A Sad Day

It is always quite a shock when you get a call and find out that one of your family members has passed away. Today, I got one of those calls. Scott's second oldest brother, Bryan, has passed away. He was 39. Bryan had had diabetes Type I since he was two years old, so we believe that it was complications due to the disease, although we do not know for sure. Since the death was unattended, an autopsy will be performed. We do not yet know when or where services will be held. I am asking that you please keep Scott and his family, especially his mother, LaDon, and Bryan's daughter, Rebecca, in your prayers during this time. A lot of questions are unanswered, and I know many people are going to feel guilty about the circumstances surrounding this death, even though no one is to blame. The picture of Bryan above was taken this past October. He is with one of his loves--motorcycles. We will miss him.

My Bump--My Lovely Baby Bump

Here I am at 14 (almost 15) weeks. It's getting bigger!

This weekend was spent in Ruidoso, New Mexico, at Mountain View Christian Camp for a youth retreat. We had a good time up at the camp seeing fellow youth ministers and gleaning from the word. Scott Jarvis and his son, Tyler, were the speakers, and from what I hear (since Will kept me from most of the sessions), it was amazing. Of course...would we expect anything less from Jarvis?

The camp was covered in about 6 - 8 inches of snow, so that was really fun for all the west Texas kids who came. They had numerous snowball fights and built snowmen. The funniest thing, however, was the fact that all the church vans and buses got stuck in the snow. One of the youth ministers brought his own pick-up, which thankfully had 4-wheel drive, so he pulled all the vans and buses up the hill onto the highway on Sunday morning. Fun was had by all :)

Unfortunately, I don't think we got any pictures of the snow. Oh well, we were a little busy.

Anyway, now that we are home, there is plenty to do. This will be my first full week of the morning schedule, so hopefully I will be productive in the afternoons. I don't think I will today, though, I am really tired. Will decided not to sleep much this weekend, so we didn't sleep much either. I might just lie down and take a little nap...

Books and Such

Well, I did it. I got up and got to work semi-on-time this morning. A great feat for me. I am so sleepy now, but at least I woke up and got ready! I am really going to have to train myself to go to bed earlier. But, the good thing about working in the morning is that I can do my Internet stuff in the afternoon instead of after Will goes to bed at night. That should really help.

Also, I finally finished my mammoth of a book last night, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, by Diana Gabaldon. I think I've talked about this series before, but really...if you love a great story-teller, nail-biting adventures, love, mystery, and really thick books...this series is for you. This book is the most recent in the series (6 total)--the Outlander series. If you love to read, you should really check these out. The genre is hard to place, even the author doesn't really even know what it is. I found one of the books in the science-fiction section of the library, but I wouldn't call it that. Some say it's fantasy, others say it's romance. But the author just likes the simple "fiction" genre. You may find it in any one of these sections of your bookstore :) So, there's my little sales pitch--ha!

As for other news, Scott and I are going on a retreat this weekend to Ruidoso. It was supposed to be a youth retreat (we are joining forces with a few other churches), but our one kid who signed up has backed out. But Scott is a cell-group leader, etc, so he still has to go. So, we're going with him as moral support, I guess :) It may be a nice little getaway--although it will be quite cold there, I imagine!

Well, I suppose that's I all I have for today. Y'all have a great Thursday and weekend if I don't get around to it tomorrow!

Changes

Things are changing, once again. But not in a bad way. I am going to start working in the mornings at Dakota's instead of the afternoons. I think this will work out a lot better than our current schedule. Scott is even more of a non-morning person than I am, and he is just more productive in the afternoons. I think this will be better for all of us. I start this new schedule tomorrow.

Scott and Will both went back to school today (ACU and Children's Day Out, respectively) for the first time since before Christmas. CDO started back up two weeks ago, but Will had that bad poop/diaper rash thing going on and then last week we were iced/snowed in. So, here we are. Scott has been working for the last two weeks on his car (it has taken him so long because of the weather) and he was supposed to take it to ACU today, but when I just went outside to check the mail, I noticed the car out front and the church van was gone. So, I guess it wasn't fixed enough quite yet. Maybe he can get it right before next Wednesday.

I really don't have anything interesting to say. On the pregnancy front, I am in that awkward stage where my regular clothes do not really fit and yet, neither do my maternity clothes. Finding things to wear has proven quite interesting lately. My morning sickness stuff seems to completely left me now; yea! I am hungry almost constantly. I have been wanting fruit (especially apples and grapes), orange juice, cheetos, cheese, bagels, burritos, and Nestle Drumstick ice cream cones. It's amazing the things you want when you're pregnant. With Will, I couldn't get enough oranges and Nutter Butter cookies. I guess that's about all. Maybe I'll have something interesting later in the week :)

Until next time...

Why I Love Thursday

I love Thursdays. Not because anything particularly wonderful happens, but because it is a great line-up of comedy on NBC. You get My Name is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, and 30 Rock all in one night! It's amazing! If none of those shows make you laugh, there really might be something seriously wrong with you. But we can still be friends. Of them all, though, I have to say I look forward to 30 Rock the most. I love Tina Fey. She is hilarious. I so miss her on SNL, but her creating and being on 30 Rock is worth it. And Alec Baldwin, although I don't really like him "in real life," is just a riot. If you haven't watched this yet, you should. It's really for your own good. :)

Anyway...back to the real world. Not much is happening here other than it is supposed to get nasty here again tomorrow. I am so cold! I think my toes might fall off if I take off my shoes!

