Giving Thanks and Decking the Halls

Here's a little video of The Muffin saying the blessing before our Thanksgiving meal. She loves to say the blessing! We pray so much in this house. I'm sure the average person would not believe it if we actually counted the times that we pray or the times that Muff asks for us to pray for her. I hope that she always prays as much as she does now.

Now...for Decking the Halls.

I might have mentioned taking Muff to our favorite greenhouse to pick out her Christmas ornament for 2008. I've had to help her in the past, but now she's Ms. Independent and gets to do it on her own. Last year's ornament was a glass star that is bright blue. She loves the moon and stars, so it was perfect. This year, I pointed out some really pretty butterflies that were very girl-y and expensive. She kept shopping the greenhouse until she found a basket of cheap ornaments like the one that she chose...she was in love. I tried to get her to pick one with a moose head because I thought it looked a little better, but this is what she picked. I think maybe she'll be a hunter, our sweet little NRA member...

It's a large ornament, but I thought it would sort of get lost with everything else on the tree...wrong! She decided to put her big bear head ornament on her little, bitty tree. She also wanted her other ornaments on the tree. She really loves it and thinks it's so pretty! I agree.

Big Daddy and Muff stayed upstairs while I assembled the tree and fixed the lights. They came back downstairs to "help" decorate, but I sent them back upstairs to listen to their "Wizard of Oz" music. I did have a little help with the tree...from Kenny Chesney. He sang to me the entire time that I worked on it. *sigh* I love his Christmas CD, "All I Want For Christmas Is A Real Good Tan". It takes me back to the Christmas of 2004, when I was busy planning our trip to Destin, Florida. I listened to him and imagined going to the beach in January. The trip was FABULOUS and just hearing Kenny sing me Christmas music takes me right back to that place and time. 

Normally, I would edit the picture so that it's centered, but I'm tired...and pregnant.

Ramblings.

Today was Thanksgiving and of course, I have so much to be thankful for. Today was so different from Thanksgiving's past since my parents and my sister and her family decided to go to Pigeon Forge. I cooked our lunch and I thought it was yummy. We had rotisserie chicken, dressing (tasted EXACTLY like my mom's), asparagus and cranberry salad. Big Daddy complained about everything... I cried...partly because I'm pregnant and mostly because I'm sensitive. I missed my sweet potato casserole and my mom's pumpkin pie. Since I'm pregnant, I can request these things and (hopefully) get them sometime soon.
I moved Muff from the toddler bed to a "big girl" twin bed. She loved it and kept asking to go upstairs to see her "new" room! She loves to roll around on the bed and loves that Mommy or Daddy can cuddle with her.
I talked to my sister on the phone and made sure they made it to TN okay, called my sweet nephew and took a long walk with Big Daddy and The Muffin.
Even though I was exhausted from a busy day, I put up our Christmas decorations. The Muffin is in love with the big tree, her little tree and everything alse that is new to her.
Now, I'm so tired! I'm going to shower and go to bed and rest my aching back. Tomorrow is our big trip to the gun store, so there's lots to rest up for!

Thanksgiving and Being Thankful

For some reason, The Muffin has a new game....we'll call it "Barack Obama's Coming". She'll be playing quietly, suddenly gets a look of fear and runs to me or Big Daddy and says, "Oh, no! Barack Obama's coming!". We have no idea what got this started. She was the only one in our house that was supportive of Obama, so we're confused on why she seems so afraid of him. Big Daddy thinks it's because she checked out our latest issue of America's First Freedom, the official magazine of the National Rifle Association, and realized that her Second Amendment rights are in jeopardy. We have assured her that we're armed and prepared to defend ourselves. Tonight, the game changed. Muffin said "I thinkBarack Obama's coming!" then there was a long pause and she said, "It's okay, Daddy'll get his gun and scare Barack Obama away." On this Thanksgiving, I'm thankful that Barack Obama is NOT coming to our house. I think Muff realizes that the NRA has had a boost in membership and our local gun shop has had an increase in sales since Obama's become the President-elect. She realizes that she's a Life Member of the NRA and just wants to make sure that he's not making any door to door visits to discourage us from protecting our rights. I'm also thankful for our freedom to come and go, speak our minds and to be Christians...and to buy firearms and firearm accessories.

