I went to my first doctor appointment yesterday. All was well. I got the routine talkin' to about my medical history, what not to eat, exercise (I may have to ignore medical advice on the skiing ban), etc. Had the exam, got the blood drawn (I won't be immune to rubella, and I'm Rh-, no surpises there I'm sure). You know the drill. Had an ultrasound, saw the tiny little flicker of a heartbeat, which was beautiful. Oh, but was it too slow? I spent about an hour worrying about it before I took to the net to research first trimester heartrate and then another hour or so later concluded that it was fine. There's actually some very interesting research being done on that very thing.

I never stressed about anything on my other pregnancies, but this time, being 39 and all, I'm stressed out. Worrying. Having dreams. Clearly I'm not praying enough.

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. Benjamin Franklin

They have a new screening test now, called the First Trimester Screen. They do an ultrasound of the fat in the back of the baby's neck and that measurement, along with some bloodwork, can predict the risk of chromosomal problems better than the triple screen/quad screen in the 2nd trimester. I initially said I would be doing that. My stance on my previous pregnancies is that I would do all the testing available that was non-invasive (ie, no amnio), with the belief that being prepared and understanding is a good thing. But now I'm thinking I've turned into too much of a worry wart to handle it, and I may just go through this pregnancy with my head in the ground, or in the sunlight as Ben said.

Tangentially, they have these great things now called Bella Bands. You wear them around your regular pants when they get to small. You can keep the pants unbottoned and unzipped and the Bella Band holds them up and covers them. Ingenius! Things have changed a lot in 7 years.

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In other news, I'm off to California tonight. I'm going to the Global Summit on AIDS and the Church. My focus is on how we at our church can incorporate caring for victims of AIDS and educating about how to prevent AIDS into our mission focus, both locally and globally. It's an exciting opportunity for me and I'm very happy to see the Christian community standing up to do something about this epidemic.

So wish me safe travelling, and I'll see you on the weekend!

You must go look at this blog entry! I'm not sure I've ever seen anything this cute in my life. It makes me want to get another dog, and that's saying a lot.

Off to the first doctor appointment today. I'll let you know how it goes. Have a great day!

Well, hello out there. I hope you had a terrific Thanksgiving. We sure did. Bud's mom cooked, and I didn't get any cornbread dressing, but I'll remedy that soon, so overall it was good. We have played many games of Pirates Monopoly and Blokus this weekend. We've eaten very well, and I've had no sickness to speak of so I'm actually enjoying the eating!

Bud is cranking out the media room. At the pace his is going, we'll be watching movies in March. Now please don't compare us to acertain other blogger, lest we look bad. We actually made a list of what needs to be finished last night and it took only a half sheet of lined paper! And Bud is doing this All By Himself. Except he's gonna hire someone to do the drywall.

Now, however, a whole new list of To Do's has come up. We need new carpet, but we've been living with it. Now, however, the idea of a little one crawling around on this stuff gives me serous heebie jeebies. Plus there is no imagining how many Tiny Toys of Choking Size are down in there.

And since we're getting new carpet and the furniture will have to be moved out, then Peyton's downstairs bedroom and Bud's upstairs office need to be switched, because Peyton's room is downstairs and Luke's is upstairs. When this new baby is big enough it will share a room with it same gender sibling, and I don't want one child to be all alone. So that means more painting as well (Peyton doesn't want forest green with tan and Bud doesn't want mint green with pink - go figure).

Plus there is the whole topic of a nursery. Ummm, we're out of rooms. We do have an office that Bud doesn't use because it has no closet, so it is now my sewing/ craft room and houses our dusty exercise stuff. So that room is getting cleaned out, and turned into a nursery. I've got a cute set of shelves that I'm going to fashion into a baby wardrobe to make up for the closet issue. Plus, who am I kidding? The kid will be in our room for the first year anyway. I'm just so not into walking down the hall in the middle of the night to nurse a baby when I could do that in the comfort of my own bed without getting up. Which means the nursery will simply function as a changing station/toy corral.

Plus there are a list of other household projects we want to get done...build an arbor in the backyard, do some landscaping out front, paint the living room, finish out the gameroom/library. These have been moved down the list a bit.

I like having projects to do, but this has me a little stressed out. Eight months doesn't seem long enough to get it all done. And of course, we won't get it all done, and it will all be fine, just like when everything doesn't get done for a wedding but it's still a wonderful day. That's life, isn't it?

Any household projects you've got going on or about to embark upon? I'd love to hear about them!

So much. So much.

A dear husband who adores his family

A son who loves with everything in him

A daughter who approaches everything in life with joy and a song

A new life, a new heartbeat, a new little one made in God's image

A home where these are all safe and warm and loved

A country where I can worship My Father without fear

A Savior who has taken the burden of my sin upon himself

A chance to share this good news with those who haven't heard it

So very thankful.



Have a Happy, Delightful, Wonderful Thanksgiving!

