All about Kyleigh

Kyleigh playing peek-a-boo

When we had time off over Christmas break, it seemed like Kyleigh's vocabulary suddenly exploded. She was talking up a storm (some words we understood, but most still sounded like gibberish). Just in the last couple of weeks, it has started again. Now she repeats many of the words we say.

Last night, I picked Kyleigh up from her school (daycare, but we call it school because they do have teaching time already at the age of 2). Since it was a Friday, we had to take home her bedding from naptime and so I had my arms full of a sheet, blanket, her sweater from earlier in the day and her lunch, so I had her hold my hand rather than carrying her. She was such a big girl and walked the whole way to the car and then stood by the door while I opened it up for her. She'd asked for a bottle and so I got her in her car seat and reached into her lunch bag only to find it almost empty. I grabbed one of the bottles that I refill it with and asked Kyleigh to hold the lid for me. She seemed pretty excited to help Mommy (she loves to help!) and I said, "Thank you, sweetie!" She looked up grinned and said, "Tank oo, eetie!" Such a little mimicker!

Today, I got up and needed to work on the mess that is my kitchen and so I put Kyleigh in her high chair for her breakfast and turned on some cartoons (I mean what is a Saturday morning without some cartoons!). Her breakfast consisted of a pretty good size bowl of Honey Nut Cheerio's (without any milk on them), though she did have a bottle of milk to drink. She has also recently found our Pit game that has one of those bell ringers (the kind that Doctor's offices often have on their counter to ding if they aren't around). When I went to put her into her high chair, she saw the Pit game and wanted to hold the bell. So she was dinging it. When I got her the cereal, she put it aside into one of the cup holders on the high chair tray and started eating.

This freed me up to wash some dishes and load my dishwasher. I was almost done with the dishes I was working on when she decided she was "All done!" (this she says very clearly). I guess she didn't think I heard her (although I can see her the whole time from the sink and knew that she thought she was finished), so the next thing I knew she was pushing the bell and saying "All done" as she pushed it. Too funny!

I had one last big pot to do that takes up the whole entire sink, so I wanted to get that one washed and out of the way. I was finishing that up when I heard what I thought sounded like, "big mess!". I wasn't too concerned because she'd only had dry cheerio's and that doesn't take much to clean up. Shortly after hearing that, I was trying to rinse off the big pot and had to use the sprayer when I sprayed it all over me (this is pretty normal for me when I do dishes). I rinsed it all off, turned on the dishwasher and then headed out to see what "big mess" she'd made. Well, she wasn't joking there were cheerio's everywhere on the floor. I said, "I see you weren't kidding about the big mess." She pointed at my shirt and said, "Mommy, mess!"

I went into my room to get a dry shirt on and came back out and started picking up the Cheerio's. She told me again that she was "All done!" and I told her I was trying to pick up the mess, I believe my exact words went something like "Kyleigh made a mess and I'm trying to get it cleaned up." Next thing I know, she starts giggling and saying, "Mommy made a mess! Mommy made a mess!" over and over. I said, "No, Mommy didn't make the mess. Kyleigh made the mess." She thought this was pretty funny and just kept laughing and saying "Mommy made a mess!"

After getting the mess cleaned up and then vacuuming the floor, I finally got Kyleigh out of her high chair. She went to play for a little bit and then looked like she was making her "going to the bathroom" face. Shortly after that she came over and wanted to sit on my lap and watch cartoons together (something we do frequently). I decided to check her pants and sure enough, she was stinky. I went into her room getting ready to change her diaper and she went and grabbed her "puppy" that talks to her (It's a Fisher Price Learn and Play puppy, I think). She was pushing the buttons on her puppy while I changed her diaper and the puppy said, "You're wonderful!" and she said, "I know!" I had to try so hard not to laugh.

I think she is pretty wonderful, but I didn't know she agreed! Life with Kyleigh is so much fun and I'm so blessed to be her Mommy.

Losing my job...and the aftermath:

I have been so bad about keeping everybody updated on here, but part of the reason I wasn't writing was because we didn't have anything finalized and I didn't want to jump the gun and write about something that wasn't going to even happen. So after months of not writing...I'm back - for now!

On Tuesday, February 28, 2012, I went into work like I'd been doing every Tuesday since the school year had started back up. Things were finally settling down and I was finally getting things all caught up from surviving another year of what we called "busy season". Since I handled 8 different national accounts for The Salvation Army, we were always bombarded by donations that needed to be put into the database over the holiday's. As soon as Thanksgiving rush would get over Christmas would hit. As soon as Christmas would get over end of year gifts were sent in to try to get their final tax deductions. It was a crazy time of year and it was finally coming to a close. Those things that had been put aside because they weren't as important were finally getting some attention.

Every Tuesday, I would go into work and work like a crazy person because I only had one day in the office per week. The other four I was able to work from home and watch my baby girl. So like every Tuesday, I was trying to get as much done as possible of things that had to be done in the office. Around 3:30, I received a phone call from our HR VP and was asked to come to her office for a little bit. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out if I'd done anything to anybody. I couldn't come up with anything, so figured that I'd just go see what was up.

I entered into her office and saw that my boss was already sitting in there (at this point, he didn't come in on Tuesday's so I was kind of surprised to see him). As many of you already know, I was told that they were downsizing my department and that my services were no longer needed. I could take my time clearing out what little stuff I still had in the office and say goodbye to people if I wanted, but I was no longer an employee.

I guess you could probably say I was in shock. I couldn't believe that they were letting me go. Who was going to take care of my clients - no longer my concern. I showed my boss where everything was and where I was at for everything because I wanted to make sure that my clients wouldn't suffer.

