Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is coming up in a few days. It's the time of year where we reflect on all our blessings and give thanks to the One who made it all possible. Though praise shouldn't be limited to just one day a year, but rather everyday all year round.

I'm am so so thankful to my Lord for all my blessings. I have my health, my husband, my son, a nice house, family, all the things I have. I'm thankful that I live in the USA and have food, clothing, shelter, etc. I'm also incredibly grateful for the new life I am carrying. I am truly blessed beyond my wildest imagination. It's all because of my Lord! Praise His holy name!

Here is the lyrics to one of my favorite praise songs. Make sure you reflect this Thanksgiving on all the blessings that Jesus has given to you. Even if your life seems bleak, there is always something to be thankful for. Jesus loves us, and all praise and glory go to Him!

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Artist - Don Moen
Album - Various Songs
Lyrics - Thank You Lord

I come before you today
And there's just one thing that I want to say
Thank you lord
Thank you lord
For all you've given to me
For all the blessings that I cannot see
Thank you lord
Thank you lord

**With a grateful heart
With a song of praise
With an outstretch arm
I will bless your name
Thank you lord
I just wanna thank you lord
Thank you lord
I just wanna thank you lord
Thank you lord

For all you've done in my life
You took my darkness and gave me your light
Thank you lord
Thank you lord
You took my sin and my shame
You took my sickness and healed all my pain
Thank you lord
Thank you lord

Bible study

I have been meaning to write about this and I just haven't gotten around to it.

My Thursday Bible study has started up again. We are doing another of Beth Moore's studies, this one titled "Believing God".

Beth Moore has incredible studies, and this one is no exception. A very in depth study on how not just to believe in God, but to BELIEVE HIM. To believe He is who he says he is, and what he says he can do. I have been enjoying it immensely. Her DVD lectures are amazing as always. She has a way of not just capturing an audience and preaching, but greatly inspiring. And the workbook and homework, though at times overwhelming since it's a lot of work (5 days of homework each week) but is very rewarding.

I've done a few of her studies in the past (studies on John, David, and the Patriarchs), but this one so far has proved to be the best I think. Not just learning the history of our Lord and diving into the Word, but this one really makes us look into ourselves and how and why we do or do not believe God. It gives us ways to increase our faith and belief and use it in everyday life. We are only on week 3, but it has been amazing so far. I can't wait to continue this journey!

If you are not involved in a Bible study, I suggest finding one and delving into the Word of God. I also highly recommend a Beth Moore study. I think you would admire her love for our Lord as much as I do.

Go Packers!

This weekend was the Viking/Packer game. Oh what a game it was! The two have always been big rivals, being the state next door. I was a little worried at first, since the Pack hasn't been doing well this season and we were playing at the Superdome...which is known for it's extreme loudness.
But they didn't let me down! It looked like my old Packer team again! They were awesome! Favre was playing almost at his best, and Driver made an incredible 82 yard run for a touchdown! What a game!

Green Bay Packers- 23
Minnesota Vikings- 17

Now if only we can play like that every week! :)

Has it really been this long?

Wow....Has it really been that long since I last posted?

Sorry for ignoring my blog!! I just haven't been in a writing mood lately. It's getting harder to come up with stuff lately. I just feel that sometimes I don't have anything worth reading to say!

Not a whole lot going on here. I will try to come up with something soon so I can keep this thing going! :)

I'm back!

It was an absolutely wonderful weekend....besides missing dh and Ryan!

Thursday we drove, and drove, and drove! Being women and taking many stops, we dragged out a 6 hour drive in to 11 hours! LOL But we stopped several times for potty breaks, stopped for lunch, stopped at Devil's Lake, WI for 2 hours, stopped for dinner, and finally made it to the hotel by 10:30pm! Unfortunately we ran into a problem there. They gave away our rooms! I don't know the details on it...but we ended up having to go to a different hotel about 15 minutes away! At least we got rooms.

Friday was a busy day of shopping! We went to the Mall of America! What an amazing place...so huge! I ended up buying some stuff too! I got a nice maternity dress for the holidays (I have nothing for Thanksgiving or Christmas!), some postcards for my best friend, some legos from the really cool Lego store for Ryan. I wanted to get dh something too but I couldn't find anything at a decent price that he would like. Then we stopped at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co for lunch/dinner. It was good, but I was slightly disappointed. Everyone was really talking it up and I expected more than what I got. Ah well. It was fun anyway!
Then we headed off to the conference. It was 7-10pm that night. It was pretty interesting. They introduced all the speakers that would be speaking, they had a comedian (who is hilarious btw), and of course praise and worship songs. We all got a packet of brochures and things.

