We have electricity! We are so happy we can barely contain it!

I took that picture yesterday, and it sums up exactly how happy I am to have our electricity back. I was driving home Sunday night and the first thing I saw from the windows was the glow of the Christmas tree! Oh boy I was ecstatic! I went through and flushed all the toilets and turned on all the lights. Praise the Lord! And here we thought it would take another week.

In other news, Lizzie Leona is getting even closer to crawling. She will lunge for toys from a sitting position, getting almost on her feet or knees. And she can roll across the room, but she'd rather be sitting. If I leave her on her tummy/back for too long she fusses for me to help her sit back up again.

And I passed my class! I can now officially graduate college. This biology class was a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be. So now I can start paying back my student loans by staying home with Lizzie. College sure is an expensive back up plan...

Praise the Lord that we are living with my in laws! It turns out that Riley County is one of the hardest hit from this ice storm. Even though it will still be another week at least before we have power, I couldn't ask for a more blessed place to be! My mother & father in law have a gas fireplace in every bedroom, so we are staying very warm at night. There is a gas stove so we can eat warm food. They have plenty of candles and flashlights, and even a lantern, so we have a bit of light too! Only things we are going without is actual light, electricity and running water. But we have family and friends that have been more than welcoming to us, allowing us the usage of thier bathrooms and showers .

If Josh and I were on our own right now, we would probably be sleeping at someone else's house....not only would we not have heat, we would be bored out of our minds!

I would put pictures up, but I don't have access to a computer with the ability to get pics off my camera yet. But I will as soon as I can.
Let me paint a mental picture for you:
The trees lining our driveway are so overburdened with ice they sag completely to the ground and when you drive under them it sounds like a million icey claws scraping the paint off the top of your car. Up and down the dirt road where we live almost all the large trees are either sagging to the ground or have already lost giant portions of upper limbs, and their parts are strewn about the side of the road. The evergreens are so depressed from all the snow and ice that their tops are drooping to the middle.

The really exciting part of this storm is hearing all the stories. People can be so inventive with their resources when they are forced to. Our children's pastor laughed out loud with joy as she recalled the other day as her and her mother brought out their cast iron skillet and warmed up leftover meat and potatoes right in their fireplace! Friends and neighbors have been coming together in very loving and supportive ways.

Lizzie has been doing so well with all this. She has been waking up more frequently at night, probably because she isn't used to the pitch blackness (I usually have a night light on) or the extreme silence (we sleep in the basement and usually there are the sounds of heaters and such). But I am so thankful that she is breastfed! She hasn't missed a meal and feeding her is extremely easy - no heating up a bottle for her. And I am also relieved that she sleeps with us. Now, when she wakes at night from this frightening experience, she rolls into me, nurses a bit and falls directly back asleep. I don't know what I would do if she woke up screaming and wouldn't stop.....how stressful....

Currently, I am at my brother in law's house greedily using his internet and washing my clothes. Darling Josh has been more than elated to bust out his chainsaw and clear people's yards and driveways. Him and his brother bought a log splitter for their tractor last night and when I called Josh to check on him, he sounded like a little girl who got to meet Hannah Montanna - "Oh honey! It's awesome! Worth every penny, you have no idea!"

God bless you all! Please say a prayer for all those crews trying to get electricity back on. As soon as they get a line fixed, some ice on a tree shorts out another line down the row....its like 2 steps forward 1 step back....and they've been working so hard.

Christmas Time is Here!!
Thanksgiving was a lot of fun - Josh's parents hosted and there were 35 people there total with 17 of them being under the age of 12. Josh had fun, and he still wants 8 children! (Yes, Josh is down to wanting only 8 kids). In other josh news, he is almost dead set on raising goats. How many kids does he want? (sorry, bad joke, but I had to say it)

House news: The ceilings are all up! YAY! Now Josh has to finish putting up the walls, then he can start mudding and sanding and mudding and painting and doing cabinets and floors and we are soo close! Praise the Lord!

Today I did Christmas cards! Lizzie took a long nap and I had so much fun with Christmas tunes on writing out those cards. And this year I did a newsletter, so I hope all my friends enjoy reading them!

Lizzie has started rolling in her sleep - now I have even more to be worried about. She rolled onto her tummy, how frightening. Luckily, she is sleeping with us so when she does roll into a position she can't move from she just kicks me and I wake up to rescue her! :-) Other Lizzie news, she is starting to try and move around, but its more rolling and scooting. Crawling is around the corner, but I can sure wait.