That first night, I couldn't sleep. It was the first night in a long time that Kyleigh actually fell asleep on time and slept the night. That night she would have been a welcome distraction from the lack of sleep and the tossing and turning that took place with me.

The next day was so long! I was so used to our schedule and me being busy while Kyleigh played quietly by herself that I didn't know what to do. I played with her, but the day just seemed to drag. I normally looked forward to her naps since that was when I could get the most done on my work, but did she really need to sleep that long? I needed something to do.

Kyleigh started to get really fussy and I could tell that my being down was making her upset. I told her that God was in control and He knew what He was doing and He would take care of us. That became my mantra over the next few days. After the first two days, I started to see what a blessing it was. I actually had time to do things I'd been neglecting. I actually got to hang out with my adorable and incredibly smart little girl. Not just watch her while I worked, but interact with her - all day!

Like I said, I really was only down for a couple of days. But the more I told Kyleigh that God was in control the more I really started believing it. The more I started thinking that maybe this was God's way of pushing us over the edge to trust Him completely and His way of showing us He had something else for us now. Maybe, just maybe our time in Pennsylvania was finally drawing to a close.

Lessons learned (or a reminder) from a dirty, old fan...

It was such a gorgeous day out this past Saturday that I decided to try to get some spring cleaning done at my house while Kyleigh was taking a nap. A couple of things you should know about Kyleigh if you don't already - she is an incredibly light sleeper and she has super sonic ears. This translates into the house needing to stay quiet while she naps. Fortunately, our house has three floors. So while Kyleigh is asleep on the top floor I can make as much noise in the basement.

I decided to start in what I find to be one of the dirtiest corners of our den - the corner by the door out to our backyard. It was incredibly dusty and dirty in that little corner so I began to dust and go through the little cupboard we have over there - trying to throw out things we really don't need. Once I threw out what we didn't need and organized what we decided to keep I had quite a bit of extra space in the little cupboard.

Now I'm one of those people that loves to "hide" things in cupboards or drawers as much as possible. So, I was trying to decide what to put in the cupboard while still having it close by to grab if I needed it. I decided that the majority if not all of the dog toys could go in the cupboard - my two dogs rarely play with any toys they are too fascinated with Kyleigh now. Then I found a dirty fan that was sitting by the cupboard for when it gets super warm (which until this week it hadn't been!).

Since I'd just taken the time to clean out the cupboard and had wiped everything down there was no way I wanted to put that dusty, dirty fan in my clean cupboard. I mentioned to Jon that I wondered if it could be opened up and cleaned out and a few short minutes later he had the fan opened up as much as it could be.

After getting a rag and water and trying to clean it in my den while getting dirt over everything, I decided to move it into the bathroom over the sink. After a few minutes of brushing the dirt off with an old toothbrush and using the rag to get everything off, my fan looked pretty good!

So the lessons learned...I'm getting there! While I was finishing up the last of the fan cleaning, I looked into the area with the motor and saw how dirty it still looked (not that I could do anything about that). Outwardly, my fan looked/still looks so pretty and clean. But inwardly, my fan was so ugly and dirty. I think by now you probably get where I'm going with this.

It made me stop and think about how so many times in our lives we clean up so well - whether it is to go to church, or just to talk with friends, colleagues, you name it. While the inside of us is still so dirty. We haven't taken the time that we need to have God clean out our bad thoughts, our meanness, our selfishness - the list could go on and on. Unlike my fan that still has a dirty inside, we don't have to remain dirty on the inside! God wants us to be clean all the time, by constantly confessing our sin. He wants us to live lives that our free from the guilt and the sin that we get caught up in so much of the time.

I know it is so much easier to have the facade that everything is clean on the inside - we know how to talk the talk and walk the walk - at least on the outside but God knows what is in our hearts. And can I go a step further and say that especially if you are a parent, your little ones are learning from you and they probably unwittingly see a lot more of what is inside your heart than what you think. It is so easy to put a show on for others when you just see them every once in awhile, but it is so much harder to put a show on all of the time around your family - which is why it is so important to have your heart clean daily so that you don't have to put a show on!

I also know we are humans and even when we are constantly seeking God and His will and trying to live a godly life that we are going to slip up - it happens! Fortunately, we can start the process all over and ask for forgiveness and keep on trying to live our lives for God.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. So, what turned into a simple spring cleaning - which by the way was all I got done that day, turned into a valuable reminder to me on how we need to constantly keep our hearts clean and seek God daily!

Promise Me This by Cathy Gohlke

 

Have you been looking for a book that you have trouble tearing yourself away from? Or have you been looking for a book that is a work of fiction, but ties together the fiction story with true life events? What about a book that you will feel like you are right there with the characters - sharing in their joys and their sorrows? Or maybe you've been looking for a book that will show you just how much God loved us and that His Son sacrified everything for us so that we could have eternal life? If any of these reasons resonates with you, then be sure to read this wonderfully written book by Cathy Gohlke.

I've always been fascinated with historical fiction. Some of my favorite events and time periods to read about are the Civil War, the sinking of the Titanic, World War I and World War II. This book doesn't touch on the Civil War or World War II, but it encaptures what life would have been like for the survivors of the Titanic all the way through World War I.

This book begins with Michael Dunnagan - a young boy, who has been badly mistreated - trying to escape from his current life situation. He boards the Titanic before it is even taking passengers and stows away until it ports in Southhampton where its journey is to begin. Once in Southhampton, he meets Owen Allen who is preparing to sail to America onboard the Titanic so that he can hopefully find a better place for him and his little sister Annie with relatives in New Jersey. Owen takes poor Michael under his wing and for the week he has remaining in Southhampton feeds him and gives him work. Annie remains in England until Owen has enough money to pay for her to come over to New Jersey.

