My favorite word is free!

Now that my kids are eating more, it tends to get a little more expensive every time we go out to eat as a family. So, we either do the fool proof McDonald's, go home, or spend too much money on food they are going to play with because those smiley face fries are "so tute". (Peyton's version of so cute).

A good friend of mine e mailed me these 2 websites. They detail the restaurants where the kids eat free on certain nights!

Enjoy!

http://www.coupondivas.com/kids-eat-free/

http://www.mykidseatfree.com/

36 wks and still truckin'

Here is the excerpt from the Babycenter.com website.

Your pregnancy: 36 weeks

How your baby's growing:Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. He now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. He's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered his body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected his skin during his nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of his first bowel movement. At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely he's in a head-down position. But if he isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating him from the outside of your belly.

At my appt today, I was measuring 37 wks, but still no progress towards labor. Today started my first of my weekly appts now. That feels like a milestone in itself, going weekly to the dr. We are going to have another ultrasound on Aug 12th (can't believe that is just 2 weeks away) to see how big the baby is, the fluid levels and any other details that my dr might want to look at for delivery. I am excited about that because we will actually see what our new baby looks like! It is NOT a 3D/4D ultra sound (oh, how I wish it were!), but an ultra sound at 38 wks none the less! I am thinking that this info will help my mom better plan her trip up here as well.

Everything else is pretty quiet, except for the constant uncomfortable-ness and having to pee all of the time!

My mother in law is in the week getting so many things done at my house including finishing touches on the baby room, working in my yard, cleaning all of the hard wood floors and the windows and keeping up the mountain of laundry! It has been wonderful! And of course, the kids have thought it was fantastic to have her here. They think she is their entertainment!

***The 36 wk photo to the side will probably be replace this evening...I will try and wear the same jeans and a similar shirt and take it around the same time that I took the other ones to give you a more accurate picture. That was taken last night before "The Girls" took me out for dinner. More blogging about that later!

35 weeks and counting!

Here is the excerpt from the babycenter.com website.

Your pregnancy: 35 weeks

How your baby's growing:Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight, about 8-12 ounces per week!

Update on my uncle

As you all know, my uncle David is home now. He is still having problems with his vision. In his left eye everything is fragmented and in his right eye he is seeing either double, triple, or quadruple of objects. He has to feel his way around in order to be able to even get to the bathroom. This in turn makes him very nauseous. He is still pretty down and could use a lot of prayers. He has recovered most of his other functions, so that is a huge blessing!

I will update as his vision changes now, instead of regular updates on how he is doing. The dr seems to think that over time David's vision will heal. He will probably still have double vision, but that is better than what he has now.

Thanks again for all of the prayers and encouragement for my family!

Uncle David is home!

I don't have ANY details other than mom was picking David up from the hospital today which means that he made a drastic turn around for the better last night and today and they have released him! YAY!!! Praise God!

I will let you know when I find out how he is really doing!

Am I crazy or what?

So, I happened to stumble across another prego girl's blog from a friend of mine's blog and she had this cute runner along the side of her prego belly the "last stages". I have decided to implement this on my own, especially for those who are far away and want to be involved. This chic showed her cute, un-scarred, bare belly though and I am NOT that brave. My friend Brandy has also posting bare belly pictures, but she doesn't have any stretch marks a.k.a battle scars from her previous pregnancy either. So, you all will just have to enjoy the fully clothed version of me or forget it! hahaha

We will just have to wait and see how good I am at letting James take pictures of me and actually getting them posted with the related weeks that I have left!

PLEASE, I am begging you...no comments on how huge you think I am or that I am about to pop. I have these feelings on a daily basis on my very own, without any assistance from others! (This was not intended to sound rude, just trying to steer away any more conversations that are similar to the ones I have had this past week with a few people I hadn't seen in a while!)

It is finally here!

It is finally here! My new desktop computer arrived yesterday. We just ordered it on Friday and I couldn't believe how fast it was shipped. It helps that it was a refurbished Dell, so it didn't have to be "created". Anyway, it has tons of memory, is super fast and has some great features that I have never had before like a fire wire drive so I can actually upload my videos from my video camera (YAY!!!!) and also several card readers for digital cameras.

So bear with me as I learn the new gadgets and actually get back to posting...I know many of you have been waiting for new pictures of the kids and everything else that we have been doing around here. I may even upload some "belly shots" of my pregnant self. I am making no promises, it really depends on how they turn out...Sorry!

We have redone one of the rooms in our house as a "school room" for the kids and have started doing LOTS of home school preschool things with both of them. I will probably start a new blog about this with a link from here for those who are interested, so keep checking back this week! (for those of you who don't know or don't remember, my background is in Early Childhood Development and who better to "use" it on than my own kids, right?!? hahaha)

***Update of Uncle David

My uncle has had a rough couple of days. Friday night he was doing better than anyone expected! Then on Saturday, the swelling of his brain from the surgery and all of the "manipulation" of the brain hit him and it hit him pretty hard. He has been nauseated and not able to eat or sit straight up until yesterday (Monday). They said that this is a side effect of the swelling because the nausea part of the brain is close to where his tumor was removed so the swelling is really pressing in on this area. He is still in an excruciating amount of pain, however he is almost totally off of IV drugs and taking them orally since he can finally keep food down. He also is having a hard time not being discouraged. He went into this surgery with such a great attitude, but right now he is struggling. He can't see. This is a terrible frustration for him since it is also affecting his balance. He has none...Since he can't see, he can't even really even stand up right now. They did set him up in a chair yesterday, but I don't believe that lasted for very long. He was able to keep some soup, raisins and pudding down yesterday though, so that was a huge change. Today (Tuesday) should be a huge turning point for him as the swelling should have decreased greatly. We are hoping that this is the case.

