A new light in this world

I was going to sit down and write about my oven, or my weekend, or some other extremely silly thing, but then I got this link:

http://sweetpeakurtz.blogspot.com/

My cousin has just finished a very trying pregnancy. She had the usual complaints, plus a terrible bout of itching, but she found out that her baby had some complications, and then she found out that they had some more. The two big things were, a blockage in the ureter to the kidney and the second was some swelling in the ventricles of the brain. The swelling got worse and the Dr.'s urged lots of testing. Just a mont ago, they discovered that on top of all of that, the baby was breech. Valerie and Doug, after much praying, decided to let God handle it. They knew that the tests could not give them "real" answers, only more questions and they also knew, that they were having this baby, whatever that meant for them. It was an emotional and often scary pregnancy with lots of unkowns... the Dr's told them that the baby could be fine, or she may not live... and anything in between. There was a great deal of concern over Down's Syndrome or other chromosomal disorders and lots of talk about mental retardation and developmental delays. The Dr.'s seemed to paint a rather grim picture, but Valerie kept her eyes on the light of God and hoped for the best. The last ultrasound showed some good news, Baby Girl, had turned around and was ready for a "traditional" natural child birth.

Kelsey Joy was born on Mother's Day. After a quick labor, she came into this world with great, exuberant and lusty cries. She was able to nurse and appeared very "normal", as her Gramma put it. Kelsey went to the NICU to be observed and is doing very well. There have been lots of tests, and there will be more. I ask that you pray for Valerie and Doug, that they may have peace and I ask for prayers for Kelsey, for health and wholeness.

Feel free to check out Kelsey's blog....it really helps me to realize, that a month without an oven, is really... not that big of a deal.

Weight Loss Update and Tricks For YOU!

I continue to find success! I had a great weekend camping with my family and had the joyous experience of having to pin up my pants to keep them from falling down! I ate reasonably during the weekend and splurged a little on some chips and ice cream, but really ate well for the most part.

I know I had mentioned the "Wendie Plan" in a previous post, but I don't know if I went into detail. Basically, it helps you to use ALL of your alloted points during the week. I am a stickler for the rules and found myself always ONLY eating my low points, every day. I beleive that this is why I got "stuck" and could not lose another pound. Since following the plan, I have dropped another 2 pounds and only have 1 more to reach my second goal! (145) That will make a full 10 pound loss! (maybe more like 12, but I didn't weigh myself before I started because I was too afraid!)

You can read more about the "WendiePlan here: http://www.angelfire.com/crazy4/ahealthylifestyle/WendiePlan.html

I have found it to be working for me, and it allows you to eat "big" one day per week, which is not only a nice treat, but helps to rev up your metabolism!

The second discovery is this website: http://www.hungry-girl.com/. I must give credit where it is due, my friend Marie turned me on to this one! They have a free newsletter and lots of tricks for food trades and swaps and lots of good info right on the site! There is a recipie for chocolate cupcakes that sound AMAZING and are only 2 points! Yes, it gives the point value too! I am going to order the cook book and have been getting the newsletters, I have also printed out a stack of food ideas and recipies.

I am off to scrapbook and get ready for my weekend. I am still after Andy to try to put that slide show on YouTube, if he doesn't, I will post pics from The Ball! Details on our beach weekend, coming soon! Hope you all had a Happy Mother's Day! I did!

Oven drama

The drama continues! The repair guy ordered the part, the part came in, they scheduled a service call, the guy showed up, the guy put in the part AND.....
The BRAND NEW part, was no good! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Electric ovens are great, except when the electrical panel that controls them goes out! Right now, I would love a good 'ol fashioned gas oven, and I wouldn't even mind lighting it with a match! The part has been ordered ... AGAIN. They say it should be in early next week. I told the guy, that so long as it was in by Thanksgiving and I could cook a turkey, I would be happy! (I hope he doesn't take me seriously!)

We are heading out to the beach for the weekend to camp. I don't know if Andy tried to upload his slide show to You-tube or not... I will ask again. I would write more tonight and give you some pics....BUT... I want to work on my scrapbooks! On Tuesday night, I set up my table in the family room and caught up Ella's book. I have some journaling to do, but I will take that with me to work on during the weekend. Tonight, I want to finish up my 2005 book. I am getting ready for a big scrapbooking retreat and I don't want the tail end of these projects to weigh me down.