My family decided that a trip to Pigeon Forge, TN would be a fun and exciting way to celebrate Thanksgiving. Due to Big Daddy's school schedule and the fact that we aren't fond of going anywhere that may have cooler weather than we have here, we decided to stay at home. We'll be Thanksgivings orphans...sort of. We could go to Mike's parents or accept the invitations from several of our friends, but staying home is not that bad. The Muffin will help me fix our lunch, we'll move her from a toddler bed to a big girl bed and we'll decorate the Christmas Tree. Lately, we've had very little time as a family so it will nice to just be at home together. I'll miss the food and family that would have been at my mom's house, but I'm sure I can replicate her cooking...maybe. My Daddy actually said, "Do you know how to fix dressing?". I assured him that I do. I'm thankful that we have families even though we won't be with them on Thanksgiving Day.

We have lots of fun family stuff that we can do. Just decorating the tree with Muff this year will be an adventure. And then we'll have to go to her favorite greenhouse on Friday to let her pick out a new ornament for the tree...and I'll get to pick out an ornament for the Baby-to-be. Maybe Big Daddy can come along and experience the joy that taking The Muffin to the greenhouse. Everyone there loves her and they give her free stuff. We were there after Halloween and they gave her a pretty butterfly windchime, just because. She chases and torments the greenhouse cats, Cookie and Spike. I think they hide as soon as they hear her coming. I'm so thankful for fun times with The Muffin and Big Daddy.

The associate pastor preached Sunday and gave a great sermon about Thanksgiving and being thankful all the time for even the simplest things. He said he was thankful for his new church family, his wife and his daughter. I'm thankful for our new church family and for finding this church that I think may just be the greatest church...ever. He and his wife tried for years to have children and finally adopted the most beautiful daughter from China. She's in her early teens and sings with her dad and has the voice of an angel. He said that he always wanted a child that could sing. Then there are two couples in our Sunday school class that are in the process of adopting children from Ethiopia. One couple has an adopted four year old daughter from China and the other couple has two young children, by birth. I'm thankful for our sweet Baby-to-be that I have the pleasure of growing in my belly and spending every nauseating moment with. I'm the only person other than it's Creator that can say I was with it from the beginning. I will have actually held it before anyone can ever hold it in their arms. (That's why Big Daddy is allowed to hold it before anyone else and also why we can tell people that they cannot hold our sweet baby until we are finished holding it.) I'm glad that we never take being able to be parents for granted. I'm thankful for our vasa previa miracle, The Muffin, and that I can't forget the day she was born and the miracle that God performed even when I try. And because of her I'm so thankful for the International Vasa Previa Foundation and all that they do to raise awareness and support the parents of vasa previa miracles and angels. I would have lost my mind without them.

My hormones have been crazy and I've been freezing for the past three weeks. I'm almost never warm. I'm so thankful for our house that is so much warmer than outside, warm clothes and fuzzy, warm blankets. I'm also thankful that I have two people that I can cuddle with for a little extra heat.

I read in our church bulletin that our local "soup kitchen" , The Breadbasket is in "desperate need" of dried beans and peas. The Muffin and I are going to take some food items by there soon. I'm thankful for our stocked fridge and pantry, even when I say there's nothing to eat.

And because I'm pregnant I have a few silly things that I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for sweet tea, yellow mustard, spicy brown mustard, toasted bread, saltine crackers, sweet pickle relish and Sierra Mist Free Cranberry Splash.

I hope that you have lots to be thankful for this year too.

And the name will not be...

We have already a few baby names picked out! They'll be kept secret at least until we (hopefully) find out the sex of the baby. I think it will be nice for The Muffin to be able to refer to the baby as a name so that she can start imagining it as a real baby. We used some names that were picked out when we were expecting The Muffin and then came up with a few others that we liked. We want something that's not too common, but not too unusual either. Most of the names that we've picked can be found in those baby name books. Some names were my picks and some were Big Daddy's. He picked out The Muffin's name, but we both always have the power to veto the other's choice. If not, we'd have a child (boy or girl) named Forrest and my dad would constantly say, "Run, Forrest! Run!".

I suggested The Muffin's middle name after my grandmother, but I fully expected her middle name to be Forrest. Mike felt like she should be named after my Grandma since we experienced such a miracle during our traumatic delivery. So... Muff's middle name is the same as my Grandma's middle name, Louise. If Maggie knew that Grandma's first name was Dorothy, I'm sure she would insist on changing it and she's wear those darn ruby slippers all the time!



The baby's name will NOT be:

Isaac, Eli, Elias, Elijah, Cannon, Jobe, Reece, Forrest or Kieran.



It also will NOT be:

Ellie, Ainsley, Eden, Rowen, Clara, Paisley or Kieran. (Can you tell that someone/Big Daddy like's the name Kieran?)