Pictures!


I took these pictures today. A lady gave us the outfit and she looked so darned Christmasy-cute I had to take some photos. These are all at the beautifully decorated Log home.


This is about half of the kids that were at our house for Thanksgiving. Phew! This is Lizzie with her 20 month old cousin Mycah. Mycah loves Lizzie to pieces!
And finally, Josh played guitar hero with the children. They loved him so much. He also made them hot chocolate, which they requested each night.

God bless you!
Annie

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Finally! Time for Christmas music, and FOOD!! I finally got down to my pre-pregnancy weight, and now the holidays are here. And I love holiday food more than anything, so it's gonna be hard to be good.

Well, today I am working at my hubbie's cabinet shop filling in for the sick secretary. Lizzie is currently sleeping (when else can I type a blog?), Josh is playing Christmas music, it's snowing outside and food is on its way. Can life get any better than this? I am very surprised at how easily Lizzie is letting me work today. Sure, she has her moments when she wants held and/or nursed, but I just clock out and take care of her. Most of the time though, she has played with her toys. Oh, her favorite game today was when she was sitting in her stroller and she'd drop her toy, bend over to see where it fell and I'd pick it back up for her.

She's growing so big!

What are your thanksgiving plans? I pray that God keeps you safe if you are traveling and sane if you are hosting!

My in-laws are hosting (like they do every year) for about 30 people. I'm glad we are still living there, because I can be more help this way (late at night and early in the morning). The first batch of family arrived last night - cousin John and his 6 kids - at midnight. More should be arriving tomorrow sometime. Then we are eating our meal Saturday!

I have to vent a little bit now. My mom and dad are divorced. I didn't mind that so much when my dad lived in Wisconsin, but he has moved back to Kansas and now him and my mom are 15 minutes away from each other. So holidays are even more stressful now. For example, this Sunday we are eating the meal with dad and then going to my mom's for dessert. Christmas will be seperate too. Why can't we all just get along and do holidays together? It's enough to make me say "Sorry Charlie! It's all or nothing. If you can't get along, Josh, Lizzie and I are having our own holiday without you!" But we live 15 minutes away from them, so its hard to say such harsh words, ya know?

Thanks for letting me vent. My family isn't that stressful, just at times......

God bless you all! Enjoy the binge eating!!

YAY FOR PICTURES!! Oh you can't imagine how long I have waited to get some recent pictures up for all of you. Well, I'll blog a bit and then its on to the good stuff.

Lizzie is my cuddle bug! If she is fussy, I pick her up and she nuzzles my neck. Oh I love it so much :-) She is having more independant play time now. I can lay her on the floor on her back, and she'll play with her feet or roll around and play with her toys. What she really likes is peek-a-boo! Oh she will start giggling and laughing for that!

I am so blessed to be at my church surrounded by such amazing people! Lynette has been such an amazing friend, watching Lizzie on Tuesdays while I go to class. She totally has the better end of the deal though - she gets to hang out with a fun and cute baby while I sit through lectures of seed-bearing plants! And I have really enjoyed getting to know Jenny. I can go to her house and just talk and talk! Its great to have a friend with so much to talk about with.

OH! I have to brag about Josh real quick. I went into Angel 95 this morning for about 30 minutes to do the news, and he watched Lizzie down in the van. When I came back, he started bugging me with "I have a surprise for you!" and wouldn't tell me. Now, I am not a patient person, so this just tortured me. Finally, 15 minutes later, he gave me a tiny envelope that had a love note in it! And in the back seat was the happiest bouquet of flowers - all colorful and bright! He had gone into the florist while he waited on me this morning! I have been so blessed with such a thoughtful, loving, funny and romantic husband!

ok, picture time!

This is Lizzie's 5 month picture. I take on each month, and each month she gets more into it!
This is Lindsey with Jamie and Lizzie on Halloween.

Here is a better pic of her costume. I made her halo and wings (almost) all by myself! My mother in law helped sew some of the wings, but I did 90% of the work, I am so proud.
Our house! Oh it is sooo close to being done! Josh still has drywall and cabinetry, but it should be done by January - how awesome!
How can I not have fun staying at home with such a happy baby? Now, I think she has Josh's eyes, my nose, and I don't know whose smile. I can't tell that yet, I think the smiles change once teeth appear.

