All things are go! Baby Facemyer just needs to decide that it is time to come out! I met with my midwife today and two of her apprentices. I gladly let them check my belly and listen to the heartbeat, so that they can learn more about midwifery and go on to offer home births! (I know that there is much more to midwifery than checking heart rates, fundal height and baby positioning, but every little bit helps!) So the baby’s heart rate is good, growth is good, plenty of room for him/her to grow and he/she is in a great position. My heart rate, blood pressure and all other things are great.

I took Karol with me today and left the girls with the wife of Joshua’s boss. (They offered) Karol was supposed to stay behind too, but his nose running a bit and he had a cough, so I took him with me. He seems fine now, laying on the couch watching Star Trek – Deep Space Nine with Joshua. Karol was great today. First we had to meet with the doctor that my midwife works with to pick up a few items for the birth then we headed to the midwife’s office. Karol played quietly and did a great job of keeping himself occupied while the ladies and I talked.

On the way home, we stopped for lunch (at Zaxby’s, yum!) and Karol requested “baking soda” for his drink. He is so funny. Since he did a great job, I allowed him to have one.

We picked Joshua up and got the girls, then headed back home. Joshua has volunteered my services to his company to fold newsletters and put labels on them for young men who may have vocations to the Priesthood. I am a dork and love to do thinks like that anyway plus it is for a great cause. He headed back to work and I rested/folded

I headed to Target after Joshua got home from work to pick up a prescription and discovered that our local Target does not have a Pharmacy. Boo. I picked up a few things that we needed and headed home. I was done for after that. Tired. Did I mention my day started at 230 when I woke up and just could not get back to sleep? I managed to get about 20 minutes of sleep from 630 to 650 but that was it.

I sat in our room for a bit while Joshua made dinner (left overs, simple!)  and started to feel a bit better. I reemerged to help clean things up and watch a show with him and the kiddos.

I hope to have the baby soon, like very soon. 🙂 Tomorrow is my niece, Maddie’s, first birthday, it would be nice for them to share. One of my Grandma Kress’ birthdays is September 6th (I say one, because there is some question to her actual birthdate, the records were not kept very well and there were something like 14 siblings, so the county records were not accurate). Also, her and my grandfather’s  wedding anniversary was September 5th, so those two days would be nice too. Our Lady’s birthday is the 8th, so hey, what better day to share!

Joshua is now asking me if I am writing a book, so I suppose I should let him get to business that he needs to do on the laptop.

…because she shared this on her Face.book today. I like her for other reasons too but this is icing on the cake.

Have you ever heard of Pickyourown.org? I discovered it a few years ago, when looking for a recipe for from scratch pumpkin pie and have used it many times since to find apple orchards, farmers markets and Christmas Tree farms. Today, while looking for apple orchards around here, I saw this gem. It is a list of harvest dates for the state of Georgia. Ahh, of course, harvest times are way earlier here, duh, I just didn’t realize how much earlier! Pecan season is coming up this week!

This is all good information to know!

For starters, no baby yet. That is okay, tomorrow is 38 weeks, so I am not too disappointed.

I had hoped to go for a walk today, as it was cool out all day, but it started to rain and did not let up, so no walk. Instead, we pulled out some baby boy and baby girl clothes as well as folded all the clothes I started working with on Friday. It is nice to have everything folded and it its place.

I took a break to make a Tres Leche cake for tomorrow. It is a regular yellow cake soaked in a “syrup” of evaporated milk, sweeten condensed milk and half and half. After letting it soak overnight, you top it with whipped cream. I have never made it before but became obsessed with it after watching Alton Brown make it on Good Eats.

Saturday we did go to Jekyll Island. As we pulled on tot the island, it started to rain. We went to the “Turtle Hospital” first then decided that since it was only raining and not storming, we would go to the beach anyway. It was  a great time. We swam at the same beach where the movie Glory was filmed. The kids had so much fun playing in the waves and were not afraid like last time.

After leaving the beach, we did something we have never done before. We went out to eat. Well, since the kids decided they were tired and fell asleep before we found a place to eat, we decided to stop at a drive thru, something we hardly ever do. We had decided on Zaxby’s but just as we were turning around to go back, Joshua spotted Captain D’s. I had my heart set on Zaxby’s so Joshua said I could get my dinner from there. Yes! Zaxby’s has the best ice plus they have Cherry Soda. Mix that with a bit of Coke and it is great.

We stopped at Kroger in Waycross on the way home. I love Kroger, they are so much cheaper than grocery stores in this area. I stocked up on flour and sugar along with a few other items. While I was in the store, Joshua took time to organize the van so when we got home, things would be easier to unload. What a great guy.

The week ahead will see us probably preparing more for the birth of our little one, something we are all looking forward to. Pray for an early delivery and quick and soon!

I have this crazy idea to go to the beach again tomorrow. Jekyll Island is 2 hours away from us here and I think I have convinced my husband that we should go. I have to say, I have really fallen in love with the Atlantic. While the Great Lakes will always be my first love, the Atlantic takes a close second. The waves are endless and awesome to ride. The kids have lots of sand to run on and dig in and I can relax.

The weather here is in the 80s today and tomorrow! Of course, the cool weather of today is brought on by rain showers, a major down pour right now…nice.

Today I sorted the last box of kids clothes from the move. These are clothes that I just tossed in to a box, so they really needed a good sort. I put away all of Caecilia’s 18 month clothes and now she shares with Margaret. I have to roll pants up, if she wears them, but everything else fits.

Since I am willing to leave the house tomorrow, I think that means no baby this weekend! 🙂

The bedroom has been rearranged! The biggest bonus of the moving of the bed is that now the bed is directly under the air vent. Cool air is blowing on me now, I am somewhat chilly! Ahhhh.