Michael decides to once again flee his current situation and stows aboard the Titanic for a second time. Also for a second time he finds himself being rescued by Owen Allen. The two become like brothers in a short time and Owen feels the prompting of God to teach Michael everything he knows about plants and gardening which is what he was going over to America to help with. Since we all know the story of the Titanic, I'm sure you can imagine that this story isn't going to end well.

Owen sacrifices his life so that Michael can start his life over with Owen's family. Here we see the beautiful picture of what Jesus did for us! Owen makes Michael promise that he will save money and bring Annie over as soon as possible.

Without giving the whole book away - Michael works to bring Annie over, but many years pass before he is able to do so. This book shares the story of Michael learning to get over "survivors guilt" and Annie to stop blaming Michael for her beloved brother's death. They start to write to each other and it continues throughout World War I.

So much of this book really tugged at my heartstrings. It was just so beautifully written detailing the feelings that must have been going on for those that survived the sinking of the Titanic to the details of what it must have been like to live in Europe during World War I. I really felt like I was right there! I have not read a book that I enjoyed this much in a very long time! If you ever have the chance to read this book, I highly recommend that you grab a copy and read it. You will not be disappointed!

I'd never read any works by Cathy Gohlke, so you can imagine my surprise that this book was such a great read! I'm looking forward to reading more books from her. If you'd like to learn more about the author and other books that she has written or is planning on writing, you can visit her website here.

In closing, I did want to mention that I received this book for free for an honest review through Tyndale House Publishers, you can find out more information about them by clicking on this link. I was under no obligation to give a positive review, though I did absolutely love this book!

If you would like to read the first chapter of this book for yourself, you can click here.

Valentines Day 2012

Like every Tuesday since the school year started, I had to go into work today. This is really not a bad thing, I actually enjoy my one day a week being in the world of adults - though I often find myself interacting with them like I do with my child, like making funny noises when describing things. I always go into work without any worries because my pastor's wife watches Kyleigh and I know she is getting the most wonderful, personal care and she gets to play with her friend Clayton (or as Kyleigh says, "ay-ton.") So like every other Tuesday, I went into work.

I had a pretty normal day - staying super busy from the time I got there to the time I left. Today was a little different though. I got the most adorable picture of Kyleigh sent to me from Sheri. You can see if you agree. :)

And now we reach the real reason I decided to write today. I can't believe how big my little girl is getting. This last week was a rather rough week - Kyleigh was sick from Wednesday until Sunday. Not much sleep was had by anyone (well I'm not sure how much Jon was affected). Since she was running a really high fever for a couple of days, I took her to the Doctor on Friday. Turns out my little girl had gained almost another whole pound since a few weeks ago.

She's still such a peanut compared to other little ones her age, but at 14.5 months she weighed in at 17 lbs 10 oz which is huge because at her 12 month check up she weighed in at 15 lbs 4 oz.

My little girl is also getting so talkative and really seems to know how to get her point acrossed. I'm sure most people in a relationship did all sorts of "special" things today. Our "special" was picking up our daughter, going home briefly to unload the car of my work, picking up our other car from Jon's parents' house, dropping off our family car to get the muffler fixed and then getting McDonald's on our way home. Now that Kyleigh eats solids we generally get her the McBites and some fries. She loves that she can eat food like Mommy and Daddy. Since Kyleigh and Daddy got the McBites Shareable size, I gave Kyleigh to Jon so they could share their meal. She was slowing down on eating and starting to goof off. We'd asked her if she wanted anymore fries or chicken "cluck, cluck" and she shook her head no. A few minutes later though, I heard her saying "I wan cluck cluck" as she pointed to where her pieces of chicken were sitting. I couldn't believe how clear it was. Though Jon had no idea what she had said - I guess I just hang out with her a lot!

Other recent conversations from Kyleigh include:

Bedtime delay tactics:

•  As Mommy was holding her and rocking her back and forth after a diaper change and a bottle (all possible needs taken care of): Kyleigh looked up at Mommy and said "cack-er." This is comical to me because I was the queen at these kind of delay tactics. Though I always thought my parents were having a "party" after I went to bed which was why I'd try to stay up.
• A couple of weeks later: same scenario. Kyleigh pointed at her eye and said "eye." Mommy said, "Yes, that is your eye. But you need to close your eyes so that you can go to sleep." Kyleigh then pointed at her ear and said "ear." Mommy said, "Yes, that is your ear. I know you can hear me and know that it is time for your eyes to close so you can go to sleep." As you can guess this just started the pointing at her eye again. We did this a couple of times with her pointing at her eye and saying what it was and then me telling her to close her eyes and then her pointing at her ear. Finally I figured she'd delayed enough and put her in her crib for the night.

Playtime:

•  Generally when I'm working, Kyleigh is in her pack-n-play playing with her toys. Her most recent "hobby" is standing up and walking along the edge as she knocks on the wall right next to her pack-n-play. I typically will respond with a knock, knock...who's there? Of course, it started out that I rarely got a response other than a quizzical look. She surpised me the other day by saying "Ky-ee!"
   

Kyleigh is still not walking -  though for the past 7 months she has been pulling herself up on furniture and walking along it. She was standing alone the other day until she realized what was going on and then sat down. Everytime I try to get her to walk to Mommy, she gives me a huge smile and shakes her head no.

She is also growing into a tease! She loves to put her cracker in the face of the dogs and then pull it away. I think she has discovered this gets the best response. She has tried all sorts of things like her toys, their toys, her felt cookies that her Aunt Missy made her, etc. You can tell she is trying to find out what gets them super excited. Once she finds something that they want, she keeps waving it at them and when they try to get it she pulls away and laughs at them. The dogs are so good with her, even when they are trying to grab food from her!

