Christmas 2007

Caleb got a drumset for Christmas, and is pretty awesome at them already!


He accidentally hit the cymbal with his finger this time.


The family, opening presents...


And more presents...a fun Christmas at the Portage Rumley's.

Pictures!

"Miss Lindsey" from church shares a birthday with Grace, and this year it landed on a Wednesday. So, Lindsey (the sweet girl that she is) bought matching skirts for herself and Grace to wear on their birthday. Aren't they cute?



A smile from sweet Ava...Unless she's hungry, poopy, or sleepy, she has the sweetest disposition. We're thankful to be on the receiving end of lots of smiles and coos these days.



These are the homemade thin mints I made for Christmas time. Simple and yummy!



And this is Luke hiding from me while he eats some of the thin mints!



Much to Luke's chagrin, Caleb found Mommy's makeup. Even worse, he knew where to put the mascara (even though he doesn't apply it too well)!

That's all for now. Merry Christmas everyone!

The state of the Rumleys

Again, it's been forever since I've posted, and this time I won't even bother with excuses!

I always think that once we're back in High-speed Internet Land (i.e. the city), I'll blog all the time. With the way my life is right now, I'm not sure that's true! I feel like my days are passing me by before I have a chance to get everything done that I need to get done! Who has time for the Internet? (Obviously, I'm on the Internet right now, but the kids are all in bed, and Luke's not home from his deacons' meeting yet.)

So, here are the bullet points of our lives right now:

• Grace turned three on November 14. She's pretty much adorable. For her birthday dinner, she requested ham, Teddy Grahams, and blue mashed potatoes. Oh, yes, blue potatoes. It was pretty bizarre to eat those. They looked like frosting but tasted like potatoes, so it was very tricky to my senses. I have pictures that I'll post someday (maybe).
  
• Caleb is saying lots more words now...Please, thank you, Buddy, church...There are more, but I can't really think of them right now.
  
• Ava is 9 weeks old now. She's a great sleeper. She just had her 2-month check-up, and she weighs 12lb 15oz (95th percentile) and is 24-1/4 inches tall (off the charts). She's doing great!
  
• I don't have my Christmas shopping done. I don't have time to shop. I don't even want to shop with the three kids with me. When is Christmas? 13 days? I hope I get done!
  
• I want to contribute to our family income, but I'm not sure how that would work. One of Luke's cousins teaches piano lessons in her home, and another one sells things that she makes (like baby blankets). I'm not good at selling things to people. I don't have any marketable skills like piano-playing. I thought it would be fun to write children's books, but I can't imagine the slim chances of ever getting published anyway. I actually found a children's book I wrote and illustrated for my Children's Lit class in college. It's really cute. I must've been creative back when my brain still worked!
  
• Luke has a big meeting coming up next week with his 2 managers to discuss a possible promotion. He's amazing!
  
• Luke's sister Erin is getting married this coming February. Grace and Caleb are going to be the flower girl and ring bearer. They're going to be so adorable! (Not a biased opinion or anything!) Just don't tell them about it yet, because I'll have to hear unrelenting questions about it for the next 2-1/2 months!
  
• Our fourth anniversary is coming up. It's been a wonderful four years!
  

I'm getting tired and can't think of much more to say. I have some adorable pictures of the kids to post but don't have the energy to try to do it on dial-up tonight. Someday!

Good night everybody!

An evening in the FHBC nursery

Caleb with spiky hair!

Is this a better angle?

Tayler putting the moves on Caleb. He doesn't seem to mind. Oh, puppy love.

Apparently, she even let him borrow her chapstick.

The end.

(Thanks, Shannon, for the pictures!)

Conversation with a 3-year-old

Luke: "What letter does 'God' start with?"

Grace: "G!"

Lacey: "What sound does 'G' make?"

Grace: "Guh!"

Lacey: "Wow! You're one smart cookie!"

Grace: "I'm a cookie?!"


(More updates and pictures to come...soon!)

Tissue paper, church, and fallen leaves

Sorry it's been a little while since we've posted. Life is busy around here, besides the fact that the dial-up connection isn't great, and I can't get on the computer a whole lot. There are my excuses! : - )

Luke's coworkers were very generous and gave us some great gifts after Ava's birth, including a pink puppy just like Grace's lambie and Caleb's blue puppy! She sleeps on it in her crib...Anyway, included in these gifts was a whole LOT of tissue paper! The kids had so much fun playing in it. A friend visited while it was all over the place, and I believe she said, "It looks like your house barfed tissue paper!" This is Grace enjoying being buried by tissue paper.