God bless you!
Annie

If Lizzie could talk, she'd say "Mommy my gums hurt!" Yes, she is teething. I am about 75% sure that's what this is. I can't really see any teeth, but then again, I don't know what to look or feel for. But she is fussing a lot more than normal, gumming on my shoulder, nursing way more than normal and is starting to drool a little bit. Thankfully, baby Orajel helps and she still gives me smiles once in awhile, so I know she's not suffering too bad.

She is growing up so fast!

She's also moving from cooing to babbling. I was so excited when I heard her say "na-na-na" for the first time. I actually turned around in the car to make sure it was Lizzie speaking.

She's also sitting up on her own (ok, she falls sometimes still, but I just put a pillow behind her and watch her closely). She loves playing with her toys! It's so funny to watch her concentrate so hard on her blocks.

For Halloween she was an angel, and I promise to post pictures as soon as I can get them off my camera! YAY! She was so adorable.

God bless you all! Lizzie is fussing, it's late and she probably wants to go home. (We are still at Angel 95, so I'd better get goin')

Lizzie Leona is making me so proud! She's almost 20 pounds now and 27 inches tall! We are going to have to get another car seat soon. Being her mommy has taught me so much about God's love for us and its really brought my hubbie and I closer - not farther - apart. Now, we are more honest with each other, because we are both determined and committed to having a Christian family and we absolutly refuse to allow children to pull us apart. So the honesty has helped resolve a lot of problems that otherwise might have been an emotional wedge.

Being a mommy has also taught me to trust in God more than all that book learnin' I can become obsessed with. Part of the reason I went to college was because I LOVE learning. But the more books I read about parenting, the more confused and scared I become. Will I psychologically harm Lizzie if she sleeps with us? When do I stop night time feedings? When do I start solids? Should I homeschool? Lizzie NEVER cries - I don't let her. The minute she starts getting fussy I change her diaper, calm her down or nurse her. This includes at night. Am I hurting her self-soothing skills by not letting her cry?

All these thoughts and more run through my head all the time. Then it hits me. I need to pray more, and read God's word. If I do that, he will guide me. As long as my heart is in the right place and I make the best decisions possible, he will not steer me wrong. In other words, the closer I bond with Lizzie, and especially with God, the more in tuned to her needs I will become and then I'll make choices that will be beneficial to her.

I thank God for educational resources, I just need to make sure I don't base my parenting technique on what they say I should do.

I'm Back!
And it feels so great! I even have a few current pics to upload for everyone! Now that Lizzie is almost 4 months old (she'll be 4 months on Oct 5th) she is eating less often and is able to go with me to work at the Christian radio station. We will be on the air 3 nights a week - it will feel so amazing to be doing what I love - DJing and keeping the music current. Listen for me from 6-9pm M/W/Fridays.
Also, I graduate from K-State and Manhattan Christian College this December! I am taking biology right now and when that is done, I am soooo totally done with school. I'll have 2 degrees - and I'll use them as I am a stay at home mom LOL

Lizzie stats:
She is growing (like all babies do) SO FAST! At her 3 month apt she was 17 1/2 lbs and 26 inches long. By now she feels heavier, so she has to be at least 19 pounds, and I don't know her height, but she's big.
She laughs when she is tickled and it's one of my fav things to do with her. Her little baby giggle just melts my heart, I love her so much!
What else is she doing...hmmm... oh yea - she's doing that baby flip thing where she will lean back and look at everything upside down. On her tummy, not much to say there, she still gets too frustrated that she can't move and ends up just fussing and burying her head in the blanket. But on the bed she can almost roll from her back to her tummy. And she's just about able to sit up by herself now. WOW!
Are solids around the corner? I don't know....I'll find out at her next appointment. I'm in no rush for that. She is breastfeeding just fine and it works out pretty great for both of us.

Our house!
It's almost done (been saying that for awhile now) My mom's house has taken Josh away from it all and that's been frustrating. But he is working on it tonight. Plumbing and electrical are almost done, soon we will be sheetrocking it. We bought a washer/dryer at a garage sale for $170! Let's pray they work

I can't wait to move into our home. Not only will it be ours (as opposed to living with his parents right now) But it will be closer to town. Right now we live 1 hour from town and driving 2 hours everyday has been too darned expensive for us.

God bless you all! Enjoy these pics. They were taken last saturday at a friend's son's 1st bday! Isn't she just ADORABLE?
Annie

What a fat baby!