Miscellaneous things I love about being Kyleigh's Mommy:

• I absolutely love getting her up from nap time. I'm usually working when I hear her little voice through the monitor. Sometimes, I can go right up to get her. Other times I'm in the middle of something and have to wait a few minutes to get her. It doesn't seem to matter though. When I reach the top of the stairs, she starts jumping up and down laughing and continues to chatter away. I guess she is telling me about her dreams. :)
• I love how a boring day can be brightened by her little voice and laugh.
• She is such a happy baby - most of the time!

I'm so glad that I have my little Valentine to enjoy! I'm hoping that I'll be able to get some Valentine pictures of her, though they obviously will be a little after Valentines Day.



Kyleigh want a cracker! and counting to three

Quick little story or two:

Kyleigh was eating her lunch today and didn't seem to want any more milk or other food. I had told her once lunch was over she needed to take her nap. I had just cleaned her all up and was getting ready to get her out of her high chair when she banged on her tray and said, "cack-er". Being the smart mom that I am, I interpreted this to be cracker and gave her one. She was pretty excited that I knew what she was saying. Can't believe how much my little girl is starting to talk!

I know I said this the other day, but Kyleigh appears to be able to count to three as well. She doesn't quite get the fact that it is counting, but does know two comes after one and three comes after two. The reason I don't think she quites understands it is because when we were putting on her socks yesterday I said, "one sock. What sock is this?" And she said, "two and three" which in Kyleigh language sounds like "do and dree".

Kyleigh's Life on December 28th, 2011

Kyleigh is at such a fun stage right now. Today we were watching Baby Genius video's that just came in the mail. Kyleigh was watching one about Animals. They were showing all sorts of video of butterflies when I looked to see Kyleigh raising her arms straight up in the air above her head and then lowering them out. I wasn't sure what she was doing until I realized that she was imitating the movements of the butterflies.

Also, today when I was finishing up changing her diaper I was counting what snap I was on with her onesie (something I've done for almost every diaper change from day one). I said, "one" and then she said "two". I told her "very good. What comes after two?" She grinned and said "tree." We practiced a few more times and then went about our day. This evening when Jon got home (many hours later), he was showing me something we got in the mail today. Kyleigh wanted to see it and so he gave it to her. He said something about it being a little baby dumbbell. I grabbed it and showed Kyleigh how to use her "dumbbell" (it's really a part for our new trailer hitch for our car). I said, "and one, and two, and Kyleigh what comes next?" She said, "tree". Jon was grinning and I said "did you hear her?" He was like "yeah, but did she really know what came next?" I was like, "yep we practiced this afternoon. She knew that three was the next number." My smart little girl!

Totally unrelated, but wanted to remember later on at this point in Kyleigh's life she has 7 teeth though I noticed number 8 is poking through again today - maybe it will actually stay this time.

Kyleigh at 12 Months

I can't believe that my little girl is already a year old. It seems like just yesterday I was delivering her. Already in the short time she has been with us, she has been such a delight.

I'm not planning on writing a whole lot...I just mainly want to start jotting down a little each month about what she is up to developmentally.

Kyleigh is still not walking - which is totally fine with me. She does walk along the couch or furniture as long as she can have at least one hand holding on to things, she cruises right along.

These days, she tries to imitate pretty much everything she hears. Just a few minutes ago she was playing with her toy from Amma and Papa that is about sea animals. Pretty sure she just tried to say dolphin and turtle.



She currently does say:
Mama
Dada
Papa
No
Dog
Woof-woof
Duck
Quack Quack
Ky (short for Kyleigh)

She also has picked up on some sign language - though we didn't teach it to her. She rubs her belly for please and also raises her hands up in the air when she is done with her food.

She turns out the lights, claps her hands (especially when we praise her), high fives, waves and blows kisses.

It's a good thing she catches on to things quickly because if she didn't I think we'd have a lot of meltdowns on our hands. She has quite the little temper.

It is so much fun seeing her learn something new, she gets so excited - especially when she says new words or repeats after someone. You can tell she is really wanting to be able to communicate with us.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll try to add stuff every now and then.

Kyleigh's First Year in Review

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Book Review - Deadly Ties by Vicki Hinze

I had a really hard time getting into this book. I felt that at the beginning there were a lot of characters introduced in a short amount of time and it was somewhat confusing to follow which character was who. That being said, once I got into it a little bit, I had a hard time putting this book down.

This book follows the story of Lisa Harper who has had a very difficult life and through the trials she has endured she learns that God is faithful and is always there for her. During her time of trials, she meets Mark Taylor who has also been through many trials and together they learn to trust God even more. This book is excellent in taking the characters and showing how the hard things they had to endure have molded them into greater use for God.

This book was a good reminder of what a great God we serve and how He uses each of us with our own unique abilities and trials to further serve Him in a great way!

I received this book for free from the publisher to review, and am in no way obligated to give a positive review. In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Book Review - Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to make a Difference by Max Lucado

When I first picked up this book I wasn't sure what to expect. I mean who doesn't want to live a life that is successful and that will live on even after you do? And as this book's title says, "Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make a Difference" you would expect to read about how you could do just that.

This book takes a whole new look at ways that you can live unselfishly and thus give you a way to make a difference in this world. Of course, many people automatically think of giving to charities as a means to this end and once you've given then your social obligation is done. But this book gives so many more ways to reach out to others, to show them Christ's love, to truly make a difference on the poor and needy in this world. If you are looking for a book "feel good about yourself" book, then skip this book. But, if you are looking for a book that will challenge the way you view life and others then by all means this book is for you.

Another great thing about this book is that it has a study guide that goes along with each chapter. This is extremely helpful if you are reading this book through in a group, though could be used effectively for personal use as well.

