Thank you plus

There are people in Indianapolis who need recognition and I've been trying to think of a way to recognize them all that would make the job easy but still include all of them,  so my blog is going to serve as a thank you home for the day.
First I want to say thank you to chick fil a... Yeah that sounds corny but I came here with no friends and lived at first in a hotel room with no space to let the kids play. This restaurant picked up a special need for me.  They helped me make my first friend here in Indianapolis.  They also allowed me to pass out books on world book night to their customers which was awesome too!  So thank you chick fil a!
Next I want to recognize Lawana, I met her at chick fil a and she was so sweet helping me to Orient myself in the city and pointing me in the direction of good home school resources.  I only wish we had gotten together more. ..I am sorry I never did have you over for dinner like I was hoping Lawana! Keep being awesome lady!
Next another organization but within that, many many people.  Life church Indy.  Amazing church!  Amazing people!  I can't even begin to explain the blessings they have been to us!  The first time we went to church the staff let us use a computer to help us get the rental house we are now moving out of.  Then the church rallied together to help us move into the house,  the pastor and his wife (Tony and Laurie) even came and unloaded the trailer with our things into the house and got us a nice card to welcome us!
More about Tony and Laurie; they continued each week to say hello and find out how we were,  they prayed with us,  they treated us immediately like part of their family. When I ran across them on the way to see a movie they chatted with me like they had known me for years.  I will always consider them the best most welcoming family of God we have been lucky enough to be part of.
Inside of Life Church Indy there are small groups called life groups.  I only really had time to join one but ended up in 3. The first one was a Monday morning women's group focused on being the woman God created me to be,  something that has always been on my heart to continue daily to learn.  I'm sad that though the group isn't over tomorrow will be the last time I see many of these women.
Jaclyn- Your Heart is beautiful, thank you for welcoming me even though I didn't actually sign up!  And for being there for me in prayer and helping to organize help for my family while we prepare for this new part of our lives.
Amanda- Thank you for inviting me to join. I probably wouldn't have known how wonderful you all are with out that invitation!  And you're absolutely blessed with those three beautiful girls!
Brenna- I was so happy to see your face among the women in the group since you were one of few I had already met. And your friendship and kindness has been incredible.  I'm so thankful for all the things you've done for us including but not limited to babysitting our kids so we could have a date on our anniversary and buying us pizza the night Patrick was laid off.
Debbie-You are a kind hearted woman with a passion for service.  Your willingness to help us and the actual help you gave are laid on my heart as an example to follow. 
Lindsay- who could be with kids all day running around serving the way you do with such warmth and friendliness the way you do?  I appreciate you on so many levels I can not even begin to know how to tell you what your welcome alone did for us on Sunday mornings, but you are so much more than that!  I am praying for you. ..I love you! Rebecca and Carly- Thank you for being my accountability partners and keeping me motivated to do good and stay in the word and treat my husband with the kindness I should.  You both are treasures!  And your families are blessed to have you.
It is with great difficulty that I stop listing names among my Monday group. . But thank you to all of you!  I am blessed, so blessed by you all! And my prayers will include you all even if my blog does not. ..I love you and you know the wonderful gifts you have made toward my family and I love that about you! Tuesday mornings I attempted to attend another group.  I didn't go every week so it was difficult to really get to know every one but Kylin our leader had a heart of worship and lead us with a gentleness not many women possess any more.  Thank you Kylin!
Mandy came to my house during our garage sale this weekend simply to help me in whatever capacity I needed,  she showed up just in time to help me get my children fed lunch and with out her I don't know how I would have managed!  Thank you Mandy! And I'm sorry about not being sure I would know who you were. ..if it helps at all I had it figured out by the time you arrived. .lol.
Britney- Thank you for being the first friendly face for our family at church that first Sunday.  You set the tone for our whole experience!
Rose and Marcella-my children love you,  and your care of them was amazing.  I do appreciate the time each week that I am allowed to spend connecting with other women to be the mom I need to be for these previous gifts God has given me, and you provided that time!  Thank you!
Friday nights was the only time available that Patrick could attend a life group so we also joined one then.
Tana and Dave-thank you for being leaders with love, and for letting us into a part of your lives where you Dave were front and center in a miracle!  God is so incredibly good! I hope many more are coming your way! Your children and their care for the rest of the children in the group was amazing, as well as Millie's special love of Micah.
Outside of the groups but still in the church Thank You to Starla for taking us to the museum and always being a friendly face every time I saw you.  I only wish we had gotten a chance to get to know each other better.  Thank You to the men who helped us unload the things we didn't sell at the garage sale into the church pantry, I was so exhausted and your help made the job so much lighter!
So many other people need to be thanked I can't possibly fit them all in this blog. .. But know that my heart is always with you and your church will go down in my book as the best church I have had the pleasure of being a part of!
Thank you Indianapolis for being so wonderful to us, it has been great to be here and I hope the next stop for us will be just as rewarding!

