"Hello!"

Ok, so I don't know why some days I have NO problem boring you all to tears and then other days where I think "I have nothing to write about." And so here I am checking in with nothing really exciting to say. :o)

Went to the rehearsal and the wedding... all turned out ok despite MANY obstacles and missing help. I will post pictures if I ever get my card reader working again.

I just entered into the 5th month of my pregnancy! And as you can see by the due date ticker at the bottom of this post, I'm almost to the half-way mark! Still no consistent baby movements, just a rare moment when I feel him/her and then nothing for a long, long time. I'm officially into all maternity clothes, with the exception of some really stretchy shorts & sweat pants.

I'm on a mission to declutter my home... in the past month I have given away 2 HUGE black garbage bags of old clothes/shoes, and 3 grocery bags of books. I have a lot more to go through, but for now I'm taking it one section at a time. I think this weekend will be the bathrooms... we are being over-run by bath toys, makeup that I will NEVER wear, magazines that date back to when we moved in and other odds & ends that managed to find their way to the bathrooms.

What else... see I told you I would bore you to tears. :o) Umm... oh the kids did great with G'pa & G'ma for the weekend! They brought home a new VeggieTales Movie "A Snoodles Tale", which I should have the pleasure of watching tomorrow. And Jordan got to bring home about 6 or 7 grasshoppers! Yes... at this moment in time I have a jar full of dying mosquito larva (did I tell you about that one? No? My aunt brought it over to teach the kids science... the life cycle of the mosquito. Neat science project, but they are VERY, very, VERY gross.) and a jar full of grasshoppers on my kitchen counter. Ah... the joys of parenting. ;o)

Well, it's after 3:30 am and I'm tired... so I will end this now.

by God's grace,
Alicia

Busy...

Today I have been in the kitchen for most of the day, I had to make food for the wedding rehearsal tomorrow and the family reunion on Saturday. So, I prepared 120 chocolate chip cookies, 60 plain cookies (made the same as the choc. chip, but without the choc. chips), and 2 - Double batches of macaroni salad. But I'm done and terribly full of chocolate chip cookies. :o)

Last night I did a midnight shopping trip, spent $56 and saved $67! Then I got the crock pot going with a home-made concoction of stuff. Turned out good.

Alicia's crock-pot Chicken:
1 - 16oz. bottle of Italian salad dressing
1 - can cream of mushroom soup
1 - can cream of chicken soup
8oz. of fresh mushrooms cut in big pieces
4 - frozen chicken breasts
8oz. of baby carrots
4 - potatoes cut up

Put all the ingredients in the crock-pot on high for 8-10 hours. You can then shred the chicken and make it a stew/soup or cut the chicken (it is very tender and falls apart easily) up and serve over rice or noodles.

So glad I prepared the crock-pot meal last night, as I did NOT want to cook anything more today.

It looks as though Grandpa & Grandma are going to take Jordan & Katie overnight tomorrow and possibly Saturday night too! They are taking them to the reunion and so I need to go pack up their stuff. I haven't said anything to them yet, if I did there would be NO sleeping here tonight... they would be WAY too excited.

Oh, one more thing... Cheri's post today is VERY convicting... Ouch! But thank you, Cheri, for posting it. :o)

in His grace,
Alicia

The day I thought would never end...

Ok, it was not THAT bad... but, well, let me give you a little glimpse into my day:

- Katie tried to cut her hair
- Katie tried to cut Jordan's hair
- Katie got green ink on the floor
- Katie got green ink on her new shirt
- Katie got green ink on the table
- Katie did not take a nap today, but instead quietly destroyed her room.
- Katie not only took her bedding of her toddler bed, but took the mattress off too and just for fun the pillowcase off her pillow.
- Katie put something plastic on her little lamp and melted it onto the bulb and it reeks in her room of burnt plastic.
- Katie snuck the room air freshener out of the closet and sprayed her room... a LOT of it too.

That was just Katie's part of the chaos and I didn't mention all of it... just some.

I have been looking forward to midnight since about 3pm today when my parents left, the kids became insane and I got a headache.

