night 20 minutes after he was supposed to be home to tell me he was okay...just putting his way home.  When he finally did get home he had to sweep the trampoline off as it was weighted down to the point of almost breaking.  It was a short night last night.

I would love to say I took these pictures two months ago.  Unfortunately I took them this morning.

How's that for a drift of snow??????   Because our roof is metal the snow won't stay on it...instead it piles up at the corners.  And man is my deck taking a beating with snow right now.

I WANT SPRING!!!!!

I had major energy yesterday.  And used it well.  Not over doing it etc.   I folded 3 loads of laundry.  And then stopped even though there was more that could be done.  And did quite a bit of sewing.  I finally got my sewing machine working.  And it was a lot of fun to do it again.  The last couple times I've tried with it I got frustrated...but then realized that one of my lovely chilluns had mussed up the tension.  Anyhow I hemmed my curtains in our bedroom closet.  I fixed a couple pair of Kaylin's over alls that wouldn't stay snapped shut.  (Sewed them shut hehehe)   And 98% finished a bathrobe for me.  I don't do bathrobes much.  But I want one for the hospital so badly as I HATE theres.  So this way I didn't spend tons of money on something I won't use much.  Just a couple hours of time...that I would have normally just spent on the puter or in front of the tv.  "my time" so to speak.   It was fun! 

We went over to my moms yesterday for a bit and it was very chaotic.  But a nice break.  The kids came back with some new videos to watch and a HUGE puzzle of dinosaurs to put together.   My 10 year old sister was laying on the couch with a hurt leg from sledding.  It wasn't swelling..but she continued to baby it.  My mom took her in to the doctor after we left just in case.  The doctor looked at it said he thought it was a sprained ankle but he'd xray it anyhoo.   She broke it   and not horizontally but vertically.  Possibly the growth plate.  Neither my mom or her are happy.  Its splinted for a few days to make sure the swelling is gone.  Then a orthopedic surgeon will have to look at it to see if she did get the growth plate.  Rob was telling me what they do if it does...its not pretty.  So praying that that gets better.

I need an attitude adjustment about my husband right now.  Working hard on finding it.

Father God, I pray that this day will go well.  I ask that R's leg will get better quickly.  And that it will not have damaged the growth plate.  I thank you for my children and ask that I enjoy them today instead of wanting to kill them.    I ask that I find some things to be thankful for about Rob...and that he can get home at a reasonable time tonight.  In your sons name, Amen

Ok I just have to say....

I HATE ALARMS!!!

now its the septic alarm...and it just keeps a ringing.

*sigh*

Good morning...and on this lovely spring morning.  In the country where it rarely snows we have a............BLIZZARD.

Okay you know what the first snow storm in March I thought well that's a bit weird, but weather in Washington IS unpredictable...so I'll tolerate it.  The second snow storm I was disgusted.  Now now I'm just incredulous.  What the heck is going on?   And when can I have spring back?

Last year this time of year we were all playing outside/working outside and enjoying the spring flowers.  HA!  We probably won't have spring flowers this year.  Poor things are sooooooo cold.

Rob and I got my 16 year old sister to come over and babysit last night as we decided we were up to a date night on Tuesday instead of Monday.  It was a nice relaxing evening.  And I had a nummy chef salad...and 8 bites of Rob's desert.  I REALLY wanted desert..but knew there was no way I could eat it.  So asked if I could share with him....he said no.    I was disappointed, but tried to hide it.  Then about 30 seconds later he said we could.  It made me very happy.  Okay simple things make this lady happy. 

WELL today the baby is officially safe           And I have had all restrictions removed. 

So gonna slowly take my life back.  We moved Jamari back upstairs yesterday.  Which means my entryway is no longer serving double as a nursery.    And he sleeps better because we have nice dark curtains in there.   I told Rob yesterday was his last official day of doing laundry.  He was ecstatic hehehehe.   Its gonna feel so good to be able to do something again.