I received this book for free from the publisher in conjuction with the BookSneeze program, www.booksneeze.com. I am not obligated to give a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner - Book Review

I had never heard of Susan Meissner before, so I wasn't sure how I would like her book "Lady in Waiting." I must say I was pleasantly surprised. From the moment I started reading this book I found it hard to put down. The book says that it is considered contemporary fiction and while it does have elements of contemporary fiction, it also ties in a very good historical fiction story as well. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best of both worlds. You have a very interesting contemporary story that also has a very compelling historical story as well.

Modern day Jane has just had her husband leave her and is dealing with handling the loss of their relationship after twenty-two years. She feels like everything is out of her control and must learn to wait and take control of her life. Historical Jane is essentially a political pawn and learns the same lesson. As the back of the book states, "Love is a choice you make every day."

I really enjoyed reading this book and felt like I could probably relate more with modern day Jane than with the historical Jane. Part of this could be that even though the story in the past was about Jane, it was written from the stand point of her seamstress Lucy Day. This book goes back and forth between the two time periods, but does so in a very interesting way. While sometimes this method of storytelling can detract from the story, in this book it enhances the overall story. If you are looking for an interesting book that will keep you wanting to know what will happen next, this is the book to read.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

BookSneeze Book Review - Love and Respect for a Lifetime

I recently received a complimentary copy of the book "Love and Respect for a Lifetime" written by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs, so that I could review it for the BookSneeze Review Program. This book is a beautiful hard copy book that is perfect for giving to any married couple. I didn’t realize that I was reviewing a condensed version of the book until I received this book in the mail. Because it is condensed, it is a very quick and easy read. I received it on Monday night and started reading it right away and managed to finish it up the very next night. This book touches on the differences between men and women's communication styles and how these can lead to conflicts. The solution is so simple, yet if you have ever been in a relationship you probably have found at one time or another can be so hard. The front of the book simply states the solution: “Women absolutely need love. Men absolutely need respect. It’s as simple and as complicated as that…” While a lot of the book seemed like a no-brainer to me, it was helpful in opening my eyes on ways that I may not always say or do things that make my husband believe I respect him. In the same token, it also equally focuses on ways that husbands may act that makes the wife now believe that he still loves her. Overall it focuses on the fact that when we have a right relationship with God, it helps us have a right relationship with our spouses.

The House Saga continues

July 14, 2010 – Wednesday

We stopped by our house on our way home to see if the contractors had had any issues with any of our stuff being in the way. It was like going to a totally different house. All of the carpet has been torn out except for the living room (which is where the majority of our stuff that wasn’t able to be put into storage yet is sitting). A lot of the ceilings have been torn out and paint and wallpaper has been torn off the majority of the walls. I was amazed at how much work they got done in just a day! Hopefully we can get the rest of our stuff out soon, so that way they can get everything dried out easier.

July 15, 2010 – Thursday

Jon was able to leave work early so that Marc and him could finish up the roof by putting up the rubber sealant. Unfortunately, like so many other things, this didn't go as planned either.

When they got up to the roof and took the tarp off to begin unrolling the rubber sealant over the whole roof they discovered that all of the OSB that they had just put down is completely ruined and would need to be replaced. Liz and I were supposed to take supper over to them around 5:30pm, but Jon called and had me check the weather since it was supposed to rain the next day. If they had some more time, they were going to try to fix it, but if the rain was supposed to come early they would just put the tarp back down and secure it better than before.

When I checked the weather it said we were supposed to get rains starting at 7am and going until 3pm. Jon decided that we'd better go to Lowe's to get more supplies to make sure the tarp would stay put. So, the boys came to pick Liz and me up and we headed to Lowe's.

We got back to the house around 6:30 I think and it took them until almost 9pm to get everything secured. Hopefully it should stay put because they were able to tie boards to the ends of the tarp and hang them over the sides of the house to give extra weight to keep it from coming up.

July 16, 2010 - Friday

Well if the rains came, we never saw them. It appears that once again the weather people were wrong. Needless to say, since we have been going full steam ahead for so long that we have been absolutely exhausted!

Jon and I were finally able to get a little relaxing in - watching TV and then headed to bed early (9pm).

July 17, 2010 - Saturday

I am home today by myself. Jon and his parents had to get up early this morning to head over to Marc and Liz's house to put hardwood floors down in their house. I've been able to get some more laundry done and organize the laundry that has already been washed so that everything isn't as chaotic. I can't wait until things are organized.

Still no word on the insurance, the contractors were supposed to come out yesterday to see how the drying process was going. I don't think they actually did end up coming out though.

We were able to find out a little more information yesterday on our insurance, like our claims number, our claims adjuster's name and phone number and how much our deductible is.

Please keep us in your prayers!

I know some people will find this next prayer request a little bizarre, but please pray for our dog Alex, the last couple of days he hasn't been eating and he's been really lethargic. A couple of nights ago he had a rough night of throwing up and he's barely eaten anything since then.

The Demise of our House

Friday, July 9, 2010

Friday we went to work exhausted, praying that the tarp would hold or that the weather people would be wrong and the rains wouldn't touch our house. Well, the weather people were wrong, but not about the rain. They were wrong because they didn't see that we would first have high winds and then torrential downpours for most of the afternoon. When we got home, we found out that we really didn't have much of a house to come home to.

Evidently (after talking to our neighbors) we found out that we had really heavy winds that must have whipped the tarp away from the roof even with bricks and tape and boards there to hold it all down. Since the roof was no longer protected when the rains began they just started going inside our house.

