Go Salukis

I am not sure what the criteria is to consider yourself a devoted Saluki fan. Since I lived everyday in the arena for four years straight I think I can be considered a devoted Saluki fan for many years to come despite the fact that I haven't been to a game in over a year. My excuses are the usual.....too busy, too tired, too far of a drive. But now we are on our way to C-dale to watch our beloved Saluki men's basketball team play the Bradly braves.
Mr. G was given two free tickets to the game and since he had to work we decided to give the tickets to my mom and dad. They wanted to take the lil girls along since they still remember coming to so many of my games years ago. Then at the last minute I decided to hitch a ride along planning on getting a ticket when I got there. I was really excited because I hadn't seen the new renovated arena or new football stadium. Plus I was just excited to see a good game.

One of the best parts of the trip was the car ride both there and back. My momma is just like one of the kids when she gets around her grandchildren. It is so cute. Three cheesin girls.

The first thing we did when we got to the arena was try and get the extra three tickets that we needed. Like I said, we already had two given to us, so we just needed to get two kids tickets and then one for me. After standing and waiting on the ticket guy for about 10 minutes we realized that we wouldn't able to sit together and it was going to cost us $39 dollars total for me and the two girls to get in. Dad turned to us and said, "How bad do you want to go to the game?" Quickly my mom said, "Not very bad. Let's go shopping."

So with that dad sold the two tickets we had for $20 which in his mind meant we saved around $60 by not going to the game and we headed off for the mall. Before we left the arena, though, we had to stop for a photo next to the Saluki dog statue. You will not find anybody who loves the Saluki dog more than these two lil girls. Plus it made for a cute picture.

Once we got to the mall we took the girls to Claire's and they each got to pick out a few things. Then we stopped by Old Navy and they just so happened to be painting faces for free.

Of course this lil one wanted a dog. Even though it wasn't one of the options she wanted a dog and the face painter gave it her best shot. I know you can't tell by the picture but this lil girl is actually happy about the green dog on her cheek.

This one wasn't wanting anything on her face so she opted for a rainbow on her hand.

They even got to color pictures while they waited. Good times. Maybe we didn't get to see the Saluki's play and maybe it will hurt my cause for being considered a devoted Saluki fan, but at least we saved $60 and had a blast doing it.

Baby G is kicking

Now technically Baby G has been kicking for quite some time but I have not been able to feel it. Well, that has all changed.
Last night I was in Baby G's bedroom reading to him "Love you Forever" while I rocked in the rocker.
This used to be one of my favorite books when I was a kid. It is a touching story of love between a mother and son and I actually got tears in my eyes as I read it to Baby G last night.

I finally got to the last page of the book still with tears in my eyes and read the famous words again, 'I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living my baby you'll be."

And right at that moment - BOOM! I felt a large kick. I was frozen in shock at what had just happened. I almost didn't believe it was true so I sat there for a few seconds and then I felt two more little kicks. Then I yelled for Mr. G to come quick.

Mr. G ran into Baby G's room and I told him to put his hand on my tummy because Baby G was kicking. We sat that way for a while. I had felt a few more little kicks but nothing hard enough for Mr. G to feel it. Then I told Mr. G to talk to him. So Mr. G said, "Kick daddy, Baby G. Come on. You can do it. Kick daddy."

And then - BOOM! We both felt the largest kick. Our eyes got real big and tears started to form as we looked at each other. I said, "That's Baby G."

It was one of the most amazing moments of my life. I had been waiting for so long to be able to feel this lil guy inside of me and I must say that it was worth the wait.

Let Praise be to God for the wonderful miracle He has created inside of me. We are so blessed.

Baby G

Have you ever been completely awestruck at how good God is?

Ever since I found out I was pregnant I have been so thankful for the lil one that God has been creating inside of me. I have been amazed at how good God is for allowing Mr. G and I to have such a special gift, but when I actually got to see the face of our baby I could do nothing but cry in awe of my Lord. Our lil one has been hand-crafted by the Maker of the Universe and I can't help but be humbled.

God is Amazing!!!

The question is....What did God bless us with? A girl or a boy?



Well...after careful examination we found out we are having.... a BOY!!!

There is no doubt about it for our lil boy was not bashful. In fact, it was comical how much he wanted us to see that he is indeed all boy!! See for yourself...but I must warn you that it is very graphic!!




We were able to see all of his facial features up close and I honestly can't get that lil image out of my head. He is as long as a banana and weighs 12oz. He was moving around a lot kicking my bladder and rubbing his eyes. Eventually our hooting and hollering got the best of him because then he rolled over and layed on his belly hiding his face.

