16 Weeks and Counting

Here are my 16 weeks belly shots. Sorry I look so disheveled, but I have been cleaning all day.

So I have 16 weeks down and only 24 more to go. It seems like the fastest pregnancy so far. In four short weeks I will be half way done. I get to find out the sex of babe number 7 on my birthday.

What a birthday present.

Fireproof

I went to this movie yesterday afternoon with my church. If you haven't seen it it is a must see for all married couples. I am going to get the Bible study to go along with it when I get the cash. If you haven't seen the other movies made by this church they are also must see movies. We own Facing the Giants and have seen Flywheel both are incredible.
Fireproof was just as good if not better then the other two. Made me cry about half a dozen times. I enjoyed it greatly and hope that you will all take the time to go on a date with your spouse and watch it together. Of course being Mark is not in my state I did go by myself and sat with another married woman from my church whose husband didn't go and a widow. We all enjoyed the movie.
I would love to hear from you if you have seen it.
Have a great week.

This Week

Well, I have be hitting the gym regularly for a couple of weeks now. Been lifting weights and using the track and machines. Corrisa has been asking me to go with her to gain some strength and lose some weight so I am going.
Corrisa started basketball Monday so she is getting twice the workout on some days. She says this years coach is much tougher then last years. Last year she had two females and this year she has a young male coach. She enjoys it though.
Markus is starting his naughtiness training this week. We are hitting the terrible twos quite early again. He is still precious though. Doesn't talk a whole lot, but does jabber a bunch of nonsense and loves to sing and dance. He loves to climb and give me heart attaches and such too.
School is going well this week. Everybody is doing what they are supposed to. Gabe is doing well at concentrating.
Briley will be going to live with his dad this weekend. He will be starting public school on Monday. He has mixed emotions about leaving his mama, but I think he will do just fine. His dad loves him and wants some time with him too before he gets too old. Mom will miss him too of course. It wasn't an easy decision to come to, but sometimes you have to do hard things as a mom. He will still be coming back for weekends every other month so it isn't like he is gone forever. Miles isn't handling it too well, but he is going to miss his best friend and big brother.
Elijah is doing well in preschool. He loves to go and learn. He loves to draw. That is his big passion right now. His latest drawings are of a man with a bow and quiver full of arrows. How cute is that. I am saving them for Mark when he comes home for Thanksgiving. Hopefully he will be a man with a full quiver.
I am doing well. Lonely, but well. Don't have phone service this week so I don't get to talk to Mark, but I will live. Hitting the gym helps out some. Went to the doctor on Monday. All is well on the home front. I guess I can't that for sure until all my results come back, but sure all is well.
Well that's about it for this weeks post. I will write again next week. Have a great week.

Tuesday

Well, Mark came home over the weekend. He picked up his car and took the dog with him. It is so nice not to hear the dog bark all day wanting out. Markus wasn't sure what to think of seeing his dad again. He would stare at Mark and then give him a hug and stare some more. He did that for a long while. Mark thought is was cute.
Started going back to the gym yesterday. Corrisa is going today to learn how to use the weights and I will walk with Gabe. We all went swimming this morning for a while, but Markus wasn't too keen on the idea so we left earlier then we planned.
Gabe is having some problems with the home school teacher. He won't sit still and is always talking. I keep saying that he has ADHD, but Mark won't hear it. So I am taking him to the gym to walk the track with me and hopefully that will wear him out a bit. Wrestling starts soon, so hopefully that will help wear him out also. We missed soccer this Fall.
Corrisa is going to a Bible retreat Friday night and Saturday. She is riding with another home school family. Miles went to this camp this summer and loved it. I am hoping Corrisa has fun there.
That is about all the news I have for today. I will update again next week.

Thursday

Well, nothing much is happening here. Been getting up nice and early in the morning. Suffering from insomnia and would really like some sleep. I hate going to bed and worrying so much about stuff that isn't in our control and then not being able to sleep. I need to start breaking out the old Bible and reading that before bed. Bring myself some comfort and peace. Lay it at the feet of the Lord. That's what I need to do.
Mark is still working in Wisconsin. He is really enjoying the job there and the people he works with. I am glad of that. He has found a place to live. It is a bit on the expensive side when you have household bills to pay on top of rent, but if he is happy then I guess there isn't much I can say. We are getting excited for Thanksgiving. It will be 2 days shy of 2 months since we last saw Mark when he comes home for the long weekend. We will probably be staying here to spend time with him rather then with other family. The kids don't need to compete for his attention with somebody else for the weekend and that is fine.
Markus is getting a few more molars in and has been a bit cranky. I never had this problem with any other kids. I didn't even know they had their molars until well after they had grown in. He has a bit of a runny nose and a cough too. I am going to blame the teeth for now. If it gets worse we will go see the doctor, but he seems to be fine.
The rest of the kids are doing good. School is going good. We are getting quite a bit accomplished. Corrisa's grandma bought her an early Christmas present. The third book in the Eargon series and she hasn't put it down since she got it. She is just about done with almost 800 page book so hopefully she will be back to normal soon. There is no sense trying to make her put it down because she will throw daggers at you with her eyes until you let her resume reading. Elijah is getting excited because he gets to wear his costume for preschool story time and preschool next week. His cousin had a pirate themed birthday party over the summer. The kids didn't go, but my SIL gave them all a bag of party favors that included: a bandanna, an eye patch, a hoop ear ring and some other pirate things. So Elijah is saying he is going to be a pirate. Throw some jeans and a shirt and we are good to go. We have a Long John Silvers pirate hat too if he wants to wear that instead of the bandanna. We don't do trick or treating, but we do hand out Bible tracts to kids that come to my house. We bought so many a couple of years ago that we are still handing them out. We hardly get any kids anymore.
Well, that is about all the news in our house. Nothing too exciting. Hope you all have a great rest of the week.

Talking Red Teddy

My mom bought my older kids talking Valentine's teddy bears many years ago. They eventually drove me nuts so they got put away. Well lo and behold my daughter came across one somewhere recently and gave it to Markus. He loves it. He carries it everywhere and always has it talking. Last night he was laying in bed talking forever. The bear will ask a question and if you say something will continue talking. Well, of course you can't understand a word that Markus says, but that stupid red bear just don't care. I always know where to find him because that bear gives him away.
Elijah wanted to take it to school with him today because it was Teddy Bear day and Markus made it quite clear that nobody was taking his bear anywhere. He wouldn't even finish his breakfast because Elijah was holding the bear. Never know what that kid will be interested in.
Well, have a good weekend my friends.

Fall Pictures

I decided I would update the kids pictures so I took them to the park and took their pictures. Markus was a bit of a little pistol and wasn't going to cooperate. Elijah, Corrisa, and Miles were the post photogenic ones. Gabe, Briley, and Markus were the ones who would rather have played. While taking the pictures there were a couple of guys that were playing the new Frisbee golf and they decided they needed to throw the Frisbee right where we were taking pictures even though I was there first. Well, when we moved as much as possible out of the way they finished there game and then started throwing walnuts at me. How immature was that. Grown men seeing me take pictures of my kids and throwing walnuts at an adult. Anyway, we got the pictures done and they turned out pretty good. I am getting pretty good at being the family photographer. Anyway, that is about all that is happening here. Have a good week. Shelly