Mind you my poor body is SO stinking out of shape....its gonna be hard for awhile so I'll just pace myself and see how it goes.

I REALLY want to start walking again.  (like a block the first day )  But ummmmmmmm the snow is kinda intimidating today.  Soooooo that will have to wait until I can see the road again.

We definitely 100% have insurance again!  WOO HOOO WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   And the best thing was she just did a drive by she didn't come inside.  That made me VERY happy.  So no major cleaning, etc.

Rob and I went and bought new bedding for our bed last night.  The comforter we had was one of the hand-sewn jobby's from Wal-mart.  And welll the first time it was washed it started falling apart and went down-hill from there.      It was beautiful too...before that.     And our sheets were litteraly in pieces.  So in preperation for having a finished bedroom we splurged on new bedding. 

I NEVER spend that much money...and realize I didn't spend as much as a lot of people do...but oy was I feeling a tinge guilty.  Even if we did pay cash.....  But it looks SO beautiful    I'll take pictures and post them later probably.    Its only 7:30 in the morning right now...and I'm NOT awake yet.   Anyhow the colors are red/white/blue.  Which I know is a bit corny..but *I* like them.  The sheets, pillow cases, dust ruffle etc are navy blue.  And it looks really nice

So I'm feeling ready to conquer the world.  I think the snow is a gift from God so I don't.  Because there's no way I'd take my babies out on the roads that we have today.  And IF there was no snow...I'd be out buying paint or something similarly stupid.    It feels SO good to be able to get to do again!!!!!

Father God, I love you.  I thank you that you kept this baby safe.  I ask that things go according to YOUR plan and not mine.  I thank you for the snow...even if it wasn't in MY plan.  I ask today that the kids don't get too serious a case of cabin fever...and that we find ways to entertain each other.  In your sons name, Amen

Good morning.  Well its been two whole days since I blogged.  The longest break I've ever taken.  hehehe

Sunday's break was not by choice.  DH forgot to pay the internet bill....and so was disconnected until we could get ahold of them on Monday.  Trust me...I was not GRACEFUL, or FORGIVING about that.     After all he'd been asked/reminded/begged several times.  *sigh*

Sunday;  Well that was a intresting day.  Our lovely smoke detector started going off at 3:00 am and did NOT stop going off until 6:15 am.  When it was finally light enough to go up the hill behind the shed and get our 12 foot ladder.  I drug it through our 6 inches of snow....into the house.  Climbed up it and changed the battery.  INstant silence.  AHHHHHHHHHH.  Definitely btw NOT recommended for 34 week pregnant lady.  But one can only take so much beep beep beep beep beep beep. 

My kids were of course wide awake too...because we'd all been seranaded by this lovely sound all night long.  The day went downhill from there for the most part.

Jamari was a stinker.  And decided during morning nursery that I was NOT allowed to hold him.  Only the nursery attendant (my friend) was.   Kaylin didn't even make it through the first song Sunday morning in the nursery by herself before she had a major leaky diaper which required a complete change of clothes....and consoling that ONLY mommy could give.  Thus I got ZERO out of church.    Jamari and I had a battle of the wills during church over who was gonna hold him.  (Me--not the nursery attendant) 

The REASON I believe I won...is because yesterday when Rob was home.  Jamari let me comfort him off and on all day long.  Jamari NEVER lets me comfort him when Rob is home.  But he did yesterday.  MAJOR VICTORY

Rob is still sick.  And lovely guy that he is he shared it with all of us.  Rob has the worst of it so far....and I'm close behind.  We canceled date night as it just didn't sound fun.  Instead I picked up some chicken in town and we ate that and watched Princess Diary on pay-for-view.  I had seen it...and was hoping Rob would enjoy it.  *gasp* he did...but don't tell any guys k?  we don't want to ruin his reputation

I woke up yesterday morning (Monday) with my bed being wet.  FREAKED me out....because I've had excellent bladder control this pregnancy..and was quite concerned that my water had broke.  So had to do a ER run into the midwifes.  We did some tests...and everythings fine.....so still apparently I've either gone back to being a 4 year old and wetting my bed :-O  ORRRR.....I had a major mucus drain. (I know extremely grose sorry)

WE WILL HAVE INSURANCE AS OF 11 OR SO TODAY.   