We went in for her one month checkup - and wow! She is up to 12pounds and 23 inches long. She's getting sooo chubby! I couldn't be happier, I've always wanted a fat baby :-)

She's doing pretty good sleeping through the night too! (Praise the Lord!) She goes to bed around between 9 and 11pm, then wakes up around 2 or 3, then sleeps till 6 or 7 am. I think I can handle that and classes, but only with the Lord's help.

Today Lizzie and I had an adventure! We went to Varney's to buy textbooks. There were sooo many books I couldn't carry them and the baby to the register, so I had to ask for help. Then, the total was more than I had ever spent on books - $636!!! What??? Ugh, so I had fun paying for them. Then, I lugged baby, diaper bag, and 2 extremely heavy bags of books out to my car. I have never been happier to reach a car in my life. Lets hope I learn something from these classes!

Josh owns 2 properties in Manhattan that we are trying to find renters for, and since Josh is busy building our dream home, I offered to be the gal to show it to prospective tenants. Only problem is that I am getting really irritated when I go out of my way to make it to the house only to get stood up by whoever wanted to see it. If I didn't have a baby, it wouldn't be so inconvenient and only mildly irritating. But come on people! If you can't make it, please call me 1 hour before so it saves me time and energy. One person stood me up and Lizzie was dying of hunger, so I was really stressed out by that.

In all other news - life is great! I'll gets pics to you when I figure out how to get them from our camera to the computer.

LOVE YOU ALL!

annie and lizzie

I wish I had more pictures, but these should work for now. I hope.


The drive to the hospital. How pretty. Ok, this was actually a sunset I found and thought it looked nice. Annie took the picture. She used to work in a photo gallery, so she is GOOOOD.



Mommy and her new bundle of joy!
It's a nice picture of mommy and daddy, but Lizzie decided to opt out on this picture.
First grand baby's are always the most exciting!

"We have four others, but none of those grand children were as cute as this one." At least, I think that this is what they were thinking.
"Phew Mema! Was that you or me?"
Her mom makes the same face at most of my jokes.

Oh wait, its just the mean nurse with the cold hands.

"Who's that Ashlyn? That's right, it's your new cousin."

Awww, kiss the baby

Then hug the baby.
Hehehehe. This is why my wife is the photographer and not me. Hehehe. Nice picture honey.

Here is a picture with me in it. I'm pretending to know what I'm doing. "Yup. the wall is indeed plumb. Way to go person that made the wall."


And that smile is one of the reasons I married her. And look, there's a baby, cringing.

Ohhh, look how comfy she looks with her head all flopped down and unnatural like. Must be fun. Oh well, it's only a 40 minute drive home. Fun.

Let's try the head on the other side. Nope, just as uncomfortable. Oh well, we are home now . Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy. (we fixed the seat so it doesn't do that to her anymore.)

Ahh, at the front door, ready to see what her new temporary home is like.

"OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY IT'S, IT'S, IT'S, I HAVE NO IDEA, I BETTER LICK IT. WOW, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK, I'M A DOG!!!" Angel.... *sigh* what a dog.
She'll have to grow into this outfit. But she's as cute as a button anyway.

This is my sweet pea. I never knew I could love someone that I had never met before as much as I do her.

I feel really bad, for several reasons.

1) This thing rarely gets updated
2) My wife had to have surgery done because of me... well party because of me
3) I have no pictures to post right now... I have pictures, just not on my computer. (sorry)
4) My baby has my water craft sized feet.

Baby Elizabeth Leona Shultz was born on6-5-7, weighed in at 8lbs 15oz & was stretched to 20in long.

Annie is able to get up and around. But she got tired of me making it sound like she was jumping out of bed and reaching down to the floor and picking things up. She is actually NOT doing that well, although, for having her tummy cut open and all of her innerds pulled out and then put back in she is doing fantastic. Especially compared to if it had been me in her shoes (I would have the whole world knowing just how horrible it was and how tough the road to recovery is...). So I am very proud of her and how she is handling everything.

Elizabeth is cute, especially when she toots, and she toots a lot. (She takes after her daddy)

More later.

-josh

Baby is due in 2 weeks - and I am praying that God brings her here sooner :-)

Hello everyone! This is Annie. It feels so nice to have access to the internet for a little while! I have a lot to update you on, so here I go.

Let's start at the begining. Thanks to our wonderful, amazing, SUPER church friends we were able to get all boxed up and moved out of our trailer on Sunday April 29th. It was exhausting and I couldn't have done it without them. We had to move out cause we sold the trailer (Praise the Lord!)

