Four to Six Weeks and Counting

We're getting closer each day to the "official" due date for our little one's arrival. I finally finished up the painting and will be moving the furniture in the room this week sometime. I'm hoping to have most everything done and in place at least 2 weeks before due date in case he decides to show up a little early. We went to a child birth class on Saturday morning. It was good and we were able to really focus on the things we hope to do a little different from the last round when Benjamin was born.

We planted a couple of apple trees in the yard. Seems that our yard is already planted with a variety of trees and shrubs that we had mostly forgotten about since we moved in back in August. It's been great to see all the different flowers pop up this spring. The apple trees will add a little new dimension because to our knowledge they will be the first real fruit bearing trees we have.

We also picked up a couple of nice solid wood unfinished furniture pieces. I think this past month was the first time we have acutually bought more than one piece of furniture since we have been married. We went with solid wood unfinished pieces to give up better quality that should last much longer. I should be able to get them finished in the next month or two. I'm looking foward to getting to work on them.

Sarah's doing well but having those third trimester aches and pains and lack of sleep. We're really considering switching from using an Ob-gyn to a midwife. We'll plan on deciding prior to our next Dr appointment in a little over a week.

Retreat Weekend

Sarah and I took a long weekend for ourselves. Sarah's parents graciously watched Benjamin so we could get away for a weekend before the new baby comes. We spent 3 nights at a The Homestead Bed & Breakfast in Bardstown, KY. We saw most of the sites in Bardstown, checked out an Abbey in Gethsamanie, KY, walked a trail at Bernhaim Forrest near Louisville, ate dinner at one of our favorite resturants in Louisville, and had dessert at the infamous Homemade Ice-cream and Pie Kitchen. We talked about the upcoming arrival of the new baby and discussed our plans for the time around the due date. We took the back road highways from Bardstown to Bowling Green on our way home instead of the interstate. It's was a good weekend and nice to finally spend a few days on a semi-vacation.

I've added a few pictures to a flickr site. I'll be added a few more in the next several days. If you want to look at all of them go the http://www.flickr.com/photos/hrlittlephotos and click on 2007. Hope you enjoy.

Good News

We had another pregnancy Dr appointment yesterday. Sarah's sugar test came in very good and we had a followup ultrasound and everything looked to be on track. We'd been a little concerned based on the previous one but no worries at this point. Sarah's been doing really well with work-out routine in the mornings and I'm proud that she musters up the energy to get up early and knock it out before the rest of us drag ourselves out of bed.

We made good progress on the baby's room. I completed most of priming and hope to have the walls completely done by the end of February.... maybe the trim as well. I hope to complete at least the early stages of painting our downstairs bathroom before Benjamin and I leave town this weekend.

Benjamin has really been enjoying a big box that we gave him. He'll play hide in it and then he wants us to pass him small toys through the wholes where your hands go to pick up the box. It's been an absolute riot.

The temperature really dropped last night and we had a mild icy/snow mix. This morning it's basically been snowing all morning. Benjamin and I went out for a few minutes to put out some bird seed so we can watch them eat in the snow from the warmth of our living room.

Benjamin and I head to Mississippi late Thursday to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. She's a pretty amazing woman and I'm glad that Benjamin can have a relationship with her. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll have a good turnout for the celebration on Sunday afternoon.

I'm about half-way done with The Winter of our Discontent by John Steinbeck. I think it's been over 10 years since I've read any of his works. I've enjoyed most of what I've read by him in the past and picked this work up at a local used bookstore here in Berea. I find the title a bit ironic since I seem to enjoy cold weather so much.

6 Years and A Day

Yesterday was Sarah and my 6 year anniversary. We had someone come over to watch Benjamin so we could go out for a while. We went to the Shaker Village just north of Harrodsburg, KY (http://www.shakervillageky.org/) to eat at the restaurant and walk around the grounds. The food, service, and ambiance were all just right. We had been there once before when we were first dating at Asbury so it was nice to reminisce a little. After dinner we ... or rather I ... decided that since Sarah likes Christmas lights that we would go to the Kentucky Horse Park to see their Christmas light display (http://www.kyhorsepark.com/khp/holiday/). It sounded like a great idea but when we arrived there was a large line of people who had the same idea. We decided to go ahead a wait because the line of traffic was moving at a decent pace and we could see ... at a reasonable... distance the entrance to the park. As we proceeded we discovered that the organizers had looped the traffic about a mile down the road ... by this time were stuck in a very long line of cars. So exactly an hour after we entered the line of cars ... we actually entered the park. Then it was another 40 minutes before we were able to exit and return to Berea to relieve our baby-sitter now that we were well over an hour delayed.

This morning Sarah woke up feeling bad. She hadn't slept well and felt rather nauseated. This has not been a normal part of this pregnancy so I knew something wasn't right. To top things off she was scheduled to sing in the church Christmas program for 2 church services and also to sing a solo during each service. She suffered through the first service... came home and rested for 30-40 minutes and then returned to church. She did a great job during the second service but was ready to return home right afterwards and has been in the bed ever since. I was proud that she was singing in the choir and taking on the solo ... but am very proud that she mustered up the little energy she had remaining to sing this morning.

Random Reflections

Sarah's staring to hmm... NEST... a little. She was really into baking over Thansgiving and then made a choclate bunt cake with choclate icing... she's pretty talented. She also talking about sewing and sewing machines and mini-vans .... whoa now. No mini-vans for a while and I'm not sure where this sewing stuff came from. I'm finding it quite funny.