And Caleb loved it, too! Doesn't he have the sweetest smile?



And this is a picture of Ava's first Sunday at church. She actually made it to two Wednesday night Family Nights before getting to go to Sunday church. (The first time she went was when she was just two days old!) Someone did refer to her as a boy, because her sweater was blue. Never mind the frilly dress! Phooey!



And here is the sweetest picture of our two daughters. It's a pretty clear picture of Ava - so you tell me, who does she look like? (I get asked this all the time, and I have no idea who she looks like!)



Last week sometime (I have no idea when, because I have basically no memory capacity right now. I can't even remember my name sometimes!)...Anyway, last week sometime we spent some time playing in the leaves. Fun!



Smile!



Baby Ava's first time in the leaves.

My boys playing catch. Caleb has a good arm! : - )


Life has been going well in the Rumley household. We're learning to be a family of five, and even surviving the necessary errands. I went to WalMart with the kids (without Luke) and it was great!(Knock on wood.)

Ava had a great night a couple of nights ago where she fed at 9:30pm, 3:30am, and 9:00am. It was glorious. It hasn't happened again yet, but I'm hoping it will soon!

New things in Grace's life...She can sing the whole alphabet song. And she likes to answer the phone. (Just ask Grandma Rumley. She's been on the other end of that a couple of times!)

Caleb is still trying to talk, but now he can say "baby" and "blue" and "ball" along with the old "mama" and "daddy." He must be stuck on the "b" sound.

Ava's awake and crying now, so that must be all for this post. Have a great weekend everyone!

8 days with Ava

Sorry I haven't taken the time to update lately. We've been spending the last week getting used to being parents of three little ones (2 years old and under, might I add). Things are going really well. Grace and Caleb have adjusted really well, thankfully. Both of them love their baby sister. They like to hold her and pat her head and give her toys. It's fun.

So, jump back eight days, and I'll give you the short version of our labor story...

Luke had been praying for a good night's sleep before labor began, and God delivered! I woke up around 6:15am (right before Luke's alarm went off for work), and contractions began. They were fairly light, so I hesitated to even time them at first. But we did start timing them, and they were about 30 seconds long and 3-4 minutes apart. So, the doctor told us to come in to the hospital.

We dropped the kids off at the Burrs' house, and headed to the hospital. By that time, I was sure it was labor. When we arrived at triage at 8am, I was dilated to 4cm. Things were going well. They took me to my room, got me an IV, gave me an epidural, and broke my water. The epidural helped but didn't take away the feeling of contractions altogether.

We waited a little bit, and at 12:10pm, my doctor arrived and checked me. I was dilated to 10cm - ready to go! I pushed for six minutes - and Ava was born at 12:16pm! It was painful, of course, but all in all a very good delivery. Recovery has gone very well, too.

So, there it is! Ava Joy is a sweet little girl. We're working on getting her nights and days worked out, so I'm not getting the best sleep yet. But she's nursing really well, and she's very healthy.

Today she did have to go to the doctor to get her umbilical cord cauterized, like Caleb did. It was nasty. I won't go into detail - just trust me. It was nasty. So, the doctor cleaned it, trimmed it, and cauterized it. I hope the rest of it falls off soon! EWWW.

Anyway, Luke's back at work, and my parents will go home tomorrow. So we'll be back in the swing of things starting Thursday. Yikes! Pray for us! : - )

It's a Girl!

Ava Joy Rumley

• 10lbs, 1oz
• 22.5" long
• Born at 12:16pm, October 8, 2007

Mom and baby are doing well; Caleb and Grace love their new sister.

She's In Labor!

Please pray; we should have a baby today!

No Baby

Sorry, no baby yet, but hey, there were 6 calves born today at the dairy farm up the road.

For all of you who may have babies still (or who have too much time on their hands), this contraction timer is something I made for fun.

It doesn't time the length of the contraction like some other timers do, but it gets the job done.

There's your nerdery for the night...

Lateness runs in the family

We were able to go to a football game on Friday night - Lowell vs. Forest Hills Central (FHC). We live in the Lowell school district, but our church is in the FHC school district. We weren't sure who to cheer for! But since we met the Sheridans (Kay, Shannon, Shane, and Molly) there, we sat on the FHC side. This is the first football game the kids have ever attended, and they did great!