Saturday we were at the conference all day, 9-5. It was incredible! Absolutely amazing! I'd have to say the best experience I've had! Praise and worhsip songs (the worship team is incredible), speakers who moved me, it was all incredible. It's something about worshipping and praising our Lord with 18,000 other women! Truly incredible! I took so much knowledge and God's power and strength with me!
After the conference we went out to eat at Applebee's. Good food, good fun. After coming back, I called dh and talked with him for a bit. That's when it really hit me how much I missed my family. He talked all about what him and Ryan did that day and I felt like I really missed out. I wanted to go back home.

Sunday was the long drive home, though it didn't take nearly as long this time since we only stopped for potty breaks and lunch. We did run into some horrible traffic but we managed to get through it ok. I got home by 6pm.

When I got home, Dh had flowers waiting for me, some candy, dinner on the table. It was the sweetest thing! Ryan made me a card. And they even videotaped Ryan and daddy carving the pumpkin so I could see! So sweet!

It was a great trip and so glad I did it. It was just so hard being away from my family though. But I feel so much closer to God now. God is good all the time; all the time He is good!

Women of Faith

This Thursday I am leaving to go to St. Paul MN to attend the Women of Faith conference! I'm so excited about this! It will be my first time attending and I just can't wait!

I'm going with a group of women from church. We are taking two vans and driving up there, stopping at Devil's Lake, WI on the way there. On Friday we will be shopping at Mall of America (yay!), eating at Bubba Gumps, (which I watched Forrest Gump on Sunday to freshen up on that) then the conference starts Friday evening. Back to the hotel to relax a bit, then attend the conference all day Sat. Sunday we head home.

I have been truly blessed to be able to go. All my expenses have been paid for by a scholorship at church! All I have to pay for is my meals and anything extra I want to buy. Plus my pg is going so well I have been cleared by my dr to go!

I'm really looking forward to this. I need some time away and some time to just renew my faith and love for Christ.

The only thing that worries me is I have never been away from Ryan for longer than 24 hours! I think by the end of the 4 days I will go crazy! Daddy will be watching him, though I'm trying to convince him to let grandma and grandpa watch him for a day. We shall see. Hubby can be kinda stubborn sometimes!

I will post all about it when I get back!

Ryan's birthday

So Ryan's birthday was last week (yikes, I'm far behind on blogging). He had a blast! We gave him a present in the morning, and then spent all morning playing with it! It is his prized possession.....a play chainsaw! yep, that's right. He wanted it because he sees daddy using his to cut down branches from our millions of trees in our yard. My brothers (as lovely as they are *said sarcastically*) has made several references to "Texas Chainsaw Masacre" and thinks Ryan should see it. yeah. Great uncles.

In the afternoon I gave him another present...since he took a nap like a good little boy! LOL I told him if he took a nap he could have another present. Yes, I'm bad. So when he got up (after he actually did sleep!) he opened his next present, which was a book. He didn't seem too thrilled at the time...put it away. But we have read it every night since. It's a book about having a new baby in the house. He also got a card in the mail from Toys R Us, since he's in the birthday club. It came with a gift certificate to get something "special" from the store, along with a $3 gift card. So he wanted to go to the toy store. So off we went!

When we got there he handed in the gift certificate and he got a birthday crown he got to wear, a helium balloon he got to carry around the store (technically mommy got to carry the balloon around) and a cart that says Happy Birthday on it. So off shopping we went. We let him pick a few things out he liked around the store (he only picked 3 things! This child doesn't usually ask for much). At the end we told him he could pick one thing out of the three that he wanted and we would buy it for him. He picked a big tub of legos, which made daddy happy because that's one of daddy's favorite toys. (but guess who gets to play it with him since daddy is usually at work!!)

Afterwards we went out for dinner to Qdoba (yum!) and for dessert to the "ice cream store", or Cold Stone. (mind you, I would much prefer Kopp's, the best frozen custard EVER, but that's a half hour drive to Milwaukee for it, so we just went to the next best thing). After we got home I gave him a bath, got ready for bed, and let him stay up a half hour past bedtime to watch the beginning of the Packer game.

I'd say he had a great time....and sure was spoiled!! But hey, it was his birthday. He really enjoyed it. At the end of the day when I was tucking him into bed, he said to me "Mommy, thank you for the great birthday and for singing the birthday song to me." How sweet! From no prodding from me! :)

I'm glad he had a great time. I can't believe my baby is 4!

Crazy week!

Well, it's just been a crazy week. Ryan's birthday was Monday so we spent the day as a family doing whatever Ryan wanted. More on that later.
Tuesday was my advanced u/s with a perinatologist (check my pg blog for details on that).
Wed was Awana night.
Thursday was Ryan's dr appt....he is a very healthy 4 yr old! Will post more on that later too.
Today I have spent all day cleaning and preparing as we have Ryan's birthday party tomorrow. I'm exhausted and wondering why I'm doing all this!! LOL

I will post updates hopefully when things settle down a bit. Hopefully Sunday or Monday. I should have pics too of Ryan's birthday.