We went into our house on Friday night, only to see a stream of water coming down our stairway and water just seeping down the walls. We ran up to our bedroom to discover that everything up there was completely wet except for a small area on the far side of our room closest to the windows. Fortunately we had recently purchased about 10 plastic bins to start organizing our belongings, so Jon grabbed those and we started using those as buckets to catch the water that was pouring into our house. I tried to dry and then cover up our bedroom furniture the best that I could so that it wouldn't be completely ruined. Depending on the room plaster or ceiling tiles had fallen off the ceiling. All of our clothes in our closet were soaking wet. We went into the kitchen to see the ceiling tiles really full of water and a huge puddle of water just standing in the center of the floor. After going downstairs we discovered that the room that we had redone in the fall was pretty much untouched except that water was pooling on the hardwood laminate floor from the other room. Jon told me to call my parents to have them start praying that the rain would stop soon, so I called them quickly and explained what was going on.

It was amazing to see how God kept the things that were really important to us (i.e. pictures that can't be replaced, or furniture or gifts that were from my grandma that had more of a sentimental value) untouched. There could be water streaming just 1/2 an inch away, but those items weren't even touched! My piano, our couches, even our electronics (except for Jon's computer) weren't even wet.

While I called the insurance company, Jon called his dad to get some extra help. He also got a shop vac running to get some of the excess water out. He was able to call his mom to see if she could pick up a u-haul on her way home. When I got off the phone with the insurance company my mother-in-law had called and let me know that the U-haul place had closed at 4:30pm that day. By now it was 6:20pm to 6:30pm, she knew that they usually went to a place in Moon Township and suggested I try to find out if they were open still because she thought that they might be open until 7pm. Like I said before our electronics were dry, so I was able to grab my laptop and look up their information. I discovered that they were open until 8pm, so I called her back to let her know. Since she was still traveling home, she told me to find out if they even had any trucks available.

I called the U-haul place and found out that the largest truck they had was a 26 foot truck, but that any truck we rented that night would need to be back by 7am the next morning. I said that was fine, we had to get our furniture out immediately and we'd get it back. I called my mother-in-law back to let her know that we had a truck, someone just needed to go and get it before they closed at 8pm. Since we didn't have any place to put our furniture, she wasn't sure we should get the truck because we'd have no place to put the contents anyway.

So began round two or three depending on how you look at it of phone calls. I called Marianne Ayers (who lives about 6 blocks from our house) to see if they had any space we could use. Her line was busy. I then called Pastor Harrison (who had recently moved into a new house). He answered and I asked him if they had any extra storage at the new house and then explained our predicament. He told me that sorry, they didn't have any extra space because they had someone that had just moved in with them, but that given the circumstances we could use a room or two at the church (which is also a school building).

I called my mother-in-law back to let her know that we had a place to put the contents of the truck, but it needed to be picked up (I think by this time it was about 6:50pm). She was on her way to our house and needed someone to drive the truck, so since Jon's dad was at our house, she picked him up and went to get the truck.

Now that we had a truck and we had a place to put our belongings, we just needed to find people to help out since we were working against the clock. I called Marianne back because she'd called me in the meantime. She offered to go and grab us some supper and to help move things out as long as I could watch her children (an almost three year old and a 1 month old). I said that wouldn't be a problem. Then, she suggested I try to call the Buterbaugh family who also doesn't live far from us to see if they could help out. As I called the Buterbaugh's, their phone was busy. I ended up getting a hold of them and was told that Marianne had already called and told them what was going on, and that Terry (the husband) was changing clothes and could be here in 5 minutes. I told her that we didn't have the truck yet, so if he could come closer to 8 that would be great.

Sometime between all of my phone calls, Jon had called his friend John Duwel and he had said he was going to be coming over right away to help. Around 7:45, everything just started happening at once. Mr. Buterbaugh came, so I showed him the house and the damage. John Duwel arrived and helped Jon get the ladder up to the roof so that they could fix the tarp and get it back in place (meanwhile it was still raining). When I was done showing Mr. Buterbaugh the house and came out the back door, the truck had just arrived. I saw someone get out of their car and come up to the house with a tool box in hand. It was Pastor Harrison, he had brought his wife and some other lady that I never did catch her name. Marianne showed up and brought food for us. People just started going and getting shop vac's and garbage bags. I had had a chance to call my friend Amber and she and her husband were on their way.

Jon's mom and I left to take our dogs over to her house, so that they would be out of the way and safe. So, by the time we got back a lot of the truck was already packed up and more people had shown up to help. I think we probably had about 12 to 15 people helping us get our belongings out in a timely manner. Amber and Joe had arrived and Amber was getting ready to leave to come to our work (Jon, Amber and I all work at the same place) to get boxes to help out with the packing.

I went with Amber to get the boxes. By the time we got back from that the whole house was pretty much packed up (the things that we really needed to get out that is). By the time the house was packed up as much as we could, it was already going on 11pm (I think, maybe midnight - I was so tired by that point and I wasn't even allowed to help with anything physically).

We then went over to the church to unload the truck. Amazingly it only took about 40 minutes to unload. While we were finishing up unloading the truck, Mark Ayers was finally able to come and help (he'd been at work and had just gotten off). He brought his truck and so we loaded up all the bags of wet clothes and towels, sheets, bedding, etc and dropped it off at my in-law's.

Jon and his dad were still gone because they were taking the truck back the U-haul rental place. I had to stay up to get some laundry done since all we had were the clothes on our backs and they were soaking wet. By the time Jon got home (to the apartment in Jon's parents' basement that we are now staying at) and we were able to get to bed it was 2:30am.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

We were supposed to get up at a decent hour so that we could work on clearing out the house, but we were so exhausted we ended up sleeping until 10:30am. We never did end up working on the house that day though we went over and emptied the dehumidifiers. While we were there Jon found my bag that had my brush and spray gel, so I was finally able to do my hair. The majority of my day was done doing laundry in which I probably did at least 12 to 15 loads, if not more.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Before our house drowned, Jon was supposed to help Marc and Liz butcher their chickens on Saturday, but this was pushed back until Sunday. Jon was able to help them get their chickens butchered in the afternoon and I was able to get a lot more laundry done.