To top it all off we found out that our lil boy is completely healthy! All of his organs looked good and he has no signs of any disabilities. Even though he has 20 weeks left to go he already looks really strong. His arms and legs are absolutely amazing.








It might be because I am his momma but I think I see some calf muscles already!!



He was very active and even though I would see him kick me I never felt it. The doctor informed me that my placenta is on the front of my uterus acting as a cushion. They believe I will start to feel movement at any time but the reason I haven't yet probably is because of the location of my placenta. I guess it will be nice to have that bit of cushion but I sure would like to feel my lil boy kick. The nurse believes that I probably have felt the baby but just didn't know what I was feeling.

So there you have it. A nice healthy baby boy!!! He will be joining us in around 20 weeks so until then I will be dreaming about the sweet lil face of my baby boy!!!



One last thing before I go. I thought I would share with you the exact moment of when we found out that we were having a boy. Lucky for us Mr. G had turned on his camera at the perfect time. Let me first explain that the ultrasound technician was having us look at his feet and how much he was kicking so everybody's eyes were focused on his feet. The the technician says, "Do you see what I see?" And that's where the video starts. Hope you enjoy and again it is very graphic.

Classroom Vote

I chose to wait and tell my students at school that I was pregnant until I was about 14 weeks along, but ever since then I have been getting questions like crazy.

"Does your husband know?"
"When are you due?"
"Have you told your husband yet?"
"How far along are you?"
"What will your husband say when he finds out?"

For some reason my students thought that I would tell my class before I told my husband. They were shocked to hear that I told Mr. G 10 weeks ago. The shock then turned to anger and hurt feelings that I didn't tell them sooner. They are so funny.

Another question I heard a lot was, "Is it a boy or a girl." Well, that is a question I wished I could answer but I couldn't because I wouldn't find out the gender until January 18. However, I thought I could use that question to get the kids involved in the pregnancy a little bit. I gave each student the chance to vote on whether they think the baby will be a boy or a girl. They had to write their name down in either the boy column or the girl column and color in the block across from their name either blue or pink depending on which column they chose.


The first vote was for a girl but after that the boys had the lead the rest of the way. I was amazed at how confident my student's were at what the gender was going to be. If they voted for a girl they would inform me that they know for a FACT I am having a girl. It was the same with the boy voters. How can they be so confident and yet I have absolutely no idea what I am having? Maybe I should just listen to my students and believe I am having a baby boy.

During the first 10 weeks or so I thought I would never make it to this point. I couldn't even imagine being 20 weeks a long and having the chance to see if our lil one is a boy or girl, but now we are only 1 day away from finding out.

The next 24 hours are going to feel like forever!!!

Cancer

Isn't it amazing how as a little girl I had no idea what cancer was. I was very blessed that way as many children unfortunately have to deal with cancer every day. It wasn't until my grandma was diagnosed with colon cancer when I was in high school that I really began to understand what cancer is. My grandma won her battle against cancer, but it has been almost two years since my grandpa lost against lung cancer.
Now it seems like cancer is everywhere. At work I have many co-workers who are either dealing with cancer themselves or have loved ones fighting cancer. It is a horrible disease that can affect any part of the body and can hurt so many people.

I remember watching the movie "Twister" and hearing one of the actresses talk about how she has seen a tornado destroy one house and then completely miss the next. It doesn't make any sense. It seems like cancer is the same way, and my question is why does it keep choosing my mom?

Yesterday my mom found out the news again that her cancer has returned. I was with her when the doctor called and I was again amazed at her strength. I watched in hope while she answered the phone but I knew within a few seconds that again the prognosis wasn't good. She asked the doctor many questions. For example, "What are we going to do if the cancer keeps returning this quickly," "What kind of tests are we going to have to run this time," and the last question that killed me to hear, "Is there something that I am doing wrong?"

I knew the answer to that question and I hated that my mom had to ask it. Of course, the doctor assured her that she is doing nothing wrong, and he doesn't know why this keeps happening to her. I know that my mom has done nothing to deserve cancer. She has been the best Christian example to me and has been my role model since I was a little girl. Her life motto is, "Always do the right thing and the polite thing," and by-golly she always has. So why is it that cancer has chosen to invade her life?

As my mom hung up the phone I saw exhaustion in her eyes but it lasted only a second. She knew that she had another battle to face ahead of her and she is only human to first be down about it. After that brief second of weakness my mom simply said, "Well sweetie, we need to start praying again." And just like that my mom was ready for battle.