Last night Peyton spent the night at the neighbors' house, so Bud and I were able to spend about two hours with Luke, playing Monopoly and talking. So right before bed, we decided to tell Luke about the baby. Let's just say he was not happy. Freaked out is probably the best way to describe it. As if Life As We Know It is coming to a screeching halt. Our bad for telling him when he was tired and ready for bed, knowing how averse to change this kid is. We let him sleep with us, and by the time we settled in for the night he was warming up to the idea enough to suggest that we name the baby Jessica if it's a girl and Blaze if it's a boy. Ummm, we'll see.

Today we'll tell Peyton, and I'm 100% sure that her reaction will be much happier, since she's been asking for a new baby since she could talk. Tomorrow we'll tell Bud's mom, and I'm not so sure how that will go. Fun stuff! Then I get to start blabbing to all my real-life friends. Hooray! (I don't like keeping secrets.)

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So, back to the Disney trip, a couple of highights for you. The Osborne Family Christmas Light show was AMAZING. That's a lot of lights. We loved Soarin' at Epcot and rode it many times. Peyton turned out to love roller coasters, while Luke could not be coaxed onto them. Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom was her favorite coaster, especially the Yeti (which she insists was actually King Kong).

If you go to Disney and use the dining plan, try to eat your counter service meals outside of the parks - the counter-service food in the parks simply stinks, but outside you get some really good stuff. Sitdown meals are equally good in or out of the park - we particularly enjoyed BOMA and Ohana. Cinderella's Royal Table was Royal Ripoff in my opinion, but Peyton got to meet and chat with Cinderella, Snow White, the Fairy Godmother, and Alice in Wonderland, so I suppose a little girl's excitement made it worthwhile.

The Animal Kingdom Lodge is a great place to stay - giraffes and other wildlife right outside your window. Really cool decor, too.

The four of us uniformly agree that the highlight of the trip was





the teacup ride. A true classic.

First, of all, thanks for sharing my excitement with me. We are so thrilled to be having another baby! God is so good!

Well, Disney was really fun. However, 7 days is too long. We peaked on Thursday night, and by Saturday were ready to be home. Plus, last week it was so empty - we could walk on to any ride we wanted. But by Saturday the Thanksgiving holiday crowds were coming in and it was so packed. Fortunately we had hit everything we wanted to, so it didn't bother us much, but I can't imagine how disappointing it would be to spend your entire vacation in that kind of crowd.

We started off the vacation in a really big way - straight to MGM Studios and walked right onto the Tower of Terror. Hint for those of you who may be headed there in the future: the fact that a child is tall enough to be allowed onto a ride does not make the ride appropriate for said child. It was really scary, and Peyton was trembling and crying by the time the lights came on (yes, it was totally in the dark). She continued to spontaneously break out into tears for about another hour, saying that she "just can't get it out of my head." Good thing the parent police weren't there, or they would have surely revoke our license.

I'll be back later today with some pictures, and for now I'll share this one final tidbit with you. I'm not much for merchandising, and we rarely buy "souvenir" type things. In fact I was surprised by the number of adults walking around with Mickey Mouse ears. But I was taken in on this trip, and we came home with this:



Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me.

More later!

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Off to Disneyworld. Talk to you soon!

Well, Peyton has lost her first tooth! It was very exciting. She had a shark tooth like Luke did, but the baby tooth came out on its own rather than needing to be pulled by the dentist like Luke's.

Peyton already figure. out that there is no tooth fairy. Luke, her *older* brother refuses to believer her. I have yet to figure out how two children who are so completely different are such great friends. It's part of why I love having them home - it's such treat to watch their relationship.



This is from my new camera. The old camera got soaked in a cooler after a soccer game and was dropped multiple times. I would like to blame the children for this, but all the damage to the old one was my fault. This new one is tiny, and has a big screen on the back for viewing pictures. It also doesn't have the nightmare delay between pushing the button and actually taking the picture. Maybe now we can get some action shots. You can also do this with it:



Just select the color you want to keep and everything else is black and white. A cute girl with pink Converse hightops seemed to be the perfect subject on which to try this. I was right, don't you think?

I'm off to Atlanta. Please pray for God's guidance as we pursue this training. I'm very excited about it, and pray that He will use this to mobilize many Christians in to the mission field. I'll let you know how it goes!

I love the name of this website almost as much as the website itself. Basically, Pandora is a create-your-own radio station. You type in the name of a song or an artist that you like - Jack Johnson, or The Waifs, for example - and it creates a radio station that plays songs based on the characteristics of the song or artist you've chosen. You can give feedback to fine-tune it, and you can create many different stations, one for each of your many moods. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that it is FREE! Though you will certainly find new artists that you cannot resist and purchase them from iTunes, for which I also have an affinity.

So go check it out: Pandora

Hat tip to Bella Dia, who makes pincushions to die for, apparently while listening to really cool music.

Sherry at Semicolon is honoring the pecan this month and asks for our pecan anecdotes. I come from a pecan loving family. They grew in our backyard and every year of our adult lives my siblings and I would each get a big Folgers coffee can of pecan halves for Christmas, shelled by my mom. That is love.

