I'm Here To Serve

I'm curious. What thing makes you check out my blog? The reason I'm asking is because I find myself lacking time to really get on here on a daily basis and by the time I DO sit down to post something, I feel like I have too much to say.

Here are the things I wish I had posted throughout the week:
Doctor's visit (have only gained 5 pounds TOTAL this pregnancy! YES! Found the heartbeat almost instantly upon trying and everything is lookin' good!)
Stuff we're doing and SUPPOSED to be doing at next visit (ultrasound, sugar tests, etc.)
Apples of Gold (an awesome new Bible study/mentor program I'll be doing for 6 weeks)
Suicide-related thoughts (not because I'm considering it but because it has hit close to some people we are close friends with -- a friend-of-a-friend kind of thing. Very sad.)
Police-shooting related issues (this is always emotional for my family. Makes us so grateful that Daddy is now a RETIRED policeman.)
Ideas for a family ministry project (we're wanting to do SOMETHING and have several project ideas floating around in our heads. Which to do first??? Hm.)
Useless Reality TV thoughts (DWTS - poor Harry!!)

Since I burdened you all a little while back with a long post that tried cramming many of my thoughts into one, I thought I'd spare you this time. The big bundle of stuff didn't seem to bring on any particularly inspiring discussions or comments anyway ;)

So here's your shot - tell me what you really want to see from me and my blog. Deep thoughts? Dry commentary on my daily life? Pregnancy updates? My totally worthless thoughts about Dancing With The Stars or Survivor? Poignant editorials about difficult issues? Cute pictures of the kids & pets?

Give me some ideas. I feel like my own creative thinker is running low on fuel these days.

Farnsworth's Home

Farnsworth came home last Friday and today was our first day to see her. She looks great and is SO happy to be home! Brosnan came with her and ate lunch with us. We visited for a good long while and it was really nice.

Thanks for praying for her safe return home!

Anyone see them on the news? They looked like this:

Quick DWTS Note

Shanna....I'll be fine with her gone.

Joey...just as cute as ever!

The Pros dance to Rebel Yell...AWESOME! I want to learn how to do that!

Julio Iglesias...What in the world did he do to that song!? That was horrible!

If Toni married Taylor...

Would she hyphenate her name to be Toni Braxton-Hicks?

Ha :)

Amazingly, I am already feeling these doggone things. That's right...I'm 18.5 weeks pregnant and am already having these slight contractions. Of course, I already knew that each pregnancy increased their frequency and since these annoyances are probably practical in their toning of the uterus, I guess it shouldn't surprise me that they are here already.

Thank you, LORD for building in a safety mechanism that prevents my much-loved and well-serving uterus from falling out of my body.

If I can just remember that Braxton-Hicks contractions are like a workout for the womb, I can be more accepting of their arrival.

Now if I could just talk the rest of my body into getting physically fit for the big day.

No Cute Pics Tonight

That's right. I'm not uploading any pictures of the family and I'm not googling for something interesting and relative to my post. You're only getting text tonight. Think of it as your punishment for not commenting on my last entry.

And why DIDN'T you comment? I mean it was a nice, long entry with lots of things to chat about. Was it so long it bored you?

Hmph. See if I write that much in one sitting again!

So - text only:

:)

Go Joey on DWTS! He totally rocked! And he's so doggone CUTE! And humble! I'm definitely a bigger fan this week than last.

And THANK GOODNESS Jerry got such a low score. Let's hope no one calls in to vote for him. No sympathy votes please!

Mario didn't deserve the low score he received and Sara didn't deserve a score as high as she received. His wasn't the most outstanding performance of the night but it was good quality. Hers wasn't terrible but it seemed so stale. She hardly moves when she dances.

Anyway, I love the show. It's so fun!

I hope Emmitt can get back to his cute self next week. I wasn't too impressed with him tonight. It was just OK.

And in a quick change of thought:
Wasn't today a GORGEOUS day!? Oh my goodness....just wonderful. I hope you all were able to get out and soak it up a little bit.

Bringin' The Blog Up-To-Date

Finally, a little breather on this Friday afternoon so that I can tell y'all some of the things I've been wanting to tell you for weeks!