You hear many different theories about why bad things happen to good people. You hear that God allows bad things to happen so that our faith can be tested. You hear it's the devil trying to bring us down. Some people say it is proof that there is no God.

Mr. G and I were reading in Ecclesiastes last night about how everything is meaningless. It didn't matter what King Solomon did in his life he always realized at the end that it was meaningless. Then he said in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 at the end that the best thing to do is just enjoy your life. No matter what you do, no matter what you go through, if you can enjoy your life then your life will no longer be meaningless.

So you ask why bad things happen to good people? Well, my mom isn't just a good person, she is a great person and again something bad has happened to her. But why her? I know for a fact that many people have been encouraged by my mom through out her many battles with cancer. I have seen people amazed at her strength and her faith. My mom has done exactly what King Solomon said to do because even though she has cancer again she still has a smile on her face. She still enjoys each day and laughs often. She still looks forward to each day and will encourage and uplift others. I know that before my mom had to deal with cancer it didn't mean as much to others to always see her happy because she seemed to have the perfect life anyway. Now they see that despite what the devil throws at her she will be happy because she has God in her life and that is when people's lives are changed.

It is not easy to go through hard times. In fact, it is no fun at all, but it is in those hard times that you can make the biggest difference. I still hate cancer and I hate that it has once again affected my mom and my family. I sometimes still want to ask the question, "Why her," but lucky for me, my mom has already answered that question.

Just last night my mom said to me, "Why not me? Cancer is in the world and always will be. Who am I to say that I am too good to deal with cancer? Who am I to say that I am unwilling to take on this battle for Christ? God loves me just as much as he loves everybody else so why not me?"

All I can say is thank you, God, for a mom who loves You that much!!!

Christmas

I have been so excited about writing this post and I have had ideas pouring into my mind constantly of what I will write about. Then every time I sit down to write I can never get it all done. I have more pictures I want to add and more I want to write about. I suppose all that matters is I finally finished my Christmas post for 2010.

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays but honestly, there isn't a holiday that I don't enjoy. I absolutely love holidays. With Christmas there are specific things I love, however. While I was sitting down thinking about all the things I love about Christmas I realized that I have a really long list. I then realized I am not going to be able to write about everything I love so I narrowed it down to less than a hundred things. Well, I better get started.

You can't have Christmas without Jesus which means a Nativity Christmas play is a must. I love our annual Christmas play at church, and I am so blessed to be able to be the one who is in charge of running the play and getting all these cute kids to do silly things on stage. It is an amazing feeling to watch lil ones put on a play about Jesus' birth and for them to understand a little better just how important His birth was. I wish I had a picture to show you from that night, but honestly I was just trying to survive. With being in charge of the play, the stress of hoping it all goes well, morning sickness, and extreme fatigue I didn't even think to snap a picture.

Now, if you were to ask Mr. G what my favorite thing about Christmas is, he would probably tell you....traffic. Now I don't know if it is my favorite thing, but I do love the traffic on Christmas.

This picture was taken December 23 and you can see the line of traffic in the left lane. (Sorry the picture is so dark - I tried to take a picture earlier in the day but I was driving then and it didn't work out very well. This picture was taken while Mr. G was driving and it turned out much better) You can tell by the picture that it was madness. People getting last minute gifts, trying to get all the groceries they would need for the next few days, and traveling to family's. The roads were a mess.

This picture was taken December 25 on our way home from all our Christmas festivities. Not a car in sight. I absolutely LOVE driving through town and only seeing a handful of cars knowing that everyone is at home with there families enjoying Christmas Day. It reminds me of what our country probably looked like every Sunday afternoon decades ago when restaurants and stores were closed for church. I wish Sundays still looked like this but I am very thankful that at least I can count on Christmas to bring me this joy.

Not every year we are blessed with a beautiful Christmas snow, but thankfully this year we were.

Again, this picture was taken in the car. I wasn't about to walk out in the snow and take a picture of our house just for my blog. So I waited until we drove past but unfortunately you see the water from our windshield in the picture.

This picture I took looking out our back door. You can kind of see that it was still snowing at this point and we ended up getting probably 2 to 3 inches in all. It was gorgeous.

Apparently, along with snow comes neighborly love. This man you see in the picture is our neighbor to the left of us and he takes care of us year round. I still found it amazing to see him out on Christmas morning clearing EVERYBODY'S drive way on our road. What a wonderful Christmas present to his neighbors and what a wonderful blessing he is to us. When Mr. G went over to tell him thank you for clearing our drive way, our neighbor said he didn't know what Mr. G was talking about. He went on to tell a story about seeing sleigh marks on his roof and that Santa must of cleared our driveway after he delivered all the presents. What a sweet man.

