From great to not so good...

Sunday evening shortly after our father's day meal I was starting to feel a little crampy but assumed it was indigestion. Whenever I woke during the night I would have the same discomfort. Monday I laid around all day because I kept having cramping, but it seemed to be above the baby so I thought maybe it was something else. When things didn't settle down by evening we decided to go in and get checked out. I was having contractions but they were not doing anything to my cervix which is good. They did a couple tests, one which said I was not going into labor and sent me home. Today has been a little better although if I am on my feet very long (like 15 or 20 minutes) I start to get crampy again. The hospital said lots of things can cause non-labor contractions, sometimes you never find out why. I am hoping this will pass soon so I can at least keep up with the daily house-work. I have several good friends in the area and my mom-in-law about an hour away that have offered any help I need, hopefully I won't have to take them up on it, but I am glad to know they are there even though they are quite busy themselves.

So even though this isn't the best thing to happen in a pregnancy, the baby is still where he/she belongs and appears to be doing just fine. I have soooo much to be thankful for.

New laptop

I absolutely LOVE my "new" used laptop!!! The battery lasts a very long time!!! Just like the Energizer bunny it keeps going and going and going... I didn't know it was even possible to last that long. The speed is way better too.

I'm a very happy camper right now if you can't tell. :)

I was just working on a schedule for our summer. We are doing a little summer school which should be less than a couple hours, but it seems to take a long time because we don't have a plan. I need to have the older children take turns taking care of the younger ones while I do individual school with those that need my help. I've got a good plan if we can implement it and stick to it.

Friday Mom Plattner and Uncle Dick Graham are coming; Uncle Dick is going to put up a border for me in the kitchen and Mom will help with the children so I can paint my room without interuption; at least, with minimal interuption I hope.

I got a valance for my kitchen at a garage sale some time ago and I happened to find a matching border at another yard sale this spring that is big enough for my kitchen.

I will try to post pictures of the completed project.

That is enough for now lest I bore some of you. :) Good Night!

Tremont Turkey Festival Parade

We went to the Tremont Turkey Festival Parade this afternoon. For the last couple years we have gone to this one since we no longer go to Mt. Morris for the 4th of July. We thought we had the best spot as we were at the beginning of the line and had close parking. We would be of the first to leave and not get messed up in traffic. We soon realized that the front is not necessarily the best if you want to limit the candy consumption. The end would be much better because then the candy throwers would be out of candy or at least nearly so. Not including the candy that was eaten, we brought home a grand total of 8 pounds of candy. The children were forwarned that they would have to share and they would not keep it all to themselves. At bedtime we sorted through it and determined what the favorites would be and then sent the children to get ready for bed while Chad and I made a package for him to take to work for everyone to eat. We kept about a third of the candy to be eaten only with permission.

Here are some friends from church across the street from us. Sorry the photo quality is so bad, I used Chad's phone to take the pictures.

Nolan Wagenbach, Jolene, and Jonas watching the parade and hoping for more candy.

I'm not sure if Jolene was sharing her candy with Nolan (who showed up near the end) or if she was just showing off how much she collected.

Jonas enjoying his sucker. He wouldn't take his eyes off the parade long enough for me to get a good picture. He was most interested in the tractors that went by.

Afterward we went home and got the rest of the food ready to have a cook out with some friends from church. We were supposed to host Family Ball on Friday night but there were enough that cancelled so we decided to call it off. Jolene was devastated, I don't think it had much to do with playing ball, but the social aspect of being with her little friend, Lexi. I told her maybe we could have company Sunday if we had a good weekend. So we had Lexi's family and another family with a boy in the age range of our older boys. It turned out to be a nice comfortable evening so we ate out on the drive. Pretty soon our patio add on will be complete and we can set the tables up back there for company.

Well, I am the last one awake, it's 11:36 which is terribly late for us. We plan to sleep in since the children got to bed so late, it wouldn't be profitable to have devotions with half asleep grouchy children, so we will have to wait till evening for that. I hope I will be able to blog again soon! Good Night!!!

Another boring update!

Just thought I would give a quick update. Hopefully things will pick up soon. We got our "new" hand me down computer and Chad is working on getting all the files transferred. Hopefully next week I can start some normal blogs with pictures and maybe they will be a little more consistent so you don't have to get bored with the monthly or later updates.

We have had a busy month. We were gone 4 Sundays out of 6 with our various travels, 2 weddings, a camping trip, and some time with my family. I hope we are done with that type of travel for awhile. We have a wedding in October and it wouldn't hurt my feelings if we stayed home till then. I've enjoyed all that we have done, but it gets us out of routine and that I don't like.

We do plan to have a busy summer even without travels. All the unfinished projects we have been living with for the last 5 years we are hoping to finish by the middle of August. It is quite exciting to me, but if I don't stay organized it will be easy to get behind and lose track of priorities. While we were in Ohio someone installed our railings in the main entrance and our mud entry. We stained them last weekend and hope to get them varnished soon. There are many others and I will try to keep you updated as we go.

All are in bed, I'm supposed to be, so I best say good night!!!