Garage sale success! Yay God!

You may recall yesterday I was concerned about the rain making our garage sale not go well... I am very happy to announce that it went better than we could have even hoped! God pulled through in such amazing ways! Yesterday the rain quit at 11 am as predicted and the people started showing up in bigger numbers. We made almost $200 and I was happy about the items that sold. We were not able to pull out the beds or couches because the garage was so full and the rain lasted so long but we still sold a lot of the smaller things and almost all of them for the asking price. Today we managed to get the rest of our items out to the garage and driveway and display them. Things were selling so quick I was having a hard time keeping up with what people got and how much it cost but still managed and some customers were so helpful by translating English to Spanish for me since I never learned Spanish and we had a lot of Spanish speaking customers. Again many of our items were sold at the price I had asked, some for less but not less than I had wanted... No one bested me with their haggling, I rocked my own garage sale. I'm usually so bad at getting what I want for things but I often felt God prompting me to just say a price and sound confident so I did and people just went with it. We were getting worried that the big items wouldn't sell, like the couches and the dryer and some shelves Patrick made... But they all did. Then I said we would pack up and quit as soon as the kid's book shelves sold but it looked like they were not going to so we started putting things inside and a couple stopped and bought not only the two book shelves but also a Nicknack shelf my mom made me years ago. That marked the last thing of any real value that we really wanted to sell. It was amazing! The only thing that didn't sell was a table the kids use a lot that I really love anyway so it was OK it didn't sell. I may even try to find a way to bring it with us on our travels if it is possible. I'm so thrilled that all the little things still left are small and will fit in some boxes and be donated to the church in one trip. So begins the adventure of a life time!

selling it all

Let me just start by saying that I am writing this on my phone and am known for bad spelling when using it so please forgive me for any errors while reading this. Today is our first day of the garage sale. The weather called for light rain this morning. ...ha! I woke up at 5 am to a mild downpour. But I'm not worried about it. In my opinion God is much bigger than the weather and he knows I am doing this out of obedience to his call on our lives, so let it rain. I feel joy... I know that can be hard to believe. I'm incredibly stressed but I have joy and no one can take it away from me. Over Easter I screamed at my sister over the table, even swore at her, something I make a point never to say to anyone, and I said it to my sister, I feel like a real butt, however I realized my joy had been stolen, not by her, but by life. It isn't fair to take that out on another person, and it isn't right to let anything, anyone, or any situation steal what you alone can hold onto, Your joy. So I'm turning a new leaf. Despite all that I feel had been torn away from me I will have joy. And hopefully I will also have some customers, otherwise the church will be severely blessed by the amount of stuff I bring them on Monday. Life, God, Satan, bring what you may, I chose joy.

The best moment

The best moment?  When your six month old son who makes a lot of noise but not really babbling sounds clearly says mama while looking directly at you.
I had been trying to get him to have baby babbling conversations with me earlier in the day but he just wouldn't do it. .. And then while he was playing and I was doing some work to prepare the house he looked over at me and just said "mama" which is what my older kids call me so it wasn't as if he hasn't ever heard it before.
Caeden's first word was "hi" probably because I would greet him with "Hi baby" every time I came to where he was.  Fia's first word was "bottle" or the way she said it "bobble" since I had wanted to breast feed her and couldn't get it right it was both exciting and heart breaking for that to be her first word,  interestingly enough she said it very clearly while looking right at it and reaching for it,  but to my knowledge never said it again.
People always say the first word is usually mama or dada but until now that hasn't been the case for us. Thank you Micah!