Now, true story. When I was in college (Texas A&M, whoooop!) I worked on a committee that brought foreign policy experts in for a symposium on various topics. This was big - we had the likes of former Presidents Ford and Carter, Henry Kissinger, and Margaret Thatcher, with moderators such as William F. Buckley, Jr., George Will and Ed Bradley. One year I was honored to be the escort of Former British Prime Minister James Callahan. He was an incredible man and added so much to our program.

So, anyway, when Prime Minister Callahan arrived we had a gift basket placed in his room with some Texas-style goodies, including pecans. He LOVED the pecans! He talked about them the whole time he was with us. On the final day of his visit, we took him out to eat Mexican Food, of course, as no visit to Texas would be complete without it. While we waited for our meals to arrive, we munched on chips and salsa, and he was particularly interested in the salsa. It seems he couldn't taste the flavor of his newly-beloved pecans in the PICANte sauce! Now would be a good time for a rim shot, eh?

Finally, the world's largest pecan finds its home in Texas:



P.S. Sherry, I really like pecans, too.

Soccer season ended this weekend for both of my kids. This was Peyton's first season, and we pretty much forced her to play "just one season" and she ended up loving it. She scored multiple goals in every single game except the first one (this is six-year old 3 on 3, so scores were high). The surprising part was how aggressive she was. She went for the ball, man. No just running with the pack like you see a lot of at this age. She was fun to watch, and can't wait till next season. In fact she is very upset that there is such a long break between seasons.



Luke played his sixth season this fall. The past four seasons had been with the same team, but when we came up without a coach, he had to join a new team. Three others from his old team also moved to this one, so he had some friends there already, but let's just say that the coaching style did not mesh with our parenting style and it was a trying season. Well, they had the end of season soccer party yesterday afternoon and Luke won two awards. The first was Best Ball Control which was cool because he's practiced a lot at a that. The second was Best Teammate. Of course you know that this is a mother's dream award, and that's certainly the case in this instance. I mean I know that Luke is an amazing kid who is always encouraging and wants everyone to do well, but it's a nice confirmation to know that other people see it, too.

Last night at bedtime I explained that he won that award because other people could see God's love in his actions and that he was letting his light shine. He lit up. And so did I.

When I graduated from college I got a puppy. I named him Kandinsky. I loved the dog, though he was very bad, and I loved the artist. I would not put Kandinsky, the artist in my top ten anymore, but seeing this brings back why I loved his work so much.



I love how you can almost feel the movement in it, and that it is so simple but there is so much depth. Don't you just want to walk right into it? You might want to have a glass of wine before you do, though. Just sayin'.

Happy Fine Art Friday!

Ye flowers that drop, forsaken by the spring, Ye birds that, left by summer, cease to sing, Ye trees that fade, when Autumn heats remove, Say, is not absence death to those who love? - Alexander Pope

We are entering my challenging time of year. I don't like the darker, shorter days. I have been depressed in winter before. I pray that this year will be different.

I have the promise of babies ahead to help. I had the honor of hosting a baby shower on Sunday for a sweet neighbor expecting twin boys in just about three weeks. Two other neighbors will be having boys in January. So, I hope that some rocking and snuggling these sweet ones will not only help the new mommies, but also keep my winter spirits up.

Also, my November resembles a 100-yard dash, and it started last night with Halloween.

Luke and Peyton came home with so much loot last night I can't even believe it. I was pleasantly surprised that most of the take this year is chocolate candy bars instead of Starburst/Skittle type candy. I like those as much as the next guy, but limit them severely because of their unique cavity-causing ability. So at least we didn't have to throw out too much from the teetering piles of candy this year.

Peyton dressed as Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl (which she had the costume for from her ballet/tap recital) and Luke wore his Beastmaster costume from last year. These were not my ideas, so we had happy, happy kids and a happy, happy mom (because there was no cash outlay on my part).

Today we have our little friend Graham coming to stay with us for a week. His parents won a free trip to Hawaii!!! so he's going to hang out with us while they bask in the Pacific sun. This will give me the opportunity to be a public school mom - getting up early, making a sack lunch, checking homework, etc.

Bud is traveling a little this week and a little next week, and this weekend is a whirlwind of fall activities and soccer games. Next weekend I'll be going to Atlanta with a couple of people from my church to train for the P.E.A.C.E. Plan as we anticipate bringing it to our church in the spring - I'm very excited about this prospect.

After I get home from Atlanta, we will turn around and head to Orlando for a week at ...duh duh duh...Disneyworld. Wheeeee! Then it's Thanksgiving and December. Keeerazy!

I'm excited about the holiday season, but a little stunned that it's already here. I think I may try to get my Christmas shopping done this week - I mostly only shop online. I know that once I get through this busy November, I'll be thanking myself for having it done.

Have you started shopping yet? Do you go to the real live mall, or do it online? Any great gifts you always give you'd like to share with the world (well, it will only be the three of us that read this, but it's a start)? Share it in the comments!