Our great friends Rusty, Kisha, and Tayler also came to the game. They're from Lowell, too, but sat with us on the FHC side. Kisha's baby is due on October 9 - coming soon! I want her to have a boy, but my guess is it's a girl. (Then again, I'm not a very good guesser, so who knows!)

I was going to post a whole bunch more pictures, but Blogger is being dumb. So, that's all you get for now.

Other events - Luke spent the rest of the weekend fighting with the front left rotor on his car. Lots of banging / hammering / frustration. He won. Pictures to come.

Also, since I am 1 day past my due date (if you didn't notice), I had a doctor appointment today. Things are slowly progressing. I'm dilated to 2 and 50% effaced. Who knows what will happen? I could have this baby tomorrow, or it could be stubborn and stay in there until next week sometime. I'm kinda rooting for sooner than next week, but I don't have a whole lot of control over these things...If you want gorier details that aren't meant for the Internet, you can call or email me. Otherwise, we're just waiting. I have another appointment (including a non-stress test to make sure baby's okay) scheduled for next Monday, and I'm hoping I won't need it after all.

Hope everybody's doing well. I'm looking forward to seeing our families soon, when baby arrives. And we'd love to have other visitors in the hospital, too, since it tends to get boring just sitting there all day. Come see us!

Okay, bye for now.

5 days...Or 15?

This is Grace's first night of Cubbies a couple of weeks ago. Isn't she sweet? She's getting so big! She really likes her Cubbies class, and her teachers had very nice things to say about how well-behaved she is. Good girl!

We had a great time visiting the apple orchard last Friday. The four of us and Emily headed out to DK Orchards in Conklin after work and enjoyed picking lots of apples together. Emily got a bushel and we got a bushel and a half. Then we came back here and made lots of pie filling and applesauce. The peeler / corer / slicer from Mom Rumley was AMAZING! I can't even believe we did it all by hand last year! Thank you, Mom! It really made everything go much faster.

Luke and Caleb on the tractor / wagon ride. I think I made the driver nervous because I'm so pregnant, and I said I hoped the bumpy ride put me into labor. Poor tractor driver.

Luke taught Caleb how to throw apples. Isn't that wonderful? : - ) I think Caleb liked that part the best. Oh, he also had fun taking apples out of Emily's baskets, taking a bite or two, and either putting them back or throwing them. Sorry, Emily!

So, that's all for pictures, for now.

No baby yet. We're 5 days from our due date, and on Monday I was only dilated between 1 and 1-1/2. That's pretty much where I was at this point in my last pregnancy. I hope that doesn't mean this baby will be 9 days late like Caleb was, but who knows?

Today I was blessed to get a prenatal massage as a birthday present from my amazing hubby. It was wonderful! And for part of the hour, she (the masseuse) did reflexology on my feet. It's basically putting pressure on different points in the feet. It was still relaxing, even though the baby was pretty excited about it. Supposedly it can put some people into labor. I'm not counting on that happening. But I figure it can't hurt, right?

Nothing more to say right now. Pray for a baby for us soon. I'm sick of being huge and uncomfortable. (But praise the Lord for cooler weather on the way!) Okay, bye now!

9 days!

The countdown is on. We're in the single digits, folks. Well, I guess I should say, we're in the single digits until the due date. We're probably still in the double digits for the actual until-the-baby's-born countdown. But still, we're getting there! This baby will be born within 19 days! Is everybody ready? (Am I ready?)

In other news, Grace is in Cubbies this year! She's doing a fabulous job so far! Last week she said her Cubbies motto ("Jesus loves me") and the key verse (1 John 4:10 - "God loved us and sent His Son.") I was worried that she'd have a hard time memorizing verses since she's still only 2 years old, but so far she's done great! I'm excited about that. We haven't pushed her to learn the references to the verses yet (which isn't required until her second year of Cubbies), but we might start. If she can do it, we might as well, right? I just find it exciting that she can start memorizing God's Word at such an early age. It challenges me, too - because I very rarely take the time to memorize Scripture. If my 2-year-old can do it, can't I do it?!