I finally got through to the insurance lady and she had everything ready for me.  Its gonna be a bit $$.  But we don't honestly care at this stage of the game.

Our new evening service with Christian Contemporary music is very enjoyable.  And attendance has gone from maybe 20 to 75 or more.  Plus people are NOT in a hurry to leave.  So we've been hanging around visiting and eating snacks that everybody brings.  Its very nice...and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.  So much so if it weren't for the fact that SS was in the morning...I'd be tempted to not even go in the morning.

Also the parents/leaders made an executive decision and decided that toddlers/babies would just be ignored if they were noisy.  So I'm not stuck in the nursery not hearing/seeing anything   And if somebody gets offended by my babies...they can stick it in their ear    I don't let them run wild...but stuff happens kwim? 

We got another 4 inches of snow yesterday.  Making 10 for the weekend...with probably 5 on the ground right now.   My poor daffodills....it remains to be seen whether they'll make it or not. 

Okay...well that sums up my last two days...basically.    I hope I didn't completely confuse you all by my wanderings today.    And that everyone has a great day!

Father God, I thank you that my water did NOT break yesterday.  And that tomorrow I will be in the "safe" zone.  I ask that you would help me to slowly work back into being able to do the chores around here again.  And that this baby would come when your timing is right.  I pray that the kids would all start getting healthier...and my cold would NOT get any worse.  I ask that Rob would be feeling much better.  In your sons name, Amen

Television Eyes...or otherwise known as Saturday morning cartoons.  An American tradition

They were so cute I had to take a picture this morning.  Kaylin is just learning to enjoy tv...is this a good thing???

Samuel of course saw the camera...so had to tuck in with them...and said TAKE ANOTHER PICTURE!!!  He's my camera hog.

Oh and we can't leave out Jamari.......how did he get to look so grown up so quickly?  These camou clothes were Samuels...and it didn't seem that long ago that Samuel was wearing them.   

Tonia gets up peers around.  Looks at Calendar..yes Calendar says its March.  So why the heck is it snowing AGAIN???????

We have a little over half a inch and its coming down hard.  *sigh*  So much for going to town today.  I guess we'll stay in this nice boring old house and develop our tv eyes again today.

Yesterday I did NOT sit down at the computer once ALL day.  Wasn't even tempted.  Scarey huh? 

You see...I discovered this lovely new-to-me author.  Anne McCaffrey.  And well...I'm addicted    Also I've noticed I'm in much more pain if I'm at the computer....so have cut back for that reason.  I'm sure when the new nursling comes I'll be back full time and then some...because I'm a expert NAK'er

Anyhow...I'm in love with the Dragons of Pern series.  Have hit every used book store in the local town.  (All 3)  And have collected quite a few of them.  hehehe.  But I finished my last one last night sniff sniff.  Never few.  I still have 2 of her dinosaur series, and 2 crystal series.  Ok so I went a little over board.  But it's been very hard for me to lay still...and I've been having tons of contractions...so that's how I justified it. 

If you like fantasy I recommend these books.  Especially clean, and no "magic" which bothers me...just good adventure stories. 

Could you pleeeeeeeeeease tell it to STOP snowing?

Okay I think I said that once already. 

Went and bought curtains for my "closet" in our bedroom.  Makes things look much neater in there...now if only there was dry wall up there.   And paint, and ok one thing at a time. 

