This actually happened.

I kid you not. 
This did actually happened:
I drove out to Hagerstown to drop off some clothes for the consignment sale last weekend.
As I stepped out of the car I noticed an older man walking through the parking lot of the Best Western Hotel the event was being held at.
Sometimes when you're looking at someone - even for a brief moment, they will notice. 
This man seemed friendly enough and said hello.
I returned with a smile and a hi.
Assuming this was the end of our interlude, I was taken aback when he didn't stop walking, but said matter-of-factly: "You're having a girl."
What? I asked....somewhat stunned.
"You're having a girl, I can tell.  You're belly is high, if it was a boy, it'd be low."
Well, I am...so I agreed with him, but thought it so strange.
He finished with one statement, then passed around the corner out of sight "...believe me, I know."

I truly am not offended.  The fact is - he's correct.  I am pregnant. 
And the baby is a girl...but it was odd, right? 
I can definitely write it down in my life's journal as "highly unusual."

There's a knowledge of one's pregnancy with a women who wears certain clothes or waddles a certain way...but I am not necessarily there yet.   My belly is protruding ever more each week...but I'm still in the "don't guess in case you're wrong" stage.  This man not only took the liberty to assume he was right about the pregnancy, but announced the gender as if he was my obstetrician.
...And once again, I am stunned at all the different kinds of people in the world. ;)
By the way - I was 18 weeks at the time...

Would YOU have guessed if you didn't know me? 

an unspoken word

Prior to the last few weeks this word has not been heard here.
I don't see why it would, and where it could fall into a sentence in our young family's life....
UNTIL NOW.

Daughter: one's female child.
Daughter: a female descendant.
It's just a word, right?  It means the same as "you're having a baby girl." 
But carries so much more responsibility.....

Our family dynamic is going to change drastically! ;)

Though I've known (or had a huge "feel" or inkling) about this baby's gender for awhile, it still isn't fully sinking in. 
Pink.
Purple.
Dresses.
Dolls.
Makeup....
BOYS!  (and not her brothers!! :/ )

What an incredible blessing from God to not only surprise us with the miracle that is this child, but to also give us a daughter....something we've both longed for and thought may be missing from our family.

This little lady will be our last child (barring another miracle or God-inspired turn-of-events), and I must say I feel complete.  Even though she's not here, I am already picturing her growing up with her brothers... I see her as a little spit-fire...a rough'n'tumble little spark of energy with Mommy's lipgloss on and her hair braided.  I see my husband melting at the first sight of her and not allowing her to grow up or ever get married.
I picture her looking like I did as a child - with brown hair and eyes (though it's likely she may have Tim's coloring)...and I feel complete knowing that I have another peice of the mothering puzzle in place.

I'm 19 weeks, 2 days right now...about halfway there. 
We think we may have a good handle on what to name her, and have purchased clothing in colors we rarely see around here.
We've told friends and family that she's a she...but I still feel like I wont FULLY believe it until this daughter of mine is placed in my arms.

Here's how we announced the gender:

We are creative, my husband and I. :)

an answer for my husband

Since this will be our last little papoose, I can do something I normally did not dare attempt.
I picture life in the future. 
Usually I manage my life and expectations in the moment. 
I make and clean up meals, change diapers, manage naptime...now adding 'put and take a child off the bus' on the list.....sometimes throwing in a twist of having friends over or attending a MOPS meeting, but the day in-day out routine remains relatively unchanged.
I didn't picture "an end in sight" because I didn't feel like our family was complete. 
I do understand to some that this sounds crazy.   I so often hear friends and even family saying "I dont know how you do it......." 
Well, sometimes I don't either...but I do it because ultimately I love it.
I wanted a big family, and I knew it would take years and years of baby & toddlerdom before we could come up from the deep end.
But I feel complete now, and even though she's not yet here I can envision things that are 'just around the corner.'
It's really a mere 6 more years before everyone is in school.

Going by days that seems like an eternity...
...but on the flip side - I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out how Cale is 5 years old already! 
But then I know.  All of us with young children know don't we?
The days are long...(ever so long sometimes)...but the years are short.

We're coming up on our 8th anniversary.
I know each year I say it...but it's hard to believe. 
And how can Tim be turning 30 already? Where is the young 22 year old I married?! :)
(gotta make sure he's reading my blog!!:)

He did ask me the other day what I thought I would do with my time when all the kids are in school.
I didn't have an answer beyond "sleep" at the moment he asked...but I'd like to think I'd take a class or two.  When I was a teen looking forward to graduation I felt I would enjoy attending Beauty School or trying my luck in the Culinary world.  ...With my palate on the simpler side I opted for the former, but I would very much enjoy taking a cooking class or two. 
I've also been wildly fascinated with ASL, and would love to learn to speak sign language.
So that's what I'd do.
I can also hope to become a fraction of what my close friend and mentor Wendy Krop does and formulate and strengthen relationships with women/teens...and truly mean it.  She is an inspiration to me and a post about what kind of person she is and what I aspire to be is not far off.

