Is that a cobweb?

Well, if the 'net had cobwebs, this blog would surely be sporting a few! I've not exactly been regularly updating things, now have I?

Let me catch you up quickly, as I hear stirrings signaling the end of naptime in the next room...

*The baby-to-be: all is well in tummy land! I'm feeling good, just getting big and finding it hard to maintain my stamina towards the end of the day. I have been super duper nesty though, so our house is nice and clean and organized, so that's a good thing. These hormones though -- goodness. They are nasty little things from time to time, but I'm trying to round them up and keep them quiet for the most part. It's hard to believe we only have 3 months left to go! Time is a flyin', I tell ya.

*The house: is still for sale. We had our first showing in nearly two months this weekend and the realtor's office just called this afternoon to pass along the feedback that she received from the other agent. Apparently our house is "in their top 3" and showed "wonderfully" -- BUT -- they wrote an offer on another house in the neighborhood. Same size, pretty good condition, and yes - you guessed it! A foreclosure. They wrote their offer for 29K less than our asking price and in the realtor's words "they lowballed it" and there is quite a bit of interest on that house so there is a good chance their offer will be rejected. In that case, I'm guessing they could come back for another showing or write us an offer, but I'm sure there's another similar house in the top 3 as well. We're just not willing to give our house away. *sigh* SO...our most recent decision is this: if our home hasn't sold by June, we will take it off the market and just wait until next spring. Neither of us are really willing to go through all of the trouble of keeping it show-ready with a newborn. We will choose instead to finish the basement off and focus on our family. It feels good to have a decision either way. (Now I'm just waiting to sell it May 30th or something.)

*The family: is for the most part, doing well. The kids and I both got sick with Norovirus after eating what is believed to be some tainted fruit at a birthday party a few weeks ago. Unless you are just dying to see what it's like for your household to spontaneously burst into intestinal distress within an hour of each other, I highly recommend that you steer clear of the thing. Ick. Up until that point we'd never experienced simultaneous vomiting in our house, but whooooeeeee, we got a lifetime's worth in one night with that one. Thankfully, the kids were both fine after about 5 hours of madness and were back to bouncing off of the walls the next day. Unfortunately, my worst time was the next day...go figure. I was really, really sick that whole day but it took a full week for me to get back to feeling like I could actually enjoy food again and lose the nausea. Oh - and did I mention that 2 days after my little episode I had to do the glucose test? That was pretty brutal. (At least I passed though!) Chris is having a blast playing on an over 30 men's soccer team and we've had fun going to watch his games. Mitchell is also having a great time playing soccer...he has a game tonight, actually. He scored his first goal last week, and in true Mitchell fashion came running off the field cracking up to give us all hugs. We had to literally escort him back onto the field to keep playing. Classic! He is so proud of his "Player of the Game" certificate and marched right in the door to hang it up on the fridge. (I won't tell him that every kiddo gets one at some point - he thinks it is just the coolest!) Georgia is loving her gymnastics classes and yesterday she finally decided that she might not just die if she touched the bars. She actually loved the tricks they were helping them to do and was a total giggle box. Her new thing is doing "Princess Turns" -- up on her toes and everything. It is seriously cute. (Even if I didn't know her it would be cute.)

I think that's about it. Not much to report on me -- just getting through the end of the MOPS and preschool year and figuring out how we'll be spending our time this summer until Baby Loo joins us. I hope you're all well - and I really, truly do hope to jump back into reading and commenting on all of your great blogs!

Love to you all!!

Ahhhhhhh.... (that's me breathing, by the way)

That's my new strategy...Breathe.

Breathe again.
Breathe some more.

Physically, I feel pretty good. I get tired, of course, from growing a little person in here - but for the most part, I really can't complain. I mean, my left hip is killing me and the heartburn stinks...just kidding! Seriously, it's been a pretty easy pregnancy so far. By the way, the new little baby thing on my sidebar - sort of wacky how (s)he floats around in there like a little slow-paced pinball, don't you think? I mean, I know this one's floating too - that one just looks like it's on the moon or something. And also - I put that there so you can know how far along I am even when I'm flakey and don't post for a month or something. I get that "when are you due??" thing a lot, so thought this might help!

