Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Big Decision in the Works

Monday, Scamp and I went to a friend's home for a playdate. My friend homeschools, and I wanted to ask her some questions about it since she has children around Scamp's age. Beef and I have decided to either send Scamp to a private Christian school or homeschool her. Right now with the budget, it's looking more like homeschool is the option for us.

I've been in lots of prayer over this because homeschool is a big endeavor. The decision to homeschool has come up sooner than I thought because Scamp will be four this year, and we are deciding whether to send her to preschool a couple of days a week or not. I've already been working with her on the things she'll need to know to enter kindergarten.

I've discovered many people have strong negative views about homeschool. I mention the word homeschool, and people snarl their noses and say "Doesn't she need to be around other kids?" Homeschool does not mean I lock Scamp in a closet. I'm leaving the decision up to God. What He puts on my heart is what I will do.

God started opening my eyes and making it an option in my life ever since I met Beef in college. Many of you know he and his three siblings were all homeschooled, and they are the brightest, most well-rounded people I know.

I've been researching, and the city and state I live in have great options for homeschoolers. This is an exciting yet scary endeavor, but I know God will be in control of it all.

Friday, January 23, 2009

An Exhausting But Fun Week

Whew! I'm in my comfy clothes today with absolutely no plans. Scamp's still in her jammies, and we just enjoyed some chocolate chip pancakes and eggs for our 11:00 am breakfast. Sleeping in to 10:00 am was nice.

We've had to be out the door before nine almost everyday this week. It doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but being pregnant and not used to putting that much energy into mornings everyday has taken the breath out of me.

Monday was MOPS, and did I have a good time sharing in my small group. All the ladies in my group are so very nice. We plan to have a Girl's Night Out next week.

Tuesday was Toddler Gymnastics. Scamp had a good time learning to do forward rolls and log rolls, walking on the squishy balance beam and singing songs with her teacher. We then went to ABCs 123s to learn the letter T and play train with 20 plus toddlers. Exhausting!

Wednesday was BSF (Bible Study Fellowship). We had to read almost the entire book of Leviticus the few days before class. After class, I dropped Scamp off at home and went to our monthly group fellowship. Again, God has blessed me with wonderful, loving group buddies.

Thursday was another doctor's appointment. I'm 29 weeks and will be going to the doctor every 2 weeks from now on. All is well! The appointment was short, but the drive was long. We went to McDonald's and Wal Mart after the visit. Wal Mart yet again whipped my tushy! Thursday is also our game night. We got some awesome pictures of all the kiddos that came. I hope to share them soon.

Today, Friday. My only tedious task is baths for Scamp and myself. I'm resting up for that! I'll need to rest today to handle the weekend. Saturday won't be too bad, but we have a family breakfast at 8:00 am. I'm not a morning person.:) Sunday, Beef and I have the 3 year olds in nursery. We'll both need a day to recover from that. They're all bundles of energy and fun. Let's hope we can keep up!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

More Belly Pics






Here are some more photos of my growing belly. A few people have noticed I'm pregnant now. I was pregnant with Scamp in the summer, and all kinds of people would approach me about my pregnant belly. Now, when I go places I'm all bundled up with my thick coat on, and people don't notice as much.

Scamp is always poking at my belly saying, "Hi, baby." When she sees other tiny babies she says, "I'm gonna have one of those." She asked me today if we we're going to have two babies. I told her no, just one. She seems to be fine with that.

I am 28 weeks today. We're getting very close to delivery. Last week, I had some excessive sharp pains in my lower left side. I have had them since the start of my pregnancy and was told it was a cyst (good thing) that developed on my ovary because of the pregnancy. The pain typically lasts 5-10 minutes and subsides, but I had been in pain for over two hours when I called my doctor. They told me to go to the ER, where they admitted me into Labor and Delivery.

The doctor who performed my surgery for the ectopic pregnancy I had back in March saw me. He did an ultrasound and found out everything was fine. I have a strained ligament, which is pretty common in pregnancy. I haven't had much pain since then. I also found out I'm anemic. It's funny how your pregnancy symptoms are the same as iron deficiency symptoms -- fatigue, irritability, inability to concentrate. I'm taking an iron supplement and am eating an iron-rich diet. Overall, I'm feeling pregnant, but it hasn't been too bad. We are feeling very excited and blessed. Beef has even cleaned out his office for the nursery. We hope to paint soon.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Famous Words of a Sassy Three Year Old

Scamp has such the vocabulary. I don't know where she comes up with half of what she's saying, but she seems to know when to say it. Here are some of her famous sayings:

"I'm not your best friend anymore." (when she's mad at you)

"Mama, are you ready to rock?" (I'm thinking cousin Bubby helped with that one.)

"I can have some of that."

"Oh my goodness!" (she got that from me)

"That was uh accident." (for all things whether intentional or not)

"My girls are comin' over." (think "peeps" or girlfriends like she has her own passe)

"You wanna play with me?"

"I wanna hold you." (for you to pick her up)

"Let's do somethin' fun."

"Let's do a project."

"Baby sister's in my belly. Don't touch it." (I wonder who she heard that from?)

Here are some of her miss sayings:

"I'm goin' to Skunday Skool."

"Can you fix my plughouse?" (her version on clubhouse)

"Pa shot that i-Cody." (Coyote)

Singing "There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o. Here I-N-G-O, Here-I-N-G-O, ..."