We have the money on hand for somebody to do the wiring.  But the person I called...who is a "church" friend....gave a bid without even coming up and looking.  That made me very angry.  He doesn't know how many heaters we want, light fixtures etc...how can he do that.  Its no wonder his business is floundering.  I tried to suggest that he needed to come up...he didn't take the hint.  So now I need to find a electrician.  But have NO idea as to how to go about it....any ideas??  Normally I would just ask at church...but I don't want to offend the "man" whose work I won't hire kwim?

James had a bad day yesterday.  We realized we hadn't given him his reflux meds in a day and a half....BAD BAD US!  So back to the medicine regime.

Ok mind blank.  Have no idea what to say...must be time to hit submit.

Father God, I thank you for this day...even if it isn't what I had in mind.  I thank you for your love.  I ask for the energy to get the house clean for the caseworker.  And for the strength to enjoy my children.  In your sons name, Amen

Good morning.  So my contractions are apparently gone.  WOO HOO.  Not sure when they left...because I still had them when I went to bed. 

Poor Rob however is sick.  *sigh*  He's still in bed at 7:30...and he NEVER stays in bed.  I think he thinks he's still going to work today.  But we will see.  He says his whole body aches, and he's all stuffed up.  There's a fairly nasty cold going around that we had avoided so far...................looks like it caught up with us.  

Zeria has stuffy nose, but otherwise ok...and Kaylin has zero patience for anything this morning...so I'm suspecting she's getting sick. 

Its a good thing my contractions are behaving today!  Although I will admit that my children are watching morning tv...something they rarely get to do....but it sounded easier then settling their squabbles. 

I have a big feeling its gonna be a tv day today.  BAD mommy.

Father God, I ask for the energy, strength to do what needs to be done today, and the wisdom to sit a LOT.  I pray that B will be able to come up and entertain the kids for awhile so I can get some rest.  And that Rob would get healthy very quickly.  In your sons name, Amen

Good evening.  I do NOT have any energy today.  I had contractions all night long.  Dreamed I delivered a baby at least 3x.  And woke up CONVINCED my water had broken.  And took myself 10 minutes to convince myself that I was dry...and it WAS a dream. 

Woke up contracting this morning.  And told Rob I was not getting up until he had to go to work...to try to catch as much rest as I could before I had child care.

I got up about 9:30 talked to the babies/kids for a few minutes.  Rob took a couple looks at my lack of energy...and my comment that my stomache felt like it was on fire.  And called in sick.  I went back to bed.  Slept 'til 12:30.  Got up ate a bit of lunch (cooked by Rob)   he took kids to town...I went back to bed.  Slept 'til 3:30/4:00.  Got up and convinced my kids I was still alive.  I stayed up until after dinner and crawled back in bed at 5:15 tonight.  I just layed there reading...and riding out contractions.   

I just briefly read through everybody's blogs just now.  And that's the extent of my enthusiasm for this day.  ALL I've done profitable was get Kaylin's diaper/pj's on tonight...because she was convinced daddy didn't know how to. 

Sooooooooooo now I'm gonna go sit down and watch tv at 8 pm...and go back to bed at 9.  What a day huh?

One more week, one more week, one more week...and I will be at the "safe" baby time.  And I'm gonna get up and do jumping jacks to MAKE these contractions stronger...and have this baby come.  Ok...I'm not that stupid....I'd really like to make it to 36 weeks...but I'm tired, and this is OLD.

dum ta da DUM (trumpet please)

The chimney.  You have to understand this project should have been done 5 years ago.  But for some reason we were convinced it would be hard.  It wasn't.  And it was a cheap project.  $20 for mortar $10 for paint.  hehehe

Here's the before picture.  EWWWWWWWWW

And this is Rob installing the clean-out door.  We had to have a new one built thanks to the fire we had a while back......

And here we are all mortared and in process of drying.

And drum roll please............ the FINISHED product   Rob did a bit of touch up paint after this picture was taken...but hey you get the gist.  INstead of walking into my house and seeing the UGLY chimney you just see the white wall.  Oh that is soooooooo nice

Good morning....

The weather outside is frightful, but inside so delightful...