Please continue praying for Uncle David for his spirits to be lifted and for God to just heal him. Double vision is better than no vision at all, but then again we don't know God's plan. Only He does and we know that he will do what is best for David. He is just really struggling with this "lack of ability" that we so often take for granted.

Update on my Uncle David

I don't have a report as of this morning because visiting hours don't begin until 1 p.m. however, this is the information that I have as of last night.

• They were late taking him back for his surgery by about an hour and a half. They had allotted 8 hrs for the surgery.
• They ended up being done a little sooner than expected, but they did run into some problems that they didn't expect. It was a different kind of tumor and they couldn't just remove it with gloved hands like they had thought, they had to do a lot of "burning" it out.
• The tumor was actually on his brain stem and the dr said that he could tell that there was a lot of damage ALREADY inflicted on the brain from the constant bleeds. He didn't know exactly what had been affected though. This has been an aggressive tumor that came back and came back fierce (bigger and more damaging than last time.) The dr believes that he got all of it, but only time will tell.
• The dr believed that David would have double vision for the rest of his life, along with balance issues. However, he couldn't promise anything regarding any other functions. He said that we would just have to wait for him to wake up and see. He did say that this would be David's last brain surgery...that he wouldn't be able to handle another one.
• When David finally woke up last night he knew everyone in the room, he was able to blink both of his eyes (something he hasn't been able to do for a while), he had eaten some ice chips and even talk a little bit, and then they had to knock him back out with morphine because he was in so much pain.

God is so good because the glimpses that were seen of David's recovery just last night were amazing to the family. His seemed to be regaining some muscle control in his face where the left side had been droopy. Thank you all so much for all of the prayers and kinds e mails that you have sent. He still has a long recovery, but he is doing better than any of us expected.

Please Pray

This is a desperate plea for prayers to flood the heavens for my uncle David. Early last year, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. They did surgery to remove it and when they got in to his brain, there was no tumor to be found, just stretched blood vessels where "something" used to be and some crusted blood from hemorrhaging. The cleaned out the area and basically called him another medical mystery. We all know that it was a miracle though! He seemed to be doing really well.

However, this year has not been the same. He has been having terrible headaches, problems with his tear ducts keeping his eye wet enough, not being able to be standing upright for more than 30 minutes at a time before having to return to bed, and now complete loss of muscle control in the left (I think) side of his face. My mom and my sister have stepped in and taken him to several dr appts to find out what else was going on. An MRI showed that his tumor has returned and it is bigger than it was before.

David gave his life back to the Lord about 2 or 3 years ago and has really been striving to strengthen his faith even deeper ever since. He is scheduled to have surgery to remove the tumor again on July 11th, so please be praying specifically on that day as well. Pray whatever you feel called to pray, but our family is currently praying that the surgery makes him better in any way, a new man or that the Lord takes him. It may be a little selfish, but it is so hard on him, my mom and my Granny and Papa to see this man in his mid 50's almost bedridden and needing so much help with his every day care. He lives with my Granny and Papa and they are worn out, emotionally and physically.

He has such a special bond with Hannah and desperately wants to see her fulfill her dream of playing college basketball and then for the WNBA (she's almost 15). We aren't sure God's plan in this, but we know that he is in control and will do what is best for David.

Playdate/Sleepover with a 3 yr old and two 2 yr olds!

A friend of mine was having some dental surgery done a few weeks ago so I offered to keep her daughter over night for them. Thankfully my dear friend Tami happily volunteered to join the ranks. She had the little girl for most of the day and brought her over after naps. Really all I did was offer a house for our little friend to sleep at and Tami did the rest! hahaha We had a lot of fun playing in the water and then took the 3 of them out to eat at Ryan's Buffet, thinking there would be enough different types of food to please everyone! It went really well. It was a smooth cycle of you get hers, I'll get theirs, you get yours and I'll get mine! Pretty comical to the on-lookers, I am sure...but peaceful for us!

Peyton and Gavin really love playing with their friend and Peyton was super excited to have her stay the whole night!

Here are some pictures of them playing!

Here they are in matching PJ's and matching baby dolls!

And here they are, Tami reading them their story goodnight. Don't worry, we didn't let them sleep together...there wouldn't have been any sleeping going on. Peyton moved to her toddler bed when the story was finished and our little friend had the air mattress to herself!

This is a random picture at Bob Evans. Tami's parents took us to lunch one Sunday afternoon and while we were waiting, James told Peyton that the door stop was a "nose holder" She spent quite a bit of time with her nose there. I told him that we needed one for the house. Maybe it would be a better form of time-out. They used to make kids stand with their noses in the corner! hahahah