Monday, July 12, 2010

We debated about going to work since we had been told that the insurance adjustor would be contacting us that day. Jon had to go in to work because he's still incredibly busy, so I went too since even if they did call I wouldn't have a vehicle to go meet them. They never did call. We found out later that somehow they had Jon's parents number listed as our home phone, so the contractor had called there. Jon was able to call him back and got things set up for a meeting on Tuesday.

We soon discovered that while we had quite a bit of our things needed for daily living (considering the circumstances) that we still had a bunch of stuff we needed to find, or else go to the store and buy replacements (which we really didn't want to spend much money at this time). So after work, we got the key to the storage area and headed over to find the items needed.

Surprisingly, we were able to find almost everything that we were looking for. I was able to find my make-up, some contacts, my shoes (I only had a pair of flip-flops that I had been wearing on Friday and a pair of dressier shoes that I don't wear very often) and some other things that I didn't figure I would see for quite some time.

We really needed to find the remote to the fan in our bedroom and even found that. The only thing we weren't able to find was our DVD/VCR player remote. But, we already had our DVD/VCR remote from the player that had been in our bedroom which we found. So, we were able to swap those out so we could get things set up.

We even made it to the grocery store and got some food.

I told Jon while we were in the storage room and while we were finding things that we needed that I didn't feel quite as homeless as I did before.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

We went into work since we wouldn't be meeting the contractor until around 10:30am to 11am. Around 10:30, Jon found me and said we needed to leave right then because the contractor had just called and was headed over to our house.

We got to the house and were able to empty the dehumidifiers while we waited for the contractor to arrive. The house reeks, so I was headed to the front door to open it up to get some fresh air in the house, when the contractor came walking up the stairs. As he came in he told us that he rarely ever reads the file before he meets people, but for someone reason he decided to read ours and that he felt really badly for us since we were trying to make the house better and just weren't able to get the roof done in time.

We gave him a tour of our house and he was just dumbfounded by the damage. He then told us that the insurance had coded our claim wrong that evidently they didn't realize the extent of damage (although both of us had talked to the insurance and told them that every floor is flooded - with standing water, etc). So, we should have been coded under an emergency status and then they would have been out on Saturday to start drying everything out.

Evidently, because everything is still so wet, he wasn't able to do an estimate. He said the first step right now was to get huge dehumidifiers in and industrial fans to get everything as dry as possible (even with their equipment it would probably take about 4 to 5 days to dry everything out). While everything is getting dried out, his crew is going to come in to tear out all the carpets and flooring, they'll have to check out all the ceilings and insulation as well as walls. It sounded to us that in order to even give a proper estimate they are basically going to gut our house first.

He told us that he wanted to get this moving right away since we'd already lost 3 and 1/2 days due to the insurance coding error. We needed to get the rest of our stuff out as much as possible, or at least for now move things into a room that didn't get as much damage.

So, we when we got home from work (by the way, when I say home now, I mean the little apartment we are staying at because our house does NOT feel like our home), we quickly took care of the dogs and ate some food. We got over to our house around 6:30 and worked until after midnight. Liz, my in-law's and Jon and I were trying to get everything taken care of.

When we left the house last night, we had gotten a lot accomplished, but still have a lot to try to get out before this whole process is through.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

So here we are today absolutely exhausted! At this point, we would covet your prayers that the insurance will cover all of this damage, whether that would be to fix everything or to declare it a total loss. Either way, would be fine with us. Our concern at this point is that because we were in the process of redoing the roof that they will just not cover anything. Please pray for this situation. We would definitely appreciate as many prayers as possible about all of this.

Update on Baby Walker and Roofing Project

So here is the latest news about the baby:

I had my ultrasound on July 6th and they were still unable to tell us what the gender of the baby was. My monthly check-up was the next day on the 7th, so I went to that and was told not to be alarmed or worried, but that my amniotic fluid is normal but on the low side of normal. They want to keep an eye on it, so they scheduled an ultrasound for July 20th at 12:45pm. So, we get another chance to find out what the baby's gender is!

Update on life in general:

Saturday, July 3, 2010 to Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Starting July 3rd (the beginning of a 90 degree + heat wave), Jon, his dad and his brother were all working on re-roofing our house. We had all sorts of delays. The first started on Friday, July 2nd when Jon and I got off of work and went to pick up all the roofing supplies at Lowe's. We were working our late week (so 10:30 to 7), but since it was a holiday weekend, we were allowed to leave a little bit early. We went home and took care of the dogs and then headed to Lowe's. We needed to rent a truck to get everything home. When we got to Lowe's, it was about 7:30, so I got in line at the customer service desk and waited for 15 minutes. When I finally got to speak with someone about renting their truck I was told "sorry, but we can't rent it out past 7pm, 7:15 at the latest." I asked how soon the following morning we'd be able to rent the truck and was informed that the store opened at 7am, so if we were there then, we could rent it right away.

I went in search of Jon to tell him not to even bother grabbing supplies because we couldn't get the truck until the next day anyway. We looked through Lowe's and Jon got an idea of what was needed and where it was located and then we went home.

The next morning, Jon got up and went to Lowe's (which is about 1/2 an hour away) with his dad. When they went to rent the truck they were told, "sorry, but the truck went in for maintenance this morning." So, they had to go to another Lowe's that is in the opposite direction from our house and is also about 30 minutes from our house. Needless to say, this was a pretty big setback already since we were planning on already having the supplies on Friday night so they could get started first thing on Saturday morning.

