First Dr. Appointment...

Oh, the last 2 weeks... They have been rough - to say the least. I hate to complain, but if there is one thing that I hate its being nauseous and it hasn't stopped for 12 days so far. I'm better on the days that I work for the simple reason that there are so many things to keep me distracted! Please, dear God, Help me through this time! I probably shouldn't admit this, but I was starting to get scared... I've been so sick that I wasn't excited anymore... and I hated that feeling! Well, today I went to the Dr. for the very first time. I'm still sick and trying to keep food down as I write, BUT - I'm excited again... I have our first ultrasound picture hanging on the fridge!!! I must admit - it really looks like a pea. Way to small to really see anything - just a little round ball. But, I did see the heartbeat. Now a little more of reality sets in! I just can't wait to feel better!!! I was so hoping to avoid this part! Dr. Skory changed my due date too. He said the baby is still to small to be quite as far along as I thought... So the new due date is June 7th.

Pregnant!!! :)

As evidenced below...
I'm Pregnant!!! Its really much too early to really be spreading the word so excitedly but I can't help myself! :) Actually, I have to tell everyone at work because there are now patients that I can't take care of while pregnant. So if I'm going to tell all them, then I have to tell my family and well, why not just tell the whole world!?? :)

We're pretty excited. I'm only in my 6th week so were trusting God for everything to go smoothly. I go for my first Dr. appt on the 16th. I was supposed to go earlier, but I have to work and I couldn't get an appointment to fit with my schedule. So I'll wait patiently :) ...or at least try... :)

I Forgot that I Never Posted These!

I completely forgot that I never posted any of these pictures! This was what Linea's room originally looked like! Very ugly. Our first thought was just to paint it and we told Linea that we would buy the paint and she would have to do the painting... (Notice the ugly shell lights on the wall - reminded be of a mermaid bra every time I looked at them!)
We quickly realized that there was actually sheet-rock underneath the ugly panelling (Thank you Mark!) So wasted no time in taking the paneling off. Only to realize that the closet actually had no sheet-rock Mark turned the paneling around and put it back on! Already looking better! Don't you just love the peach color? I hate it! I can't believe how much peach there was in this house! (our bedroom, Linea's room, and the downstairs bathroom - ugh.)
Working hard...
Or hardly working - either way... (J/K Linea!)
So after they finished patching everything they finally got to paint. Then, how could we not replace the lights - they were so ugly! And last but not least the trim was terribly pieced together, so we had to get new. Now the room looks ever so much better. See the "better" below!!! Thanks for all you hard work Linea and Mark!

Linea's Room...

Well, Linea's room is getting finished. She and Mark spent the day here on Tuesday and got everything pretty much finished up - just a couple little touch-up things left to do. I'm so glad that we got those new lights! The old ones were sooo ugly! Thanks for putting these up Mark!
Linea scraping the extra paint off the windows...
You can see the paint color a little better in this picture - it really isn't grey. Its a very pale greenish color... Linea picked the colors and I think they look pretty good! :)Now... to just get the rest of the spackle out of the floor...
So, Linea... When are you moving??? :)

My Celebrity Look-Alikes...

Apparently these are the famous people that I look like - not so sure I agree...

Happenings...

The moments for peace and quiet and contemplation have been few and far between lately. It's 9pm now and Kris and I are sitting on the couch reflecting on the fact that we have either had people over or been to other people's houses for the past 6 nights in a row. I'm tired now - I have so much to do... And yet it will be next Tuesday before I have another free evening of "nothing" to do. Ugh. Its funny how during busy times you wish things would just quiet down, then they do and you wonder when they will ever pick up again. Ahh - if only to learn to be content!

We (Garner kids etc...) went hiking on the 5th - up Monument Mt. in Mass. It wasn't a long hike, but was so much fun. Ty and Beth were here for a week and we tried to get in as much fun stuff as possible. I have just one lovely picture below. Counterclockwise - starting with the bottom center: Kris, Beth, Ty, Amy, Mark, Me, Peter, Linea, Morgan - and you can just barely see Zoe in the bottom right corner. :)



So on our way to the hike, we passed the Berkshire Botanical Gardens... I was so excited - I've always wanted to go to some botanical gardens, but haven't been yet and didn't know that there were any that close! (only about an hour away) So Kris and I went on the 12th and got to take a bunch of pictures etc. It was soooooo hot that day though! When the sun was out we were burning up, then the sun would go behind a cloud and the bugs were fierce! We still had fun though and got some cool pictures.

Probably about 10 years ago (for my graduation gift) my grandfather bought me a collection of 10 different colors of day-lillies that I planted in a garden at the farm. Sadly - I left home right after that and I've never seen them bloom. On the same note - thankfully, my mom has kept my old garden weeded and I was just able to go dig them up last week. We have a lovely fenced in back yard and I plan to plant them all along the back fence. I finally had a chance to go buy some mulch and "dehydrated" manure today so hopefully I can get them all planted this week before they all dye! I'm excited though - I think that they will look really good. I have so many ideas for things that I want to do with this house! I'm so glad that I have the next 30 years cause it will take that long!

We are working on getting our home-group started back up again for the year. We've decided on studying a book for the fall - I have to get that ordered soon! We got together with everyone for a BBQ on Friday which was nice as we have a few new members who had not met everyone yet. We were so blessed - last year 2 couples left the group (either moved away or couldn't make it) and we going to advertise in the church bulletin. But we didn't have to because these new couples found us without our even trying and we are really excited about them! We're really excited to be getting started again and we're feeling pretty refreshed after the summer off. We had actually joined another group just for the summer, which has really given us some encouragement and strengthening and new ideas. I just pray that we will be able to keep up the enthusiasm...

