Recent Pics

Update

So the first thing I'd probably say in an update is how BIG I am and how uncomfortable I feel. Don't get me wrong, I consider that a good thing! I'm looking forward to getting the ball rolling with giving birth in about 3 months! I just don't know how much bigger my belly can stretch from the last time it housed a baby! I'm still praying for little Samuel's health. And about a month ago I finally got consistent in taking prenatals again! 

David loves his new job. Honestly it's boring, but that's ok! Amazon treats their employees very well. So far, adjusting to four evenings a week apart hasn't been so bad, but it's only been two days.

One of my favorite (for lack of a better word) things lately was being asked to play for a funeral of a sweet older lady at our church. I could probably just take the "er" off of that because I'm sure she would've agreed that she was "old" at 92! She was pretty much the sweetest old lady I've ever known. It was heart wrenching to see her 60+ member family crying and hurting so much as they missed her. It was hard to play the songs I had practiced so hard because it was just so emotional! 

I have four piano students this school year! It is super fun. For now I am teaching kids of friends to gain the kind of experience that can go on a resume, doing it as favors for little money or in exchange for babysitting favors. But lately the vision has been forming in my mind to have a studio of my own when my kids are older... Which could be a while depending on how many I have. Not only would being a piano teacher be totally awesome, but it would be in line with my college education and all the years and years and hours of hard work I put into learning the piano! 

People who are unfamiliar with the cost of lessons for a beginner child would be surprised to hear that it would be about 50$ a month. But think about it: a person without a High School Diploma will easily charge 80$ a month to mow and trim your lawn weekly. And I would be asking 50$ to weekly teach your child in a one-on-one setting how to play piano, having studied it for 20 years under Drs of Piano! Piano is an art that takes a lot of practice and education. When I took lessons in high school with a Juilliard grad, they costed 200$ a month! 

So piano has been on my mind lately, if its not obvious enough :) At first I realized its a side of myself that I don't talk about that much, because I take it for granted and so few friends I know played piano that much. But it's an amazing experience to be able to be asked to play for a funeral just two days before, and to have all the previous years of hours of practice alone in a practice room (hours of being "culturally irrelevant") to be able to pull it off. The reward: seeing how it blessed a bereaved family to hear music that describes the beauty of God and heaven. Or playing for weddings! I've done at least 5. I try to pick music that is beautiful and worshipful. The great thing about weddings is that there is more time to prepare! 

Anyhoo, I'm neglecting my motherly duties! 

We're having another BOY :)

On Monday the 29th we went for the extensive 20 week ultrasound and found out we are having another boy! I'm pretty excited. I think boys are fun, and though I have a sort of grieving process for the frills, pinks and dresses for now, I've ever been a huge fan of those things anyway. And for now God has made us the mother and father of two boys!

Here are some shots from the ultrasound. (Per David's request, no pics of boy parts! haha)

The Dr. scheduled me for an additional ultrasound to check out his lip, I guess to make sure he doesn't have a cleft pallet? (spelled that wrong I think) It seemed she was saying they just couldn't see it. He sure was moving a lot during the ultrasound and the technician and I had to take a break from it and let me walk around to see if he would move differently so she could get a front shot better. It was almost an hour long actually!

June Updates

Since I last wrote here we've made a lot of progress on our basement, which is mostly what we do in our free time (especially David). After 5 days of tiling, the largest portion of our family room is laid but not grouted. Here it is: 

Now David can use the tiled portion for the wet saw and other tiling materials so he can finish the other half of the room and the hallway. I've been helping lay tile, put in spacers, wipe up extra mortar, and a few things, but David does most of it. It's kinda hard to be crouched on the ground at the end of a full day with a belly in the way, but I wish I could be of more help. 

It's been 2 months and a few weeks since our basement flooded! I'd say we're only about 40% done with the whole project. DIY is long, hard, and dirty! It requires a lot of patience and hard work and perseverance! And a little extra room in the budget for mess-ups ;)

Other than that Carson is growing up so fast! He's learned several new words these past few weeks. I tried to get them on video but he isn't the performing type :) The cutest word he says is 'cracker' (his all-time favorite and therefore his first 2 syllable word that he says the clearest). It sounds like "caa cuh" when he says it in his quiet little voice. Also, to top it all off he melts my heart with his new habit of wanting to snuggle in my lap :) He's never been much of a snuggler until now, and he still doesn't sit still very long! 

Other new things are plans for a family reunion in July and having to say goodbye to Miyah, my parents' sweet dog, aka my little sister :( 

Also, I'm 15 weeks along. We have no name ideas yet and are kind of waiting on the gender ultrasound July 29. Every time one of us brings up a name, the other one doesn't like it. We also have different styles: I like modern names, David likes more traditional names. Biblical names can be both modern and traditional, so we may go for that. 

I had an appointment at 13 weeks which scared me! The Dr. couldn't find the heartbeat, but it turned out the placenta is in the way (anterior). So I saw little one again by ultrasound! Thus, this baby gets a 9 week, 13 weeks and 21 week ultrasound! :) here is my belly! 

Also, we got a new fridge a couple weeks ago. Our old one broke, so we used my birthday money and a little insurance money to buy it. 

