I Thought I'd Post...

...Before anyone thinks I died, hatched a baby, or before I forgot my username and password to my blogsite. Sheesh, I know I've been busy gestating and all, but I had no clue it's been TWO MONTHS since my last entry. Oh, do I get slacker points or what??? Sorry!



Happy Easter, by the way!


Here's a half-baked update on life:


Alie turned 2 in January (I think you knew that). Andrew turned 5 on March 3rd. Can you believe it? FIVE!

I'm turning 31 in another week and a half. (So much for being done having kids by age 30...unless there's something I don't know).

I'm at 36 weeks. I'm dilated at 1 cm as of 5 days ago. That's not imminent delivery for me...my guess is I'll deliver in 2-3 weeks. Eak! (Now watch, I'll be 3 weeks late, ha ha). Trust me, I'm in no huge hurry either. I have TONS of stuff left to do. Kids' rooms to change around, two rooms to paint/redecorate, cleaning, etc. Then there's the everyday stuff of keeping the kids, hubby, and pets fed and alive. It never ends I tell ya. That whole Stay-At-Home-Mom-Having-it-Easy myth is for the birds.

Below is a belly shot from today. You should hear the comments I get. Holy cow! 'Everyone' thinks I've been on the verge of popping this kid out for at least one month now. I'm not kidding! I even have friends placing bets that I won't be pregnant by April. (Due date April 21st). They all say I have no room left, if looks like I swallowed a basketball, 'all belly', etc. (Not that I mind the all belly comment, mind you.) I just have NO clue how it's all going to go back into place after this tour of duty. I currently weigh what I did when I delivered the other two kids...and I have 4 more weeks to pack it on. Ah well. There must be something about the type of belly I have. People cannot keep their hands to themselves. It bothered me a little when I was prego with Andrew. With Natalie, I figured that if they knew my first name, I'm ok with it. With this one...I don't really care. It's not that the comments and touchy-feelies are delivered with ignorance or lack of thought. I think people just don't see a belly like this enough. I'll cut them some slack.


I stepped out of leadership of my church's Dream Team. (Can't remember if I mentioned that in my last post, and I'm honestly too lazy to look it up right now). I'm still a member of it, because I can't in good-consciousness leave them hanging high and dry. It was a horrible decision to make, but I knew immediately that I made the right choice in stepping down. My energies are more needed at home right now, and God has made it absolutely clear that that's where I need to channel my energies.


I'm also furthering my coupon addiction, but in a positive way. I have had friends ask me a lot of questions about how I do my deals, so I decided to light up my online mom's board with How-To discussions, and What is Cheap or Free for each week. The response has been surprising...I never realized how many people wanted to do it, but just didn't know how. (I always thought they didn't care.) It's been so much fun to show others how to save, and it keeps me focused on savings as well.

We are now taking Financial Peace University...a Dave Ramsey course. Not sure if you Californians have heard of Dave Ramsey or not, but he's from the Nashville area and delivers a lot of no-nonsense financial advice, from a Christain perspective. http://www.daveramsey.com/ Mike and I thought we knew it all because we listened to good ol' D.R. on the radio. Boy, were we wrong. We've only been through 3 weeks of the 12 week course, and it's helped us dramatically. (And we're not idiots about money...or at least, we thought we weren't). The reason this course has worked for us is because we're now forced to do various things as homework...so no more of that "I'll do it later" excuse for us.


What else is going on? Mike is doing well. He just got over a nasty stomach virus though. (You'll thank me for sparing you the details on that one.) He is currently trying to conquer the world. He's working at Verizon Wireless still, is now the Video Director at church (a salary-less job by the way), and is back in school at University of Phoenix. Word on the street is that he'll graduate sometime in 2008...think October/November IF he doesn't take anymore breaks.

As for Andrew, he starts Kindergarten this fall. That sounds so crazy to me, but I know he'll love it, and I'm intent on seeing this as a positive change for him. He's growing so quickly and amazes me with his conversations we have. He also has such a nurturing and compassionate heart. He seems too old for only being 5. Of course, I have stories to share about him, but I'll have to share that for another post.


Natalie is becoming quite the snuggler these days. She's still fiesty and oh-so-independent, but she loves being snuggled on. (For awhile, she couldn't stand being cuddled...now she's eating it up). I've learned something about little girls. I was always warned about the "Drama" involved with raising a girl, and wowzers...they weren't kidding! I have to handle her differently. If she's mad about a diaper change, I can't just talk over her and force it...she gets hysterical. Rather, I have to talk calmly to her, soothe her a bit, let her know play by play what is going on, make her think she's helping me, and then she's all smiles. I mean, Andrew would get mad, and I'd just tell him "this is how it is" and he was ok with it.


Parenting is psychological warfare. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.


As for the baby...I'm pretty sure we're going to call him Nathan. We're clueless on middle names. It's the Motz thing that throws a monkey wrench in it. I mean, we love Grayson...but Nathan Grayson sounds horrible. Some other potentials are Nathan Thomas, Nathan Dean, and some others that I'm forgetting at 2am.


Mike took this picture last week, and I absolutely love it. Melts my heart everytime I see it.