We've also been pretty busy at church lately, although I'm on a break from my ministries. A couple of wonderful ladies took over Cubbies for me this year, which is great. And then I'm not doing nursery duty until January. Base Camp stuff is here and there, but nothing to stress about when the new baby arrives. The biggest thing at church right now is our switch to two services - coming on September 30 (our due date!). No one at church is really excited about it, but if we're going to move forward, it's necessary for us. So, I'm hoping and praying it goes well. And I'm glad that we're all on the same page, thinking that it's only temporary until we grow enough to afford our next step (building on, or moving, or building new...whatever God has for us).

Oh, and we got to go see Erin play volleyball last weekend! GOOD JOB, ERIN! Honestly, they did an amazing job! They went undefeated (5-0) in the tournament. I'll be honest - I hate Chicago traffic. I never, ever want to go back there. Especially being 8-1/2 months pregnant and worrying that if I go into labor I'll have to deliver in the car in the middle of a traffic jam. However, it was so worth it to be with the whole Rumley clan and see Erin be amazing at volleyball. I do love my in-laws a lot.

And we get to see Emily again this weekend! Tonight we're going apple picking! YAY! We've been looking forward to this for a while. We'll go to Vince Brown Farms in Conklin to pick some yummy apples, and then we'll come back here and make pie fillings and applesauce to freeze for the coming year. What a fun tradition! This is my third year picking apples. (And thank you to Mom Rumley for the apple peeler/corer/slicer - this year's birthday present. It will be greatly appreciated this weekend!)

Okay, this is a lengthy post. I'm sorry I hardly ever blog anymore. Blame it on the dial-up. For now, this is my update. Maybe next time I write, it'll be about our new baby!

Long time, no see

A big thanks to our good friends - Kay, Shannon, Shane, and Molly - who take such good care of us! We're at their house right now, drinking their Caffiene Free Diet Pepsi, eating their pizza and ice cream, and using their high-speed Internet. Wowsers. We don't deserve you four!

So, it seems people might be curious about why we're selling the house...Sorry, Michelle, but we're not moving to Wyoming. I guess the short explanation is that we're trying to serve God better with our finances, and we want to move closer to Luke's work and/or church. We're at church SO much; it would be lovely to be closer.

So, we're hoping and praying for a buyer soon. We know that it'll have to be a God-thing, especially in this market. We're okay with that.

That's probably all I should say for now, so I can go enjoy our friends and stop staring at their computer screen! Hope all is well with you, friends and family!

Sleep? What's that?

Caleb has been up half the night (or more) a lot lately - Saturday night, Monday night, and last night. I don't know what the deal is with him. I really hope it's just some teeth coming in, because that means there would be an end to the insanity. I'm so afraid he's going to keep doing this when the baby's born, and I don't think I could handle that! I'll already be so sleep deprived! Augh!

Church picnic and dinner out

These pictures are from our church picnic on Sunday afternoon. It was held at Cascade Park, which has a pavilion and playground. The first picture is Grace with her friend Karisa. Notice that Grace's leg looks completely normal. She's even walking just fine now, which is a relief.

The second picture is, of course, Caleb. I couldn't get him to stop running or look at the camera, so that's all we've got. He's still cute, I think.

We had a great time with our church family, even though I was SO warm the whole time. It was fun to see our friends, the Prewitts, who moved to New York last summer. Not a whole lot more to say about the picnic, I guess.

Luke and I watched "Click" last night. I couldn't really recommend it to anyone, because it has all the typical crude / sexual humor that Adam Sandler is known for. But it was actually a really touching story with a good message. I never thought an Adam Sandler movie could make me cry! (Although, it could be partly the pregnancy hormones, too!) : - )

Tonight is prayer meeting at church, and then tomorrow Luke and I get to go on a triple-date with two couples from our church! I'm excited! Kevin (an elder) and Craig (a pastor) were the two people who did the bulk of the planning with me for Base Camp. (They were the other co-directors.) So, Kevin is treating us to dinner out, I think as a celebration that we got through our first try at Camp! It'll be a fun night out.

This has been a really random post. Sorry. And that's all I have for now.

It's official...

...I'm waddling.

A pool and a wedding

We're home again!

We had a great visit with my family, including some quality time in the pool. I asked them if they'd move closer to us and bring the pool with them, but they said no. DaRn. It was relaxing to spend a few hours in the water. And we even got some color on our pasty white skin!

Oh, and Grace loved being able to swim now that her cast is off! She's doing really well, besides favoring that leg when she walks. I don't know how long it'll take her to get completely back to normal, but I hope it's soon. And I hope it works itself out on its own.