Happy Thursday to everyone and have a great, safe, warm weekend if I don't get around to posting tomorrow. (Aren't you all proud of me??? Three days in a row!!!)

Wednesday Report

I would like to thank everyone for their congratulatory comments on our new bun in the oven :) We are so excited and we are so thankful for all your prayers and well wishes. It seems like now that I have announced this, so many other people are turning up pregnant, too! Congrats to all my fellow expectant-mom blogging buddies out there! We will have to compare stories.

Today we woke up to a beautiful, peaceful white blanket of snow. I think this snowfall was a little heavier than the snowfall we had in November. It was colder and and the sun didn't come out til much later, so it stuck around longer, too. Scott was supposed to go to school at ACU today (his first day of class), but we didn't want him to risk driving there and back, so he called his professor and said that he would not be coming. ACU had already delayed their first day of the spring semester by one day. When Scott got off the phone with ACU, we got an interesting phone call from the LCU Alumni Relations office. The main A.R. lady went to camp with Scott back in the day. She was calling to tell us that there was an LCU student who was stranded in Big Spring because of the weather. This student had taken a bus to get back to Lubbock and ended up in a motel in Big Spring last night and didn't have enough money for another night's stay. Would we take her in? Of course, we said. So we have spent the day getting to know Sarah, a senior psychology major. She had started her travels last Thursday from Wisconsin and got stuck for 3 days in Dallas--sleeping in the Greyhound station--and finally ended up here. At first, we thought she might not get back to Lubbock til tomorrow (Thursday), but there is a bus running at midnight tonight. I hope that she gets back home safely and can finally relax. What an experience!!

Speaking of good ol' LCU, we are planning on attending the festivities during Master Follies weekend. This year is our five year reunion, so we are planning on attending that function, club breakfasts, chapel, the afternoon show, and a couple of receptions for past big time award winners like Scott (that's sort of a joke--Scott was Mr. LCU and recieved a special award from the Bible Dept. his senior year). Anywho, we look forward to seeing all of our friends in February!

I really can't think of anything else to report right now, so I'm signing off. Have a great Thursday :)

Back from the Dead

Literally! Our computer finally died a couple of weeks ago, so that is why I haven't been blogging (not like I did it constantly before, but, hey...I read other people's!). So, if any of my friends out there still stop by to see if I just might have posted something, I have returned. We purchased a new computer with our Christmas money and it arrived this afternoon! Yea!!!

On to other things! It is freakishly cold here. So cold and treacherous, even, that our church services were cancelled on Sunday. I didn't think any amount of precipitation could cause our church to close it's doors, but lo and behold. I think most of the churches in our area cancelled; and I think it was a wise decision. You know some people (I'm mainly thinking of the elderly) will get out in whatever conditions to get to church. I'm thankful that they decided to just cancel so those people and the ones that live miles and miles away would just stay in rather than risk it. Anyway, it's been very icy and tonight it snowed! We have had a fire in our fireplace (not nonstop) for the last four days. It's been great! I looked at Scott at one point on Sunday afternoon, while reading my novel in front of the fireplace, wrapped up in my fleece blanket, and told him, "This is great!" And it was.

Our family was ill last week. We got "the bug" that has been going around. I got it Tuesday night and missed work on Wednesday and part of Thursday. Scott got it on Wednesday night. Will was also sick, but his was a sinus infection and then his antibiotic gave him bad poops. He had a horrid diaper rash, too. But, we are all much much better now!

Although computers crashing, ice and snow, and sickness is all very interesting and newsworthy, believe it or not, I have bigger news. At the end of July, Will is going to be a big brother! That's right, I am pregnant! We are very excited. Last week (Tuesday as a matter of fact), we saw the baby's heart beat and it was moving all around. When Scott can scan the sonogram pictures at work, I will post them for all to see.

This pregnancy has been quite different from my first. I was quite a bit more nauseous this time and it lasted much longer. With Will, I was nauseous about two times. This time, it was more like every day, all day. But, I never did loose my breakfast, so that was nice. I am now about 12 or 13 weeks along, so hopefully all of that is about over with. In fact, I have been really hungry the last few days. I have been eating quite a lot. Also, my "bump" is starting to grow. I have to rubberband my jeans. I did put all of my maternity clothes in my closet, but it will probably still be a while before I can wear most of them. It was just a good weekend to clean and do things like that :) Scott is laughing at me because I start the whole "nesting" thing really early. I feel like I have to get organized! Now! It's kind of important, though, because we are going to try to get Will into a big bed soon. However, we kind of need to know the sex of the new baby before we start really getting his room together. If the new baby is a girl, she will go in the guest room because it is painted pink. But, if the new baby is a boy, he will take Will's room and Will will get the guest room (repainted, of course!). So, until the beginning of March, it's just a waiting game.

Well, I have probably rambled on much too long. I have missed all of you and hope to hear from you that you haven't given up on me :) Love to all~~