Baby Kate..

Was born today weighing 10 lbs. even, 21 1/2 inches long and was born after only a 2 hour 42 minute labor. Got the water birth I wanted, and baby Kathryn is doing good...

Thanks for listening to me rant this morning..apparently thats all I needed. :)

Nope, still pregnant.

Not sure why it bothers people so much when woman at the end of pregnancy even remotely complain about being pregnant still. I am so thankful that I don't have problems that leave me in labor early, but when your body is gearing up at all times to give birth, it does get annoying trying to guess when the baby is coming, and my body HURTS..I can barely walk these days without pain. So, don't get me wrong, I realize without a shadow that the baby WILL come and that there is nothing I can do or say to hurry this along, but I can still be slightly disappointed that I am not holding my surprise baby yet.

My dad was up here for almost a week and we LOVED it. The poor guy worked all day with Luke and would come home only to entertain our kids pretty much till bedtime(his choice)..and we also took him to his first major league baseball game. He really liked it even though the game was uber boring till the very end when we(The Braves) finally scored a point to actually put anything up on the score board. But he liked the fireworks afterwards too..Not sure I want to brave the stadium again while pregnant though...yowsa was that a lot of walking/steps. But I'm glad he got to come visit and work...Also kind of bummed Baby didn't decide to come while he was here, he would have been a super big help with the kids, not to mention wonderful moral support.

Luke didn't work much this week, but is today. I feel like God's been blessing me with Luke having so much time off. While I still really want him to have a job, its been SOO amazing having him around to help me in these last weeks of my pregnancy. I don't know how I would have done it without him. Lots of contacts have popped up recently for him to get with about possible job openings..please pray for favor and the will of God to prevail in all of these situations.

Erin and Wesley came over on Memorial day and we grilled out. They brought everything we needed for a nice dinner over and very much blessed us. It was so good and we always love hanging out with them. I'm glad we have such great friends in our family..

I'll surrender when its good for me.

Isn't this the mindset of a lot of us? Because of the fact that Olivia was born early, and Noah was born almost full term, I have NO idea when this baby is coming. I am always so resolute to submit to God's timing and plan in the morning. I'm content to rest and dwell and enjoy the movements in my belly just for a bit longer...by night, I've lost it. I will admit that my first reaction is to submit when I'm rested and the weight of the day and the strain on my body is not there. I'm convicted..May the Lord forgive me for not TOTALLY submitting to HIS will and not mine. Not that I'd complain if the baby came now though. ;) (I'm 38 weeks and 2 days today).

My little plants are flourishing! I have over 10 tomatoes on my tomato plant and I have tons of flower buds on my squash plant! I was nervous this one would seize up since I transplanted it after it had rooted down some, but it survived! My sad little cucumber plants that I was given for mother's day are finally looking like they might make it, and my pepper plant is trucking away at sprouting new leaves. I can't wait till there is a harvest so to speak. I'll get pictures soon...

My Dad came up yesterday...he's helping Luke and Joel on a big patio project this week, and possibly more work depending on what Joel has..Its so nice to have family around and I am excited at the possibility of my dad being around for the birth(not in the room probably mind you). Plus, it gives Joel help still if Luke has to treck home for a day birth if that happens. The kids really love him a lot and they don't understand that he's here to work..haha..Liv keeps saying all these places that PopPop is going to take her. Hope she's not too let down. :)

God is continually providing for us..its soo amazing how just when you think there is NO way..there is. Luke was told about a lady from someone they were building for that is part of some sort of firm that is hiring draftsmen. Pray that if its God's will that he'll have favor..he's also applied for a job at a local college that would be nice too...We just want God's will..

I got up way too early today for my poor little system..so I'm so ready for a nap right now and its only 10:21..Going to dress my little man(he's always nakie with a diaper these days. :) ) and go outside to burn some time and hopefully stay awake till naptime!

An evening out..

I RARELY ever go out by myself. To be honest, I just prefer being with my family...I don't feel like I'm missing out or that I'm not having fun by staying home and having most evenings in, but I really enjoyed myself last night even though I stayed up way too late! haha..I went to my friend's house(Talitha) and she had my sister and 2 other friends come and hang while she Henna'd my belly. It was very nice and I felt so honored by those who came and sat and chatted it up till late.

At 37 weeks, my belly is bigger this time around then it was full term with Noah, so it takes quite a bit to make me feel like my belly is even remotely ok looking, but I'm really loving the henna and Talitha did a great job, specially since I was her first belly! :)

Do ignore the lovely stretch marks. Pretty much all of them came from Olivia's pregnancy...only a tiny tiny few from Noah, and only 1-2 from this time. But they add up..! :)

Yeah...ok.

So almost 37 weeks and 19 lbs. in...hopefully not much more. My little frame is starting to feel the weight even though I haven't put on too much. Its amazing what starting out bigger does to you. Had a great home visit with my midwife today. She came to our house, brought me my birth pool and a nice hose to use to fill it. I'm measuring 38 weeks on the tummy, so thats new cause I usually measure right one. She said it was probably just the way the baby was laying. Contracting it up this weekend..I think its the full moon...and the fact that I've been Wii Fit'ing it up the last 2 days..who knew I could still hula hoop while preggo? Probably good for my pelvic alignment. We are set to go for the birth now...praise God! All items are bought and only a small amount left to pay the midwife.

