Finally, a computer on the internet!

So here we are, in the end of July already!  Now I will start blogging a bit more regularly since we finally  got a computer on the internet.  We have gone a couple years with no computers on the internet because we tended to forget to renew our antivirus/antispyware and we would get viruses eventually on our computers.  We just signed up with a new phone and internet service that offers free antivirus/antispyware.. Now we no longer have to worry about renewing our subscription for it...it's just there! Up to this point we've been using our phones or other small hand-held devices to get on the internet.  They are too hard to post on a regular basis with..

So, on this homefront, I am starting to prepare for a new baby.  I'm trying to get through our whole house and get rid of all that we don't need and organize all that we do.  We also have our oldest girl going to a confirmation camp tomorrow which she will attend for 1 1/2 weeks.  We will then be going there, to MI, to attend her confirmation activities for the weekend at the end of the camp.  Then it's only probably about 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 weeks after we get home that we will have a new baby!  So exciting but also nervewracking cause I feel like there's no way I will have gotten through everything I need to for our upcoming school year and a new baby before she's born!  Yikes!!!  But if I don't, she will still come, we will still be in our glory having a new baby and all the rest will fall into place!

Well, time to sign off.  I am not getting much done sitting on here! :)

Oh, so hard to blog..

I wish so dearly I could get myself to blog regularly. This is supposed to be my way of journaling for my kids. If I ever think to sit down and blog, my mind just draws a blank. So, I decided I'm just going to write about nothing....

I don't think I've officially blogged this yet but I will, just for the journaling record. I'm pregnant! :D I know, you guys already know that, but....

I've had an ultrasound and found out that my due date is a little earlier than I thought it was...only five days but that is so much better than it being later than I thought it was! So, I'm due September 18th. Although I always wish for twins each pregnancy, I already found out that there's only one baby in ther..one cute little wee one that was already sucking it's fingers.

This pregnancy has been a very mild one...no morning sickness at all except one morning when it hadn't even crossed my mind yet that I might be pregnant, I had one sweep of nausea and that was it for the entire career of this pregnancy! However, I am still super, super tired and majorly lazy. I mean LAZY! I don't clean, don't do laundry, hardly cook...well, that was even before...just kidding, I don't cook as often as I usually do. Rrrgh, I don't like feeling like this. I hate seeing the house deteriorate even worse than it usually does. Our house is beginning to really stink and I don't even have the oomph to start scrubbing out the corners. It then depresses all of us. The very, very good side of it is that the older girls have really learned how to pull their weight and get it all done when need be. They even started to sort out a load of clothes for themselves and their buddies so everyone gets a few clean outfits again this week.

On the brighter note, I am so happy I still have been able to run to an extent. Not as often as before and not as far and even not as far within the run before I have I walk for a bit due to being short of breath...but, I am still getting it about four times per week. Plus, I'm still doing both martial arts classes and keeping up, despite a whopping ten pound weight gain already in 13 weeks of being pregnant! :(

Well, that's all I can think of...

Oh, except our baby has begun to walk! One day, she went from standing to taking five steps..not one step first, but five! The soon that same night she was taking seven. That was about two weeks ago. Now, yesterday, she took up to fourteen steps two different times,men a few times, six a couple times! I don't know who's more excited, us or her!

Alright, more later!

Trying to change my profile picture..the other one was ore two years old!

Only problem is, I can't figure out how to get this to move into the profile picture area! Hmmm...

Baked, from scratch

I came home from work today...house was sparkling and a couple of the girls had combined their efforts and made cupcakes from scratch AND frosting for them from scratch....and decorated them for everyone! What a treat!!! They are so awesome anyway, but this is the icing on the cake, so to speak. :)

A nummy creation by my lovely brown-eyed daughter

Party ready to begin!

I should learn to post these I reverse order...the last two should have been switched around.

Valentine's party prep under way...can't wait!

My little guy..pjs, paci, cowboy boots, Mohawk hat..what a combo

Some current pictures...

I decided to post this so I can try use this for my new profile pic. It's a little more current than my current pic... We'll see if I figure it out now. It's different to operate this blog using my iPad than a regular computer (which we don't have for Internet use).

Another baby on the way!

As I'm sitting here, slowly starting my morning, I decided I should take advantage of my typical first trimester putziness and get some blogging in....