My baby's birthday!!

I'm posting a bit early, but I will be busy tomorrow. Oct 2 (tomorrow) is Ryan's birthday! He is 4!! Hard to believe. He's growing up so fast.

I remember when he was born like it was yesterday. Yet here he is, 4 years later, running, counting, talking up a storm (can you say NEVER is quiet?). He has come so far from that tiny little peemie he was when he was born. A time when we thought he wasn't going to ever get big. Grant it, he's still smaller than most kids his age, but he sure has come a long way!

He is really excited about his birthday. I sure hope he sleeps tonight. Not sure exactly what we are doing tomorrow....but dh took the day off and we will spend it together as a family. His party is this coming Sat (Oct 7) where he will be getting most of his presents, but he will certainly get one tomorrow. There is a play chainsaw (made by Home Depot) that he has been asking for about a zillion times a day! So he will be getting that tomorrow. The kid is spoiled. :)

So I'm taking a moment to celebrate the life and my love for my precious little sweet pea.

Happy Birthday Ryan!! Mommy loves you! :)

Busy

I haven't blogged much this week due to several reasons. First, I have a lot going on due to almost constant dr appts! (u/s on Monday, dr appt on Wed, and now next week another u/s on Tuesday).
And I'm also battling a cold. Not fun when pregnant. But hey, it's what I have to deal with for a healthy baby!

There hasn't been a whole lot to update on. I'm still attempting to write my book. I wrote 5 pages this past weekend....about half a scene since it's a long scene.

Next week is going to be busy. Monday is Ryan's birthday....can you believe he will be 4?? Doesn't seem possible. Tuesday is my advanced u/s at Froedtert Hospital, Wed is Awana, Thursday is Ryan's dr appt, Sat is professional pictures and Ryan's party. I'm tired just thinking about it all!

Yay!! We won!!

So the Pack finally won a game!!! woo hoo!!!

We played the Detroit Lions today....both teams were 0-2. Some one actually had to break their losing streak. Considering both teams are in the same division....we obviously wanted the Pack to win.

And they did! Finally! Very exciting game too...right down to the last few seconds. We won by a touchdown, but the Lions had the ball the last minute of the game, and came awfully close to tying the game. Lucky for us they didn't!

Packers- 34
Lions- 27

Glad to see we finally won a game!! Go Pack Go!

Thursday night tv!

Last night was the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy. You bet I watched! In fact, dh hates the show, so I ended up watching it in the cold basement by myself (you'd think he would be nice and let the pg woman have the comfy couch upstairs, but that's a whole other topic). Either way it was still good! It feels so good to watch it again! It wasn't as exciting as the season finale last year of course, but still good. Very realistic portrayal of Izzy overcome with grief, and what's up with Meredith not choosing at all? I say she should go for the vet....I like him. McDreamy is getting annoying....like him and all, but really, I think he should be with Addison.

I was really upset with the storyline though about the newborn. Not really upset that they did the storyline...as it happens all the time...but stories like that always hit a nerve with me. After dealing with infertility for 2+ years, it really hurts to see some teenage girl hiding her pg and then dumping her child in a trashcan. I shiver thinking about it. It makes me so angry....since there are so many women that want children so badly and can't. I was happy though that they did mention the New Haven law....where a mother can take her newborn to any fire dept, police dept, or hospital (and some churches) within the first 72 hours and not be charged.

Anyway, it was a good episode. I'm looking forward to next week!

Also watched a show called 6 Degrees. That was also a really good show! A definite must see this season! I loved how the 6 characters has never met before and how their lives become intertwined. Very interesting, and kept my attention. I'm liking it.

So Thursday night tv is a hit! Check them out if you haven't already!

Packer game last week

I forgot to blog about the game last week. Not much to write about though. We lost.....again. Big surprise there huh? At least we were IN the game this time....we scored a few touchdowns...and the game was tied for quite a while. But in the end the New Orleans Saints won. *sigh*

