Wow, I haven’t blogged since March 31st!  You would have thought that there would have been something to write about since the Jetta incident.  Perhaps I have been a bit preoccupied what with the pregnancy & all.  On March 31st I was only 19 weeks along, now I’m 37- time flies!  Pregnancy has been - dare I say it, much easier than expected.  In fact, I’ve pretty much enjoyed it the entire time.  I would say I am blessed with a good pregnancy but who knows!  I am tired nearly 24/7 but I’m pretty sure there isn’t much I can do about that.  I pee about every half hour & get kicked in the ribs most of the day, it’s lovely.  I have also had the creative juices flowing for the past couple of months which has been great.  From home projects to my clay, I have a new project to do nearly daily.  Here’s a little sample of my clay works.

I often refer to my recent works as my artistic freedom work.  It’s fun, colorful & I just love doing it.  My philosiphy has always included keeping my passion fun or it wouldn’t survive as a passion anymore, so I make these little pretties for exrpession & extreme creative release.  Other than that, I have been decorating up a storm around the house.  No major painting projects yet but only because I am so burnt out from our last house.  There are three (THREE) maroon rooms in our new house & yea, I don’t like maroon at all.  So for now, I survive with it but it does dampen my mood slightly.  I have boxes full of decorations gathered over the years that I have revived & hung.  Some were hung as is, some modified by yours truly.  I can’t believe how much crap I had accumulated.  Finally, I have the space to put it.  Perhaps working in a “craft mall” for 6 years has something to do with the amount of junk I gathered up.  Pretty happy about it now, it was like Christmas unpacking boxes!  The only room in the house that is completely finished is the nursery.  I new exactly what I was going to do with it whether it was a boy or a girl & the day after we found out it was a girl I already had the paint in hand & primer on the walls.  I finished my first custom Munny to match the nursery walls & some custom letters for the bean’s initials:

Though we’ve changed our mind about the name a couple of times & I even bought a new letter as a backup…
As for me, I am ready to burst pretty much but by no means am wishing to “get this pregnancy thing over with” this may be my only one so I am enjoying it!  Every little kick, every stab to the bladder, every sleepless night…  more of those to come.

From about age 12 I have wanted a Jetta, any Jetta any color any age.  Finally about 12 years later, it was so.  And, since many dreams end as nightmares, thus is the story of my life!  Our 3 year old Jetta decided to dump it’s transmission one random morning, last Wednesday to be exact.  So we had it towed and discovered that indeed the transmission was no more.  We just paid the car off about two months ago, of course!  Now this fix would cost more than the car is worth.  We also dumped a grand in it about 2 weeks ago for new calipers & hoses.  Go figure!  In short, we now have a very expensive -but ever so cute- lawn ornament.  Perhaps all this news should have devistated me at least for a moment or two, but it didn’t.  No, we weren’t prepared for this sort of expense  but yea, that’s what it’s all about.  Plus, we weren’t ready for a $18,000 septic system, but it worked out.  Of course.  Hey Jetta, remember the time… 

So anyways, the most important part of this incident is of course the lesson learned.  Literally moments before the car place called with teh “bad news” I had read a new blog from the missionaries in Sudan.  I read of dying babies & of a 7 year old girl who used her last ounce of strength to wrap her malnourished arms around the missionary then took her last breath.  The blog struck such a chord in me, they always do & they always put my life in perspective.  So when the car place called, it hardly phased me at all.  Instead my mind has been in Sudan since that last blog & it really get’s me thinking about lots of things.  We are so fortunate that our business is blessed, that we realize God’s plan & then when things like this happen, it’s really just a lesson & not a devastation.  What I have learned from this has been worth every penny this ordeal will “cost” us. 

So, here’s the really big perk to it all.  Unfortunately, our second car also isn’t running so we had it towed too.  In the mean time, we needed a loaner car.  Since my family happens to be frugal, they of course had one on hand.  Let me tell you, it’s a sweet sweet ride.  As I like to say, you hold on to a car this cherry, kind of like your suitecase…. see below.  
 
Yes indeed, my grandpa bought this car in 78′ yet it only has 55k miles on it- the Jetta has 75k!  Sheesh!  And yes, I can only assume that God had a little lesson of humility in this for me as well!  However, I think I’ll stick to this look:

One thing is for sure, we look very very hot in that car.  Who wouldn’t?  