Termoil...

I found out last night that my grandfather has cancer - prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. If you don't know anything about cancer - only a miracle from God heals the bones... I realize that my grandfather is old and has lived a long life. He hasn't been healthy for years. But, I realize with pain in my heart that my grandfather is not a Christian. I'm afraid that time is short... ...and he needs God - so does my grandmother at this time. Please, God, work on there hearts...! I wish now more than ever that I was closer to my grandparents than I am - I never have been...

Happy days...

Ty and Beth are here! I should probably remember to get out my camera some time this week! Anyway - they are here for a week and I'm so happy to see them.

The pool is beautiful and warm - we've already been swimming more in the last couple weeks than I have been for years! I'm so happy to have a pool - and its such great excersize. I'm hoping that it will help me get in shape and loose a few more pounds. I was doing waitwatchers for the months of May and June. I lost 17 lbs and then sort of lost momentum. I still would like to loose about 10 more pounds but we'll see. At least I feel better than I have for the last few years. I had gained about 35 pounds in Nursing school - some needed but most not. :) It's nice to be getting back to my old self!

A Few Pics...

So, here are a few of the pictures that have been just sitting around waiting for me to post them...

We had planned a lovely 4th-of-July BBQ with our friends Fred and Bridget. Horse shoes were set up in the back yard, basketball, bad mitten, crochet, bocheeball etc. And a lovely pool that sadly was still not ready to have anyone set foot in it. :( We even got up early in the morning - cleaned the house, mowed the grass, trimmed the bushes... ...And then it started to rain- I mean poor - right at 1:30pm. 1/2 hour before people were coming. Oh, well. We still had fun and there was way too much food. It just turned into an indoor party instead - with a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit - boys against girls! Man we have a lot of fun with that game! So anyway let me put down the names of the people in the picture so that I don't forget when I'm 50.... Starting in the bottom left corner and going clock-wise... Morgan, Jenae, Amy (Morgan's wife), Brian and Grace (Fred's brother and sister-in-law), Fred, Mark (Linea's boyfriend), Bridget (on the floor), Papa, Mama, Baby Molly (Fred and Bridget's baby), and Kris in the middle of the floor.

Last year Grandma gave me the family china. I remember when we were kids going to her house for Holidays and eating on it. I always loved looking at the china in the closet and thought it was so sophisticated! Well, until last year I always thought that it went to the oldest child and I just found out that it went to the oldest girl! I'm excited because I always wanted china in a china closet and its WAY to expensive to buy now. So, when we bought the house we were able to save just enough extra money after closing costs to buy dining room furniture (which we've never had yet) with a china closet!

So, the furniture came in a couple weeks ago and I finally go the china unpacked and into the closet a couple days ago. It looks so pretty, now I just can't wait to get going on painting the kitchen/dining room - we both hate that blue and the ugly wall paper. I think that we have the colors all picked out and we're looking at it being a winter project. :)
Truly, it would bring back to much horror into my poor little head to talk much about the pool - it has been 2 months of torture on every level. We even payed a company to come in and clean it and they gave up $400 later! We kept putting more and more chemicals in and nothing was working. Every pool place we talked to said "Absolutely DO NOT drain the pool - the liner will rip and you will have a bigger problem! Great! We were only about a moment away from deciding to have the whole thing torn down! You have no idea the frustration - especially after all the time, $ and effort put in!
The answer, dear friends, - after so much frustration - is FLOCCULANT!!! I have no idea why no one ever thought to suggest it to us sooner! We put it in, turned off the filter and the very next day we could see into the water for the very first time! It made all the nasty particles clump and sink to the bottom and we vacuumed them out! WOW!!! That was so easy! I think we might try it one more time as the water is just a little cloudy still, but I would swim as is! I'm so excited - after being so frustrated!
WOOHOO!!!

I Got Lost :)

Yup, I think I got lost... Not really, but thanx to you, Christa, I realized today that I haven't posted in a month. The last 2 months have been so busy since closing on the house! I'll try to post some pictures soon of what we've been up to. I'm on here every day, but usually just for about 5 minutes and then on to the next thing.

Good news! We saw the bottom of our pool today for the very first time - after 2 full months of torture, lots of money - and so much frustration we almost just tore it down! I'll share more about that later and try to show some pictures... Long story short for now - flocculant works - now there is about 3 inches of organic material (dead algae) in the bottom of the pool that we will be vacuuming out tomorrow evening.

Mercy was here for the first week of July which was awesome since we hadn't seen her since Christmas. I'm so mad at myself thought - I kinda forgot to take pictures. Didn't get to spend as much time together as I hoped - it went by too quickly and I had to work.

Forth of July we planned a BBQ at our house with some friends of ours. All went well considering that it started pouring rain about 30 minutes before the BBQ was to start and never let up! But we still had fun - just inside instead of outside. And we'll have to have another one later in the summer to use up the rest of the burgers.

Our homegroup is on break for the summer, but we joined another group for the summer which has actually been a blessing and a good time of growth for us. Now we're starting to gear up for starting again in the fall. We're doing a little recruiting, as some of our members have moved away, and working on material for the fall. We've also been trying to do follow up with the members that have already been involved.

So, we've been busy. (oh, yeah - forgot to mention all the weddings and graduations lately!) I'll try to get some pictures up soon. I'm always sad when I don't post for a while. If nothing else this blog gives me something to look back on later and see what's been going on - but I guess I just lost a month somewhere! :)