First is this. Remember the dog I mentioned a month ago? Well she has now become a member of our family! We surprised the children with her a couple of weeks ago (see pictures of their surprised looks when they look in my van to see her) and have just been SO happy with our decision to adopt her. We had actually caused the previous owners to start re-considering their decision to find her a new home. They got really sad at the reality of giving her away. That made our decision easier. If they weren't going to give her away, then obviously we weren't going to get her.

About 3 weeks passed and we received a call. The owners had made a final decision and it was to find a new home for their dog. Even though they were heartbroken at the idea, circumstances just forced it upon them. They told us they really wanted us to have her because they knew she would be loved and well-cared-for.

So, there you have it. We now have an almost 5-year-old female (spayed) Boxer. She is AMAZING! Her name is Dixie (one we probably wouldn't have chosen for ourselves but she definitely responds to her name so we didn't want to change it.)

Next, we have the issue of Sam Catser. He does NOT like Dixie. We attempted acclimation processes and squirts with a water bottle when Sam attacked, but we decided it is best to just keep the two separated. It's pretty easy to do and is definitely the easy on ALL of us (furry and not.)

Here's poor ol' Sam on the very tip-top of our cabinets in the kitchen. We have totally rocked his world. Poor guy.

In other family news, there's the issue of the baby growing deep in my womb. And I say "deep" because DANG this baby is low. We had two scares during doppler attempts because the baby's heartbeat could not be found for many minutes. The second scare was worst than the first because it was 6 weeks AFTER the first scare and my mind was thinking, "SURELY the baby is bigger now and easier to find!" But, the key to the problem did not lie in the size of the baby but in the position of the baby. This baby is WAY down.

Sigh.

So I question, 'Why?" Is it a boy? Boys definitely are wives-taled into being low-lyers. Hm.

More likely is the fact that this is baby number 5 and my uterus is a little more relaxed than it was with baby number 1. The rubberbands are stretched out and just not as supportive (not something I'm bragging about for sure.) Then we have the fact that I'm 6 feet tall and have quite an impressive torso :) LOTS of room in there and with the impressive width of my hips (again, definitely not braggin!) there aren't even any BONES to help lift the uterus up into the belly.

Another deep sigh.

Which brings me to the next thing about the pregnancy. I'm feeling the baby move! This is a HUGE relief considering the two scares we've had. The movements aren't huge but they are definite. I love it! The movement of the baby is definitely my favorite thing about pregnancy. But again, it is amazing how incredibly low I am feeling it.

Now, low babies make for interesting silhouettes but they also make for interesting PAINS. Babies who lie low in the pelvis tend to cause more-than-normal hip pain. Yippee.

In happier areas of baby development, I will say that we're getting closer to name choices. But there's no need in asking me what those options area because I'm not saying. Henry and I are not 'fer-sure' ourselves and we're just not ready to say anything yet. But we're getting closer. We hope that maybe we can have firm-ish decisions by Christmas.

Now, to the thing that MOST of you care about -- REALITY TV! Ha! :)

Actually, Charlotte mentioned in a comment that she had surfed over to see what I thought about last night's Surivor and that spurred me into committing to a better blog-updating routine. Not only does Survivor need to get some more publicity (ha) but there's also my favorite, Dancing With The Stars!

But before I get into my reviews, let me just say that Henry and I have become TOTALLY addicted to Digital DVR (TiVo but from our cable company). Oh my. This is the most incredible invention EVER! It's like swtiching from dial-up to cable internet! We LOVE IT!

First (and I'll try to keep this short since this is already a long post) Dancing With The Stars - I'm pulling for Emmitt and Cheryl. He's just as cute as he can be and Cheryl is my fave pro. I'd be very surprised if they made it to the top prize but who knows? Maybe they can pull it off?

Mario definitely seems to have the most natural ability of all the celebs. He just seems a little arrogant, in a charming but turn-off-ish way. Joey was really cute, too (and MAN, those arms!) and I hope that he'll figure out a way to WOW us.