Jana's wedding was beautiful, and not as scorching hot as I expected it to be. She was, of course, a gorgeous bride. And it all seemed to go really well. The dinner was HUGE. I've never seen that much food at a wedding buffet in my life. Wow, I was stuffed! And the wedding cake was actually moist. Yum. (Notice that even though I was already stuffed, as previously mentioned, I still made room for some cake. "Move over, Baby #3, I've got some eating to do!")

This week will hopefully be quieter for us. We all need to get some rest and get back into our routine. I'm still exhausted! I have an OB appointment Monday and I'm throwing a baby shower Thursday. Other than that, I'm hoping to spend most of the week catching up on life.

I'm thankful to have the year off from Cubbies (even though I loved it), because I would probably feel overwhelmed if I had to switch gears right back into Cubbies. But now I can spend a little more time evaluating Base Camp and finishing up on the loose ends with that. That's a nice feeling.

I'm headed to bed, so that's all for now, folks. Enjoy the pictures. Have a great week.

We're alive, sorta...

Base Camp is officially over today, and it was great. Check it out here. But now we are all officially dead tired. Exhausted. Beat. You get the idea.

Here's what's been going on in our lives (the short version)...

1. Grace got her cast off on Monday. YAY!

2. Base Camp attendance was great, ranging from 57 to 68 (or something like that) kids.

3. Tomorrow we head up north to go to Jana's wedding on Saturday evening. It's at a place called Frog Pond Village.

4. Next Thursday I'm throwing a baby shower for our neighbor at our house.

5. Now I'm going to bed. I'll try to post more next week after I catch up on some much-needed R&R. (That's "AAAARRRRRR and AAAARRRRRR" for those of you who attended Base Camp and heard all the wonderful pirate jokes.)

Bye.

Adorable

Urgent Prayer Need

Please pray for our Pastor's daughter, Maria. She is 8 months old and was just diagnosed with Bacterial Meningitis, which is causing pressure on her brain and spinal cord. The infection is also in her blood stream, which is not good.

We are praying for a complete and total recovery, though there are many other sad possibilities, such as hearing loss or worse.

Our church spent the entire morning service, Sunday School hour, and evening service praying and focusing on God's sovereignty and goodness. It is powerful to pray together, as well as to read promises like the one in Isaiah 40:11...

He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.

Grace Update

Our little patient is doing well. We had our follow-up appointment on Friday (July 6), and it was pretty quick. The doctor told us to watch her to make sure her leg doesn't slip inside the cast, because it could cause injury to her skin if her heel got out of place. Other than that, we set another appointment for Monday, July 30 (less than three weeks from now!) to get the cast off if all looks well.

Grace is getting around well and not TOO restless. She's enjoyed the gifts that friends and family have sent along to occupy her time. THANK YOU for that!

Interesting side note - The orthopaedic guy we saw (Dr. Jabara) used to work at OSS, where I worked until becoming a stay-at-home mom. He actually started working there after I left, but I believe his move was in the works while I was still around. I wanted to see Dr. Hotchkiss sometime, even just to say hi, but he wasn't around at the ER and doesn't work for the same group as Dr. Jabara (I don't think).

Anyway, we had a great Fourth of July week. Luke had Wednesday through Friday off work, which was lovely. Both kids did really well with the fireworks, and they liked the parade. It was a good time. And Erin, Betsey, Tobin, Micah, Emily, and Dan all came over on the Fourth, too. It was lots of fun to hang out with them, and especially good to get to know the boyfriends better. Thanks for making the long trip, you four!

I had my 28-week OB appointment yesterday, and all is still well. I feel good still, except I feel more tired now that it's the third trimester. (Or maybe it's just from all of life's events going on around me! I'm not sure!) But the baby's heartbeat is still strong, and all my measurements and everything are good. 11-1/2 weeks to go!

OH! And Caleb moved into Grace's room! I'll have to say more on that later! Kinda crazy!

Bye for now!

Down with "jumpolines!"

Our little girl has a "brokeen leg" and a "big band-aid," in her own words.

On Friday night, all four of us were playing on the neighbors' trampoline. Luke bounced, and Grace must have fallen wrong. She cried and cried, and wouldn't walk on her left leg. So, we took her to visit the doctor. Honestly, Luke and I didn't think it was broken. We both thought it would probably be nothing (or a pulled muscle, or something simple), but we took her in anyway.