Let it slush, Let it slush, let it slush.

Okay so it doesn't have quite the right ring to it huh.  It is downpouring AGAIN...but this time its half snow-half rain.  (slushing)  And can we all say EWWWWWWWWWW

My poor dh is really struggling with his attitude this morning.  He had made plans with my brother to go bike riding...but has no desire to swim in this weather in full biking gear.      Its so hard for them to get there days off together etc, etc...and now he doesn't get to play.  

We did ALL go grocery shopping together, and the kids did VERY well.  Samuel lost his "privledge" of riding on the jeep outside the grocery store...but not because he was very bad...just because he would NOT stop jabbering.  As I keep telling him I love to talk and visit with him.  I have little patience however for him going yabayabadododede blalbal skeipoi over and over and over.   Noise for the sake of noise when one is trying to shop...can be very hard to deal with    So he got the proper amount of warnings and lost the privledge of the jeep.  He was very very sad about it....and hopefully will remember mommy actually means it when she says SHHH!   Not holding my breath on that.

I had contractions all day yesterday I spent over an hour in the tub riding them out.  I'm so glad Rob was home and I could do that.  I had them on our so-called date night, and they just drug  on & on.   Needless to say I wasn't the most inspiring company last night.   One more week and 2 days..........Tonia says to herself as a mantra.

Had frustrating news yesterday from James caseworker.  and I WILL be calling him James.  I WILL.  I can't slip into the habit of using his real name.  And if you notice some blogs go missing...I'm probably gonna be making some private to protect him as soon as I get time. 

The last parental rights visit in front of the judge was last week.  The birthmom has NOT showed up to any of them.  She has never showed up to any of them in the past.  But she showed up to this one.  Sooooooooooooooo   the finalization processed just got slowed down greatly.   I struggle so hard with attitude in regards to this.  I KNOW I should feel sorry for her and her addiction to drugs, etc, etc.    But she's messing with MY kids...and that brings the mommy bear out in me.  We had to agree to send pictures/letters every so often.  And if the mom gets demanding enough we may have to agree to an occasional visit.  The pictures I have NO problem with.  The visit offends both of us greatly.  She has 9 other kids...the only one she wants to see is James.    How the heck do I explain this to my children?     What the heck is this gonna do to James when/if he sees her again.    

The good news is...my adoption caseworker has ASSURED me...that rarely do birthmoms actually show up for the visits.  And as the adoptive parent we have the right to say where the visit will occur.  And if she doesn't show...we have the right to say..NO MORE trys.  Soooooooo she said set the visit some place far away from your home...(we do NOT want her to know where we live or even the vicinity we live)  and make it hard to get to  

If we do have to do this.  We will probably leave the big kids at my moms...so not to add stress to their lives.  And we will NOT tell James what is going on (even though he's a baby now)  unless we actually see the lights of the birthmoms eyes.  I do NOT want to set him up for repeated disappointment.  He's had such a stinking hard life already he does not need to be frustrated with his birth mom.

Now I WILL keep a record etc of her attempts at visits...so when he's older I will be honest and say this & this was tried and did not happen...so he knows she was semi-intrested....but he doesn't need to know now.   Poor guy.

I'm hoping to paint the chimney today...if the roller will work on it.  When I'm done I'll do the before/after pictures.  Have them all ready.  If the roller doesn't work...Rob's gonna have to paint and HE HATES painting.  But I can NOT climb on a ladder right now...with the roller I can use the extended handle.  And do everything from the floor.   

That is I'll be painting if the contractions stay away.

I'm sorry I haven't been commenting on most people's blogs.  I have had very little patience for sitting at the computer lately.  Plus my kids have been quite demanding.    I am reading and enjoying everybody's blogs however.  And hope to get back in the habit soon...

Father God, I give you the stress in my life.  And the fact that we're housebound in the rain today.  Please let me breathe and not stress out by all the demands that are made on me today.  In your sons name, Amen