Bought groceries today for $122!!! Which is great cause I bought like TONS of food. They had some good BOGO free deals this week. God has been SOO good..about 2 weeks ago we had no idea how our mortgage would get paid this month, and God has provided work for Luke to do and we will have enough and enough for another bill due at the same time, without being penniless at the end of paying them. Its so amazing how God likes to show you just how good He is, but His timing is so different then ours.
Luke treated us to Chili's last night. Last time we ate out(and paid, since my sister and her hubby treated us to lunch a few weeks ago) was in Feb...so it was quite the treat. Chips and salsa have never tasted so good..:) I also went to Lowes and we browsed through the veggies for Mother's day gift ideas..its amazing how my wants these days have changed..I look forward to having lots of produce this summer..not as much as I'd like, but its a start.

My friend is going to henna my belly on Monday...I can't wait..I've been wanting to do this before I even knew I was pregnant..its so pretty and I did it with Olivia and loved it. It makes a very stretched marked belly feel pretty again, and is a nice way to treat yourself at the end like this.

I'm thankful for..

-Waking up COLD this morning!!!! The air man came at 7:00am(before I'm up, but thankfully Luke was getting up early anyways)...and when I woke up around 8:00, the house was already nice and cool. I am soo stinkin happy to have my house back to normal feeling. Its hard to clean/cook and just live with it so hot and muggy in the house.

- Having my bills paid this week. Luke has worked his tush off and I can't help but be ever so thankful that he's such a hard working man who provides for us(with the Lord's help!). We are learning to be thankful for the day to day provision and not to worry about what the next day/week will bring. God told us to! :)

- For naps. Both for the kids and I...'nough said.

- Fat night t.v...haha...not sure how this started or why, but ever since Biggest Loser started I've wanted fattier foods on this night. You'd think it would make me want to eat opposite, but nah...pizza tonight it is! (Not to mention Fringe comes on too!).

-My icemaker has a crushed iced setting.....soo good.

-That I'm almost finished getting all my birth supplies together. Only like 3 more things to get..! Now to just pay off the midwife. :)

-For new atlanta friends who allow God to use them to meet a want I've had since before I even got pregnant. I can't wait for Henna night Talitha! :)

Life...

This week's been busy..Luke worked Monday-Thursday so we didn't do like anything those days...cause I'm to the point in pregnancy where the idea of taking out the 2 kids by myself is beyond tiring to think about. They are great kids, but hey..they are kids..and act like them. :) Friday we chilled around for a while, went to Target to buy Olivia some shirts and some shorts...she only had one pair of shorts that fit, and only 3 short sleeve tops...so we knew it was time. Thankfully Target has awesomely priced clothing and we mananged to get her 3 more tops and 2 pairs of shorts for 13.00's! Then went grocery shopping..which even with our Publix subs and a few random house cleaning items our total was still under 150!! So all in all, it felt good to be thrifty this week. Saturday we just hung out did some house work..Then Sat. night Luke's old friend from Belize came over to hang for a bit..Sunday we did nothing! haha...I cleaned some, got a nice shower without children interrupting and made a huge batch of potato soup for dinner, which all the leftovers got put in the freezer for after baby meal.

Then we realized it was hot in the house. After convincing Luke to bump the air down a bit(we've kept it higher to save on our bill), it still wasn't cool...come to find out, a wire had blown in our unit and was flipping our breaker because of the wire, after talking to Luke's dad, the air conditioning savvy man, Luke cut the wire and was about to re-attach it to the little box its connected to...worked a bit and then blew the wire again...only to learn that oh...its the freakin box! So, we need a new little black box(so a "Sneakers" moment). So Luke's dad said he'd have it fixed for us...yippy! Last night sleeping without air was TORTURE...it wouldn't have been so bad, but our fan only turns on for a remote control and that said controller needs a certain battery..which we didn't have..so NO airflow at all. I don't know how people go without air...I'm too spoiled. Thankfully the kids fans work well, and the down stairs living room fan works well..and its been raining so far this week which has kept it nice and cool... I think Luke felt bad for such a preggy lady in the heat that he went to McDonalds and got us icecream to munch on. (Gotta love cheap icecream!).

Lots of contracting this week...last night I was having them every 2 1/2 minutes for about 30 minutes, then they spaced to every 3 1/2-6 minutes for another 30 minutes or so..then they stopped for the most part. Only coming once in a while. My body is gearing up..but I wonder how long it will gear up for.. haha..I'm 36 weeks today, so we'll see. I'm hoping baby waits till at least 37 weeks. But even if I went full term, its only 4 weeks away...soo exciting! I can't wait to hold this little bit and see what it is...we can't wait to share our excitement with name and gender announcement!