So...expect great things from me in 6 years.  Well, lets give it 6 1/2. 
There's truth at my initial answer - I do plan to sleep for at least half of that first year everyone is in school. :)

coming to grips...

This past summer has been somewhat challenging financially.
I am certain that God is stretching us as we try and remain faithful to the amount we pledged to the church for the stewardship campaign.
I happen to know that money troubles can be a huge strain on a relationship, so I'm using this challenge as a means to draw closer to Tim and not pull away or get caught up in the blame game.

We have discussed and crunched numbers...wondered how things happened and why things changed.  Some money issues have been ironed out as far as the paycheck goes, and we've further considered what kind of cost cutting we can do. 

There can be some things we can tighten up...but here's what most of the "problem" lies with:
Our family size.

Family of six. 
Duh.  We've been that for a year and a half.
...but now we're EATING like a family of 6.
You know yesterday we ate an entire pineapple.  6 people consumed the entire thing - and 3 of them are still under 30 lbs!
"Wait til they become teenagers..."
Yes, yes...  They will eat more.  We will again discuss, consider, then come to terms with the fact that we need to purchase more for them to eat.
I get it.  I understand.
But they AREN'T teenagers yet!  They're 1, 3, and 5 year olds! 
It's madness!
The casseroles I once made that could feed us (with some leftovers) are now being scraped (and sometimes licked) clean!  1 loaf of meat is just barely enough for my growing family.

I'm adjusting my recipes...adjusting portion sizes...so we must adjust our budget again.
Today I spent $170 at Aldis.
If you shop at Aldi you know how much that gets you - a ton! 
And all the while I put stuff in the cart (even while Sheppy threw it overboard) I thought "it's only a matter of time before we are a 2 shopping cart family." 
I laughed at the Duggar episode where they had like 7 carts all in a row...but now it's not as funny.
Perhaps we oughta get a pantry with stocked shelves for ourselves....... :)
......it'd also be nice to have teenage daughters to do all the cooking for me, but I digress.

We are 6 (almost 7).  We eat alot, and for that, we spend alot on food. 
Donations welcome. ;)  jk.  ...kinda.

days with Grammie

The week before Cale started school our family was planning to go to PA for an overdue trip. 
Well, the trip is still overdue...but Cale still got to benefit from Grammie's hospitality. 
Cale had his first multi-day sleepover at Grammie's house!
And boy did he get spoiled !!

The ages of our children are so close...but even at the small amount of difference, there is significant changes that take place when coming out of toddler/preschool(hood) to school age. 
Naps are not a factor, which can be a tough bullet to bite, but can also give you a sense of freedom - that is if your non-napper is your only or last child.  Tim and I often fantasize about how different our lives will be when this baby is not napping anymore...................  DAY TRIPS will be planned.  Presumably diapers will be out of the scene as well, which is still sort of baffling to me. ;)
As it is, for the next few yearsm this is the schedule we manage:
There's a few hours in the morning...but not much before lunch (around 11:30a) and naptime (around 12p), so if we plan family outgoings, we do them between 4-7p.  It doesn't give us that much time, but our kids are still quite young, and sleep is most important.
......now I'm rambling.

Back to Grammie.
She offered to have Cale come and stay for a few days, so we met her at a half-way point between our houses and made the hand-off.
This was our first real experience with Cale being gone. 
Tim was quite tenative and kept asking "what if" but I assured him that Cale would most likely not miss us, but not even ask about us, AND have a spectacular time.
I am happy to say I was right. 

The first night there was a late one...and Grammie said that Cale woke up before 6am!  Good thing she's an early bird, because I would have had NOTHING to do with that!!  I think she sent him back to his room for awhile, but I dont think he slept. 
As promised, Grammie took Cale to "Beech Mountain" - Cale had been dying to go to a beach all summer, and even though this was a lake, it served it's purpose.  There was sand and there was water.  My mom told me he had a great time and played with whomever he saw.  Our firstborn is a social being from dawn til dusk.  My mom said that as they drove home she looked back and he had fallen asleep for awhile... I suppose all that attention got the better of him! :)

The next day Grammie took him swimming at the YMCA.  Cale told us that "the pool was 36 feet long and he had to stand on his tiptoes."  Grammie was in the pool but she didn't swim, says Cale.
I assume she was hawk-eyeing Cale who is over-enthusiastic about being in the water without actually knowing how to swim.... ;)

That same day they went on a date to the movies to see "The Odd Life of Timothy Green."
What was it about Cale?   *SPOILER ALERT* (as told by a 5-yr-old)
"a little boy who grew from the ground with leaves on his legs...the mommy was sick and she went to the doctor and the doctor said 'welp, you don't get any sons' - so they got one....of course when he got out of the ground he was really muddy.  then he went home where he belonged...because he didn't belong there, and then the mommy and daddy had a little girl."
The last day Cale and Grammie went to the Snack Shack for ice cream as an after lunch treat...and then "had friends come over for a cookout." 

