On Course…

Weeeee’re baaaaack!  And so glad to have hot running water, bathtubs, dishwashers, closets, central A/C and heat, totally enclosed houses….I could go on.  

We were greeted with a biting cold front upon our arrival in the Valley  on Monday night (a little pre-Christmas gift for Abner and I from our heavenly Father).  Today it has finally warmed up, but we’re expecting another front by Sunday.  Yayyyy!  I’ve been grateful for the cooler weather down in Mexico, but it’s really wonderful to actually need to break out the heavy jackets.  

Tuesday I went to get my license renewed.  It expired in November of ‘07, can you believe it???  I’ve felt so…unAmerican…an expired license.  But it’s good again, and I’ll finally have a new picture that (hopefully) won’t make me cringe every time I have to pull it out.

I’ve been doing my walk/run training schedule (thanks, Dawn, for your Go Dawn Go page…so much info I’ve gotten on how to start this thing!).  I’ve decided to create a new tab in my blog (like Dawn’s) called WOG Blog.  WOG stands for Walk + jOG, a combo of the two words.  Anyway, who knows if anyone will care to read it, but Dawn’s inspired me to get going with this, and perhaps one of you lovely readers will be inspired by my humble journey to becoming a runner.

I’m trying to create this post in the play area of Burger King while Melodee and Kaitlyn play with their cousin Brianna.  I’m hoping they’ll tire out and take a nap once we get home.  BK is the only wi-fi place that has kids’ entertainment, and where I can try to put together a sentence with more than 3 words! Ha!

Hope to post more soon, but be patient.  There’s lots of family to visit, activities to do (Christmas anyone?), and personal business to take care of (getting Sophie’s social security card and passport, among other things).  So I’ll write again as soon as we can get back to BK.  Ciao, all!

I’m feeling a little moody tonight.  Not angry…not upset…not frustrated or aggravated…just moody.  I suppose it’s because I’ve been taking stock of a lot of things in my life.  Perhaps I ”should just leave my live stock alone” (as Dawn says, 5 points to the first person to identify this quote).  I have just turned 33 years old and I am discovering some disturbing truths about myself.  Such as:

I still have a lot of issues with confronting people I love about things they do that bother me (confronting in a healthy way).

I still get frustrated too easily by the circumstances of life, and tend to short-circuit when I feel overwhelmed by them.

I don’t have many (or any?) hobbies or pasttimes that I am passionate about.

I sometimes feel that I don’t “know myself” nearly as well as I expected to by this age.

I am a little fearful that I won’t accomplish as much as I’ve dreamed in the time I have left on this earth.

Sigh.  See?  Moody.

I’m not depressed or anything, but I’m having to adjust some of the expectations and beliefs I’ve had about myself and my life.  And that’s not a terrifically comfortable experience.  Marriage, motherhood, and ministry have brought the “scum to the surface,” so to speak, and it saddens me to find that there is so much of it!  Thankfully, I know that God is still doing a work in me; and though I have never had any illusions of being a finished product, I’m glad He is merciful and forgives my overconfidence in myself.  At times I wonder when the refiner’s fire will not be so hot!  Will change, growth, and maturity EVER get easier?  No, I know it won’t.  The heat will just pull up the deeper issues and needs. 

So that’s my “Status” tonight.  Musing on my human-ness, my fallability, and my need for Him.  Tonight I’m feeling the pain.

Ok. So I don’t know how you would actually spell Chris Farley’s word, but you get the drift.  Erica? Dawn?  Help me out!

I am inspired to post some not-so-fabulous pictures that I took of my girlies Wednesday night.  The light was atrocious, the borrowed camera was lame, and the baby was gassy…but I pressed on never-the-less, determined to get some photos of the grandgirls for my mom!  Alas, it was a bit more stressful than I had anticipated.  I had waited for a church night so that all of them would be dressed nicely with their hair done and, hopefully, rested from naps.  Well, they were rested and dressed, but it still was a chore to get them all to cooperate at the same time.  Melodee was in “picture mode” and it took forever for me to get her to give me a real smile; Kaitlyn, as usual, was in constant motion; and Sophie, poor girl, would have random moments of gas-induced-crying and her little face would contort in her discomfort.  I should have just stopped and waited for a Sunday morning or something, when they would look good but the chances of better behaviour (and less gas) would be much better.  But I didn’t.   So here are the most recent pics of my babies.

cute, but too dark. Poor Sophie!

At least Sophie isn't crying, but Kaitlyn is

rooming in w/mommy

Well, here she is, ya’ll.  Sophie arrived on Thursday, October 9th at 10:10 a.m. via c-section at the Clinic Maria Guadalupe here in Comalcalco.  She weighed 3.310 kgs. (approx. 7.2 lbs) and measured 51 cm. long.  Here’s a picture of her just cleaned up in the delivery room…for those of you who understand Spanish (and for those of you who just know the bad words) I have no explanation why the “Please turn off the @”#$%% light” sign was put up.  Anyway, here’s Sophie’s first pic…

too young for such language!

My c-section experience was the best of all my pregnancies.  God has been so merciful to me throughout this pregnancy and birth.  I haven’t had to struggle with my blood pressure, there was little to no swelling this time, the c-section was calm and not the trauma that I experienced with Melodee’s and (to a slightly lesser degree) Kaitlyn’s.  The doctors and nurses here are die-hard breastfeeding advocates and do nothing to care for the baby once s/he is born and placed in your room.  So, needless to say, this was a COMPLETELY different experience for me.  And a good one, at that.  Here’s a pic of the clinic where I gave birth.  Erica told me it looks like the female on the building has a glow-worm in her womb.  Isn’t that hilarious??!! I almost popped a stitch when I read that email!

glow worm or baby?

I came home the next afternoon following the surgery.  Kaitlyn had a couple of really rough days dealing with me not being able to pick her up or hold her, and getting used to this new baby.  But Melodee has been great and really helpful.

Miss Sophie is just beautiful!  Our camera has had a major malfunction and I’m dying to take new pictures of her, so I’m TRYING to come up with some sort of digital solution.  If I don’t think of something soon her grandma’s going to reach through the internet and strangle me! Ha!  I would love to write more, but Kaitlyn is starting to crank up and it’s bedtime.  If you guys would like to know something specific PLEASE leave a question in the comments.  That’ll help me focus in my next post.  More to come…