On Monday April 30, Josh moved in with his brother and I moved way over to Randolph to live with Josh's parents. We can't live together cause his bro lives extra close to work and the place he is building our house at. And his brother has a wife and 4 kids so his house is too crowded for me to comfortably stay (we'd have to share a tiny bedroom with a double bed, whereas now I have this huge room, private bath and a king size bed to myself)

Then, Wed I went to my Dr appt, and doc took one look at my feet and said the two worst words EVER - "Bed Rest." I couldn't do anything until today - not even go to work. So I lounged around his parent's house reading books, doing SuDoKu, and watched a TON of TV. She was concerned about the swelling of my ankles, saying it could be impending preeclampsia and she wanted me to rest in order to prevent it. I have another appt today to see if I can work again. Good news - my ankles are no longer swollen! Yay!

Oh, and I don't look it, but I feel HUGE. I want this baby to be here.

Josh came to Randolph to visit me, and I was sooooo happy. I missed him so much, especially the cuddling. Anyways, it rained, A LOT. It rained so much that we couldn't leave the log home - thier creek ran over the banks and we were flooded into the house until last night when Josh and his dad fixed it with gravel. It was frustrating having to miss church.

So right now I am here at Josh's office supposedly working on my 2 papers that are due this week. But I took a break to update you my friends. The semester is (thankfully) over, I just have to write these last 2 papers then I am officially DONE with my classes!! My last day at work is this Saturday - sweet :-) I don't like it there cause its so stressfull and my life has enough stress without this.

Oh, in other news, (very sad news) my grandfather passed away this weekend. The funeral is this Thursday 4 hours away. He died of internal bleeding that was a side effect of his cancer. Even though we were pretty close (he gave me away at my wedding) I knew this was coming and he isn't suffering from cancer anymore. But I really don't want to go to the funeral. People say, "he'd want you there, he loved you." But the funeral is for the living not the dead - plus, he's with Jesus, I doubt he cares who is at this funeral. One of the reasons I don't want to go is that it takes 4 hours to get there, so I'd be away from my Doula and Doctor for at least 12 hours straight. That kinda freaks me out this late into the pregnancy. I am 38 weeks along....not that I would go into labor this Thursday, but the slight what if makes me nervous.

Thank you for reading this rambling. God bless you all!!

Well, it's really sad the last time we updated this, sorry for any of those who try and read it and we dissapoint, day after day after day. I'll get on Annie about that and make sure she does better! *whip crack*

We are starting to feel some pressure, Annie is going to have her baby in 5 weeks, I hope. She thinks tomorrow would be fun. I think tomorrow would suck because I only have footing done for the shed at this point.

We have moved very little stuff from our trailer, which we are moving out of May 1st. *yikes* So that is another stress, that is my fault though, too many mornings of sleeping in and not packing. But, Annie has an inside box boy at Varney's bookstore and she is going to be getting a bazillion boxes for free. (I think she flirted with him.) So that will be helpful. The only problem is, we now get to be creative as far as where we are going to be putting the boxes. Sort of filled up the storage unit. We sort of ran out of space in the 54' trailer at work, with work stuff, so there isn't any room in there now. Looks like another storage unit for us. Woohoo!

Annie will be moving to my parents to stay until I get the house done, which at this rate will definately be AFTER the baby is born *sad*

I will be moving in with my brother and his 4 kids, bringing along Angel (of darkness - thnx to pastor pat for that one.) and my cat Frenzy - the ball of razors.

I really need to get back to work, so talk/type later, just wanted to put up a SMALL update.

Josh

This is our Bichon Angel. Josh had some free time and did her hair. After my sister saw the awful torture poor Angel had to endure, she saw the onzie below and just had to buy it!

Annie's turn!

God has been teaching me so much about trusting him and giving him control. Every day, I look at my life and it doesn't seem to be what I wanted it to be because I am not able to control every little aspect. (Like money, for example) I'm not unhappy, I love my life - but every time I try to control something I seem to fail at it and I end up praying and I hear God saying, "When will you just let me do it?" Steven Curtis Chapman has a song that goes, "God is God and I am not." So true! So this week I have been spending more time in the word/prayer than I have been bent over the checkbook or planning out my life. You know what I have found? More peace and fun in life! I love God so much, he is always so faithful!