This weekend was a busy one to say the least!  Saturday I finally got to see my closest friend of about 12 years who I haven’t seen since October.  We finally exchanged Christmas gifts - which I finally wrapped Saturday morning.  Thanks to her, I can smell the sweet scent of spring today!  She found grass scented body spray which I adore.  Every so often the heater under my desk forces a gust of the smell of fresh grass clippings into my nostrils… I pretend that’s a warm summer breeze blowing on my feet too.  Sunday then we moved into our new house.  Well, we moved enough stuff to survive there.  This however left me with a terribly sore neck & left foot.  That’s ok, it was a great excuse to try out the new jet tub which I have tried out four times in two days!  We finally feel at home which was hardly true at our last house.  Constant upkeep & remodeling pretty much took all the fun out of that place.  Though I am itching to repaint nearly every room in the new house.  I’ve always envisioned a home painted much like a bag of skittles.  Minus yellow because nobody likes the lemon ones & make the purple one about 3 shades lighter & so on.  This means the three maroon rooms gotta go & as for the goose border in the kitchen… can’t wait to rip that down!  The nursery will be first on the list & I will go from there.  Someday I hope for an art studio in the basment…  someday.    For now, I can’t wait to get my art stuff organized & to make some new stuff.  Unfortunately I am itching to paint in oils which I suppose is a no no while pregnant.  Guess that especially means no more sniffing my oils either!  My next request for body spray?  “Grumbacher Oils & Medium” mm mm MM!   We also got to meet one of the new neighbors which is the dad of the guy we bought the house from.  He is sort of a carbon copy of my own dad when it comes to interests.  He told us how he’d be plowing our driveway & grating it & picking up branches & pulling up stumps… etc etc.  He welcomed us into his woods to hike or gokart & he also has a 100 yard shooting range…  I’ll use that when I need to relieve some stress.  He told us there are a couple thousand gold fish in our pond that look like a huge golden oil slick shimmering in the sun, I can’t hardly wait to see that.  (spring?)  We feel so unbelievably blessed to have the opportunity to live in such a place.  We’ve worked our tails of for years to get to where we are, but it really wasn’t us at all.  We are blessed by God in our business, in all we do & that’s really the only reason we are getting this chance.  Who knows what tomorrow will hold but for today, I am ecstatic. 
  

Today my dear dear cousin is moving to Texas.  I am more happy for her than sad for me so I have fairly easily pushed aside how much I will miss her.  She is such a close friend that I often forget that we are related & sometimes even refer to her as ‘my friend Heather… who oh yea is my cousin too’.  She met her boyfriend over the internet which has granted her criticism from some & it hasn’t phased the rest of us.  However, since she did meet him this way I hadn’t got to meet him- other than in Second Life which just doesn’t count!  Oh sure, I’ve seen their house & their cars etc etc & they even hooked me up with some sweet clothes & hair but I was looking forward to first life!  So today I did get to meet him, hooray!  If only for a couple of minutes, I am so glad that I did.  I’m really happy for all of her opportunities and a fresh start she will hopefully find in Texas.  Who knows what will come, maybe she’ll move back someday, maybe not.  Who knows what will be of my life either!  All I know is that a trip to Texas is in our future.  We’ve already decided on the girls seeing The Little Mermaid on tour & the guys playing Counterstrike (and probably babysitting!).  What fun.  It’s true, Target will never be the same, Hacienda will never be the same, & sneaking goofy pictures on cameras at family get togethers will not be any fun alone… but I’ll survive.  Here’s to Texas…

And oh yea, another great friend is moving to Seattle in May, guess we have another excuse to take a vacation now.  Weee! 

This is one of those winters that seems to be taking it’s sweet ass time!   Some years it just comes & goes but then there’s years like this one where I am going nuts!  Perhaps it is the lovely Indiana weather, this morning it’s spring, by tonight it will be the dead of winter.  Warm-cold, cold-freezing, freezing-warm…  why am I surprised?!  So yes, I have cabin fever & I am itching to get outside.  My creativity level is nil & I would like to blame it on the weather of course!   Here is all I am asking for.. just a little green grass: 

Ok, so maybe my creativity isn’t completely dead… but mostly.  Perhaps the fact that most of my art supplies are scattered amongst separate boxes has something to do with it (beacuse of the move).  Or maybe I’m just in a dry spell.  However, I am learning to knit.  Yes knit of all things.  We are expecting our first baby in August & some sort of motherly instinct in me told me I must learn to knit.  So, I ordered a kit (completely useless), then I bought a book, some needles (of the wrong size), & yarn.  This was Friday.  By Sunday I could now make a scarf, or a square, or anything that only requires doing the same three steps I learned over & over!  Unfortunately the book I bought turned out to be less than helpful but instead some videos on YouTube were priceless!  All I know is that Friday I couldn’t knit & today, well I can make a very nice potholder with TLC.  Do babies like potholders?  It’s a start.