The long and short of it is that she broke her tibia, not far below her knee, all the way through. The good news was that it wasn't her growth plate that was broken, and it was still aligned, so they didn't have to set the bone before casting it. The sad part is just seeing my baby girl in a cast!

The first picture is on the way home from the hospital sometime around 11pm on Friday. She had a really rough first night, then a fairly hard first day of adjusting. It got better yesterday, though, when she was able to play on the floor with Luke and Caleb. And she is now crawling around, so it helps that she can be a little more independent. I think it helps her not feel too claustrophobic.

She was a trooper in church yesterday. She was in her stroller the whole time, and did really well. I was glad she didn't have to miss her class, since I know that's a highlight of her weekends.

Just to clarify, this third picture shows where Grace's broken bone is located under the cast. Luke drew that pretty little (jagged) line there to show Grace where it's "brokeen."

So, please pray for our baby girl to heal quickly! The doctor said to count on four weeks in the cast, but it'll be three if we're lucky and six if we're not. So, three to six weeks! I'd much rather have it be three! It's pretty overwhelming thinking about keeping a 2-1/2-year-old happy in a cast for that long. Not to mention carrying her around while being pregnant. (She was almost 37 pounds before they put the cast on!)

Anyway, on a happier note, Emily and I had a wonderful time with our strawberries on Saturday! I think this will become an annual tradition, just like apple picking! It was the last weekend of strawberry season, so some of the berries were tiny and yucky. But once we got further into the strawberry patch, we got some better berries and the picking was faster. In the end, she bought 10 pounds of strawberries, and I bought 15 pounds! Wowsers!

And the freezer jam was so easy! I tried two different kinds of pectin this year - powder and liquid. I definitely liked the powder better, as far as ease of use and ingredients. Get this - the powdered one takes four cups of mashed strawberries and 1-1/2 cups of sugar. The liquid is almost the opposite - 1-3/4 cups strawberries and 4 cups of sugar! I'm thinking the powder is just a tad healthier for us!

So, we made our jam and then bagged sliced strawberries to freeze for future use in breads and smoothies and whatever else we feel like! And I even had some fresh strawberries left over just for eating! It was a fun time!

Oh, and the last picture is just a random one of Caleb and me. He's a sweetheart! (And we didn't want him to be left out of this blog. After all, Grace has been getting more attention than him recently!)

I'll go - but if you have any ideas for keeping my little one occupied, let me know! Or if you want to come visit and entertain us for a while, call me! Otherwise, just have a great week and a happy Independence Day!

Excuses, strawberries, weddings, and a big belly

Wow, okay, I admit it. I've been majorly slacking in the blogging arena. However, I feel like I have good excuses. And they are as follows:

1. I've been working my hiney off trying to get Base Camp stuff ready. I FINALLY got the curriculum done (completely - written, printed, bound, and tabbed), and now I have to focus on the smaller details. We had counselor/teacher/game leader training last Sunday evening, and will have it again this Sunday evening. Camp is in 4-1/2 weeks! Augh!

2. It's summertime. People get married a lot in the summer. We like to visit family in the summer. Church is still busy in the summer.

3. I'm tired. I'm almost six months pregnant, and I happen to chase around two little people all day long. Not to whine. I love my life. But I am still tired.

So, there you have it. It's all I can think of right now.

This weekend promises more busyness in the lives of the Rumleys, but I'm excited. I think it'll be a fun weekend. I guess we really only have plans for Saturday (besides church on Sunday), but it's a full day. I'm SO excited to go strawberry picking with Emily in the morning (bright and early - 8am!), and then we'll come back here and make our first attempts at strawberry freezer jam! YUM! Luke says he could eat 200 jars of that stuff, so we might spend the better part of the day in the kitchen. Still, I'm psyched. I don't know what the normal price is for u-pick strawberries, but we'll be getting them for $.80 per pound. And that is tons better than any sale I've ever seen at the store.

Then, after we make our jam, Luke and the kids and I are going to a cookout at the Sturmans' house, in honor of some church friends that moved away about two years ago. There are supposed to be a lot of people there, and it should be tons of fun.

After that, Luke will have our kids, and I'm going to Jana's "personal" shower downtown! I think it'll be fun. I got her present yesterday, but already have to go back to the store, because they didn't take the ink tag off of it. Isn't that brilliant? Her wedding is in just 5 weeks from Saturday! Crazy!