School is absurdly easy (thank the Lord) and I have been working a lot less (hence the money issues). This is the first time in my life that I have more free time than I know what to do with - so why is our house not spic'n'span? Cause I'm used to disciplining myself when I have way-too-much going on in life and I have just gotten lazy. Maybe I'll feel better about myself if I actually live in a spotless house for more than 2 days.....emotions are my favorite thing - lol - you never know what you're going to get!!

I will say this about my pregnancy - if all my pregnancies are this easy, I don't know how I can say no to "as many kids as God blesses us with" as Josh so lovingly puts it. There are times when I don't even feel pregnant - just large... hehehehe


God bless you all!!!

I wish to call this: "The crazy rambling of an innocent man"
or maybe its the innocent ramblings of a crazy man... I haven't decided yet.

Well, Annie and I went to Target to register for some baby stuff. It was fun, but half way through the exercise, we realized the futility we were bringing on ourselves. Basically there was no real direction that we were trying to go, with what we were beeping. So, half an hour of reading about what you need for a newborn and what to expect and why this is better than that, but not as good as this other thing that teaches your child French while giving them a bath and you a pedicure. (that wasn't a real item, just in case you were about to go Google it.)

Anyway, we think we have most of what we will need figured out, and so we are ready for it to be completely wrong and our baby will hate all of it, and since most of it is a pinkish hue, our baby will also be a boy. Which I think would be absolutely hilarious. Not that I care either way, but the humor in that alone will make me a very very VERY happy person.

Annie is using four pillows to sleep now. I get to help tuck the one behind her back in and it helps me to feel important. She is so cute too. =) Sadly though, I have had a persistent cough now for quite some time and it wakes her up at night and makes me feel bad for waking her.

My truck broke down quite nicely out in the middle of nowhere. And then started on fire. Or at least started smoking heavily before I unplugged the battery cable. I have horrible luck out there with fires. I have never had a fire in a vehicle in my life, until I tried doing work on the property. Very weird.

There isn't much time left to try and build this shed/house thing, and I have had several (and I am very gracious for them) offers from the church to come out and help me get things done on it. I just have to get my ducks in a row before it will do any good to have someone help, otherwise there will be two people standing around with their hands in their pockets instead of just one.

I was out trying to figure out where to put the drive way in for the shed today. There are these really cool vines (the locals call them "Wild Roses") with 1/2" thorns of death and clothing rippage that are all over the place. I had to walk through way more of them than I wanted to today to try and put flags up for the bulldozer man to come and push a path for the gravel truck to come dump stone for the drive. Anyway, I thought I would sum this experience up with one word: "ouchy".

I think that the title is not correct as it, this is definitely more like: "the innocent ramblings of a crazy man" than anything else.

Oh, and the cat, Christy, has round worms. But she still meowes incessantly, so I always have that to look forward to every morning when I come in. Oh, and she has begun to invade my desk top area with her stretching and cleaning as well. So that is fun as well. She is still a really great cat even if she is somewhat annoying at times... all times.

have a nice day

-josh

YAY FOR PREGNANT PIC! This was taken on Sunday Jan 28th. I am 23 weeks pregnant, so just under 6 months. You can see why I need to go shopping for Maternity clothes. Wow!
This close-up is just to remind myself that just because my belly, butt and thighs are growing doesn't mean I look like that ALL OVER. It's a good picture, and I can look at it when I am feeling really fat and ugly. (Don't you hate those days?)







Finally! I have pictures to post!

These are pictures of Josh's parent's log home. We were married here, but the inside was not quite finished. This is the inside, where everyone hangs out. You can see the kitchen, living room and the upstairs where 3 more bedrooms are located.

They hope to make this a bed & breakfast someday, I love going there and hangin out with family!

Isn't their house awsome? That buffalo participates in all our get-togethers. At Christmas he was wearing a Santa hat!




Thanks for looking! It's so nice to finally get pictures on my blog.

Laters!

ANNIE'S TURN TO BLOG!! HOORAY!

I'm feeling better now. It doesn't hurt quite so much when I walk or when I turn over in bed. I need to go shopping for maternity clothes.... the rubber-band trick isn't quite working anymore.

I'm in a journalism class that is sheer torture! I despise going and don't want to be forced to partake in any of the assignments. This is not an exagerration, which is truely sad. But the good news: I have decided to stay in school for 2 more years and get a B.S. in Elementary Education! what?? yup - 3 bachelor's degrees in 7 years. Some people can get a doctorate in this amount of time, but I had no clue what I wanted to until this semester, which is teach children. Josh and I are in prayer every night about this. I wish I could be a stay at home mom, I really do! But kids cost money....know what I mean? And I know that God doesn't love stay at home moms more than working moms (thank goodness!)