Shortly after getting started on the roof, Marc and Jon realized that there were a lot more layers up there to get rid of to get to the tresses than they initially thought. So, began the setbacks. Other setbacks included, but were not limited to, finding out that there was a metal sheeting put over a chimney that was no longer in use and that started to crumble when the sheeting was removed. This needed to be fixed by going and buying mortar and fixing the chimney. Then as they were nearing completion of the roof, they discovered that the eave at the back of the house was completely rotted, so would also need to be completely replaced. While this project was going on, Jon noticed that he was starting to have a hard time gripping and holding anything with his right hand. Due to setback after setback, Jon had to take Wednesday off of work to try to get everything done. That night, Jon and I went to a Med Express clinic to have his wrist checked out. He was told that he had tendonitis.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Thursday he had to be back at work because of all of the work he needed to get done there, so Marc volunteered to call off his job and work on the house with his friend Tim. They weren't able to get as much accomplished as they hoped because it was the worst day of combined heat and humidity (not to mention by this time Marc had put in about five 13 hour days previously). We really needed to get the roof completed that night because we were supposed to be getting scattered thunderstorms the next day (Friday). When we got home, Jon started helping Marc and Tim with finishing up the roof. Because it would still take a lot of time to put the rubber sealant on the roof to seal everything and it was already after 8 pm, Jon and I went to Lowe's to get tarps and tape to put over the roof until the thunderstorms were over. The guys worked until about 10:30 that night and then Jon still needed to clean up the ground, since our dumpster was supposed to be taken the next day. He stayed up until 12:30pm getting everything cleaned up.

I won! I won!

This week at work we've been having Employee Appreciation week. Every year, we have a company picnic where they draw names and employees win all sorts of different prizes. I have been going to these for 4 years now and Jon has been going for 5 years and neither of us have ever won. Until this year...

The planning committee had drawn a ton of names already and if I'm not mistaken my prize was the second to last to be drawn. It was kind of funny because they announced that the next prize was 10 sessions to a tanning salon, since I'm pregnant I was joking around at my table about how that would be the prize I would win since it's the only year I can't use it. Sure enough, my name was called and I was the winner of the 10 sessions of tanning.

I was kind of excited about winning, but also kind of bummed because I can't use the prize anyway. My due date is November 24 of this year and the expiration date on the tanning sessions in December 31, 2010. So, even if I were to have my child on time I would be really hard-pressed to use all 10 sessions up before they expired (pretty sure this would also be the last thing on my mind after giving birth!)

I went to my friend Debbie in Payroll because she had been a part of the planning committee to find out when they were going to publish the list of winners so that I could try to find someone that I could trade prizes with.

Long story short, Debbie found the list and enlisted the help of another HR person Sherri to figure out which people liked to tan and also which ones of those few had won some good prizes. They found a girl that had won the $50 Applebee's gift card and called her up and she said that she'd be happy to trade. Sherri did all the running around of swapping the gifts between the two of us and when she came to give me my Applebee's gift card she told me that the girl had heard that the winner of the tanning package was pregnant, so she was trying to find me anyway to trade. That turned out well! So yay for me! I now get to go to Applebee's!!!

Update on Baby and Our Life in General

So here is the latest news about the baby:

I heard from my doctor this morning and they asked that we re-schedule my ultrasound because a lot of the pictures that they thought would work turned out really blurry because the baby was so active. They also still need more pictures of the heart and the extremities (which we knew this when we left the last ultrasound). My next doctor's appointment is July 7th at 9:30am, but they need to have all of their ultrasound pictures before then, so my new ultrasound time is July 6th at 10:45am. This works out really well for me because I'm already off work that day anyway.

Latest Walker news in general:

This weekend is re-roofing weekend. Please pray that this would go smoothly with little to no mishaps. We were able to get the bulk of our roofing materials delivered to our house on Friday, so we just need to get the last few things at Lowe's this Friday night. I was talking to a friend at work today and she offered to loan us a harness, so I will feel much better about Jon being up on the roof with that. The other thing to pray about is that this would be already completed or pretty close to completion by the time my ultrasound appointment comes because then Jon will be able to go with me (otherwise, he'll be at home trying to finish up the roof).

I think that brings every one up-to-date on the happenings around our house!

Special Prayer Request: Please pray for my brother Tom as well - a few weeks ago he tore his ACL while playing basketball. He is scheduled to have surgery on July 6th at 9:30, so pray that this goes smoothly and that he will have a speedy recovery.

June 24, 2010 The Day We Were Supposed to Find Out What The Baby's Gender is

Well, we had an ultrasound today to find out what the gender of our baby is. The baby is doing very well and is an incredibly active child - though I already knew that, but Jon was able to see the baby in action so that he doesn't just think I'm experiencing gas bubbles. :)

Since our child is so active, they were not able to get adequate pictures of the heart and the baby's left hand - I guess these are necessary for the doctor, so they'll most likely be rescheduling to get these. Not sure when the next ultrasound will be. I'll be having my monthly check-up on July 7th, so I would imagine that is when we'll reschedule the ultrasound.

We are supposed to hear from the radiologist today or tomorrow to find out the baby's size and to either verify the current due date or give us a new one. I think that is all of the new information I have right now. Of course, we were disappointed that we weren't able to find out what the gender is, but at least we get to see the baby again this way. :)

For all of you that are so busy and would love to make good, nutritious meals at home for not a lot of money - this website is for you! I'm so excited I discovered this website today.



This website does all of the planning for you - even tells you approximately how much you'll pay each week if you choose their various store options. I just joined today, but I'm already super excited about making the meals for this week.

For those of you that are trying to lose weight - they even have plans for low-fat, low carb, points system and vegetarian. They even have made the meals kid-friendly and simple to prepare, which is a huge bonus if you are a picky eater like I am!