Anddddd...because it's my blog and I can interrupt myself if I want to - I will tell you that Mitchell felt the baby kick for the first time today! Oh, goodness - that is for sure in my top ten Mommy moments right now. I got all welled up because he just got so, so, SO excited! He is a bit on the impatient (or five year old) side of life, so before today when the baby has been kicking he hasn't managed to stay still long enough to feel it yet. However...about half an hour ago I was sitting here putting pictures from his first ever soccer game onto the computer and the baby was ripping off some good ones so I called him over and wouldn't you know it -- BOOM. His eyes grew so big and just absolutely lit up! He said "Mommy, was that the baby? Did it kick me?" When I said yes he got the giggles and was just over the moon. He felt about three kicks, I think. I can still see his face and hear that laughter -- oh, goodness. It was magical. When I was pregnant with Georgia, he was still pretty young so he didn't really "get it" but this time, he is definitely hooked up with what's going on, so it was a wonderful moment. I just wish my camera's memory card wasn't in the middle of moving those soccer videos so I could have taken a picture of his face!

Oh, and speaking of soccer: (ummmm, yeah - can you tell how nicely this will flow today?) I have to tell you that this whole thing of him being on a team has been hysterical. Our little wallflower has decided that he is just going to jump in with both feet and his personality is coming right on out of his ears! The team's practices are Sunday afternoons and we didn't know it (wouldn't have gone anyway) but the team practiced on Easter. The sad thing for Mitchell is that they also gave their ideas for a team name at that practice -- he was SO excited to throw out the idea of "The Buffaloes". I mean, his heart was SET on it. So, when he found out that they could only vote for three previously suggested ideas, well - that just was not gonna fly. (I was at home with Miss G for her nap, so Chris relayed this story to me, just so you know.) Apparently, the coach asked him for his vote and he said "Well, I'm just gonna call myself 'The Buffaloes' then!" The coach said "So you don't want to vote?" And he said he didn't. Then two seconds later, he did. And the winning team name?

The Fighting Machines.

I am pretty sure that was not the idea of the one little girl on his team, but I don't have proof. Other than, well - the name itself. Proof enough that it's not the work of a five year old girl, don't you think? Anyway - during his first game last night he apparently growled on the field the whole time he was playing. (Again, information from Chris. I was in the car with a sick baby girl.) I asked him about that this morning and he informed he that he was pretending to be a tiger. We agreed to maybe not growl during any more soccer games.

Anyone who knows Mitchell is probably not all that surprised that we had to make such a request.

Okay, so - back to me and my breathing. Physically, pretty good. Emotionally - well, it depends on the exact moment in time that you ask me. Yesterday, count yourself lucky that you didn't ask me. My husband did and whoooo - I bet he is still regretting that one.

BUT. My new strategy: breathing. Why breathing? Because. First of all, I have to, right? Second of all -- does it get any more simple than that?

Breathe in.
Breathe out.

I've been trying to be grateful for the little things in my life. The small joys. And breathing is one of them. So, when I get overwhelmed with it all - I just try to breathe and be grateful that I can. I just focus on being still, chilling out, and seriously - just being. If only I had a dollar for every time the scripture, Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God..." has come into my life lately.

Seriously. All over the place. So, I decided to listen to that and give it a whirl.

Guess what? It works. It seriously works. It's really given me some peace and calmed what I can only describe as an inner restlessness that I've felt lately. So, it's my new thing. I breathe.

Okay - I will leave you with a little snippet of Georgia cuteness. Yesterday (the day she was deservedly a crankpot) I heard her on the monitor waking up from her nap. She was talking and calling me, so I came up and opened her door. It appeared that she had fallen back asleep as I was coming upstairs, so she was laying on her tummy, facing away from me. When I opened the door, she picked her head up, turned and gave me the biggest two-year-old glare you have ever seen. She then stood up with her hair looking like she'd just walked out of a wind tunnel and loudly proclaimed "You no wake up ME!!!"

I couldn't help it. I laughed.

Which made her even more mad, which made me laugh even harder. One mention of finding some juice made her smile and say "Okay, Mommy - get me outta here!" Ohhhhhh...that girl is cute even when she's spitting fire, I tell ya!

Thanks for putting up with my randomness today. Feels good to just let it all hang out again. And oohhhh baby, is it ever hanging out! :) I added two of my fave crockpot recipes to the sidebar today, by the way. They are super yummy!