However... The kids are all in bed and I now have praise & worship music on, candles lit all over and I am getting the place put back in order while eating chocolate chip cookies. :o) All is good and I have hope for tomorrow! "Tomorrow is a NEW day and I will be JOYFUL and we will have a GOOD day!" ;o)

My parents dropped by today with 6 sheets of extra sheetrock they had left over from a recent job, YIPPEE... that means we are 6 sheets closer to finishing the basement. :oD Little by little we are getting stuff done down there.

Oh and while speaking of the basement, let me update you on the fleas. It's still awful, we ran out of time this past weekend to get Buddy to the vet/pet store and find out what else we can do now. So for the time being no playing is allowed downstairs and Buddy is in Lock Down. My parents had about 10 fleas on them (each) after they unloaded the sheetrock.

Sept. 1st at our church the "Predators of the Heart" are coming to our church. Jordan is soooo excited. It is "a gospel presentation using a variety of animals - a bobcat, a snake, an alligator, a snapping turtle, and so on..." We went to the last one and loved it.

Ok, that's enough for now. I'm off to get this place put together again.

in God's grace,
Alicia

Shopping!

Yesterday I was able to go get some new maternity clothes, YAY! However, that has to be one of the hardest things to do... shop for "cute" clothes being overweight AND pregnant... oh and did I' mention I'm only 5'2"? That's right, so nothing really fits me the way it should. But I DID find stuff and I am quite pleased with my final purchases (even if it did take me 9 hours).

Today we managed to hit Costco & Trader Joe's with no problems and we got back before Josh fell asleep so now he is taking a nice nap. :o) Jordan & Katie are watching "The Most Extreme" on the Animal Planet and I'm over here getting sidetracked from getting our school stuff put together for today and instead I'm updating my blog. My bad. ;o)

Ok, I'm going to get back to work. More later!

~Alicia

Midwife Update!

I had my check up today and got to hear baby's heart beat nice & strong! 140-150's. All is great, picked up some new vitamins that I'm hoping and praying will help with my fatigue. My midwife just got back from a missionary trip to Fiji, where they built a medical center in about 3 weeks time. I got to hear some of the great stories at my appointment about how God provided and how they walked into this by pure faith... everything was going wrong, obstacles left & right and more challenges to mention... yet God pulled it all together as He always does. Next appointment is Sept. 16th, at which time I will be HALF WAY done with my pregnancy!!! I can't believe how fast the time is flying by.

This post is rather dry... I have a really bad headache and I just can't think. So I'm going to end it now and hopefully will check back in tomorrow!

By His grace,
Alicia

1 book finished in like a year or more!!!

I can't believe it! I finally finished the last Left Behind book last night! Other than a few homeschooling books, this is the first enjoyable reading book I have finished in over a year or so. The 2nd to last Left Behind book I had to listen to on audio CD. I feel so happy to have finally completed a book! :o)

I have been incredibly tired for the past week and so by the time I have a chance to update on here (say nap time) I'm usually falling asleep myself. Sorry for the lack of updates on here.

We switched internet services today and so I spent over an hour trying to figure out a username for my new e-mail address... ugh. Every thing I wanted was taken. But I did finally find one that was not and I like it!

I'm so excited about an upcoming event... Sept. 3rd, Michael & Debi Pearl are coming to Washington! And so Mike and I will be attending with the hopes to get a big boost in our parenting skills.

Oh and Puyallup Fair is coming! Sept. 10-26th! Hooray! Our yearly adventure and the only time we get our family "picture" done. Well, it's not really a "picture", but a "caricature".

I have about 24 weeks left until baby gets here and I'm beginning to panic and make list of things that have to get done before then. If it weren't for the children in my life I would never get things accomplished! LOL! Knowing that baby #4 is coming has really put some motivation in my life to get things done that I have been procrastinating on. And so, as true to my typical pregnancy, I hit the "make lists" stage last night. I sat in my room making a list of everything that needed to be done or purchased for our master bathroom and master bedroom. I usually go through each room and sit there for about 30 min. or more making these incredibly detailed lists of what HAS to be done and bought before baby is born. And then I become a mad-driven-woman to get them accomplished by that time. I am guilty of being a nag sometimes, but I think I'm getting better at not doing that.

