Bullet

Bullet post! Cause today is a busy day.

• Today I start a 3-week job for my husband's company making phone calls from home. Easy. Lets see how it goes with the kids.... Abby is getting paid to play with Will all day, haha. Which is good for her, because she has to do work to earn money to buy her secret santa gift.
• I feel sick today. I guess that is a good sign. 
• We are ordering pizza for lunch. Because I am tired, have work to do, and I really want a buffalo chicken sandwich.
• I am now slightly concerned that I won't actually be able to eat the above mentioned sandwich.
• My Christmas cards are all ready to go - I just need to get stamps!
• I made an insurance mistake, and now have to fill out a completely different form and send in 50 million copies of different paperwork items all over again, because I had the incorrect application. Ack! Oh well. 
• Abby is doing better today, but is still missing Penny.
• It doesn't help that her little brother keeps asking where Penny is... eek.
• I'm not sure I can give up caffeine for this pregnancy. Once my current coffee runs out, I am going to replace it with decaf and then stop drinking sodas. I am going to need big time prayers when that happens. For those of you who also drink coffee to get you through the day - you know what I mean.
• Being out of printed ink in a homeschool family, is a very bad thing!
• I got a kids prayer book for Abby, and she likes to turn the prayers into songs. I love it.
• Will hates wearing pants. Sigh. 
• Our Jesse Tree and Advent wreath devotions are going well. I'm quite pleased.
• Putting out the Christmas candy within sight of the 2 year old was a bad idea...

New Mass Translation and the Threats

Ok, so the title of this post is talking about 2 completely different things! Haha.

So, the new translation of the mass was introduced officially. We actually enjoyed it. Of course, we haven't been saying things a certain way for us our whole lives, but I thought the wording was much more "royal" sounding and traditional, which I liked, and I loved that more was sung rather than just spoken. I felt it was much more powerful to me emotionally. It is sad to me that I have seen so many articles about people complaining about the mass translation. Although I'm sure the news is making it into a much bigger issue than it truly is - at least I hope so. But as for my family, we thought it was beautiful (and my husband who is still memorizing things anyway, really liked that everyone was having to hold a paper with the words and not just him, haha!)


Now, the "Threats". We have had so many people say we are having twins, that we are nearly convinced it is! Haha. We will know on the 19th I guess! Twins do run in my family, and I feel WAY more exhausted this time around than I did in my other pregnancies (although, I do have a 2 year old running around, which I never had before during pregnancy either). I am calling them "threats" because, I dunno, it just sounds scary! Its like people are almost threatening us with it, OH TWINS! It's gonna be twins and you will be so tired! Oh what will you do with twins! Geez, I dunno - I hadn't even considered it until about 10 different people brought it up! Of course, if it IS twins I will be very joyful and thrilled, albeit a little bit terrified! Haha. And if its not, well I will still be joyful and thrilled to have 1 sweet little one.

A sad day for Abby...

Abby has pet rats. She loves them and cuddles them and plays with them. Its too cute. But this morning we found that Penny the rat had died sometime during the night. I had noticed over the past month or so, that there were some tumors (in both her rats). I talked to Abby about them, and we knew it was a possibility that one or both could pass sometime soon. I guess we just weren't expecting it to be today, or so soon. Last night Penny seemed fine, but I guess that is how it often is. We got them as older rats, so even from the beginning we knew they wouldn't be with us for that long. Abby is just having a really hard time, understandably. I'm not sure how to comfort her, so I just hold her while she cries. She is holding the other rat now, Callie, because she thinks it will make her feel better. I hope so. I tried the dogs, and they didn't bring her any comfort. So maybe holding Penny's little friend will bring her some peace. Adam is back at work today. So I had to handle the cleanup alone. It was unpleasant, but at least Abby wasn't there to see all of that. Its a sad day. I'm not sure what to do. So we will just go about our day, and Abby can lay down and cry and do whatever she needs to do today. My poor sweet girl.

Advent

...begins tomorrow! A new church year, the beginning of Advent, our family is very excited! We are doing our holidays quite a bit differently this year due to some pretty big changes we have had around here, but we are very excited!

We are going to be doing a family advent wreath, which we blessed before dinner this evening, and we will be doing a Jesse Tree and letting the kids color little paper ornaments this year to put on the tree each day. We will be celebrating St. Nicholas day with stockings, which the kids are super excited about.