Now, as everybody knows, Christmas day would not be complete without the Christmas Story and I don't just mean the story of Jesus' birth. I am talking about the movie...does that make me a heathen? I hope not.

At my mom and dads house The Christmas Story will be played over and over again on Christmas Day. Mr. G knows every line by heart, which is not annoying at all. For me, I love this movie because it reminds me of what my dad was probably like at that age. It is a classic and will always be a family favorite at Christmas time.

Another joy of Christmas is making Christmas cookies for others. We have started the tradition of making Christmas cookies for our neighbors and this year we decided to make sugar cookies. I don't know why I keep writing "we" when Mr. G had no part in this except delivering, but I guess that was a hard job considering all the snow we had Christmas morning.

I used my mother-in-laws recipe which is absolutely delicious, but I realized at this point that I must've made the cookies a little thicker than I should have. Her cookies are never this thick....whoopsie! All that matters is that I am trying....right? Maybe if I had a little help.
Of course, Marley is too busy chasing his food around the house to help. Maybe it's not that I need help but that I am distracted by how cute Marley looks. Yep - that's gotta be it.


Well, now it is time to do the icing which is another favorite part of Christmas except this year I won't be sampling any. Usually I find an excuse to sample the icing but ever since I got pregnant I can't eat anything sweet because it will make me sick. There's always next year.

Mmmm....it does look yummy though and very festive. The only problem is I forgot to take a picture of the cookies when I was all done icing them. I wonder if that is because they actually didn't look all that good once I decorated them and I was a bit embarrassed. Nah, I'll just say it is because I forgot to take the picture.

And then there is the food and fellowship around the dinner table on Christmas.

Lucky for Mr. G and I we got to enjoy two Christmas meals. One meal took place on Christmas Eve at Mr. G's parent's house. We always go up to his parent's house on Christmas Eve to open presents, eat, and play games. A neat thing about Christmas next year at Mr. G's parents house is that there will be two lil ones crawling around. Mr. G's sister is also pregnant and is due just 6 weeks before me so next Christmas there will be a lot of pictures and a lot of spoiling since these will be the first Christmas with grand babies in the family.

In my family we always have a Christmas morning brunch. This usually happens around 11:00 and we will have an assortment of breakfast foods from french toast, to homemade cinnamon rolls, bacon, eggs, hash browns, pancakes, and more. It is amazing! This year while the grown ups were enjoying the meal one of my lil nieces continued to ask, "When are we going to open presents?" Everyone at the table took turns telling her, "Soon! We will open presents SOON." This wasn't setting well with the lil girl so I eventually sat her down and explained to her that this meal is like the grown up's present on Christmas morning. We like food that much. I thought I had gotten through to her just how important spending time eating this wonderful meal was when she turned and asked me, "Okay, but when are we going to open presents?"
I laughed and said, "Soon."

Now I must admit that I think one of the joys of Christmas is opening presents, but don't judge me just yet. I have always enjoyed getting new things and when I was a lil girl I couldn't wait to open presents on Christmas morning. Now days the joy comes from seeing others open presents on Christmas. I try so hard to find just the right gift for everyone and I get really excited to see if the others will be as excited about the gift as I hope they will be. It really is more about giving than receiving.




For example, Mr. G and I were excited to give his parents this Grandchildren picture frame because we know how pumped they are about being Grandparents for the first time. I have a feeling she will have those pictures filled up in no time once the grand babies start coming.


Now I must admit it was really neat to get presents that were going to be for our baby. Everything had to be either green or yellow since we still don't know the gender just yet, but it was still special.



Now, watching this lil guy on his first Christmas open presents was priceless. Wrapped up in his Nana's arms he was nothing but smiles especially when he got his hands on some wrapping paper. I know it made Nana's Christmas special too. It has been a lil while since she had a lil one that age and I know how much she enjoys being around her grandchildren and how much happiness she gets from seeing the joy on their face come Christmas morning. Maybe next year she will have our baby sitting in her arms opening presents. I can't wait to get a picture of that.

Young and old Christmas is always special. For my grandma Christmas is still bitter-sweet because grandpa isn't here to spend it with her. However, I don't think she thought about that much being completed surrounded by family all day. Thank God for family.

Now, here is the lil girl who kept asking, "When are we going to open presents." I was lucky to get her to pose for a picture in the middle of her unwrapping. I think she could've unwrapped presents all day long if we let her.