Ok, I better get busy doing something productive. The kids (all of them) are down for a nap (they got to bed late last night and woke up early) and I have a little bit of energy... so I have to run before I miss my chance.

Thursday update...

Ok, it's been awhile... but we have been sick and busy. I'm almost back to normal and Katie is on the mend now too. All the boys seem to be OK, however Josh was very fussy today and sniffly sounding. Today was Mike's off day and so I have been shopping & trying to get school prep stuff done. I'm almost 5 weeks ahead in planning. Hooray! Maybe this time I can actually stay on track for more than a week!

Today was an interesting one... Jordan & Katie went downstairs to play in the playroom for a while, about 5 minutes later Jordan comes running up the stairs yelling, "Hey mom look how many fleas I have on my socks!" I'm thinking, 'great... he is going to have a few fleas on his socks and I need to go get Buddy some new flea medication'. Um... no, not EVEN close... I'm NOT exaggerating here or joking, Jordan had a minimum of 50+ fleas on each sock and then maybe a 100 or so on his shorts... I was HORRIFIED, grabbed him and took him to Mike... "LOOK!" So we had to drop everything and do an emergency flea infestation elimination plan. ;o) I found 3 flea bombs, flea shampoo, flea drops, flea powder and then went to go get a new flea collar today. I spent the afternoon shopping while Mike flea-bombed the downstairs & washed the cat. I have never, EVER in my life seen fleas this bad.... it was awful. I need to go do a search now and find out what else I can do to eliminate these critters. Our cat is an inside cat only and when we moved in he was flea-free, not so now. WOW.

What else... oh! I have been feeling baby move a bit here & there. It's too early for it to be felt consistently, but if all is quiet and still I sometimes feel baby moving. :oD That is neat.

I was able to pull out some fresh green onions from the garden today... that was kinda fun... I usually kill plants, but so far things are actually GROWING in the garden!

I don't want to bore you even further, so I'm going to go work on Flea research and School prep stuff.

~Alicia

My garden (thanks to my aunt Jayne), here's the green beans, Tomato plant, radishes and some carrots are slowly growing.

Reptile Zoo!!!!

Today we did the new Reptile Zoo! It was pouring down rain, lots of lightening and LOUD thunder... however the zoo was all inside & enclosed and VERY warm. Jordan and Katie got to hold a couple snakes, pet some turtles and watch some kind of large lizard eat dead mice... yuck.

It was lots of fun, Grammy Sue was able to join us and then afterwards we stopped for lunch at Taco Time. :o)

After we got home Mike sent me to bed for a nap and then when I woke up we were able to have a surprise dinner with my Aunt Jayne, Grandpa Elmer & Grandma Rose. That was fun & enjoyable!

Tomorrow is the last day of our vacation... it was too short. I'm gonna miss not having Mike around all the time.

by God's grace,
Alicia

Here the little alligator is biting the foot rest on Joshua's stroller... THIS is the FAKE one that was on the floor that Jordan tried to "wrestle" with. ;o)

Jordan next to the Alligator! :o) I missed the moment where Jordan tried to imitate Steve Irwin by wrestling with the fake alligator that was on the floor... but just use your imagination. :o)

Joshua pointing to the Alligator!

Yes... Katie has a snake around her neck... and it was HER idea!!!! This girl is TERRIFIED of flies, yet wanted to hold a snake??? CrAzY girl! ;o)

Jordan & Katie in front of the wooden snake at the entrance of the Reptile Zoo.

Dinosaurs of Darkness...

So today we were able to visit the Burke Museum and Jordan was able to show Dad the "Dinosaurs of Darkness". We saw the exhibit back in June I think, but Mike was unable to go with us. Grammy Sue was able to join us and we all had a good time, I even ended up seeing a few more things than I did last time. I did have a bad headache, but that didn't put to big of a damper on things.