Change and more and more and more change

We are embarking on the journey of a life time!
First off Micah was born in October, and his birth was amazing, go here for the full story.  But Patrick had taken a job in Oklahoma and it was pure joy to me that he was able to be at our sons birth.
A few days later however Patrick was laid off... big learning experience ladies and gentlemen!  Don't take a job without first asking if it is a long term position. 
So the kids and I were planning to move to my parents house until after Thanksgiving so that 1. my new born wouldn't be quite so newborn when traveling across the country, and 2. we could savor one last holiday with my family before leaving... well since plans changed we ended up staying until after Christmas instead praying for a new place to gain employment and find our lives back on track.
The holidays were great and Patrick found work in Indianapolis!  I joined him with the kids a few days after he left, and we stayed in a hotel for a few weeks.  Open your eyes to a whole new world!  There are tons of people living in hotels! Who knew? Not me, I mean I knew a few people who were homeless and got a room when ever they could afford it, but not that they actually LIVED in a HOTEL FULL TIME, it was interesting to learn about.
We were cramped and had been at this new company long enough that we felt it might be safe, and Patrick and I started looking for a place to rent. 
We found one, in Avon, and it was nicely placed just down the road from the church we started attending. It was a little small but I set straight to work unpacking and trying to form some resemblance of home. 
Then Patrick was laid off again.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME? yup he was now unemployed and so far from a long enough employment that we couldn't even fight unemployment to get the compensation to help us out.  Good thing Patrick is a saver, cause we'd be up a creek so to speak if it were not for him!
So what are we doing now?  Well I'm glad you asked.
We bought a 5th wheel and we are going through everything we own downsizing and selling and packing and storing.... We are literally selling as much as we can let go of.  I however refuse to get rid of the bed Patrick bought for me when we got married (who cares about the mattress I'm talking the frame), the bed all our children were conceived in, and the bed Micah was born in... yes born at home in our bed... this bed means a lot to me... so we are storing it in a storage unit along with a few things that each family member is to attached to let go of.  The rest is being assessed for usability and either going into the 5th wheel or being sold at our garage sale the last weekend of this month.
It is emotional, it is stressful, it is fun, it is crazy!
But we are doing it!
Patrick reports to a practical exam in PA on Wednesday, if he passes then we all move to PA to make a living in a 5th wheel full time, if not, then we park in the lot at mom and dad's house, this time not sharing dishes, only a bathroom with the rest of the family.  I'm excited, either way this goes I get to have my home, no packing involved, no matter where we live.
If we move to PA I plan to make some grand homeschooling memories by visiting places like the Brandywine Creek War memorial (don't quote me on that name, I just know it is Brandywine creek), and though it is of less historical value, we will visit Hershey PA... YUM!
This weekend we travel to MI, I am attending my Sister-in-law's (Welcome to the family Hannah!) baby shower, hosting Easter at mom and dad's house and packing all that we don't need RIGHT AWAY into the 5th wheel.
At church today (this church is amazing, if you are ever in Indianapolis or Avon Indiana you simply must visit it, the church welcomes you like family RIGHT AWAY!) a few people asked me how I was doing, a typical question that you come across from every direction no matter where you are, but here... they mean it... however my only answer is "I don't know!"  I can say this with a smile on my face, but seriously folks I have no idea how I'm doing.  I cry, I laugh, I pack, I move things, I take care of kids, I cook, but I really don't have much time right now to relax.. if I could maybe I'd have time to assess my thoughts and emotions, but I don't have that kind of time right now.

You've popped

Some of the things we say in pregnancy are just funny to me.  When waiting for our bellies to finally show that we are pregnant we say "I can't wait for my belly to pop!"  and when it finally does show someone will say "Wow, you've really popped!"  And Later still when our bellies are hugely uncomfortable and we are ready to meet our little bundle of joy we comment about how we feel as if we will pop, explode, or rip open if our skin tries to stretch any more.  Some how it just seems backward to me.  We want to pop, we say we did, and then later we feel like we will.
I personally have started to 'show' my pregnancy, and for the first time discovered some very comfortable and cute ways to dress during my pregnancy.  I'm actually loving my limited clothing selection for the first time.  I bought a couple of summer dresses that I will be able to wear in or out of pregnancy, and pulled out some leggings I bought awhile ago and I'm wearing some of those short dresses that I can still fit with leggings under them.  I also for the first time get to wear shorts while pregnant.  I mean I've worn shorts before, but either didn't need my cute maternity ones or just plain didn't need them due to the weather.  This year, being that it is July and I'm half way through pregnancy I have needed a lot more of my summer clothing, and a lot less of the winter wear I had for both of my December born little ones.  I don't know if anyone else would call my clothing cute or not, but I'm certainly enjoying my options more this time.

