Some things just make you think...

Just a few moments ago Jeff called me with some terrible news. Our church's former custodian (he just left probably 6 months ago) hung himself either late last night or this morning. His mother, Jean, worked in our nursery for years and just lost her daughter (I think to cancer) less than 3 months ago. Unfortunately, she is the one who found her son this morning. :-( I'm so heartbroken over this. Gary has children who are not yet grown (I believe they are teenagers) and I'm sure they are hurting so much right now. I'm devastated for Jean who is an amazing, wonderful, christian woman. She loved her children so much and to lose two of them in such a short amount of time... well, I can't even imagine. I'm also aching for my husband. He had a HUGE heart for Gary. He seemed to be one of the few people who really, truly cared for him and wanted to befriend him and help him out. Jeff became a deacon at our church just a couple months ago and immediately took on visiting Jean (who is now a shut in and unable to physcially come to church anymore due to some health concerns of her own) specifically for the reason to be able to visit with Gary also. He was just there only a couple weeks ago visiting them. He came home so motivated to find a way to get Gary out of the house as he could tell that he was dealing with some serious depression issues. I know that Jeff is feeling so horrible because he didn't do more in the weeks that followed that visit. I just feel so bad for him.



Anyway, hearing this devastating news has made me think and treasure what I have. As I tucked Cooper into his bed just moments ago I lingered for a few more minutes over his little head and prayed for him. I just imagined Jean doing the same exact thing over Gary when he was just a tiny little 3 year old. Because I know she did. And it just makes a person think and wonder and ponder the future....

...and it makes you pray even harder and cherish every moment a little bit more.

A ticking timebomb

I feel like I'm a ticking time bomb at this point. Now that I have officially reached 37 weeks and can safely deliver this baby without too much chance of having any issues with either me or the baby I feel like I'm just waiting for something to happen. Now, the chances OF something happening in the next three weeks is probably pretty slim, but its just feels so official now. We're registered at the birthing center, the baby's bag is packed, I have my list of what I'm putting in my bag (and working on packing what I can right now). Everything is washed and ready to go. Now.... we just wait.... and wait... and wait.....

For those of you who haven't seen them yet - here is a link to my friend Jen's blog where she posted a few of my maternity pictures http://jenniferjphotos.com/blog/2010/amy-maternity/.

I'm sorry I haven't posted much lately. My laptop is broken yet again and we're waiting for a new power cord that has been ordered. In the meantime, I'm on my desktop - which doesn't allow for lots of time and portability. :) But, hopefully I'll be back up and running here soon. And hopefully it won't be TOO long until a baby update comes around. :)

I'm nuts

Here I am at 37 weeks (well, tomorrow will be 37 weeks exactly). I have 5 kids downstairs. I'm going to loose my mind. The end.

35 weeks

35 weeks - only 35 DAYS left to go! How crazy is that!!! How is it that 35 days sounds so much shorter than 5 weeks? I certainly don't understand it, but it definately seems much shorter to me.

I have so much to do. So much so, that even making the LIST of things that need to be done seems overwhelming.

And that my friends is why I'm not updating this blog at the moment. Even the idea of forming a complete sentence seems like too much work right now. LOL So, I'm just not doing anything. Except knitting. And sleeping. And eating WAY too much chocolate.

I guess I figure this baby is going to come when she's going to come whether I stock the cupboards with food, wash the diapers, actually write down a birth plan - or not. Right?

Eight

Wow. When did I become old enough to have an 8 year old?!

Today is my precious little girl's 8th birthday. I can't believe that she is old enough to be reading, playing video games, getting excited about getting gift cards for her birthday, and understanding many things about "grown up" life. She has her moments (ok, she has a lot of these moments) that frustrate me, but mostly that's because we're too much alike. LOL Maybe I'm a little one sided, but she has lots of moments of brilliance too. She is SO good at math. I love to watch her play her video game where she has to do fractions and see how quickly she can get through all those math problems. Or how fast she picks up on new math concepts in her schoolwork. She loves everything pioneer related and can often be found acting out a trip "out west". She is very into her American Girl doll that she got for Christmas and is taking such good care of the doll and everything that goes with her. She is creative, kind, beautiful on both the inside and the outside, and amazes me every single day. I love you Kaelyn - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Age - a couple weeks. This was the very first time we ever met Kaelyn.

Age 5

Age 8