random blatherings

I feel as though I should update this blog, as I see others keeping up with theirs. I'm not sure I necessarily, though, feel like waxing poetic at this point. I do have many, many, many better things to be doing. So, I guess, I may try to keep up with this again. We shall see. I would love to be able to keep up the kids pictures, however, my digital camera is AWOL. I had it with me at the library's Easter egg hunt a few weeks ago and poof, it is gone. Talking my hubby into another one is probably going to take an act of God, so I do what I can which is mainly pray for a new camera and hope someone else got the shot. What a drag to lose the camera. I had some really cute pictures of the girls on there both trying to use the new vacuum at the same time. I wanted to save it for when they would be fighting over whose turn it was to actually HAVE to use the vaccuum.
Speaking of pictures, my grandma Belding came to visit us this week. My mother and dad brought her up from NC last week and then out to my house. She loved our house and enjoyed her time here. Since I had them all captive at my home (my house, my rules), I thought it would be a good time to take us all down to the photography shop and get a four generation picture taken. It turned out fairly well, but it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. I was hoping for something you see on their walls, but what I got was a Sears quality smash 'em together and snap the lens. We're all smashed together in 3 different poses. Maybe when Annika is a little older and can sit still a little bit longer than 3 seconds, this will happen. It doesn't help that most of their pictures that are interesting involve getting down on the floor which doesn't quite happen with 80 and 60 something women. The three of us, Me, Annika and Artica, we got on the floor and the pictures were cute. Expensive pictures, though, WOW. We only got 2 8x10's, 2 5x7's and 16 wallets for 90 dollars. That's only 6 "sheets" in photography speak. Ooftah. Plus, they won't bargain with you either. I was not impressed with this place at all. I was so much more impressed with the place in Illinois that we went to last year for the girls. We had gone back there for a group family picture in May and even though we were all smashed together, it was a very nice smashed together picture. Well, enough blathering for now.

Piano lessons!

Artica started piano lessons today. Her piano teacher is Mrs. Abrahamson who attends our church and can play beautifully. I had thought about putting my thoughts here in my random blog, but then thought Artica might want to not have to search through all my other thoughts (that might be insane later) to read about her piano lessons. So, those thoughts have been moved to their own separate little realm.

All four of us

#1 Nathan is working very hard on his Chemistry class. He received an "A" on his first exam which I know helped him very much. He tried this class before and the teacher was horrible and so he ended up dropping the class to save his GPA. This time, the teacher seems to know what she's talking about AND can teach it too. It's been a challenge this semester to get all of his work hours in and so we're continously praying regarding this problem. We're hoping that something will work out with the union negotions with my job so that my insurance will be better paid for so that Nathan can just jump on my insurance and then he wouldn't have to worry about working so many hours.
#2 I have the pregnancy cold and am kind of miserable at the moment. It's such a joy - knowing what works for you and knowing you can't take it! Oh well, it will be worth the trouble in the end. Come on July! I think what the big problem is is this vascilating weather. It's warm one day, chilly the next. Today it's very windy, which is okay too, as it isn't raining. Our driveway is such a mess right now - a big mud pit. I am scheduled to start an Intermediate Algebra class (to bolster my math skills in order to take Calculus later) and found out today that I have the wrong book. It's a very long story. I've emailed the teacher and I hope it will work out okay, but who knows. I also need a graphing calculator which come to find out will be very expensive, also. But, I do believe, that I will wait to hear from the teacher regarding the book situation prior to buying another expensive item.
#3 Artica is doing well. She is very interested in writing lately and has been practicing writing the letters in her name. We had attempted some of this earlier in the "school" year, but she wasn 't at all interested. We're also working on the Bible memory passage from church with her and she almost can say Phillipians 1:2 without assistance. I'm so proud of her. She loves to try and we've been reading it with her every night - which of course helps us, too.
#4 Well, I suppose it's okay. I had an appointment on Monday to see my regular OB doc. Well, I'm not sure what happened, but another doc came into the room, didn't introduce himself, hit me in the face with the free end of the measuring tape, wouldn't listen to me right away when I told him where to find the heartbeat, and then told me everything looks good, we'll see you back in four weeks and walked out. We did hear the heartbeat at 155 and it sounded strong, so we'll just hope for the best and go from there. I also have only gained one pound - I think. The nurse did it so fast, I couldn't see what it was and she walked away too and I had to grab my stuff and Artica to keep up with her! Aarrgghh...
Anyway, that's our lives in a nut shell at the moment. I'll try to keep up with this better

First Blog

Welcome to our blog site. We'll give this a try and see what happens. It's Saturday and we've had a very lovely day of nothingness. Nowhere to be, nothing to have to get done, blissful, in a word. Nathan and Artica went up to get our 1/4 of a cow, which when all wrapped up in neat little packages looks so much smaller than what you'd expect 1/4 of a cow to be. Oh, well, it's fabulous meat and you can't beat $1.67 for a t-bone or ground beef for that matter. We also know exactly where the meat came from which with all the mad cow reports lately, that's a blessing. I got to stay home and play my gameboy - yes you read that right mine, all mine. Seriously, I straightened up the house and got a few other fun things done. Now, if I could just get into my card room and make some cards, that would be fabulous, but where does the time go? We're still praising the Lord over the good news received on Thursday. We are grateful that Artica will not require surgery at this time. So, we just keep an eye on her and the surgeon feels that it will go away on its own. PRAISE THE LORD