No matter what, we will not be taking other people's opinions into consideration on name choices. It's a very personal thing when you are choosing what to name your child. I'm sure I'll end up giving this baby the nickname of some sort of food. The Muffin was "Squidgy" for a couple of days and then "Muffin" just came out and stuck. She also answers to Muffinhead, Muffinbutt, Ms. Muffin, Muff, Muffy and Muffingirl.

Ramblings about our weekend...

And what a weekend it was!!!

The Muffin and I had an AWESOME "Girl's Day". We started off at T.arget, then hit Chick-F.il-A for lunch (where the sweet tea was divine!) and tried to find a Mi.chael's that doesn't exist. (I made the mistake of calling Mi.chael's the craft store, so Muff kept yelling, "I believe this is not the crack store!") After that we went to Pet Sm.art to visit the animals and then to Linens-N-Th.ings to check out the "Going Out of Business Sale". We finished most of our Christmas shopping while we were out and I bought a fabulous hot pink body pillow to help me stay on my side when I sleep. Muff was pooped and slept on the thirty minute drive home and then for another 2 hours after I carried her inside.

Today was an exciting day, as well! We went to church, announced our pregnancy in Sunday School and had Japanese food for lunch. (I've been craving Japanese food all week, so it really hit the spot!) We stopped off for ice cream and then came home for a glorious family nap! The town Christmas parade was today (???) and we were invited to a pre-parade party, but we were asleep and missed it. We managed to make it to the Christmas tree lighting at Depot Park and The Muffin even sat on Santa's lap. We were there for an hour and a half in the cold, so I made hot cocoa for us when we arrived home.

Now, about Depot Park and Santa...

The Depot Park just may be our favorite thing about our town...other than Ms. Myra our Kindermusik teacher and our fabulous church. We meet Big Daddy there for picnics in the spring and summer, go there for concerts on Thursday evenings in the summer and then of course, splash in the fountain and climb on Engine #12 when it's convenient. Last year we attended the Christmas tree lighting and arrival of Santa and Muff's been wondering where the big guy's been ever since. Seeing her look at him and blink her eyes with amazement was worth having to stand in line for those 90 minutes. She told him that she wanted a chocolate dollhouse! We were on our way home and she said, "I forgot to tell Santa 'stomething'. My fingernail polish always comed off." I promised her that we'd write him a note or see him again this season.

The Week In Review

Last Friday we spent the night at my parents' house so that we could spread the baby news and celebrate my sister's birthday. This was my sister's present and it (of course) had a poem attached.

(We'll just keep the poem private for now so you're not jealous of my poem-writing capabilities! Let's just say you can always write a silly poem and sign The Muffin's name to it!)

We were a little disappointed that we would be missing Saturday's "Hallelujah Harvest" at our church. It's a special little fall thing that the church has for everyone and to reach out to families and children who do not attend church regularly. We were pleasantly surprised to find out they decided to postpone it until Sunday because of the rain on Saturday morning! Big Daddy put aside his studies after lunch so that we could go as a family...and we were NOT disappointed! The Muffin understood that we were going to church, but was shocked when she saw her friends and teachers from church there. She would say, "That's my Sunday school teacher" and "I know them". It was nice to see her friends with their parents and our Sunday school class members with their children. They had popcorn, funnel cakes, pony rides, fun carnival games, a magician, a puppet show and of course, a bounce house. The Muffin rode the same pony three times!

On Monday, we had Kindermusik and then attended our last Gymnastics class. I'm a little undecided on when we'll attend again, but Gymnastics is definitely something that we want to encourage The Muffin to pursue.


On Wednesday one of my childhood friends, Lisa, gave birth to a baby boy named Adam. He was born at 32 weeks and 5 days, so he is spending time in the NICU at a local children's hospital. Matt, Lisa, big brother Cody and Adam all need your prayers. Hopefully, Adam will get stronger and grow really fast and be home in time for Christmas!

Today, The Muffin and I are having a "Girls Day". (As if everyday around here isn't a girls day!?) She prefers to spend every waking moment in the present of both of her parents, but with Mike trying to finish five papers so that he can start studying for finals, he needs some quiet time. We have had a trying week, because Little Miss Muffin has missed her Daddy something awful! He leaves for work around 6:30 in the morning and most days he goes to the local college's library to study afterwards. Some nights he doesn't get home until 8:00 which makes for a long day of "I want my Daddy to come home right now!" and "I don't like you, I want my Daddy!". We have breakfast, lunch and dinner as a family of two and The Muffin misses Daddy every other minute of the day. Anyway...us girls are going to T.arget, Mich.ael's and Chick-Fil-A. These just happen to be a few of Maggie's favorite places because the closest one's are 30+ minutes away.