I would love for you to here more of her songs. She's a riot! Oh, and the looks she gives while she's saying some of those things. Like she's saying "I know you did, now don't deny it!" She has got the attitude!

Friday, January 09, 2009

Big Girl Bed


Scamp finally moved from her crib to her big girl bed the night after Christmas. We bought a princess tent for her big bed as a Christmas present. We had tried several times beforehand to get her to move, but she was always too scared. She would ask us to make her a "plughouse" (club house) using a blanket on the top of her crib. She had to sleep like this every night. That's when I got the idea to put a tent up on her big girl bed.

We told her a few days before that she was going to make the move. She has been saying for several months that she is going to sleep in her big girl bed and baby sister is going to sleep in the baby bed. But, when the time came for Scamp to get into her tent bed, she requested to be put back in the crib with her blanket plughouse. Her daddy told her she couldn't have a plughouse for her crib anymore, only her big girl bed. She decided right then she would sleep in her new tent bed so that "the monsters wouldn't get her." She is obsessed with monsters! She is now in her big girl bed with no problems. The crib has been moved to baby sister's room. We eventually hope to put up a canopy on her bed to replace the tent. She has a traditional canopy bed that just happened to be her Meme's (Beef's mom). Plus, Meme is going to make the canopy.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

What You Missed While I've Been...Pregnant


Scamp had a big third birthday back in September. We have so many cousins with birthdays in September that we celebrated four out of five of them on one day. It was raining so my mom set up the birthday tables in her garage. There were so many kids running around that we let them play out in the rain. At one point Scamp came running into the garage in the buff. She can't stand wet clothes and instead of telling her mommy that she wanted dry clothes, she took them off herself. Everyone had a big laugh except my dad. Those kinds of things embarrass him.


We celebrated my grandpa's birhtday, too. Here he is with all the grandkids and great-grandkids who attened plus a few other partiers.

We had rented a huge Bounce Castle for the kids the week before the party, but we had to cancel because of the rain. My brother-in-law had bought the cousins on Beef's side of the family a bounce house for Christmas, and he graciously let us borrow it. The rain cleared off enough that we were able to use it. Afterward, we cleaned the house and fit it back in the box for Christmas. Scamp was just as excited with the second round of bouncing on Christmas day.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Some Alone Time

Beef and Scamp were upstairs playing tonight, and I thought I would sneak a soak in the tub alone. Now that I'm pregnant it's hard to bend over the tub to give Scamp a bath so I usually get into the tub with her...which means soaking and relaxing in the bath is out of the question.

But, tonight I filled the tub with a hot non-toddler friendly temperature water and relaxed silently. I could here Scamp in the next room and didn't want to give my secret bath away. I soaked for about ten minutes, long enough to warm my cold feet.

The temperature of the water started to cool, and I was almost ready to get out when Scamp bounded through the door. I expected her to want in right away, but she insisted on pampering me.

"Let me feel the water," she said. "It's still hot." She then insisted that I close the curtain as she threw a few of her toys in for me. "That's my favorite," she said motioning to a rubber ring. "You can have duckie, too. Here's your pitcher. Let me pour this for you," she stated as she poured hot water from a miniature purple pitcher into a bowl. "Eat it." It was as if I were at a spa. The pretend soup was fabulous. Then, she couldn't bear the allure of the tempting bath anymore. "I can get in, too."

"Ok," I told her. She had earned herself a few minutes in the tub with Mama. Five minutes of splashing around sufficed, and she was on to her next adventure: dress-up.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Fun and Embarrassing Facts About Being Pregnant

Experts say your body does many marvelous things during pregnancy, and here are a few of my most frightful (oops, favorite) changes (besides being used by God to create another complete human being):

  • Forgetfulness. "Could you repeat what you just said? I forgot." is the phrase that often follows my conversations with others. My best forgetful moment was when I was pregnant with Scamp and needed to do some shopping at Wal Mart. I got halfway there and forgot how to get the rest of the way. After taking several wrong turns I eventually made it.
  • Dry Heaving Mornings plus the added feature of peeing on yourself during the process. Why am I sharing this on my blog? I thought you all might want to know! LOL! At least I'm at the stage where it's not happening everyday.
  • Having to Quickly Leave the Room after a Hilarious Moment. People, please don't make my laugh so hard because I'm probably going to wet my pants. It's not funny. Stop laughing!!
  • Weird Skin Formations. Ok, so this hasn't happened yet this pregnancy, but with Scamp these strange little bumps developed at various stages on my face and neck. I eventually was able to pull them off except for the one on my eye, which is still present.
  • Changes in Vision. Besides not being able to see quite as well I've had a couple of episodes where I had spotty vision. Literally, I saw dark spots where peoples faces were supposed to be. It was really scary the first time it happened, but it goes away after about 15 minutes.
  • Claustrophobia Magnified. This has been way worse this pregnancy. I've had to leave the church service to sit outside on more than one occasion because people were sitting too close to me. I felt like I couldn't breath and didn't want to pass out, so I had to excuse myself.
  • Shortness of Breath especially in the morning. I don't sing out loud in church anymore because I become so winded I feel lightheaded. It's a very similar feeling to the previous episodes.
  • Being Hungry and Full at the Same Time. It's strange to feel so hungry, but you just don't think you can fit another ounce inside your stomach. There's no more room.

So, many strange things happen during pregnancy and probably multiple others that I haven't experienced. It's still worth every weird occurrence and embarrassing moment to hold the little life God formed inside your womb. What beyond-belief things have happened to you?