And the pictures on this post are from Tom and Ashley's wedding. Isn't the scenery amazing? You can see their actual wedding photos here. It was a perfect day, and they eventually had a perfect sunset over Lake Michigan. (Yes, the sunset in the pictures is real! It almost looks like a backdrop, but it's not!)

(I put the second picture on here so that Chaeli can see my baby belly, as of June 9. Kisha's on the left and I'm on the right. I'll have to take another one soon, since I'm sure it has grown.)

I will stop now, since it's getting loooooooong. I'll have to leave out the rest of life that you missed while I was on hiatus. Sorry! Hope all is well in everyone else's busy summer lives! Bye for now!

Tampa Trip!

Well, we're back! Luke and I had a lovely vacation / business trip to Tampa last week! We left early Saturday morning (June 2) and got back late Wednesday night (June 6). So, it was a pretty full five days of sun, good food, and relaxation. Thankfully, the kids did really well with Grandma and Grandpa Rumley, Zach, Elyse, and Betsey. You can see all the fun they had here and here.

It was really hard to leave them, and I missed them a lot at times, but it was also a wonderful break for me before Baby #3 arrives. It was our first time away since we had kids.

We were also blessed to attend Tom and Ashley's wedding this past Saturday. It was absolutely beautiful! More pictures to come!

Watch out!

There are predators at Meijer. Not the "typical" predators. These are far worse. These are Amway/Quixtar/TEAM predators. They look for you in the aisles, strike up a great conversation, and then BAM! Try to manipulate you into joining their "business."

Seriously, we were at Meijer last night after church (i.e. 9:30pm) when a nice-looking young couple stopped to talk to me and Grace. Thankfully, Luke showed up not long after. He's getting pretty good at telling Amway-esque reps to go away.

So, here are your tips for the day:
1. Never wear a t-shirt with a logo on it to Meijer. These people jump all over it. Once Luke had a Cornerstone Football t-shirt on, and an Amway guy used that as a conversation-starter. Last night it was my AWANA shirt that started it. ("What does your t-shirt mean? Oh, well what does it stand for? Oh, yeah, my husband here went to AWANA as a kid. He even knows that the key verse is II Timothy 2:15. Good thing I stopped to ask you about your shirt as if I've never even heard of it before.") Shameless.

2. As soon as someone mentions an "Internet business," turn around and run. Don't even say goodbye. If they can't say, "I'm a web designer" Or "I work for Google," then their "Internet business" is a pyramid scheme. Run away.

3. If you run into a cute blond couple at the Cascade Meijer named Nate and Amanda, do as previously stated - turn around and run. They look nice and all, but looks are deceiving.

Really, it makes me sad. Don't these people feel bad at all for pretending to be interested in a conversation, just to take advantage of unsuspecting people? We talked about AWANA, our respective churches, alma maters (CU and Calvin), etc. etc. Walking away, I thought, that could have been good fellowship between believers, but instead it was all a sham. Somehow, I always feel violated by these people. Oh, and lest I forget to mention it, this was at least the third time we've been approached at Meijer like this, and one time Luke was approached at a gas station. Shameless, I tell you.

On second thought, I might ignore my first tip and print myself a nice pretty t-shirt that says, "No, I'm not interested in your 'Internet business.'" Think that would work?

Fun at the park

We had a great time with Kisha, Tayler, Stephanie, and Macie at the park in Lowell yesterday. It was a REALLY hot walk, and Caleb dropped his hat somewhere (couldn't find it), but other than that it was nice to get out and have some time with other moms and their kids. Here are some pictures:

Caleb had a good time swinging! I spent most of that time hoping his little bald head had enough sunblock on it!

Grace was such a good girl and kept her yellow sunglasses on the entire time we were out. And she kept her flip-flops on most of the time, too, which is quite an accomplishment for this two-year-old!

Stephanie and Macie...That woman doesn't look like she's ever given birth, does she? Tall and slender...so not fair. : - )

Kisha and Tayler...It was Tayler's first birthday yesterday, so we were able to spend time with the birthday girl. She really is a sweetheart, and Kisha is a great friend. We're so fortunate to have been blessed with our church family! (Hey, did you all know that Kisha is pregnant, too, and due just 9 days after us?! I'm excited for our kids to be close in age again!)