We then rushed home to get ready for the Big Family BBQ! Mike made ribs, hamburger, home-made onion rings and guacamole! I made brownies (with choc. chips), pasta salad and bean dip, then got the snack stuff out. We ended up having so much food... Ambrosia salad and corn on the cob, two 24-hour salads, potato salad, chips, cookies, watermelon, and so on. :o)

Now I'm tired and my headache is still there... so I'm going to bed. Tomorrow is the Reptile Zoo and perhaps a park. I will try to update then.

by God's grace,
Alicia

Joshua LOVED the back pack carrier!  

My Jordan. :o) 

Mike & the kiddos!  

Mike pretending to "hold" the Snowy Owl. 

You can see Jordan's head popping out the window of the Tram Tour, this is how close some of the animals were. :o) 

Of the many critters we saw on the Tram Tour, this was the neatest... he was within arm's reach. The Bison!  

NW TREK!

Wednesday we went to NW Trek from 12-4:30pm and we had such a blast! It was a perfect day... it wasn't hot, actually it was a touch chilly for a bit and we ended up buying sweatshirts for Jordan & Kaitlyn, it rained for a bit... but we were unaffected because we were on the Tram Tour.

Joshua was great, no fussing at all. Jordan & Katie were well behaved and just fun to hang out with. ;o) Katie calls the bobcat "Cat Bob". Gotta love it.

We saw every animal they have except for the Bald Eagle, the snakes and the frogs. Those were not out & about that we could see. However on the Tram Tour all the animals were out with their young and it went over wonderfully.

8/18 Years!

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary! I met hubby 18 years ago this summer... I was 14. I can't believe this much time has gone by, it doesn't seem that long... yet at the same time it is hard for me to remember times when Mike was NOT in my life. :o)

With the help of all the grandparents, we got to take off today at about 3pm and got home around 10:30pm. We took our time and had lunch at Little Chinooks, then moved onto the movies: we saw The Bourne Supremacy - which was VERY good I even think it's better than Bond movies (GASP! I know...). We took a trip down memory lane and drove through Ballard/Golden Gardens and then had a late dinner at the Berkshire. Wonderful day! :o)

Now, we have to go get ready for our day trip tomorrow... NW Trek!

by God's grace,
Alicia

Near-traumatic event...

Ok, so I know when I'm pregnant I make bigger deals out of stuff and this shouldn't upset me so much, but it did. We had to go shopping at Trader Joe's and they have these small shopping carts, so the kids are not allowed to climb on them (you know stand on the base & hold on to the cart and ride along), however as I was browsing the bread Katie decided to climb aboard on the side of the cart by Josh who was buckled into his seat.

I saw the cart begin to tip out of the corner of my eye and tried to stop it from falling with my leg, then reached out and grabbed Joshua's arm to hold his upper body up enough so he didn't crack his head open on the floor... the cart ended up falling on Katie, I still had ahold of Josh's arm and was trying NOT to pull to hard otherwise I might dislocate it (remember he is still buckled into the cart). A lady noticed and helped me get the cart off Katie while I got Josh out and then re-settled everyone.

I was so shaken up that I didn't notice my leg until later... as I began to calm down I realized my leg hurt and looked down and there's a red/swollen/bruised area. Thank the Lord that is all that happened. Katie & Josh are fine, not even a minor owie. Katie complained for a bit that her leg hurt, but there's no sign of anything wrong and she says she feels fine now. Whew.

Icing the leg now and taking a rest while the kids have nap/quiet time. I'm such a drama-queen when I'm pregnant. ;o)

~Desperation~

In my time of desperation... (pregnancy hormone induced emotional breakdown) this was the song playing on the Christian radio station and it brought such peace:

"Rescue" by Desperation Band
You are the source of the life
I can’t be left behind
No one else will do
I will take hold of You

I need You Jesus
To come to my rescue
Where else can I go
There’s no other name by
Which I am saved
Capture me with grace
I will follow You

This world has nothing for me
I will follow You
This world has nothing for me
I will follow You

Music and lyrics by Jared Anderson
© 2003 Vertical Worship Songs
CCLI# 4084763