So here we are, expecting our ninth baby (I can't resist, I have to add hopefully our ninth and tenth..yes, I am again holding out for twins). I feel really very good but o matter how good I feel, I always still have the touchiness of what I eat, when I eat, am super tired, can't drink much to stay hydrated (I get very queasy drinking plain water). E is so sweet, he found out that one thing I can drink is iced black tea with lemonade, so one thing he got me for Valentine's Day was a box of K-cups of black tea/lemonade....Mmmmmm! I'm sipping on one now!

On a homeschool note, we have just begun a classic literature class with the oldest girls and alongside it, I am reading to the kids Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens. We also watched a documentary on Charles Dickens, which was very interesting. The cool thing is, in the classic

lit course (it's a homeschool dad and scholar who gives the course on DVD) it is mentioned that every story ever written is a piece of that author's life, be it an actual piece of their life, or a character based on the author himself/herself or someone else they knew, or even something they have vividly imagined or dreamed of (for example, if it's about a make believe land). So, it was interesting then to see this documentary and learn that all of his novels were directly a reflection of pieces of his life. One character was based on a young sister-in-law whom he adored that died young, David Copperfield was as close to an autobiography as a book could be, he used to work in a lawyers office and hated it and learned to really dislike lawyers. So, unsurprisingly, in all his novels, lawyers we portrayed as loathsome fools. What a fun way to learn to really appreciate literature!

On the home front, after a pretty brutal weekend of a couple pretty sick kids while we were out of town for a wedding, everyone is doing pretty well. Yody and Izzy have a newly found friendship. Yodi teaches Izzy some pretty unladylike behavior, which she loves, and she hauls him into playing house and recruits him to be a babysitter or parent with dollies or sits and "reads" to him...

We really enjoyed having a bit over a week of having my sister and girls here! We got a rare outing to MOA and most of the kids got to get wristbands for five hours of unlimited rides at nickelodeon universe. We shopped til we dropped one day, enjoyed visiting when we could getting in, I got in on a ladies' nite, complete with sauna...we went up north for a family wedding and got to visit many relatives and old childhood friends..mmmm, it was great! I think I gained about four or five pounds over this short time period. Ouch. But it was worth every ounce! :)

Well, it's time to get going on Great Expectations again!

Ahh, a new year!

I feel like the year is off to a very good start! I'm not sure why, I just do! I mean, we just had a tummy bug sweep through the household, swiftly and severely enough to merit me calling in to work the next a.m. That was still in 2011 though, AND that's one thing off the checklist now of things to do. "Major flu bug?" "Check!" Now we can move forward into the new year.

Another big plus, I've gone out and run both days of the new year. Santa geared me up to run safely this winter, so I have no excuse. I got a flashing red light to clip on me, some foot accessories involving carbide spikes to put over the bottom of my running shoes, and I got a "worker jacket." I will include a photo of that possibly tomorrow. Suffice it to say that if anyone sees me running in that thing, they may think there's a fleeing utility worker and glance around nervously for the utility box that's about to explode. It's actually really cute and I love it..super comfy and perfect, right down to the zippered outside pockets I can use for a flashlight in one and my cell phone in the other, the soft cuffs that do a swell job at keeping the arctic air out and a hidden hood I can pull out of its zippered compartment to act as a wind breaker over my stocking cap on the really blustery days! It's an honest-to-goodness utility jacket. Oh, the "worker guy" thing...it's what one of my kids said when I opened it Christmas morning, "Oohhhh, that looks like a worker guy jacket!". It is, Dearie, it is. And I....I could be considered a worker guy!

Today it really helped to have a little mutt...I mean, pup...barking so loudly it honestly hurt our ears! As brutal as it seems to have to brave the elements and do what we have to do to burn this high energy dog's excess energy, believe me when I say it, it's truly more brutal to have to endure his barking! Going on a run with him Is well worth the trade-off of him being quiet for a few hours. And, going on a run with him is worthy of a post entirely devoted to that to topic! I will have to post about that when I post the pic of my running gear.

Oh yeah, a lovely event that happened the other day: our deep freeze was meddled with and we did nt discover it until one fine moment when one of the kids went to retrieve a food item from it and returned saying that the freezer smelled downright rotten. Yes indeedy it did! All our meat had rotted and the freezer smelled like we were storing cadavers in it. Thank you little toddler boy! I know you did it! BUT again, it happened in 2011. Done with. Another thing to check off our list. "Get rid of all our frozen foods! Time to start fresh for the new year!" "Check! Done deal!"

So, all in all, a very good start to 2012. A very good start indeed!