I've been having gotta-have-it cravings (and excessive nausea???) this week, but it's been way too cold for me to venture out for a Cook-Out sweet tea or to B.ojangle's for chicken or to the Japanese restaurant for rice and clear soup. I've been remembering the day that I told my friend Fran that a blue ribbon brownie from A.pplebee's would taste so good only to have one delivered to me a few minutes later by my fellow real estate broker, J.P.. He told me that I shouldn't want for anything. He also once told me that it was a good thing that I didn't wear glasses because I would get ired of my long eyelashes bumping them when I blinked. He was the kind of friend always ready to offer flattery and food when it was needed. I wish he would hang out at my house all day, everyday.

So here's to shopping and trying out a new sweet tea at lunch today with my favorite girl.

Pardon Me........

Pardon me if I chime in here for a moment.......The Mommy said it was OK. I'm The Mommy's auntie Lisa. I kind of persuaded her to start this blog to keep us family members and her friends in touch with her pregnancy. The pregnancy that we are, by the way, very excited about. You see I have no children of my own so any part that I can have in my niece's baby journey is sweet.

I've been thinking for a while now that it was about time for The Mommy and Big Daddy to announce that The Muffin was going to have a baby sister or brother. This past Friday evening as I was driving home from the grocery store after work my cell phone started to ring. I wasn't able to get to the phone before it stopped ringing and the call went to my voice mail. I dialed in to get the message and I heard a small voice on the other end saying Nooooooo, it's beeping, Noooooooo, I don't wanna leave a message. In the background I could hear giggling and laughing and I could hear The Mommy's voice above all the others!! I knew that the small voice was my great niece Callie. Anyway, Callie hung up and didn't leave a message. I knew the family was getting together at my sister's house for a birthday celebration so I dialed her number and Sharalee (The Mommy's sister) answered. She said Callie has something to tell you. Callie came to the phone and she said Lisa! Jamie's preganant! I was like OH she is? Yes, she's gonna have a baby in June! I said Oh, how exciting. Did she just find out today? Jamie, when did you find out? She found out on September 29th! This was November 14th! I was like Ohhhhhh, she did? Yeah, she just told us today though. And Lisa, Maggie didn't even spill the beans!! giggles erupted from the other end of the line. It seems Maggie had known for a while and so had a few other people!!! I'm always the last to know anything! Sigh!

I sure am excited to know that we will have another baby boy or girl in our family next summer. I hope you'll visit Jamie's blog often and don't forget to comment and encourage her, especially a few months from now when her baby belly is out there and she's not as comfy as she is now. Say a few prayers also for a healthy pregnancy.

The Mommy's Loving Auntie
Lisa

Maybe She Needs A Sister

Of course, we really do NOT care what the sex of the baby is, but The Muffin told me something that is bothersome this morning. As we were cuddling under the covers waiting for Big Daddy to finish his shower she said, "Daddy's private area looks like a snake." I said, "Yes, boys and girls have different private areas, don't they?". The Muffin replied, "And you have two private areas, butt and boobies".

Ahhh, Sweetness

The Muffin is very sweet and pretty sensitive to people's reactions and emotions. I've prayed that she will be a good big sister to our new baby and so far, she has not disappointed me!

She already has a blanket that she going to give the Baby-To-Be when it arrives. It's not as pretty as I would have liked it to be, but I was looking for something gender-neutral AND had to pick it out fast because I was trying to win a contest. Everything came out okay, I won the contest, received a fabulous, free, swaddling blanket and The Muffin approved of the softness of the blanket for her new baby. She asks to feel of it and talks about how soft it is.

On October 21, we took her to the OB/GYN's office for our first ultrasound. She didn't have much to say about the baby then, but when I gave her an ultrasound picture of her own she said, "This is the prettiest baby!". Of course it looks like a blob, so I'm hoping that she'll always be kind to her Baby-To-Be.

Two weeks ago, The Muffin suddenly pulled up my shirt and said, "Let me see your baby!". I pulled up my shirt and she patted her hand on my belly and then gave it a kiss. (I melted)

I can't wait to see what she's doing to my belly when it's all full of baby!

Testing Testing

This is a test post!! No really it is a test post! See the pregnancy test that The Muffin is holding? It says "Pregnant"!
This picture was taken on September 29 and we showed it to Big Daddy when he got home from work. He thought I had taken a picture of The Muffin with a thermometer. (She was just getting over a case of croup and bronchitis, so he wasn't completely crazy!) I took The Muffin to the bathroom, gave her the real test and Big Daddy thought that she wanted to take his temperature!
We spent the rest of the evening talking about the Baby-to be and making plans for the future.