I still have quite a bit of holiday shopping to do, but thats ok. Most of it is going to be online through Amazon (yay Amazon!), so it shouldn't be too bad. I'm feeling super festive and happy this year about Christmas. We aren't really going to be doing any traveling. We will visit local friends and family, but thats about it. We discussed traveling, but I've been so tired, and I have a doctor's appointment now, and with Adam's work schedule, it was going to be tricky and stressful. I didn't want to do that this year, since I'm sure next year will be mandatory traveling with the new baby, in order to meet everyone. This year we will take it easy.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We found out we will be hosting the Taylor family Thanksgiving beginning next year, so someone please clue me in on how to cook a turkey between now and then, thanks! Haha.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hooray! It's Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!! I hope you are all blessed with a beautiful day, surrounded by your loved ones and delicious food! Don't forget to be thankful for everyone in your life today, and for all the things that God has blessed you with. I've had a rough morning, but I keep reminding myself of all the amazing blessings God has given me! He is so good!
I am off to go finish up my assigned foods for the year, but before I do, let me finish off with my Thankful Thursday post, on this day of all days to be thankful! =o)

Today I am so very thankful:
1. For my husband. I love him dearly, even when he makes me so mad I want to punch him. He makes me laugh, he gave me 2 beautiful children, with #3 on the way, and he works so hard to provide us with everything we need and more. He is a good man, he loves Jesus, and he puts up with me. I am so very thankful for that!
2. For my Abby. We are very much alike, and we butt heads constantly, but she has taught me so much and is probably one of the best big sisters in the world! She is such a little mom, and her heart and empathy for others is huge. She loves justice, she thinks everyone should be happy and loved, and she is just a little bit crazy and silly. I've had to learn to adjust myself a lot because of her, and she has helped me many times in my faith. She has a deep understanding of things regarding faith just naturally, and her love for God is so sweet.
3. For my William. Oh this boy. He keeps me on my toes. He is nonstop, and while he is lacking the drama that came with Abby, his rambunctious and hilarious personality has its own issues. When I am about at the end of my rope, his crazy funny antics relieve the pressure I am feeling and he gives me a moment to restart. He loves people, but in a different way than Abby. His is not nurturing so much as it is a lightening. He is so random and funny, and I don't know how I would get through my days sometimes without his humor.
4. For this new little one we are expecting. I get so excited thinking about what this baby will look like, will be like, what new dimension and blessings (and stress, haha) will be added to this family with the addition of this new babe. I am so thankful that this baby is a result of my husband's decision to follow the church's teaching about life and children, and that we were so quickly blessed with another child for our family after his heart and mind were changed. This baby, to me, is a confirmation of the gift of life.
5. For family and friends who love us and have supported us in all the changes we have been experiencing lately. With our faith, with our family, with our upcoming move, just everything. It has been such a blessing to feel loved and supported by so many.
6. That we have a home to be moving to in the new year. The space and yard will be such a blessing to my entire family, and I think it will help me a lot in managing my home and in learning to accept some things about my vocation in life that have been difficult for me. It will undoubtedly be more work for all of to have an actual home to maintain, but the benefits and joys it brings will far outweigh any of the things that might make it more work.
7. For a beautiful day to spend with family, and that we can all be together. That my husband is blessed with a job where we know holidays will always be off and he will be home with us, and that we can all be together to celebrate and be a family.
8. For family traditions and delicious food. Eating the same thing every year, and knowing what to expect, just feels so homey and comforting, and I am really appreciating that more as I get older.
9. For my crock pot being areeable, and holding up to one more day of cooking - it has a crack in it that I noticed this morning, but I think its pulling itself together for me today. =o)
10. That I am blessed with more than enough. Now I pray that I will remember that even after this day of Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Prep

Preparing for Thanksgiving tomorrow! The kids are so excited. I have mashed potatoes cooking today, and I will finish cooking them tomorrow in the crock pot. I've also got to make sweet potatoes tomorrow (we do cajun, not sweet marshmallow ones) and the green bean casserole. Yum! Listening to the kids play, singing Thanksgiving songs, and getting ready for a nice long weekend with my family. Love!

On another note, Adam's grandma has an aneurism that she has had for a while, but it has worsened and she needs to have surgery on it. They will be doing a CAT scan next week to determine the exact type of surgery necessary to fix the issue. She is obviously worried, but has also been informed that she needs to stop smoking in order to have the surgery (which we have been pestering Adam's entire family to stop doing for years anyway!). So if you could pray for her and Adam's family - everyone in the family is going to stop smoking with her to offer their support. Thanksgiving over there could be a bit cranky tomorrow... and of course we want a successful surgery and healthy Great Granny too!

Pregzilla

That's the new name my husband has given me. Isn't he just the sweetest? Although, I can't say I am undeserving. Sigh.

If this t-shirt shows up though, we might have a serious problem. Talk about going on a rampage...