Benjamin must be fighting a cold or going through yet another growth spurt. Normally he takes one to two naps a day for a total of 2 1/2 hours of naps. Today he's slept for 4 hours and it wasn't because he wore himself out the day before. Maybe he's experiencing CHRISTMAS TREE anxiety... you know when you see something really shiny and sparkelly and you reach up to touch it and someone bellows no... then after the go to the other room you reach up to touch it and the little good angle on the left side says no ... but the little red one says go ahead and take it off the tree - so he sits there and shakes his head and says no... no... but keeps reaching... until someone says "just look... no touching..." He just sits on the window sile and stares at the lights and ornaments....

Clemson/KY bowl games... looks like it'll be a sellout. UK sold 20,000 tickets in no time and Clemson is reporting it will most likely sell-out. Maybe the SEC folks can teach the ACC team a little something...

Movie & Football

Sarah and I watched End of the Spear on last Friday night. It's a fairly new release chronicling the story of Nate Saint, Jim Elliot and 3 other missionary familys with their work with the Waodani. Several years ago I read Shadow of the Almighty by Elizabeth Elliot. The book really changed the way I viewed things and was a large influence on several major decisions in my life. So naturally I was very skeptical of any movie based on the same events. I was very pleased with the movie and would recommend checking it out if you have the chance.

On a much more superficial note - I was very happy to see UK beat GA last saturday. Sarah and I are also pulling for Louisville to make it to the BCS championship game. Of course I'm also pulling for USM to become bowl eligable as well.

What's the diagnosis?

For about the last month or so I've been concerned about my wife. She has really been eating some bizarre mixes of foods and not eating others all together. I thought I'd share with you a list of things and see if maybe you might could help me figure out what might be up?

1. In about three days she polished off 3 regular size bags of potato chips. They weren't even the kind she normall likes - these were Taco flavored, and Cool Ranch
2. She made a glass of chocolate milk with Hershey's Syrup and had it with her dinner one night
3. She made macaroni & cheese from a box (I can't remember the last time she did that)
4. She ate Prunes while Drinking Hot chocolate
5. She really, really was insistent about getting guacamole at the Mexican restaurant we went to one evening
6. We were watching a TV show one night... she went to the kitchen to get a little snack and came back with a small box of raisins, a small bowl of Ice Cream, some Ritz Crackers, and some grapes...
7. She's averaging at least one meal per day of nothing but cream of wheat
8. Yesterday when she came home for lunch it was left-over day... with two large pork-chops grilled & BBQ style, broccoli casserole, sliced tomatoes ... but she opted for crackers & cheese instead
9. Another night she made some hot chocolate and then had crackers, pepperoni and cheese with it
10. She comes home for lunch and then can't seem to keep her mind off of a hamburger from a fast food place (ie. McDonalds or Sonic)

Birthday

We’ll it looks like my wife has been scheming the last several weeks… working to provide me a nice big birthday weekend. It started on Friday night when she arranged for a baby-sitter to watch little Benjamin so the two of us could go to a local moderately upscale

resturant . Its about 15 miles from Berea and sits on top of a hill with a nice overlook. A portion of the drive to the restaurant goes through a narrow two lane road with some great scenery: ie. A small waterfall, a canopy of trees overhanging the road, Kentucky farmland… We started with Grilled Quail – great flavor but not a very large portion… I had the 14 oz T-bone with potato-bacon-cheddar soup – green beans, baked potato, and mixed vegetables. Sarah had the KY Trout. We finished up with a dessert titled “Acres of Chocolate Cake.” We were very please and would definitely recommend the food.

On Saturday she managed to have a surprise party for me with some of our family and some friends from our time at college. We had a huge feast with enough food for a small army. Sarah had taken several black & white photos I had taken several years ago, arranged them, and framed them. She had also presented a booklet of emails from several friends and family who could not make it to the party. The framed photos look really good and I’m looking forward to finding a place to hang them. Later that night I got a call about a birthday video clip that our friends from SC had sent – it was absolutely hilarous. It was really great to be able to visit with everyone and just sit around swapping old stories.

Family, China, & Friends

Today was Sarah’s first day at her new job. It was nice to have her come home relatively relaxed – at least compared to the last several months. I was starting to work on cooking dinner and she said “I’ll help” – and then she proceeded to cook up a really great taco meal: ground beef, black beans, sautéed mushrooms & onions, diced fresh tomatoes, grated cheese – throw in a little lettuce and a batch of soft-corn tortillas and it was a good meal. Afterwards we turned on the stereo – watch our son play all over the living and dining room – and then we finished off with a little ice-cream and chocolate syrup. At one point little Benjamin was lying on a pillow on the middle of the floor, polishing off the rest of his milk out of his bigger sippy cup, staring at the ceiling, wearing his little John Deer (24m) t-shirt, and listening to John Mellencamp. It was a priceless picture. It was an unusually calm, non-stressful evening – great time with the family.

On Sunday night we drove over to Louisville, KY to here our friends Roger & Camille share one last time before they headed back to China. They have been there about 5 years and have been back in the states about 6 months. They have had some really amazing experiences and it has been an absolute blessing to be able to participate with them in their ministry. The “sending off” service was absolutely amazing. I know the experience was very meaningful to both me and Sarah.

We also met another friend from college at the church service. Both of us drove about 2 hours – and basically met in the middle. Our friend Anna and her husband joined us at the church service and then we went out to eat at Bucca-di-beppos in Louisville. Other than their wedding the last time we saw Anna was at that same restaurant when Sarah graduated from med school 3 years ago. It was great to catch up with them and we look forward to seeing them a little more often.

If you get a chance you may want to click here to catch up on what is going on with little Issac Clardy. He is really struggling right now.