Man it is hot right now.  I hope this heat lets up a bit in the next few days, it really is miserable.  The air conditioner is on, but unless I leave all the bedroom doors open with the fans on it is incredibly warm upstairs and comfortable downstairs, and cold in the basement... I think it is just the nature of the basement though because we have the vents closed down there, I've even gotten into the habit of leaving the basement door open all day to hopefully cycle some of the air.
The heat though leads me to an interesting yet horrible story from yesterday. 
I woke up much like any other day, had a good breakfast with a small glass of orange juice and asked my husband if he was ready to go on the walk he promised me the day before, he said no.... so I decided he could keep the kids at home and I'd go alone and get a much needed little mommy break.
We have a wonderful wide path that leads through the woods and down to the river, the walk there and back takes maybe 30 minutes.  I intended to do that and return home.  About halfway to the river I realized that I'd left my water at home, fearing that if I went home I may not get my walk at all I decided to just continue walking and be sure to get a good drink when I returned.   Once I reached the river there were a lot of people docking their canoes and tubes to get out of them and stretch their legs, I didn't feel like going down there by myself but really needed to cool off a little so I decided to adventure along the edge of the river down a path that I hoped would lead to another little beach pull off that I'd only just recently heard of.  Down the path just far enough that I didn't want to turn around the over growth on the path became really bad and I wondered if I kept going if I'd just end up losing the path anyway, then I spotted what might have been poison ivy and decided that walking through tall overgrowth in shorts was a bad idea so I turned off the path headed away from the river knowing that there was another much larger path that followed the back of my neighborhood, in that direction and hoping I would meet up with it and then continue my walk from there. 
Shortly after turning off the path I began to feel signs of dehydration, followed closely with extreme annoyance at the mosquitoes which seemed to think the humidity of the day and the short bursts of sprinkles the clouds above me were giving off were good reason to feast on my flesh.  Then their were the stupid fruit flies or cousins of them, that were swarming around my head and flying directly into my eyes, needless to say this walk was turning miserable very quickly.
I tried my best to keep a good attitude and just pray.  I prayed I'd find the path soon, that I'd feel a second wind soon, that the rain would either come or completely disappear, that the mosquitoes would leave me alone, and I prayed that I could maintain a good attitude, the last prayer was the only one that happened very quickly at all.  I amazingly kept a pretty good attitude, interrupted by a few circumstances and then quickly recovered.
Unfortunately unlike my attitude what I couldn't recover was my hydration.  I started to feel as if I was going to faint and sat down, got bit by a cloud of mosquitoes and moved on, then feeling even more faintish I had to stop and had no choice but to lay down in the dirty leaves and bugs.  Amazingly this close to the ground the bugs seemed not to be so interested in me, so for that I'm thankful.  A little while later I decided to slowly rise and get myself out of the woods, as laying there wasn't really getting me anywhere and I had no idea where I was.  All I knew for sure was that my house was north, the river was south, and the path that I originally came in on was west, but much too far away to try to venture toward it, so I opted to go toward what would either spit me out on the path I had been looking for, or my neighborhood, North.
I tripped and hurt my wrist, thankfully not bad and it was completely recovered after probably 10 minutes.  I swatted more of the stupid bugs, encountered a lot more poison ivy looking plants and walked on logs that were much too rotted to support me resulting in a few not so dangerous falls.  I laid down a total of three times, each time thinking when I finally found my neighborhood I was probably going to look like a cave woman, or a monster emerging from the woods. 
I had my cell phone on me but knew it would do me no good to call anyone until I figured out where I was, so I did try my husband a few times but when he didn't answer I didn't worry about it.  My dehydration lead to puking, which let me know that I was in serious need of getting out of the woods pretty soon.  While laying on the ground shortly after puking I felt the baby moving in my belly and thought what a good thing that was, since likely the baby had no idea how bad of shape I was in.
Not so long after the puking I finally met up with that stupid path I'd been looking for.  By this time I really had no idea which way I should head on it but chose a direction and called my husband again.  He answered this time and quickly realized that I needed help (thank goodness he wasn't laughing at me.. the girl who grew up outside and playing in the woods, and should know better than this.) I told him to pack the kids in the car and I'd call him back as soon as I knew where I was and I needed him to come pick me up.  I found houses shortly after that and he called to see what direction he should head in since I hadn't found a road yet, and I told him to head East as I'd wandered quite a ways past our house.  It didn't take long from that point to find the road, and once I did Patrick was there in a mater of seconds to pick me up.  Had I managed to go much further east (hadn't intended to be going east at all) I wouldn't have been in my neighborhood at all.  I was at one of the last streets in my neighborhood before a whole lot more woods separates our neighborhood from town. 
After getting home I soaked in a bath for about 30 minutes and drank a glass of water, ate a light lunch and took a nap. I'm glad to say that I'm ok, and am not worried one bit about the wiggly little baby inside me since it seems to be moving just as much or more than before my woodland adventure.
So what did I learn?  Stay out of the woods, stay on the path, take water with you, and don't go alone in the heat!  Pregnancy is not a time to adventure off by yourself.  One other wonderful thing to note is that while I was a little worried that the dehydration could lead to early labor, I didn't have even a single Braxton hicks contraction.