That's all for now. Tomorrow is Tayler's birthday party, so maybe we'll get some pictures of that.

Our weekends

Luke had a great time at the men's retreat he attended last Thursday through Saturday. It was at Lake Ann Baptist Camp near Traverse City. The speaker was Ken Rudolph, and Luke really enjoyed the messages. He was also able to play basketball, golf, and a funny prank on Pastor Craig. Fun was had! (Karl also went for part of it and had a great time. Hopefully they'll both go back next year!)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the kids and I stayed plenty busy as well. On Friday evening, we had a great time with some of the wives and kids whose husbands/daddies were at the men's retreat. We got to play at the Burrs' house, which was lots of fun.

Grace and Caleb also got to play with "Miss Wendy" from church on Saturday while I went to a big garage sale for about an hour, and then volunteered at a carnival for a sick little girl. Her name is Lillian Evans, and she's only five years old. She needs a heart and double-lung transplant. The carnival was to raise money for her transplant, which could cost around $500,000. (Wowsers, that's a lot of money.) I don't know how much was raised that day, but there was a great turnout, and people seemed to be very generous. I hope they raised LOTS!

We were very glad to have Luke come home. It's always hard when he's away. The kids and I missed him!

This weekend will hopefully be pretty quiet, except for Tayler's 1st birthday party on Saturday. Happy birthday, Tayler! Oh, yes, and Mother's Day is Sunday. Since I'm a mother, we're going to go out to eat. I'm thinking Johnny Carino's or Olive Garden. Any suggestions?

Oh, and by the way, I found out they didn't have to put another stent in a different artery for my grandpa. They did just have to replace the one that was already in there. All went well, and he's home now. Thanks for your prayers!

Hope everyone's doing well.

Grandpa Update

Thanks for your prayers! My grandpa had a heart catherization this morning, and they found that the stent that's currently in there is fine, but a different artery is blocked. So, they will go in and add a stent in that artery. I believe that procedure is tomorrow, but don't quote me on that. No one has mentioned any damage from the heart attack, and it sounds like the procedure is pretty common. It sounds like it's not as serious as it could have been. Praise the Lord!

Prayer request

We found out today that my Grandpa Liabenow (my dad's dad) had a heart attack. He had a pretty major one back when I was a junior in high school. So, that was eight years ago. I don't know much, but last I heard, he was in the ER and they're going to have to run tests. They don't know how serious his condition is. I might end up going up there if it's serious; otherwise I'll probably stay home. Just please pray for wisdom for the doctors, and for safety and healing for my grandpa. He's a gentle, kindhearted man. I hate for him to be in pain.

Thanks.

Ultrasound results...It's a...

BABY! :-)

Sorry! We didn't find out the gender. True, I came incredibly close to finding out, but my indecisiveness worked in my favor. So, again, we will have our dramatic "It's a _____!" moment in the delivery room. Luke thought he saw boy parts, and I thought I saw none (i.e. girl!), but I wouldn't trust our judgment anyway. I thought a leg was an arm, and we both thought the "strands" in the umbilical cord were toes. We are just not qualified in the ultrasound department.

But the good news is that the baby is healthy! And very active - and that is the reason that the pictures aren't that great. He/she wouldn't sit still! No matter how many pregnancies you have, it's always exciting to watch the little life inside you. We are both thanking God for a healthy baby! He/she is currently 8 ounces (or half a pound). Not too big, but trust me, he/she will get much bigger before coming out. Since Grace was 9lb 12oz, and Caleb was 9lb 13oz, I'm counting on a 9lb 14oz baby this time around. We'll see if that theory holds true. (Oh, Lord, please don't give me a baby over 10lbs!)

Last thought on baby for today...Would anyone like to contribute some baby name ideas? I need some inspiration. We (obviously) need a boy name and a girl name, just in case. But preferably no neutral names! :-)

We had a great time at my parents' house this past weekend. It was lots of fun to visit Grandma, Papa, Aunt Alonna, Big Karl, Aunt Melissa, Little Karl, and Baby Emma. We also got to see the Lung side of the family at a retirement party for my grandma. She worked at her job for 39 years, and some of those were while raising the five kids she had in a span of seven years! What a woman! I'm pretty thankful to be a stay-at-home mom. I have no idea how working moms survive. I think I'd be stressed all the time!

That's all for now!