One of these days we'll win!! LOL

AWANA

Ryan has started AWANA this year. For those not in the know, it's a Christian based program that teaches the Bible and includes verse memorization and fun! Ryan is a "Cubbie", in the 3 and 4 yr old program. They have a short coloring time, then work in the workbook and scripture memorization, then have a small snack, storytime, sing some songs, and finally games and puzzles. It's an awesome program for kids to learn about Jesus in their lives. It's also a great way to get parents involved, as during the rest of the week us parents must go through the assigned part of the workbook and help them memorize the scripture. (great way for me to learn too!).
Ryan absolutely LOVES it! He already loves Sunday School at church (technically since he's still 3, he's actually still in the nursery, but one more week of that and he will graduate to Sunday School class and Children's Church), so on the way there the first week he was very excited to be going. Once there he was very excited to have his own book, and then when he went inside the room, he saw his friends there from nursery, and he just RAN to them! LOL So very cute. He would do great in school if only he was old enough to go!! (and completely potty trained).
After the first night, the whole 15 minute car ride home he was non stop talking all about the things he did! It was adorable! It was hard to get him to sleep that night though....he was so excited. AWANA doesn't get out until 8pm...a half hour after his bedtime. So he gets to bed late on Wed nights.
This past week he got his uniform (a little blue vest), which is was so THRILLED about. As soon as he saw it he screamed "MY UNIFORM!!! I GOT MY UNIFORM!" LOL

I've been working with him on the scripture..and he's been doing great. For the Cubbies they simplify the verses a bit so it's easier for them to learn. He's so smart...he's been memorizing the verse after just 15 minutes of working with him on it. He's got the memory of an elephant...though he is showing signs of a typical male....selective memory, as he doesn't seem to remember the things he's NOT supposed to do that I tell him EVERYDAY. ah well, guess we can't have it all. LOL

Anyway, he's loving it. And I'm loving him loving it. I just love helping him learn about Jesus, watching his eyes light up when he says "Jesus loves me!", the Cubbie motto, or when he gets a sticker, called a "Bear hug" when he successfully memorizes a verse. It just warms my heart.

It's a great program for kids. I just hope he continues to enjoy it as much as he does now.

Neglecting again

Yes I know. I have been neglecting my blog...yet again. Sometimes it's hard to find time, other times I just don't feel like writing. Nothing too interesting to write about lately, unless you really care to hear about my potty training woes. (he's initially potty trained...just having issues with #2).

I really need to find time and motivation to keep up though!! I know many are daily readers....so I suppose I should find something to write about for you!

You can always kick me in the butt if you need to.....if I happen to go too long without any new posts!!

First Packer game....

Did NOT go very well. auhg. I hope this is not how the whole season is going to go. And we played against the BEARS of all teams. Of all teams to lose against, and not just lose, but lose BADLY, it had to be them.

Chicago Bears- 26
Green Bay Packers- 0

Not a single point. augh. It was awful..they creamed us. Pretty sad too when your own 3 year old starts cheering for the other team. (even though he was wearing a Packer jersey).

Maybe we'll get 'em next time. I hope. (by the way....very sad when your punter throws the ball better than your QB!!). I think Favre just had an off day. I hope we can do better next time! I still stand by my "Go Pack Go!". :) They may stink but I still like them.

Our Anniversary

On a happy note, today is my wedding anniversary! 7 years today! woo hooo!!

No big celebrating though today. He is working all day and then when he gets home we will have just enough time to talk for a few minutes and then I'm out the door! I have my first MOPS meeting tonight. So much for a romantic anniversary!! haha
That's ok though. We celebrated this weekend. Didn't do anything really special, but did have some nice time together.

Happy Anniversary!! :)

5 years...never forget

Just wanted to mention that we should keep the victims families and all those affected by the terrorist attacks in our prayers today. Hard to believe it's been 5 years. It will be one of those events that our children will come up to us and ask us "What were you doing when you heard the news?" As time goes on, sometimes we have a tendancy to forget what happened or feel it's not as important since so much time has passed. But we should never forget what happened. No need to dwell on it all day or anything, just take a moment to say a prayer today.

A new do

I got my hair cut yesterday...first time in quite a while. With a baby coming and all, not only did I want a change, but I wanted a shorter do so baby doesn't get a hold of it. (I remember that from Ryan all too well and got it cut shortly afterwards!) I love the shorter look. Not the best pic of me, but you get the point anyway.

My Labor Day

Here's what we did on Labor Day....actual labor. Destruction! woo hoo!!

We finally got around to starting the renovation of the room that will become the nursery. It had really ugly panaling in it on 2 of the walls (btw- why just 2 walls? The people that lived here before us were a little weird), so dh ripped the panaling off...which, wouldn't you know it, was glued on. Here is what it looked like after the panaling was off.



So we had to rip out the dry wall since there was no way we could save that. So we did actual labor on labor day.

Here is dh ripping it out and Ryan helping.



Ryan's trying to figure out if he should play with them or put them in the garbage.



And he finally decided to put it in the garbage. LOL



Halfway through he decided he didn't want to help anymore, so I ended up doing some grunt work. Don't worry though...all I did was put the pieces in the garbage, while Ryan supervised. He learns quick. LOL

And of course, after the work is all done, the cat MUST check it out.