Poor vision

A few months ago I took Fia to the eye doctor, it seems that her eyes have gotten worse since infancy rather than better and it was just time to get that sorted out.  Come to find out she actually had severely farsighted eyes with astigmatism in one of them.  The astigmatism really didn't come as a surprise, I myself have them, and it runs in my family for generations.  The severely farsighted diagnosis was however shocking to me. 
  I had noticed that one eye would turn in while she ate or concentrated on something hard, but figured she had a lazy eye, not one that was working WAY too hard to do small tasks.  It was also shocking that this beautiful little girl who has always had early small motor skills was having trouble with her up-close vision.  If anything I would have assumed perhaps she was near-sighted. Boy was I wrong. 
She has a corrective pair of glasses now that are adorable!  They are also twice as strong as the strongest pair of over the counter reading glasses you can buy.  Wow my poor girl has lived nearly two and a half years unable to see things clearly and did so well at hiding it.  Had I not sat directly across the table from her at meal time I never would have known that she was struggling in this way.
  So now that she has these adorable glasses and I've adjusted to the fact that she needed them, because believe me it was an adjustment, I've been looking into why she might need them.  Patrick has glasses, they are for near-sightedness, he (I think) didn't get his first pair until after high school.  I have the tiniest prescription you can get for reading glasses that I got when I was in middle or high school and my vision hasn't changed at all since then, though I've had it tested and gotten new pairs of glasses over the years. 
  I have an appointment set up for Caeden to have his eyes checked this month, I'll feel awful if he needs glasses too since he is even older than Fia, but I don't think he does.  So why would Fia need such a strong prescription when there really isn't much family history of needing glasses, at least not in childhood? 
  This led me to her birth, which is the only thing that was completely different from the rest of our family... she was born by C-section due to cord prolapse, which means she had a lack of oxygen leading up to her delivery.  I've heard of incubated babies getting too much oxygen and loosing their eye sight, but never heard of a lack of oxygen causing eye problems, though it sounds like it could be related to me.
  I did a mini search with my friend google, and found this website that though it isn't extensive in it's description it does offer some insight to Fia's vision problems.  Apparently the lack of oxygen could really be the reason she has vision problems.  Somehow above all the things I went through, all that I felt, didn't feel, and mentally and emotionally overcame, this is one thing that makes me want to turn around and sue the heck out of the hospital that delivered my daughter.  Now it isn't just me... I have some small amount of proof that not only did they mess me up, they also messed up my daughter with their impatience.
Would I sue them?  Probably not.  What good would it do?  But I hate that they did this to my baby and can get away with it.  I'm willing to bet that her eczema has something to do with that wretched c-section too... though honestly I really don't have proof of that, except that stress triggers more itching than normal.
Ok, I'm done with my mini rant.  Fia is adorable in her glasses and she is a beauty inside and out.