A Glimpse

Hello again! Spring is wonderful, isn't it? Caroline and I have been loving the nice weather we've had recently. While we've had beautiful days with intermittent cool, rainy ones, the Lord is truly changing the seasons here in the deep south.

We've been doing nothing of too much interest...just lunching on leftovers, mopping the floors, cleaning up Ficus tree leaves. :)





We've had several Friday night family picnics. We spread out a blanket, fix supper on paper plates, and let Caroline choose a movie to watch. It's been so much fun! Although, we've now seen "The Incredibles" more than I ever thought I would..all in parenting fun I suppose. :)



Caroline loves to pretend to go to sleep. She wants under the blanket, wants an animal to cuddle, and will tell you, "close your eyes." It's precious. One night I caught them "playing" like this. I love that she has Minnie and Aaron is all snuggled up to Mickey!



Last Friday night Aaron and I went out to dinner to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. It was a lot of fun! We talked about the beginning of our relationship and marveled at how quickly life has passed us by. We reminisced favorite moments from both our courtship and marriage. We thanked God for the rough times He saw us through and looked into the future with bright promise. We guessed at the gender of our unborn child and decided on names for him or her. It was wonderful to spend time together; talking and communicating with one another and reaffirming our love and commitment. A wonderful night.

Bright and early Monday morning, I forced myself to drink 32oz of liquid. Morning is my roughest time of day and having to drink all that wasn't fun. But, it was required before my ultrasound! We sat together as the tech moved the around my ever-growing stomach and saw and heard the wonderful sound of our child's heart beating. We saw our son's heart beating. That's right---we're having a SON! We are beyond excited and happy and are so thankful to our Lord that we have been blessed with a son. She moved the wand (don't know what it's actually called!) around and found his mouth for us. She pointed out his upper and lower lip and said that it does not look as though he will have a cleft palate. My eyes filled with tears of Thanksgiving to the Lord for answering this prayer of ours. We are going to have another ultrasound at 28 weeks to check again, but the initial diagnosis is NO CLEFT PALATE!

Praise God!

Helper

When I stop and think about the last few weeks, I remember our life as a blur. Doctor's appointments, Bible class preparation, daily living, dinners with family and friends, games played, everything seems to have just zipped by. I don't know how that happens exactly, but everyone always said it would. Life is great.

Meet the Ficus.



I'm not much of a green thumb, but we have several houseplants that we were given with love from friends at the passing of Aaron's grandfather. The Ficus is just such a plant. Despite that I'm attempting to care for it as I'm supposed to...leaves seem to fall from it on a semi-regular basis. Apparently, even my daughter has sensed my frustration with this particular plant and her sweet heart wanted to help Mommy not feel so frustrated. One morning I was doing some cleaning and she wanted to help. I let her have the broom and...although I was working in the kitchen, she went into the living room. When I asked her why...

"I clean leaves."







It warmed my heart that she did not have to be asked to clean the leaves, she knew it was something that added to my stress. She took it upon herself to clean them up. What a sweet helper!

On the pregnancy front...I'm doing good. Beginning to feel a little more energy bit by bit. I've started feeling the baby move, which is a joy. We're finding out the gender on the 22nd. I'm struggling not to be impatient for that day.

Free Samples

I'm really into signing up online and recieving free samples of different products. It's amazing what is out there! I thought I would share this one I did today, because all us mommies need lots of coffee! :)



Just for your reference, I have recieved samples from Dunkin Donuts before, so this is legit. Enjoy!

Edited to add: When you sign up for free samples, the site will almost always want an email address. If you're like me, I don't like giving out my address to sites because I don't like a lot of junk clogging up my inbox. So, to solve this problem, I have a yahoo account for just this purpose and that is the address I always give. I do check that address, just not daily like I do my other account.