The women are just kinda sad. They're not terrible but they're nothing wonderful either.

I hope Springer is the next to go. He disgusts me.

Survivor:
I think the newly-premised division of tribes is incredibly interesting. In very subtle ways, you see WHY we have stereotypes of these groups. Each had their own slight glimmer of things we knew might be seen. The black tribe was chanting about "represent;" The Asian tribe had a "black sheep" who was considered a "black sheep" because he was a hippy! He pointed out that Asians are supposed to be well-educated computer engineers who drive nice cars! The Latino group made jokes about their own "row boat" experiences and how they are hard workers. And the white group? Well, they just know how to classify themselves within their group and then hook-up with those they find worthy of their clique. The cuddling on the white tribe is definitely going to be the soap-opera part of the Survivor story this year where I doubt there will be a romantic issue in any other groups.

Charlotte, to answer your question about the "punk" girl who let the chickens loose...I don't know if it was on purpose or not. If so, she was very good at not letting that appear to be a motive. It looked VERY accidental to me. Also, I think she would be completely sabotaging her life on the island if she released chickens because of vegetarian beliefs...and on the first day! She should be axed immediately if that is what she did.

And real quick, before I close, I will say that thanks to the miraculous technology of the digital DVR, I was able to catch-up on "Project Runway" in about 3 days. I had never watched it before and in one of their marathon weeks, I watched every episode up to the present. I am now firmly attached to it as well. And of course, I'm pulling for Michael, the local fella making it big in Atlanta. Anyone else watch this?

Allright, I've been working on this post entirely too long. Hope it brings me lots of comments! (hint, hint!)

Teaching The Kids About 9/11

We took some of our school time today to talk about what happened 5 years ago. Even though 3 of these kids of mine were with me every second of my personal experience, I know they don't remember. How could they? They were teeny tiny. Rocky had just turned 1, Indie was 3, and Ray was 5.

Uma called me to ask if I was watching the news. I was not. I don't think the TV had even been turned on that morning. The kids were messing around and I was getting ready to go to a women's bible study.

She said, "A plane hit the World Trade Center."

I asked if it was a little plane and by the time I turned on the TV I was seeing footage and saying, "Surely that was just a little 2-seater, right?"

Uma's pretty insightful on world events and was already telling me, "This is terrorism. That kind of accident doesn't happen."

I don't remember what else we talked about, and I guess we didn't talk for long because I remember watching when the 2nd plane hit. I don't know if we were still on the phone with each other or not (Uma, what do you remember about this?)

It was becoming obvious. This was an attack.

I told my children this story this morning. I talked about how scary it was that day. I didn't tell them I thought we were entering a war within our borders. I didn't tell them that the images of "Red Dawn" were flashing through my mind. I didn't tell them I called and begged their Daddy to come home from work.

I could tell the children were actually a little bit interested in my story. They asked a couple of questions and seemed to have a somewhat intelligent grasp of the reality. I decided to get them done with a few of their core stuff in school and then we took a break to watch some "Remembering 9/11" footage that I had taped off CBS 6 months after the attacks.

They watched in near-silence. I couldn't believe how interested they were.

We didn't watch it all. But I wanted them to see a bit of the devastation. I wanted them to know a little bit more about why I might be seen with tears in my eyes during any part of the day.

I realize that I really need to be mindful of any fears I might have given them today. I hope that as I relayed the history of that day that I also conveyed to them the hope we have in God and His Reign. I must be mindful of the truth myself in order to keep the panic away.

This really IS a different America now than it was 5 years and 1 day ago. I guess we have adapted pretty well. I'm certainly on my guard a little more now but I'm also past the paranoia (I think.)

Uma, remember that guy sitting 2 rows behind us at the Bama game? He was one of the exchange students that we were totally profiling? Was that in 2001? I'm thinking it had to have been for us to be so concerned. He sure was ACTING suspicious.

I just had to write about all of this today. I didn't really watch any of the coverage of the Remembrance ceremonies but any show that has clips of that infamous day will always make me stop and remember. It's amazing how incredibly affected I was by something happening so many miles away. The nation sure was small that day.