This sweet girl was just as excited, but she did have a bit of a problem this Christmas. You see, she lost her two front teeth just before Christmas which made her look even more cute, especially when she sang the song, "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth." The only problem was she didn't know how to smile without those two teeth. Gotta love it.


I think at Christmas time everyone should receive some kind of a gift, including the dogs. Last year we had Mickey at home and he absolutely loved Christmas. In fact, he even got a lil psycho about it, but this year we had Marley and he actually acted scared of Christmas.

Mr. G's mom and dad had gotten Marley a lil present so Mr. G opened it for him Christmas morning. Apparently, it has been a tradition for Mr. G's family.

This is Chloe down below, Mr. G's mom and dad's dog. This dog loves Christmas and knows that she will be getting a Christmas present. I think she sniffs all the presents under the Christmas tree to see which one is hers while nobody is looking. Her gift was a big tire for her to chew on, but unfortunately, Chloe isn't very lady like and had that toy chewed up in no time.

So I thought Marley would be the same way with Christmas as Mickey and Chloe.


I had gotten Marley a few treats that I thought he might like. It was very exciting as we both were waiting to see how Marley would react.


And it was not good at all. Marley wanted nothing to do with his gift, his treats, or any of the wrapping paper laying on the ground. Poor guy was scared to death.

At least he looked festive with his red and green handkerchief on. It took Marley 3 days to start eating his treats so apparently he liked them, he's just paranoid about Christmas. Weird.

Yogi, my mom and dad's dog is one who always loves Christmas, but not so much for the presents. He usually gets more table scraps after our big Christmas brunch, and this boy loves pancakes. If you look back at the picture of my family sitting around the dinner table for our Christmas brunch you will see Yogi about to get a hold of Dad's plate on the table. Luckily, Dad sat back down before Yogi could take a bite.



Here is Yogi with out two excited lil girls anxiously waiting to open their presents.


Christmas is also about having fun and enjoying the day, and there is nobody who does that better than my in-laws. One minute they may be sitting and opening presents like everyone else....




And the next minute.....well....

What can I say....


I was sad to see Christmas end but it was a wonderful day filled with all of the things that make it special. It starts with Jesus, my Savior, who was born so that eternity can be spent with Him in Heaven. But until that day when we are all in Heaven God has blessed me with a wonderful family to spend my life with and to spend special days like Christmas with.

Marley's First Snow

It is always exciting to see someone experience snow for the first time. I think it is just as fun to watch an animal experience snow when they have never seen it before. Now, I won't lie - Marley saw a bit of snow on Thanksgiving, but it was just a little and it was gone rather quickly. Even with that snow, though, he was intrigued. He wouldn't go to the bathroom for us outside because he wanted to eat the snow.


Well, this morning I woke up before my alarm and looked out the window to find a winter wonderland. I turned over and told Mr. G that there was snow on the ground and he said, "That's cool, honey." I found out later that he didn't remember that conversation happening so he has actually learned to pacify me in his sleep. Not a good thing.


Well, Marley and I got up and made breakfast. We sat in the living room watching the snow fall when I decided that I would call Mr. G to see if he would like to enjoy this beautiful morning with us. So I dialed his number and after about the 4th ring he picked up - "Yeah," he said.


"Wouldn't you rather sit in the living room with me and watching the snow fall while we listen to Christmas music than stay in bed and sleep?"


"I'll be right there," he told me in his morning voice.



Well he did mosey on in to the living room and we did enjoy the morning together. Then it was time for Mr. G to take Marley out to the bathroom and Mr. G was not happy about it. He spent 20 minutes trying to get around it, but I explained that Marley had to go out. So Mr. G bundled up and called for Marley.

Apparently, Mr. G did not want his picture taken while he was taking Marley out. Does he not realize that I must blog about such a big moment in Marley's life? Oh well....he can't run from me forever.

Now I got you! You might run through the house acting like you are dodging tacklers on a football field to get away from my camera - but it won't work buddy. I caught you!!!

Well, Marley looks ready to go - hope Mr. G is. It is coming down pretty hard out there and I hear the wind is just terrible.

Whoops - Marley took off and Mr. G wasn't ready and accidentally dropped the leash. So Mr. G had to go scrambling after the leash - it was quite a site.

At this point Marley is sniffing around trying to figure out what the brown things were that were still sticking out of the ground.

For some reason Marley kept holding his bottom funny while he was out there. I guess it was just cold.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weoEO_xWlDw

The good news is that both Marley and Mr. G survived. And when it was all said in done Marley could sit and enjoy his biscuit on his favorite chair while he warmed up. What a life!!!