What kind of ice cream did you get?
"...I got the green ice cream with the little chocolates on it."
Who were the friends that came over?
"you know...like, Uncle Chet...Francis...and I dont know what the rest of their names are..."
What did you eat at the cookout?
"Like...a cheeseburger, and chicken."

We did miss him, but honestly I was so happy that he was having such a good time.  My mom wrote me that same night she met Tim to give him back to us and said she missed him already.  I'm glad he will always have this memory...
And I'm also hopeful that this may become a more regular summer occurance...for Cale's sake, and for ours, and I secretely hope that next year she takes on another one...the one who was so super jealous.
Megersa will be almost 4 by then...hopefully out of diapers and most likely not still napping...so it should all work out nicely..... ;)

Megersa's birthday weekend!

Megersa turned 3 on Sept 3.

 His golden birthday.
Both he and Cale had their golden birthdays early in life.  When researching how to celebrate, there weren't many good ideas - gold balloons, gold candy, "gold" food.   I suppose I could have attempted some of them.  But I didn't.  Sa' lave.

We did celebrate with some fun activities though!!  :)
1st we took our family to a splash park. 
The babies were tenatively initially, but they soon got in on the fun.

 

 Megersa and Cale took off as soon as we entered the gate.  We saw flashes of them here and there as they ran through the spouts and made their way down the slide...but there wasn't much stopping them. 

 

When we do make our way out in public as a full family I like to have some sort of "all boys" pic.

 This was the best we could get:

Oh well! :)  At least they're all actually in the picture!
I brought sandwiches, fruit and crackers for dinner and managed to get them to slow down enough to eat and drink.  Overall I think it was less than 2 hours that we were there before they turned the water off without warning...  Cale was very displeased, but Tim and I were sorta glad.  It had actually cooled down considerably and storm clouds lurked above us, so we called it a night...changed into jammies and made our way back home. I think it's safe to say they all had a blast. ;)
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On Megersa's actual birthday we did presents throughout the day:
Marker & coloring book, Thomas book w/ tiny trains and a shaking race car from Nana & Pop-Pop.
Big toy helicopter, complete with revolving propellors and noisy buttons from Mommy & Daddy.
A card with money from Poppy & Niani (so we still have yet to get anything with it).
and M's favorite - a 4 wheeler toy with a riding man on top - that rolls on it's own and plays a funky tune from Grammie.  (this was the hit for all the kids!)

After naptime we packed up the fellas and went to a local park.  It was really a great park that had a gated side that geared more toward younger children.  We all started there then made our way over to the "big kids side."  M loves to climb, so this was a great outlet for him.

I thought it would be fun to have them go to the basketball court and 'shoot some hoops' but that just ended in screaming and tears as they fought over the ball.  ...whoops. 

Megersa chose to eat at Cici's for dinner (it's an all-you-can-eat-pizza-buffet)... Tim and I were snapping pics of the kiddos and someone asked if we wanted a family pic.  She only took one, so it's not the best...but it usually takes quite a few shots to get a good pic of 6 people.

Lastly we had some birthday cake...then went to bed.

An awesome and memorable weekend for the family!

Happy Birthday Megersa!!

We love you!! :)

learning a hard lesson.

2nd time around and:
#1 warnings don't merit.
#2 the hardship doesn't get any easier.

Poor Megersa...
today he lost his birthday balloon.  After Daddy told him what could happen if he made the decision to take it outside...M was still confident: "I won't let it go."
But he did.
And he cried.
It happened once to Cale last year. I can remember Cale's full and devastating meltdown when he allowed the balloon to slip from his grasp...and it was not pretty.  It took quite a bit of calming down to get him to recover.

Megersa is still greiving...  ;)

The rebel in you can relate...wanting to hold on...but ever so curious what would happen if you let go. But the tiny joy in the release comes crashing down pretty quickly. 
...Curiosity got the better of this little kitty and his balloon now flies with the helicopters.

There's a first for everything and sadly, a lesson to be learned.

The quivering lip and tear stained cheeks did sorta break my heart and we promised to get him another balloon the next time we could.  I do actually believe this lesson is one of the only ones that is learned almost immediately.  If only all consequences were as easily rememberd...

To end on a funny note, I have to say that at every sight of a balloon in the sky, Tim and I recall this hilarious bit by Brian Regan and it makes us laugh:
the wallet and the balloon