So, if I am going to find a job, I want it to be one that I love more than I hate. And one that doesn't stay the same, I feel like I make a difference, and has the opprotunity for advancement in pay. Teaching! Plus, the classes for this degree sound really fun (as opposed to those horrendous journalism classes I completed)

Now the real prayer will be for excellent child care. I am petrified about putting my darling(s) in anyone else's charge. God will provide, thats what prayer is for!

Josh is going to be travelling to New Jersey this Sunday, and I'll be all alone until Wed afternoon....oh sadness. I haven't been away from him for this long and I know I'll cry (stupid pregnancy hormones, might as well let it out!)

Till later friends!

I should be working right now instead of blogging. =)

Well, I called Pott. County zoning and they pretty much told me I'm an idiot. I said, "Oh yeah? Tell me something I don't already know!"

Ok. They really said that you can't move a single wide trailer older than 5 years onto a lot less than 40 acres (you know, a 1/4 mile x 1/4 mile). Sooooo, instead of buying a double wide and moving it onto the land or a newer single wide, Annie thought we might build a shed that we could finish out and live in while we build our house. I thought that was a pretty good idea, and so we sat down and figured it out a little bit, and she said she would finish up the floor plan for us later tonight, get an estimate on material costs, do the paper work for getting the building permit, call public works to see what kind of septic we need to put in, get propane, find water and drill a well, figure out where the driveway is going to be at, figure out how to build a bridge over the run off area and a few other misc. items like that. But she wants to build it with the idea being that after we build our house, we convert our house/shed into a shed and park her Harley in it.

On the baby front: Annie talks about being able to feel the baby kick, so thats kind of weird for her so far. But I think it's pretty neat. I can’t wait till I get to feel it with her.

Baby stuff along the lines of the new House/shed we are trying to make sure we don't leave anything important out of the design that we will regret later because of the new baby. I know that when she is born things will change drastically, so we are trying really hard not to miss any important design points along those lines. Maybe later I can post a floor plan of what we are thinking and that way if something is missing or should be changed we can be warned ahead of time.

CATWORLD

The cat that came to work with me is doing really well. She took a big stinky, runny, petulant, nasty poo on my nice 10 key calculator for me. I threw that away. But my brother got a pretty good laugh out of the whole deal.

Cristy (The Cat) is starting to fill out a little already, her back legs don’t look nearly as emaciated as they did when we found her and she is meowing pretty much constantly. Her tongue sticks out some times, so I wonder if she isn’t a little… slow…. I have an uneasy feeling that her meowing is due to pregnancy. *yay* Kittens for everyone!

Oh! And the best part about Cristy is how good she smells. I can honestly say, and I can’t stress this point enough, I have never EVER smelled a cats fart that is even 1/10 the amount of stink that this cat can produce. It just about makes my eyes water. I had to open the window to the office the other night. My goodness it was powerful.

Business is still going good. It’s kind of weird though. I have never had prayers answered so literally and directly as this. Tasha (the office manager) and I prayed that we could get some long owed money paid back to us and that business would pick up. This prayer was two weeks ago. So two weeks ago we booked most of February. Last week we booked the rest of February. Between the last two weeks we have only two outstanding debts still owed, all of the others were either paid in full or at least had payments made on. So that prayer was answered in excess to what I expected. We also prayed that we would be able to get more work done than we have been able to in the past, and since then it hasn’t been a problem. We crammed too much work into last week and even had a person gone on vacation and we were actually a little ahead of schedule by Friday. Like I said, I have never experienced prayer working in that sort of direct in your face way.

Ramble, ramble, ramble. Talk/type Later!

-josh

There is no need for alarm.

We decided tonight, Thursday 1/18/07, to move. We will no longer be living in Walnut Grove Trailer Park by the end of March. Where we are moving to, we don't know yet, but hopefully when we get there, there will be internet access so I can update everyone on how pregnant Annie is.

She is moderately pregnant at this point and is closing in on being mostly pregnant. *yay*

As far as the moving thing goes, we have a very short time to get a whole lot of important things figured out, but we aren’t moving far, just to our land. The bit about not knowing where we are going yet is in regards to the actual placement of the trailer.