A friend commented on my previous post about being excited about finding out the name and gender of the baby. I have to say, that I am like a kid on Christmas morning right now. I am very excited to find out what we are having and to share the name we have finally decided on. Trust me, they ROCK!

Dinner ended up not being the AB chicken. When I opened the packed, what I thought was an already butterflied chicken turned out to be just a whole chicken cut up. I placed it in a 9 x 13 pan, on top of chopped onions, carrots and celery then baked it  with a sprinkle of Old Bay Seasonings. Served with mashed potatoes and gravy, yum!

I was reading Laura’s blog and she has a nesting list. I am two weeks away from my due date and I am just now thinking of what to do for the baby. Laura has clothes washed and folded. Me? I thought of going to Target to pick up a packet or two of onesies to get through the first week. (After all, our newborn clothes are all winter clothes!!)

Sigh. Laura, you are my nesting hero.

I have had some thoughts of preparing for the baby today though. I have a nice list for Joshua started. It starts with moving boxes around the work room, so that it we can put more totes back there, moving the gray totes from our room to the work room, move bedroom furniture around for easier home birth set up and move the changing table in to our room for the midwife to use as a set up station.

Joshua worked from home today, so I took the older two to the library and they got their own library cards and were able to pick out a book each. I took out a Little House book to read to the kids along with a book about the citrus growing area for Karol to read with me. Last night I took the two older ones out to the park and they had such a good time. Fear not, I do play with Caecila during the day, but it is very hard for me to take all of them out right now.

I actually have this image in my mind of what October will be like. I will take the kids over to the park, with the wee baby in the sling, and while they play, I will read and drink coffee. I also imagine that there will be crisp cool-ish air. (Does the humidity ever quit down here?!)

I have plans for dinner tonight too, a roast chicken recipe from Alton Brown. AB has yet to let me down, so I look forward to making it. Thankfully it takes about fifteen minutes to prepare and a half hour to bake. I think I may make biscuits to go along with it, I really like AB’s biscuit recipe. Of course, one cannot have roasted chicken without having mashed potatoes. I really like mashed potatoes, really really really like them.

Have a great Wednesday, everyone!

Yep, yep, yep, we certainly are. We have been going back and forth about registering at a parish and have not quite felt comfortable with the parish here in town. The next parish over, while a nice building with a good homily has actually set the standard for the worst a Catholic parish can get in terms of music. (Yes, Marion, St Mary people, it was that bad, Joshua concurs).

We had heard about a parish north of here, in Macon. Macon, for your daily geography lesson, is 150 miles north of here. We had heard about it from Joshua’s boss, who has known the pastor there for many a years. Joshua contacted Father and after a conversation and an email exchange, we decided to head up there to visit the parish for Mass.

Best Call Ever.

We have been searching for a parish since we left Indiana three and a half years ago and we have finally found one where we feel at home, St Joseph in Macon, Georgia. Sure, it is 150 miles away, yes it takes two hours to get there, without traffic, no we will not be able to go to Mass there every Sunday, but we will try to at least once, perhaps twice a month.

We were able to meet with Father right after Mass also and set up a date for the Baptism of baby, provided he/she arrives on time. Father was very wonderful in that regard, opening his schedule and offering a date for us, shortly after my due date, but with understanding that we might have to change! (Pray that he/she comes early, for the sake of my sanity!)

(Major Topic Jump Ahead)

Groceries here in our part of the state are expensive. The produce is from Chile, Canada and California. The peaches at the store are from anywhere but Georgia. (Raise your hand if your grocery store had Georgia Peaches right now!) In addition to being from points yonder, produce is also expensive. We are talking about $2 for a green pepper, $1.50 for a single cucumber and 70 cents a pound for bananas. All of which go bad within two days of purchase.

I found a fruit and veggie market south of town that stocks more local produce, tomatoes from Tennessee, peaches from Georgia, cucumbers from a local grower with out wax four for a dollar and green peppers, three for a dollar! So, I solved my produce issue. However, we do eat other items, like cheese, milk and meat,  that are almost cost prohibitive for us and I really had to shrink back what we bought because I could find myself spending my weekly grocery budget on food that really would not last the week. Meal planning really helped stretch the food out, but I wanted to find more of a way to stock up on staples with out killing our bank.

Kroger is the answer, Kroger has always been the answer to our family grocery budget. Of course, we  do not have a Kroger here in town, but there is one in Macon! This morning, we put the cooler in the van and headed up the road. After mass we went to Kroger and honestly, I was so thrilled to be there. First of all, the produce section (though not needed) was nice and organized as well as very fresh looking but most of all, things were so much cheaper up there. Of course, we hit a few sales but also stocked up on things that we just cannot get for a good price here, like frozen orange juice and meat and loaded up the cooler.

We figure that when we go up for Mass, we will stock up at Kroger also. Of course, we need to plan for lunch a bit better. We planned on buying something from the deli section of Kroger then eating at a park. We stopped at a rest area on 75 and were attacked by gnats, so just got back in the van and headed home, eating lunch at 230. The kids were good about it though, as they were about everything today!

So that is the update from our house. Tomorrow marks 37 weeks for me, safe home birth territory. My midwife has told me that she considers herself on call for me as of last week, so I hope hope hope to have this wee one soon. I have a lot of braxton hicks contractions and am totally uncomfortable all the time. I can breathe today, so perhaps the baby dropped a bit, cause yesterday, it was very hard to catch my breath.

Happy Sunday All!!

A few months ago, I came across this blog.  Take a moment to read it, if you can and offer a few prayers for this courageous young man.