 

Lastly, David has another interview, this time for a sort of lateral move at UPS for a full-time admin. position in a location where he would be treated better. In case you didn't know, UPS is famous for being a miserable place to work but makes up for it with school help, high pay and amazing health benefits. :P but at the end of he day, I would rather be a little more poor than see my husband unhappy. 

Gardening: take 1

We cannot boast in our neglected garden! It's our first year and we are already learning a lot by trial and error: 1) do seed starters, with rich potting soil. No mulch. 2) put twice as many layers of newspaper down than we think in order to keep the weeds out.

Who knows? Maybe our plants will survive though they are shooting up entangled in weeds and crabgrass. Again, it's our first year in this house trying this :)

Here it is above. Don't laugh! We have excuses... Our basement repairs, my pregnancy symptoms and my allergies from H-E-double hockey sticks. That's another blog post and it would be depressing.

Here's some of our veggies! 

If this all succeeds, then we'll have yummy salads and be thrown into learning how to can and preserve, and if it fails then we will have learned the hard way and there will be no further blog posts on this. ;)

Blogging took a back burner...

Like any wife and mom, I can always say that my life is "crazy". But these past two or so weeks were extra-super-crazy! One crisis after another! When it rains, it pours. 

First, our basement flooded. It was like a nightmare that came to life! Praise God for our church family, some of whom came at midnight that saturday to help us pull up carpet, vac up water, move furniture and tear our wet padding! It was us vs. gushing water! It was a furious race! It was just nuts! 

After we ripped out drywall to minimize damage - rental fans blowing most of the week

This is where the pipe burst - a former spigot that was POORLY capped off! imagine a spigot running INSIDE your wall.

Water seeped through the walls into the 3rd bedroom

The brick on the other side of the leak, where the spigot used to be, was still wet after a day or two! no rain had come either...

nasty

So anyhoo we just had an adventure, and it took a lot of time on the phone to talk to insurance people and get restoration companies to come out with estimates. Since we want to do as much as we can on our own, it's gonna take longer than if we just paid someone to do every little thing. So besides using the washer and dryer, maybe the toilet, and jumping over boxes to get to the pantry, we don't use our family room or third bedroom anymore :(

At this point I can say that I miss renting, but only a little.

All three of us also got colds. Other kinds of crises occurred around the same time too, and it's been an emotionally and physically exhausting week! 

I don't really need any pity though. We are truly blessed in every way. We live in a time and place of abundance and things like this are easily taken care of! I can't imagine living in a time and place where there would be no money and help to do this. I guess people such a time and place have more handyman skills by necessity though...

 Right now David's parents are here for the weekend, and we've had a good time relaxing and laughing with them. Today, trying to squeeze David, Glenn and Carson in his massive car seat all in the back seat of our tiny Kia Rio was pretty funny. What's also laughable is that it took the five of us 2 hours to obtain lunch - between getting ready, trying to all fit in our car and figuring out where to eat! Though my "hanger" at the time made it not funny to me right then.

In conclusion however, just to be completely honest... My heart has just been really laid bare this week (not just cuz of the stupid basement). Who is my hope? Where is my trust? Do I try to blend in with the culture around me to find truth, or do I turn to God for it? Do I live to make sure people think I'm "legit" or do I live for God regardless of what people think of me, especially those who are cynical and predisposed to not like me? Do I hunger for the light of God? Do I "hate" my brother or sister in Christ (as mentioned in 1 Jn)? Am I doing what I should be doing right now, or am I just being selfish with my time, neglecting my family? 

It's a hard battle sometimes, working through all this. I feel constantly at war between pleasing man and pleasing God. It's like Paul's thorn in the flesh. It's a sin struggle that I feel like I will never overcome. It makes me weak as a Christian... so worried about what others could possibly think about me, and so caught up in their glory rather than God's glory. 

This is one of the things I absolutely despise about my age-group (the millenials) right now: we are taking worship to a whole new level. Worship of ourselves, of our things, of our food, of our significant other... It's not "cool" to worship God, no. It's trite, self-righteous and narrow-minded to praise God publicly, especially face-to-face. It can shock some people, to actually say "praise Jesus" in normal conversation... I mean, people who call themselves Christians. 

Yet this is where my heart truly is. I want to let my light shine and let people see Jesus in me. But I know I've failed at that time and again. I'm sorry to people I've known who haven't seen this side of me like they should. I hide it for fear of their opinion of me. I pray that God continues to free me from my fear of man so that I can praise Him freely, no matter what the cost.

Enjoying Instagram

Here are some recent adventures :)

Cuteness.

Overwhelming!

Visit to Hickory

Hickory is David's hometown and where all of his family lives.

us @ New Life

confined!

buddies

Carson tries the piano

Every single day Carson learns something new and grows in comprehension! On wednesday, after teaching piano to my two wonderful students, I let Carson play around for a bit. What surprised me was him trying to play one key with one finger, rather than banging with his fist. He seems to understand what a piano is for already! I'm so proud of him and I hope to make "practice" part of our daily routine. Or at least a couple times a week. 

Josh, Carson and Bri

Carson and my piano students, aka Carson's buddies

pressings keys with his fingers

Crosses his legs. We'll have to work on his posture :) jk

It sounded almost pretty!