We had some work done on our back porch this week, too. An electrician came out and ran some wires, outlets and plugs, but... you guessed it...it is another not quite finished project and I do not want to put up pics until it's done.

I really hope that Andy can find the time next week to FINISH the kitchen...then, I will post! We are just so busy every night and every weekend, but now we have 3 projects going on that are not quite done...I hate that more than anything else. Next week, we will focus on the wrap ups, because during the Memorial Day weekend, we are going to start our next project. The bar in the kitchen....details to come!

Another week over

Another busy week is over and I am into another! Last week we had baseball games, dance classes, tumbling, scrapbooking and a trip to Dream Dinners. I have still not blogged about Dream Dinners, but they have really saved my life! I go and make 13 meals for the month in about an hour! It is incredible...but I will post on that another time!

During the weekend we, went to a Pancake Breakfast at Ella's school, headed to the local nursery to pick up plants for a project, stopped at Target for some supplies, watched Gavin play baseball (he hit a home run and a triple!) and later, Andy took Ella to a Father/Daughter Ball. He made a great slide show and I am going to try to upload it later!

Sunday, I taught Sunday School and then we came home and worked around the house. We set up our new garden fountain (an anniversary gift to ourselves), but we still need to have power run for it. The electrician is coming out later today, I hope that we can have this done before June! We also planted some pots for our front porch, I will post pics when that project is done. Andy did filing and I did laundry and later we had dinner with Andy's parents. We paid bills and had our beginning of the week "touch base" meeting. A busy but productive weekend.

Two weeks ago, our oven died. The electrical panel burned out and no buttons worked, at all. Luckily, we have a home owners warranty plan that pays for things like this to be fixed. The oven beeped like crazy, so Andy pulled the unit out and unplugged it. They sent out a guy, he wrote up stupid stuff like "They tampered with the machine and tried to fix it themselves" and got our claim denied! I was sooooo mad!!! I went around and around with the insurance on Friday and finally handed it over to Andy. He got them to send someone else out today and he said, no problem...they will order the part. So, I may have an oven again by the end of the week. Thank goodness! We are truckin along and going to have loads of fun this week...especially because we are going camping over the weekend!

A Student, Again...

I am officially a student at Whittier College, again. I did find out, a few weeks ago, that I did not get a position with Broadoaks as a Graduate Fellow. That was a big disappointment, but has it's silver lining too. It would have been great experience, but I would have been working full time next school year and making slightly less money than I make now, working part time.

Yesterday, I had my interview at the college for the Teaching Credential and Masters program. It went great, and I have been accepted. I don't know that there was any real concern that I wouldn't be, but I now have, an official letter saying that it is so.

I have completed all of my financial aid paperwork and am working on filing out grant applications. I will start classes on June 24 and for six full weeks, I will have class from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Monday, through Thursday with Fridays "off". I plan to spend 9-4 in the library, studying my brains out.

I don't know how I will fit work into this schedule, but I have to bring in some money. Andy did get a summer school position, but it is half day and 4 weeks. This puts us at shortage to start with. We have saved throughout the year to cover August...we do this every year. We were really hoping to re-do our kitchen floors with the money coming from the government and our tax return, but have realized that it would be much smarter to set that money aside to cover the shortage that summer is going to cause. In addition to being short on income, our expenses will increase because I will be driving to uptown everyday instead of just twice a week, and the kids will be in full time summer school, Monday-Friday. We know that we will be provided for and are working on a "faith budget" right now. Prayers are welcomed...more for peace of mind than for cash...but hey.. .I won't turn down cash, either!

I am excited and nervous and worried about juggling everything but I figure, heck... I handled 36 hours of REALLY hard labor and delivered two babies with NO DRUGS... I can handle six weeks of chaos! Andy will really have to step up and do grocery shopping, laundry, and all of that other "stuff". He helps with it all now, but he will be the "man" in charge!

I worked on the calendar tonight, filling in every one's schedule of classes, workshops, school, swim lessons, sports camp and a couple of weekend camping trips and feel overwhelmed. I know that I just have to focus on what comes next and no further. Our minister tells us, "You can drive down the highway at night and your headlights only show you the next 200 feet in front of you, and that is all you need to see. You keep driving, having faith that the next 200 feet will be illuminated for you. Heck, you can drive yourself from California to New York by only seeing the next 200 feet!" I am off, headed for New York... 200 feet at a time!