We have had some meowing from under our home as of late. This has happened before. Several years ago I had some cats fighting under my trailer and it freaked me out because things were bumping the bottom of the house and it was weird... Anyway, the meowing has been pretty frequent and so today at lunch I decided to find out where the cat was at and how it was getting under the house. It turns out that 'Cristy' the Calico Cat has been residing under our trailer for a few days and managed to sneak in and out of under the trailer via a 2 inch wide slot in the skirting. Basically the cat was squeezing through the plastic skirting on the bottom of our trailer and it must have been pretty uncomfortable, but when I felt along her back tonight as I gave her some water, I could see that there wasn't much there to hold her back from going through a miniscule opening like that save for her hip bones, and the skin and fur that enveloped them. She’s in pretty rough shape.

I feel really sorry for 'Cristy' (I made the mistake of allowing Annie to name 'it') and am not really sure what to do with her. She is a very friendly cat, but I would be to if I was in her situation and she has some pretty neat spots on her body and a pink nose. (Annie noticed that fact. I wonder if it has to do with the color pink?)
Anyone need a cat? or a dog? or a dog and a cat? and some fish?

Just kidding, don't want to get rid of any one of them except the fish... they aren’t fun to move and so it would be nice to just get rid of them to someone who isn't going to move soon and can enjoy them and take better care of them than I.


Anyway, Annie and I have to figure out where we are going to move our trailer to on our paint ball course (the land on Vineyard Rd.) and then get the ball rolling on electricity, gas, drilling a well for water (exceptional water out there, I am stoked) and of course, figuring out what to do with the waste problem... It's really sandy soil, so I don't think I can put in a lagoon w/o putting in a clay bottom, but since the soil is so sandy and I have a pretty decent grade to the land I think that a septic tank and lateral fields might be in our future but I don't know yet because I don't know much when it comes to those kind of things.

This will be nice because now I can get up, walk across the lawn and start working on the house I'm supposed to start building on this spring. Rather than drive to the building site, forget some important document or tool and have to drive back to the trailer, get it and then drive back and then realize that I forgot something else, and you get the picture. Having our trailer out there will be very nice.

OK. I have to hit the sack and get up early for talking to people about putting a mobile home on zoned waste agriculture land. Oh yeah, add that to the list of things that have to happen, get a hold of someone that knows how to move a trailer. *sigh*


-josh

p.s. I didn't proof read this, so I apologize for the horrible way I tell stories and such, I'm really awful, so if you have any questions about my ramblings please feel free to ask Annie.

Well, it turns out that the first picture where I thought I had everything labeled correctly was actually completely wrong. It isn't a sonogram at all, it's actually a picture that one of the Mars rovers took while it was stuck in the sand dune. I guess it got really bored in that long stint of being trapped in the same location and just came up with creative things to do with it's free time. Like make sonogram like pictures of the microscopic life that lives on the grains of sand on Mars. Odd huh? Those crazy rovers and their creativity... sheesh.

Anyway, the winner of the guess what the picture really is contest is: *drum roll*

Brad


I think also, that if you want to take a super close look at these pictures, you can click on them and they will go to a new screen and bring up the life size photo. In real time even, which is super handy.

I think I am done blogging for, oh, ever. I'm not very good at it and I can't seem to write a whole sentence that doesn't have some sort of misleading conent. Shame on me. So it is now officially up to Annie to go back to her duties of updating this page, and at the same time, be honest about what is going on and stuff.

-josh

p.s. It was fun while it lasted.

Sonogram Pictures of:

Cute Baby Lizzie

I was assured by the specialist that this sonogram is correct. I have looked and looked at it and just can't make heads or tails of what I am looking at, but thought that I could go ahead and put it out there and let everyone else try and decipher this... She sure is cute though, where ever she is at...

-josh

_________________________________________________

I couldn't get around to posting the rest of the pictures till now.

please enjoy the rest of the sonograms.

























Thats my baby girl =)
This picture here is the first sonogram that we had done months ago. Back when she was in her "bean" state. I think she still looks pretty cute then to.





EEEK!! Hey, alien looking or not, she's still my little girl.




This is just a picture to show her bones (I think, but I'm not a doctor).






This picture here is the one that showed us that Lizzie is not a boy. If you look in the exact middle of the picture there, that's her butt. I can see already that she is going to be the person making copies of her derriere at the office and posting it on the board. tsk tsk (she gets it from her mom.)

-josh